May Day...
Thursday May 1, 2008
It's May Day! I love this day. Not only was my baby sister born on this day--greeted with Aurora Borealis in the sky upon the advent of her birth--but it's also the first day of May. The flowers are blooming; the birds are singing; and it seems the perfect opportunity to curl up with a good book and read for a while.
In May Day, Sarah Teasdale writes:
"A delicate fabric of bird song
Floats in the air,
The smell of wet wild earth
Is everywhere."
What are you reading today?
In May Day, Sarah Teasdale writes:
"A delicate fabric of bird song
Floats in the air,
The smell of wet wild earth
Is everywhere."
What are you reading today?
Comments
I am reading Dante’s Divine Comedy. I am on Inferno. I am enjoying it very much - I have a super translation. It must be taken in small doses, though; otherwise it gets too heavy. Not to mention all the explanatory footnotes in the back of the book get to be tiresome. I am still grateful for those footnotes, however, because some of the cultural references are obscure.
I am reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Not quite the happy, sunny May-Day celebrating kind of book, but listening to it gets me through my commute. I love how gothic (i.e. sexist) and victorian (i.e. England-imperialist and prudish) it is. I get quite a kick out of it. But Bram’s still the best vampire thriller out there. I always get chills when I think of the count scaling the wall like a lizard.
I’m reading “Dubliners” by James Joyce. His detailed, descriptive writing style makes me feel like I’m experienceing the scenes first-hand. This collection of short stories provides strong images and emotions of ordinary people surviving in Victorian urban Ireland. The victors as well as the victims in the stories are tragic characters living in the oppressive and frustrating quicksand of poverty. It offers much information on Ireland’s 19th c. political history and a couple of laughs.