Welcome to Litsy!

Alexandria is a splendid city, with everything a sensible man can need. I daresay I shall end my life here, with- out ever again going far away. But when I remember the high hills, and a pass mounting to its unknown revelation, I will not think so. Even then, knowing the evil and the danger, knowing all I had known before, even then I felt it; ecstasy, prophecy, light.

As we marched, the road rising through bare uplands, I suppose there was no one in the Household who was not thinking, And what will become of me?

Sign me up for a babylonion spa...
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Because it is hot in Babylon, the bath is a pleasure-house, where one could spend all day; floored with marble from the west, with glazed walls, white flowers on blue. The bath is a spacious pool, whose lapis-blue tiles have gold fish impressed in them. There are pots with sweet shrubs and trees, changed at each season, jasmine and citron....

Latest bookclub book. 3 days to go, good job it's such a pageturner.

Volume 2 from the Little Free Library today and volume 3 from HPB. Ah gee, now I have to find matching volume 1

Onward, with Casey‘s help! I was gonna read A CHOICE OF DESTINIES in chunks, but I‘ve decided I‘ll probably power through it after all. While I‘m interested enough to keep going, I don‘t feel I‘m Scott‘s target audience. She‘s aimed the book at people keen on movement-focused military stories and/or who‘ve read so much fiction about Alexander the Great they can do without a ton of characterization. It‘s a bit disappointing, really.

Breakfast involved scrambled eggs with sriracha mayo, very bad coffee (I always just guess at how to use standard household coffee makers, and this time I guessed super wrong), and Melissa Scott‘s 1986 alternate history of Alexander the Great. So far it strikes me as very ideas-over-characters, which isn‘t my thing, but I often find that her books begin slow yet build to something truly interesting. Hopefully that‘s also the case here.

Teams message with classics degree-holding coworker:
ME - What‘s a laconophile?
ME - Oh, he digs Spartans.
…
THEM - Probably a jerk. That‘s how it tends to go with Classics guys like him.
ME - I appreciate your learnéd insight.
THEM - Sparta guys are another version of WWII fanboys.
~
I didn‘t love this book.

#winterreadathondailychallenge Day 5

My fave Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast. Not only did it have an amazing soundtrack, I loved that Belle was a big reader.

One of my fave early childhood books was the tagged, which is sadly out of print. 😔 I loved this story about Alexander, an alligator, who lives with an old friendly woman in a house on a hill with a cat, a magical mouse, and a yak.

#nocaptioinchallenge from @bthegood

Tagging @rabbitprincess