Bookworm

I've been enjoying the last few days of laziness that I can afford this semester. Classes start this upcoming Monday and I'll have class at 9 and 10am until summertime. I am looking forward to bringing this winter break to a close and getting back on a normal schedule. Here's what the next semester is bringing me, tentatively:

-Internship (continuing to work with Bike Friday)
-Women and French Literature (French women authors)
-History of French Cinema
-Translation (English-French/French-English)
-History of Photography
-Painting




Aside from obsessively hashing and rehashing my schedule for the semester, I've been getting a lot of reading done. I finished a wonderful book that I received as a gift in Minneapolis about a woman's journey by bicycle from Ireland to India in 1963. It is called Full Tilt and is written by Dervla Murphy. Most of it is in diary form but it is quite impeccable writing and was very enjoyable to read. Next I started reading the comic strip / graphic novel Persepolis written by Marjane Satrapi and have torn through 2 volumes in the past 24 hours. I can hardly wait to get my hands on the next volume but will have to pause for sleep until I can go to the library to find it tomorrow.

I registered for a library card with Paris' extensive library system and there is a very nice library just a few blocks from my house. They have a large selection of CDs and a fair amount of comic books, so hopefully they will have Persepolis waiting for me.

I went to the national library today with friend John and we visited the "enfer de la bibliotheque" (hell of the library) exhibit, featuring the national library's entire collection of pornographic and otherwise obscene literature and material that have never been on display for the public. Called the hell exhibit because when workers of the library had to go to this section, they told their fellow workers they were "going to hell." It was a fairly comprehensive exhibit of French pornography/erotic art since the 1400s (I don't remember much of anything earlier than that) but it was not really my type of exhibition. The show was only open to people over the age of 16 which was somewhat of a thrill since I am fresh from the days when most everything of interest was banned from my eyes, but now I wish I were spending my time reading comic books and going to see animated films. (I intend on going to see the movie Persepolis soon after I finish reading it!)

In other news, I darned two pair of socks today. One had a small hole in the toe that was easily mendable but the other had a gaping wound to the heel, so I franken-stitched another heel of a sock into the sock to be saved and it feels (and looks) quite lovely. I am only half done with this larger sock mending project as my room got too dark for me to finish.

Tomorrow: Finish Persepolis! (Did I mention that it is written in French?)