A good haul of paper with marks on them today. A couple of Paul McAuley SF novels (400 Billion Stars and Red Dust), Gwyneth Jones's Life because I thought I had everything she's written until I found this, Roots of Desire, Marion Roach's cultural history of red hair (for my Anne of Green Gables work) and the big prize of the day: the first two volumes of Michael Drayton's Complete Works. Drayton's the author of Poly-Olbion, a topographical and mythological tour of England and Wales in Alexandrine verse. It's the most interesting boring (and massive) poem ever written. Or do I mean the most boring interesting poem? I don't know.
Anyway, there's another even geekier book on its way: Cheney's Handbook of Dates for Students of History. Not the exciting dates, just a list of special days (such as Lammas) and charts so you can work out the right dates taking into account changes in how we reckon such things. Never again will I be stuck on the Roman/Gregorian problem, or unable to explain the significance of Michaelmas!
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