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Current book(s) you're reading?

@Trophonius I loved Ulysses! I did it for english lit at uni. Some of it was way above my ken, but nevertheless, I loved it - hope you're enjoying the read! :)
 
This has been a very productive month so far; I read three books: Lorenzo de' Medici biography (see my previous post about it), Assassin's Creed Black Flag (so much more than in the videogame) and yesterday I finished Cosmos by Carl Sagan. :blush::blush:

I may start reading a book about Ancient Greece I bought a couple of weeks ago.
 
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Screwtape Letters
Planet Simpson

And assorted others, YAs.
 
This has been a very productive month so far; I read three books: Lorenzo de' Medici biography (see my previous post about it), Assassin's Creed Black Flag (so much more than in the videogame) and yesterday I finished Cosmos by Carl Sagan. :blush::blush:

I may start reading a book about Ancient Greece I bought a couple of weeks ago.
What is the name of it? The one about Ancient Greece?
 
I'm reading The Art of Fiction by David Lodger. It's an overview of literary devices employed by authors, with plenty of examples borrowed from classic texts.
 
Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales

It's a collection of Middle English stories about Robin Hood, as well as a few other similar characters.
 
I'm been making my way slowly through Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey. Much better than the Lattimore translation I was saddled with in class many years ago. I miss the amount of reading I used to do. Considering how hard it's been just to get the basics I need to present to an employer before they even decide whether to hire me, maybe I should try setting aside some time every day where I don't do internet and just read. I used to read when I was going to the bathroom, but even there I still take my phone with me
 
Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales

It's a collection of Middle English stories about Robin Hood, as well as a few other similar characters.
Is it written in Middle English because that would be amazing. I have a copy of Historia Regum Britanniae, with the original Latin and the mdn English translation on facing pages.
 
Is it written in Middle English because that would be amazing. I have a copy of Historia Regum Britanniae, with the original Latin and the mdn English translation on facing pages.
It is! My copy of the Canterbury Tales is translated into modern English, but this book is written with the original grammar and spelling (though I think they modernized the punctuation). It makes it a little difficult to read sometimes, but there's a gloss on a lot of terms, and a number of notes, so I love it. My copies of Malory's Morte Darthur and an anonymous Arthour and Merlin are also in their original language.

I have a copy of the History of the Kings of Britain too, but in Modern English. Which is good, because I don't speak Latin.
But I DO have a copy of the Historia Brittonum with both Latin and English text. Not on facing pages, but the Latin text is after the English translation.
 
Trying to make more progress with Archangel's War by Nalini Singh. My second book in her Guild Hunter series. Yes I started at the end, and am going backwards for the moment. Love her Psychangeling series, and she's finally enticed me into Guild Hunter. If I could keep my mind from wandering during it! (In a good way, but it means this is taking forever.)
 
Still reading:

Sapiens, A brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
Verifying a lot of his theories so it's taking some time, becoming more like research than reading on my part. So many unknowns and generalizations that I have to check.

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, quite interesting, enjoyable as well so far.
 
@Mia

Facts or Fairy Tales? Peter Wohlleben and the Hidden Life of Trees




In 2015, Peter Wohlleben, a German forester, published a popular book on the “hidden life of trees.” The English version, titled The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World, was published in 2016 and became a best‐seller, but not without generating considerable controversy. Wohlleben began his career as a professional forester whose job was to assess the suitability of trees for harvesting. He abandoned this line of work two decades ago to organize survival training and log‐cabin tours for tourists, and his interactions with his visitors altered his views of the forest, making him aware of the need to adopt a more ecologically sophisticated approach to forest management. Eventually, his community, the village of Hümmel in the Eifel mountains, hired him to manage their forest according to these ecological principles, which emphasize leaving the forest as undisturbed as possible, promoting diversity of species, and removing trees using animals rather than heavy machinery.

Wohlleben's experiences opened his mind to the trees’ “daily dramas and moving love stories,” which he seeks to convey in this book. This sense of the hidden life of trees in turn forms the basis for what might be called a forest ethic, or the idea that trees be allowed to develop completely undisturbed by humans, so that they can live a full life in a way appropriate to their species. Plantation monocultures and the use of heavy machinery are the villains, and higher ecological standards for forest management are the goals. However, Wohlleben also hopes that management can be linked to preservation of undisturbed forests where trees are able to fulfill their “social needs,” pass their knowledge on to the next generation, and grow “old with dignity.”

It is not entirely clear to whom this book is addressed, for it has infuriated professional forestry scientists while being warmly welcomed by lay people, who, Wohlleben admits, seem intuitively to grasp the need for an ecological approach to forest management better than forestry professionals do. The reason for this divided response is that his argument's force depends heavily on eliciting an emotional response from readers through its powers of suggestion. As Wohlleben concludes, if we understand the “capabilities” of plant life and learn to recognize trees’ “emotional lives and needs,” then we will also begin to treat plants differently, will cease to view forests as lumber factories, and will understand how forests can serve as oases of respite and recovery for us. His argument is intended to make us appreciate the benefits to us—as well as to the trees—of leaving the forests alone.



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"...completely devoid of any scientific jargon..."

"One of his goals is to explain basic adaptations of trees that may not be familiar to most people, and to show the reader how, from an ecological standpoint, we need to view trees not as isolated individuals, but as communities bound up in a complex set of ecological relationships, with organisms of the same species, with organisms of different species, and most especially with the soil fungi that help to transmit nutrients to plant roots."

Maybe I should try inter-loaning this.
I live in a wooded area.
 
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Maybe I should try inter-loaning this.
I live in a wooded area.

It's a facinating read so far, much of his understanding of forests is based on experience working and caring for a forest. Some of the things he mentions were ideas I had before I was ten years old, when I spent most days in a forest among the trees.

One of the ideas that never really occurred to me, is that the older trees are usually surrounded by their offspring, they are all related family which communicate and help one another through their root systems. Interconnected as they are, they share nutrients and water.
 
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Just finished reading Mort by Terry Pratchett - brilliant- must be the third time I have read it. Started The Question Of The Unfamiliar Husband by E. JCopperman and Jeff Cohen - loving it!!
 

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