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Lest I ever think I'm not ambitious, I can always take a trip to the public library. I always come home with an armload and/or bagful of books, two of which I'm lucky to finish, with maybe a couple others I start. I did not, however, come home with a copy of Henry James's The Golden Bowl, which was one of the main purposes of going to the library. How does the main branch of the Chicago library not have this book? This time, I arrived home with two research books on linguistics/language for my critical paper, two books on "current events" (a polemic by the Harper's editor and Michael Moore's book that compiles letters from soldiers), one novel, one novella, and copies of Iliad & Odyssey. That's right, mtherfckers, both. That's some ambition. Or maybe delusion. I think the only difference is calling it the former if you manage to tackle and complete it.
Most of the books are "research" for my current novel, including the Iliad because it's a war book and I named one of my characters Hector. Also, just because I'm really curious about this particular translation of Homer (Stanley Lombardo, who keeps it in verse form but uses more modern and colloquial language). I've become curious about all translations in general, really. And today at the library, I learned that apparently I have a lot of interest in linguistics and language as well, since I got caught up in reading a lot of books that weren't directly related to my paper topic (which is more about grammar, specifically the literary purpose of long sentences and intentional run-on sentences). I'm practically giddy that a section of my paper is combining these two topics -- I'm comparing two translations of Proust based on how they broke up some of his long sentences in the most recent translation released last year.
Yeah, um, anyway....it's probably obvious I've been doing a lot of schoolwork lately. Including reading the book Democracy by Joan Didion which was pretty disappointing.
We also watched a PBS special last night on the wildlife of Cuba and learned about the world's tiniest frog (which is also the world's tiniest four-legged creature). It's pretty tiny. I was also quite fond of the land crabs that made a group pilgrimmage to the ocean once a year, crossing highways and passing through hotel compounds. Oh, and the enormous groupers that completely creeped me out. Nature is weird.
While I feel a little self-conscious and boring about my nerdiness recently, it's nice to know I can still live up the label of "nerd". I was beginning to worry.
Most of the books are "research" for my current novel, including the Iliad because it's a war book and I named one of my characters Hector. Also, just because I'm really curious about this particular translation of Homer (Stanley Lombardo, who keeps it in verse form but uses more modern and colloquial language). I've become curious about all translations in general, really. And today at the library, I learned that apparently I have a lot of interest in linguistics and language as well, since I got caught up in reading a lot of books that weren't directly related to my paper topic (which is more about grammar, specifically the literary purpose of long sentences and intentional run-on sentences). I'm practically giddy that a section of my paper is combining these two topics -- I'm comparing two translations of Proust based on how they broke up some of his long sentences in the most recent translation released last year.
Yeah, um, anyway....it's probably obvious I've been doing a lot of schoolwork lately. Including reading the book Democracy by Joan Didion which was pretty disappointing.
We also watched a PBS special last night on the wildlife of Cuba and learned about the world's tiniest frog (which is also the world's tiniest four-legged creature). It's pretty tiny. I was also quite fond of the land crabs that made a group pilgrimmage to the ocean once a year, crossing highways and passing through hotel compounds. Oh, and the enormous groupers that completely creeped me out. Nature is weird.
While I feel a little self-conscious and boring about my nerdiness recently, it's nice to know I can still live up the label of "nerd". I was beginning to worry.
