reading (The Aesop for Children)

I finished "The Aesop for Children" a week or so ago. This version of Aesop's fables was originally published in 1919 and republished by Scholastic in 1994. I picked it up at a book sale, with the intention of sending it on to my brother's family. I was attracted to it by the large format and the bright, stylized pictures. Unfortunately, I found the text to be awful. The stories are poorly told, the morals are muddled, and the telling makes the stories less interesting and fun. I'm now disinclined to pass this book along. If you ever encounter this book, make sure you read some of the stories before purchasing it.

54. "The Aesop for Children"

reading (Once Upon a Time in the North)

I finished Philip Pullman's "Once Upon a Time in the North" earlier this week, Tuesday maybe. This is a small, thin volume. It seems to me it was just a profit-taking venture to make money off the fan base of the His Dark Materials series. The plot is a block of Swiss cheese, the writing is uninspired, and the characterization is anorexic. I think all of the above could have been remedied with a little more effort. The location is interesting. The world is interesting. The plot could have been patched and made basic but tenable. The characters could have been given reasons for their interactions. But I just didn't see it here.

55. Philip Pullman "Once Upon a Time in the North"

reading(Endurance)

I stayed up late last night to finish Alfred Lansing's "Endurance", an account of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The book was first published in 1959 and the edition I have is from 2000. This account of Earnest Shackleton's epic expedition strikes a nice middle ground, giving a fair amount of detail while still moving along at a reasonable pace. Any shorter and it would have felt like skimming, longer might have felt like a winter night in the antarctic. I found the beginning notably jarring, the book started in the middle of the story and then jumped back to the beginning, but other than that, the story carries the day.

On the story itself: This is perhaps the most incredible story of human endurance and ability. If you aren't familiar with the story of the "Endurance" and her crew, you should be. There aren't adjectives enough to describe the tale. It doesn't matter how many times I hear it, or read it, the story is overwhelming.

56. Alfred Lansing "Endurance"