Who's Reading?

This is the first of a continuing series in which we'll highlight people from the UND population and get the scoop on what they're reading. We're starting this off with a UND professor of English--well, okay, he's officially retired but we still see his smiling face on campus, much to our delight. We hope he sticks around all summer, since we think Prof. David Marshall is pretty cool!

Here's what he said....

We asked him what his favorite book ever was and he told us it's Essays by Michel Eyquen de Montaigne. He explained, "This is the best of writing possible, for Emerson once wrote: 'Cut these words and they bleed!'"

Then we asked him who his favorite authors are. His response: "Here you have to excuse me, for I pick two--one for style and one for conciseness; for style, Thomas Babington Macaulay; for precision of thought, John Stuart Mill. Chaucer, of course, is supreme in both areas but hindered by the language change."

So far he sounds very, well, professorial, doesn't he? But I happen to know that Dave is a bit of an omnivore when it comes to reading, and sure enough, when I asked him what he liked for leisure reading, de Montaigne and Macaulay and Mill (alliteration, as I live and breathe!) were left for "Historical fiction and fantasy, particularly those 'sword smoke and dragon sweat' forgettables.'"

Dragon sweat? LOL!

What's he reading now? Dragon Mage by Andre Norton and Jean Rabe. I wonder if the Dragon Mage sweats....

Thanks, Dave, for being the first in our "Who's Reading" posts!