winterbadger | Entries tagged with books

I remember, years and years ago, when I was in school, seeing a film about a witch who was scary, but then stopped being scary and made magic pancakes that made everyone happy.

It seems that this memory has been bugging a lot of other people from my generation. :-)

Here's a little clip to give you the basics. The whole film (it's only 20 minutes) is also available.

It's kind of magical stepping back into the past and seeing something like that again, with a vague sort of tugging at the strings of memory.

I get much the same feeling from seeing and re-reading the old books that we had when I was a child. Some of them books I read again and again, some that I read only once or twice but remember fondly. Other books that I don't think I ever read at all, but I remember being around, and which I would love to find in a library or in a second-hand shop. Books by Eleanor Farjeon, or Edward Ardizzone. Books with Richard Scarry's animals doing all sorts of complicated, interesting jobs, or getting into hilariously disastrous adventures. Books by E. Nesbit, or Edward Eager, or with paintings by Howard Pyle or NC Wyeth. Books with drawings by Erik Blegvad or Carl Larsson or Arthur Rackham. The Green Knowe books and the Paddington Bear books and the Winnie the Pooh books (I was so dismayed that someone I was dating hadn't had Pooh growing up that I bought a very nice set that I would read to her sometimes before bed. :-)

Nostalgia is such a strange admixture of happiness and sadness, real memories dimly seen though the dust of years, and memories that must remain slightly suspect (are they tiny parts of the past, floating up through my mind, or are they imaginings, created because I *wish* they were true?) I have the feeling that I should be careful not to indulge in it too much, lest I lose my way walking int he past and never find my way back to the present, trapped in glass like Garth in Fairwater (wow, there's another jolt of nostalgia there--The Aged Poet's wonderful stories of magic curses or simple fishing villages, with their amazing drawings.)

Current Mood: thoughtful

This post in the awesome Boston 1775 blog brings together a number of threads. First of all, I find its simple content quite fascinating. And, of course, it also connects my love of history, the 18th century, books, Boston, and even the junction of all of these things--my first real job out of college--selling books on the corner of School and Washington Streets in Boston, across the road from the Old South Meeting House.

It was dusk when Nicholas reached the end of his journey. On his right the sky was tinged with the dying sunset above the black spine of the mountains. Before him, lamplit in snapdragon silks, was a city of tents, the hosts of its banners stiffened like hog-thorns. He could see the viper and eagle of Alessandro and Bosio Sforza; the cross and crescents in azure and gold of the papal banner, and above all, the eagle Federigo, Count of Urbino, the flag of its commander. On the hill, the tents of the enemy lay like embers, and the banner of Count Jacopo Piccinino could only be guessed at.

(From Chapter 35 of Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo Rising)

I reposted on FB a link to a NYT article about "the War on Christmas" and the way in which false narratives can be brought up short by real historical study.

A blog I've neglected reading lately, Abu Muqawama, has a good piece on a topic, the use of drones in whatever we're calling the GWOT these days, that has the same effect. Anyone needing a refresher on Thomas Jefferon and his own proto-GWOT could do worse than read Joseph Whelan's Jefferson's War: America's First War on Terror 1801-1805.

Currently reading Dolly and the Bird of Paradise. Very grateful that if I have to ride out a hurricane, I'm doing it in a house well inland with plenty of candles and books and three very cuddly cats, not in a ketch with no sails, no petrol, no radio, no navigation equipment, no charts, in the middle of the night, somewhere far from land, with several injured people to take care of.

Re-watching this old favourite (both as a book and a film with Edward Fox, Michel Auclair, and Derek Jacobi). I have to go back and check if the book had a better explanation but I think I've detected a flaw in the complicated passport game that the central character engages in.

( Cut for spoilers )

Current Mood: thoughtful

RIP, Sir John Keegan

Sometimes controversial, sometimes a bit of a hack, but overall a talented and ground-breaking military historian.

Current Mood: grateful

David Isby, with whom I had the pleasure of working for several years at Sparta, has published a new book, this time on the ultimate head-to-head lineup of the Battle of Britain: The Decisive Duel: Spitfire vs. BF109.

Current Mood: cheerful

Jackson announces third Hobbit film

This had better be because he is including more and more of the original story than he had planned to, not because (a) he is adding more and more Peter Jackson-originated story or (b) he wants to spin out the money-making opportunities even further.

I confess that, when I went back and watched the first part of FOTR recently, I was less pleased with it than when I saw it originally. So much was left out, so much was played for comic relief, so much was altered from the original... it was like a meal you remember with some pleasure that, when you go to cook it again, just doesn't taste nearly as good as the one you recall.

Current Mood: skeptical

I surveyed a lot of library apps for regular computers, and none of them seem to have linked iPhone apps.

Now I've found some surveys of iPhone personal library apps, and none of them seem to have links to conventional computer apps.

I find my iPhone a useful tool to access some things in a limited way when I don't have access to a computer. But I in no way see it as a *substitute* for my regular laptop. If I'm home, for instance, cataloguing my library, I don't want to have to struggle with the tiny screen and limited interface of the iPhone. But I also don't want to have to carry my laptop with me when I go to the bookstore.

If I were more of a RDBS designer (and, most importantly, programmer), I would solve this by whipping up a tool of my own. As it is, I will just have to whinge that I have a need that does not seem to be met by the currently available tools.

ETA: OK, I've found one (1) program that seems to provide the combination I want, called Clz Books. Anyone used it? It would appear to cost $0 to $60 to do all the things I want, which seems a little steep for an app.

Current Mood: disappointed

Listening to Anna Massie play "Trip to Windsor" (awesome!)

Drinking a Long Trail Double IPA

Making tacos for dinner: ground beef, Mission shells, butter lettuce, organic tomato I chopped up just now, Newman's Own salsa, Kraft Mexican four cheese

Just about to crack open a Dorothy Dunnett I haven't read in a while (Dolly and the Cookie Bird)

Watching well-fed cats drift about the floor like sharks in an atoll,

Preposterously, mildly happy. :-)

Current Mood: happy

I'm watching "The Far Pavilions": what a blast from the past! Ben Cross, Amy Irving, a delightfully wicked Saaed Jaffrey (really, one of my all-time favourite actors), Omar Sharif, Art Malikm, Christopher Lee, Robert Hardy, and small parts for a very young Rupert Everett, Jeremy Sinden (from Brideshead Revisited) and Michael Cochrane (the horrid colonel from Sharpe's Eagle). And a star-turn cameo for Sir John Gilegud as the fussy Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari.

I loved the book very much, and the series quite a bit. I've always had a thing for Amy Iriving, who is still gorgeous at just short of 60. But the most beautiful character of all has got to be the amazing mountains in the background of the intro shots and which are visible from time to time, providing the very image that the story is named for.

I know that a lot of my interest in India and South/Central Asia in general comes from my dad's few stories and his greater unspoken fondness for the subcontinent. But a lot comes too from this very book, the series made from it, and the other stories like it that I then sought out (Kipling and his imitators, Indian writers and filmmakers, and eventually all things Desi).

I found (made) 6.5 feet of shelf space by putting away or disposing of some nicknacks, and I freed up 4' more by beginning the purge of my library. Some subjects that I'm just never going to spend the time on are getting axed in toto, and I'm trying to be ruthless about pulling books that either (a) I have read once and will likely never read again or (b) have not read yet, but should read because after I do so they will probably belong in section (a). Also got the Middle East/Central Asia, foreign affairs/intelligence/COIN/terrorism, general military history, Vietnam, and Revolutionary War sections reorganized.

I still have a lot of sections to purge, and several more to rearrange, but it's a start. (At the cost of a lot of dust, which has me sneezing continuously.) And Nicholas is VERY excited that the bookshelves in the living room now have their tops clear for cats to wander around on. He's taken to batting at me from them as I go past down the hall.

I also took care of one of my more immediate chores that was time-sensitive. I'm going to clean the rest of the windows, maybe vacuum some more, pack some boxes of books I'm sending away, and then head out to game this afternoon/evening with some friends (maybe have a bike ride first).

But first I think I deserve some elevenses. :-)

Current Mood: accomplished

I've been waiting until all the moving was done (and the post-move cleaning had not) to take out my two window A/C units and put them away. That's done, and the cats have two more windows to sit in (plus we all have that much more light).

I also got fed up this morning with the permanent downward tilt that my cooker has always suffered from. Ascertaining it had extendable feet, I found an ingenious tool of leverage (a sloped wooden cat scratching board), got out my level, and proceeded to lift it into a position from which I could (with the help of a pair of pliers) extend the feet! It is now level, and oil does not pool along one edge of the pan when I saute or fry things!

Of course I also got a clear picture of how filthy the parts of the cooker one never looks at are. The kitchen is going to take a LOT of cleaning.

While watching the dismal DC United game from Saturday last night, I cleaned up some more figures (from the Khurasan Miniatures Felid warriors scifi line) and prepared them for undercoating. gr_c17 and Phil the Teacher are way ahead of me in preparing for the the release of the new Tomorrow's War rules from Ambush Alley. I must ready the battle circles of the felids for battle!

I also took the first step in executing a purge of the game collection, namely identifying ones that I haven't played, so I can try them and either keep them or sell them, and sorting out the ones that I've played enough to know I probably won't ever play again.

Now, to do the same things with books...

Oh, speaking of books:

33/50: The Sultan's Seal by Jenny White. A mystery set in late Ottoman Empire Istanbul. Slow to start but gets more interesting toward the end, and it gives the reader at least a little introduction to the culture and politics of the late Empire. Not great, but not bad.

Guest of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Current Mood: relaxed

Good news from the quack.

( Cut for medical details... )

In other news, the Teacher and I had an impromptu Derby party yesterday, which went very well. We had some of her friends and some of my friends, and heaps of very Kentuckyish food were made and eaten (with gusto), conversations were had, horses raced, and mint juleps were drunk.

Today we went out and had a very late brunch (partly because we slept late and partly because it was Mother's Day, so it took an hour to get a table). It was a lovely day, so we hung out. I had started reading her part of Winnie the Pooh earlier, so she got The Graveyard Book at Borders and read me part of a chapter. We tried to pick up her new bike and to get me a haircut, but all the shops were closed. We went to two open houses on the way home, deciding we didn't like the 5 (or was it 6?) bedroom colonial (nice house, but way too big for us) but that we really liked the early-20th century Sears Craftsman house we saw later.

She's working on lesson plans. I'm typing this entry :-) and may then have a short nap (!) or read until it's time for dinner.

A nice weekend, on the whole. :-)

Current Mood: calm

First off, a link to some photos of recent events.

Not many, sadly, but a few from the birthday visit my nephews and their mums paid me in March, and then some photos from the trip The Teacher and I took to see a little of Philadelphia and to visit the aforementioned nephews and their mums on Easter weekend.

So, because there is too much to explain, let me sum up.

Things are going very well with The Teacher and me. I don't think it's giving anything away to say that we are both thoroughly in love with each other. We spend more time together, at this point, than apart, and we have yet to run into any "hitches or vexations" as they say in the Land of Green Ginger. Well, one or two small hitches, perhaps, but nothing serious. We've gone from marvelling at how much we have in common to noticing the important ways we are different and rejoicing that (at least so far) we are not finding any that pose problems. Mostly we do a lot of rejoicing, as both of us have found, to one extent or another, that we find the other to be, no someone who wants to change or "improve" us (a deadly danger), but someone who makes *us* want to change, or at least to be the best person we can be. I find myself less nervous, less prone to anger, more generous, more patient now that she is part of my life. More than the number of books we've both read or movies we've both loved or ideas we've both been moved by, we find places we want to go or experiences we want to share. And the simple but ineffable pleasure of being with someone who loves you as you are and cares deeply about you... it's such a very nice place to be.

We had a very nice trip to Philadelphia, where she had lived for several years. There's a great deal more to see than we saw, so I for one would love to go back. We spent a couple of days visiting my sister The Deacon and her family in New Jersey. They quite liked The Teacher, and the feeling was mutual. We got back just in time to race around cooking a Passover dinner for some friends, which went quite well, on the whole, even it it started a little late (only 8 pm this time, really!) We've been to a couple of DC United games, to the movies (to see Jane Eyre, which we both liked--I felt it did rather well at capturing the book), and we've started to plan all sorts of things to do together, including several trips and expeditions. I've introduced her to some of my favourite restaurants and to some telly (Slings and Arrows was a big hit! thank you again Christy!)

I should wrap up, as I need to get home and make dinner for my sweetie (who does the washing up, a very nice bargain for me, I think!)

I've finished several books and books on tape lately; no time to review them now, but hopefully I will later on.

The Zimmerman Telegram and The First Salute, by Barbara Tuchman (10/50 and 11/50)
Unnatural Death and The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers (12/50 and 13/50) re-reads
A Cluster of Separate Sparks by Joan Aiken (14/50) re-read
China Road by Rob Gifford (15/50)

Books "in progress":

The Grand Scuttle: The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919 by Dan Van der Dat
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
Red Branch by Morgan Llewellyn
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid

Current Mood: chipper

Apologies to all my LJ friends for not reading, commenting, or posting much myself of late. Things are going swimmingly with The Teacher, and life is busy in other arenas, so I've had very little spare time. I'm hoping I will have a little time this weekend to catch up with all the other things I've been neglecting, including posting about books I've finished recently (including a negative review of a Barbara Tuchman book, words I thought I'd never say), notes on recent gaming and research, some thoughts about future plans, and much happy burbling about The Teacher, including an account of our trip to Philadelphia, her first meeting with my family in New Jersey, and our joint and rather high-speed effort to make a Passover dinner for some of my friends (which came out, all things considered, rather well).

More, as they say, later.

Current Mood: busy

My thankfulness for yesterday: storms. Specifically thunderstorms. I love them--the wind, the sound, the energy, the outpouring of rain. We had a big one last night; there was only a little thunder, but there were buckets of rain. Everything outside is washed down as if a giant hose had been turned on it. Those leaves that were still wavering about coming down have fallen, adding to the carpet of yellow and orange and brown and startling red and pink. There are high, soft clouds in the blue, blue sky, and plenty of winds to push them along.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: thoughtful

One new book, one re-read, and a review of a previous title.

29. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. ( Read more... )

30. The Return of Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse.( Read more... )

And, because

watervole asked for it last time, a few comments on #21, Dolly and the Nanny Bird by Dorothy Dunnett.( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

I was thinking the other day, "I have this big pile of books I need to add to my 50 Books 2010 list reviews." Well, I'm looking at my tags, and I appear never to have *started* my 50 Books 2010 list. Ooops!

Well, I certainly don't have time to review them all, but I'll list the ones I have to hand and try to get to them soon. If there're any in particular you'd like to see me write on, comment and I will do those first. ( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

..."and you [sleeping] there like a winter badger."

Entries tagged with books

Nostalgia...

children's books in the past

now that is writing

and history again trips up our memory

(no subject)

Day of the Jackal: passport games

(no subject)

another friend, another book

colour me skeptical

that's a shame!

(no subject)

ah, nostalgia!

not what I meant to be doing, but...

there's two chores down

weekend wrap-up

OK, a feeble attempt to catch up

busy, busy, busy

yesterday and today

50books2010: two more (and a review)

(no subject)

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March 2024

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