pedanther

Fiction books
(anonymous). Little Spinners: Dancing Princess
Michael Dahl, Oriol Vidal. Little Monkey Calms Down
William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (re-read)
Kim Newman. Angels of Music (e)
Daniel Pinkwater. The Big Orange Splot (e)
Daniel Pinkwater. Lizard Music (e)
Terry Pratchett. Hogfather (e) (re-read)
Anthony Price. Here Be Monsters (e)
Robert Louis Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (e)

In progress
Terry Pratchett. Jingo (e) (re-read)
Ursula Vernon. Summer in Orcus (e)

Non-fiction books in progress
Jimmy Maher. Let's Tell a Story Together (e)

( short, screen, and stage )
( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Ben Aaronovitch. The Hanging Tree

April Fool's Day was quiet this year. I only encountered one bit of foolery, Telltale Games' announcement of their new interactive gaming technology.


On a completely unrelated note, yesterday was crowded so I didn't get around to writing, as I'd intended, a few words about one of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, Maclean. It's a minor work, concerning a fortress taken by bandits, and hasn't been produced in modern times since 1988, when RSC alumnus Alan Rickman gave an acclaimed performance in the role of the bandit leader. Many people know it only through a corrupt text in which missing passages were filled in arbitrarily with fragments from dissertations on the art of falconry and the cultivation of melons. The proper text is well worth seeking out, though, to get the true poetry of such famous scenes as the confrontation between the hero and the leader of the bandits:

G. My name thou knowest: who art thou? A man
Whose way is lost in tales of chivalry,
Who thinks himself another Lancelot,
An Arthur, or a Charlemagne?

M. Forsooth,
I'll none of these, but give me Dagonet.
Methinks a coxcomb would adorn me well.

G. Think thou to win, Sir Knight?

M. Thou art a knave,
And thine own mother would abhor thy deeds.
I'll fix my lance, and we shall see who bleeds.