Check out my sculpture website: www.boudewijnrempt.nl.
2003-01-31
Tonke Dragt is one of more well-known Dutch authors of children's books. Her work often veers in the direction of the fantastic, although she sometimes shies away before committing herself. De Zevensprong is a case in point.
Vegetius' Epitoma Rei Militaris is, essentially, an agitprop pamflet written to inspire his nation to revert to the grand military tradition of their ancestors. The book seems to have been written during the reign emperor Valentinian II (375-392) or Theodosius I (379-395 ). At least, it's not clear to me which emperor Vegetius dedicated it to. Since the Sack of Rome occurred only a little later, in 410, we can conclude that he failed in his objective. But he did write a book that has been the constant companion of military leaders through the ages.
Apparently, in Book 1 (which our library doesn't have') Jane da Silva gets stuck with the detective agency of her rich, but dead uncle. Only if she fixes a really hopeless case, she'll inherit the money. This book is about her second attempt.
2003-01-22
I have at least three English editions of Lord of the Rings on my shelves, but I didn't choose to give the particulars of this one without premeditation. It was my first copy. Previously, I had borrowed both Dutch and the English versions from the local library. I didn't like the book at the time. Possibly because The Two Towers, together with the (remaindered at the time) appendices, was the only volume available. Yes, that's right. Dutch public libraries have a penchant for buying Part Two of Three of anything -- or Part 3, 5, 6 and 7 of eight, for that matter. But, retournons a nos moutons, I entered the 1986 paperback edition of Two Towers in the little unsorted list above. That was my first copy, as I said. I bought all three volumes in one audacious move, even though I couldn't afford it, and had to borrow money from my mum. In 1986 I was about sixteen years old, I guess. For two weeks I was off the map. I severely harmed, if you can believe it, my English marks, because my teacher didn't want to believe that 'dale' was a word. Anyway, I've read Lord of the Rings about six times since then, which is not as often as some, but more than most people on this swiftly moving clod of earth, and every time I reread it, I discover new nuances, new joys, and gain a deeper appreciation of Tolkien's work. I don't consider myself a fan — after all, my Sindarin is a joke. But I know the book. I've got a handsome three-volumes-in-one bound copy printed in a nice, large letter on unfortunate paper, and my wife has the great three-volume hardback on cream paper.
2003-01-21
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (laughably inaccurately translated into Dutch as 'Harry Potter en de Geheime Kamer' — literally 'the Secret Chamber') is the weakest book of the series. The movie is the first movie I've seen in years (which doesn't say much, since I think I've seen maybe twelve movies in the past four years) that was really, atrociously, inexcusable bad.
2003-01-15
A noble book is a like a song to my soul — the original, in Lord Peter Views the Body, the story of Uncle Meleagers Will, has this about an old book. But a new book works just as well, if it's a book like the LPCW.
Dorothy L. Sayers is, of course, the second-most famous author of mystery novels and short stories: Agatha Christie is the most famous of the breed. But DLS' books are often deeper than Christie's, and very often more literate, too. This means that DLS' novels are not for everyone; she expects you to be able to read enough French to know the difference between a masculine and a femine article (in the story 'The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question' in Lord Peter Views the Body). And, apparently, scatters words like bromide through her texts. I, for one, am glad of that: most of my English vocubulary seems to originate from her books.
2003-01-13
Perhaps last week (the second week of January 2003, for the record) was a better week for writing than for reading. This isn't the only book I returned to store. I didn't finish The Code of the Woosters, either, but that one is still on the to-read, or more accurately, the to-read-again stack. I only discontinued reading the Master's immortal prose because I acquired Carry On, Jeeves, whereas I quit reading this book because I plain didn't like it.
Carry On, Jeeves is a collection of Jeeves and Wooster stories; what's more, it's the collection of the first Jeeves and Wooster stories. The first story is the one where Jeeves enters the employment of Bertram Wooster, and the other stories give us the details on the various episodes Bertie keeps referring to in the rest of his works.
2003-01-06
I know I'm a strange kind of fish — there's no use denying it. There are a few books I know I'm going to like that I only read small pieces from. A chapter here, a chapter there, saving the real treat for some other time. This is what I did with Summer Lightning. However, feeling rather miserable with one thing and another, I figured the time had come to allow myself a long draught of the Master's tonic.
And not for nothing. Finally I have a compilation of Latin verse where even I, with my meager knowledge, can correct the translator. When Ausonius writes olim regum et puerorum nomina, it is surely essential to get the contrast that is caused by the juxtaposition of kings and children in the translation, and not merely give up with "once bewailed names of kings." The Dutch translation that springs to mind is "eens de namen van koningen en kinderen", but I have to admit that I cannot so readily phrase that in alliterating English.
2003-01-03
An Irish priest in London wrestles with himself - not his vocation, but with celibacy and the fact that he doesn't believe in God and never has. Now when have we heard that before? In the nineteen-sixties. But this book is from the twenty-first century, if only just. The premise isn't new; the resolution isn't, either. But the way Burke handles it is fresh enough to keep it interesting.
2003-01-02
Yet another part of my Quest for the Ultimate English Mystery Novel. I actually realized when I was on page 15 or so that I'd read it some years ago, but could only remember one scene - not a good sign. Not that the book is at all bad, just not memorable.
2003-01-01
Now I've got about ten reviews — or rather book notices, since reviews ought to be a bit more full-bodied, and more critical — I begin to see where I should work on Squishdot to provide better support. Indexes by author, for instance, and better search functions. No doubt I'll get the itch one of these days, and hack it in.
I hereby vow to also enter the books I don't finish reading in Fading Memories. So, if I pick up the book from the stack, I can see whether my opinion has changed at all.