So it’s the New Year and I’m actually ahead in my reading of Shakespeare and the Bible. If you recall, I pledged only to read a page of each, every night, but I’m ahead because I read a great deal of Genesis in December, then started A Comedy of Errors and found that it’s very hard to read just one page of Shakespeare. But not in the Lays potato chip way, I hasten to add. It’s just that once I get my Shakespeare vibe up and running, I don’t want to stop in a page. So I’m well into the second act of Errors and am confident I will finish it before I attend a production in D.C. this weekend.
Meanwhile, I’m also halfway through Kings of Infinite Space and Lonely Hearts, which I’d somehow missed. (Why am I halfway through two books? Because I forgot to pack Lonely Hearts for my trip to New Orleans, so I bought Kings of Inifinite Space. I also purchased Two Girls, Fat and Thin, but it’s not the right book at the right time. It will be, and soon. Just not now.) My admiration for John Harvey is so profound that I just assumed I had already read this book, the first in his Charlie Resnick series. But, as it often happens, I had started in the middle and never gone back for the first book. (I don’t think I’ve read The Godwulf Manuscript to this day.) Oh, and I read The Woman at the Washington Zoo, in part because Marjorie Williams’ posthumous piece in Vanity Fair made me cry.
And if you want to read about some of my favorite crime novels of 2005, check out www.lauralippman.com.
Happy New Year, y’all.
The Woman at the Washington Zoo is on my list, since I have heard so much about her posthumous piece in Vanity Fair, but I have not been able to locate the article. Suggestions?
Barbara, it’s actually online: http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/051010roco02
I truly believe this article changed my life.
Isn’t there a theory that Shakespeare re-wrote the King James version of the bible? Or is the theory that King James wrote using the name Shakespeare?
Wow, Laura. Thanks for the link to Marjorie Williams’ article. It was very powerful and poignant.
Thanks for the link, Laura.
I am trying to read a chapter each day of House of the Spirits and also The Historian(Kostova). I have been reading financial how-to books – 8 ways to avoid probate, the AARP crash course in estate planning, your family trust and estate planning guide- etc- to help my mother. I do not think I have ever read a finance type book before- not even Jane Bryant Quinn.
I do get to read the first 5 books of the Bible quite often- since I go to synagogue most Saturdays and we read the first five books(Torah) every year(and if I miss a week- I just go back and read it in case the story has changed from the previous year). I read the parts from Prophets which are read each week after the Torah. I also get to read some Psalms that are included in the Sabbath and weekeday service.
I read the full story of Samson only about 3 years ago for the first time- I guess all I knew was Delilah- and not that another woman played the same sort of tricks on Samson earlier in his life.
Thanks for the suggestion to eat at Gertrude’s at BMA(on your website)- we had a very nice brunch-different than our frequent Sunday breakfasts at the Tastee Diner in Silver Spring.
I had not seen the piece. Thank you.