My readings for the future

[This was posted on another blog by an alter-ego but I thought I would put it here too, slightly altered and updated]

This month so far I've only read a few books for class, a lot of stuff on the internet, and my own writings. I have just gotten back from the library, however, and have received a box from Amazon and this is what I have to look forward to reading.

The Trojan War, by Barry Strauss. I've finished this one. It's actually a retelling of the Iliad using the latest archaeological finds. Didn't much care for it. A lot of talk about characters who are fictional, from a written account some 500 years after they may have existed. Not much factual in that aspect of it. Felt I should read it anyway after plowing through Dan Simmon's Ilium, a sci-fi version of the Iliad and a whole lot more (like "Prospero's Books" and "Forbidden Planet" for starters).

The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-European Worldby JP Mallory and DQ Adams. A lot of fun if you enjoy racing through the dictionary, but it will probably sit on my shelf as a reference for my chariot warfare project. Mallory is well known in the field of Indo-European studies and his summary of the latest theories about the PIE (Proto-Indo-European) homeland was almost worth the price by itself.

Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest, by Adrian Murdoch. "Varus! Give me back my legions!"

Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World, by Paul Cartledge. Cartledge is one of the best of the new military historians. Not sure that I buy his thesis, but then I will have to read the book to be sure.

Barbarians, by Terry Jones (yes, that Terry Jones, the one partly* responsible for 'Spam Spam Spam Spam' and "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!"). Went along with a TV series. There is a picture of a particularly puckish Jones backed by a squad of samurai which seems to include at least one elf archer from LOTR (no moose though, as far as I can tell**).

What Paul Meant, by Garry Wills. I've started it and it looks very good, especially since most Christians seem to act as if they already know what this most difficult and contentious of early Christians was talking about. But I will set it aside for now since my book club has decided to read this one for January.

Murder in Amersterdam by Ian Buruma. Not a murder mystery, but one Dutchman's attempt to make sense of modern Holland and its Islamic immigrants. Fascinating as a comparison to the US and immigration.

In the Beginning; The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture, by Alister McGrath. Wins the prize for longest title. It's great fun and I am almost finished with it. We are reading it for the Episcopal Book Club.

And, as a special nod to Claw of the Conciliator himself, all by Gene Wolfe:

The Sword of the Lictor
The Citadel of the Autarch
The Urth of the New Sun

Have no idea when I will have time to read these. And I have not yet gotten around to writing up my reaction to the first two novels of the series.

So I've got a lot of reading on my hands. It will make lovely procrastination material while I do all my grading. But I've still got Gibbons, vol. III on my hands, and The Historian - the one about Dracula by Elizabeth Kostova- that I'm reading at the office.

* along with a team of crackerjack medievalists, btw.
** although one of the horses on the cover could be a llama.