About halfway through selected writings of Max Beerbohm, and I had to pause and share a bit of one of his literary parodies. Perfect! More: This is the best thing ever.

I don't listen to audiobooks properly speaking; but I have some poetry readings -- mostly Keats -- loaded onto my phone that I listen to when I'm mowing the lawn. It's the only time other than running when I can possibly get 30 uninterrupted seconds to myself to listen to something I like.

Your dear kitties, Stacia. So very hard. You are a good owner who has seen them through, and they have been blessed in you.

Jane, definitely post more photos. So far the canyon is my favorite. Pleased to see that Icelandic retained the letter "eth." Just got back from Skye, dh on business and the rest of us as his entourage, where the hill walking is gorgeous, the rain is constant, and wifi is theoretical. I finished two books: George Mackay Brown, An Orkney Tapestry. Another by Orkney's great poet, this is a series of essays, historical pieces, and a short play that is Tolstoy's "What Men Live By," set of course in an Orkney fishing village. Brown's lyrical prose is interspersed with his poems. Edwin Muir, Selected Poems. Muir was Brown's mentor.

Quick post as we are traveling this morning -- mumto2, we will have to find a way to meet -- maybe Edinburgh? We take the train in pretty often. Amy -- dh said, "Wait, we missed a good bookstore in Inverness??" Love the photos. They remind me of what the sun looks like, which hasn't come out since you left and isn't expected soon. Jennw -- we visited Orkney in a past year (& btw there's a great bookstore in Kirkwall -- what is there to do in winters but read?); just catching up on their literature now.

Surely James Hogg's Gothic masterpiece "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner."

I missed you! Where, I asked myself, is our Superb Owl? And you were so close by, relatively speaking. AggieAmy may have gone right over you. Photos are anticipated!

The Crown family just had the honor of a visit from AggieAmy's family, and how splendid it was. Naturally we went to the best bookstores - one used, one new - in our coastal town, and proprietor Bill of the used bookstore was happy to meet another American family of readers. Middle Girl was pleased to hang out with AA's delightful daughter, bonding I assume over the unreasonableness of their mothers. Little brother joined Wee Girl for some wave-jumping in the frigid bay, and we toured our local castle ruins. The treated us to a fish-and-chips supper, and brought Horrible Histories for the girls, to their immense pkeasure. It was so kind of them to drive all the way over to us, pitying our carlessness. Now a dour rainy day has swept in for the election and Amy's departure to the Sunny States, but we're warmed by the fun of yesterday. Now I have to pull the HH books out of the girls' hands and make them work. Finished Robert Frost's Selected Poems last night, which I will bring over to Bill, who is selective in his acquisitions but never turns away poetry. Acquired from Bill: The Hugh MacDiarmid Anthology: Poems in Scots and English; George Mackay Brown, An Orkney Tapestry; and Max Beerbohm, Mainly on the Air. Paid too much at the cozy new bookstore (I'll let Amy tell you about that one) for otherwise-unobtainable Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown and Selected Poems of Edwin Muir. Why oh why is poetry so dang expensive?

A joy of reading literature that enjoys the consensus of time is the recognition of the well-known quotation. Aha, that's where that came from! Bacon's essay, "Of Marriage and Single Life": "He that hath Wife and Children, hath given Hostages to Fortune". I feel somehow better educated now. I love that. Do you think they have them in packs of 5000?

I finished George Mackay Brown's Andrina & other Stories. Brown was a 20th-century Orcadian (that is, from Orkney) poet who branched out into short stories and novels while retaining a poetic prose. I enjoyed it greatly and plan to read more of his work. The local new bookstore has all his works in print; unfortunately the only poetry collection in print is a Complete Poems, too heavy and bulky for a suitcase. I bought his novel Magnus, a prose retelling of the Orkneyinga saga which I read when we traveled to the islands. Trying to finish John Prebble's Culloden, a popular history of the disastrous battle that ended the Jacobite Rebellion and its afternath; but I always get bogged down in military history when it comes to the parts where different troop units are doing different strategic maneuvers and left flanks and right flanks and et cetera, and a hex map with little cardboard counters seems called for.

Agreed. White was a talented writer. Middle Girl has enjoyed his non-children's writings greatly as she's grown older.

Flossie and Bossie. Out of print and unobtainable; one of the best children's books ever. I don't allow it out of the house. Stuart Little. A child's introduction to modern literature. Time Cat. History; cats. Perfect. Half Magic. Right there with you! My Father's Dragon. Even weirder when half-understood and half-remembered until rediscovered in adulthood.

From the previous thread: The Frog and Toad books. We all quote them constantly. "What we need is Willpower!" "Hello, lunch!" "Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't." "Wake me up at half past May." "Now my day is all crossed out." "Give up. That kite will never fly." (As a form of ironic encouragement.) From other Lobel books: "We are zipping and zooming!" "Faster, faster, faster! ... but he could not be in two places at once." "What did you say? You want 'more music'? I will find a friend." "What a good, round friend you are."

The Frog and Toad books. We all quote them constantly. "What we need is Willpower!" "Hello, lunch!" "Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't." "Wake me up at half past May." "Now my day is all crossed out." "Give up. That kite will never fly." (Possibly slightly inaccurate at this point...)

Offended? What, were they the authors?

Some of his poetry is cheerful! No, wait ... no it isn't.

Having just inflicted Hardy on three unenthusiastic young ladies this last semester, I'm so glad to hear someone say that.

Yesterday I finished the James Hogg 1822 Scottish classic The Three Perils of Man: War, Women, and Witchcraft, a chunkster at over 600 pages, and no small part of it in thick Scots dialect. Good thing I have to be on trains a lot. Quite a wild ride! Like a Sir Walter Scott novel that drinks whiskey and hangs out in the sketchy parts of Edinburgh. Recommended, if one can find it. Now I've fallen into the trap of reading too many books at once. Going right now: George Mackay Brown, Andrina and Other Stories. Excellent stories by the great 20th-century Orcadian poet. John Prebble, Culloden. Gruesome Scottish history if you will forgive the tautology. The Incomparable Max: A Collection of Writings of Sir Max Beerbohm. The first two essays are on Beau Brummell and George IV (whom I can only imagine as Hugh Laurie), giving a pretty clear idea of Beerbohm's interests. Perfect prose. Robert Frost, Selected Poems. An airplane book that I'll trade in for some George Mackay Brown verse if Bill the bookstore guy down the street is willing. Francis Bacon, Essays. Bill had a nice little Oxford edition, and reminisced about having to discuss "Of Travaile" when he was in secondary. I hope there is a Meat Challenge some month and I will be right there with Francis Bacon, James Hogg, and Charles Lamb.

No no no! I think the scheduled read-along and discussion will work just fine. Kathy and I are doing it as a re-read, so the experience will be very different for us anyway. This is a benign monarchy -- the reason why BaW is so successful and long-lasting, if you ask me -- and it's entirely appropriate for you to channel the general War & Peace interest in an organized fashion. I really think we should do both approaches.

I will be 4,676 miles from my book until July. But I plan to just start reading it when I get home, and stop when I'm done. I can't possibly read it on a schedule; summer homeschooling is a feast-or-famine thing for scheduling. The straightforward thing I think is just to quietly read it or not and lurk through the discussion, and not derail the read-along. :)

We're actually in the midst of this. Great Girl has lived at home through college and is fixing to leave; Wee Girl is 12 years younger and regards GG as something like an adored aunt. Our approach so far: 1. Talk about it. What it will be like, how things will change, how they won't; but don't treat it as a great crisis. GG has shown WG pictures of where she'll be and taljed about what she'll be doing. 2. Technology. When they've been separated (study abroad, internships), GG facetimes often, & WG knows they won't lose touch. I'm not sure the sister in the middle makes things easier. In fact we have to remember that although Wee Girl is more visibly unhappy, Middle Girl is (more quietly) sad about her big sister/ adviser/ young adult role model leaving home, too. ETA: One thing that preys on me: there was a similar age gap, and close relationship, between my mother and her "baby brother," my uncle. He was killed in an accident a few years ago and she can't seem to recover from it. It really seems to have been like losing a child.

I'm reading it because it was so good the first time! As I recall, it was the source of the phrase "cultural virtue points."* It was kind of embarrassing how people would react to seeing someone carrying around W&P, as if it were some incredible feat and proof of worthiness, when actually it's just a real page-turner and I couldn't put it down. I'd try to say as much, but that only seemed to cause more CVPs to rack up. So be forewarned; carry it cover side in! *Social encomiums, generally undeserved, for reading a book with a culturally constructed aura of impressiveness. ETA: I think we should follow Caucus Race rules for reading it. Everyone starts when she wants, reads at whatever pace works for her, and finishes when she finishes. "Everybody has won, and all must have prizes."

I'm going to read my little red Oxford edition (Maude translation), with the tiny fold-out maps. Maps are helpful. I like the top right nook, with lots of natural light. You should build that one.

Oo, me too! If you wait until after June, I'll join you.

*snif* 😢