So has anyone here actually read this entire thing unabridged?

>>8840470
yes. i kept a copy by my bedside for about 5 months and read it daily. usually on waking rather than at night. this will be confused but here goes.

aside from the practical consideration that the nyrb one volume reprint isn't a good edition and it's better to spring for the folio society 3 volume (or the old out of print modern library edition the folio is based on), i enjoyed watching a mind at work in processing and shaping everything that enters it into something that matches its needs and preoccupations. it is rather like montaigne obviously but with montaigne there's the likelihood that the educated reader will either already know or will eventually get around to most of the classical sources montaigne continually goes back to. And so there's the chance for you to engage with his engagement in two broad ways - how his interpretations impact your reading of the sources and what they show about his own reading. Burton more frequently removes that first aspect since it's unlikely you'd ever want to read most of what he cites. so if you're going to engage with his book you've got to do it purely through him. and so once you come to like him - or at least understand him - it ends a more personal experience than what you get even with montaigne - or any great memorialist for that matter since they all tend to write about periods or events you could have some interest in outside themselves. burton is in fair part antiquated medical theories most often presented in distorted portion so i have a very hard time imagining anyone enjoying that material in itself. it comes down to the mind of the writer and there it is beautiful fun once you put the effort in to grow initiated.

The dude rambles a lot and looses track of his thought often. That's why this book is so long imo. But I guess you could argue this is somehow a positive thing.

>>8840515
Thank you for your thoughtful post. What version do you reccomend?

>>8841412
Did you even read his post senpai?

>>8841414
what the fuck, how did I miss that?

I should stop posting after 2 am, my bad