True. Though time has not been kind to Robert Smith. I haven't made any attempt to interest my girls in 80s music; I remember only too well my parents' determination that I would come to love 60s folk-rock.

Ha! Fortunately we here are a literate and open-minded bunch. :)

For those interested -- Charles Lamb's essay "Valentine's Day." http://essays.quotidiana.org/lamb/valentines_day/ 'In other words, this is the day on which those charming little missives, ycleped Valentines, cross and intercross each other at every street and turning. The weary and all for-spent twopenny postman sinks beneath a load of delicate embarrassments, not his own. It is scarcely credible to what an extent this ephemeral courtship is carried on in this loving town, to the great enrichment of porters, and detriment of knockers and bell-wires. In these little visual interpretations, no emblem is so common as the heart, —that little three-cornered exponent of all our hopes and fears, —the bestuck and bleeding heart; it is twisted and tortured into more allegories and affectations than an opera hat. What authority we have in history or mythology for placing the head-quarters and metropolis of God Cupid in this anatomical seat rather than in any other, is not very clear; but we have got it, and it will serve as well as any other. Else we might easily imagine, upon some other system which might have prevailed for any thing which our pathology knows to the contrary, a lover addressing his mistress, in perfect simplicity of feeling, “Madam, my liver and fortune are entirely at your disposal;†or putting a delicate question, “Amanda, have you a midriff to bestow?†But custom has settled these things, and awarded the seat of sentiment to the aforesaid triangle, while its less fortunate neighbours wait at animal and anatomical distance.'

An "E" title being next required, behold ("en" in Latin, more appropriately assonantic) Charles Lamb's classic Essays of "Elia" at last moved from the dusty shelves of what was my TBR pile when Great Girl was tiny. Not quite the thing for travel, this particular volume being far too attractive and out-of-print to risk slipping beneath the trays of United Airlines, but possibly some progress may be made beforehand. And influenced by recent posts on Why We're Not Actually Getting Books Read, I stole the five-to-seven o'clock hours this morning, conveniently provided by a spring thunderstorm and the consequent invasion of my side of the bed by Wee Girl, to launch into Lamb's late eighteenth century compositions. A particularly sympathetic passage from his "Chapter on Ears," in which I am endeared to the author by his admission that, like me, while surrounded by musicians (and, in my own case, having a child who I'm informed has musical gifts as well as a terror of lightning), he has to fake an appreciation of instrumental music: ETA: It is d---lishly hard to sustain an imitation of Lamb's style even for the length of a single post.

Thanks! I will strive not to abuse the gracious leeway. Finished Joseph Conrad's psychological thriller and/or delayed Victorian melodrama and/or deeply symbolic comment on the isolation of the subjective self (man is literally an island) Victory, made even better (and it was awfully good) by the Edward Gorey cover art and frontispiece. Also D. H. Lawrence's Selected Poems, which would have been much improved by omitting Kenneth Rexroth's introductory essay. Name: 1. Victory, Joseph Conrad 2. The Interior Castle, St Teresa of Avila 3. The Octopus, Frank Norris 4. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov A-Z Author Challenge: 1. Amis, Kingsley: The Green Man 8.Hakluyt, Richard: Voyages [vols. 1, 2, 3] 12. Lawrence, D. H.: Selected Poems Random reading: 1. Twain, The Prince and the Pauper Proximate travel requires a compact and disposable next book, suitable for flinging into gray NSA bins together with my shoes. Maybe that beaten-up Penguin copy of The Idiot?

Sorry! Hope others around you take over chores and bring you tea.

Oh and a question for Robin, re: Bingo squares - does the minimum-page rule only apply to fiction and drama? Or to nonfiction and poetry as well? I ask because I find a book of essays or poems of less than 200 pages can take me weeks to get through. But then I'm a slow reader anyhow.

Popping in at the end of the week to apologize for not being active on the thread - or indeed having a chance to read the threads lately - or really having any internet time at all. Still reading books, though. And homeschooling a lot. Sorry!

Finished Lolita. Five completed books for the year! Book with my name: 1. Voyages, Richard Hakluyt [vols. 1, 2, 3] 2. The Interior Castle, St Teresa of Avila 3. The Octopus, Frank Norris 4. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov A-Z Author Challenge: 1. Amis, Kingsley: The Green Man Read-Alouds: 1. Twain, The Prince and the Pauper (Edited for formatting incompetence)

It's no big deal. Reasons people don't go up for communion: 1. Murdered someone since their last confession. 2. Divorced and civilly remarried. 3. Didn't observe the fast. 4. Already received communion at an earlier mass. 5. Not currently disposed (feeling angry; haven't been to confession in a long time; daydreamed through mass) 6. Not Catholic. Personally, I like to assume that someone who stays in her pew is in Category 1. It makes mass more interesting.

This one first, I think. I can count it as the "V" if I don't make it through all eight volumes of Hakluyt.

Finishing up Lolita, my "L" book for spelling out my name. Dh loves Nabokov, so I'm gamely trying him out. But the cascades of literary references, French puns, and generally Novel as one Grand Acrostic Mystery is wearing me out. The notorious subject matter is not bothersome, as the wordplay of the literary surface takes up all of the reader's attention. I don't know; I recognize Nabokov's genius, but this is too, well, modern for me. Robin, I was just thinking I really wanted the Book By Its Cover Challenge back, as several paperbacks with Edward Gorey covers have recently flung themselves into my hands. I might need to take this on as a long-term challenge. Wee Girl recently finished Pinocchio. Her review: "Strange in some places but quite exciting in others. It easily changed from happy to sad." Which, on reflection, is rather a good summary of her own personality.

Please tell me there was a fourth sign further on saying "Burma Shave."

PrairieSong, I am terribly sorry for your loss.

Pretty! We celebrated Wee Girl's name day with appropriate festivities and dinner at her favorite place. And read, once again, her favorite story of the taming of the white wolf.

Never heard of it. My French literature is desperately manqué. But now I will be keeping an eye out for it. ETA: Wikipedia says Aphra Behn translated it into English. I wonder if it's in my Collected Behn? Off to check....

I'm still reading Hakluyt's Voyages from January 1. ETA: I'm looking at your children's ages and laughing. How are you even being allowed to read anything besides Thomas the Tank Engine? Don't worry, we've all been there. Remind me which books you're reading?

I went through my Menopausal Lady weights sequence, and this evening escaped from the house for a six-and-a-bit km jog. Ate sanely. Not caught up with my daily reading yet though. Other people around here keep wanting me to do things for them.

Can't go wrong with the Anabasis. I finished The Green Man last night. Very 1969, with plenty of casual sex, in tension with Amis' unsubtle curmudgeonly contempt for the student movements. It's a supernatural thriller on a technicality, but really a Kingsley Amis novel featuring a ghost. God makes a silly appearance for half a dozen pages, as if Amis is trying to clear himself of the charge of writing mere genre fiction; and he leaves the reader the option of deciding that the narrating protagonist, a heavy drinker and quite unreliable, is actually just hallucinating it all. An early reference to Henry James invites the reader to pay more attention to the psychological state of the innkeeper telling the story than to sussing out whether the things he experiences are real or not. It's a satisfying, quick read. A sample: I did not knit anything while reading this book. ETA: On to an "L" title next; I was all ready to go with Little Dorrit, but dh convinced me it's time I dip my toe into Nabokov. Here goes....

Caroline, if you like biographies, can I recommend Catherine Carswell's Life of Robert Burns? It's well-written enough to be a worthy piece of literature on its own.

In theory, cast iron cookware also provides the necessary iron. We still supplement, though.

I thought the illustrations were well worth the price of the dead-tree paperback. On the other hand that was 50 cents.

I shambled 2.5 km around the neighborhood in the sunshine, feeling pretty good, and have regained three pounds in the last 48 hours. I declare stomach bug gone. How fit I feel just by virtue of that!

Eggs have all the animal protein you need. And they're non-evil now. So why not soy? Just curious.

My family (but not me) are vegetarian. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the staples of our diet are mostly carbs: pasta, rice, potatoes, tortillas, bread, and beans, lentils, and eggs, with lots of dairy, fruits and vegetables. We use whatever butter or olive oil a given food calls for. We consume very little sugar. This has been our family diet for thirty years and none of us are overweight. We don't make a conscious effort to avoid or decrease carbs (nor did we make such an effort with fats back when fat was Evil): we just serve and eat reasonable amounts, and get reasonable amounts of exercise. You can be assured that a vegetarian diet isn't short of protein (though we make sure everyone gets enough iron). If you don't eat dairy and few carbs, though, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Maybe you need a change of meat? How do you feel about eggs?