From my diary

A book arrived through the post yesterday: E.A.E. Reymond & J.W.B. Barns, Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices, Oxford (1973). This contains the martyrdom of St Colluthus, plus an English translation. I did try to order it by ILL, but something went wrong, and I gave up. Needless to say they have now actioned it, just as the book from Amazon arrived. Looking at it made me realise that I just do not read many – or any – physical paper books any more. It’s all electronic. My novels are on kindle, and my reference texts in PDF. Anyway today I settled down to get to grips with it. But it’s a funny old thing. There’s a long and rambling introduction, which needed the attention of an editor badly. It’s as if the authors just decided to talk around the subject, darting off here and there. It’s full of interest, but compared to modern introductions, organised by topic with headings, it is very frustrating. It really resists the reader. This is a black mark on Oxford…