"... hearing oftentimes / The still, sad music of humanity, / Nor harsh nor grating"

[larryhammer]

Current reading: The Old Man Mad About Drawing written and illustrated by Francois Place (with additional drawings and prints by Hokusai), translated by William Rodarmor. Lavishly illustrated, I should say, with full color on every page -- this is a children's book and the creator clearly loves the daily life details of Edo. The story itself takes a typical tactic for historical fiction for children in creating a young point-of-view who interacts with the historical characters -- here, Tojiro "the sparrow" who becomes old man Hokusai's assistant in the studio. If you or a young person of your acquaintance likes this sort of thing, this would make a perfect gift. Recommended regardless.

Also, undertaking my sometimes-annual reread of Auden's For the Time Being with a new (in several senses) family member brings interesting resonances to the text. Why yes, opening chorus, things have indeed changed from the former cycle of ups and downs -- they have indeed.

(Other books recently read, while I'm at it, are the two latest Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs, Frost Burned and Night Broken. They are, for better or worse, of a muchness of the previous couple installments.)

---L.

Subject quote from "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey," William Wordsworth .

Comments

reposting without link because apparently any link is death, wtf lj

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

*makes a note*

We've enjoyed Brush of the Gods by Lenore Look, FWIW, though it took till the second library borrowing (age 3.25; first was 2.5) for the plot to make proper sense to my child.

Re: reposting without link because apparently any link is death, wtf lj

[larryhammer]

That looks excellent. *scribbles note for later*

---L.