the list so far

In the interests of assuring all who may be concerned that I am still active in teh reading circuit here is a list of what I ahve read so far this year:
2010 total (67)
January (5) Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters vol.2, Gordon Dahlquist Count Karlstein, Phillip Pullman Dream and Reverie, Charles deLint The Dark Volume, Gordon Dahlquist

February (5) the Alkhemaster’s Apprentice, Walter Moers Plum Pie, PG Wodehouse Fairy Tale, Raymond Feist Blandings Castle, PG Wodehouse hikaru no go no.18, yumi hotta
March (5) The Book of Heroes, Miyuke Miyabe Regenesis, CJ Cherryh Uncle Fred in the Springtime, PG Wodehouse Planet Walker, John Francis Children’s Literature:A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter, Seth Lerer

April (8) Black Out, Connie Willis Nothing Serious, PG Wodehouse Tuck, Stephen Lawhead The Mysterious Island, Jules Verne The Island of Dr. Moreau, HG Wells The True Deceiver, Tove Jansson The Confidence-Man, Herman Melville The Haunted Looking Glass, Stories chosen by Edward Gorey

May (10) Dreams in the Witch House, HP Lovecraft The Elusive Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy The Sorceress, Michael Scott Moomins (the complete Comic Strip) vol. IV, Tove Jansson Down Below Station, CJ Cherryh The Manual of Detection, Jedediah Berry I, Robot, Isaac Asimov Foundation, Isaac Asimov Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov Second Foundation, Isaac Asimov

June (6) Have His Carcase, Dorothy L. Sayers The Prisoner, Peter Disch The Time Machine, HG Wells Indiscretions of Archie, PG Wodehouse Chicot, the Jester, Alexandre Dumas the Harliquinade,Dion Clayton Calthrop

July(6) In Search of Robinson Crusoe, Tim Severin Lulu, Samuel Bernstein Scaramouche I,II, III, Rafael Sabatini Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl Blind in One Ear, Patrick MacNee The Jason Voyage, Tim Severin

August (11) Erewhon, Samuel Butler The Demolished Man, Bester The City and the City, CHina Mieville The Scar, China Mieville Eyrbiggia’s Saga, anon. The Prince of Mists, Carlos Ruiz Zabon The War of the Worlds, HG Wells The Invisible Man, HG Wells the Voyage of the Argo, Apollonius of Rhodes

September (5) Hell,Yatsutaka Tsutsui Beau Brummell: the Ultimate Man of Style, Ian Kelly Les Diaboliques, Barbay d’Aurivilley Sunshine, Robin McKinley Aurorama Jean Christophe Valtat

October (6) The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer Aria de Capo, Edna St. Vincent Millay The Best of Charles de Lint,Charles de Lint The Dolls, Francesca Lia Block Four Emminent Victorians, L.Strachey The Land of Laughs, Jonathan Carroll

***CV

What I won't do for him

So a week or so ago I was all excited. I found out Neil Gaiman was coming to San Fran and tickets were on sale. I went to the affiliated book store, found a book to buy then went to the counter. the clerk was new so I said no problem and waited for the experienced person to be available. Mean while another customer with a rather loud and insistent voice kept saying "I was told I could order it" not bothering to include the who it was who said or the what it was he supposedly could order. Things got worked out and I was next.

I made my purchase and asked about the ticket. The clerk looked confused (can you see it coming?) then told me, "Oh that was for last year," (teach me to look at the whole date.)

Last night I was back at ye olde Gaiman site when, lo and behold. He is coming to SF after all: next Sunday. But, only 100 people can go and you have to pre-order a book to get a ticket. I checked the link and only 7 tix were left as of last night. Which means over 90 were sold in two days. Dilemma: should I go to the city to wait until the store opened, wielding my cash in hand? Should I wait by the phone, finger on the auto redial? What to do what to do.

Why, yes, I did wake up at the crack of dawn to make sure I didn't miss the 11am opening of the seller. Yes, I did wait until 11:01 to call. Patience is a virtue after all. And, yes, I have a ticket!****CV

Some interesting Elements

Long live Claudius! Clearly I have reached one of my goals. (I've already read Claudius the God so i do know what happens as per Mr. Graves.)

I did return to Our Mutual Friend this morning, but that was after a few days dalliance with Mr. Sherlock Holmes (the Return of Sherlock Holmes) and Sam Spade (the Maltese Falcon). I even went out looking for more Hammett in the hood but apparently he is not so popular this side of the bay. Considering the increase in BART and MUNI I am most unwilling o go to San Fran to purchase him. Ah well.

Currently uploading Stardust and the Graveyard Book so I can have some spoken as well as sung words. 

I opted to do summer camps this year: one for plots and one for poetry. My plot camp has participants running in age from 6 to 10. The mind boggles. At any rate I'm going to the tried and true fairy tale venue and may throw in some of the older myths (Irish mostly). Do wish me luck. I've ordered Christopher Booker's the Seven Basic Plots as a reference but at an amazing 700+ pages hardly think it will be fully studied before the camp begins.***CV

Mem-ries

Ah Summer Break. The reason, I hear, that many go into the teaching profession. 

Me? Never had a summer break as a teacher until I started teaching in Portland. Now that I'm back in CA I have thee weeks of Summer Break. So let's see how much reading I can squeeze in shall we?

So far I have read:

the Merlin Conspiracy, DW Jones

Day Watch (russian sci-fi author, sue me I don't have the book right now)

Borderliners, Peter Hoeg 

the Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett

Goals? Why yes I have goals. sane. reasonable. perfectly obtainable ones too.

I Claudius, Robert Graves

Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (the original which eliminates about 300+ pages, thank you very much)

the Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas

Almost done with the first: Augustus is dead, Livia's dead, Tiberius is dead, Sajaenus is dead and Caligula has ascended the throne, so not much more left to go.

Lessee anything else? Hmm I have an ipod. Lovely thing that. Makes one realise one has a heck of a lot more music than one thought and perhaps one should have gotten the largest capacity after all? Oh well.***CV

Y Come estas?

Well it has been a long while hasn't it? Not to raise any hopes but it looks to be a long while again. This year, for what ever reason, is incredibly busy. So I'm popping in to at least list the books I've read since Winter Break began. (I have lots more in stacks -like so many homeless looking for an apartment, but there you go).

The Old Curiousity Shop, Charles Dickens

Psmith, Journalist, PJ Wodehouse

The Complete Lord Wimsey Short Stories, Dorothy Sayers

Father Brown, the Essential collection, Chesterton

Robison Crusoe, Daniel DeFoe

A Study in Scarlet, Conan Doyle

During November one of my students presented a research on Queen Elizabeth (I'm insisting that all my third years research two historic persons- one ancient and one modern), consequently I thought it might be good if I knew a little about Good Queen Bess myself (somehow Blackadder didn't seem historic enough y'know). So I read the Virgin Queen and I watched Queen Elizabeth (the 1970's BBC productions) and have subsequently read the biographies of Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas More. 

Just imagine my reaction to borrowing TheTudors series from that library.

Dude, thugs in the hood or what? I honestly thought central heating had not been invented until way past Henry the Eighth's time but the way those crewcut nabobs went at the wenching I guess I was wrong.  And about the crewcuts ... Sorry, were the portraitists of the time making it up as they went along? Such clean shaven lads I never did see 'til the 20th century.

Extra Extra

Recently read:
The Master of Ballantrae (or the monk by any other Scottish I have a really nasty brother and he is junst not okay, name). Still if you liked Kidnapped or Treasure Island why would you deny yourself this one. Fun adventure read.

The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman It's a Gaiman why would you need to know more??

Recently received:
Quakelands, Francesca Lia Block
My Bonnie Lighthorseman, Being the Further Adventures of Jackie Faber, LA Meyers

Currently reading:
The Heart of Midlothian, Sir Walter Scott and some Bram Stoker which has to do with Egypt and Mummies.

***CV

Woden you know

Recently read;

Chalice, Robin McKinley (2??pp)I don't have it with me so I'm guesstimating the page count. If you like bees, honey, elemental magic as well as manor house stories this one will suit you. There are beauty and that beast elements but I've been hard put to find a McKinley that doesn't have that in it somewhere (which is quite all right by me). It is a sweet story and nothing like Sunshine except in the independent I'm going to do what I need to do heroine category. Pretty signature McKinley :)

Runemarks, Mary Harris (527 pp) This is a tale involving the Norse Pantheon and a young girl who has a ruinmark thus causing her village to fear her. A goblin named Sugar, a new Order which bears uncanny resemblance o the Inquisition and a none too subtle thread of God versus the Gods. Much emphasizing of the Word being made flesh (nudge nudge wink wink). I suppose if the Dark Materials series as intentionally anti organized religion this book is the more blatant version of it. I  prefer teh Pullman. Very modern speaking gods by the by. Okay to read. I read it hoping for more layers but there you go. Wait for the paperback is my suggestion.

Currently reading:

The Master of Ballantree, R. L. Stevenson****CV