fly me to the moon

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz (Galley Beggar Press, 2022/2023)

After Sappho - Selby Wynn Schwartz (photo by me) / Romaine Brooks - Uma, Lady Troubridge (1924) / Eileen Gray - Sirène Chair / Sappho - Fragment 56 (trans. Anne Carson)

Uncommon light academia book recommendation: After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Told through a series of interweaving vignettes, After Sappho tells the tale of real life feminists who were inspired by the poetry of Sappho

Book 1.

First book of 2026 completed. This was a delightful read about the friendship that formed between Helene Hanff and the staff at a London bookstore, especially the manager Frank Doel. I loved all the letter writing and how much love of books was in it. Helene was funny and quite a character. Frank was and quietly hilarious. I am so glad I chose this book first.

Frèdèric Forest. Saturday. 2020

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There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag — and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty — and vice versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.