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Another bee and flower
I took a nice walk yesterday afternoon. It was overcast and cool for most of the walk; towards the end the sun emerged with a late summer warmth. After passing through the park, I followed an alley for a long block. It’s a route I like to frequent because there is a beautiful garden along…
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Su Tung-p’o: Selections From a Sung Dynasty Poet
The following is an old book jot from December 2021: I just finished reading Su Tung-p’o: Selections From a Sung Dynasty Poet, translated and with an introduction and notes by Burton Watson (1965). This book is a selection of poems by Su Shi, also known by his literary name of Su Tung-p’o, and contains poems…
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Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
I just finished reading Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) by Thomas Hardy. It was his second published novel, and the first one set in his fictional Wessex County. In it, Hardy unfolds a love story set amid the rural, rustic farmland and villages of 1850s England. There is a simplicity and warmth about the story…
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The Spoken Word
For awhile I’ve been enjoying listening to old Transformers books-on-tape while lying down. I recently decided to look at a list of titles with publication dates, so that I could try listening to them in order (not that it really matters much…they’re stand-alone stories with little to no continuity between books). Anyway, I’m really having…
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Jungle Adventure
I put together a little terrarium-like thing several weeks ago. It’s made in an old plastic cage that my daughter and I had used for roly-polies in the past. First, I laid down a layer of gravel. On top of that I added some potting soil, making a small area slightly higher than the rest…
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A Few Comics
I stopped at a comic shop in a little town during our family reunion. Picked up five issues:
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A Bitter Fate by Alexey (Aleksey) Pisemsky
I finished reading A Bitter Fate by Alexey (Aleksey) Pisemsky.
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Turgenev by Henri Troyat
I just finished reading Turgenev by Henri Troyat, a biography of Ivan Turgenev published in 1985 and translated by Nancy Amphoux. This was a beautiful biography of one of my favorite writers, so it’s no surprise that I greatly enjoyed it. The book, perhaps like Turgenev’s life, is tinged with sadness, dignity, and a gentle…
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Bane of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock (fifth in the Elric of Melniboné saga)
I finished reading Bane of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock. This is the fifth book in the Elric saga and was first published in this form in 1977, though some of the work had previously been published in other formats. It consists of four stories (The Stealer of Souls, Kings in Darkness, The Flamebringers,…