On January 6, I posted my first book review. My review was of British author Charles Freeman's recently released book, The Closing of the Western Mind - The Rise of Faith and The Fall of Reason.
Much to my astonishment, when I came home from work yesterday, I found a note in my webmail from Mr. Freeman himself! With his permission, I am publishing what he wrote:
Dear Mighty Wizard,
Thank you taking so much time and care reviewing my book The Closing of the Western Mind and I am glad you feel you learned something from it. Let me know how you heard of it.
Your review was very more thoughtful than some -see some of the comments on
amazon.com. You must keep at it. All good wishes , Charles Freeman.
P.S. The second edition of my Egypt, Greece and Rome ,Civilizations of the
Ancient Mediterranean is out in the US in March. It might be of interest to you.
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At first, I had to admit that I was skeptical that the email I had received was from Mr. Freeman himself. After all this is the Internet. So I then decided to look up the address of the ISP which Mr. Freeman had written from. Sure enough, it belonged to a British ISP, so I took this communication to be genuine.
I wrote Mr. Freeman back, introducing myself. I told him specfically what I enjoyed about the book, adding that it was easy to see how some people would be rather upset at what he had postulated. I also wrote where I had heard of his book and that I planned to read Edward Gibbon's massive opus "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
Freeman replied to my email saying where he lived and that I would enjoy reading Gibbon. He had been made to read him many years ago in school. He told me he has a copy of Gibbon that was passed down from his great great grandfather to his great grandfather back in 1867!
I have to admit that this was a most zestful and immensely pleasureable experience!
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at January 21, 2004 11:28 PM