Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[Borachio]

No, no. Not I, I assure you. Well, no more than usual.

I do this with Shakespeare's plays and I like it. There's lots of information in the Arden editions and I like to compare different productions. The Zefferelli is especially good.

My interest in R&J has been sparked this time by an upcoming production in one of my favourite theatres next March.


It is a cracking tale. Though not the Bard's finest.

 

[sophie]

Checked out several books on Early Medieval Kent. Too bad the Maughan Library has pretty much zero books on early Merovingian history, nor really all that much on Pope Gregory the Great. Also I can only check out 10 books at a time (I have 6 law books checked out for work) also I can't check out Bede. :<

On the bright side Bede is readily available online, but I absolutely prefer a hard copy

 

[JollyRoger]

Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet (Arden Edition)

+ Zefferelli movie + BBC film + Leonardo Dicaprio movie + Globe Theatre DVD

Link to video.

 

[Borachio]

Link to video.


Link to video.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I'm about halfway through Neal Stephenson's new novel, REAMDE, which is README misspelled. It is about MMORPGs, viruses, the Russian mafia, and terrorists. If you like Neal Stephenson as much as I do, it is a must read.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'm about halfway through Neal Stephenson's new novel, REAMDE, which is README misspelled. It is about MMORPGs, viruses, the Russian mafia, and terrorists. If you like Neal Stephenson as much as I do, it is a must read.

^^^^ Great book!

I've just started "Thinking fast thinking slow".

 

[Lillefix]

Mao's great famine.

I know millions of people died in the great leap forward, but it's really hilarious how incompetent and removed from reality those Chinese politicians were.

edit: I need to find a book about the cultural revolution after this.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

I've started Le Père Goriot - Honore De Balzac, it looks promising.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I'm reading Bernard Cornwell's King Arthur trilogy. It's rather odd seeing the Saxons treated as the enemy given how much I've loved his Saxon Stories series, but the story is captivating as ever.

 

[_random_]

A friend lent me Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. He described it as "If Jane Austen wrote Harry Potter for grown-ups." Pretty intriguing so far.

 

[History_Buff]

Just finished James Brabazon's My Friend the Mercenary; it is utterly fantastic. It's a memoir of his trips to Liberia during the civil war to oust Charles Taylor, and his involvement with the mercenaries who attempted a coup in Equatorial Guinea in 2004.

 

[sophie]

I'm reading Bernard Cornwell's King Arthur trilogy. It's rather odd seeing the Saxons treated as the enemy given how much I've loved his Saxon Stories series, but the story is captivating as ever.

Yeah, it was a fun series. I liked watching him trying to subvert literally every Arthur trope he could. This is his christian bashiest of all his christian bashy books though. And that's saying a lot considering the Saxon saga series. It's rather disgusting.

 

[Arakhor]

Christian bashy? As in, Philip Pullman level or do you mean something else?

 

[sophie]

Christian bashy? As in, Philip Pullman level or do you mean something else?

I mean in the sense of every one of his books seems to portray Christians as either total sadistic asshats, or just completely naïve nitwits. He always seems to have a token nice Christian, usually a monk, often Welsh, but this character tends to be either wholly irreligious or generally unconcerned with Christianity, In both the Saxon and the Arthur books the protagonist is unabashedly unchristian and for the most part despises Christians, seeing them as either completely getting in the way (both unintentionally and intentionally) or just being crazed enemies that need to be burned with fire. At several points in both Saxon and Arthur the protagonist goes on a lengthy rant about how terrible or nonsensical the Christian religion is and how much better Mithras/Thor are.

I have found this in all of the Saxon and Arthur books, as well as Azincourt and the Archer tales. It obviously doesn't occur in the Stonehenge book (although he takes a very cynical approach towards religion/mysticism in that book as well). I haven't read the Sean Bean Sharpe series so I wouldn't be able to comment on that one. But the trend is unmistakeable. It's one of the more unpalatable parts of Cornwall's style.

 

[GenMarshall]

I've been reading mainly self help books on how to repair my self confidence and esteem.

 

[Arakhor]

I have several of his Saxon novels and the one on Stonehenge i my big pile of books to read, so I'll have to look them over and see if I agree with you.

 

[Agent327]

The Oxford History Of Ancient Egypt. One of 3 I got for my b-day. Lots of archaeology discussed, very interesting, though maybe not so much for the average lay person.

 

[Ajidica]

I'm about halfway through Neal Stephenson's new novel, REAMDE, which is README misspelled. It is about MMORPGs, viruses, the Russian mafia, and terrorists. If you like Neal Stephenson as much as I do, it is a must read.

How does it compare to Neuromancer by William Gibson? I'm a huge fan of Neuromancer but I've struggled to get into cyberpunk by other authors.

 

[Borachio]

I've been reading mainly self help books on how to repair my self confidence and esteem.

I've read a lot of those, too. There's even a website on how to overcome reliance on self-help books.

But straightforward Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is as good as anything.

And, if you're lazy, like me, Paul McKenna has some quite good self-hypnosis CD's on self-confidence and being happy etc.

But in the end, keeping on trying stuff till you find something that seems to work is not a bad idea.

 

[sophie]

Currently working my way through a number of Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon books for a little project I'm working on. Shame I don't have access to the Senate House as some of the books they have on the Merovingian Church would be exceedingly useful.