Activities over break, with commentary:

Books read:
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell: whimsical yet dark fantasy set in Jane Austen's England, with no reference to Austen, but a strong imitation of her type of style.
The Remains of the Day: nostalgic and heartbreaking reminicences of an English butler about his employer and his fellow servants as he drives along the countryside.  One of my advisor's favorite books.
The Proposal: unfortunate bit of Christian fiction, also set in Jane Austen's England, but much less well written.  Made me wince.  Lots and lots.
The Third Sister: an actual Austen imitation, continuting Sense and Sensibility, but just about as wretched.
The Boy's King Arthur: Editing of Malory's Morte D'Arthur, which is quite interesting.  First time I'd read anything this close to the original.  Here's my favorite picture (the death of Lamorak, Pellinore's son):
The Pearl: interesting, well written, but a mite pretentious, and I think the "loss of innocence" story is a bit overdone.
The Light Beyond the Forest: the Holy Grail section of Rosemary Sutcliff's Arthurian retellings for children - decent, but mostly another editing and revamping of Malory, so not as much of interest.
The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup: fun short kid's story, rather like Adam of the Road, or something like that.
Sword Before Sunset: Rosemary Sutcliff's dark, adult, but original portrait of the "historical" Arthur, without magic (except for hints of the Druids).  Interesting portrayal of Lancelot, with two faces.  Rather too sexually fixated to be terribly wonderful, though.
The Sword and the Circle: the first of Sutcliff's Arthurian trilogy.  Less dependant on Malory than the second, but still not too much original stuff.
The Road to Camlann: Last of the Sutcliff Arthur trilogy.  Well constructed around Mordred, but agian, nothing stunning.
Blue Remembered Hills: Sutcliff's autobiography - lots of rather interesting but odd observations about life and parents and reading.
Never Let Me Go: Another book by Kazuo Ishiguro (author of Remains of the Day), not as good as that one, but still interesting and well written, about clones used for organ donations.
Mansfield Park: wonderful, morally inspiring, beautiful, great stuff.  The best thing I read or reread in a while.  At least until I read another Austen book.
Dipped into:
Harold Bloom's The Best Poems of the English Language: read the introductions to the poets - Bloom doesn't stray too far from the Norton Anthology, but his takes on poets are interesting, even if rather pretentious.  I like his judgement of Poe - the man couldn't write prose.  His power rests in his nightmares.
Clouds of Witness: Just a few pages - because I bought it.
The Once and Future King: to compare with all the other Arthuriana I was reading.  Dark, whimsical, and very very eccentric.  Extremely anachronistic.
The Ugly American: furious polemic about the US's foreign policy - namely the lazy politicians.  Good portrayals of heroic ordinary Americans helping in southeast Asia.
Pride and Prejudice: Great stuff.
Bought:
The Nine Tailors: a good Dorothy Sayers novel, about bells.
Clouds of Witness: we meet Mary Wimsey, and Charles Parker is shown to be a good fellow.
The Remains of the Day: see above, except that the funny thing is I'd borrowed it from the library, then bought it, so I had two.
The Pearl: Good edition.  Niceness.  Thrift stores.
East of Eden: same as Pearl.
Coat: Trench, black, but not able to bring it back because of space.
Socks: black nylon dress.  Good stuff
Shoes: black or brown dress.  Wonderful and clunky.
Saw:
Pride and Prejudice: liked it better the second time.
The Remains of the Day: great filming, acting, and music.  Not so great writing, but not bad at all.
Henry V: Fun, but not as good as Branagh's other work.
Much Ado About Nothing: gorgeous - music, acting (except for Keanu Reeves), and writing.