I got a couple of biographies from "The Life and Works" series by Edmund Singlehorse. It's a collection of artists like Botticelli, Da Vinci, Cezanne, Pissarro, and Caravaggio. It's excellent and pretty informative. I've only leafed through about two of them so I guess I'll just save talking about the entire collection until after I've finished reading all. I'm excited. I only had one art course throughout my university years so my background is pretty weak, save for artists that I really like (like Picasso!). These books will help me learn more about the beaux arts, I'm sure.
I also got The Ultimate Encyclopedia Of Mythology, which is karmic since I gave my Edith Hamilton's Mythology to my cousin, Ysabella. Mythology will always have a special place in my heart because my childhood was all about reading Greek and Roman Mythology. Now, I can learn about Egyptian, Norse and Asian mythology. It's all very exciting!
Some other random gifts were popular books such as Stieg Larsson's trilogy (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), foodie books, a very thick 5-in-1 Kurt Vonnegut book (I did a small wolf whistle when I opened it), books about French culture, philosophy books, art history books, biographies and strangely, a book about Tudor England. (Seriously, why though?) I'm not complaining! So many nice things to read!
In any case, I'm very happy with my new books and I can't wait to share them all with you guys (invisible, non-existent people whom I refer to as my readers!).
I've already blogged about my favorite picture book (okay, wrong term but I don't have a coffee table and personally, I feel like "picture book" is a better description), Alexander Liberman's Then. Maybe next time I can write about my art books or about Caligula! Ah, so many books to read. All I need is time which I hope I get really soon.
I thought I'd start the year right by reading about French cuisine but so many things got in the way. I'm sure I'm going to have some down time but for now, I have to read all about Economics and the politics of 19th - 2oth century Europe. It's great and I feel like I'm really preparing for the comprehensive exams I'll be taking after a year or so, but I'm not doing as well as I'd like to and I feel like I have to put more effort into graduate school. *insert defeated whimper right here* Well, okay, I think I just brought myself down with that sentence. I'll figure it out, somehow.
New books, that's my point (I hope you never notice how bad my transition is whenever I write, but I bet you do). I hope to acquire more books this year and actually get to read them at least twice. What have you been reading lately? Is it any good? I hope you have read some fine books over January. I think it's a good way to start the year. I put a premium on my first books of the year. I'd like to think it gives me a set perspective about the year, and my life in general. :) On to the future, here's to the first month of 2011!
