New achievement

[wiseheart]

I found a few gift bonuses for books that would run out on December 31. It made me possible to buy the complete edition of The Once and Future King by T.H. White.

I've been flirting with that book for some time, but it didn't seem important enough to spend all that money on it. But now that it only cost me some 20 Eurocents (the rest was the bons), I brought it anyway. One Arthurian book in English I have to possess, right?

Edit:
Oh! Oh! After the first two paragraphs I realized that I've actually read this book. Almost thirty years ago, in Hungarian translation. I seem to remember that I liked it a lot. It was one of those books I sold or gave away when I went to the convent in 1985, thinking that I won't need them anymore. I never managed to get most of them again. I'm pleased to have found at least one, and in original, too.

But since I've already read it, it could wait a little. Perhaps I'd start with the Mabinogion instead. Of course, if it were a new Brother Cadfael story, I won't be able to ignore it, but a girl has to have priorities, n'est-ce pas?

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

One Arthurian book in English I have to possess, right?

Oh, definitely! I read it for the first time this year and I thought it was marvellous.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You did? Well, then, it was a good idea to buy it!

Even though my to-read-list is longer than the Amazonas already.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think I could build a whole new house out of the unread books in my house.

[kln1671.livejournal.com]

Good book! :-)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Somehow it's a pity, isn't it? So much to read and so little time - or not the right mindset. :(

BTW, I loved your story about the printing machine in Minas Tirith very much. I don't understand how I haven't found it earlier.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The one I bought or the one Shep is reading? *g*

[kln1671.livejournal.com]

Definitely the one you bought. War and Peace?! What was the man thinking?! Surely a sign that he's a bit masochistic. ;-)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm fairly enduring when it's about books, so I suffered through "War and Peace". And through "The Idiot" by Dostoyevski. And through "Anna Karenina". At which point I regretfully admitted that Russian classics just aren't my coup of tea and stopped trying.

Not that American authors like Thornton Wilder would do a thing for me, mind you. I hope I haven't misspelled the guy's name. "American Tragedy" inducated nightmares of intense disgust and boredom in me for years after having read it. And Sinclair Lewis hurt me badly, too.

[crowdaughter.livejournal.com]

T.H.White is nice- but the Mabinogion is of course nearly as powerful. Depending on what adaption you read, of course; I once read "The Four Branches Of The Mabinogion" by Evangeline Walton when I was twenty. I've read in German translation, of course, since my English was not very good, then. Still, I was stunned. She adapted the thing and turned it into a narration; I remeber, when I later found a translation closer to the original tales I was not as aptured, because they seemed less stringent to me (bad Aislynn! Heretic!)

But in any case, the Mabinogion is strong stuff. I can recommend it greatly.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It's the English Mabinogion by Evangeline Walton that I have. And I do intend to read it, honestly. I love that sort of stuff very much. It's just so that by the overall suckage that is school I simply don't have the strength to start anything beyond 200 pages.

[kln1671.livejournal.com]

Bleh! My opinion of Thornton Wilder's babbling is much akin to my opinion of War and Peace.

I'll happily stick to wonders of Tolkien and Rowling.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved TOAFK when I was a teenager! And [sigh] Brother Cadfael's become my latest obsession, only I've sworn off reading anything out of period till I've finished my current (Regency) story.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I actually rather like Tolstoy (in English translation, mind you, I don't have any fluency in another language). Some of his short stories are particularly readable.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, Rowling isn't exactly my cup of tea, either. But then, there's always Ellis Peters and the Brother Cadfael Chronicles *g*

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Erm... I'm not sure what you mean. Why have you sworn off Cadfael?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The sad truth is, after "War and Peace" I didn't have the moral strength to touch anything Tolstoy-related. I was so bored out of my mind that I decided to save me the pain next time. I don't question the possibility that the short stuff is better, but... well, I give up too easily, it seems.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I'm doing altariel1's picowrimo in November, writing a Georgette Heyer alternate set in 1816; as I find it almost impossible to inhabit imaginatively more than one time period simultaneously, I've had to swear off reading in any other period.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Now you've got to get The Book of Merlyn as well; it contains the ending T. H. White intended The Once and Future King to have, but cut out at the last minute.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad you enjoyed the printing press story! It was a lot of fun to write, and I'm very fond of it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

If I'm not mistaken, this is an edition that contains that book as well.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I loved how Elphir got agitated that press might help spreading the evil cult. It was an interesting discussion.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

LJ only just delivered this comment to me :-( I thought it would be fun if between the four of them they covered various different positions on censorship that are still current.