President and Vice-Chancellor David Barnard’s 2014 reading list

I see that in this past year I read a lot of poetry — starting early in the year with (1) Aimless Love by Billy Collins, moving on to the Collected Poems of my friend Micheal O’Siadhail (which was a rereading), then everything I could find by Frank X. Walker (having first been introduced to his Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride by a colleague a couple of years ago) and ending late in the year with The Best American Poetry 2013, edited by Denise Duhamel, the most recent volume in the long-running series edited by David Lehman, with other things interspersed along the way.

I also made a second attempt to read Jill Paton Walsh’s continuation of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy Sayers. I came to Sayers by way of The Nine Tailors, recommended by a member of my advisory committee when I was a Ph.D. student, and then consumed the Wimsey series and her other books. When it appeared some years ago, I tried (2) Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh, with Paton Walsh building on some material left by Sayers, and moved on to one or two of the subsequent books that Paton Walsh produced by herself, but had not developed my usual compulsive urge to read them all. In the summer I decided that I might have misjudged, tried again this year and found them pleasurable in a different way than I had enjoyed Sayers herself, and so read the rest of them.

Reading the delightful (3) Grammar Matters: The Social Significance of How We Use Language by Jila Ghomeshi, our faculty colleague here at UM, provided an occasion for me to ask for Jila’s views on some of the patterns of English usage that irk me the most — for various reasons that she did not find compelling!

I met Northrop Frye when I was a student, though as a computer science major I was never in any of his classes. Over the years I have read a number of his books (sometimes twice) but this year decided to read (4) The Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye and, as usual, found him to be stimulating and a bit intimidating.

I read history usually because specific books are recommended to me by several friends who read much more of it. (5) Warlords: Borden, Mackenzie King and Canada’s World Wars by Tim Cook is an example of such a book. It broadened my perspective on this country and on the political complexity of leading in such stressful times.

The President’s Bookshelf is an occasionally appearing column by U of M President and Vice-Chancellor David Barnard.

>> See more Best of 2014 lists here.

President and Vice-Chancellor David Barnard.

These occasional notes about my reading are evidence, as I look back on them, of the eclectic nature of my interests – I read books on a wide range of topics that are written by authors I’ve come to enjoy in the past, that are given to me as gifts by members of my family or close friends, that are recommended by others I know to have interesting tastes, that appear in reviews I stumble upon and occasionally (though less frequently than in the past) that I find while browsing in bookshops. Here are some things I’ve read in the past few months.

The music and poetry of Leonard Cohen have been increasingly appealing to me in recent years. So when I saw a review of Alan Light’s The Holy or the Broken that focusses on Cohen’s song “Hallelujah”, I was intrigued by the idea of it and then pleased to receive it as a gift at Christmas. Light pays attention to the lyrics and what they suggest to him about Cohen’s thinking, but also to the several iconic recordings of the song and their impact. After reading the book it was a particular pleasure to hear Cohen sing it at his Winnipeg concert on April 26.

About 15 years ago I stumbled on The Best American Poetry, a series of annual selections guided by David Lehman, with a different editor each year. I began to watch for the new volumes as they appeared. Being somewhat compulsive, I wanted to complete my collection so after a few years looked for copies of the earlier volumes from sources advertising online, and managed to get a complete series in near mint condition. The Best American Poetry 2012 was edited by Mark Doty. More recently, Molly Peacock became the series editor for a Canadian counterpart, and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2012 was edited by Carmine Starnino. These annuals always contain some poems not to my personal taste but also some that are worth continuing the collecting.

I began reading the work of the American writer Donald Hall decades ago, beginning with his poetry. I learned about his marriage to the poet Jane Kenyon and came to deeply appreciate her work. Recently I read Hall’s memoir of their life together, structured around the progress of the leukemia that eventually took her. The Best Day the Worst Day: Life With Jane Kenyon is a very open and moving account of their relationship and Kenyon’s death.

Edmund Morris has written three volumes about Theodore Roosevelt, dealing with the period prior to, during and after his presidency of the United States, respectively. The second of these, Theodore Rex, chronicles Roosevelt’s work as President, but also shows his energy and erudition. He loved the outdoors – traveling, hunting, hiking, boating, etc. – and wanted to preserve the natural heritage of the country. He also read an amazing amount on many topics and in several languages. That he could do so while carrying such heavy responsibilities can be an encouragement to all of us.