{"id":264,"date":"2006-06-04T10:32:21","date_gmt":"2006-06-04T17:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=264"},"modified":"2021-06-04T20:13:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T00:13:10","slug":"the-book-of-ballads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/264","title":{"rendered":"The Book of Ballads"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Book of Ballads<\/a><\/em> (2004) Charles Vess<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To create The Book of Ballads<\/em>, Charles Vess worked with some of the biggest names in fantasy, to recreate a graphic rendition of some of the best known songs of folklore. Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman, Emma Bull, Jane Yolen… It’s like a who’s who of fantasy authors. So I really wanted to love this book. <\/p>\n

But I didn’t, and I freely admit that the fault is all mine. <\/p>\n

I don’t “get” written poetry. It does nothing for me. I enjoy watching Shakespeare plays, but reading Shakespeare all but gives me a headache. As much as I love music, reading poetry puts me to sleep. So I thought that Charles Vess’s Book of Ballads<\/em> would help–that it would be more like watching a play than reading poetry. And I have to say that it did help some, but still I felt lost, like I was missing something. <\/p>\n

Which of course I was.<\/p>\n

There were some that had been rewritten in a way that I was more likely to get: The Three Lovers<\/em> by Lee Smith I quite liked, and also The Black Fox<\/em>, by Emma Bull. The rest were interesting, but I felt like the point was just beyond me. Rhyme and meter that I love in music, I completely miss in the written word.<\/p>\n

So the art work is, of course, exemplary, although I didn’t care as much for the lettering–for some reason I found it hard to read. <\/p>\n

So I’m really sorry that I didn’t enjoy this more, but please don’t let the fact that I’m a heathen stop you from enjoying this collection, and I wish that my brain worked in such a way that I would have enjoyed it more.
\nRating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Book of Ballads (2004) Charles Vess To create The Book of Ballads, Charles Vess worked with some of the biggest names in fantasy, to recreate a graphic rendition of some of the best known songs of folklore. Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman, Emma Bull, Jane Yolen… It’s like a who’s who of fantasy authors. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,9,291],"tags":[71,250,475,76],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-graphic-novels","category-paper","tag-charles-de-lint","tag-emma-bull","tag-jane-yolen","tag-neil-gaiman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3119,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3119","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":0},"title":"Sandman Vol 3: Dream Country","author":"Michelle","date":"August 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Sandman Vol 3: Dream Country (1990) Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Colleen Doran, Charles Vess, Malcolm Jones III I'm particularly fond of this volume--I quite like the Shakespeare story, as well as the dream of a thousand cats. Rating: 8\/10 Published by Vertigo","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/09\/Sandman-Dream-Country.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/102","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":1},"title":"A Circle of Cats","author":"Michelle","date":"July 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"A Circle of Cats (2003) Charles de Lint Illustrated by Charles Vess I received this book for my birthday from Brian and Stacie. (THANKS!) I'd placed it on my wish list solely because it was written by Charles de Lint, and as usual, I wasn't disappointed. A Circle of Cats\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/07\/Circle-of-Cats-e1520944758677.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/69","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":2},"title":"Emerald Magic","author":"Michelle","date":"May 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Emerald Magic (2004) edited by Andrew M. Greeley This book first caught my eye because I didn't expect to see Andrew Greeley's name in the fantasy section. Then I looked at the list of authors who wrote in this anthology: Charles de Lint, Diane Duane, Elizabeth Haydon, Morgan Llywelyn, Judith\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/Emerald-Magic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":536,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/536","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":3},"title":"Stardust","author":"Michelle","date":"March 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Stardust (1997) Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess I've been a fan of Stardust for years. In fact it is the first comic I ever bought, although I called it a book, because it had, you know, lots of words and stuff. And didn't really look like a comic. I eventually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/Stardust.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3253,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3253","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":4},"title":"Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron","author":"Michelle","date":"November 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron (2012) edited by Jonathan Strahan This is a lovely YA anthology, with some amazing stories by some of my favorite authors. I didn't love all the stories, but none of them were bad. The theme is young witches coming of age, but the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Under-My-Hat.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/41","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":5},"title":"The Faery Reel","author":"Michelle","date":"November 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The Faery Reel edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling Any time I see a fantasy anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, I'll often as not pick it up, because I know that it's going to be good. Usually very good. This volume however, has the added bonus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/11\/Faery-Reel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}