Book Beginnings #14, The Friday 56 #15 & Book Blogger Hop #3

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The weekly post goes up every Thursday and bloggers can add their links all week.



synopsis from GoodReads:
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the First Folio, 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility. As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia and Touchstone the court jester, to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden.  

Here is the beginning:

Enter ORLANDO and ADAM
ORLANDO and ADAM enter.
ORLANDO

As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou sayest, charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well. And there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly of his profit. For my part, he keeps me rustically at home or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home unkept; for call you that “keeping” for a gentleman of my birth that differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better, for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage and, to that end, riders dearly hired. But I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth, for the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave me his countenance seems to take from me. He lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my education. This is it, Adam, that grieves me, and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude. I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice

For the Friday 56, here is 56%, nothing special at this point, I'm afraid:

CELIA

I would sing my song without a burden. Thou bring’st me out of tune.
ROSALIND

Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak. Sweet, say on.

hosted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer

Q: Which is your favorite library (or which would you most like to visit)? 2. How often do you visit the library? 

A: I'm not sure which one I would like to visit, but I visit my local library a few times a month. 

Book Beginnings #13, The Friday 56 #14 & Book Blogger Hop #2: Tigana

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The weekly post goes up every Thursday and bloggers can add their links all week.

My book this week is the fantasy novel Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. This is not my first book by him; I tried The Lions of Al-Rassan and didn't like it, but so far I like this one much better.

There are some quotes at the beginning: 

All that you held most dear you will put by 

and leave behind you; and this is the arrow 

the longbow of your exile first lets fly. 

You will come to know how bitter as salt and stone 

is the bread of others, how hard the way that goes 

up and down stairs that never are your own. 

Dante, The Paradiso 

What can a flame remember? If it remembers a little less than is necessary, it goes out; if it remembers a little more than is necessary, it goes out. If only it could teach us, while it burns, to remember correctly. 

George Seferis, "Stratis the Sailor Describes a Man"

The prologue: 

Both moons were high, dimming the light of all but the brightest stars. The campfires burned on either side of the river, stretching away into the night. 

The first chapter: 

In the autumn season of the wine, word went forth from among the cypresses and olives and the laden vines of his country that Sandre, Duke of Astibar, once ruled of that city and its province, had drawn the last bitter breath of his exile and age and died. 

I am halfway through and not sure that the prologue was really necessary. I like the first chapter, though.

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice

For the Friday 56, here is page 56:

Autumn was very definitely upon them, with the Ember Days approaching fast. It would not be long, a matter of days, before the first frost touched those last few precious grapes that had been left on chosen vines to become -- if all fell rightly -- the icy blue clear wine that was the pride of Astibar.

hosted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer

Q: What's the oldest work (by publication date) you've read?

A: According to GoodReads, it is The Iliad, -890 B.C.E.

Book Beginnings & The Friday 56: Galileo's Daughter (+Book Blogger Hop)

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The weekly post goes up every Thursday and bloggers can add their links all week.



Today I am featuring my current audiobook, Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love by Dava Sobel. It begins with a letter from Galileo's oldest daughter, born of his affair with Marina Gamba of Venice. In the letter, she offers her condolences for the death of his sister (her aunt). The letter is dated the 10th of May, 1623, and written from her convent in San Matteo.

"Most Illustrious Lord Father 

We are terribly saddened by the death of your cherished sister, our dear aunt; but our sorrow at losing her is as nothing compared to our concern for your sake, because your suffering will be all the greater, Sire, as truly you have no one else left in your world, now that she, who could not have been more precious to you, has departed, and therefore we can only imagine how you sustain the severity of such a sudden and completely unexpected blow." 

This is the first of 124 letters from their correspondence. Her name was Virginia, and she adopted the name Maria Celeste when she became a nun, "in a gesture that acknowledged her father's fascination with the stars."

"She alone of Galileo's three children mirrored his own brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante." 

For the Friday 56, I am sharing a snippet from 56% in the audiobook. Galileo's attempts to get his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems approved for publication are interrupted by the arrival of the Black Death, as the deadly plague that had spread through Milan and Turin over the past year moved south to invade the city of Florence." 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice

Book Blogger Hop