(Thanks. I checked Amazon. Currently unavailable. Out of print.)
I just started “Pride and Prejudice”.
It is probably required Highschool reading but I’ve never read it. My wife picked it up for a Buck.
Thinking about the free summer I’m deciding on reading Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom by Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath
It was recommended by my Latin instructor a while ago, but I’ve been quite busy. However, I’ve suddenly fallen into wanting to read the book after finding some new realizations in life. Plus, Victor Davis Hanson was my teacher’s teacher, so, I had the opportunity to learn two years of Latin from a student of a very world reknown Classicists.
Currently I’m reading Jane Eyre over summer, but I can’t wait to get a copy of Who Killed Homer, I’ve read some info on it online, but I want a copy of my own.
hi all, i’ve got a few new books to read now, just got back from hols overseas. i got a new book, Les catégories et leur histoire (Vrin 2005) at Vrin near the Sorbonne (along with ~300 euros of other books: that has to be my fav bookstore in the world 
). i also got mazon’s iliad and the 16-cd audio recitation of mazon: i know you can get it on 2 mp3 cds now but i couldn’t find that version. started reading mazon on the painful 21 hour flight home
i was impressed with how many greek resources italy had. i don’t know why but i thought it would be all latin stuff. i actually got lots of aristotle OCTS and Budé Les Belles Lettres in Herder in Rome: the top floor has lots of stuff you can’t get in Sydney at all.
some other things i’m reading, i discovered in italy for the 1st time: the Società Editrice Dante Alighieri commentaries. you can buy them in little book stores and markets (in pisa and lucca at least, probably elsewhere too) second hand for 1 or 2 euros each. they don’t publish them any more though i think. i couldn’t find them in rome. each has lots of useful stuff in them: the greek text, then underneath a re-wording of the greek in a simplified word order, and the corresponding italian word under each greek word; then in the back there’s a full list of the parsing of each verb in the order it appears in the text. even if you can’t speak italian (like me) they are really useful. i bought these for some iliad books, demosthenes, lysias and plato. the only downside is that the greek text is not reliable; it’s full of spelling mistakes.
apart from that the only thing i’m reading here and there is “Making Classical Art: Process and Practice” and “Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture” which I got here in Sydney second hand.
Yes, and you can get other similar things too, but less thorough. Similar things used to be pulished here in Britian too, many years ago, when Latin and Greek were more widely taught at school: they’re cribs. And useful too! Where were you based? Lucca?
hi, we spent 2 weeks in rome, then a week in florence and siena and a week in paris. we were going to do tuscany but you need a car and neither my girlfriend nor i can drive!
Most of those booklets are used by high school students. I had a fair collection: it was very good for homework 
. I didn’t know they don’t publish anymore, I saw books published last year:
http://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/goto/publisher_Dante+Alighieri/shelf_BIT/Dante_Alighieri.html
More famous ones for students are the bignami’s, but I have no idea who publishes them, sorry.
A good number of Latin & Greek books, similar to Loeb, double text Greek&Latin/Italian, is published by the Fondazione Valla. It is a foundation dedicated to classics. Have a look at the publisher’s site:
http://www.liberonweb.com/mondadori/fvalla.asp
I’ve just received the 2 volumes antology on the ancient mysteries religions, very nice but I haven’t start reading it yet
If you can read Italian, one of the biggest collection is B.U.R. It’s similar to Fondazione Valla but much cheaper. The catalogue at:
http://bur.rcslibri.corriere.it/riscat.php?idcol=605
I am reading Memories of Hadrian by Yourcenar, in Italian traslation. I think I will go to a bookshop to buy the original French version sometime.
I’ve just finished my endless reading of Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae, for an exam, but for enjoyment I am reading Paul Cartledge’s “The Spartans” and an old copy of Jules Vernes “20,000 Leagues under the sea”. Also another old book - Heiberg, J.L., Mathematics & Physical Science in Classical Antiquity, transl. by MacGregor.
But now my exams are finished I am going to look for a good detective story to read on the weekend! My idea of heaven is lying on a deck chair out in the garden with a good detective story and an endless supply of chocolates! At the moment, as it’s the middle of winter and I am trying to lose weight I guess I will have to make do with just the book. 
I love this book!!! You should also check out the A&E movie version starring Colin Firth & Jennifer Ehle. I never tire of watching iit over and over again.
I read ‘Who killed Homer’ while on holiday at Corfu. I was a bit disappointed in it. It will definitely not be put on my bookshelf when I come home next week, so if you haven’t bought a copy yet?
Regards,
Adelheid
May I ask you why you were disappointed? I read the introduction on Amazon.com and the matter seems fascinating.
Regards
Misopogon
Yes, they’re cheap, but they really are a bit tatty too, on pulp paper. The worse thing is that they don’t always give information on the edition followed.
The Fondazione Valla are excellent, especially as they’ve a number of post-classical Greek and Latin authors in the series. Their two volumes on the Fall of Comnstantinople (“Caduta di Costantinopoli”) with Greek, Latin, Italian and French sources in the original with facing page Italian translations (and Arabic and Turkish sources in Italian translation only) are an excellent source book for the end of Byzantium.
Mondadori also do the series Oscar classici greci e latini, which are rather better produced than the BUR (and more expensive as a result - BUR are excellent value).
Other publishers: Marsilio do excerpts from the classics in facing page translation, good for beginners (like me!) as you don’t feel intimidated by facing the whole of Thucydides, for example, but have just the Melian dialogue (Il dialogo dei melii e degli ateniesi) or the Sicilian campaign (La disfatta a Siracusa) to look at, again with facing-page Italian (and a Greek text generally from the Oxford Classical Texts).
Einaudi also do some classics and these are as well produced as anthing else by Einaudi.
I lived in Tuscany for three years (in Lucca) without driving - the first time my Roman girlfriend drove me, I realised that Italian driving was scarier than being driven by a stoned Afghan taxi driver in Abu Dhabi!
Hi Misopogon,
When I’m back from Corfu I will get into detail about why I was not so enthousiastic about the book.
To do the subject justice, I think I need more time than I can take in an internet cafe
Regards,
Adelheid
I started reading “Who Killed Homer” this week because of this thread. I find it very interesting, and I didn’t know it was so controversial. So far I am enjoying the read, but I’m only fifty pages in.
WB
As promised, my opinion of “Who killed Homer?”
Firstly, monocausality (is that an English word?) determines this book, and this oversimplifies the issue discussed.
Now, although I am a trained historian, taught to distrust anything that advocates monocausality, I don’t mind this if authors intend to stir things up and make people think (wanting to create a pamphlet).
But reading “Who killed Homer” I was struck by the seriousness and lack of wit and sharpness that (in my opinion at least) would have to come with a pamphlet.
That is what disappointed me: the utter seriousness and dullness of the book.
I also disagree with the fundamental premisses of the book (‘Homer is dead’ and ‘the professors of the last 2 to 3 decades killed him’), but that is not why I stopped reading this book. After all, I might be wrong about it and the authors might be right.
Right now I am reading “I classici nell’età dell’indiscrezione” by Bettini. Also about the relevancy of the classics.
A different approach, and not as deadly serious as “Who killed Homer?”
Regards,
Adelheid
I read Who Killed Homer and found it good and funny as well, particularly the bit about how one of the Greek teachers the authors were criticising lashed out and publicly accused one of the authors of being a terrorist.
I started reading Pride and Prejudice about a year ago. I read about 60 pages, and while I did not dislike the book, I never managed to compel myself to read the rest. My only other exposure to Ms. Austen was seeing the second half of a theatre production of Emma. While it was a good production and watchable, the whole drama around how I managed to get into a sold-out show for free with gelato on the side is far more memorable to me than the story of Emma - though it might have been a poor adaptation or because I missed the beginning.
I have, since these two experiences, occasionally asked females if they love Jane Austen. Either they haven’t read her or she’s one of their faviorite authors. Some of the males I’ve asked, however, share my indifference. Methinks I’m a tomboy.
Anyway, what am I reading now … well, I would call it chewing rather than reading, but I’m going through some really dense economic material from various sources. I have changed a great deal from a few years ago when I read a book or two a week.
Hmm… not read Pride and Prejudice… after reading Middlemarch (different author I know, but same genre) I didn’t really fancy reading another book where I’d most likely fall asleep.
I’m currently reading “In search of Schrödinger’s Cat - Quantum Physics and Reality” by John Gribbin.
Pride and Predjudice did not grab me right away but after about 100 pages I’m getting a little curious how the characters are going to develop, especially the petty and pittyful ones like Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins.
I know what you mean… that’s why I finished Middlemarch - I thought something interesting must happen to them. I guess something interesting did - but well, I just didn’t find it that interesting really. It was a bit like a soap opera in some ways. I mean, of course much better script and all - a soap opera doesn’t give you much insight into human nature, but well… the book was just boring.
I started reading Thackeray’s Vanity Fair ages ago… it was sort of the same - well, it was much more interesting and has great characters and much better plot and much better author - but it’s still very boring in passages, which is why I put it away for a while and have only now found time to pick it up again the other day.
I guess I’m just used to books that have more action and suspense in them and not so many descriptions. In those days without tv and all those descriptions probably didn’t annoy anyone, but now that we’re used to fast moving plots … well… all this description is rather unnecessary, I usually read it and imagine it differently in my mind anyway, despite what the author says (he can tell me as much as he wants to what kind of coat this gentleman is wearing, as soon as he mentioned a coat I gave him one in my mind’s eye, and that first picture of a coat I gave him won’t change no matter if the author tells me it’s green and not red).