As Quoted in The guardian

Soccer was not meant to be enjoyed. It was meant to be experienced. The World Cup was a festival of fate – man accepting his hard circumstances, the near certainty of his failure. There is after all, something familiar about a contest in which nobody wins and nobody pots a goal. Nil-nil is the score of life. - Adam Gopnik

While mending this week, I have enjoyed well over 20 matches, reflecting perhaps too much on the transcendent. Nigel Beale invited some time back to Goodreads.com. This week allowed me margins to stock my shelves on such, affording a sidelong survey of what I have actually read, especially in recent years: the contrast with ambitious books begun and abandoned is stark.