Summer 2009: Best laid plans...
Jun. 11th, 2009 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbCollege begins again in September. I have, therefore, approximately three months, including time spent at Silchester.
Books
Library, to do with thesis topic:
relevant sections only
1. Placing the gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in Ancient Greece, Alcock etc.
2. Religions of Rome Vol. 1, Beard etc.
3. Religion in Roman Egypt: resistance and assimilation, D. Frankfurter.
4. Isis in the ancient world, R.E. Witt.
5. Isis in the Graeco-Roman world, R.E. Witt.
Mine own.
1.Women in Athenian Law and Life, Roger Just.
2. Forbidden Rites, Richard Kieckhiefer.
3.Xenophon's Retreat, Robin Waterfield.
4. Cultures of the Jews Vol. 2, D. Biale (ed).
5.Greek Science After Aristotle, G.E.R. Lloyd.
6. Hippocratic Writings, Penguin edition.
7. Genghis Khan, John Man.
8. A History of My Times, Xenophon.
9. Crusades Through Arab Eyes, A. Malouf.
10.Ancient Persia, J. Wiesehofer.
Library, for my own interest:
will put aside if boring
1. Byzantium and the early Islamic conquests, W.E. Kaegi
2. Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: the transformation of northern Mesopotamia, C.F. Robinson.
3. Medieval India: researches in the history of India 1200-1750, I. Habib.
4. The Ottoman Empire 1300-1650: the structure of power, C. Imber.
5. The Ottoman Empire: 1326-1699, S. Turnbull.
6. The Silk Road, F. Wood.
7. The Silk Road: a history, Franck & Brownstone.
8. The Silk Road and beyond: trade, travel and transformation, K. Manchester (ed).
9. The Silk Road: trade, travel, war and faith, S. Whitfield (ed).
10. Medieval Russia 980-1584, J. Martin (and there's even a lending copy!).
Reading the Byzantium book has made me much more interested in the contact, conversation and conflict across the eastern world, beyond the borders of what became Latin Europe, than I was before. So this is a good selection of books, I hope, to sample, in between Real Work building up my picture of the Greek world and acquiring Broad Background in History.
I've been putting off a number of books on my personal list - I've had the Man book and the Malouf book for ages, and never, it seemed, the right time to read it. There's an appalling number of books on my shelf, actually, from back in the mists of time when I had a job and cash moneys. Victorian, early modern England, a lot of WWII France books, some Stalinist Russian history, a little bit of early modern Europe stuff, maybe three American history books, an intimidatingly large history of the Balkans, and Guido Majno's massive The Healing Hand, which I'm sure I'll just as soon as I have the courage to embark upon it. Not to mention the handful of Greek history books that escaped being read, and the stulifying original sources I haven't been able to bring myself to read.
I'll work my way through it all eventually.
Also on the to-do list this summer: more Latin, more Greek, a refresher dip through French - I'll start off with vocabulary, that should be simple enough, and work up to reading some Harry Potter or short stories or something - and an introduction to German.
The German should be... interesting. I have no background in it at all, and no idea how to start. However, start I must, since the languages of Classical scholarship are English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Greek, with some forays more recently in Polish.
I could use the college's resources to learn a language. But. I think I learn well enough on my own without signing up for a class that might interfere with my proper classes next year. So. Plan is, find a book, and start plugging away at grammar and vocabulary.
(I need to start Latin from scratch again, since I've forgotten all I learned last summer. Ah, learning. Ah, memory.)
Books
Library, to do with thesis topic:
relevant sections only
1. Placing the gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in Ancient Greece, Alcock etc.
2. Religions of Rome Vol. 1, Beard etc.
3. Religion in Roman Egypt: resistance and assimilation, D. Frankfurter.
4. Isis in the ancient world, R.E. Witt.
5. Isis in the Graeco-Roman world, R.E. Witt.
Mine own.
1.
2. Forbidden Rites, Richard Kieckhiefer.
3.
4. Cultures of the Jews Vol. 2, D. Biale (ed).
5.
6. Hippocratic Writings, Penguin edition.
7. Genghis Khan, John Man.
8. A History of My Times, Xenophon.
9. Crusades Through Arab Eyes, A. Malouf.
10.
Library, for my own interest:
will put aside if boring
1. Byzantium and the early Islamic conquests, W.E. Kaegi
2. Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: the transformation of northern Mesopotamia, C.F. Robinson.
3. Medieval India: researches in the history of India 1200-1750, I. Habib.
4. The Ottoman Empire 1300-1650: the structure of power, C. Imber.
5. The Ottoman Empire: 1326-1699, S. Turnbull.
6. The Silk Road, F. Wood.
7. The Silk Road: a history, Franck & Brownstone.
8. The Silk Road and beyond: trade, travel and transformation, K. Manchester (ed).
9. The Silk Road: trade, travel, war and faith, S. Whitfield (ed).
10. Medieval Russia 980-1584, J. Martin (and there's even a lending copy!).
Reading the Byzantium book has made me much more interested in the contact, conversation and conflict across the eastern world, beyond the borders of what became Latin Europe, than I was before. So this is a good selection of books, I hope, to sample, in between Real Work building up my picture of the Greek world and acquiring Broad Background in History.
I've been putting off a number of books on my personal list - I've had the Man book and the Malouf book for ages, and never, it seemed, the right time to read it. There's an appalling number of books on my shelf, actually, from back in the mists of time when I had a job and cash moneys. Victorian, early modern England, a lot of WWII France books, some Stalinist Russian history, a little bit of early modern Europe stuff, maybe three American history books, an intimidatingly large history of the Balkans, and Guido Majno's massive The Healing Hand, which I'm sure I'll just as soon as I have the courage to embark upon it. Not to mention the handful of Greek history books that escaped being read, and the stulifying original sources I haven't been able to bring myself to read.
I'll work my way through it all eventually.
Also on the to-do list this summer: more Latin, more Greek, a refresher dip through French - I'll start off with vocabulary, that should be simple enough, and work up to reading some Harry Potter or short stories or something - and an introduction to German.
The German should be... interesting. I have no background in it at all, and no idea how to start. However, start I must, since the languages of Classical scholarship are English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Greek, with some forays more recently in Polish.
I could use the college's resources to learn a language. But. I think I learn well enough on my own without signing up for a class that might interfere with my proper classes next year. So. Plan is, find a book, and start plugging away at grammar and vocabulary.
(I need to start Latin from scratch again, since I've forgotten all I learned last summer. Ah, learning. Ah, memory.)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-12 12:08 am (UTC)(I was doing both Spanish and German in my final year in high school. To say I was entertaining in class exercises is an understatement. *g*)
I could wish myself more proficient now, but like so many other skills I'd like, idealism falls short when faced with the reality of only 24 hours in a day. Language skills just have too low a priority.
Don't forget that
no subject
Date: 2009-06-12 12:24 am (UTC)Basically, my plan is to acquire a grammatical structure - since I have one in Greek and French, and vague half-remembered Latin - and then get a kid's book in German - Harry Potter or something - and plug in vocabulary.
(Since my lecturer's technique in Greek was to give us some vocabulary and grammar, and then give us bible to translate, I think I'm just going to copy it.)
I don't need perfect German - hell, I don't even need good German - but I do need enough of the language to skim-read scholarship, pick out relevent bits, and translate those bits more thoroughly. I also need to get back up that level of skill in French.
(Irish, alas, is falling by the wayside. But it's a historical curiosity to which I have a little emotional attachment, so maybe someday.)
I'm trying to become Learned. You know, it's harder than some people make it look? :P
no subject
Date: 2009-06-12 12:25 am (UTC)