Daily Archives: May 5, 2012

A Reading List a Mile Long: Oxford University Press Edition

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These are just a few of the books I wish I had on hand for an upcoming road trip. Alas, I’ll have to make do with (perfectly lovely) other volumes. But a girl can dream (a dream of reading way too many books)!

  • ReAction! Chemistry in the Movies by Mark Griep and Marjorie Mikasen
  • On the Air The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning
  • Darwin’s Camera Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution by Phillip Prodger
  • D.W. Griffith’s the Birth of a Nation A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time by Melvyn Stokes
  • The Urban Experience Economics, Society, and Public Policy by Barry Bluestone, Mary Huff Stevenson, and Russell Williams
  • Nightmare in Red The McCarthy Era in Perspective by Richard M. Fried
  • Atlas of the Medieval World by Rosamond McKitterick
  • The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History Four Volume Set Edited by Bonnie G. Smith
  • The Basque Country A Cultural History by Paddy Woodworth
  • Paris Tales Stories Translated by Helen Constantine
  • Scotland’s Books A History of Scottish Literature by Robert Crawford
  • A Dictionary of Creation Myths by David Leeming with Margaret Leeming
  • Swing Along The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook by Marva Griffin Carter

 

 

A Year in Books/Day 126: Ancient Rome

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  • Title: Ancient Rome
  • Author: Robert Payne
  • Year Published: 1966/This Edition: 2001 (Horizon/ibooks, inc.)
  • Year Purchased: 2001/2002
  • Source: History Book Club
  • About: While there’s nothing new or groundbreaking about the text or historical standpoint, this is a wonderful primer on ancient Rome. It’s a solid read, entertaining and enlightening without being flashy or over-blown. The real treat is in the beautifully rendered concept photographs, which give us an idea-however slight-of how Rome looked to its citizens.
  • Motivation: I’m a sucker for ancient history. Cannot. Get. Enough.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 41: “These tough-minded hill people had come far. They had built a workable civilization, absorbed the arts of the Etruscans, shown themselves to be possessed of a ferocious spirit of independence, and could look forward to increasing their influence. Then quite suddenly in a single day they lost the gains of centuries.”
  • Happiness Scale: 8 1/2

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 5th-9th May

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  • Christopher Morley was born on 5/5/1890. “Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting.”
  • Henry David Thoreau died on 5/6/1862. “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.”
  • L. Frank Baum died on 5/6/1919. “I can’t give you a brain, but I can give you a diploma.”
  • Robert Browning was born on 5/7/1812. “A minute’s success pays the failure of years.”
  • Gustave Flaubert died on 5/8/1880. “A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.”
  • Edmund Wilson was born on 5/8/1895. “I am not quite a poet but I am something of the kind.”

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