Ancient Classics
May 2021 Reading Recap
Still a lot of work on the back end of the blog, including on my “featured authors” pages (see the right column on the main Literature page and the introduction of my April 2021 recap post). So, contrary to plans, still no new posts in my alphabet blogging series in May. However, the time-consuming back end […]
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Ursula K. Le Guin: Lavinia
The final six books of Vergil‘s Aeneid (half the epic’s length, until its abrupt and arguably premature ending) deal with Aeneas’s arrival in Latium and the hostilities ensuing after the Latian king, obeying a prophecy, promises his only daughter Lavinia’s hand to the Trojan warrior. Now, this being a heroic epos setting out to chronicle […]
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An Alphabet of My Likes and Dislikes: “U”
This is a post belonging to a new blogging project — the title is pretty much self-explanatory, I think; the project’s introductory post can be found HERE. Credit for the idea: BeetleyPete. As always, the only thing linking the two items mentioned in this post in my mind is that they both start with the […]
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Storytelling
24 Festive Tasks: Door 17 – Winter Solstice, Task 4 (Soyal – Zuñi & Hopi / Native American): While systems of written symbols and communication already existed with the Pre-Columbian Native American cultures, to many tribes even today (including the Zuñi and Hopi) the oral tradition is still important. Have you ever had stories told […]
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Plato: Timaeus & Critias
24 Festive Tasks: Door 9 – World Philosphy Day, Book: Read a book about philosophy or a philosopher, or a how-to book about changing your life in a significant way or suggesting a particular lifestyle (Hygge, Marie Kobo, etc. Plato’s cosmology and theory of the human body, and the story of Atlantis; courtesy of a […]
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So I had to go to the bookstore today …
… because I needed a “design your own” blank-page calendar to create a birthday present for my mom, and one of the large local bookstores happens to be my go-to place to get such a thing. (I create a calendar as a BD present for my mom every year.) Obviously, this being a bookstore, it […]
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Manuel Vicent: Son de mar / Der Gesang der Wellen
Reading Progress Updates 12%: Finished the first chapter. So far, this is shaping up as a story told with gentle irony — foil rather than epee or broadsword. Several passages had me laughing out loud; I particularly like the juxtaposition of a Spanish seaside town somewhere south of Valencia at the full, exasperating and more […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/04 (Day 4): Favorites from Halloween Bingos Past?
Oh man. So many! Biggest new discoveries: * Fredric Brown: The Fabulous Clipjoint — huge thank you to Tigus, who gifted his Ed & Am Hunter omnibus to me. Where had Brown been all my life until then? * James D. Doss: Charlie Moon series (via books 6 & 7, Grandmother Spider and White Shell […]
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More Favorite / Essential Historical Fiction: Towards the 200!
OK, so I did get to another full list after all. Here goes, without any further ado: Virginia Woolf: Orlando I’m happy I’m getting another shot for this book alone — could have kicked myself for leaving it off my first list. I’m not a big fan of either time travel or main character sex […]
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Crowdsourced: More Books with a Difference – Fiction
You asked, Moonlight Reader? To quote from one of my additional entries below: “As you wish …” Without any further ado: Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies When Lillelara added A Place of Greater Safety to her list, I could have kicked myself — because Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell books were definitely among […]
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My Personal Literary Canon, Part 2: “Veteran” Readership
24 Festive Tasks, Door 5, Task 3: Tell us: What author’s books would you consider yourself a veteran of (i.e., by author have you read particularly many books – or maybe even all of them)? The authors by whom I’ve read the most books don’t coincide exactly, but substantially with those that I’d also consider […]
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11 Public Libraries Invaluable to World History | Oldest
Source: 11 Public Libraries Invaluable to World History | Oldest 11 Public Libraries Invaluable to World History Libraries around the world have long been revered as temples of human knowledge. They’ve been a part of monasteries, royal palaces, museums, universities and even hospitals. Some boast an incredibly romantic past while others, like the Library […]
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… and then there were books.
In addition to the books acquired upon my departure for Hamburg, that is. Go figure, they had bookstores at Hamburg Airport and Hamburg Central Station as well … and I had way too much time on my hands ahead of my return flight to Cologne. * whistles innocently * Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1799055/and-then-there-were-books
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This happened today.
// TA decides to pack light because, after all, she’s only leaving for a 2-day business trip. Then agonizes a half hour over which one of several 100 books on physical TBR to take on the trip. // // Leaving home, finds book in mailbox that was delivered yesterday but which for reasons unknown she […]
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Neil Gaiman: Norse Mythology – Listening Progress Update: 90 of 390 Minutes
Gaiman says in the introduction that he didn’t revisit his own childhood favorites — Kevin Crossley-Holland’s and Roger Lancelyn Green’s renditions of the Norse myths — but this comes across decidedly more like an update of those books, i.e., The Norse Myths for Young Readers, than an adaptation of the actual Edda texts. I’m enjoying […]
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Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad
Brilliant Irreverent, insightful, funny, deeply humane and empathetic. The myth of Odysseus is one of my favorite parts of Greek mythology: in telling it from the perspective of Penelope — with a good bit about Penelope’s childhood and youth, and her and Odysseus’s marriage thrown in for good measure, as well as with her 12 […]
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16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 12 – Saturnalia
Tasks for Saturnalia: Wear a mask, take a picture and post it. Leave a small gift for someone you know anonymously – a small bit of chocolate or apple, a funny poem or joke. Tell us about it in a post. –OR– Tell us: If you could time-travel back to ancient Rome, where would […]
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Christmas Book Gifts
Christmas book gifts from my BFF — in addition to various teas, spices, home made holiday baking, and a CD. She spoiled me … as she always does! Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1626512/post
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Ovid: Metamorphoses & Apollodorus: The Library of Greek Mythology & Plutarch: Life of Theseus
For the “Monsters” square, I decided to revisit Ovid’s Metamorphoses — I had initially only been planning on the “Perseus and Medusa” and “Theseus and the Minotauros” episodes, but David Horovitch’s fabulous reading drew me right back in and I decided to — with apologies to Odysseus and his companions at Circe’s court — go […]
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Halloween Bingo 2017: Update 4
My Square Markers and “Virgin” Bingo Card: “Virgin” card posted for ease of tracking and comparison. Black Kitty: Read but not called Black Vignette: Called but not read Black Kitty in Black Vignette: Read and Called Black Kitty Center Square: (Read = Called) Current Status of Spreadsheet: (Note: Physical print editions unless stated […]
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