osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2014-05-07 08:26 am
osprey_archer) wrote2014-05-07 08:26 am
Wednesday Reading Meme
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
Arika Oakrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages, which I very much enjoyed. It begins with a brisk summary of nine hundred or so years of the history of invented language, with tidbits like the fact that Hildegard von Bingen invented the first artificial language that we have a record of (yet another reason why Hildegard von Bingen is the bestest), then segues into chapters about individual languages. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about Esperanto, Klingon, and Blissymbols, which are a symbol system used in some schools so children who lack the motor skills to speak or use sign language can communicate.
The one frustrating thing, which is really not the book’s fault, is that most of these topics could easily fill books of their own, so I felt like I was getting a taste of something fascinating only to gallop away to a different topic altogether. I want to know more about Esperanto culture, dammit!
I’ve also finished Dorothy Sayers’ Whose Body?, the first Lord Peter Wimsey book, and feel underwhelmed. (However, I’ve been warned that the Lord Peter books don’t really take off until he meets Harriet Vane, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised.) I guessed who the murderer was fairly early on, not because of the evidence, but because there was no other reason for him to be so prominently present in the book, which seems to me a sign of a badly constructed mystery.
And finally, Hilary McKay’s Indigo’s Star, the second Casson family novel, which I enjoyed a great deal. (Clearly I will have to read the rest of the Casson family books. There are three more.) I like the weirdness of the Cassons; I like how they’re all very different and often rather odd, but nonetheless love each other very much and try in their odd ways to support each other. And I like the fact that they take in stray people and gently incorporate them into the family: there’s a sense in these books that they’re adopting the reader in the same way, which is cozy.
What I’m Reading Now
Sandra Cisneros’ Caramelo. In fact I’m listening to a version read by Cisneros herself, and really enjoying it so far: her writing has a rhythm to it which is even more accentuated in her speech.
Also, she likes making lists of things - to describe an apartment, for instance, by listing many of the things that are in it. I’m not sure why I find this so appealing, but I do.
I’ve also just started Jane Langton’s The Time Bike, which is part of a series of books about the magical adventures of the various members of the Hall family in Concord, Massachusetts. (It’s a bit like a magical American version of the Casson family series.) I do like series of interlinked books about the same family. Are there any other series like this that I ought to know about?
What I Plan to Read Next
Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, which I have sitting on my shelf.
On a wider note, I want to read both Pamela Dean’s The Dubious Hills and Eva Ibbotson’s A Song for Summer before the end of the summer, because the local library has them and many other libraries don’t. Perhaps I should make a summer reading list like I did last year? That seems sensible.
Arika Oakrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages, which I very much enjoyed. It begins with a brisk summary of nine hundred or so years of the history of invented language, with tidbits like the fact that Hildegard von Bingen invented the first artificial language that we have a record of (yet another reason why Hildegard von Bingen is the bestest), then segues into chapters about individual languages. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about Esperanto, Klingon, and Blissymbols, which are a symbol system used in some schools so children who lack the motor skills to speak or use sign language can communicate.
The one frustrating thing, which is really not the book’s fault, is that most of these topics could easily fill books of their own, so I felt like I was getting a taste of something fascinating only to gallop away to a different topic altogether. I want to know more about Esperanto culture, dammit!
I’ve also finished Dorothy Sayers’ Whose Body?, the first Lord Peter Wimsey book, and feel underwhelmed. (However, I’ve been warned that the Lord Peter books don’t really take off until he meets Harriet Vane, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised.) I guessed who the murderer was fairly early on, not because of the evidence, but because there was no other reason for him to be so prominently present in the book, which seems to me a sign of a badly constructed mystery.
And finally, Hilary McKay’s Indigo’s Star, the second Casson family novel, which I enjoyed a great deal. (Clearly I will have to read the rest of the Casson family books. There are three more.) I like the weirdness of the Cassons; I like how they’re all very different and often rather odd, but nonetheless love each other very much and try in their odd ways to support each other. And I like the fact that they take in stray people and gently incorporate them into the family: there’s a sense in these books that they’re adopting the reader in the same way, which is cozy.
What I’m Reading Now
Sandra Cisneros’ Caramelo. In fact I’m listening to a version read by Cisneros herself, and really enjoying it so far: her writing has a rhythm to it which is even more accentuated in her speech.
Also, she likes making lists of things - to describe an apartment, for instance, by listing many of the things that are in it. I’m not sure why I find this so appealing, but I do.
I’ve also just started Jane Langton’s The Time Bike, which is part of a series of books about the magical adventures of the various members of the Hall family in Concord, Massachusetts. (It’s a bit like a magical American version of the Casson family series.) I do like series of interlinked books about the same family. Are there any other series like this that I ought to know about?
What I Plan to Read Next
Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, which I have sitting on my shelf.
On a wider note, I want to read both Pamela Dean’s The Dubious Hills and Eva Ibbotson’s A Song for Summer before the end of the summer, because the local library has them and many other libraries don’t. Perhaps I should make a summer reading list like I did last year? That seems sensible.
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Alternatively, skip to Strong Poison, which is where Harriet shows up.
Avoid the one with the train schedules. I think that might be Five Red Herrings.
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(Also Esperanto culture is pretty fun -- I don't know if they still do this, but maybe twenty years ago they had summer courses that people would come from all over to attend, and one year it was where I grew up. So I spent a summer when I was 15 learning Esperanto and going to Esperanto parties.)
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Oakrent clearly went for breadth rather than depth. She covers a lot of stuff, but it's all very surface-y.
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