![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Last Thursday, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melindaloquita found me in an Annapolis coffee shop, trying to dig through Dorothy Dunnett and some very tasty ice cream. It was wonderful to see her, and share joy in both dessert and reading material. (As if I needed more books to read...)
I'm currently alternating between reading Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver and Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings, the latter of which was recommended by T. Quicksilver is first of a trilogy, and the prequel to the intricate and amazing Cryptonomicon; the other book, The Game of Kings, is the first of the Lymond Chronicles. Both are wonderful, lavishly written works set in historical Europe; this makes the alternation easier. At least I'm not reading Borges or Cherryh along with them.
However, it's not flowing as smoothly as I would have liked. Dunnett's style is enjoyable but (as T warned me) entirely too florid. I know a lot of words but she knows more, and I'm not accustomed to running into so much strange vocabulary. It slows me down. A lot of her words are clearly background, to flesh out the Scottish characters and setting, but damn it, I'm going to learn them anyway. (Besides, they just sound cool.)
The page numbers are from the 1989 Random House trade paperback. So, off we go (with help from Merriam-Webster): ( oriflamme, p. 12 )( rieving, p. 14 )( flensed, p. 15 )( jennet, p. 16 )( dreicher speils, p. 18 )
...and that's enough for one day. *sigh* Only 20 pages in.
Anyway. I like the coffeeshop at 49 West Street. It's a cozy place with friendly waitstaff, books available for borrowing in case you want them, local artwork on the walls, and plenty of seating; also, they'll validate parking for the garage across the street. (Not to mention they have great ice cream flavors, including espresso chip and black raspberry. mmm.)
By the way, the music (the reason I was in Annapolis to begin with) was wonderful. We're About 9, a trio of kids with gorgeous harmonies, opened for Grey Eye Glances, one of my eternal favorites. Great music from both of them, hybrid of folk and pop with some a capella tossed in. I'll have to see both of them again. And buy more of their CDs.
And on a completely unrelated note, K and I have been making trips downtown to see the pandas of PandaManiaDC. There are 150 pandas scattered over the city. We've visited most of the ones easily reachable by Metro, digital cameras in hand. We've got grand plans for a giant gallery of pandaness, but meanwhile, here's a panda preview using lj's nifty photo-hosting thing.
melindaloquita found me in an Annapolis coffee shop, trying to dig through Dorothy Dunnett and some very tasty ice cream. It was wonderful to see her, and share joy in both dessert and reading material. (As if I needed more books to read...)I'm currently alternating between reading Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver and Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings, the latter of which was recommended by T. Quicksilver is first of a trilogy, and the prequel to the intricate and amazing Cryptonomicon; the other book, The Game of Kings, is the first of the Lymond Chronicles. Both are wonderful, lavishly written works set in historical Europe; this makes the alternation easier. At least I'm not reading Borges or Cherryh along with them.
However, it's not flowing as smoothly as I would have liked. Dunnett's style is enjoyable but (as T warned me) entirely too florid. I know a lot of words but she knows more, and I'm not accustomed to running into so much strange vocabulary. It slows me down. A lot of her words are clearly background, to flesh out the Scottish characters and setting, but damn it, I'm going to learn them anyway. (Besides, they just sound cool.)
The page numbers are from the 1989 Random House trade paperback. So, off we go (with help from Merriam-Webster): ( oriflamme, p. 12 )( rieving, p. 14 )( flensed, p. 15 )( jennet, p. 16 )( dreicher speils, p. 18 )
...and that's enough for one day. *sigh* Only 20 pages in.
Anyway. I like the coffeeshop at 49 West Street. It's a cozy place with friendly waitstaff, books available for borrowing in case you want them, local artwork on the walls, and plenty of seating; also, they'll validate parking for the garage across the street. (Not to mention they have great ice cream flavors, including espresso chip and black raspberry. mmm.)
By the way, the music (the reason I was in Annapolis to begin with) was wonderful. We're About 9, a trio of kids with gorgeous harmonies, opened for Grey Eye Glances, one of my eternal favorites. Great music from both of them, hybrid of folk and pop with some a capella tossed in. I'll have to see both of them again. And buy more of their CDs.
And on a completely unrelated note, K and I have been making trips downtown to see the pandas of PandaManiaDC. There are 150 pandas scattered over the city. We've visited most of the ones easily reachable by Metro, digital cameras in hand. We've got grand plans for a giant gallery of pandaness, but meanwhile, here's a panda preview using lj's nifty photo-hosting thing.
