(no subject)

So who said I had time for this sort of thing? :-> Not much to report since last I wrote; Vicky tends to use this computer much of the time and I can't really kick her off when she's actually doing schoolwork (the downside of having your kid schooled at home). So when I get on it's mostly to update the website and read my mail.

But I'm still out here!

I also read... Just finished _How The Irish Saved Civilization_ by Thomas Cahill which is fascinating reading. It would appear that literacy and Christianity reached Ireland just in time, as the Roman empire was crumbling and society gone mostly illiterate. It was the Irish monks who copied so much of not only religious literature, but Greek and Roman myth, history and such - we'd likely know very little about ancient Rome if it weren't for the Irish. Of course, Ireland being Ireland, they generally put their own two cents in too - with the result that the marginalia can be as much or more fun than the manuscript itself. Something tells me the scribe who noted
"All are keen
To know who'll sleep with blonde Aideen
All Aideen herself will own
Is that she will not sleep alone"
was probably not planning on taking Holy Orders. :-> Not that the Irish were nearly as big on celibacy as their relatives on the Continent. Fun book. I got mine from Amazon so I suspect it is easy enough to find.

I'm also re-reading Diana Wynne Jones' _The Tough Guide to Fantasyland_ which is hilarious. Anybody who reads this and then proceeds to create a fantasy novel full of cliches will at least not be unaware of the fact. :-> (The author herself got to wondering what the inhabitants of Fantasyland felt about all this strum und drang and the result is _Dark Lord of Derkholm_ which is also fun. Combination of the backstage tour of a Standard Fantasy Novel (if you think Leatherwinged Avians are bad, try geese sometime!) and a quest to get rid of something even more annoying than Sauron... The Management!)