books | What're you reading?

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? ^-~

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Good Omens, the book he wrote with Neil Gaiman, is one of those books I'm always in the mood for, but with the rest of his writing I've had to pick my moments, really. My mind isn't on reading very much at the moment because I've started replaying one of my favourite RPGs, and the nostalgia (and addiction) are strong...

Haha, if nothing else you brought it to my attention and I can get my own copy! So thank you for that.

I can't think of anything apart from the BBC series, off-hand, but I'm sure I must have read something sometime. I'll have to look... I'm curious now.

My course has a shocking amount of choice even compared to other courses in the UK, I think. There's basically nothing compulsory after the first year, which meant I picked an amazing set of modules this year (I'm in second year). Robin Hood, Creative Writing, Intro to Old English, Tennyson, Children's Literature, Crime Fiction, Myth & Saga, Old English: The Exeter Book, Myth & Modernism, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Women's Poetry. (Can you, ah, tell where my interests lie...? Hahaha.) Not to rub it in your face or anything -- there's downsides! Like the fact that each course is only about eleven weeks long, so if there's a lot of texts, we don't go into as much depth as I'd like.

I liked A Song for Arbonne a lot more the second time I read it, which surprised me. Actually, I've found it the same with almost all Kay's books except Ysabel -- I realised how good it was the second time through. Almost all of his stuff is excellent -- and I still gave even Ysabel four out of five stars, I think. It's good, it's just not up to Kay's standard, which is why it disappoints a lot of his fans.

(I post... every day. Sometimes twice a day. About things going on in my life. I'm told that I make it interesting, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it. Anyway, feel free to comment at any time, even if it's only barely relevant -- I really like chatting with people, and you've been a lot of fun so far!)

Aaaah, games... Is it FF8 you're replaying, by chance? Most of my time is currently going into playing Arcanum for the first time. I should be replaying Dragon Age, really, but...

You're welcome. ^-^

I'd love to hear what you come up with! French prose Mort Artu is the source of these poems, now that I've managed to find the title of it, but that's all it says in the preface. (Minus the whole history of the Matter of Britain condensed into a few pages.)

Mmm. I remember from looking up your university... I'd have gone to Cardiff or Aberystwyth if I could have afforded it. *smiles* No worries about 'rubbing it in'. I'm happy you get to follow so many courses that really interest you. ^-^ We've always had about 12 books per semester for our literature courses, and I've encountered a lot of authors I'd never have tried or heard of this way. ^-^ It's just if I had a choice between my university and one with courses more closely related to my interests, I'd have gone there. (Worst, though, is the 'philosophy of sciences' course I thankfully don't have to take. It's 14 different philosophies, some overlapping in terms. In 12 weeks. *dies*)

Mmm. One thing I like about Kay is how much you can get out of rereading his works. Part of why you realise how good it is, I think. When I grow up, I want to be that skilled too. Even if that does mean 'below my standards writing' disappoints my fans...

(Thank you! So have you! It's a lot of fun talking with you too! ^-^ I tend to talk about whatever strikes my fancy, though I've fallen out of the every day habit a bit.)

Yep! I love FFVIII. I just downloaded it for my PSP, and my girlfriend's replaying it too at the same time, so we're having a lot of fun with it.

Cardiiiifffff. ♥ Says the very biased Welsh girl. *grin* I have... probably more than twelve books per semester, though it depends. Because I do a lot of translation, that's just one book in which a lot of different things are collected. (That course sounds... deadly.)

Yes! There's always something new or something you can look at from a different angle... They're really good for discussions, too, because of that. I want to be as skilled as Kay, too. I was writing in his style for a bit last week, which was amazingly fun.

I can't believe that throughout this thread I haven't used any Merlin icons. Look at his cute wee face, as my flatmate would say.

Oooh, that's awesome! I tried playing FF8 on the PC way, way back when the library had a copy, but we didn't really get along. I appreciate the effort to make it a PC game too, but the controls were awful and completely counter-intuitive (compared to what I was used to, perhaps).

*grins* Nothing wrong with a little bias. ^-~ It looked like a gorgeous city when I was there. (But I'm biased too.) Do you do the translation because the courses require it or just because you enjoy it? *curious*

Mm. For us it depends a little on the course and on the rest of your courseload. I'm taking two literature courses this semester, so I have about 24 books to read in total. It could've been 36 if I'd been insane enough to sign up for a third.
(I was amazed to see that they haven't adapted the format. Granted, the exam consists solely of multiple choice questions and we're relatively spoiled when it comes to workload, but...)

Oooh, it sounds it! ^-^ And now I'm torn between singing and writing...

Hee! He looks so happy and adorable! *still needs to get her hands on the seasons and sit down to watch it properly ^-^; *

FFVIII was my first ever RPG. ♥ Suuuch nostalgia playing it now. I never tried it on the PC -- I had an awful feeling it wouldn't adapt well...

Cardiff feels like home to me, which is why I'm so biased. I grew up away from Wales, so it's wondrous to be home. Heh.

A bit of both, when it comes to translation. I love translating and I do more than I have to, but some of the translation is for my course. E.g. we only had to translate three riddles, I did all of them I could find, and I'm about five weeks ahead of everyone else... Our exam just after Christmas was heavy on translation, so I did extremely well. *grin*

I need to watch more Merlin... I've only seen five episodes.

Eeeeeeeee! Mine... *thinks* Mine must've been Might and Magic 3. I was hopeless. XD And no, it really, really didn't adapt well. I think it'd have been much better if they'd taken the time to write in an option to change the keyboard layout around. Then the awkward original layout would be completely void because all players could set the keys they're used to.

*smiles* I'm glad you're getting a chance to live there, then. ^-^ Long may you continue to be home!

Neat! ^-^ I have a love-hate relationship with translation myself. But I did enjoy the Old English we did. I'd have signed up for that course last semester or this semester if there'd still been room.

I think I've seen more than that, but I've been watching them haphazardly, so I'm happily oblivious as to plot developments. ^-~

Yeaaah, that would suck. It took me a while to figure out the new controls for the PSP, 'cause that wasn't exactly self-evident either, ugh.

Indeed! And hopefully the rest of my family will move back here, in time.

I have quite a methodical mind, in some ways, and I do love carefully piecing together a translation.

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