I Lied...

I'm not posting from Italy yet. Still in Florida. Really there are only 3 things I could be doing right now.
1. Since I'm at the office I could be doing work but...nah.
2. I could be playing an epic game of solitare but...maybe later.
3. I could be posting to Blogger...sure, why not.

In case any of you are interested, I am going to tell you about my summer reading list. First and foremost, I need to get started with my thesis, so I am going to read all of the background information on modern techniques for conserving mosaics. But then...on to the good stuff.

1. Eugene O'Neill: Mourning Becomes Electra - This is a play by the guy who did The Iceman Cometh. It is a retelling of the Oresteia but instead of Agamemnon coming home from the Trojan War, it is a Northern general coming home from the Civil War. All your favorite characters are still there: that bitch Clytemnestra, Orestes, Electra, and even the Chorus. O'Neill is known for his dramatic realism, and I hope MBE will be just like that and give a more humanistic reality to the Oresteia. Pre-reading stokedness level: 5

2. August Strindberg: The Ghost Sonata - Strindberg was a late 19th c. Swedish playwright who, along with Ibsen, was one of the most important Scandinavian authors. He is known for his naturalism and is considered a precursor to O'Neill's realistic literary style. The Ghost Sonata is a play in three parts following a young man who idealized the lives of several people who live in a very upscale apartment building in contemporary Stockholm. Eventually he is able to make it inside the building and finds that the inside is a sort of Hell or den of iniquity and the people he watched and idealized become mummies and vampires inside the apartment. Pre-reading stokedness level: 5

3. August Strindberg: The Dance of Death - A play in two parts that takes an amusing look at marriage in which a couple, living together in a desolate castle torment each other and mess with each other's mind. They attempt to involve any visitors into their vicious marital games. Pre-reading stokedness level: 4.5

4. (If there's time) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust - The ageless telling of the medieval scholar who makes a pact with the devil. I read it a while ago and I think it's time for me to reread it.

So yeah...there's the summer reading list. Mostly plays, which is interesting, and much of it written before the 20th century. If someone can suggest a modern book I might like, let me have it. But right now I'm taking Shannon's advice and heading back in time.

Oh, I almost forgot:
5. J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows - The last chapter in the Harry Potter series. I hope he shoves his wand up Snape's ass.