Books More Interesting Than Weather, Report Says

Apparently we’ve just had the wettest August in recorded weather history, an average of 185mm of rain drowning our lands (to a normal standard of about 60mm in the same month); in some areas, even the 300mm rain mark was passed. It was colder than normal, too, with something like 16 degrees C to 17 C standards. If only El Niño were still around, then we could blame it all on him!

While my agenda has been fairly occupied each day for the past two weeks, there’s really not all that much to tell about it all. I baby-sat three times now, last time being yesterday evening, which made me a little money on the side for very little work. The three children are getting used to me, and I’ve only heard “We want a girl baby-sit!” once, on the first night, when I was having some difficulty getting them to sleep.

Also, I finished Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales a few days ago, which was a good read, for the most part. The tale of saint Cecilia (The Second Nun’s Tale) has to be one of the worst stories I’ve ever read, though, and that in pretty poor rhyme, too. A bad way to conclude any book, but luckily the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale made up for it by giving a very interesting insight into alchemy and conmen. The rest were quite well written, though the stories not always as appealing, and some were a bit tedious. I didn’t mind the Squire’s Tale being cut halfway through, for example.

I’ll be away this weekend, as we’ll be planning the program for Tafelstraat for the coming year. For my own reading, I’ll be bringing “The Princely Court: Medieval Courts and Culture in North-West Europe (1270-1380)” by Malcolm Vale. It’s a very good read, and even the financial aspect, which I’m dealing with now, is interesting.
For some lighter entertainment, a very abridged English translation of Froissart’s Chroniques will be coming with me, too. Good ol’ 14th Century.