(no subject)
in the spirit of actually being informed in advance of the epic holiday (ok, the expensive holiday, with the trains and the giant lake and the - hopefully - staying in yurts etc.) just started orlando figes 'natasha's dance: a cultural history of russia' and it's really, really good. it's all sparkly and facsinating and makes my brain feel alive for the first time in about four weeks; i'm being informed with no apparent effort on my part at all. i like that. so, perhaps i will make it through the doorstop that is his 'a people's tragedy: the russian revolution 1891-1924' before the end of may after all.
[my recent history with russian, well, history, is not so good. i keep getting part-way through things like 'at the court of the red tsar' and then abandoning them for more cheerful (and SHORTER) reading. which is almost anything, really. but i don't think reading noirish detective novels is going to give me the same insight into the russian psyche. though i did read 'death and the penguin' which is getting there (the ukraine, an obituary writer, a penguin). maybe i can make a case for getting digital tv on the grounds that 'man from uncle' re-runs will be available. i could take notes while ilya is on screen...]
edit: this journal layout editing is hard. and, buggeration, apparently irreversible. (well, it is if you have no idea what settings you had before as you applied them after quite a lot of wine.)
[my recent history with russian, well, history, is not so good. i keep getting part-way through things like 'at the court of the red tsar' and then abandoning them for more cheerful (and SHORTER) reading. which is almost anything, really. but i don't think reading noirish detective novels is going to give me the same insight into the russian psyche. though i did read 'death and the penguin' which is getting there (the ukraine, an obituary writer, a penguin). maybe i can make a case for getting digital tv on the grounds that 'man from uncle' re-runs will be available. i could take notes while ilya is on screen...]
edit: this journal layout editing is hard. and, buggeration, apparently irreversible. (well, it is if you have no idea what settings you had before as you applied them after quite a lot of wine.)