markk

Today has been a quiet day around the house. I spent the afternoon indulging in some classic films: first a couple of the Frankenstein series, then the John Wayne movie Flying Tigers. It's the sort of viewing that allows me to peruse the internet while I'm watching it, and among my reading are books reviews of new releases.

This is how I came across this review of Zachary Carter's new biography of John Maynard Keynes. I had read that it was being published, but as I already have two biographies of Keynes waiting to be read — a fat one by one of the editors of his published papers, and Robert Skidelsky's monumental three-volume account — I didn't pay it much mind. But reading Jennifer Szalai's review, and then this one and this one has caused me to reconsider.

Yet I find myself wondering: just how many biographies of John Maynard Keynes do I really need? It would be one thing to get Carter's book if I had already read the others, but I read Skidelsky's first volume so long ago that I would have to reread it before I got to the others, while Moggridge's book has deterred me with its density to such an extent that I actually sold my copy only to repurchase it later. So it seems unconscionable to buy yet another biography when I have so many good ones awaiting me.

I expect I'll order it shortly.