Oh sad, neglected blog...

I mean to write to you, I really do. I just always get so wrapped up in my teaching as soon as the semester starts, all my other projects disappear from my radar.

So, here we are at the end of the semester and I'm returning to my still-new-to-me, but actually months old and neglected blog.

I've read a few things this semester, even with all the FYC grading:

I read Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited in preparation to see the movie version that I didn't actually go to see. I expected to like this book more than I did, however, for the first half at least, I liked it a lot. It was certainly funny, and Sebastian reminded me of those friends from your (yours, not mine;)) sordid past that you are glad you are rid of, but still miss all the time.

I read Dorothy Allison's, Bastard out of Carolina in an attempt to return to my alphabetical reading. This book was wonderful, and painful, and critically fecund, and I should (and might) devote a post to it. This book was disturbing, but also deeply beautiful and sad (I would ream my students for using so many easy outs in one sentence). It should be read.

I read Simon Armitage's translation into a dramatic version of the Odyssey. I really enjoyed Armitage's translation that came out last year of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, so I looked forward to this and it didn't disappoint. I doubt (although I wouldn't know personally) that it is any substitute for reading Homer, but it is really accessible and readable.

I read the Philip K. Dick short story, "Minority Report" and was suprised by its brevity.

I know I read some other things that I can't think of.

I'm currently reading:
Francine Prose, How to Read like a Writer
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Stephanie Meyer, Twilight (currently the priority to be finished by Friday)

Hopefully, I'll post soon. I'll keep my own fingers crossed.