ng Press ChallengeAs I said yesterday, this Pre-Printing Press Challenge really resonates with me and I'm so glad I came across it. Here are the rules:
- All books must have come out before 1440, when the printing press was first invented.
- Books chosen for this challenge can overlap with other challenges.
- Books can be translated into the language of your choice.
- All the books you've chosen must be read by April 30th 2010.
- You can read 1-3 books, 4-6 books, 7-9 books or 10 or more books if you're feeling particularly ambitious.
- The choice of books is up to you. There are no set reading lists, and you don't have to set one when you join.
- Post your blog address where you'll be posting your comments on your choice of books in the comments of this post when you join, and tell me how many books you've chosen. I'll set up a link to participating blogs from here.
- Above all, Have fun.
I'm going to start with Eusebius' The History of the Church. A couple of weeks ago I pulled it off my bookshelf and put it in my TBR pile with the firm intention of actually reading the whole thing this summer. I read bits and pieces for various classes when I was working on the master's in religious studies I never got to finish at KU. So now I hope to cross that one off my list.
At the same time, I also pulled out books containing translations of the works of Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich for the TBR pile. My master's focus was women in monasticism, so this challenge should help inspire me to get back to reading and studying. I'm excited about the prospects.
If I were more ambitious, I'd try to read a couple of manuscripts in Greek. But my Greek is a bit rusty! Still, I may put one or two Greek texts on the list at some point even if it takes me til the 2010 deadline to finish even one short document, let alone a complete book. I may be retired, but the brain still works reasonably well. And research has shown that language study keeps the brain agile.
You are feeling ambitious. I'm kind of planning to do the same thing though. If I can, I'm going to tackle Beowulf in the Old English (facing page translation only thank goodness, so I can cheat as needed).
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining up.