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Post by spaceflower on Aug 25, 2019 16:23:20 GMT
I am usually reading more than one book at a time.
One book I am reading right now is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
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Post by tangent on Aug 25, 2019 20:32:35 GMT
I haven't read a book for many years. I think the last one I read was CS Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet. I didn't like it, there was too much description that cluttered up the action.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Aug 26, 2019 10:26:39 GMT
I'm finishing off Return of the King and then I'm about to start the latest book by Becky Chambers, To be taught if fortunate. Her books are amazing, some of the best I've ever read. I've also started a book called Spinning Silver or something like that - in the fantasy realm. And a book about managing people whose name I can't think of right now. One of our managers lent it to me.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 26, 2019 14:45:48 GMT
Hmmm... I'm in the midst of Britain BC, by Francis Pryor; Harper Perennial, London, 2003. I'm also in the midst of Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences, by Steve Keen; Pluto Press Australia, Annandale, NSW, 2001. I just finished How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories, by Alex Rosenberg; MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2018. Having finished that, I figured I could start Paper: Paging Through History, by Mark Kurlansky; Thorndike Press, Waterville, ME,2016.
This is typical of me. The first I read regularly at the breakfast table. The last is my bedside reading. The Keen title floats around and may never get finished....also typical.
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Post by Moose on Aug 26, 2019 20:17:39 GMT
I am rereading Company of Liars .. Karen Maitland. Some of your reading list sounds a bit heavy going Goat But the Britain BC sounds good.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 26, 2019 22:15:07 GMT
Kurlansky is a joy to read. I recommend any of his works to readers interested in topical histories. This one is in addition to those on salt, cod, and the Basques, which I've already finished.
The Rosenberg piece I just finished left me a mite....unsatisfied. I understand his point, but am skeptical about his arguments.
'Debunking' is a heavy wade, even for a former economist like myself. I do wholeheartedly agree with his assessments...well, those I understand.
And, of course, Pryor's book just reminds me of all the neolithic, bronze age, and iron age finds I missed visiting whilst I was there. It's a fine read for those interested in archeology of ancient Britain.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 26, 2019 22:30:16 GMT
Moose... I know you have an abiding interest in things medieval, but are those interests circumscribed by any finer points? I ask because I just finished watching the Vikings series on History Channel/Netflix and have enjoyed it immensely. Yes, it is vikings, so it can get gritty and has scads of gory battle scenes, and, the history is stretched and compressed and characters of dubious authenticity inserted to carry the plot lines, but...hey...it was based upon what were probably legends to begin with. I thought it was a quality synthesis of stereotypes of the Viking Age, presented in a thoughtful manner. My advisor lifted them from pirated material available on the web...so they're out there. It's good historical fiction soap opera. It's basically "The Sons of Ragnar Lodbrok" starting with the rise of Ragnar and includes Ivar the Boneless, the Great Heathen Army, Ecgberht, Athelwulf, and Alfred. The siege of Paris is awesome. The final scene with King Ecgberht of Wessex holding Ragnar Lodbrok prisoner before handing him over to his executioners is top quality...but you have to understand the history of what has transpired between these two and their common connection point....Athelstan of Northumbria, a monk enslaved by Ragnar. I understand that next season they are going to take on the Rurik and Oleg in Novgorod.
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Post by spaceflower on Aug 27, 2019 0:27:52 GMT
I also read non-fiction. Like Jomfrun fra Norge I (The Maiden of Norway, i.e. Margaret, Maid of Norway) by Norwegian writer of history, Tore Skeie. It is about medieval history of Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
I am still in the beginning. Eirik Magnusson seems like a weak king, but his brother Håkon Magnusson is a tough one. I am astonished that he did not try to start a war with his brother or kill him to become king himself. During these times, your brother was often your worst enemy. Håkon did become king since Eirik died without a male issue.
Margaret of Scotland was married off to the 13-year old king Eirik. She was 20 years old. She died after giving birth to a daughter, the Maiden of Norway. Royal children, especially princesses, were just pawns in the political game.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 27, 2019 1:05:21 GMT
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Post by Moose on Aug 28, 2019 3:15:14 GMT
Kelly - I find anything medieval fascinating (and have seen some of the Vikings series I think, if it is the one I am thinking of . I do not know what it is about the era but every aspect of it appeals to me (um, not to actually live there cos I'd not want that. But to learn about, whether in fiction, film, documentary or factual book).
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Post by Moose on Aug 28, 2019 3:17:15 GMT
Wouldn't it be awesome to go there as a day trip? ONE day only. We could pass you off as a grey-beared wise man or something. And me as a ... erm ... I'll get back to you on that.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 28, 2019 16:05:40 GMT
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Post by JoeP on Aug 30, 2019 9:33:39 GMT
I haven't read a book for many years. I am still getting my head around this. Really? I think the last one I read was CS Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet. I didn't like it, there was too much description that cluttered up the action. Not all books have to be all action! But if you prefer that, there are lots of books that are mostly action. Thrillers, they tend to be called.
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Post by JoeP on Aug 30, 2019 9:38:03 GMT
I have just finished "Code Zero", a novel about big data companies (like Facebook) and privacy and manipulation. Thought-provoking but with a lot of loose ends I thought. Now reading a Greg Bear novel with spaceships. Or just one spaceship, haven't worked it out yet.
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Post by ceptimus on Oct 5, 2019 0:00:50 GMT
Ignition!: an informal history by John Drury Clark. He was a rocket scientist, specifically a rocket propellant chemist. There's a lot of chemistry in it, of course, but also a lot of humorous and/or tragic anecdotes about things that went wrong and people that were injured or killed in the drive to make rockets ever more powerful and reliable.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Oct 8, 2019 9:51:02 GMT
I just picked up the second Book of Dust by Phillip Pullman and waiting to read it on holiday - I'm so excited! In the meantime I'm reading Jingo by Terry Pratchett.
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 8, 2019 17:03:55 GMT
Having read my way through all my new acquisitions, I had to scan my collection for one of those 'maybe I'll read this some day' titles. I found one.
The War of All Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo, by Roy & Lesley Adkins.
It focuses upon the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic period, with luminaries like Horatio Nelson, Sidney Smith, and Thomas Cochrane.
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 15, 2019 22:36:14 GMT
My favorite author. Robertson Davies. I wish I had a teeshirt with that visage emblazoned upon it. He makes my list for the three 'celebrities' I'd like most to join me for tea.
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Post by Kye on Oct 15, 2019 22:45:38 GMT
As I think I mentioned somewhere, he was a guest lecturer in one of my University classes. Unfortunately I slept right through it. He was an interesting speaker, but the room was warm and the chairs upholstered...
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 15, 2019 23:54:58 GMT
I hope you didn't snore!
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Post by Kye on Oct 16, 2019 0:33:13 GMT
Me too!
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Post by raspberrybullets on Oct 23, 2019 9:08:11 GMT
I finished Book of Dust 2 - it was pretty darn good. Although I wasn't a fan of the way Pullman dismissed any issue with one character being in love with a girl 11 years younger and that was his pupil just a few years before and who is currently only 20! Gross. Only an old man could think this is not a problem.
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Post by spaceflower on Nov 18, 2019 2:08:35 GMT
I am reading a classic To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. It takes time. I can see that this is good literature but nothing happens. People are just thinking and talking. Mrs Ramsay thinks the only happy time is childhood. I have to think this over. No, not all children are happy. Hopefully they experience happiness in adulthood instead.
At the same time I read a thriller, Blighted souls by Kristina Ohlsson. Not the same wonderful language but a page-turner.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Nov 18, 2019 8:50:28 GMT
I've read that Virginia Woolf, not much happens.
I just finished Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett and I spent a lot of time giggling and laughing. It's a story about stories.
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Post by whollygoats on Nov 18, 2019 17:11:18 GMT
I'm still ploughing through The War of All Oceans.
It's a mite 'dry', but it's okay. I'm eager to start Rachel Maddow's Blowout, which I have set out, waiting in the wings, for my next tome.
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Post by Moose on Nov 30, 2019 0:24:14 GMT
Am rereading The Owl Killers
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Post by JoeP on Nov 30, 2019 10:42:17 GMT
I am close to the end of Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.
It's both just what I expected, from having read a couple of his other books, and totally unexpected, because that's what he does. It's set in "New Crobuzon" which is definitely not London, and populated by humans who can manipulate elyctrical, chymical and thaumaturgic energies, plus an array of insect-headed, frog-bodied and winged-except-not-winged humanoids. The government are pretty nasty but the main antagonists turn out to be a bunch of parasitic moths. And there's a spider.
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Post by Kye on Nov 30, 2019 12:31:01 GMT
I'm not really a fan of Mieville myself, although my daughter-in-law loves him.
I'm in the midst of "Fall; or Dodge in Hell" by Neal Stephenson. It's pretty entertaining and he has some insights about where the concept of "fake news" might end up leading us.
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Post by Moose on Nov 30, 2019 22:44:16 GMT
I also feel a Harry Potter reread approaching
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Post by JoeP on Dec 1, 2019 11:08:49 GMT
The best books deserve re-reading ... but you seem to be re-reading all the time!
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