de profundis
The subject line says it all. I'd much rather write about the lighter side of being, quite honestly. Who said Wednesday's child is full of woe?
The one I just finished is called The Ring of Words and is written by 3 OED editors about the history of the OED, Tolkien's participation in it, the roots of certain words he invented, as well as the utterly exciting background of words like wode, weald, wight etc. It's cutting edge and it's absolutely awesome. The book I just started is called From Elvish to Klingon, and so far it's basically language pop, but it did apparently owe its inception to the fact that every year thousands of English professors around the world receive circulars offering them Shakespeare in the original language, which, naturally, is Klingon. As the author - an English professor himself - explains, these folks are not necessarily crazy. They are just "profoundly optimistic."
While the idea of Shakespeare being a Klingon is nothing new - it was expressed by General Chang in The Undiscovered Country - I'm still sold on his having been a human, because let's face it, this level of profound despair and ultimate joy, couched in that kind of language... Well, some Vulcan contemporary of Surak's might have managed it perhaps.
Nevertheless, I look forward to the essays.