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

From the depths I return

I finally found a way to get Edmund and its been keeping me sane during these interesting weeks of prepping a brand new classroom by oneself not knowing who, if anyone, will be working with me and then having the person who would decide to work somewhere else so they hire a person who can start working but only on the very first day of school (and who speaks no english while I speak no spanish) so okay at least they found an assistant who knows how to be with the children but turns out she got accepted to graduate school and could only be with us for two weeks but hey they found someone else who (for what ever reason) decided this past week that the best way to heat up english muffins for the children was in a glass tray on a stovetop burner.

So yeah: Edmund Black Adder has been a spot of all right. Well that and seeing Nick Cave last night :) What a fabulous show.

Recently read:

Crossing to Paradise, Kevin Crossely-Holland

Chalice, Robin McKinley***CV

Avenant or Bete or Ardent?

I had a hard time falling asleep lat night (the fact that it was 4 in the morning is beside the point) I kept wondering if I had put in the correct dates for my vacation request. Were they going to expect me in today instead of next Monday?

**

I went into the city today to pick up some loose leaf tea as well as see if it would be possible to purchase the series from a real time vendor. I tried ordering on line but for some reason they refused to believe that m method of payment was really what I said it was. Makes you think doesn't it? Just because our card calls itself AmerigoQuick*** or DominantCard or Freedom doesn't mean it is. It's really just a clever disguise. It's a Credit Card Carnival Masquerade!

Stupid on-line ordering monopolies

So I went to the mega-shop where I found out that yes I could order it from them but only three volumes as the others are discontinued (?!) and it would take 3 - 6 weeks and I would have to leave a deposit which would be refunded to be used as a credit for a purchase with that particular store.

okaaaay. I said, "I need to think about it."  

I browsed instead. Found a copy of Stardust and A Hard Days Night on sale then wandered looking for Amelie. Didn't find it. But I found the Criterion section. Oooo a section to buy criteria who'd have thought! Wonder what a criteria looks like when it's not being scientific? 

Turns out it's a label for a selection of films that are supposed to be the criteria of filmmaking. Yeah but whose? I don't think it's the criteria of all film makers everywhere cause some of them... it ranged from Pandora's Box to Brazil to the 400 Blows to Samurai Trilogy to Slackers, Time bandits....

BUT they did have La Belle et la Bete and the aforementioned Pandora's Box.

Guess what I watched tonight as I continued to knit the forever flare? :)

***

Since I was doing the public commute I also started the Sky Sock from Cat Bordhi's book. Finished one cuff and I'm on the second of three repeats for the leg. I like the fact that she has baby sox as first experiments before starting with an adult sock. Not only do I get an idea of what I'm letting myself in for but, since one of my team members is expecting and two staff recently got married. I can start a prezzie stash ;)

****CV

Dandelion

I couldn't stand it anymore so I bought Blood Roses by Francesca Lia Block this afternoon. Finished it too. Not that it's a long book. 

Aaaah. I feel better.

**

Watched Vampyr and Tampopo tonight. Vampyr is a 1930's german film. I think suffocating a demon with fresh flour is pretty original. Tampopo was just as fun as I remembered it being.

***

I've restarted the knit skirt I was making a month ago. Since it is worked from the waist down the rounds take longer and longer the closer I come to finishing. I have one pattern repeat (20 rounds) to go before I can start the flare: at the soonest. If I want the skirt to be longer than knee length I'll need to do more repeats before the flare. 

I've also started working with Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Made my first Sky sock.

****CV 

Alphaville

A sam spade secret agent visits a town operated by a computer. All the women are numbered and some citizens are encouraged to suicide if they cannot adapt  and if incapable of either are executed. Something like nazi germany meets Bladerunner and hal is president.

the Sea Hawk

Errol Flynn. Need I say more? Okay Alan Hale is there too and Claude Rains. But really Flynn should be enough. To quote Elizabeth about "Flash": 'I've got such a crush on him'. Well who else could have been the original Man In Black??

**

Melmoth has put me off my reading. Only 200 more pages to go. I think I can I think I can. The fact that Balzac has written a conclusion to this book is the only thing keeping me at it. I've been dabbling in non fiction: Yoga Morality by Georg Fuerstein (about the yamas essentially), and The Disciplined Mind by Howard Gardner (he of the Multiple Intelligences theory).

***

Other films watched include: 

the Triplets of Belleville

Robin Hood (Douglas Fairbanks)

Roxanne (Steve Martin)

Thanks to the DVDs I've actually been knitting again. I've completed one felted bag, finished a

noro fan and feather scarf and just need to make the handles and lining for two intarsia bags.

****

So I really enjoyed watching the Black Adders and I'm considering owning the set. With that thought in mind I perused the offerings. I'm tempted to present what I found as a lesson in consumerism for some of my class, viz:

You have the opportunity to own a complete set of films which you know you will enjoy. The set is 100 dollars. Do you get it? Perhaps you want to now what is meant by a complete set? Thus a complete set is 5 DVDs. So that is roughly 20 dollars per. Well you know you will like it ad watch it so do you get it? Perhaps you are curious how much each costs if purchased individually? Okay they are 15 dollars individually.

See my confusion? Why if I want the whole set does it cost more for one package then if I buy each of them indivdually?

***CV

A Turnip that Looks Just lIke a.....

I've been renting lots f movies lately. I recently discovered that my local library has a fairly decent collection and so I've taken advantage. They have all the Black Adders as well as silents. Yesterday I watched the Douglas Fairbanks version of the Three Musketeers and this evening John Barrymore in The Charming Rogue (about Francois Villon).

side note: HRH Elizabeth makes a comment about Edmund and parties and how he always wears very "tight tights". So does Msr. Barrymore.

I have a complaint about the silents on DVD and if anyone can recommend good versions I'd be grateful. My complaint is the soundtracks. Scott Joplin durng a romantic scene or Swan Lake during a fighting scene is not necessarily appropo. I know that originally compositions were made to be played during the actual performance of these films. Have the scores been lost? Can the companies just not be bothered? It's irritating and I'm somewhat tempted to score the films myself just (ie create my own compilations) to have a better experience.

**

Still reading Melmoth the Wanderer. It is really a trying experience. I find myself skimming whole paragraphs in order to move the action along. Melmoth has finally turned up and is attempting to corrupt an innocent island girl by explaining all the religions of the world to her. This consists of (from what I can make out and I'm presuming that Maturin knew more about his own Protestantism then anything else and this is his excuse) Seeva worship (though the idol sounds like Kali), Hari (which is what Krishna is called but apparently this hari requires the sacrifice of babies), Brahma (is a goddess??),  Juggernaut (no idea) Turkish (which he identifies as Muslim), and generic christianity.  

*sigh* I would prefer it if a person is going to incorporate spirituality of other faiths they at least match the proper deity name with that particular deity's worship. Or make it all up: names and rituals. It's just too confusing and I find myself more interested in making proper names and notes in the margins than actually reading the story.

I ran into a similar issue last week reading the preface to a collection of Sindbad the Sailor stories. The translator was talking about castes in India and identified  Bhramins as the warrior caste and Kshatryia as the intellectuals. I'm not denying brains or fighting spirit to either ncessarily but I thought it was the reverse.

***CV

Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?

Have I ever mentioned my problem with a certain parcel delivery company? I find this challenge slightly ironic considering that during my study of Organizational Behavior this particular company was held up as a good example of efficiency towards customers and employees.

Needless to stay I spent my entire day at home awaiting delivery of a package from said company only to find - when I went online, at 4:30pm,  to track it- that the package had been delivered at 2:30.

That's odd, I thought. It has been delivered but I do not have it.

So I called the company of purchase to see what they knew and got confirmation that if the parcel service had somehow messed up I could get a replacement: then they gave me the customer service number of the boys in brown.

I called. I stated my name, number and address very clearly.

Turns out that even though I was very specific about my address they decided to deliver it to my neighbors.

But I do have it now. So Mr. McGoohan and I spent some time in the Village this evening. ***CV

John, Emma, Peter, and Edie

Well I figured out how to move my pictures from the camera to my computer. The tricky part is moving it from the computer to the blog. I somehow don't think it should take five minutes to upload. It never has before.

*

Recently read:

Casino Royale, Ian Fleming, (181pp)

The one that started it all. It shows too. But now I now when Bond met Felix, about S department, and Mathis. I never quite understood the misogynist bit that has been credited to Bond. Until the last line of this story. Oh, Now I get it.

**

Currently reading:

Melmoth the Wanderer by Maturin. Some pretty eye-rolling over the top gothic moments so far: um Sra. Moncado, I really don't think your child, no matter how much he loathes becoming a monk, will walk over your prostrated body in order not to become one.  No really this is one of the scenes in the first volume of a four volume story. I am no where near the climax. The author is still introducing the players. And even though he was clergy he does not seem to like the church. He keeps insulting it and its practices: especially the Jesuits.

***

Recently watched:

Peter Gunn (series)

the Avengers (series)

Black Adder III (series)

As You Wish

Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott (392 pp)

I still have no idea who the main character of this story is. Perhaps it is the castle Kenilworth after all. The hero is Tressilion but he so seldom appears one wonders. Then there is the Earl of Leicester and with his attempt to become Elizabeth's King, while married to someone else (ahem, this is Queen Elizabeth he's trying to fool?) so perhaps he is the villain... but no, that is definitely Varney. Anyway it is a very well written story as well as language and historical allusions go. Much better than Ivanhoe in my opinion - of course that wouldn't be hard, Ivanhoe is such a schmuck. Wonderful epigraphs before every chapter and I think Scott had much fun in writing this tale.

**

The Reavers, George Macdonald Fraser (268 pp)

I have never read a Flashman story. I'm tempted to now. Very fun and very modern in its Elizabethan  splendour. Loved the seesaws of doom. And really: haggis torture. Who'd have ever thought of it?

***

The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke (235 pp)

I think this has been around enough that most people are aware of what it contains. Short stories along the lines of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, but short.

****

Around the World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne (191 pp)

Except for calling San Francisco the capital of California an enjoyable read. Phileus Fogg is amazingly unflappable and uninterested in what is happening around him. Well either that or its a very clever disguise. He could give Mr. Spock lessons in imperturbability. Favorite part had to be the desert schooner.

*****

Recently viewed:

The Princess Bride

The Musketeers (Richard Lester)

Mirrormask

Pirates of the Caribbean I

Peter Gunn

the Avengers (series)

Robin Hood (series)+

******CV

+ well sort of. I really tried to watch it but it was so bad I never went beyond the first episode.

sail your ships

Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens, 855pp
I love Flora. She has such a surreal manner of speaking that it is a delight to try and figure out just what she is trying to say. Little Dorrit, or Amy, is the daughter of the Marshalsea a debtor's prison where debtors were placed until they could pay off their debts. Apparently as long as they were in the Marshalsea they couldn't be hounded and yet because they were in there they had no way of earning income. So yeah: makes as much sense as Flora but there you go. Sweet and good souls are pitted against corrupt and murderous rogues.

Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard, Isaak Dinesen cc77pp
Isaak Dinesen writes marvelous fairy tales that are not necessarilly happy but wonderfully intricate and carefully embroidered. I did not know she was the author of Babette's Feast. Yesterday I found a copy of Carnival which contains other short stories by her. I may end up reading Out of Africa.

Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn, cc07pp
What happens when the tiles from a statue depicting a sentence containing all twenty-six letters of the alphabet start falling off? Is it a nessage to the town? Some think so and one by one letters become banned from speech and writing. It becomes a capital offence to use the leters for anyone over the age of seven.

Meanwhile I am indulging in dvd nights. So far I've watched the Avengers, a Fish Called Wanda and You Only Live Twice. Tonight I realised that I have Nick Cave concerts on dvd.

summer time

Summer has begun. While many of us head in different directions we will be all reunited in the fall. When asked by a parent did I have any plans for my vacation my answer was: sleep.

Perhaps teachers hibernate in the summer so they can growl throughout the winter?

One child surprised me by giving me a farewell hug. But then this is a child who has matured greatly over the past year. From trying to figure out why children couldn't take over the class when there were more of them then the adults to what he is today.

celebrate

Tomorrow is the end of the year party in which we not only celebrate our year spent together but we welcome sixteen new children into the class. This means that there will be 55 children. Have i mentioned that three of the team are gone already? Two left last week to continue their training and one left to help his family move from one state to another.

Oh and the architect came in and the demolition of part of the classroom is set to begin next week which means that while we are celebrating in the park half the classroom materials will be moved into one of the rooms, if not more.

ah change

testing, testing...is this thing on?

As one of the parents said last Friday : I have left the dark side of pc-dom and entered the light realm of -

"What is that faintly fruit scent wafting from the computer room? Could it be macintosh?"
"Wasn't macintosh an olde designer bloke?"
"I thought it was rain gear....."
"Ewww fruit scented rain gear?"
"Better than fruit scented elderly gent wouldn't you say?"


I did get to watch my first ever personaly owned dvd: the Avengers and I have A Fish Called Wanda, too.

Books read:

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens 426pp

Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson 2i9pp

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell 509pp

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo 465pp

The Summer Book, Tove Jansson i70pp

Currently reading: Little Doritt, Charles Dickens
Seeing soon: Nick Cave, 'cause he's touring the large venues in the Fall
CV

no cue

Louise de la Valliere, Alexandre Dumas 678pp
Raoul and Louise are not so much main characters as they are pivots upon which the true interests of the story may move about. So it is that Colbert comes closer and closer to removing Fou-uet while the king courts Louise and has a really cool spiral seret passage hidden by an amazing 'oh no one would guess that that ever so clever folding screen is for something other than changing behind' wink wink, constructed leading from the king's best friend's room -read toady- to Louises bed chanber. Anyway we find out that Aramis is a little too cold blooded while Porthos is such an amiable hercules. And then Raoul returns from England to find Louise in the king's arms which leads to.....

The Man in the Iron Mask, alexandre dumas, 568pp
The films lied. Sad. Just depressing and sad and, yes, last night I skimmed the final chapters. I don't need to read about them all dying.

Tonight I picked up a copy of the Count of Monte Cristo but I may read Oliver Twist first...