'Books, books books books',....
... (sung to the tune of "Spam, spam, spam, spam"*).
Let's see. This month so far I've only read a few books for class, a ton of political blogs, 'Claw of the Conciliator' and my own writings. I have just gotten back from the library, however, and have received a box from Amazon and this is what I have to look forward to reading.
The Trojan War, by Barry Strauss. I'm already half way through this one. It's actually a retelling of the Iliad using up to the date archaeological finds. Not bad. Felt I should read it after plowing through Dan Simmon's Ilium, a sci-fi version of the Iliad and a whole lot more (like "Prospero's Books" and "Forbidden Planet" for starters).
The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-European World by JP Mallory and DQ Adams. A lot of fun if you enjoy racing through the dictionary, but it will probably sit on my shelf as a reference for my chariot warfare project.
Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest, by Adrian Murdoch.
Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World, by Paul Cartledge. Cartledge is one of the best of the new military historians.
Barbarians, by Terry Jones (yes, that Terry Jones, the one partly responsible for 'Spam Spam Spam Spam'). Went along with a TV series (as did the song, now that I think about it). There is a picture of a particularly puckish Jones backed by a squad of samurai which seems to include at least one elf archer from LOTR (no moose though, as far as I can tell).
What Paul Meant, by Garry Wills. I've started it and it looks very good, especially since most Christians seem to act as if they already know what this most difficult and contentious of early Christians was talking about.
Murder in Amersterdam by Ian Buruma. Not a murder mystery, but one Dutchman's attempt to make sense of modern Holland and its Islamic immigrants.
In the Beginning; The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture, by Alister McGrath. Wins the prize for longest title. It's great fun and I am almost finished with it. We are reading it for the Episcopal Book Club.
And, as a special nod to Claw of the Conciliator himself, all by Gene Wolfe:
The Sword of the Lictor
The Citadel of the Autarch
The Urth of the New Sun
So I've got a lot of reading on my hands. It will make lovely procrastination (thy name is Mora) material while I do all my grading. But I've still got Gibbons, vol. III on my hands, and The Historian - the one about Dracula by Elizabeth Kostova- that I'm reading at the office.
* a team of crackerjack medievalists, btw.
... (sung to the tune of "Spam, spam, spam, spam"*).
Let's see. This month so far I've only read a few books for class, a ton of political blogs, 'Claw of the Conciliator' and my own writings. I have just gotten back from the library, however, and have received a box from Amazon and this is what I have to look forward to reading.
The Trojan War, by Barry Strauss. I'm already half way through this one. It's actually a retelling of the Iliad using up to the date archaeological finds. Not bad. Felt I should read it after plowing through Dan Simmon's Ilium, a sci-fi version of the Iliad and a whole lot more (like "Prospero's Books" and "Forbidden Planet" for starters).
The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-European World by JP Mallory and DQ Adams. A lot of fun if you enjoy racing through the dictionary, but it will probably sit on my shelf as a reference for my chariot warfare project.
Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest, by Adrian Murdoch.
Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World, by Paul Cartledge. Cartledge is one of the best of the new military historians.
Barbarians, by Terry Jones (yes, that Terry Jones, the one partly responsible for 'Spam Spam Spam Spam'). Went along with a TV series (as did the song, now that I think about it). There is a picture of a particularly puckish Jones backed by a squad of samurai which seems to include at least one elf archer from LOTR (no moose though, as far as I can tell).
What Paul Meant, by Garry Wills. I've started it and it looks very good, especially since most Christians seem to act as if they already know what this most difficult and contentious of early Christians was talking about.
Murder in Amersterdam by Ian Buruma. Not a murder mystery, but one Dutchman's attempt to make sense of modern Holland and its Islamic immigrants.
In the Beginning; The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture, by Alister McGrath. Wins the prize for longest title. It's great fun and I am almost finished with it. We are reading it for the Episcopal Book Club.
And, as a special nod to Claw of the Conciliator himself, all by Gene Wolfe:
The Sword of the Lictor
The Citadel of the Autarch
The Urth of the New Sun
So I've got a lot of reading on my hands. It will make lovely procrastination (thy name is Mora) material while I do all my grading. But I've still got Gibbons, vol. III on my hands, and The Historian - the one about Dracula by Elizabeth Kostova- that I'm reading at the office.
* a team of crackerjack medievalists, btw.
posted by Clemens | 7:15 PM
4 Comments:
Well, I broke out into a cold sweat and my heart started beating a little faster reading this post. I think it either brought flashbacks of the history class I almost failed or made me feel very inadequate with barely enough time to finish reading a small little murder mystery every few weeks.
Oh well, mother always said all six of us were very different from each other.
Reading is my job. And I didn't say I would actually read ALL of them. You should see the armload of books I have to return to the library every month that I haven't read.
Thank god for those recorded books.
BTW, when I was in Georgetown I met a friend of mine who taught history at Furman when you were there - David Spears. He's still there. He wasn't the one who traumatized you was it? (or is it just me?)
Big Brother
(not sure that has the right ring)
ps: some of us were more 'different' than others.
I believe it was a Dr. Lavery in whose class I made a "D". I really did enjoy the class - just not the tests.
I looked in my year books and could not find your friend. The name sounded familiar though. Perhaps you just forgot the years I went to college (1976-1980).
p.s. We won't mention names on who were the one(s) more "different".
“Some of us were more different than others” hmmmmmmm “We won’t mention names on who were the ones more different”. I started a list and its getting pretty long, little sis.
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