Hobbitus Ille

As a fan of The Hobbit, I had to post about a book I came across today on Amazon: Hobbitus Ille: The Latin Hobbit (Latin and English Edition).

It hasn't been released yet, but it is currently available for pre-order at Amazon. This joins a growing list of modern favourites that have been translated into Latin (such as Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Latin edition.)

Google Scholar

First off, for those who are unfamiliar, here is Google's description of their Google Scholar search engine:

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.

I remember trying Google Scholar when it was first released. At the time, I didn't find it all that helpful and I more or less forgot about it. Recently, amidst the flurry of term-end papers, I came across it again and I must say it seems considerably more useful now. Classics majors will be happy to know that it searches JSTOR now. (JSTOR is a journal index that includes quite a number of Classics journals - if you are a Classics major and have never used JSTOR, go check it out! You can probably get full-text access to articles online through your university library.)

Speaking of libraries, one of Google Scholar's spiffy features is the ability to set your library preference (visit the preferences page and check out the 'Library Links' section). Pick your university's library and you'll get links next to search results (e.g. 'Get it @ Oxford'). This facilitates finding the book or article at your library (or getting online access through your library login).

Google classifies Scholar as 'beta', and rightly so - it still has a long way to go... (I sure hope it gets there!) Linked with Scholar is their full-text Book Search tool. It is also in beta, but is already quite useful (and will only get better as they add more books.)

Athenaze

Come fall, I'm going to be starting ancient Greek. Apparently my prof has selected Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek for our text. I've heard mixed things about this book. I've read reviews that claim that the grammar content is seriously lacking; that by the time you finish the series you'll be ancient; that it assumes the student is an idiot... but I've also heard that it builds confidence and gets you reading (albeit simple) texts quickly.

So, I think I'll get a more intensive grammar to supplement it. I've been looking at these two...

1. Mastronarde, D. Introduction to Attic Greek
2. Hansen & Quinn. Greek: An Intensive Course

Any suggestions?

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata

I recently purchased Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, Pars I: Familia Romana and thought I'd mention it here. As the author, Hans Orberg, describes it,

"LINGUA LATINA provides a Latin text that students can read and understand immediately without any need for translation. In this text every sentence is intelligible per se because the meaning and function of all new words and forms is made plain by the context or by illustrations or marginal notes."

The whole thing is in Latin (really! - even the copyright reads 'omnia proprietatis iura reservantur'), and I think it accomplishes its task quite well - I find myself picking up new vocabulary straight from context. It's wonderful reading through a paragraph without having to dive for a dictionary. It's also nice to read and understand in Latin without having to translate into English as I go along. Hopefully one day I'll be able to read Vergil with as much confidence...

Update: As pointed out in the comments, a second book is also available: Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, Pars II: Roma Aeterna.