Wind and cold combine,
Making water treacherous:
Clear and smooth as glass –
Betraying unwary feet –
Or pointed like an arrow.
A Song of Ice (No Fire)
A Journey (of sorts)
Today is my Tuesday routine –
It has been since I was nineteen –
When I visit the Library
In all of its finery
To sate my thinking machine.
My library list is quite long;
I wonder if some don’t belong
On my list to be read
Before I am dead
Who cares? I’m chugging along!
My To-Read Shelf:
I don’t think I’ll make it today
For the weather is really quite grey:
With the sleet and the ice
And the power off – twice! –
I don’t think I’d make it halfway.
My weekend had now been extended
As my classes are cancelled – splendid!
With an hour or six
I could learn some new tricks
Or read just as I’d intended.
when you have the sniffles.
So I’ll curl up with my blanket
With some coffee to feed my habit
And the cat in my lap
Will take his long nap –
Now where did I put that book jacket?
Blank Space
Staring into the void of blank space
I find it staring back at me –
Daring me to find a voice
And declare with certainty
My innermost intentions.
Review: A Burnable Book
Knowledge is currency.
It can be traded and it can be banked, and more secretly than money.
London, 1385:
A book and a cloth prophesy regicide.
Two aspiring poets hide their own a dark secrets.
Two ambitious men plot revenge.
Two fallen women desire a better life.
This is the scene and these are the principal characters of Bruce Holsinger’s A Burnable Book. A book of heretical verse prophesying the death of Richard II circulates through London. When the only known copy goes missing, it’s up to John Gower – enlisted by his friend Geoffrey Chaucer – to track it down and stop the assassination.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Distraction, deception, subterfuge, mendacity, all those unspoken tools of the subtler crafts: government and trade, diplomacy and finance.
As far is intrigues go, I found A Burnable Book relatively easy. It is quite obvious that Chaucer is the author of De Mortibus, that Gower’s son Simon is in it up to his ears, and the identity of the so-called “mystery girl” is evident early on as well. History tells us that Richard II wasn’t assassinated in 1385, so we know the plot will fail. (I really shouldn’t have to give a spoiler alert for something over 600 years old, you know . . .) However, this did not stop me from enjoying the book and seeing how the characters would figure it out. For me, the only real plot twists were (a) just who was responsible for Simon’s involvement in the plot and (b) just how much Chaucer “knew” beforehand.
As a work of fiction, I found A Burnable Book to be about as satisfying as a bag of chips: It filled time but had little actual value. Adam Scarlett really turned me off. A relatively minor character, his rather violent end was not really necessary to the plot. Furthermore, coming as it did in the final ten pages of the book, it somewhat ruined the denouement of the overall storyline. I understand the motives behind his death; I simply think it should have come at a different point (preferably not at all).
I borrowed this book from my local library; otherwise, I would have felt robbed. I definitely wouldn’t pay $26 for the hardback edition, and even $8 for a paperback may be a bit much.
My overall rating:
A Haiku of Ending
tick tock tick tock tick
Another year now gone by
Regret things undone?
Lessons and Carols
Perhaps you have never heard of a Lessons and Carols service.
From Wikipedia:
The first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, was held on Christmas Eve in 1918. It was conceived by Eric Milner-White, the Dean of the College, whose experience as an army chaplain had led him to believe that more imaginative worship was needed by the Church of England. The order of service was adapted from the order created by Benson for Truro Cathedral 38 years earlier, based on an idea from the future Bishop of Edinburgh, George Walpole . . .
The format of the first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols did not differ substantially from the one known today. The order of the lessons was revised in 1919, and since that time the service has always begun with the hymn “Once in Royal David’s City” . . .
The Nine Lessons, which are the same every year, are read by representatives of the college and of the City of Cambridge from the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible . . . The singing is divided into “carols” which are sung by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and “hymns” sung by the Choir and congregation . . . The service ends with the hymn “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” . . .
If you have never attended a Lessons and Carols service – or, if you are unable to attend one or find a broadcast – I would like to provide one for you.
AB INITIO
FIRST LESSON
Genesis 3:8-19
8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Running In My Head 