Reading Friday

(Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever reads these and what they think I look like if they do. Somehow reading back my old entries, I always get the image of myself in a chaise longue on a beach somewhere with a colourful drink in my hand -- which is odd, because I should know better than anyone that that was absolutely not how I read those books, ie: in the metro and/or in bed with the book falling on my face because I'm tired.)


What did you finish reading


Thor and the Warriors Four, by Alex Zalben (Writer) and Gurihiru (art): A very cute comic in which Power Pack teams up with various people, including, yes, Thor. Thor is the one who ends up most involved in the plot, but Power Pack also teams up with the Pet Avengers and, in the back up comic, with Hercules (the artist for the back up comic is different, btw). I really enjoyed it! It's clearly a comic aimed at kids, but the writing isn't dumbed down and the art styles are very clean and nice. The big block of colours approach to colouring looks deceptively simple, but fits the story and tone nicely. (I'd advise against reading so parts of it while listening to Manau's Le Dernier Combat, though, because the combination of that song + Power Pack's grandma being in the hospital brought me close to tears.) I would definitely reccomend it, including to children.

Counting this as "Book by an author you've never read" on the Serious Card.


Alcools, by Guillaume Apollinaire: I said pretty much all I want to say here. Long story short: I liked it, there is no punctuation at all and my favourite poem was Crépuscule. (Also, there is one poem where Apollinaire refers to two past lovers, one male, one female.)

Counting this as "non-fiction book written 50+ years ago" for the Serious Card (because I am not going through the rigmarole of 'is this book part of the French canon?' or 'Well, Le Pont Mirabeau was a school requirement, but not the rest of it...').


La Croisade des Carpathes, by Vanessa Callico and Diana Callico (both on writing): I originally thought there was going to be zombies, but then it turned out to be people turning into giant flies/scorpions/etc, at which point I threw up my hands, realised I had no idea what was going on and decided to enjoy the ride. And what an enjoyable ride it was!

( I loved it! )

I found this book an absolute joy to read and I will definitely be reading the next one. (Also I am linking to the post about Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century again.)

Counting this as "book with a female protagonist" on the Serious Card.


I know I said I'd do carthaginians this time, I don't really have the time and haven't finished Beyond Cannae, so I'll do it next time. Plus, I'll have read Ghosts of Cannae and Contes et Légendes de Carthage by then, so between Darkness Over Cannae, Tumulte à Rome, Beyond Cannae, Ghosts of Cannae and Contes et Légendes de Carthage it will be ALL CARTHAGINIANS ALL THE TIME, yes.


This makes 0/25 on the Mix'n'Match Card, 21/25 on the Random Card and 11/25 (+3) on the Serious Card for hamsterwoman 's reading bingo.

( Details )

What are you reading now

Still stalled on The Art of War, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Les Fleurs du Mal, Métronome, Ghosts of Cannae and Rome's Revolution. Also stalled on Le Jardin des silences.

The Grass-King's Concubine, by Kari Sperring: Have not made progress on this either (see hype/hype avoidance cycle and me being an idiot), but I'm going to talk about what I've read of it so far anyway.

It took me a while to realise why I was getting such a vivid mental image of the house the main character grew up in, why I could see the golden light swelter in the courtyard, smell the fermenting grapes and hear the winds through the olive trees. Not that the descriptions were bad (not at all!), but more like I was bringing something of mine to the book, something I wasn't sure where it was coming from. Then I saw her name again, Pèlerin des Puiz, thought it felt familiar and got off the metro. In the street, I stopped walking when it occured to me that the name felt familiar because I know the des Puiz. I know these people. Not personally, of course, but i know where they live, I know how they live, I know who they are. I was standing there in the street and I was almost crying, because for maybe the first time I could see the parts of my family who make wine where they've always make wine and the parts of me that is still a small child with summers of orange gold and lavander purple in a book. It was perfect.

I don't know if the rest of the book will be as good as this one moment of sudden realisation and although I hope it is, I don't care. Just for that, it will have been worth it.

(The house I saw, btw, was a mas, the big kind with an inner courtyard.)

And Now For Something Completely Different! Ferrets! I find the fact that ferrets are ferrets in particular fascinating given their emphasis (so far) on how much they changed when confronted with Marcellan. You see, ferrets are born with smooth brains (unlike pretty much every other mammal) and the gyri only appear over the course of their lives. That's why their brains are studied a lot in neurology, btw, because it allows us to look at processes that happen prenatally in humans. So the fact that these people have, as far as I can tell, have their thought processes completely or at least severely altered from what they were before and are also ferrets is really interesting.

I don't think it's intentional, but I think it's interesting anyway.


What are you reading next

GHOSTS OF CANNAE. 2231rst anniversary of the Battle of Cannae, here I come. Then L'Homme Noyé, I think. (Watch me read something else entirely, lmao.)

( Old list )

Additions to the list: Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter (from a rec over at ladybusiness ) and Barbara Hambly's vampire series (via wordsofastory ).