Monday, August 04, 2008

Sunday Salon - a day late

This week I finished The Lais of Marie de France and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

The Lais is a series of stories written by a medieval french woman. I had to read one, Eliduc in college. I remember liking it, which is why I wanted to read the book. Overall the stories were interesting, and I enjoyed the book. I give it 3.5/5. A fine quote from the lai Equitan:

Love is not honorable, unless it is based on equality.


Cloud Atlas was a great book, 4.25/5. It is a series of six nested stories, loosely connected. Even though I enjoyed it, I had two minor quibbles. First, the stories ran A B C D E F E D C B A and by the time I got back to C, B and A, I had lost track of what was going on. Second, I felt the end sort of petered out without really coming to any kind of conclusion. Still, a great book. I am looking forward to reading more by David Mitchell, probably number9dream.

This week I added Margaret Atwood's Blind Assassin to my book collection. I am a member of both Borders and Barnes & Nobles, which means that they will send me discount coupons, especially Borders from whom I receive a coupon weekly. After purchasing Atwood's book, I remembered that I had wanted to get Reading the OED, but forgot. Well, this morning, I received another coupon from Borders for 40% off a purchase of $20 or more, so I will be going to get Reading the OED later today.

No comments: