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Read All The Things: Day 67
Aug. 4th, 2012 02:57 pmYeah, I'm actually... still doing this. Mostly. Took me a LONG time to get through the Canterbury Tales, and I'm still only barely entering the 15th century, but I seem to check in on the spreadsheet and read things often enough that it's worth an update.
Turns out, most of the Canturbury tales are really long, really religious, and kinda boring. But I found Geoffrey Chaucer's tale really entertaining, and in general enjoyed learning more of the ins and outs of the work.
I've also read rather a lot of Old and Middle English religious works... today I read some Old English biblical passages (largely because they show up in the screencaps), and I must say, when I finally find a translation of something it's such a radically more enjoyable reading experience. I ended up not enjoying Pearl as much as I'd hoped I would, just because I struggled so much with the Middle English. I guess I'm just a lazy person.
I did really enjoy Handlyng Synne, though, a lot more than I'd expected; I read the Cambridge History first, and then looked up the passages it mentioned as particularly interesting, then browsed the rest of the text based on the summary titles at the top of each page. I've started to adopt this methodology in general-- when I'm so lacking in context, a bit of background and some key passages combine to make a much more informative experience than slogging through the whole thing. That's how I managed to get something out of Purity and Patience, anyway.
I've officially entered the 15th century, where apparently everybody was too distracted by the 100 Years War to write anything interesting. I might just blow through it without reading too much of anything, in order to get to the good stuff in the 16th century sooner. I'm gonna get so many points for Shakespeare, I can't wait!
Turns out, most of the Canturbury tales are really long, really religious, and kinda boring. But I found Geoffrey Chaucer's tale really entertaining, and in general enjoyed learning more of the ins and outs of the work.
I've also read rather a lot of Old and Middle English religious works... today I read some Old English biblical passages (largely because they show up in the screencaps), and I must say, when I finally find a translation of something it's such a radically more enjoyable reading experience. I ended up not enjoying Pearl as much as I'd hoped I would, just because I struggled so much with the Middle English. I guess I'm just a lazy person.
I did really enjoy Handlyng Synne, though, a lot more than I'd expected; I read the Cambridge History first, and then looked up the passages it mentioned as particularly interesting, then browsed the rest of the text based on the summary titles at the top of each page. I've started to adopt this methodology in general-- when I'm so lacking in context, a bit of background and some key passages combine to make a much more informative experience than slogging through the whole thing. That's how I managed to get something out of Purity and Patience, anyway.
I've officially entered the 15th century, where apparently everybody was too distracted by the 100 Years War to write anything interesting. I might just blow through it without reading too much of anything, in order to get to the good stuff in the 16th century sooner. I'm gonna get so many points for Shakespeare, I can't wait!
