Preface: A Conversation with Edward Gibbon

This post is the first in a series of posts. If you’re a longtime reader of mine, you’ll notice some different turns. This series will look and feel different from my normal writing. Yes, I’m talking reading and books. That’s normal. What’s not normal is how I’m writing this series.

An esteemed Good Word member, Will, pressed the idea of a book club. Will mentioned an idea of me sharing notes or thoughts from what I’m reading. I’m chewing the book club idea over. But Will’s mention inspired the shape of this series. Each piece in this series will read more like musings versus an article. And that’s the hard part. Most of my writing, I flesh out my ideas, then work to frame them into a piece. As I write, I sometimes see I need more research. Or I flesh out various arguments, or various rhetorical devices, and then pick what I feel best marshals the arguments. Here, however, I’m challenging myself to stick as close as I can to musings. I want to give you, as best I can, the conversation …