God And Man At Yale (William F. Buckley Jr.

And so begins my journey through the "foundational" documents of modern conservatism-- at least as I've come to understand them. This is going to be more of a popular survey than anything formal. Although I may go all the way back to Burke at some point, what I currently have on my shelf is Buckley, Sowell, Neuhaus, and more Hayek than I know what to do with.
But it starts with Buckley's first book, which apparently started to jostle conservatism out of its '40s funk, at least in the public imagination.

I purchased this in March 2009, in one of the most bizarre Amazon orders I've ever made: this, Dostoevsky, "I Got Rhythm" sheet music, "Astral Weeks", and the movie "The Fall". It was a strange time in my life.

This particular purchase was probably driven by the fact that I had just gotten the Buckley anthology, in turn driven by my reading of National Review that year, in turn driven by his death that spring, attention to which was paid due to depressing search for something to do with my life. And now it's time to get going.

(Unrelatedly, I'm typing this post on my phone. First time I've done that, but I'm hoping a new set of surroundings and habits will lift me out of a current rut. And that's my copy of the book.)