forty-two
01-28-2009, 09:42 AM
Online used bookstores are dangerous things :D As are obscure articles recommending even more obscure books. I have now significantly increased my Latin collection; prior to my little spending spree, I had just two Latin books - a copy of Wheelock from dh's college days, and the Lingua Latina CD-ROM I bought a while ago for me.
Here's my haul:
* Latin: A Structural Approach, by Waldo E. Sweet (Rev ed, 1966, oop)
The book that began this little shopping frenzy. When my search for "Latin structural grammar" (structural grammar focuses on the mechanics and construction of sentences, and deals more with the form of words than their meanings; I fell in love with it when I read an English grammar book that followed this approach - it appeals to the left brain geek in me :tongue_smilie:) turned up a journal article from the 60s by this guy who spent his career applying modern linguistic techniques to Latin, and - as it turns out - wrote a book on it. Of course I had to have it :lol:. (Actually, this book was a precursor to Artes Latinae (http://www.bolchazy.com/index.php?cat=al&sub=main), which is also by Sweet, but is much more spendy.)
*Latin for Reading, by Knudsvig, Craig, and Seligson (Rev ed, 1986)
Reading about Sweet led me to this book. Sweet was a professor at the University of Michigan, and his work really influenced the Latin teaching there, to the point that the approach he pioneered is referred to as "Michigan Latin". This book was written by several people who studied with him, and is the current text used in beginning Latin classes at U of M. How could I pass that up? :tongue_smilie:
I also got an ancient Greek text that seems to follow a structural grammar approach - Ancient Greek: A New Approach by Carl Ruck (2nd ed, 1979) - and picked up a cheap copy of WRTR. That was Monday.
On Tuesday, I discovered another obscure article - an online copy of a 1997 journal article that reprinted excerpts from a 1968 booklet, "A Consumer's Guide to Latin Textbooks" (here (http://www.txclassics.org/exrpts2.htm), if you are interested). In there, while talking about the Direct Method (which fascinates me, though I don't know if I will ever have good enough Latin skills to do it justice), he mentioned a text based on this method "that remains the best available for teaching children up to the age of about eleven." As someone who plans to teach my kiddos Latin earlier rather than later, and isn't thrilled with most of the elementary Latin programs available, how could I pass that up? Especially when I realized just how obscure it apparently is; I could find only two copies of the first book - one in the U.S. (it's mine! all mine! :D) and one in Holland. Comparatively, the sequel was positively everywhere: one in the U.S. and several in the U.K. (on Alibris, as it turns out, shipping from the U.K. is still just $3.99 - who knew?) And thus I added the following two books to my ever-growing collection:
*Principia: a Beginning Latin Course, by Peckett and Munday (2nd ed, 1951, oop)
*Pseudolus Noster. a Beginners' Latin Course, by Peckett and Munday (1st ed, 1950, oop)
Then, very early this morning, while I was up with my little one, I thought about how extensive reading of Latin from the beginning is strongly recommended to really become proficient in the language. I've been collecting up comprehensible Latin input for a while now (including this very helpful site (http://www.johnpiazza.net/comprehensible_input)which contains, amongst other things, a couple collections of readings from oop Latin texts), and I've always thought that the Cambridge Latin books would be great as readers. And so, in a flush of spending glee, I went on Amazon and ordered not one, not two, but four books of the Cambridge series :tongue_smilie::
*Cambridge Latin Course Unit 1 Student's book North American edition (3rd ed, 1988)
*Cambridge Latin Course Unit 2 Student's book North American edition (3rd ed, 1988)
*Cambridge Latin Course Unit 3 Student's book North American edition (3rd ed, 1990)
*Cambridge Latin Course Unit 4 Student's book North American edition (3rd ed, 1991)
This morning I contemplated adding the Ecce Romani books to the stack, but decided that enough's enough. For now, anyway ;). At any rate, I spent just a hair under $100 for the whole bunch - not too shabby, eh?
Here's my haul:
* Latin: A Structural Approach, by Waldo E. Sweet (Rev ed, 1966, oop)
The book that began this little shopping frenzy. When my search for "Latin structural grammar" (structural grammar focuses on the mechanics and construction of sentences, and deals more with the form of words than their meanings; I fell in love with it when I read an English grammar book that followed this approach - it appeals to the left brain geek in me :tongue_smilie:) turned up a journal article from the 60s by this guy who spent his career applying modern linguistic techniques to Latin, and - as it turns out - wrote a book on it. Of course I had to have it :lol:. (Actually, this book was a precursor to Artes Latinae (http://www.bolchazy.com/index.php?cat=al&sub=main), which is also by Sweet, but is much more spendy.)
*Latin for Reading, by Knudsvig, Craig, and Seligson (Rev ed, 1986)
Reading about Sweet led me to this book. Sweet was a professor at the University of Michigan, and his work really influenced the Latin teaching there, to the point that the approach he pioneered is referred to as "Michigan Latin". This book was written by several people who studied with him, and is the current text used in beginning Latin classes at U of M. How could I pass that up? :tongue_smilie:
I also got an ancient Greek text that seems to follow a structural grammar approach - Ancient Greek: A New Approach by Carl Ruck (2nd ed, 1979) - and picked up a cheap copy of WRTR. That was Monday.
On Tuesday, I discovered another obscure article - an online copy of a 1997 journal article that reprinted excerpts from a 1968 booklet, "A Consumer's Guide to Latin Textbooks" (here (http://www.txclassics.org/exrpts2.htm), if you are interested). In there, while talking about the Direct Method (which fascinates me, though I don't know if I will ever have good enough Latin skills to do it justice), he mentioned a text based on this method "that remains the best available for teaching children up to the age of about eleven." As someone who plans to teach my kiddos Latin earlier rather than later, and isn't thrilled with most of the elementary Latin programs available, how could I pass that up? Especially when I realized just how obscure it apparently is; I could find only two copies of the first book - one in the U.S. (it's mine! all mine! :D) and one in Holland. Comparatively, the sequel was positively everywhere: one in the U.S. and several in the U.K. (on Alibris, as it turns out, shipping from the U.K. is still just $3.99 - who knew?) And thus I added the following two books to my ever-growing collection:
*Principia: a Beginning Latin Course, by Peckett and Munday (2nd ed, 1951, oop)
*Pseudolus Noster. a Beginners' Latin Course, by Peckett and Munday (1st ed, 1950, oop)
Then, very early this morning, while I was up with my little one, I thought about how extensive reading of Latin from the beginning is strongly recommended to really become proficient in the language. I've been collecting up comprehensible Latin input for a while now (including this very helpful site (http://www.johnpiazza.net/comprehensible_input)which contains, amongst other things, a couple collections of readings from oop Latin texts), and I've always thought that the Cambridge Latin books would be great as readers. And so, in a flush of spending glee, I went on Amazon and ordered not one, not two, but four books of the Cambridge series :tongue_smilie::
*Cambridge Latin Course Unit 1 Student's book North American edition (3rd ed, 1988)
*Cambridge Latin Course Unit 2 Student's book North American edition (3rd ed, 1988)
*Cambridge Latin Course Unit 3 Student's book North American edition (3rd ed, 1990)
*Cambridge Latin Course Unit 4 Student's book North American edition (3rd ed, 1991)
This morning I contemplated adding the Ecce Romani books to the stack, but decided that enough's enough. For now, anyway ;). At any rate, I spent just a hair under $100 for the whole bunch - not too shabby, eh?