December Reads
Categories: reading
Date: 04 February 2009 03:52:40
I doubt I can read as much as Auntie Doris in one month, but I greatly enjoyed reading about her January reads, and also those of Farli and Jack the Lass. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, here are my reads for December. January to come tomorrow, if I get my act together.
I took these books with me on my travels around the US and Canada, reading them at night, or at a cafe or restaurant, or at the airport...or whenever I had a free moment actually. I rather enjoy reading and it takes a really bad book to disappoint me, so perhaps take my effusive praise with a grain, or sack, of salt; I am generally easily pleased.
Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns (Classics of Western Spirituality). I have had this book for a while, but I had not read the hymns in the first section of the book, Hymns on the Nativity. In the lead-up to Christmas I thought it would be a good thing to read on the Nativity, hymnography and poetry being two things in the Christian tradition that I find speak to me in ways written explanations often cannot. St Ephrem poetry particularly concerns "types" -- events and/or persons in the Old Testament being types and images of events/persons in the New -- and he weaves wonderful narratives and brings out doctrines by describing such events and placing words in people's mouths as he seeks to bring out some doctrine or event and show its full nature and purpose. If you are not familiar with Eastern Christian writings and poetry, and are interested, I'd recommend finding some of St Ephrem's works and this book, with hymns on Virginity as well as some others in addition to the hymns on the Nativity, is a great place to start.
Dear Fatty, Dawn French. Dawn French is one of my favoutite comediennes, and if she had've simply written a book with "Blah! Blah! Blah!" in it I would've bought it and sung its praises -- I love her work. But this is a great book, superbly written and wondrously fascinating. Written as a series of letters to her family and friends is a unique way of writing one's autobiography, and this leads to an incident-based approach that will have you laughing out loud one moment, gasping in shock the next and holding back the tears as you read another. It was also amazing to read how the events in her childhood, particularly her dad's encouragment, shaped Dawn to be the person she is today. Recommended.
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, Nicholas Ostler. Linguistics and languages are one of my loves -- I never feel I can read enough about the development of language or how language is used or where it is headed. Most of my reading had been on English, naturally I suppose given its the only language I can read with any amount of fluency and I doubt there is much call for English language books on Icelandic, more's the pity. Rather than documenting the rise of language alone, Ostler ties it in with the spread of people and empires and seeks to determine how it is that a language comes to dominate or survive, and also what can cause a language to disappear or become less used. The factors are amazingly diverse, from population density to language range to marriage to who uses the language [the people, the elite, religion, traders...] and he, in general, writes in an engaging and easy-to-read style. There were parts I struggled with, but as with other books where I have the same struggles, I re-read and if I still do not understand I move on. And non-European languages such as Chinese, Sumerian, Akkadian and Aramaic get quite a comprehensive treatement which helped inform me. The only major disappointment with this book was reaching the end -- I could've kept reading and reading. I can never read enough on language and this book was a unique, informative and fascinating read.