Hodie Christus natus est: hodie Salvator apparuit: hodie in terra canunt Angeli, lætantur Archangeli: hodie exsultant justi, dicentes: Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis: Alleluia. [translation] Merry Christmas, one and all. This blog will be on hiatus until January (as should yours be: eat, drink, be merry!).
Posts from ‘December, 2008’
Review: The Secret of the Old Clock, by Carolyn Keene
Nancy Drew! Oh, how your absurdities delight me. Oh, it is all too much to bear. I can’t speak about this. I will have to show you, internet. Here are the first four paragraphs of The Secret of the Old Clock: Nancy Drew, an attractive girl of eighteen, was driving home along a country road [...]
BTT: Book Generosity
Do you give books as gifts? I give books as gifts almost exclusively, with some exceptions depending on the person. This year, everyone in my family is getting a book or, in one case, books. To everyone? Or only to select people? Generally, almost everyone gets books, but not everyone gets books all of the [...]
Just Call Me Numbskull
I had an exam today, ENG331, two hours of Renaissance Drama before being officially done school for the winter break. No sweat, really; we’d been given the essay questions in advance, so it was really a question of matching some answers and then writing an essay from a mentally outlined essay prepared in advance. Except. [...]
Review: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi
I first encountered this book back in about grade seven or eight, when our class read it together. I remember liking it quite a bit, and also bring frustrated with the class’s pace in finishing it — most of the reading was done out loud, and I tended to get in trouble for not knowing [...]
How to Survive a Renaissance Drama
(A practical survival guide in case you should ever find yourself in a play written during the English Renaissance.) 1. Try to ascertain whether you are in a comedy or a tragedy: Comedies may feature cross-dressing, fairies, forests, crude sexual humour, and illicit romance. Tragedies may feature murder, incest, madness, gratuitously violent acts, crude sexual [...]
Dear Internet: Huh?
Recent search terms, because they amuse me: how to talk paraguay languish I suspect that this means “how to talk paraguay language” which might be more usefully rewritten as “learn to speak Spanish” … or Guaraní. If you want to know how to talk to languishing Paraguayans, I probably can’t help you. WHAT DO i [...]
Review: The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud
The Bartimaeus Trilogy comprises, unsurprisingly, three books: The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem’s Eye, and Ptolemy’s Gate. And, oh buddy, are they ever fantastic. This is probably the best fantasy series I’ve read in a long time, and though I think technically they’re YA books, all three are thoroughly enjoyable for adults. The series takes [...]