p 18: During the first six months, we find him poring over Drygalski, an author to whom he and several others frequently returned. In rapid succession we find him reading Ball’s The Cause of an Ice Age, Morley’s Challenger Notes, Judd’s Volcanoes, Gregory’s Great Rift Valley, Nansen’s First Crossing of Greenland, Scoresby’s Arctic Regions, Greely’s Handbook of Arctic Observation, Mill’s The Realm of Nature, Ross’s Voyage to the Southern Seas, and Howorth’s The Glacial Nightmare.
p. 19 In late August 1902 he confesses to his diary that he has spent the afternoon and evening reading what he calls ‘light literature’. By the end of October he had read through a number of popular novels including Madcap Violet, Kim, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, and The Golden Butterfly, and The City of Refuge. Thereafter he deliberately intersperses popular fiction with scientific reading. The following June, he develops an appetite for Thackeray, beginning with Henry Esmond, and going on through The Virginians and Pendennis. Thereafter he deliberately intersperses popular fiction with scientific reading. The following June, he develops an appetite for Thackeray, beginning with Henry Esmond, and going on through The Virginians and Pendennis. In Ferrar’s mental habits we can see a clear fluctuation between what historians of reading call ‘intensive’ and ‘extensive’ reading, in his engagement at turns with what he regards as serious scientific learning and more recreational fictional works. While he reads fiction quickly and avidly, scientific reading he finds more difficult often spending days poring over a single volume, deliberately trying to strike a balance between the two. The following July he rewards a full morning of Drygalski again with another dose of Thackeray.