Exactly! There really is nothing lively out there.

For me, the Gair & Karunatillake is much more interesting than the
de Silva because it uses excellent little excerpts from the Dhamma,
rather than made up sentences - and for me, as well as a love of
language, understanding the Dhamma is my prime motivation for
tackling Pali at all. However, as I've said on this list before,
the G.&K. is more difficult than de S. and I found working through
the Primer a helpful starter.

Stick with it, my friend - it's worth it!

John

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, rett <rett@...> wrote:
> >
> >Can anyone recommend a more lively textbook?
> >
>
> I don't know of one. Why don't you become a Pali expert and then
> write one :-) We'd all be grateful.