The Reading Room

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3:02 AM

Q: When did it become popular to drop the A.D. in dates?

Since when did it become popular to shorthand years from 2020 A.D. to 2020? I haven't seen anything after a google search, and in fact I wonder if it was even popular to use A.D., ever. I don't recall a time I ever used it.

terminology

3 hours later…

Bookworm

6:20 AM

Q: What's the deal with Bilbo being some kind of "burglar"?

I may only be 37 pages into "The Hobbit", re-reading it after 20+ years, but several things already confuse me. First of all, and this is what I'm mainly asking about, Bilbo is casually mentioned as some kind of skilled burglar/thief. And the hobbit doesn't seem to object to this at all. The narr...

j-r-r-tolkien the-hobbit

4 hours later…

Knight

9:52 AM

The question is whether FadedGiant will be ubiquitous in chats as before or will he discontinue? His grip over chats and it’s moderation was good.

1 hour later…

Bookworm

10:53 AM

Q: What has the "younger son" to do with "cow-punching on the pampas"? in "The Just Men of Cordova"

From chapter 9 of The Just Men of Cordova (1917) by Edgar Wallace: “A gentleman and a policeman?” asked the earl incredulously. Horace nodded. “A new profession for the younger son, eh?” remarked Lord Verlond sardonically. “No more running away and joining the army; no more serving before the ma...

edgar-wallace

4 hours later…

Knight

2:34 PM

I’m looking for some analysis of Tagore’s Gitanjali, suggest me some site or book where someone tries to explain the poems of Gitanjali.

Gareth Rees

3:06 PM

@Knight May Sinclair's The "Gitanjali": Or Song-Offerings of Rabindra Nath Tagore is an early (1913) response.

2 hours later…

b_jonas

4:56 PM

@GarethRees I got the article. Apparently the FSzEK library gives remote access to the JSTOR database to anyone with a valid library registration. Possibly only temporarily due to the pandemic, I can't really tell.

Faded Giant

5:10 PM

@Knight Without my diamonds, I cannot moderate chat anymore.

Bookworm

5:29 PM

Q: Recommendation of some good mystery books/stories

I have read all the Sherlock Holmes stories and books and am now gasping for a good mystery book/story. I am not interested in a traditional whodunnit, but something with a strange/bizarre plot but one which should have a logical explanation. I am not interested in supernatural stories, but stori...

sherlock-holmes mystery-novels

1 hour later…

b_jonas

6:38 PM

@Bookworm Should we tell OP to ask in chat instead? No wait, new user, they don't have the rep score for chat. Do we just tell them to read Agatha Christie instead? I mean the question says "something with a strange/bizarre plot but one which should have a logical explanation".

Bookworm

7:08 PM

Q: What did Shakespeare mean in King Richard III when he said that ‘G’ Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be?

Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams, To set my brother Clarence and the King In deadly hate, the one against the other: And if King Edward be as true and just As I am subtle, false and treacherous, This day should Clarence closely be mew’d up, About ...