Reading

I've been reading over break. I finished:

The Green and the Gray by Timothy Zahn. It's a rattling good read. You'll be confused at the beginning, but you're supposed to be, so don't give up. It all comes clear at the end and it's worth it. Zahn is brilliant and furthermore he can write.

Scribbling in the Sand: Christ and Creativity by Michael Card. Interesting. Good.

Have Space Suit--Will Travel by Robert Heinlein. I'm glad I read it, and I expect I'll read other Heinlein books, but this wasn't a favorite, I don't think.

The Dungeon by Lynne Reid Banks. This is fairly well written--gripping definitely--but oh! the end broke my heart. I won't spoil it for you, though; you should read it yourself.

The Place of the Lion by Charles Williams. It's--well, odd. I don't quite understand, but I think that's okay. It's like Lewis's That Hideous Strength meets Plato's Forms.

In addition, I've been working on:

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I expect he's got a point and that I'll be glad I read it once I finish it, but it's not pleasure reading.

On Nature and Language by Noam Chomsky. Dense and technical--and I'm only in the introduction!--but fascinating. His work on Universal Grammar sheds some interesting light on Plato and the Tower of Babel. What relationship does Universal Grammar have to the language of Eden? And as for Plato, I thought we'd decided years ago that he was wrong and children did not learn by forgetting...

Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters. I picked up a nice hardback copy at Barnes and Noble in Birmingham for only $5.88 and am still thrilled about it. This is last year's installment of the Amelia Peabody Emerson saga: Nefret and Ramses's twin children are born. It's poetic justice and great fun. I read it last summer and liked it. Now, to get hold of a copy of the newest one...

Paradise by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers. I started the trilogy (I suppose that's what it is, really, though it makes it sound like sci fi) in high school and loved it, and now that I'm restarting this third volume, I observe Dante's brilliance. He talks about the medieval free will debate. O that I had read this BEFORE I took philosophy topics! It's incredibly satisfying to read someone who mentions things people actually discuss! And Sayers's translation is impressive, for she kept the meter and terza rima from the Italian--no small feat in English--and fills the book to the gills with footnotes, commentaries, and explanations.

I meant to read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, but once can't do everything, I suppose. :-)