Books I Read in 1997 (92 titles)

More or less; I started keeping track diligently in the summer; so there are a few titles missing.

Fiction

April Lady
Author: Georgette Heyer

As the Crow Flies
Author: Jeffery Archer

Behind the Mask
Author: Kim Larabee

The Book of Ruth
Author: Jane Hamilton

Cassandra
Author: Christa Wolffs

Belgariad Series – Castle of Wizardry
Author: David Eddings

Belgariad Series – Enchanter’s End Game
Author: David Eddings

Belgariad Series – Magician’s Gambit
Author: David Eddings

Belgariad Series – Pawn of Prophecy
Author: David Eddings

Belgariad Series – Queen of Sorcery
Author: David Eddings

A Civil Contract
Author: Georgette Heyer

The Corinthian
Author: Georgette Heyer

Cotillion
Author: Georgette Heyer

The Dreyfus Affair
Author: Peter LefCourt

Ellen Foster
Author: Kay Gibbons

The Chronicles of Narnia – The Magician’s Nephew (Book 1)
Author: C. S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Book 2)
Author: C. S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia – The Silver Chair
Author: C. S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian
Author: C. S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia – Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Book 5)
Author: C. S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia – The Horse and His Boy (Book 6)
Author: C. S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia – The Last Battle (Book 7)
Author: C. S. Lewis

Faro’s Daughter
Author: Georgette Heyer

Earthsea Trilogy – The Farthest Shore
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Earthsea Trilogy – Tombs of Atuan
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Earthsea Trilogy – A Wizard of Earth Sea
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Earthsea Trilogy – Tehanu
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Foucault’s Pendulum
Author: Umberto Eco

Friday’s Child
Author: Georgette Heyer

The Grand Sophy
Author: Georgette Heyer

The Island of the Day Before
Author: Umberto Eco

Ladylord
Author: Sasha Miller

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – The Fellowship of the Ring
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – The Two Towers
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – The Return of the King
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Lord of the Dead
Author: Tom Holland

The Modigliani Scandal
Author: Ken Follett

The Moor’s Last Sigh
Author: Salman Rushdie

The Name of the Rose
Author: Umberto Eco

Never Say Never
Author: Linda Hill

The Nonesuch
Author: Georgette Heyer

Pembroke Park
Author: Michelle Martin

Persuasion
Author: Jane Austen

Primary Colors
Author: Anonymous

The Rapture of Canaan
Author: Sheri Reynolds

Sophie’s World
Author: Jostein Gaardner

Speaking Dreams
Author: Severna Parks

Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle
Author: Georgette Heyer

These Old Shades
Author: Georgette Heyer

A Virtuous Woman
Author: Kay Gibbons

Oathbound – Vows and Honor Series
Author: Mercedes Lackey

Oathbreakers – Vows and Honor Series
Author: Mercedes Lackey

Warrior Woman
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Xena: Warrior Princess – The Empty Throne
Author: Ru Emerson

Xena: Warrior Princess – The Huntress and the Sphinx
Author: Ru Emerson

Xena: Warrior Princess – The Thief of Hermes
Author: Ru Emerson

Xena: Warrior Princess – Prophecy of Darkness
Author: Stella Howard, S. D. Perry

Non-Fiction

The Age of Chivalry
Author: National Geographic Society

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Author: Anne Frank

The Art of Fiction
Author: John Gardner

The Book of Crests
Author: Mike MacLaren

Castles
Author: Eyewitness Books

Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dating
Author: Judith Kuriansky

Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wine
Author:

A Dictionary of Heraldry
Author: Stephen Friar

Erotic Poems
Editor: Peter Washington

Eve’s Revenge: Sinners and Saints and Stand-Up Sisters on the Ultimate Extinction of Men
Author: Tama Starr

Everyday Life of Medieval Travelers
Author: Marjorie Rowlings

Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half Truths: Selected Aphorisms
Author: Karl Krauss

Heroines
Author: Norma Jean Goodrich

A History of Erotic Literature
Author: Patrick J. Kearney

I Know You Really Love Me
Author: Dr. Doreen Orion

How to Travel with an Salmon and Other Essays
Author: Umberto Eco

Illustrator Type Magic
Author: Greg Simsic

Journal of a Solitude
Author: May Sarton

Knights
Author: Eyewitness Books

Love and Friendship
Author: Allan Bloom

Mythology
Author: Edith Hamilton

Photoshop 4.0 Classroom in a Book
Author: Adobe Press

Photoshop Type Magic
Author: Greg Simsic

Photoshop Web Magic
Author: Michael Ninness

The Poetry of Byron, Keats and Shelley
Author:

The Regency Rakes
Author: E. Beresford Chancellor

The Age of Scandal: An Excursion Through a Minor Period
Author: T. H. White

Sexuality in Western Art
Author: Edward Lucie Smith

The Tao of Pooh
Author: Benjamin Hoff

The Te of Piglet
Author: Benjamin Hoff

Teach Yourself Photoshop in 14 Days
Author: T. Michael Clark

Walden Pond
Author: H. D. Thoreau

Warriors of Medieval Times
Author: John Matthews and Bob Stewart

Wicked German for the Traveler
Author: Harold Tomb

Xenophobe’s Guide to Americans
Author: Stephanie Faul

Xenophobe’s Guide to Germans
Author: Stephan Ziedenitz, Ben Barkow

Continue ReadingBooks I Read in 1997 (92 titles)

The Prophet "on Marriage"

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Khalil Gibran
From the Book: The Prophet

Then Almitra spoke again and said…
"And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:

You were born together,
and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together
when the white wings of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together
even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress
grow not in each other’s shadow.

Continue ReadingThe Prophet "on Marriage"

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

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Christopher Marlowe – 1599
From the Book: The Complete Poems and Translations

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant poises,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherds’s swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

Continue ReadingThe Passionate Shepherd to His Love

IF

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Rudyard Kipling
From the Book: Rudyard Kipling: Everyman’s Poetry Library

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting;
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating;
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Continue ReadingIF

In Excelsis

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Amy Lowell
From the Book: Complete Poetical Works of Amy Lowell

You — you —
Your shadow is sunlight on a plate of silver;
Your footsteps, the seeding-place of lilies;
Your hands moving, a chime of bells across a windless air.

The movement of your hands is the long, golden running of light from a rising sun;
It is the hopping of birds upon a garden-path.

As the perfume of jonquils, you come forth in the morning.
Young horses are not more sudden than your thoughts,
Your words are bees about a pear-tree,
Your fancies are the gold-and-black striped wasps buzzing among red apples.
I drink your lips,
I eat the whiteness of your hands and feet.
My mouth is open,
As a new jar I am empty and open.
Like white water are you who fill the cup of my mouth,
Like a brook of water thronged with lilies.

You are frozen as the clouds,
You are far and sweet as the high clouds.
I dare to reach to you,
I dare to touch the rim of your brightness.
I leap beyond the winds,
I cry and shout,
For my throat is keen as is a sword
Sharpened on a hone of ivory.
My throat sings the joy of my eyes,
The rushing gladness of my love.

How has the rainbow fallen upon my heart?
How have I snared the seas to lie in my fingers
And caught the sky to be a cover for my head? How have you come to dwell with me,
Compassing me with the four circles of your mystic lightness,
So that I say "Glory! Glory!" and bow before you
As to a shrine?

Do I tease myself that morning is morning and a day after?
Do I think the air is a condescension,
The earth a politeness,
Heaven a boon deserving thanks?
So you — air — earth — heaven —
I do not thank you,
I take you,
I live.
And those things which I say in consequence
Are rubies mortised in a gate of stone.

Continue ReadingIn Excelsis

Jane Austen

letter of August 1796, On arriving in London:
Here I am once more in this scene of dissipation and vice, and I begin already to find my morals corrupted.

letter of October 27 1798:
Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.

letter of December 24, 1798:
I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.
You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve.

letter of January 21, 1799:
I had a very pleasant evening, however, though you will probably find out that there was no particular reason for it; but I do not think it worth while to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.

letter of October 25 1800, On the weather:
We have been exceedingly busy ever since you went away. In the first place we have had to rejoice two or three times everyday at your having such very delightful weather for the whole of your journey…

letter of January 7, 1807:
You will have a great deal of unreserved discourse with Mrs. K., I dare say, upon this subject, as well as upon many other of our family matters. Abuse everybody but me.

letter of May 31, 1811, On the Peninsular War:
How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!

letter of May 31 1811:
I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive.

Continue ReadingJane Austen

Ode To The Malty Brew

Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.
–Dave Barry

Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.
–Dave Barry

The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.
–Humphrey Bogart

People who drink light "beer" don’t like the taste of beer; they just like to pee a lot.
–Capital Brewery, Middleton, WI

Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
–Winston Churchill

A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.
–W.C. Fields

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
–Benjamin Franklin

If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose.
–Deep Thought, Jack Handy

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
–by Jack Handy

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.
–Ernest Hemingway

Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.
–Ernest Hemingway

They who drink beer will think beer.
–Washington Irving

What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?
–Tee Mans

You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.
–Dean Martin

Life is a waste of time, time is a waste of life, so get wasted all of the time and have the time of your life.
— Michelle Mastrolacasa

Why is American beer served cold? So you can distinguish it from urine.
–David Moulton

I drink to make other people interesting.
–George Jean Nathan

When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. Sooooo, let’s all get drunk and go to heaven!
— Brian O’Rourke

He was a wise man who invented beer.
–Plato

Continue ReadingOde To The Malty Brew

Selected Sonnets

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William Shakespeare
From the Book: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [UNABRIDGED]

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d,
But they eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade
When in enternal lines to time thou growest;
     So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 23

As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put beside his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength’s abundance weakens his own heart;
So I for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love’s rite,
And in mine own love’s strength seem to decay,
O’ercharged with burthen of my own love’s might.
O let my books be then, the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast;
Who plead for love, and look for recompense
More than that tongue that hath more express’d.
     O learn to read what silent love hath writ:
     To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit.

Sonnet 26

Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Thy merit my duty strongly knit,
To thee I send this written embassage,
To witness duty, not to show my wit.
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it;
But that I hope some good conceit of thine
In thy soul’s thought, all naked, will bestow it:
Till whatsoever star that guides by moving,
points on me graciously with fair aspect,
And puts apparel on my tatter’d loving,
To show me worthy of thy sweet respect:
     Then may I dare not to boast how I do love thee,
     Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.

Sonnet 46

Mine eye and heart are at mortal war,
How to divide the conquest of they sight;
Mine eye my heart they picture’s sight would bar,
My heart mine eye the freadom of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
(A closet never pierc’d with crystal eyes,)
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him they fair appearance lies.
To ‘cide this title is impannelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye’s moiety, and the dear heart’s part
     As thus, mine eye’s due is thine outward part,
     And my heart’s right thine inward love of heart

Sonnet 57

Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend,
Nor services to do till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end-hour,
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour,
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But like a sad slave, stay and think of nought,
Save, where you are how happy you make those;
     So true a fool is love, that in your will
     (Though you do anything) he thinks no ill.

Sonnet 78

So oft I have invok’d thee for my muse,
And found such fair assistance in my verse,
As every alien pen hath got my use,
And under thee their poesy disperse.
Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing,
And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,
Have added feather’s to the learned’s wing,
And given grace a double majesty.
Yet be most proud of that which I compile,
Whose influence is thine and borne of thee:
In others’ works thou dost but mend the style,
And arts with thy sweet graces graced be;
     But thou are all my art, and dost advance
     As high as learning my rude ignorance.

Continue ReadingSelected Sonnets

Poems by Stephen Crane

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From the Book: The Complete Poems of Stephen Crane

The Heart

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter—bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

A Man Said to the Universe

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

The Wayfarer

The wayfarer
Perceiving the pathway to truth
Was struck with astonishment.
It was thickly grown with weeds.
"Ha," he said,
"I see that none has passed here
"In a long time."
Later he saw that each weed
Was a singular knife.
"Well," he mumbled at last,
"Doubtless there are other roads."

I Saw a Man Pursuing The Horizon

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never–"
"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

Many Workmen

Many workmen
Built a huge ball of masonry
Upon a mountaintop.
Then they went to the valley below,
And turned to behold their work.
"It is grand," they said;
They loved the thing.

Of a sudden, it moved.
It came upon them swiftly;
It crushed them all to blood.
But some had opportunity to squeal.

Many Red Devils

Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page.
They were so tiny
Then pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.

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The Condor

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Truman Capote

Like the mighty Condor,
    It’s vulture wings
Against a copper sky.
I have waited and watched
For my prey!
My victim is immortality-
To be something and be remembered-
Is that not, too, your idle dream?
For in remembrance we hold life itself
Cupped tenderly in aged hands.
    You say-"He’s a fool and a dreamer."
I laugh, and let my laughter,
Like a bright and terrible knife
Go tearing through your hearts!
For you know and I know,
No matter how young, how old,
We are only waiting,
Waiting to see our names in
            Scriptures
of stone.
So it is today and so it will be
            tomorrow!

Continue ReadingThe Condor