This should be taken off here. I was in a pit of despair when I read these because I had read 10 of the most boring books in existence before I go to this one. Montaigne didn’t just write a few essays, he wrote a lot of them, and a lot of them were very very long. I only ended up reading a few before I gave up. This is one of the few DNF on the list, and usually if something is DNF, I have a secret hope within me that I will get back to it. This one, I never want to, I am not going to.

The one major thing I did realize from this book is the origin of the work Essay from French (’to try’ for all of you plebs). I knew both of those words (obviously), but hadn’t put it together. Made all my attempts in high school and college feel better. I was just trying.