Bibliomusings: May 2009

Sunday, May 3, 2009

King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table--Roger Lancelyn Green

Genre: Fantasy
Year Published: 1957
Pages: 352
Rating: 4/5

"After wicked King Vortigern had first invited the Saxons to settle in Britain and help him to fight the Picts and Scots, the land was never long at peace."

This version of the King Arthur legend is broken down into stories, following each of the Knights on their various journeys. It is easy to read, especially compared to L'Morte d'Arthur or even The Once and Future King. Based mostly on Mallory's work, this version also takes into account other sources and I always find the retellings fascinating.

Book a Week # 18
Date Read: 3/28/09
Challenge/s: Arthurian?

The Once and Future King--T.H.White

Genre: Fantasy
Year Published: 1958
Pages: 640
Rating: 5/5

"On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition and Astrology."

Although not the easiest book to read, this whimsical retelling of the Arthurian legend adds life and richness to Mallory's L'Morte d'Arthur. Highlights include Arthur's schooling at Merlin's hands, where he is turned into a fish, a merlin, an ant, a goose, and a badger; King Pellinore's symbiotic relationship with his Questing Beast; and the very fact that Merlin is living his life backwards and constantly confuses past present and future. It is also one of my favorite endings of the Arthurian books.

Book a Week # 17
Date Read: 3/27/09
Challenge/s: Arthurian

Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous--Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

Genre: Self-Help
Year Published: 2005
Pages: 224
Rating: 4/5

"Are you sick and tired of being fat?"

I didn't expect to like this book, but I read it when a friend loaned it to me after I decided to go vegan for Lent. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The author's are rude, lewd and in-your-face, which I found refreshing and amusing. But what stuck most with me--and kept me vegan even though Lent has ended--is the graphic descriptions of the torture animals endure in factory farms and slaughterhouses.

Book-a-Week #: 16
Date Read: 3/3/09

Great Quotes

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." (Atticus, To Kill a Mockingbird; Harper Lee)

"But maybe the last part of the symphony was the music she loved the best--glad and like the greatest people in the world running and springing up in a hard, free way. Wonderful music like this was the worst hurt there could be. The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen." (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers)

"Dark of the invisible moon. The nights now only slightly less black. By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp." (The Road; Cormac McCarthy)

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened." (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Douglas Adams)

"I ought not to have listened to her," he confided to me one day. "One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbed me so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity."

And he continued his confidences: "The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her..." (The Little Prince; Anton de Saint-Exupery)

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead. (Betting on the Muse; Charles Bukowski)

Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business. (Tom Robbins)

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. (The Prophet; Kahlil Gibran)

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. (C.S. Lewis)

"For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and of valor. Of the endless fluid passage of humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who--one word--love." (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers)