[stripes1776]

...want to read some first-rate literary criticism and commentary on maintaining sanity in the modern world, writers like Tate, Ransom, and Davidson -- not to mention more recent writers such as the poet Wendell Berry and the political historian and literary critic M.E. Bradford make are very nice reads over a good single-malt whiskey...

I very much like reading literary and cultural criticism. I have never read any of the authors you mention, but I am putting them on my reading list (long--very long).

I just finished reading some critical essays by C.S. Lewis on literature. Excellent. Also almost done with Tolkiens's "The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays." I have read almost everything the cultural historian and critic Jacques Barzun has written. I also like Victor Hanson who is a classical scholar, military historian, and farmer. His knowledge of farming helped him make a significant contribution to understanding how the ancient Athenians fought war.

Reading is one of the greatest pleasures in life. Of course tastes vary, but I don't know how you can develop any taste without reading.

[Agrarian]

Jacques Barzun's "From Dawn to Decadence" has been sitting on my shelf for a long time, but I've not cracked it. Chilton Williamson gave it a good review, and he deeply respected Barzun when he studied under him at Columbia. I'll put it on my list of many books I need to pull off my shelf!

I'd not heard of Victor Hanson, but after looking up some thing about him, I was so immediately interested that I just ordered a couple of his books from abebooks, and I look forward to getting them. I also ordered a copy of Crunchy Cons, as recommended by Martin Tell -- it looks like it will be a fun read. I suspect that I may find that I am a bit of a crunchy con myself (but don't tell anyone around where I live.) :-)

A life without reading would be an unthinkable one for me and my wife. There are few things we enjoy more than sitting quietly together and reading -- occasionally interrupting the other's concentration to read some choice bit out loud.

My favorite non-fiction C.S. Lewis book is "The Discarded Image" -- a wonderful little book that is really a key to the scholarship that underlies so many of the enticing tidbits of classical and medieval literature that he scatters through his fiction -- especially his "space" trilogy, which remain my favorite of his fictional works.