Books Read in July 2022 and Reads in Progress

 Last month was a very busy one for a multitude of reasons.  I learned back on the 7th that I was going to need a laminoforaminotomy done on my C5-C7 vertebrae due to cervical stenosis that had led to cervical radiculopathy in my left (dominant) arm and a herniated disc.  I had outpatient surgery on the 25th and it’ll likely be another 2-3 weeks before I’ll be recovered enough (I can sit and read for periods of time and typing isn’t an issue for short periods of time) to be able to sit for 8 hours and do desk work, with another 2-3 months possible before I’ll be cleared to resume lifting weights heavier than 20 lbs and to do the more physically demanding parts of my job.

So I managed to complete reading three more books last month.  Nothing like the old days a decade ago when I could average nearly three books a day, but when I’m doing a plethora of other activities and not reading for more than an hour or so a day (almost all of it in parallel language editions, which also slows down my reading time to maybe 20-30 pages/hour, since I’m relearning one language (Latin) and teaching myself four others at the moment (Attic/Byzantine Greek for reading, and Arabic, Persian, and Serbs-Croatian on Mondly and Duolingo), this is not bad at all.  So here are my most recent reads, preceded with their order of being read:

5.  St. Augustine, City of God, Books I-III (Latin/English; Loeb Classical Library)

6.  Adelard of Bath, Conversations with His Nephew:  On the Same and the Different, Questions on Natural Science, and On Birds (Latin/English; Cambridge Medieval Texts)

7.  Dhuoda, Handbook for her Warrior Son:  Liber Manualis (Latin/English, Cambridge Medieval Texts)

I do have hopes of writing short commentary-style reviews of these books in the next couple of weeks, along with Iliad:  Books I-XII that I read in Homeric Greek/English (Loeb Classical Library).  Nothing too grand, just thoughts on a few issues that might be easier to address in multiple posts tied to the Loeb volumes.

These are also the works in progress:

Digenis Akritas:  The Grottaferrata and Escorial Editions (Byzantine Greek/English; Cambridge Medieval Texts).  Although I reviewed the Denison Hull translation of the Grottaferrata text a few months ago, this edition, edited and translated by Elizabeth Jeffreys, provides a wealth of new passages and some choice commentaries that may tempt me to do a review of this one as well, since at times this has read like a different work than the one I encountered in just English translation back in the spring.

St. Augustine, City of God, Books IV-VII - partway through Book IV.

Ludovico Ariosto, Latin Poetry (Latin/English; I Tatti Renaissance Library).  About a 1/3 complete.

I may have time to finish reading the other six volumes in the Cambridge Medieval Texts bilingual series this month or next, and if so, I will review them all, now that managed to track down an “affordable” hardcore edition of Dante Alighieri’s Monarchia (only $50 on Abebooks at one site; $200 everywhere else that I saw online).  And I’ll slowly continue to make my way through Books XIII-XXIV of the Iliad before year’s end…