This blog is meant somewhat for personal purposes, but I don't mind if people read it. I wanted to keep a cumulative and annotated list of current books I've read both past and present. I need to be able to keep track of what I've read, what I like and do not like.

Not only to I just want to look at my past reading habits. I work at a public library and I want to be able to recommend books to people! I read so much that I forget what I've read. I'm going to try and go back in my memory to remember what I've read in the past six months and eventually back further (eek!) But for now, I just going to list my recent reads.

Silas Marner by George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans)
I am still working on this one. It is a little rough going. The language is a little tricky. I find myself reading dialog and then just looking at the words and not comprehending anything. I think I understand the plot so far, confirmed by book reviews and the like. I have set this aside to read other books for a while....for sanity's sake.

St George: Hero, Martyr and Myth by Samantha Riches
I have been drawn to the iconography of St. George slaying the Dragon. I especially love the Dali sketch

I thought I would read more about the myths and history of this man. I'm not far into it, but it is quite interesting. This history is not just bound in Christian tradition but also Islamic as well. What is neat about this book is the author (a Medieval acholar) has found many images of this scene dating back to the 4th and 5th century and beyond. St. George is known and a Christian martyr who was tortured and behedded when he refused to convirt from his Christain religion. He is also the patron saint of England. I might report more on this book as my reading progesses. The Medieval illuminations are quite detailed and gory for what they are. I might try to "borrow" some images to share.

I'm not a total slacker. I have finished some books recently: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.
I bought this one because the story drew me in enough to justify the purchase. The story weaves the historical facts about Dracula or Vlad the Impaler with a fictional story about a family and some of their scholarly friends hunted by Dracula. Dragons again, yes I'm odd. I don't want to tell to much of the story without giving it away. But, for a book that took 10 years to write, the fiction was only on par. I enjoyed learning about Vlad the Impaler and the fight among the Turks and Ottomans for the land that is now Romania and Bulgaria. When Dracula enters the dialog of the story, I feel that it gets a little hokey. But, that is really my only complaint. We find that the title not only applies to the protagonists of the story, but also to our undead friend.

I might try to find some scholarly articles about Vlad and such to quench my thirst for the historical.

More later!