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

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

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

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.

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

A partial keyboard either breeds creativity

or homicidal thoughts
.........
Recently Read:

The Foretelling, Alice Hoffman, one hundred eighty one pages
Rain, the daughter of an amazon leader, journeys toward adulthood discovering that change must come and that appearances are not the best evidence for truth. Horses, bees, bears and what life may have been really like as a member of a nomadic amazon tribe make for a well told tale.
..........
a Wild Murakami Chase, the Japan Foundation, one hundred fifty one pages
a collection of essays from the Murakami gathering held in Japan includes various interpretations of what makes Haruki Murakami such a popular literary figure around the world. The essay on mirror neurons was wonderfully Carrollinian
...........
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, Trenton Lee Stewart, 440pp
Reynie, Kate Constance and Sticky reunite for what they believe will be a celebratory occaision. Instead they discover that their beloved Mr Benedict has been kidnapped and they set off on an adventure that will land them once again in teh evil clutches of Ledroptha Curtain and his smiling sweet scented minions: the Ten Men. Staple removers of death, killer wristwatches, deadly sharpened pencils and a clipbopard that would terrify madame guillotine are only a small portion of what these execs carry in their briefcases. One will never view an executive in the same way again.

currently reading:

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

Louise de la Valliere, Alexandre Dumas

.......CV

may i......

While the getting is good I'm going to list books read and recently obtained:

Twenty Years After, Alexandre Dumas 749pp
The further adventures of the musketeers only this time D'artagnan and company face the son of milady as well as the machinations of cardinal Mazarin. More swashbuckling and derring do including a kidnapping of an english leader and an attempted rescue of Charles the II from the scaffold.

The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Alexandre Dumas 649pp
Once more our heroes are called upon, only this time they are at very different places of the game board: socially, politically and emotionally. This is the longest of the trilogy and so is divided into three volumes of which the Vicomte is the first. Alas I finished it before finding a copy of the second and so had to leave D'artagnan wondering why he was betryed by Aramis and Porthos while Athos' son attempts to prevent the duke of Buckingham from killing either himself or his beloved's intended husband: Louis the XIV

The Women's War, Alexandre Dumas 545pp
In which cardinal Mazarin makes a guest appearance but only as a plot device. The story itself centers around the crowned princesses of france during the time when the events of Twenty Years After were taking place. A woman disguised as a man resuces another woman's lover from the cluthes of a suspicious husband only to have him betrayed by the husband's wife. Secret passage ways into locked fortresses and passes under rivers as well as revolting aristocracy concludes in a climax remarkably dickensian.

A Harlot High and Low, Honore Balzac 554pp
Continuation of the adventures of Lucien Chardon de Rebumpre from Lost Illusions. This novel focuses on the villainous nature of Vautrin. A political gothic novel - just replace the lecherous priest from the Monk with a crafty and viscious criminal mastermind.

waiting to read:

Louise de Lavalliere, Alexandre Dumas

The Man in the Iron Mask, Alexandre Dumas

The Memoirs of Monsieur D'artagnan,

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

Reading Murakami,

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

Summer Book, Tove Jansson

The Mysterious Benedict Society and Point Rendevous

The Foretelling, Alice Hoffman

cv

The Real Dumas

The Club Dumas, Arturo Perez-Reverte (362pp)In which antiquarian book collecting crosses paths with sataninc ritual, a world weary devil, and a Poe-etic Spaniard living in a mildewing mansion with a headless angel filled garden. It took me about a third of the book to get involved with the story. I wonder if any of his other books are worth pursuing.
**
The Amazing Kavelier and Klay, Michael Chabon (639pp) 1930's, the birth of the comic book, Prague, death defying escapes, true love, Dali, magical realism, a Max Ernst (sans Leonora Carrington) walk on: what's not to like? Well I could have done without the Oyster episode. But the dirigible cafe was great! Teabird does such a thing still exist in NY?
***
Currently reading Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas****CV

Tip-Toe through the.....

Taxes are done!

Yesterday when I went out for my final day of spring break I found out what the bulbs were that line my walkway. My walkway is abundently supplied with oxalis (sour grass) wild onion, pretty flowers that are weeds in camoflauge, roses, lilies and a jade tree. Mixed in with this are these large bulb leaves which I have been presuming are failed tulips.

But no. They are irises! And one is setting buds and it is five feet tall.

Dear lord!
**
So Saturday (before the blooming iris) I participated in a class to make a skirt. It's a knit skirt and so far it seems to be coming along fairly well. The pattern is called Belle Curve and is part of the 2007 winter Knitty collection. I'm using a beautiful shade of brown called chocolate (Cascade 220).I'm hoping it turns out well. The plain star stitch is a bit of a tease but I realised that if I knit the row before the pattern row less tightly, then the plain stars are less work.
***
I started Jane Austen's, a History of England yesterday but have not made much progress****CV

Give a Spider some Scissors....

Travelled into the city yesterday. I decided enough was enough and I would go to see the woman who has cut my hair since I was 13 (yes: thirteen). Got on a nassty BART car: as someone apparently felt that their snack must be shared with the poor hungry BART seats and apples and peanut butter are the bART seats favoritist goody. (As I said nasssty).

I get off at Powell street and walk up past the cablecar turnaround, the DSW, the huge Victoria Secret across from the equally huge Disney store and get to Sutter. I go in to the store front and walk up and find out that the salon she is in in is one more floor up so after three flights I arrive. And she starts hacking away. This pleases me enormously. When I ask for a Brooksie A-line I want a Brooksie A-line not a slanted 70's c curve which is what I have been given the last two times I've gotten my haircut.

I feel so lite!

Afterwards I go to the book store and find two reads: History of the Ancient World, Susan Wise Bauer and Twenty Years After, Alexander Dumas. Then I go back to the BART station feeling all pleased and there's this guy who insists on invading my personal space to try and sell me a BART ticket I do not want nor do I need and as he will not get out of my face I have to tell him:
"Look! I just want to get my ticket without being bothered!" And after staring at him and not moving he takes a hint.

I can then get my ticket and go down to the platform and board a train where I am promptly surrounded by men in suits, with wireless laptops at the ready, headed home.
**
I am still reading Perdido Street Station but as of today I have less than eighty pages to go. Mind, they are tight packed tiny font pages but - I have hopes that the Good Fairies of New York may be started tonight.

In order to accomplish this near feat of concluding the feast fest of slake-moths and oneirotic Clotho like spiders I went to a cafe and latched onto one of the comfy red chairs. Got me a lunch and a drink and settled right in. Then, how odd, I don't remember anything sharpish in my food stuffs. Hmmm, I don't recall hearing any bone like cracking. Why then does one tooth feel jagged and the other not?

Guess along with a visit to my familiar hair stylist it's time for a visit to my familiar dentist. Seems part of a molar has dissolved leaving a ten year old (most likely older say 12?14?) filling to hold up the fort on one side. *sigh*
***CV

***CV

And the mome wraths.......

I finished the baby surprise sweater. Of course it didn't really fit as I was following the original pattern and the "baby" I was making it for just turned one. S'okay. It ws a fun adventure knitting origami and now that I have done it once I think it will go quicker and better next time.
*
I apologise for the surreality of my most recent posts. Something about writing reports when I have to tell all about each child without judgement ( because I not only have to think about the person now but the person of the future who will reread these reports much as we all look at old report cards) requires intense mental gymnastics and this blog was my outlet.
**
I am currently reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, and this afternoon I made a few book purchases for my most welcome week of Spring Break:

Persuasion, Jane Austen

Perdido Street Station, Chia Mieville

Dingo, Charles de Lint

***
Has anyone ever read a book called, The Chalice and the Blade? I recently attended a conference where the author was a keynote speaker and I'm curious about the response readers of her work have had. I know how I responded and apparently I'm in rapport with most of my workmates in this reagrd. So if any who reads this post has read any of Riane Einsler's work: what was your reaction? ****CV

Goods

Okay, it's been so long since I posted about books (and I'm waaay to lazy to look) that I may repeat myself.
**
Morality Play, Barry Unsworth (206pp) A half starving run away monk stumbles upon a troupe of medieval players while they are saying a final farewell to one of their group. He decides to join up with them as a replacement for their dead comrade. They continue to travel (with the corpse in their wagon) towards their destination when they come upon a village which has been the scene of murder. A guilty person has been found and sentenced. The evidence is not as clear cut as it should be however and the troupe decides to step out of its routine of miracle plays and recreate the crime itself. Read this book for the setting and detail, not the mystery.
***
Hikaru no Go, vol.11, Yumi Hotta (195pp) Hikaru is up against Ochi who has been studying with Akira. Who will be the victor and join the ranks of the professionals??
****
Cast in Secret, Michelle Sagara (521pp) I finally found a copy of this book in Portland. It's not literature. It's a lite read about a spunky girl on an inaginary world with two hot guys interested in her; without all the heavy petting. It's a fun series. I must admit I liked Cast in Courtlight more (but then I'm a word girl). This time Kaylin must face her fear of the Tha-alani in order to retrieve a pandoras box. I do wish there had been more of Nightshade( I like the tall dark, brooding and dangerous in my romantic leads); however, I suppose Severn needed some of the spotlight.
*****
While in Portland I restrained myself and only came home with a few items;

The Black Sheep, Balzac

Hikaru no Go, Yumi Hotta

Classical History of the World for Children, vol. I

The Songs of the Kings, Barry Unsworth

The Portland Bridge book

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, Justin Pollard and Howard Reid

Alexandria and the Sea, Kimberly Williams

Gods Graves and Scholars, CW Ceram

******

Okay I guess it's time to return to writing progress reports****CV

Scroll XVII.iv a

The conference I attended was all about the ancient city of Alexandria. It is essentially a way to recreate aspects of an historic multicultural setting in which children can learn about the people places and events as well as that language of a specific city in a specific time. There are stories, paintings, mummy portraits (paintings of themselves people had made while they still onsidered themselves beautiful), timelines, who am I games, a model of the city, an ancient coptic scroll : all sorts of fun things to do inluding learning to speak and read Alexandrian latin.

This particular course was created by an amazing person named John Wyatt. He has been working on it for over twenty years. I am so very glad that I was able to attend this past week as Mr. Wyatt is reaching a point in which travelling cross country is not the best use of his time. He is very funny and charming and extremely smart. (Well anyone who speaks at least five languages should be, right?) He also likes fairy tales and of course is a classicist.

I also heard him speak two years ago and this is why I can say that I hope he takes good care of himself so we have him for a very long time :)
**
Before telling the story of Alexandria to the children this afternoon I went on line looking for pictures of the new Library Alexandrine and discovered: they are looking for a head librarian.

If ONLY I'd studied Arabic *sigh*

Perhaps I should apply anyway. Can you imagine having a rejection letter from the Library of Alexandria?!***CV