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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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Earlier this morning, I finished 'Castle' by Marc Morris.
For those who like rollicking history, this is a terrific read; in essence, it is a history of castle building in the UK from the time just before the Norman Conquest, and is lively, engaging, and a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, and well written read.
While the book (which was based on a TV series I didn't see but believe was pretty good) could have done with a few maps, it is lavishly and beautifully illustrated with pictures and diagrams.
Actually, it is the sort of book one can recommend for the kind of bright kid that loves castles and the exciting tales that often accompany them.
For those who like rollicking history, this is a terrific read; in essence, it is a history of castle building in the UK from the time just before the Norman Conquest, and is lively, engaging, and a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, and well written read.
While the book (which was based on a TV series I didn't see but believe was pretty good) could have done with a few maps, it is lavishly and beautifully illustrated with pictures and diagrams.
Actually, it is the sort of book one can recommend for the kind of bright kid that loves castles and the exciting tales that often accompany them.
Talking of graphic novels have you tried the original Ghost World? Thought it was rather lovely particularly if you can remember those days just before the internet and smart phones which seem to have banished those days of seemingly endless bored ennui that was so prevalent back then.
That looks absolutely fascinating; how did you find it?
I seem to recall that it received excellent reviews.
I have a wishlist on Amazon titled 'Graphic Novels' and Ghost World is one of the graphic novels on it. It has been on my wishlist for some time now. Hopefully I will be getting to it very soon. I used to read a lot of comics/graphic novels but have decided to take a break and read chapter books. I'm now taking a break from novels.
I want to finish reading the first part at least before letting you know my opinion of it. Will make sure to let you know how I find it
Well, it is an overcast and forbidding looking Friday evening; the drinks tray is not yet ready, but a book is even more necessary.
Sometimes, though, the bleak contemporary stuff that makes up quite a proportion of my current reading can become a little .much..
Having been very impressed with Marc Morris's thoroughly enjoyable book on 'Castles', his biography on King John 'King John - Treachery, Tyranny And The Road To Magna Carta' looks most inviting.
Sometimes, though, the bleak contemporary stuff that makes up quite a proportion of my current reading can become a little .much..
Having been very impressed with Marc Morris's thoroughly enjoyable book on 'Castles', his biography on King John 'King John - Treachery, Tyranny And The Road To Magna Carta' looks most inviting.
You need to get yourself a TV mate!
And get that freakin drinks tray sorted! 
Only joking (of course). Have you ever read Alexander McCall Smith's "Von Igefeld" books? Very funny and a nice quick read that will make you smile.
You need to get yourself a TV mate!And get that freakin drinks tray sorted!
Only joking (of course). Have you ever read Alexander McCall Smith's "Von Igefeld" books? Very funny and a nice quick read that will make you smile.
Here's the funny thing. I actually don't like TV and I have never seen it as a source of relaxation. When I watch it, which is rare enough, it is usually news and current affairs, followed by documentaries and science/nature stuff.
Then, there a few personal lapses which are not current affairs or documentaries: A few programmes I will admit to having liked a lot, which fall under the category of drama, or terrific story telling. (Star Trek, STNG, Life On Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Morse, Foyle's War, and a few more). I never have the TV on as 'background'; it is put on - an active act and choice - to watch something, then switched off.
Now, as for the drinks tray - don't worry, that was merely an internal debate (though an intense one) as to what should be sipped and savoured tonight. It has been 'sorted'. Port - white port - a 10 year old from Gaivosa - won the battle….
I haven't read those particular books by Alexander McCall Smith - hadn't heard of them (though I have, of course, read quite a few of his charming books - The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - featuring the wonderful Mna Ramotswe). Do you recommend them?
King John, meanwhile, has been moved from under the sofa - where a fat, enticing hardback had been resting (along with the Harry Potter oeuvre and sundry others), to a position on the sofa, where he will fight it out with ISIS and tomes on corruption and war. He is in good company. '1066 And All That' (a brilliant book) describes him as 'A Bad King' a comment which was repeated, faithfully, (with, I suspect, a smothered giggle) by Marc Morris in 'Castle'.
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First off, well done on the port choice.
Secondly, I didn't really care for the "Detective" books by AMS, but love the Von Igefeld books. In order they are, "Portuguese Irregular Verbs", "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs", At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances" and "Unusual uses for Olive Oil". The first three are available in "The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom". I find them very enjoyable. As I say, a nice easy and satisfying read.
Secondly, I didn't really care for the "Detective" books by AMS, but love the Von Igefeld books. In order they are, "Portuguese Irregular Verbs", "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs", At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances" and "Unusual uses for Olive Oil". The first three are available in "The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom". I find them very enjoyable. As I say, a nice easy and satisfying read.
On another point I'm also reading "The Second World War" by Antony Beevor. I have to say that it is superb. In the whole of my 50 years on this earth have I had to put down a book because of being so disturb. The subject being the treatment of the Jews (and others). One would think that the TV images we have all seen would be more powerful but Beevor's prose is haunting. I feel compelled to read on even when I don't want to.
An old school friend of mine, - one of the first women to qualify as both a carpenter and cabinet maker, (although she had the grades to be offered a university place) - spent the best part of a quarter of a century as an aid worker (with VSA) in parts of Africa, including Botswana.
She thought that the 'detective' books were excellent, and utterly authentic, and informed me that - as far as she knew - they were actually based on a real person, the first woman who was appointed to the Supreme Court in Botswana, who was widely respected in the country.
I'll keep an eye out for the Von Igefeld books. Are the first three available as a trilogy?
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Having read so much on WW2, Hitler and Stalin, (I used to teach some of that stuff, - mostly the Russian & Soviet stuff, but studied the other An Awful Lot, especially in my undergrad days) and my bookshelves have so many biographies of that perfectly dreadful pair, that I cried a halt some years ago.
Actually, one of the best experiences I ever had as a teacher was when I was asked to give a series of lectures to Access Students - i.e. second chance students from disadvantaged backgrounds who were being given a sort of two year 'smorgasbord' of the humanities prior to starting a proper degree in history and humanities in one of those ancient venerable universities where I taught for several years - which involved teaching them how to study, write essays, use a library, etc - on Hitler & Stalin with the brief to make it as sexy and exciting as possible.
My brief was to tantalise their intellectual tastebuds, make them want to learn more, and we were allowed (nay, encouraged) to reach in to our inner ten-year-olds in order to make the classes as exciting and fun as possible. Historical rigour and critical analysis could come later; for those few weeks, my brief was to deliver a series of lectures - roughly - on the theme of Adolf & Josef - Who was Worse? from a teaching perspective - with such gripping and ghastly raw material - it doesn't get much better than that!
Partly, it is that one doesn't want to come across as a complete psycho - after all, how many biographies of Adolf and Josef Vissarionovich does one actually want to have seen on one's shelves?
However, it is also that I noticed that a lot of these books were derivative - they said a lot of the same things and covered much the same ground.
So, now, unless a book - on that era - is genuinely ground breaking, and has new angles and - above all - sources, (and new ways of looking at old stuff), I refuse to be tempted.
Some of my students (male) used to rave about Beevor, and thought he was very good, and recommended him highly to me. However, there is a certain type of male writer who gets very excited by battles, weapons and warfare (especially the type of male writer who has never seen a whiff of anything of the sort in real life but longs to in his fantasy world) and is sort of lacking, or falls short, in the analysis and political insight department.
Is he really very good, and seriously worth reading?
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What Book Are You Reading?
Finished book one of "Persepolis", Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. It was a good read. It's basically an autobiographical account of the author's childhood life during the Islamic Revolution. The story is told through minimal yet effective black-and-white illustrations. Won't be reading book 2 yet which is titled Persepolis: The Story of a Return. I want to read something else first. Oh and a word of warning, the graphic novel contains content that many may find offensive.
Finished book one of "Persepolis", Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. It was a good read. It's basically an autobiographical account of the author's childhood life during the Islamic Revolution. The story is told through minimal yet effective black-and-white illustrations. Won't be reading book 2 yet which is titled Persepolis: The Story of a Return. I want to read something else first. Oh and a word of warning, the graphic novel contains content that many may find offensive.
Thank you for your initial feedback and thoughts on 'Persepolis'.
I do seem to recall that it received excellent reviews, and it occurred to me that it might be worth taking a look at it at some stage.
Short review:
Quirky, fun and very imaginative. Loved the art. But with zero character development and no backstory, the book was somewhat of a letdown. I expected more. Especially since I've heard a lot of people raving about this comic and the amount of praise it has gotten. It was originally planned as an eight-part series but was quickly made an ongoing series following strong sales and critical acclaim. The first issue was published last year. However, the first volume (collecting issues 1-4) was released only this month, which is the one I have as I don't like to buy and read each issue separately, I prefer to wait for a collected volume. It's currently the number one best seller in 'Contemporary Women Graphic Novels' on Amazon. Anyway, I'm interested and I think I'll be reading more of the series.
In case you want to:
1 The Colour of Magic 1983
2 The Light Fantastic 1986
3 Equal Rites 1987 X
4 Mort 1987
5 Sourcery 1988
6 Wyrd Sisters 1988
7 Pyramids 1989
8 Guards! Guards! 1989
9 Eric 1990
10 Moving Pictures 1990
11 Reaper Man 1991
12 Witches Abroad 1991
13 Small Gods 1992
14 Lords and Ladies 1992
15 Men at Arms 1993
16 Soul Music 1994
17 Interesting Times 1994
18 Maskerade 1995
19 Feet of Clay 1996
20 Hogfather 1996
21 Jingo 1997
22 The Last Continent 1998
23 Carpe Jugulum 1998
24 The Fifth Elephant 1999
25 The Truth 2000
26 Thief of Time 2001
27 The Last Hero 2001
28 The Amazing Maurice... 2001
29 Night Watch 2002
30 The Wee Free Men 2003
31 Monstrous Regiment 2003
32 A Hat Full of Sky 2004
33 Going Postal 2004
34 Thud! 2005
35 Wintersmith 2006
36 Making Money 2007
37 Unseen Academicals 2009
38 I Shall Wear Midnight 2010
37 Unseen Academicals 2009
38 I Shall Wear Midnight 2010
Finished reading Persepolis: The Story of a Return. It wasn't a good followup in my opinion. The first book was much better. This second one focused on Satrapi's personal life instead of Iran and the Islamic Revolution. It was melodramatic, which I found annoying. Also, I disliked the anecdotes in this second volume. Satrapi was not likable in this one and I did not understand the author's astonishing and irritating behavior since she did not provide any explanations to them. Did not touch me at all.
I am currently reading The Short Victorious War on my Kindle. It is the 3rd book in the Honor Harrington series. I am reading through the series.
Last night, I finished 'King John - Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta' by Marc Morris, having been enormously impressed by his book on castles.
Sad to relate, King John was not as enjoyable as Marc Morris's excellent book on castles. However, this could be simply down to King John being every bit as ghastly as his historical reputation had suggested.
Years ago, in one of those miscatalogued sections in the University library, I came across a 'revisionist' biography of the man, which attempted to argue that he wasn't all bad, and that his black reputation was really partly due to the fact that he had a more modern sensibility in an unsophisticated world, which wasn't widely appreciated, and suggested that his (many) enemies had won the propaganda battle, as blackening his reputation enabled others to appear more saintly/competent/and maybe lucky, too.
While I can't remember the author, I remember having been quite impressed that an alternative argument existed, for I detest simplistic explanations for complicated realities, and love to see revisionist accounts debunking what are accepted as unquestioned truths. And John's uniformly wretched reputation did seem to be one of those things which was too good (or too bad) to be true.
And now, Mr Morris confirms in a sturdy biography that John really was a thoroughgoing piece of unrelieved duplicitous and downright vicious nastiness.
Well, other books beckon...
Sad to relate, King John was not as enjoyable as Marc Morris's excellent book on castles. However, this could be simply down to King John being every bit as ghastly as his historical reputation had suggested.
Years ago, in one of those miscatalogued sections in the University library, I came across a 'revisionist' biography of the man, which attempted to argue that he wasn't all bad, and that his black reputation was really partly due to the fact that he had a more modern sensibility in an unsophisticated world, which wasn't widely appreciated, and suggested that his (many) enemies had won the propaganda battle, as blackening his reputation enabled others to appear more saintly/competent/and maybe lucky, too.
While I can't remember the author, I remember having been quite impressed that an alternative argument existed, for I detest simplistic explanations for complicated realities, and love to see revisionist accounts debunking what are accepted as unquestioned truths. And John's uniformly wretched reputation did seem to be one of those things which was too good (or too bad) to be true.
And now, Mr Morris confirms in a sturdy biography that John really was a thoroughgoing piece of unrelieved duplicitous and downright vicious nastiness.
Well, other books beckon...
I loved the first three of the series too, but couldn't get past the first 30-40 pages of "Unusual Uses for Olive Oil", the fourth book of the "trilogy". Herr Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld is simply too good at making me cringe with mortification. I really should try again because the series is hilarious.
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That book was extremely well received when it first came out, - I think it was one of the very first graphic novels to win critical acceptance and recognition for the art form - and I remember the excellent reviews. My recollection is that it worked exceptionally well both visually and as a narrative device.