Same procedure...

[oloriel]

Because allamistako just started his and every year I mean to keep a book list too, this is where I try doing just that! (Monthly, because one big list at the end of the year is just cumbersome.) Probably I'll forget about it by March at the latest, but hey, hope springs eternal.

So!


January 2011 Reading List

Predominantly governed by exam reading. Only counting books, not articles.

Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy (re-read)
Academic reading, but nonetheless absolutely intriguing. Explores the differences between the mindset of predominantly oral and predominantly literate cultures up to and including the way individual thinking is structured, which is a far more complicated field than most of us - having been exposed to literacy pretty much as long as we remember - would imagine at first. Diachronic (which is always a plus with me because history and development just interest me more) and very readable. I totally recommend this to anyone interested in language history, cultural history or the phenomenon of writing. You'll also understand why BS like "Fanfic is taking us back to the Golden Age Of Orality !!!1!eleventyone" sets my teeth on edge. ;)

Fernand Mossé, Handbook of Middle English
Should theoretically have been a re-read because naturally I started dealing with Middle English semesters ago. Truth is, though, I found the Handbook extremely cumbersome both in the way it is structured and in the way it explains things. Moreover, Mossé appears to use some sort of custom phonetic notation system that doesn't readily make sense to the lazy 21st century mind used to IPA. Fortunately I know enough of the three languages (Modern English, Modern German, and Modern French) that he uses in order to illustrate so that I could puzzle out what he meant, and have additional experience with wonky phonetic notation thanks to reading the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings etc., but I still think a manual should be, I dunno, more helpful than that. I mean, what do the poor people do who are not versed in three languages + Tolkien? So back then I put it aside and dealt with the texts more or less intuitively, which worked just fine.
Now for the exams I figured I'd have to get myself some theoretical background knowledge after all, so I read the whole bloody thing (except for the example texts).
I still think it's cumbersome. Yes, it contains a lot of useful knowledge, and yes, it's probably still the most comprehensive work on Middle English out there, and yes, everything in it is sound... but the structure is still awkward. Not to mention the transcription. :p

Simon Horobin, An Introduction to Middle English
I only read this because I had to list two general works on the topic and I thought I'd better read both in case one mentioned something the other didn't. Well, needn't have bothered with this one. It's a nice, simple (simplistic) introduction containing only perhaps a quarter of the knowledge Mossé so charmingly chaotically put into his Handbook. On plus side, this one's rather more easily readable.

Stephen C. Levinson, Pragmatics (partial re-read)
I probably wouldn't have minded this one so much if by that time I hadn't been so thoroughly tired of academic writing and particularly academic trench warfare (seriously, I am probably just desillusioned, but to me half the book felt like bashing Semantics. Compensating for something? Who knows.). Many of the explanations felt too long-winded, but that may just have been because I am familiar with the topic and thus often felt like YES, I GOT IT NOW, CAN WE MOVE ON PLEASE? and for someone who didn't first take a class on Pragmatics and then looked at the literature it might be of good use.

Georg Yule, Pragmatics
was rather more helpful. Somewhat less comprehensive, but far more concise and to the point. Probably too simplistic for "proper" academic use, but perfect for either brushing up on half-forgotten knowledge or for getting a good overview of the field. So there.

Bernard Cornwell, The Last Kingdom (re-read)
And then the exams were over and I had time for pleasure reading again and I didn't have the energy for more than a re-read. I still highly enjoy the Saxon Stories, even though most of the characters are major assholes in at least one way. Got some minor flaws, but mostly stylistic, so that's just me and my weird relationship to language. (Seriously, I feel physical pain whenever I see "... and I" (or "... and he/she") used wrongly. "She turned towards Ragnar and I." JUST... NO. Also, this -> ð is NOT a thorn. It's an eth. Thanks for ruining a perfectly nice joke. Though perhaps this mistake is just in the first edition and they put it right in later re-prints...) On the whole, good writing and an exciting story. Lots of historically correct guts, gore, blood and non-consensual sex, though, so it may not be your cuppa.

Bernard Cornwell, The Pale Horseman (re-read)
Sequel of the above. Still a bloody good read.

Terry Pratchett/ Paul Kidby, The Art of Discworld
Yes, it's got lots of pictures. So what? It still got text, so it totally counts as reading. I probably don't have to say much about this, do I? Awesome artwork and cool commentary, too.


There we go!

Comments

[allamistako.livejournal.com]

Interesting list :) But does this mean we get to duel with each other every month to see who read more? ;)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I think we only get to duel with each other to see who manages to keep this list more regularly. You'll probably win ^^
(Come to think of it, you'll probably also win as far as number of books is concerned...)

[yoodi.livejournal.com]

*fügt Ong zu ihrer meeeeeeeeeeeeeeegalangen to-read Liste hinzu*

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

You'll also understand why BS like "Fanfic is taking us back to the Golden Age Of Orality !!!1!eleventyone" sets my teeth on edge. ;)

Have you ever written meta on this topic?

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

No more than the briefest of comments on other people's entries. I've been too frustrated with fandom meta in the past years to write all the lengthy essays I might once have written (when I was young and passionate ;)). Even the amount of fannish rants on this journal has gone down. Somehow I no longer feel up to handling the ensuing discussions, I believe - so I'll rather roll my eyes and grit my teeth and seethe in silence.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see why. I'd just have been really interested in your take on that topic, especially from a more scholarly perspective.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It probably would be good to have that essay written (if only so I don't have to feel guilty about seething when really, all those poor people just don't know any better ;)). At the moment (and for the past years) though, one third of me said "YOU MUST ENLIGHTEN THEM", but another third says "You have no time and this is about the least of your priorities" and the final third goes "Besides, they're not going to listen anyway, just go 'Yeah, but' and at some point you'll get tired of explaining and discussing things repeatedly because someone got stuck on some niggly detail"*. I know I should be more interesting in staying involved in an ongoing discussion, but at the moment my patience and tolerance levels are just too low to bother. >_>

But perhaps I'll feel less taxed and/or more motivated at some point and then I'll go and write that essay. Who knows!