Since this is such a nice way of what I have been doing in my free time all year, I decided to keep up this challenge. With a two-hour commute each day it's not much of a challenge, but it's still a nice opportunity to share what I have been reading.

4.

Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer.
Mostly to see what all the fuss is about. A few months ago read the first three pages on Amazon.com after more and more of my teenaged friends had erupted with praise of the book and it was hate at first sight.
After I listened to the audiobook of Eclipse, though, I decided to read the first book, because even though I still dislike Bella, the other characters grow in you. Reading it is like chocolate, and, as one of the girls on a message board summed up so accurately, it is a "McDonald's kind of book" - easy to read, easy to like, and somehow, you just end up liking it. The one thing that makes me wonder is the semi-abusive relationship between Bella and her sweetheart. It is an odd thing to be so attractive to so many teenage girls, even though the way he completely takes all responsibility off her must be attractive to some.

Benachteiligung gleichgeschlechtlich orientierter Personen und Paare, von Hans P. Buba (Autor), Laszlo A. Vaskovics (Autor).
Really interesting study from 2005 with unsurprising conclusions. Much better read than Sexualitäten. Diskurse und Handlungsmuster im Wandel (Geschlechterforschung) by Heide Funk and Karl Lenz von Juventa, which has a somewhat ... biased view, and also almost exclusively uses data from the eighties to support their view that homosexuals don't want to be able to marry because it's incompatible with their lifestyle, because most homosexual relationships only last a little longer than one year. It was shocking.

Winnie and Wolf by A. N. Wilson.
A novel about the probably fictitious romance between Winifred Wagner and Adolf Hitler, told from the perspective of another of Winnie's suitors, Philosophy post-grad N., who is writing this book as an "extended meditation or letter" to his daughter, Winifred Hiedler, Winnie's and Wolf's daughter, his adopted daughter.
It's difficult to tell which of the parts Wilson spins together are invented and which are not, but it's an interesting insight into not only into the Wagner Clan, but also into middle-class Germany before and after Hitler's seize of power. What makes me wonder is how much he manages to humanise the kind uncle and opera geek and mass murderer Hitler, and also what the purpose of that might be. Of course, it might either be intended to make him seem more monstrous, or it may be a very interesting depiction of the mechanism that the war-generation used later on to explain their own behaviour and convictions during the war. I am not too sure about it, but as a German, I always get edgy around portrayals of that man.

Wicked, by Gregory Maguire.
This is one of my all-time favourite novels and has one of the best female characters I have ever read. A great novel, it is amazing what Maguire can do on the basis of Baum's novel, which I always hated and still hate. His Elphie is unforgettable.

Current Mood: calm

Last year:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Frank Baum
Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire
A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
Palgrave's Golden Treasury
The Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett
The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling
Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor.
Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts, Heinz Joachim Müller, Eberhard Späth
Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes.
Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire
Die Vermessung der Welt, Daniel Kehlmann
Mirror Mirror, by Gregory Maguire
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett.
Love that dog, by Sharon Creech
Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Blood, Bread and Poetry by Adrienne Rich
The Gay Teen, ed. Gerald Unks
The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters
Fünfzig Gedichte des Expressionismus, selected by Dietrich Bode
Die wunderbaren Jahre by Reiner Kunze
Arts of the Possible, by Adrienne Rich
Incidences in the life of a slavegirl, by Linda Brent.
The End of Alice, by A. M. Homes
Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett.
Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett
Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling
Dragonsbane (albeit in German, Der Schwarze Drache), by Barbara Hambly
Imperium, by Robert Harris
Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
Making Money, by Terry Pratchett
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
Glenraven, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Glenraven II, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Zeit der Maskierung - Lebensgeschichten lesbischer Frauen im dritten Reich, Claudia Schoppman
Der Umgang der nationalsozialistischen Justiz mit Homosexuellen, Carola von Bülow
The Robber Bride, by Margaret Atwood
Lesbische Identität in der Adoleszenz, Karin Kolbe (Lesbian Identity in Adolescence).
Ganz normale Mütter: lesbische Frauen und ihre Kinder, Birgit Sasse. (Completely normal mothers: lesbian women and their children)
Lesbische Frauen: Lebenswelt - Beziehungen - Psychotherapie, Kristine Falco
Beyond Sex and Romance? The Politics of Contemporary Lesbian Fiction. By Elaine Hutton
The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
A hat full of sky, by Terry Pratchett
"... ist unstreitig homosexuell": Diskriminierung von Lesben und Schwulen in Arbeits- und Zivilrecht, Manuela Malt
Daughters of a Coral Dawn, Katherine Forrest

Books between years:

Elling by Simon Bent, based on the novel by Ingvar Ambjornsen
Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney
Suicidal Behaviour in Europe. Schmidtke (ed.) et. al
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
Prince Caspian, by C. S. Lewis

Current Mood: calm

The 50 book challenge was fun, all in all, and I think I am going to take part again next year. It's fun, effort free and a great way of keeping track of what I've read, which is interesting to see. Also a good way of checking up titles which escape me.

Books between challenges

54.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon.
Great book. I am not sure how accurate the description of the autistic perception is, but I completely loved this book. Reading about the way Christopher perceives the world is absolutely fascinating.

53.

Suicidal Behaviour in Europe. Schmidtke (ed.) et. al.
Interesting read I still need to finish parts of.

52.

Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney.
The far-famed translation with the "So." beginning. It is beautifully done, although I think that I favour the older verse translation. The older language has a ring to it that Heaney's doesn't always have.

51.

Elling by Simon Bent, based on the novel by Ingvar Ambjornsen.
Genius. Pure genius. I usually don't like reading plays, but this one was really entertaining. SO funny! The situations! Really a great read. I'll have to check if I can't get hold of a recording of a performance.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: Hamburg

50.

Daughters of a Coral Dawn, Katherine Forrest.
How a group of lesbian Sues goes off to live on a pink planet. There are a few truly great ideas in this one, and some passages are really funny, and I could not help but like Minerva the Historian, but the plot or the characters are really not.. that great. I don't think I want to read Daughters of an Emerald Dusk. As a commentary on other books in the genre of feminist Utopias, like Herland, it is interesting, but not by itself.

Current Mood: accomplished

49.

"... ist unstreitig homosexuell": Diskriminierung von Lesben und Schwulen in Arbeits- und Zivilrecht, Manuela Malt.
A book on the discrimination against lesbians and gays in civil law and employment law. Another chilling one. There are a lot of quotes in it, some of them from politicians, and most of them unbelievable bullshit. Also, even though it's from the early nineties, there's little that changed.

48.

A hat full of sky, by Terry Pratchett.
I think The Wee Free Men is a better book, but there are many things in this book I really love. Great one.

47.

The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett.
I can't shake off the feeling that I have read this before, this year. Well, maybe I have not, who knows. It's one of my all-time favourites. I love Tiffany, I love the self-insertive components of her, I love the Nac Mac Feegle, I love Terry's Scots. Great.

46.

Beyond Sex and Romance? The Politics of Contemporary Lesbian Fiction. By Elaine Hutton.
Very interesting essays on lesbian literature, mostly from the eighties, little new from the nineties. One very annoying article by Elaine Miller, who showed that lesbian feminists can be bigoted idiots by suggesting that FTMs are subverting "women-only spaces" which she sees as crucial for the development of feminist politics. Two paragraphs which annoyed the hell out of me in her otherwise very interesting essay.
It's funny, finding my reading list crowded with books on feminism and lesbians all of the sudden.

45.

Lesbische Frauen: Lebenswelt - Beziehungen - Psychotherapie, Kristine Falco.
And I continue the trend. Book about lesbian women and therapy, mainly, but there are also a few chapters addressed to non-psychologists. Very interesting.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: Hamburg
Current Music: Full Fathoms Five - Mäntyjärvi

Only a couple of weeks to go for my six final books, but the daily one-hour commute to the university and back is really doing wonders for that challenge.

I found some very interesting books on lesbians in the library, although most of the more recent stuff is permanently out for some reason.

44.

Ganz normale Mütter: lesbische Frauen und ihre Kinder, Birgit Sasse. (Completely normal mothers: lesbian women and their children).
Very interesting, if sadly not very scientific book on lesbian women and their children, the effects such unusual parents have on children, and the experiences of the mothers. The results were fairly predictable - if children grow up in lesbian households from the beginning, they end up as happy as children from families with parents of opposite sex, and if children first grow up in "normal" households they have difficulties accepting the new partner of their mother, which is mostly down to the fact that their beloved parents split up rather than down to the same-sex orientation of the mother. One or two of the children the author interviewed did say it might be nicer if their mother had another man, as it would make it easier to explain their household to their peer group. Those two were teenagers, and all of the younger and all of the older children were comparatively happy with their lot, although most of them did not like the fact that their parents had split up in the first place. Most of the problems the children reported arose from the divorce more than the new partner, and the troubles within the new family constellations mostly from quarrels between the exes rather than the new orientation.
Interesting was that even children who were happy with their two mothers dislike or disliked the term "lesbian" initially when assigned to their mothers as they thought it was an insult and something bad, even though their life at home would have suggested something else entirely, and continue to avoid the term.
She also referenced a study conducted for Psychology Today in the early eighties without saying which and whose it was which showed that children who grow up with same-sex parents are as healthy as children who grow up with opposite-sex parents. I want to read that study.

43.

Lesbische Identität in der Adoleszenz, Karin Kolbe (Lesbian Identity in Adolescence).
A doctoral thesis. I could have cried. It was published 1989, the author references a lot of texts from the early seventies, and many of the statements are still true. The dissertation included a study on the subjectivity and identity of women based on a questionnaire, and she got her sample through a "snow-ball-system", which means that most of her subjects were organised in societies and organisations to promote same-sex rights, introducing a - in my opinion - hefty bias not uncommon in those studies, especially from the eighties and nineties. Most of the women were very happy with their lesbian identity and had always seen it a very positive part of their identity, most of them lived in the city, most of them were raised in fairly liberal families - all a very good basis for being happy with parts of an identity that are not considered the norm, anyway.
The only really interesting difference was the class difference - lesbians from lower class backgrounds had a tendency to be less happy with their lesbian identity than lesbians from the middle- and upper classes, which she says is down to the greater importance traditional female roles have in those. Other sources on the realisation of masculinity in relation to class show similar things. Hee.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Hamburg

42.

The Robber Bride, by Margaret Atwood.
Can't say much on this one so far, as I've only just started reading it.

41.

Der Umgang der nationalsozialistischen Justiz mit Homosexuellen, Carola von Bülow.
A very interesting dissertation on how the national socialist justice system treated homosexuals which I am only counting as a book because it's too long to count as an essay. Not exactly unexpected findings, although it's always amazing with what kind of craptastic arguments people can come up with to justify why homophobia is just the thing. It tends to be in keeping with the politics of the day, here it's the fact that male homosexuals undermine power structures, lure poor innocent children and of course undermine the Aryan breeding scheme. Take out the Aryan breeding and it's what fundies are saying today.
It can even be found online here.

40.

Zeit der Maskierung - Lebensgeschichten lesbischer Frauen im dritten Reich, Claudia Schoppman.
Great book that contains autobiographical notes on lesbian women during the third Reich of all kinds - very different women and truly alarming stories, as autobiographies from that time tend to contain.
It's sad to think that in the twenties, everything was looking up for homosexuals, especially life in the bigger cities - especially Berlin and Hamburg, in parts - had just become more liberal and open-minded, and that in the third Reich everything was crushed again. The Nazis had very much the same opinion on homosexuals Christian fundies have today. Verbatim, sometimes. Makes me wonder how many of them read Himmler's speeches under the covers.

39.

Glenraven II, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Awful. I hated it. Although I developed a thing for the Kintari, there were just too many things that really pissed me off - not only the - at least I thought they were- overdone reaction to the lone Wicca, the glorification of murder and handguns really, really got to me. This is exactly the kind of element Fantasy can do without.
What also made my mind boggle was the fact that the translation is called "In the Shadow of the Castle" or something to that effect - only - which castle? There was not one castle, unless the destroyed shopping mall counts. Or the Ruddy Smeachwykke which features in the last five or so chapters.

38.

Glenraven, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
I used to love her books as a child. Some elements in this story are just so dreadfully forced and just clonk along (how do I get my North Carolinian heroine into a magical medieval valley in Europe? I know! I have her be "just drawn towards" a magically enchanted Fodor's travel guide. Did not really work for me.), but when the story is up and running, there are really nice things in it and it made me remember why I liked her so much. Although maybe that's just Matthiall.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: Hamburg

37.

Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood.
I loved The Handmaid's Tale so much I set out to find more books by the author in our library. This one has a very promising start and I really enjoy reading it so far.

36.

Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters.
I loved the movie, and because I did I had been looking forward to reading the book a lot. Still, somehow this book is not nearly as good as The Night Watch was, for me. The characters's plots are interesting, so is learning about them, but being told the story three times is not, even though it is interesting to read the different ideolects she gives her characters.

Current Mood: tired

I can't believe I forgot about this thing again. I have no clue if this list is complete.

35.

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.
I LOVE. This book. It's absolutely unputdownable. There are not many books which nearly make me tap my foot during lectures, looking forward to the break so I can get back to my book, this is one of them. Absolutely great.

34.

Making Money, by Terry Pratchett.
Eerie. I had a lot of Going Postal flashbacks, reading this. Again great to see more of Vetinari, but on the whole... Where is the author of Small Gods?

33.

Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett.
By far not my favourite discworld novel, although it does have it's highlights. Not many, but they're there. When I read it back in '06, I thought that it's good to see more of Vetinari, and I liked Spike a lot, but on the whole... I never thought I'd say this, but where's the author of Small Gods?

32.

Imperium, by Robert Harris.
Great read. Experiencing Cicero's very impressive career and his various schemes through the eyes of his slave Tiro is interesting enough, and the amounts of history textbook personalities around him add to the appeal of that book. The probably most interesting character in this novel for me was not Julius Caesar, or the obscenely rich Crassus, or the notorious Verres I know from the speeches, but his Cicero's wife, Terentia.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand, why he divorced her later in life. Of course he must have his reasons, very probably political reasons, knowing the two. Still. I didn't find much information on her, but what is known seems to suggest that she was a very independent woman who knew what she wanted, and even though there never seemed a lot of romance between her and her husband, she always supported him. She invested considerable amounts of money into his career, and stood by him while he was exiled. After more than thirty years of marriage, he left her for his rich young ward who was no older than twenty - about ten years younger than his daughter.

31.

Dragonsbane (albeit in German, Der Schwarze Drache), by Barbara Hambly.
I love this book. It's not the best fantasy novel there is, it's not that well written, there are whole passages which are ... long, most of all. Still, again, what makes this novel for me, is the characters. The main character is a witch in her late thirties, she's torn between pursuing what she feels is her true calling, her career as a witch, and her family, her husband, down-to-earth Lord John and her two sons. It's great to read a fantasy novel which is not about people in their twenties for once.

30.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling.

29.

Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett.
I am an Agnes fangirl. There should be more Agneses in literature. It also contains some of the best quotes on literature, and I've always meant to write an essay comparing Granny Weatherwax's and Vorbis's views.

28.

Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett.
This is the book which made me love Terry Pratchett. It's the second book I bought, and when I read it, I fell in love with Death and Granny Weatherwax at first sight.

27.

Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett.

26.

Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett.
I doubt that there is anyone who dislikes this book.

25.

The End of Alice, by A. M. Homes.
Another very recommended book. It's very well written, and the way it forces you into the psyche of the abusive, paedophile character and narrator of the story is deeply disturbing, but also very captivating.

24.

Incidences in the life of a slavegirl, by Linda Brent.
I really recommend this book, although the main character's story is horrible. Not an easy read.

Ok. Back to The Handmaid's Tale.

Current Mood: blank
Current Location: Hamburg

Nicked from

firenightingale. These book lists usually result in embarrassing results for me, and they did this time. And I call myself a literature student? Pshaw.

( 56/100 )

Which reminds me. I still have to read Midnight's Children. I don't know if I'm quite up to it after Grimus, The Ground Beneath her Feet, East, West and The Satanic Verses, though. I really liked the Satanic Verses, but the other ones... I can' even remember what it was that bothered me, but something did bother me so much I never picked up a book by Rushdie again after 2001. There must be something good about the book, though, if

moonystone likes it. I have faith in her taste.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: The basement
Current Music: Wicked - Loathing

Of course they made a movie.

If you don't know the books, you definitely ought to check them out, they are awesome. The story is not all that innovative, but the characters are very sweet, and there are a lot of aspects which make this story well worth the read and it's a pity that the books only take twenty minutes to finish. The story is about three children who move from New England to ... er, England, although I don't know where, exactly. They move to the inevitable Victorian mansion they inherited from their old and frail grandmother, with their now-single, recently divorced mother. The mansion is also ridden with fairy tale creatures. The dreamy, creative Jared sees them, but it takes a while to make his twin, the animal-obsessed, tidy Simon and his sister, fencing, angry Mallory, believe that the person responsible for all the broken things and all the pranks was not him, trying to annoy his mother for moving to Britain, but a group of fairies and pixies.
Although Jared rocks, of course, the real reason to read this book is Mallory.

She's the coolest character in the entire book.

Current Mood: cheerful

23.

Arts of the Possible, by Adrienne Rich.
Once more. An essay collections with essays which often make me feel uncomfortable when I realise how much her socialisation in the fifties was similar to my own, thirty years later. I like her thoughts.

22.

Die wunderbaren Jahre by Reiner Kunze.
Great book with anecdotes and impression of life in the GDR of a teenage daughter and her father.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Hamburg, Germany

Courtesy to SparkNotes, of course.

Recognise this?

" The question is: is it better to be alive or dead?
Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all?
Dying, sleeping—that's all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—that's an achievement to wish for. To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream. Ah, but there's the catch: in death's sleep who knows what kind of dreams might come, after we've put the noise and commotion of life behind us. That's certainly something to worry about. That's the consideration that makes us stretch out our sufferings so long. After all, who would put up with all life's humiliations—the abuse from superiors, the insults of arrogant men, the pangs of unrequited love, the inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of people in office, and the mistreatment good people have to take from bad—when you could simply take out your knife and call it quits?
Who would choose to grunt and sweat through an exhausting life, unless they were afraid of something dreadful after death, the undiscovered country from which no visitor returns, which we wonder about without getting any answers from and which makes us stick to the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the ones we don't?
Fear of death makes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all.
But shh, here comes the beautiful Ophelia. Pretty lady, please remember me when you pray."

Or this?

"I only worship what's natural, not what's manmade.
Why should I let myself be tortured by manmade social customs that deprive me of my rights simply because I was born twelve or fourteen months later than my older brother? Why do they call me “bastard” and “lowlife” when I'm just as gifted in mind and body as legitimate children? Why do they call us bastards “lowlifes”? Always “lowlife,” “bastard,” “lowlife,” “lowlife.”
At least we bastards were conceived in a moment of passionate lust rather than in a dull, tired marriage bed, where half-sleeping parents monotonously churn out a bunch of sissy kids.
All right then, legitimate brother Edgar, I have to have your lands. Our father loves me just as much as the legitimate Edgar. What a nice word that is, “legitimate”! Well, my legitimate Edgar, if this letter works and my plan succeeds, Edmund the lowlife will beat the legitimate.
Look out, I'm on my way up.
Three cheers for bastards!"
(From here. )

The question is- is this really better?

This is designed to help US Highschool students, by the way, not University students, although I know a fair number of Uni students who still resort to SparkNotes when confronted with an unknown text they find puzzling.
While I am all for making it easier for the students to understand old texts, I don't think that these things are really that helpful for learning how to read and understand older language on your own. I know that even I will often rather read the translation rather than the foreign language if both are available on the same page. It is very likely students would read the simplified version of the text only rather than the original text.
That would defeat the purpose of the original text, really, and it does terrible things to the language. Making the students write their own translation would be much more useful, if time consuming.
While selected passages from this might be a good introduction to the play, and maybe a couple of scenes might be handed to the students to allow them a slow intro to the course, it doesn't seem sensible to have them read the entirety of Hamlet in this simplified version.

Current Mood: curious

Sorry for spamming everyone's Friends page like that, I guess backdating this will be best so you aren't knocked out by the pics. I forgot about the challenge thing. Again. Let's see which books I can remember...

21.

Fünfzig Gedichte des Expressionismus, selected by Dietrich Bode.
Great poems in there, I instantly fell in love with a few poets, too. It's nice reading German poetry again.
They were a much-treasured present from Crocky!

20.

The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters.
Booker nominee set in 1940ies London centred around a group of very lovable Londoners, carefully drawn with sympathy and sensitivity by the author, great locations with very vivid descriptions that depict the horror of the war but also the realities of every-day life and lesbian couples more realistic than I have ever seen.

19.

The Gay Teen, ed. Gerald Unks.
An interesting text book on facts and figures of Gay teens and their problems with heterosexualism at US Highschools. Interesting read, but also pretty devastating at times.

18.

Blood, Bread and Poetry by Adrienne Rich.
I fangirl her. Her essays are striking, alarming, and easy to read. It is scary that what she said back in the 1980ies still did not really sink in in the minds (eg. the fact that homosexuality is not a lifestyle, who would have thought).

17.

Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Great book, although some of the properties she outlines for her females-only utopia are a bit unrealistic to my eyes. Still, it was fun to read and interesting.

16.

Love that dog, by Sharon Creech.
Great self-proclaimed novel about a boy and his introduction to free verse poetry, very sweet. It consists entirely of the poems of a boy called Jack who is writing the poems instructed by his teacher Miss Stretchberry. Although he is more than unwilling at first, he comes to enjoy writing poems more and more and is able to come to express a traumatic event through his poems.

Oh, I forgot:

15.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett.
One of my favourite Discworld novels ever. I adore the Watch series, and Vetinari even more.

Current Mood: calm

I have completely forgotten about the book challenge thing. There should be at least one other book between these two and the last one, but I really can't remember which. So...

14.

Mirror Mirror, by Gregory Maguire. I didn't like this one as much as his other novels, although I adore his Medicis. Somehow I never managed to develop a liking or even sympathy for the main character and her story.

13.

Die Vermessung der Welt, Daniel Kehlmann.
It's going to be Measuring the world in English. Buy this book.
I had to read it for a course, but I liked it so much I read it over again directly.

I wish I wouldn't have to read such a lot for my courses, then I'd have more time for my own books.

Current Mood: calm

If you come across that book, read it. There is no paperback version, but that doesn't matter, it is that good, and seriously worth the money.

It's a half-fictional, half factual biography of two great men, Gauß and Alexander von Humboldt.


Alexander von Humboldt	Carl Friedrich Gauß
14. September 1769 - 6. Mai 1859	30. April 1777- 23. Februar 1855

See? Who wouldn't want to know more about these two very nice looking gentlemen? (I want Humboldt's tie.)

It's a sketchy biography of both and gives the reader glimpses of their lives, works and oddities. Both men are of course geniuses, and they were both, from a very early age, taught by the best people of their age and met most of their most illustrious contemporaries. The frame story has a less-than enthusiastic Gauß travel to Berlin to the German Congress of Natural Scientists (Deutschen Naturforscherkongress) with his son Eugen, following Humboldt's invitation, and the biographies of the two men are told in turns embedded in that frame story, before they get caught up in a student's revolt during the time of the Carlsbad decrees.
They're both failures as humans (at least in the book) and occupied with their works to the point of obsession, which is both hilarious and tragic at times.

Great, great read.

Yeah, due to the reading I have to do for courses I've been thrown behind with my goal of fifty non-reading list novels, but I did start:

12.

Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire.
How he could actually write a second book with Elphaba gone is a complete mystery to me. There is no point of the whole world after her death, as even the main character of this novel seems to realise. It's like a sequel to Hamlet or something. It just doesn't work. Liir really doesn't do a lot to save the story, either, he is aggravating, most of all, and his self-pity at his own shortcomings are not exactly an interesting read.

Current Mood: cheerful

11.

Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes.
I am in love. This book is absolutely awesome.

The two characters in this one are absolutely lovable, different as they are, Julian Barnes' easy style and the quick pace of the plot make it fun to read. It does not take long to fall in love with those two very different character, either, with Arthur, the father of the greatest fictional detective ever, and the sturdy, hard-working half-Indian solicitor George. You are immediately drawn in to their worlds and their very different lives, and it's one of those books which make you get up with the book in front of you to read passages from it to the bemused people around you every other page. It's absolutely unputdownable.

Seriously, go read it for yourselves. I know I suck at book reviews, but this one doesn't need anyone to recommend it anyway, you only have to read the first two pages and you'll buy it.

I really can't understand how I could forget Julian Barnes. We've read Flaubert's Parrot in our Postmodern Fiction seminar, and that was one awesome book. The seminar was also great, mainly due to the fact that the nicest Professor at the university taught it. Otherwise, it was also pretty depressing. Most people had never heard of Flaubert before and kept calling him "Flawbit", wondering if he'd written Middlemarch.
I mean, yeah, ignorance is not a crime exactly, but the pain it can cause comes close to grievous bodily harm sometimes.

10.

Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts, Heinz Joachim Müller, Eberhard Späth (yeah, it is a text book, but I read it for myself and not for a course. So it counts.)

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Hamburg, Germany

I hate living so far away from the university. Today, I have to return my books to the library, and that means I have to tour one hour into the city, return my books, turn round, and another hour later I'm home again.

All I want to do is curl up in my bed and wait until my cold is gone again, but nooo, I have to take the books back, plan a double period for tomorrow, find out how the dreaded camcorder works, buy a cassette, come to think of it - oh, I hate today. Oh, and I have to mark the film reviews my students handed in. Marking is so hard, I never anticipated how bad it would be.
One girl's language is far from perfect, but her content is good: 2. Another girl's language is nearly perfect, there are things missing in her content, but she does make great points I hadn't anticipated: 2. But if I give one girl a 2, can I really give the other girl a 2? And what about the guy who's got everything, but doesn't give any examples at all? His language is ok: 3. But if he's got a 3, then the other girl... Yeah. I hate marking.

9.

Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor.
I have started it months ago and I am not that impressed, to be honest. I hate that girl and I hope she's going to die. What was her name again? Kitty? No? Something along those lines. Kate! Yeah. Whatever.

Current Mood: sick

The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene.
Whoa! It's very depressing, though, because of all that heat and the lack of communication. I have to admit that in spite of the vivid scenes I can barely remember the beginning because I read it on the train only. I really like it so far. I haven't read many of Greene's books, and I keep wondering why. At the moment it's not the best idea, though, because his characters are so depressing in their hopelessness.

The Wintersmith. Lovely, lovely book by Terry Pratchett.
I love Tiff and the Nac Mac Feegle. Siiiigh. They are awesome, and they always make me homesick for Scotland. I even like Roland, and I like the fact that Tiff is not really Esk, whom she reminded me of in Wee Free Men.
Some of the jokes he's trying to make are terribly forced, though.

Current Mood: tired

The Skinhead Hamlet

Shakespeare's play translated into modern English.

[Our hope was to achieve something like the effect of the New English Bible. --Eds.]

( The curtain rises, silence falls... )

Two of our professors actually performed this for the benefit of Lit 1A back in Glasgow. I wish our German profs had done this for us over here, it was both very, very disturbing and hilarious in a wrong way. ... Well, still not as hilarious as one of those two Glaswegian professors doing his impression of Mel Gibson as Hamlet. I never quite got why he jumped on the table to get his message across there, but I daresay it had something to do with the physicality of the role. Sigh. I loved that man.

Anyway.

Current Mood: hyper
Current Location: Still not Hanover!

Lots of snow?

Hm.

And proper snow, too, with big, fluffy flakes and all.

'....Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed. But here a small boy says: "It snowed last year, too. I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea."...'

Current Music: (IMH) Dylan Thomas reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales"

Palgrave's Golden Treasury. I love. That book. Of course, the selection is a bit weird in places, but there are still many great poems in it, and it's great for daily commuting.

A Long Way Down is still an absolutely awesome book. I love the characters and the way he makes them interact and tells the story from their point of view. The man is a genius.

Oh, and I've started The Twyborn Affair, although I didn't really like the beginning a lot, so I'm putting it off.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: My Room

Hm. I don't think I like Gregory Maguire's endings. On the whole.

To be honest, I always have trouble with endings. And it's not entirely true, either, because I loved the ending of Wicked, but I was ready to love anything because I love Elphaba so much. But the ending of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister... he seemed to rush the fairy-tale bits in too quickly, which makes the contrast between the historic novel-setting and the fairy-tale background to sharp. The Epilogue seeemed pasted on and strange, and there were all sorts of things that came in far too quickly after he had taken his time to build up his story so carefully - but I really, really liked the book, apart from that weird ending.
Maybe it's just me, it's the same thing I (massively) dislike about Wolfang Holbein and Marion Zimmer Bradley. There is a loooong story, compared to which the ending just whooshes past you, and you can't believe you're suddenly looking at the back cover of the book that's been with you for so long. Hm.

The good thing about today: when it's over, it'll be another six days until the next Wednesday.
It's the worst day of the week, only brightened up by nice people. But other than that - first lesson at eight, early-morning pointlessness, then next lesson til twelve, which is interesting, but the Professor is rather strict, then two hours of free time (thankfully), then a session from two to four, then a session from four to half past six. Blegh. Especially the last one - the content could be summed up in about forty minutes, usually, but since we are an education seminar, there (of course!) HAS to be some group work, and what would group work be without the use of lots of coloured paper - so there's usually a full HOUR. of covering coloured paper with notes and putting it up on the wall to introduce the content to people who already know everything about it because they read the same texts as we did.
Oh, there isn't always coloured paper. Today, they had us draw pictures - although we could also have introduced the psalm we were dealing with with a mime. I didn't spend three years happily working my ass off at school so I could attend university to get into a course in which I'd be allowed to paint pretty pictures and do a mime.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: My Room

The lesson on Tuesday was called "very good", but by a teacher who is really used to really bad internees, so I am not sure if it really was all that good or if it was only good in contrast. Hm. I felt I did not really reach the students, but she said otherwise. Hmm. More on Tuesday.

Probably due to lack of sleep I've been ill or on the verge of being ill all the time last week, I hope that trend doesn't continue, I feel out of touch with reality and wrapped in cotton wool enough as it is, and I really, really do not have the time to be ill. Most of the time, I am tired and worn, anyway, and I really do not need a cold on top of that. I have already started becoming snappy. I hope that will change once I have finished some of the work piles ahead of me.

I finished Wicked a few days ago and it became one of my favourite novels ever instantly. As predicted, the end turned me into a depressive wretch for the entire evening, but it was well worth it, it is such a beautiful tragedy.
Somehow I wish I could see the musical, but at the same time, I am not sure what to expect, and the parts of it which I've heard do not strike me as particularly must-see-ish, but maybe it was just the quality of the recording or something. Still, it's probably fun watching it.

I'm also not sure about reading the sequel, because... I don't know. The only thing that made the world interesting was Elphaba, and I can't really imagine Liir being all that interesting all by himself, let alone the world itself. For now, I'm reading Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister although I shouldn't because of the two term-papers, and I like it a lot so far. Not much going on here. My family's still tidying things away into the redecorated rooms, but there's a lot standing about, still.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire. Maguire has such wonderful characters, and he describes them in such a wonderful way.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: My Room

I love the community

50bookchallenge .I'm only going to count only the ones I read for myself at home, otherwise it's going to turn into a 50/month affair with all the papers. Here are the first two.

2.

Wicked, by Gregory Maguire.
inevitably, after the Wonderful Wizard again. I like it a lot so far and I have a . It was the only reason why I touched the dreadful bookhuge crush on Elphaba who is as awesome as a friend had said she would be. I refuse to believe that the brainless brat kills her in the end, even though I know it's going to happen.
Shame on you, Frank Baum! Shame on you.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Frank Baum.
Admittedly, the illustrated kid's version my brother handed me, which I suspect is abridged. I HATE. Dorothy. I always wanted her to die, and that has not changed a bit since I first read the book when I was around nine. Well, to be fair on Frank Baum, I read the Alexander Melentyevich Volkov- version, which is different in many many ways. Which does not keep me wanting to smack Elli/Dorothy around the head and hit her over the head with a farmhouse. I do not know why I always hated that type of girl as main characters so much, it was the same thing with Alice. What's the matter with the girls?

Current Mood: chipper

There is nothing like coming home after a long day and finding a long, long, sweet love letter on your desk.

Oh yeah.

And nothing like buying books. I've been wanting this for ages, and now it's mine.

And it's Friday tomorrow, and

jaywalker23 is celebrating her birthday. And Crocky and

angie_21_237 are coming, too. I bet it's going to be fun, and I'm really looking forward to seeing Genghis again, it's been a while.
And even though I am one of nature's Xenophobes, I'm looking forward to meeting her friends.
And I'll get to show off my girlfriend. And her mohawk. Teehee.

And my two supervisors - the two amazing teachers who are looking after me during my internship and whose classes I will be teaching- are great. Two amazing teachers.

Life is good.

It also looks as though I've got all the lessons I'll have to teach to meet the requirements for the completion of my internship.
Well, at least they are scheduled. Soo exiting! I'll be doing film analysis with one class and communication with the other. Ah, Professor Schulz von Thun - I've been in his lecture together with

angie_21_237 . Should be fun, especially as the students are really nice.

Current Mood: loved
Current Location: My Room
Current Music: Silence

I just found the coolest thing online while not translating Plinius epistula on the eruption of the Vesuvius - this.

Isn't it cool? Although I spent around fifteen minutes looking at all the portraits in the Codex to find the little guy with the fiddle. He's from the picture of the final singer - "Der Kanzler", the chancellor.

The pictures were all taken from the legendary Codex Manesse, the most well-known collection of German love songs that was compiled in the 14th century - a hundred years after the genre had reached its peak, so sadly the portraits are not as accurate and the heraldry is also dodgy, but since it is one of the few sources of Minnelieder which exist, its worth is inestimable. Most of the songs we're reading with my Middle High German seminar are from the Codex. If anyone's interested, the University of Heidelberg has the it on their homepage here.

I know there is nothing like modern medicine, technology, but like many a good little literature student in postmodern days I sometimes wish I could be a scribe in the middle ages. These pages are so beautiful, and I daresay I'd be quite content if I could spend my life creating such things:

Of course, it would also entail not marrying, but since Crocky would have been a nun as well (she better had!), I am convinced that I'd have had company. But then, as a nun, I would not have been allowed to copy out love songs, because there have been various concilliar and synodal edicts against this sort of thing thruought the middle ages, from the 8th century onwards. Hm. Life as a nun in love is hell. Hey, but I might have run away from the monastery at some point, I daresay that must have happened occasionally. Although that'd mean I'd ruin myself completely and break my vows. I might have been a novice.

On the other hand, it is very unlikely that I'd have been a novice, I would probably be married by now, and my dear brother would be on his way to become a smith. Well, my parents wouldn't even have met, but those are minor details. Crocky? Hmm... her father must have played on some kind of portative organ (like this one here), but those were not used in churches back then, were they? And if he had been a church musician, Crocky's very existence would probably be endangered. Ah, she'd exist, and might even have been in a convent, but that's not very likely. I might have taken the veil because no suitable husband could be found who'd marry me, and since my brother was going to take over the smithy, that wouldn't have mattered so much. Oh, hey, I probably would have worked in the smithy, anyway, maybe even as an official guild-member, as some guilds did have female members - only in the cities, though. Damn. I wouldn't have lived in a city.

So, I am this novice with a smith as a father and a smith-to-be as a brother, but Crocky's family consists almost entirely of musicians and teachers (music teachers) as I understand, so she'd have been what, the daughter of a minstrel at court, a church musician with lots to answer for or a wandering musician? I like the wandering musician. So, what does the daughter of a wandering musician do in the fourteenth century? She might have played the shawm like her father or sung to entertain people, or she might have been a dancer. But are novices allowed to attend this kind of mundane secular entertainment? Oh, yeah, this is the fourteenth century, no more enclosure - yes, I can go, if I want to. Or I met her at church. Oh, better not, as the seculisation had rather grave effects on the convents - more and more nuns have been accused of unchastity, apparently - so, not at church.

But then, she'd have had to move on, and would only have come back ages later! So even in the middle ages we'd have had a long-distance relationship. Typical, why can't she be in a convent?! Wasn't good enough for her, was it?
Had to be the life on the road, no?
Hrmph.

Good thing I can just phone her now.

Current Mood: silly
Current Location: My Room
Current Music: Hunter - Dido

I passed the Latin test!

I don't have any definite results yet, though, because the papers had to be passed from our teacher, who corrected them, to her Professor, who corrected them again, to the Dean, who has to sign them. I never knew it was such a big deal! It's only and exam, but because it's also the first "Latinum", it seems to be more of a big deal than I would have anticipated.

Silke and I came to collect our results, but they couldn't tell us anything so I called our dear Professor at home. I don't like calling teachers, seriously. She was very nice, though, and let us know that we had both passed (much to our relief) and asked us if we liked the course and if we had at least some fun. I told her that we did and that we were also going to see her again in Latin III. She was really happy about that. Oooh, I love her, she is such a nice woman. Absolutely kind and gentle. I'm really looking forward to the third course!

I rewarded myself with Rainer Maria Rilke's collected poems - boy, it was hard to make that decision! I hung around in that bookstore for hours, walking to and fro between the Rilke (useful), Marias' A Heart So White (have been wanting it for ages) and Kundera's Identitiy (craaaaaaave!), until the shopkeeper started hanging around me to see if I was stealing anything. Well, I was about to steal Plays Pleasant and Plays Unpleasant, by Shaw, that's true. I'd love to see them performed, though. Maybe they available on tape somewhere... hm.

Now, I'm going to attack the scary mildew with a brush as per instruction and see if it's dead (hopefully). It sounds like a bad idea to brush it off the wall, because that's bound to send spores flying everywhere, but that's what it says on the bottle. Hm.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: My Room
Current Music: An Dro Suite - Wohlgemut

It's really a shame that Sarah Waters didn't win. She would have deserved it. Well, maybe next year...

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: My Room

...Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities...

Strange, things hormones can do to you. Crocky is away on a choir trip for four days and I am alone at home. Four days is not that much.

I have become what I always dreaded to be - the half of a couple. I!! Who has always mildly despised them and always looked down on them with some sort of benevolent incomprehension, those halves of an entity which is known as "__ and I".
I always hated how when they talk, something in the brain decides to filter out questions directed to the friended half of the being and responds with answers which generally have the format of "Well, I'm quite alright, but __, now, he....". Or how, when you ask such a halfling about their plans for the weekend, they will spend five minutes relating what __ has planned and is going to do before meandering to the point and letting you know that they are busy, as they are spending time with __ , of course. And how they live their lives through the achievements of the other. Terrible.
Having seen it happen to friends and acquaintances of my mother and also to one of my own friends, I swore myself never to become one of them. And now...? Just four. days and I am fussing! Well, I guess that will get better once I am back in the harsh reality of a long-distance relationship at home.

Still, it is depressing. I caught myself sitting at home, thinking about what Crocky might be doing right now...
Well, riding a bus. How interesting.
I used to think I was quite independent of the presence or absence of other people, a loner... There are a few exceptions, and

angie_21_237 is one of them, but on the whole...? People? I'd rather be alone with a book. And now? Four days alone at home and it seems a vast expanse of time stretching in front of me, a small eternity. And still, for all independence, I guess I would not want to change this situation. Blasted hormones.

Well, I hope she'll have fun. She's away on a choir tour to Oban and Islay.
Envy!
They also get to sing the Skye Boat Song, which is my favourite Scottish Ballad ever.
Envy!
And they get to sing a Gaelic song in front of natives without knowing how to pronounce the words.
No envy there, but I'd love to see the audience's reactions.

... I really hope my camera is fine...

Now, how to fill that "vast expanse"...

Well, more time to sort through my uni stuff and dividing it into 'Bin' and 'Take home' piles, which is hard, as I can never throw anything away.
And I finished developing a sequence of lessons on modernism today and was going to start one on post modernism. Not that I will need it anytime soon, but it was fun.
And more time to finish the books I'm reading. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is better than I had anticipated, and Scotland - History of a Nation can be quite funny.
And I have to try the recipe

angie_21_237 has sent me.

Oooh, and good news on the examiner front as well! Our darling Old German Professor Hartmut Freytag agreed to be an examiner in my Magister Exam. Wheee!
... Now I only need to get someone to finalise my change in course from Magister to Lehramt (the exams prospective teachers have to take in Germany which has the same content in the Majors as a Magister course, anyway. Plus lots of courses on education).

Current Mood: pa-thetic
Current Location: Glasgow University Library
Current Music: Silence

Thank you so much for the various birthday greetings!

GOSH, am I old! Twenty-three! The ever-so-lovely Crocky surprised my with a birthday table yesterday, complete with birthday cake and candles! She is so lovely, and everyday with her is, so yesterday was as perfect as I had anticipated in spite of being quite lazy. After that weekend I really, really did not have the least desire to go out, and so we stayed home befitting a lady as old as I am.

Also, we did not go to Carmen as planned as it was an info event rather than the opera by the look of it, so now we have to hurry and go before the move on to Edinburgh. Maybe it would have been worth the while to go yesterday to goggle at the choirmaster, who is none but the Chapel Choir's choirmaster James. Maybe he would have been better groomed than he was at the concert on Sunday, in his proper conductor's attire for a change and without glasses.

The weekend was fun and but all the farewells were sad. There are so many people I will never see again and who I don't really know well enough to stay in touch with, and every time I have to wish someone a good life it gives me a little stab in the chest. Seeing Julez go was one such moment. Julez the Mighty, who always We will see her again when we are back in summer, but still... it felt terrible to say goodbye. The other guys from the various courses have already gone home over the summer. Sigh.

Hearing the concert on Sunday made me feel all emotional and nostalgic, too, but I guess that was mostly due to the superb music. It is the last time I am going to be in that church, probably. It is certainly the last time I heard the Chapel Choir sing - and they were so absolutely fantastic! It was (yet another...) concert designed to show off the new organ - although strangely, what bothered me about the concert were the organ-only pieces. One I thought was somehow... very... jazzy, and it flattered my non-existent knowledge no ends to find out that Gemma, a big, evil and knowledgeable music post-grad thought the same, the others were just... I don't know. I feel I don't have the background knowledge to get them and they are too loud and booming for me to like them. With the exception of a Bach piece, it was modern music only. Usually, I avoid modern music after having discovered Nono and Schoenberg, but the pieces the choir performed were all absolutely, heart-wrenchingly beautiful.
One piece was even commissioned by the University for the organ especially and the composer was there! It was strange to think that the small man sitting in the second row should have been able to come up with that piece.
Two of the pieces always make me feel all choked and teary and emotional and make me wish I was able to sing a lot better to be able to sing with them. Oh, I found a sample, they are very short. The first one is "Lullaby for Lucy" by Peter Maxwell Davies, the other is "A Child's Prayer" by James McMillan. Sigh. That one always makes me cry. Oooh, and Swayne's "Beatus Vir". Beautiful.

Today, I was half-heartedly planning to go to the movies, but somehow, there just isn't anything which sounds interesting - with the possible exception of Wah-Wah and United 93 - both films I'd much rather see at home than in the cinema. But the rest...?
Why exactly does anyone want us to go and watch Poseidon? Why should anyone see a movie without a plot or characters? Well, for the floating corpses and the shipwreck. Are we interested in shipwrecks? I don't think so. It's rated 12A, too - which means there'll probably be to much carnage for me, anyway.
Then - The Omen 666... not that I didn't like the original version, but... Nah. Brooding kids and blue filters are not scary.
Oh, yeah, The Wild. I wanted to go and see a horror movie, but there is no way I am going to endure that.

So - we'll see. I guess staying home and watching The Memoirs of a Geisha which I didn't see when it was in the cinemas will be it. I wish I had read the book, but I guess if I had, it would make me wish I hadn't seen the film.
Oh, which also means more time spent with my book (The Unbearable Lightness Of Being - which has been on my reading list for sooo long now. Since I first heard of the author back in - what was it, '97? -anyway, nearly ten years ago, I wanted to read that book and somehow never got round to doing it, but I saw it in the library yesterday and just had to take it out. Strangely, to read on the receipt that I have to hand it in "by no later than 27-09-06" made me feel all teary-eyed again. I won't even be here then, I won't even have my library card... Ah, well.

Hugs to all.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: Glasgow University - Reading Room
Current Music: Crocky typing

Seriously, I need a break, this weekend is going to be STRESS... although in a fun way. Well, for me, I think it must really suck for Crocky.
My well-deserved holidays have been great so far with lots of time spent either at home with Crocky or going out. And it's so HOT outside, you wouldn't believe it...

It all began on Thursday. On Thursday, we went clubbing with Julez, who is about to go back to Germany. We'd been there fairly early, so half the time it was rather empty in the coziest bar in Glasgow. Seriously, I wish I'd taken some pictures, the decoration was just great. It has a really friendly atmosphere and you somehow don't get drunk as easily as usual in that pub and therefore somehow end up spending stupendous amounts of money on drinks. I have never had so many drinks in a row, me, who is usually quite tipsy after one Bacardi Breezer or a half-hearted glass of wine...
We had a lovely time talking to a whole pack of gay guys. Actually we had just taken the sofa opposite them because all the others were occupied and had thought they wouldn't talk to us because we were speaking pointedly in German, but once more, we had to find out how amazing the language skills of the Glaswegians are - half of them could speak German, had just come back from a year abroad in Germany or had taken German courses at the uni. One of them, the one I wanted to smack around the head for his annoyingly impolite questions ("What do you think about semen in the face?" - "Is it true that all German women have a lot of hair in their arm pits?" - "Hey, petal, why aren't you talking to me? What was your name again? Ah, never mind - oy! You! Gretel!"), reminded me oddly of a very stupid version of Kat from my Russian and Psy class. Sca-ry.

Yesterday, I took a day off from cleaning the flat and throwing away the uni stuff I am not going to take home with me and finished the books which have been lying around in the flat since before the Exam period. I had almost forgotten how great it is just to sit in the living room and read for hours on end...

I somehow don't really like the end of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, it seems so by-the-by and leaves so many things open. Well, at least nothing terrible happened, which I had feared after breaking my vows to myself and reading the last paragraph before I was half-way through.
I loved, loved, loved Ignorance by Milan Kundera. Although I really did not like the first chapter, the rest of the book is just so perfect. There are so many passages I read through only to go back and read them again because they are so mind-bogglingly great. I can't wait to borrow more of his books from the library. He is such a great author! Well, obviously, why am I surprised. Still, it's stunning. Well, and it makes me afraid to go home. What if my time here will be unreal when I come back home? What if it also gets "amputated", the whole period between the fall of 2005 and the summer of 2006 gets thrown out and the fall of 2005 becomes the fall of 2006 directly? Will I find the people at home as alien as those here first seemed to me? But then, it was only a year and I am not really an Emigre.
Next was The Spirit Level, which is a short anthology of poems by Seamus Heaney. Who is awesome.
Currently, I'm reading The Prince and the Pauper. How could I forget how great Mark Twain's style is? I can remember that I did not like him when I was younger, and I truly can't understand why today.

Today, directly after Crocky's choir rehearsal for the concert on Sunday, we are first going to a pub crawl with Kirsi and some other guys from Russian and the clubbing with Julez.

Tomorrow, Crocky has a final rehearsal, then we're meeting Julez again because she flies home on Monday (on my birthday!! Yeah, go on, guys, desert me! Seriously, everybody's going home either tomorrow or on Monday...), then Crocky has a concert, and then, it's Monday. My birthday, and everyone's gone because the exam period is over. Growl. Well, never mind, I had contemplated going to see Carmen, but I forgot to book seats in advance, so maybe that won't work out.

On Monday, I want to try to find a job. I am in two minds about that whole thing. I could work here, I do not have time to squeeze work into at home due to my full time tables. It would also make the two month ahead less empty, but it would also interfere with my traveling plans. Still... I wish I'd find something with flexible times.
There are a few things I'd love to do, but seeing as I'd only be able to work for two month and since I haven't been doing anything apart from tutoring kids so far, I'm not all too comfortable with the whole thing. There are some pubs who need staff, but I am not too sure they need an ex-tutor with zero experience in pubs. Some charities need someone to do fund-raising, but they're looking for someone for door-to-door tours on a full-time basis. And I am not really that good at fund-raising. I'd so love to do something in a more social sector or to do something with languages... Tutoring was the first thing I thought of, but since there are SO many Germans in Glasgow, that proved to be rather unsuccessful already.

Anyway. Off now. Have a nice weekend!

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: Glasgow University Main Library
Current Music: The heat buzzing

One of the good things about Partick is that we have a lot of charity shops close by, and it's great fun to occasionally skim through them and see what treasures we can discover. They really ought to be more common in Germany! It is so much fun browsing through them.

I found something which made me happy on Friday:
The Worst Witch All At Sea.
Ah, the memories of childhood. Well. Teenager-hood. Boy, I must have been the most boring 16-year-old in my entire year.

Does anyone else know and remember the series?
Since I saw the series on TV the first time, I have had a crush on Miss Hardbroom. She is just soooo cool.
If not, meet: Constance Hardbroom. Oh dear, I hope Jill Murphy won't sue me for showing this around on the net.

Sadly, the author is not as good as drawing this wonderful character as she is at drawing the kids.

But this is the coolest female character ev- nah. One of the coolest female characters ever.
She kicks student butt. She can materialise out of thin air. She thinks body-length school dresses with grey and black checks are "too frivolous" for the girls and changes them to plain black. She teaches Potions. She always appears directly behind the students when they are least expecting it, or dematerialises, waits until the students do not suspect her of being there, eavesdropping, and then makes comments on what they're saying in a disembodied voice, catching them off-guard. She favours the meanest girl in the entire form (who does not only get everything always right, but is also the daughter of very rich parents and has won prizes for practically everything). She has a cat named Morgana. She is always neat.
And she wears a bun!!

Kinda scary, the many things which are strangely reminiscent of other schools here. But then, she is allowed to be like that because she is a few years older than Severus Snape or Minerva McGonagall.

Isn't she cool??

Oh, yeah, right.
I am supposed to be a literature student. But against the magic of H.B., other authors battle in vain. No match in the stuff I'm reading at the moment, anyway (not counting the poetry, of course). Apart from this very profound novel for a slightly younger audience, I'm forced to read Jane Eyre. Once more. That is two times too many already. I thought I was through the worst when I got a dose of Emma. Once more. But nooo... Well, it's not all that bad.

Something funny: our seminar teacher tried to interest us in poetry yesterday. At least that's what she said. Kinda strange, blue-eyed as I am I always assumed that everybody studying literature simply MUST love poetry to bits, but that turned out to be wrong.
In the seminar, about three people told me that they absolutely did not know what to do with a poem. At all. And that they did not like poetry, and that they found it terribly difficult to make sense of them at all, and that they were terrified of writing the essays about them this year.

Our tutor said we were going to do a "poetry workshop" because apparently most of the guys in the class run screaming at the sight of verse, they simply don't know what to do with poems because they never get taught how to go about it, and then get assessed on it. All around very fair, the whole matter - and with important exams looming ahead, everyone thought it best to revise.
She said she wanted to "seduce" us with verse, to get us to see poetry a new way, etc., etc. I wonder if I will say similar things to my wee students when I am forced to confront them with poetry... And I wonder if I will make her kind of choice.
Her weapons for seduction turned out to be the epitaph to Ginsberg's Howl (Diane: "Didn't your head just explode when you first read it?!"), the first part of Whitman's Song of Myself and the lyrics to some song by the Beatles which begins with I dig a pony.

Somehow, the white faces and the apparent terror of the guys in the class suggested that her plan of seduction and reducing their fears through a new confrontation with a new kind of poetry … did not work. Well, and no one new the poems, at all. I missed out on the Beatles lyrics as well, but the others are fairly well-known?

I ask you - you want someone to realise that poetry is wonderful, want to seduce them with verse, want to show them the beauty of language… Ginsberg??? But then, she was into the energy and this feeling of breaking out she wanted us to see. Didn't work on most of them.

So, off to Russian, once again. Sorry for cluttering everybody's Friends page. I hope everyone's alright!

Major hugs!

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: "Jane Eyre", Charlotte Brontë

I like Crocky's idea of the literature list. Here is mine. It is embarassing to see how little there is in the classic literature department. But then, it seems I have just read the wrong books of the right authors sometimes.

( Literature list )

Apart from that: life is bleak, cold, lonely, full of work, and if I wasn't so busy, I'd be dead. Officially. But I don't have the time to take a lie down, so I'll better enjoy my un-life as an Un-Dead person and make the best of it.

After all, Dracula was also an kind of literature student. An anglicist, at any rate.

Current Mood: "Melancholy" is the right word
Current Music: Computer beeping

Back at the university, back to work, back in reality. Joy. Lots of work, little time, little sleep, and all in all around 1300 pages of different books to read for next week plus a term paper due on Monday.

( Rant about the university from a lazy student who actually enjoys eating and sleeping )

All this just needs more time! I tried to speed-read my assignments, but when I had successfully overlooked the death of Emily's (=main character) father in Udolpho, I went back to normal speed.

I want to crawl into a cave, curl up in a corner, and not come out or speak again until this horrible month is over. And the next one as well just to be on the safe side.
I've got a cold, am once again nothing but a financial factor for my father, am heading at a very own personal crisis, it's autumn, my annual depressive phase kicks in. Since my father is in Hesse, I am suddenly the official computer expert in the house, but I have no clue about what is wrong with the router. I have no time due to the university and suddenly, and my family kindly left me to deal with half the household because the four others are busy with training a dog and working, fourteen year-old boys, in Hesse or my 84-years-old grandma, who is an exception because she actually does something.

I can't believe that I'm feeling sorry for myself in the middle of the night again. Must be the gothic influence of Udolpho. The novel makes me wonder how Radcliffe herself stayed awake,throughout all the descriptions of nature, indirect renderings of people in raptures about nature, romantic/gloomy/melancholy moods and diegetic summaries of anything that might have been vaguely interesting if it had been elaborated and rendered in a more direct way.

I wish Crocky was here. Things are so empty without her, especially at this memory-infested university in this memory-infested city. Especially since Julez is in Glasgow as well now and my other friends are gone or angry with me for being busy all the time as well. Why is Hanover so far away?

Current Mood: drained

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