Notes from a bibliophile

I have this tendency, usually at the beginning of the year, to go through a period where I just am not in the  reading mood. It's usually with a book that I'm not entirely jazzed to be reading, and unfortunately this was the book that waylaid me this time. It's not that it's not interesting, although I can't imagine it being on too many people's to-be-read lists. This book is about the circumstances Geoffrey Chaucer found himself in leading up to his writing The Canterbury Tales. You learn quite a lot about medieval London - the political machinations of not just those in the royal court, but those with pretensions to power; the ins and outs of everyday life, etc. - and it is very interesting. One thing that I didn't realize was that in this time, reading silently to oneself was considered a bit odd. I know I've seen movies where people sit around the fireside reading to the family, but I never would have imagined that to be the standard. Chaucer was w