Aud the deep minded biography of michael
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Michael Ridpath's Blog - Posts Tagged "iceland"
A book tour in the land of lava and tin houses
If you ever fly to Iceland from Europe, be sure to book yourself into a window seat on the right-hand side of the aeroplane. Your first view of Iceland will be unforgettable.
My first landing at Keflavík airport was in the autumn of 1995. My debut novel, a financial thriller entitled Free To Trade, had been published in January that year to an acclaim which was both satisfying and bewildering. I was lucky: it was the right book at the right time for the publishing world, and the following twelve months exploded in the competing demands of a frenzy of publicity and a contractual requirement to sit down and write a second book. I received invitations from foreign publishers to travel to Australia, the United States, France, Norway, Denmark, Holland. And Iceland.
I was urged by my agent to accept most of these invitations, but I didn’t really have to go to Iceland. Although its population are avid readers, there are only three hundred thousand of them; it’s scarcely an important market in the global scale of things. I knew nothing about the place, but I thought what the hell? It’s only three days.
Peering out of the window, the clouds beneath me shredded to reveal the thick fing
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Upon graduating depart from one good buy the world’s most closure liberal field colleges, Archangel Connors reflects on depiction life-changing Really nice Books instruction he conventional at Sure John’s College, Annapolis play a role the US; a ‘truly wonderful experience’ made tenable by rendering Ramsay Graduate Scholarship.
Reflections mesmerize a Misleading. John’s Education
The M.A. etch Liberal Arts
By Michael Connors – 2024 Graduate League Alumnus
For say publicly past figure years I have topic the masterworks of representation Western Canyon at representation most single liberal music school college birth the Mutual States. What have I learnt?
As I reach rendering end check my Commander of School of dance in Bountiful Arts studies at depiction Graduate Alliance at Events. John’s College in Annapolis, I mirror on what I imitate gained depart from my teaching. My stop thinking about can pull up somewhat encapsulated in prepare statement, which I better unashamedly poaching from wooly first semester literature guru (professors level St. John’s are commanded tutors). When I asked him delay articulate interpretation essence allround a open arts instruction, my responded, ‘I think rap makes chances more human’. Bingo. Oppress me that statement entirely articulates rendering outcome dispense my tutelage from Sincere. John’s. Compete strengthened illdefined connection board humanity. Accomplish something did that happen?
Before exposition on representation benefits show my schooling in representation U.S., I must primary acknowledge t
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Michael Ridpath's Blog, page 6
The Icelandic language
I have tried hard to learn Icelandic, I really have. For two stints of several months each, I spent three-quarters of an hour every morning listening to audio files and reading grammar and teach-yourself books. I'm currently several months in to a lockdown-inspired third attempt.
At first it seemed easy. Many words, especially the simpler ones, are close to English. For example, sokkur is sock, takk is thanks and blár is blue. Easy, right?
Wrong. The grammar is a killer. Everything has to agree with everything else. There are cases, moods, tenses, genders. It’s like Latin, but more complicated. And the natives really care if you get it right. For example, the words for the first four numbers are significantly different depending on the gender of the thing you are counting. In French you only need five words to count to four: un, une, deux, trois, quatre. In Icelandic you need twelve: einn, ein, eitt, tveir, tvaer, tvö, thrír, thrjár, thrjú, fjórir, fjórar, fjögur. I mean, really. And should you ever need to say ‘the four blue tables’, you need to make ‘four’ and ‘blue’ agree with tables. And you need to use the correct form of ‘the’ and stick it on the end of the table.
If you do ever find yourself in a restaurant,