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What I Just Finished Reading
The High King – Lloyd Alexander
As ever, finishing this book fills me with satisfaction but also sadness because as with all well-told stories, it’s clear that the characters’ lives and adventures continue and we’re just not privy to them anymore. And I still feel that ( cut for spoilers. ) That said, there's such joy in meeting all Prydain's citizens again, and The High King is such a rewarding conclusion to the series.
Celtic Key Patterns – Iain Bain
Logging this in LT, I learned that Iain Bain passed away in 2018, joining the growing list of authors whose books were foundational to my childhood and who won't ever write any more. It’s a particular shame, because Celtic Key Patterns is the finest book on its subject; Bain’s method is easy to learn and lets readers both reproduce traditional designs and create entirely new ones.
Zen Antics – Thomas Cleary
Apparently I read this in 2008, which I would never know without my having logged it as I retained absolutely no memory of it whatsoever. It's fine for what it is: a collection of 100 stories of Zen adepts, lay and monastic. Cleary is a talented translator, perhaps too much so for my wants: “Then Hakuin traveled to a temple on the outskirts of Kyoto where a famous baron, having learned of his Zen mastery, visited him.” Which temple? Which baron? It’s a very smooth translation for readers who just want the main points, but to me the absence of detail frustrates because I probably know something about the barons and have been to many of the temples. There’s also a bit of the “Zen is inscrutable and lacking in reason” to be had here, as in any book that strips the doings from the framework in the service of producing amusing anecdotes.
Maze Patterns– Aidan Meehan
The chapters on the reconstruction and likely ritual meaning of the Catmonica Valley maze make for interesting reading; otherwise Meehan’s explanation amounts to “just draw the patterns freehand,” advice no one needs to pay $16.00 to figure out.
Celtic Knotwork – Andy Sloss
Sloss’s method will reliably produce interwoven patterns. Many, however, violate the rules of traditional Celtic knotwork, producing cords that form closed loops, double back on themselves, or don’t interweave within a grid unit. There’s no need for interwoven patterns to adhere to the rules of Celtic interwoven patterns, but you also can’t call them Celtic if they don’t, in the same way I can’t claim that I’ve written this in Italian since both languages use combinations of the same letters.
Anyone who does want to produce proper Celtic knotwork will find that Sloss’s method is useful for mocking up drafts to see what fits into a given space, but other methods require less effort to get consistent cord widths and curves. Where the book justifies its cost is because Sloss, in order to write a computer program to generate Celtic-style interwoven patterns, mathematically worked out all the possible ways two cords can exist in a grid unit. He includes these in Part 2 alongside four charted sections on 6x6 to 12x9 grids that are an excellent resource for plotting out Celtic cross stitch patterns. But! Not only are these suited for cross stitch, knitting, embroidery, beadwork, and crochet, “they can also be used for bitmap images on TV or computer screens." Indeed, the Netscape Age milieu in which Sloss wrote this book is perhaps the most fun thing about it.
Guys, it is 1995 and we are changing the world with our PERSONAL DESKTOP COMPUTERS.
Rat Queens vol. 3 – Wiebe et al.
Still as fun as ever, with more plot and character development.
What I Am Currently Reading
Marked – Sarah Fine
A free amazon drek download from several years ago. I’m reading one chapter a day until I’m done to get it out of my TBR queue.
The Occult Book – Mark Greer
This is proving to be a hefty, but quick, read.
The Midnight Queen – Sylvia Izzo Hunter
I should finish this one up this week.
A Handbook of the Cornish Language – Henry Jenner
Published in 1904 and still fascinating, although boy howdy, that section on the conquest of Britain’s “aborigines” by the “higher Aryan races.”
What I'm Reading Next
I went a little nuts this week, and picked up a copies of Alexander G. Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica vols. 1 & 2, Matt Clayton’s Mythology, F. Marian McNeill’s The Silver Bough vol. 1, Garth Nix’s Angel Mage, Anne Ross’s The Druids, An Hobys by J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Sorceror of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson through Tor.
これで以上です。
The High King – Lloyd Alexander
As ever, finishing this book fills me with satisfaction but also sadness because as with all well-told stories, it’s clear that the characters’ lives and adventures continue and we’re just not privy to them anymore. And I still feel that ( cut for spoilers. ) That said, there's such joy in meeting all Prydain's citizens again, and The High King is such a rewarding conclusion to the series.
Celtic Key Patterns – Iain Bain
Logging this in LT, I learned that Iain Bain passed away in 2018, joining the growing list of authors whose books were foundational to my childhood and who won't ever write any more. It’s a particular shame, because Celtic Key Patterns is the finest book on its subject; Bain’s method is easy to learn and lets readers both reproduce traditional designs and create entirely new ones.
Zen Antics – Thomas Cleary
Apparently I read this in 2008, which I would never know without my having logged it as I retained absolutely no memory of it whatsoever. It's fine for what it is: a collection of 100 stories of Zen adepts, lay and monastic. Cleary is a talented translator, perhaps too much so for my wants: “Then Hakuin traveled to a temple on the outskirts of Kyoto where a famous baron, having learned of his Zen mastery, visited him.” Which temple? Which baron? It’s a very smooth translation for readers who just want the main points, but to me the absence of detail frustrates because I probably know something about the barons and have been to many of the temples. There’s also a bit of the “Zen is inscrutable and lacking in reason” to be had here, as in any book that strips the doings from the framework in the service of producing amusing anecdotes.
Maze Patterns– Aidan Meehan
The chapters on the reconstruction and likely ritual meaning of the Catmonica Valley maze make for interesting reading; otherwise Meehan’s explanation amounts to “just draw the patterns freehand,” advice no one needs to pay $16.00 to figure out.
Celtic Knotwork – Andy Sloss
Sloss’s method will reliably produce interwoven patterns. Many, however, violate the rules of traditional Celtic knotwork, producing cords that form closed loops, double back on themselves, or don’t interweave within a grid unit. There’s no need for interwoven patterns to adhere to the rules of Celtic interwoven patterns, but you also can’t call them Celtic if they don’t, in the same way I can’t claim that I’ve written this in Italian since both languages use combinations of the same letters.
Anyone who does want to produce proper Celtic knotwork will find that Sloss’s method is useful for mocking up drafts to see what fits into a given space, but other methods require less effort to get consistent cord widths and curves. Where the book justifies its cost is because Sloss, in order to write a computer program to generate Celtic-style interwoven patterns, mathematically worked out all the possible ways two cords can exist in a grid unit. He includes these in Part 2 alongside four charted sections on 6x6 to 12x9 grids that are an excellent resource for plotting out Celtic cross stitch patterns. But! Not only are these suited for cross stitch, knitting, embroidery, beadwork, and crochet, “they can also be used for bitmap images on TV or computer screens." Indeed, the Netscape Age milieu in which Sloss wrote this book is perhaps the most fun thing about it.
Guys, it is 1995 and we are changing the world with our PERSONAL DESKTOP COMPUTERS.
Rat Queens vol. 3 – Wiebe et al.
Still as fun as ever, with more plot and character development.
What I Am Currently Reading
Marked – Sarah Fine
A free amazon drek download from several years ago. I’m reading one chapter a day until I’m done to get it out of my TBR queue.
The Occult Book – Mark Greer
This is proving to be a hefty, but quick, read.
The Midnight Queen – Sylvia Izzo Hunter
I should finish this one up this week.
A Handbook of the Cornish Language – Henry Jenner
Published in 1904 and still fascinating, although boy howdy, that section on the conquest of Britain’s “aborigines” by the “higher Aryan races.”
What I'm Reading Next
I went a little nuts this week, and picked up a copies of Alexander G. Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica vols. 1 & 2, Matt Clayton’s Mythology, F. Marian McNeill’s The Silver Bough vol. 1, Garth Nix’s Angel Mage, Anne Ross’s The Druids, An Hobys by J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Sorceror of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson through Tor.
これで以上です。
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