Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe, Wherefore Art Thou Ivanhoe?

Proud Nana

I’m half way through Ivanhoe, and so far we’ve barely met him.  We know that he was a knight in the Crusades and he is the childhood sweetheart of Rowena, the ward of Cedric the Saxon.  He won the tournament registered only as the ‘Disinherited Knight’, was benevolent with his winnings, and being wounded he collapsed, and is now unconscious on Isaac the Jew’s litter and has been caught up with that parties’ kidnapping.  I’m wondering if the story is about Wilfred of Ivanhoe or if Ivanhoe is the area in which all this adventure is taking place?!

There have been some interesting things to note though.  One of them is that Cedric only became a name since this story.  Scott actually misspelt it, and the correct name should have been Cerdic.  The other is that I finally know who Rowena and Rebecca are.  Thackeray wrote a satire based on these two characters so I will have to put it on my list of books to read. I loved his Vanity Fair.

My Kindle arrived, but I don’t have time to play with yet as I’m enjoying seeing my daughter and her family.  I wish our Gold Coast weather could be kinder; it’s not nice being washed out at the theme parks.  Last night we enjoyed dinner together at Outback Jacks and apart from the cook mixing up the meals and giving my son-in-law the tiniest steak in history, it was pretty good.

I received an iPod Classic from my son, via my daughter, preloaded with all his favourite music (his taste is the same as mine), TV shows and videos.  He called me a few nights ago and told me to listen to the Kick Ass soundtrack first as there was a track on there he loved.  It turned to be This Town Aint Big Enough For the Both of Us.  I told him that was Sparks, a bit of a blast from the past for me; I used to really like them when they were big in the UK.  I told him my favourite song of theirs was No. 1 Song in Heaven but that I’d been unable to find a copy for download.  When I switched on the iPod there it was, the first track to listen to (isn’t he a sweetie!), and now I’ve listened to that song about 50 times since last night!  It’s just as good as I remembered it.

Anyway, back to books: I’ve read 100 pages of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it’s got my attention but I don’t quite have the time to read a physical book this week so will put it to one side and enjoy the family first.

Oh, and I’m still going with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! I’m about half way through it but as I’m only listening to bits here and there I’m not too sure where I’m at plotline wise.  I’ll have to recap this one too like I’ve recapped Ivanhoe.  Forces are conspiring against me to make sure that I won’t have time to reach this year’s target from the 1001 list; I’ll have to make sure the next few selections are no more than 200 pages each!!