Wednesday Reading Meme on Tuesday
Mar. 5th, 2024 05:49 pmExtremely busy tomorrow, so posting Wednesday Reading Meme a day early!
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
At long last, I’ve completed D. K. Broster’s Sir Isumbras at the Ford! Still no idea where the title came from. Presumably it’s a reference from a poem? I went into this expecting a medieval tale, and it absolutely is not. Like The Wounded Name and The Yellow Poppy, it’s about Royalists trying to oust the Republicans after the Revolution.
( Spoilers )
I also read Charles Finch’s What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year, largely because I’ve read all of Finch’s books hitherto and didn’t mean to break my streak just because his latest book is a diary of 2020. But it turned out to be surprisingly absorbing for a book about such recent events: I devoured it in one afternoon. You’d think it wouldn’t tell you anything new, and in a sense, of course, it doesn’t, but at the same time it was surprising to realize how much I had forgotten from 2020—in particular the absolute misery of having Donald Trump as president, and waking up every morning wondering how the hell that buffoon is going to make everything worse today. (Forgotten may be the wrong word. I may have repressed the memory in self-defense.)
And I’m back in the swing of things with the 1930s Newbery books, this time with Davy Crockett, by Constance Rourke. You may remember Rourke as the one who wrote the Newbery Honor-winning John James Audubon biography positing that Audubon might have been the escaped dauphin of France. Naturally I was agog to learn Rourke’s theories about Davy Crockett.
Sadly, nothing in Davy Crockett is as deliciously nuts as John James Audubon, Escaped Dauphin of France. (Then again, what could?) But the book is highly readable, and Rourke happily relates a great many Crockett legends (Davy Crockett was clearly the Chuck Norris of his time), sorting them generally into “probably true,” “could be true,” “okay these can’t all be true but it sounds like something Crockett might have done,” and “physically impossible for a human being to accomplish, so I must sadly admit that Davy Crockett did not in fact grease a lightning bolt.”
What I’m Reading Now
Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940, which I got because it contains a short story by D. K. Broster. (It’s near the end of the volume, so I haven’t reached it yet.) A few familiar names here (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edith Wharton – also Edith Nesbit!), but also quite a few I’m not familiar with, so this will be an interesting exploration.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have decided that I am indeed going to dive into all things French! I’ve already read a few of the big ones (Les Mis, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Count of Monte Cristo) - perhaps it is time to read more Zola? To delve, at long last, into Colette? To attempt the first volume of Proust? Recommendations of books and also specific translations greatly appreicated.
Also considering books about French history!![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
troisoiseaux, I know there was that one book you read about the last day of Robespierre. Maybe it’s time for me to give that a try.
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
At long last, I’ve completed D. K. Broster’s Sir Isumbras at the Ford! Still no idea where the title came from. Presumably it’s a reference from a poem? I went into this expecting a medieval tale, and it absolutely is not. Like The Wounded Name and The Yellow Poppy, it’s about Royalists trying to oust the Republicans after the Revolution.
( Spoilers ) I also read Charles Finch’s What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year, largely because I’ve read all of Finch’s books hitherto and didn’t mean to break my streak just because his latest book is a diary of 2020. But it turned out to be surprisingly absorbing for a book about such recent events: I devoured it in one afternoon. You’d think it wouldn’t tell you anything new, and in a sense, of course, it doesn’t, but at the same time it was surprising to realize how much I had forgotten from 2020—in particular the absolute misery of having Donald Trump as president, and waking up every morning wondering how the hell that buffoon is going to make everything worse today. (Forgotten may be the wrong word. I may have repressed the memory in self-defense.)
And I’m back in the swing of things with the 1930s Newbery books, this time with Davy Crockett, by Constance Rourke. You may remember Rourke as the one who wrote the Newbery Honor-winning John James Audubon biography positing that Audubon might have been the escaped dauphin of France. Naturally I was agog to learn Rourke’s theories about Davy Crockett.
Sadly, nothing in Davy Crockett is as deliciously nuts as John James Audubon, Escaped Dauphin of France. (Then again, what could?) But the book is highly readable, and Rourke happily relates a great many Crockett legends (Davy Crockett was clearly the Chuck Norris of his time), sorting them generally into “probably true,” “could be true,” “okay these can’t all be true but it sounds like something Crockett might have done,” and “physically impossible for a human being to accomplish, so I must sadly admit that Davy Crockett did not in fact grease a lightning bolt.”
What I’m Reading Now
Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940, which I got because it contains a short story by D. K. Broster. (It’s near the end of the volume, so I haven’t reached it yet.) A few familiar names here (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edith Wharton – also Edith Nesbit!), but also quite a few I’m not familiar with, so this will be an interesting exploration.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have decided that I am indeed going to dive into all things French! I’ve already read a few of the big ones (Les Mis, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Count of Monte Cristo) - perhaps it is time to read more Zola? To delve, at long last, into Colette? To attempt the first volume of Proust? Recommendations of books and also specific translations greatly appreicated.
Also considering books about French history!
troisoiseaux, I know there was that one book you read about the last day of Robespierre. Maybe it’s time for me to give that a try.
