What're you reading?

[sweet_sparrow]

I'm curious, what's everyone reading right about now?

I'm currently doing some more of my university course prep reading because "Read this small section of the book" means "read the whole book" to me. (I mean, if you're not going to read the whole thing, what's the point?)

I've recently finished up Two Medieval Outlaws by Glyn Burgess, which translates two romances about outlaws and which was a lot of fun. I've also finished up The Alliterative Morte Arthure, which just proves, again, that I don't get along with medieval texts and am staring at The Stanzaic Le Morte Arthur before delving into Malory's more well-known Le Morte d'Arthur.

In between I've been reading The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett (well, I was until I finished it. ^-~) It was a lot of fun. Now I know why I've seen comments along the lines of "Austen, but with magic!" and the like. It's, obviously, more nuanced than that (and certainly not like, say, Pride and Prejudice and ZombiesThe Harp of the Grey Rose by Charles de Lint and I also need to reread Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising at some point so I can take notes and figure out if I can get enough out of the book to write an essay on it. And I should really, really pick up Kay's The Last Light of the Sun some time soon. I promised a friend to read it ages ago. >> Plus there's the group read too...

(Oh, and I should be rereading Shakespeare for that course too. I have too many books...)

So... what're you reading this month? ^-~

Comments

[sweet_sparrow]

Justinian's Flea is a really intruiging title... The reviews seem to be a bit of a mixed bag, though. *is a nosy creature*

[mackiedockie]

I'm still in the first quarter of the book, and have learned a lot about Justinian's code, and Justinian's Hagia Sofia, and Justinian's insomnia. I'm not strong in this era of history, so that's all a good thing, if a bit dry. Justinian's flea refers to the outbreak of bubonic plague that spread throughout his empire and beyond in the mid-500's, the first documented worldwide pandemic. Rosen's theme seems to be the breakup of the Roman Empire exacerbated by the epidemic strongly influenced the shape of Europe and the Mediterranean for the next 1500 years.

I may need some Terry Pratchett after this one to shake off some of the extended theorythreads. On the other hand, I'll be primed to read Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantium books.