Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[Borachio]

The Incredible Human Journey (The Story of how we colonized the Planet) Alice Roberts

Seldom have I been so disappointed with a book. The subject matter is undoubtedly fascinating, which is why I bought this book.

But the treatment is dire. To get to the basic information, I find myself wading through pages of descriptions about Alice setting up camp, being frightened by the thought (!) of large predators, and getting in small planes to travel... how many miles from such and such a place to another and other such place?

I mean, really! I doubt I'll be able to finish this book. Which is a real pity. I actually laid out money for it.

Apparently, she's been on the BBC talking about this sort of thing, and all she's done is write the (expanded) programme script down. I should have known better, I guess.

Alice gets her face painted. Duh!

 

[Traitorfish]

Finished The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America by Colin G. Callowayl; finishing off The King's Three Faces: The Rise & Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776 by Brendan McConville; plodding through From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers by Allan Kulikoff (it's quite dry); and making a start on Pursuits of Happiness: The Social Development of Early Modern British Colonies and the Formation of American Culture by Jack P. Greene. I may have a habit of trying to keep too many books on the go at once.

Also reading The Complete Chronicles of Conan, an anthology of all of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories in their original, unedited form. Need something to balance out of all the Americana.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I'm 5/8s of the way through Will Durant's Age of Voltaire.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Starting on The Age of Capital, 1848-1875 by Eric Hobsbawm.

 

[Borachio]

Exemplary Stories by Miguel de Cervantes.

A collection of short(-ish) stories. In translation, so no doubt missing a lot. I was especially taken by the story The Glass Graduate of the peasant intellectual who spurns some woman or other. She then poisons him. When he recovers he's still got all his wits, but now he thinks he's made of glass and liable to shatter on the least contact.

 

[Takhisis]

Andrea Camilleri has been added to the list of authors Takhisis reads.

 

[Flying Pig]

Exemplary Stories by Miguel de Cervantes.

A collection of short(-ish) stories. In translation, so no doubt missing a lot. I was especially taken by the story The Glass Graduate of the peasant intellectual who spurns some woman or other. She then poisons him. When he recovers he's still got all his wits, but now he thinks he's made of glass and liable to shatter on the least contact.

Charles VI of France had the same idea, but it took him less persuasion.

 

[Kyriakos]

Could have been worse. In earlier traveller's tales people have been known to morph into donkeys.

 

[Ajidica]

Just finished Empire, Welfare State, Europe: History of the United Kingdom 1906-2001 by T.O. Lloyd. As the title suggests, it offered an overview of the UK from a political, economic, and social perspective during the 20th century, with most of the focus being on post-WWII UK and the establishment, maintenance, and destruction of the welfare state. I had two issues with the book. The first was how it presented some of economic history, notably with regards to exchange rates. A footnote or something reminding the reader of how balance of trade affects exchange rates would have been handy. The second issue was the emphasis it placed on theater when looking at changes in culture. While that was certainly sufficient for the first 2/3rds of the century, I feel that in the latter third television had a greater impact on culture that was overlooked/downplayed for some reason.
And on a completely personal note, it would have been nice had the book mentioned -even in passing- Dr. Who when talking about the role television and the BBC played on British culture.

 

[Flying Pig]

Theatre may well be symptomatic of cultural change as much as driving it.

Found Mike Brearley's (English cricket captain in the late 70s who won the Ashes in 1981) The Art of Captaincy for 50p in a charity shop, so picked that up.

 

[Mouthwash]

A History of Israel - John Bright

My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel - Ari Shavit

MultiReal - David Louis Edelman

The first is about ancient Israel, the second about modern Israel, and the third is a cyberpunk novel.

 

[Takhisis]

Theatre may well be symptomatic of cultural change as much as driving it.

Isn't it a feedback mechanism? TV reflecting culture change but also producing or affecting it?

Found Mike Brearley's (English cricket captain in the late 70s who won the Ashes in 1981) The Art of Captaincy for 50p in a charity shop, so picked that up.

Charity shops FTW! I remember when Dad got the first four Harry Potter books for around £10.

and the third is a cyberpunk novel.

About Israel, right?

 

[Flying Pig]

Isn't it a feedback mechanism? TV reflecting culture change but also producing or affecting it?

Absolutely, but I do think that theatre more usually reflects than produces actual change in culture. It's true of most arts on a small scale: the number of artistic productions of any sort which have in themselves changed a culture noticeably is rather small, though the aggregated effects of many can have a large influence.

Charity shops FTW! I remember when Dad got the first four Harry Potter books for around £10.

They do have a hidden cost - I very rarely buy new books any more, so the allure of coming home with a pile of books and thinking 'all that was only the price of one new one' has left me needing to buy a new shelf to remove the small stacks cluttering up the place.

 

[Tahuti]

After some time of procrastinatin'...

Dune, by Frank Herbert!

About Israel, right?

Poland-jokes are about Poland, not Israel! Remember that as CFC'ers, we have traditions to keep!

 

[Takhisis]

Absolutely, but I do think that theatre more usually reflects than produces actual change in culture. It's true of most arts on a small scale: the number of artistic productions of any sort which have in themselves changed a culture noticeably is rather small, though the aggregated effects of many can have a large influence.

Depends. Some can wake people up to something. Their influence can be subtle and almost unnoticeably deep at times.

They do have a hidden cost - I very rarely buy new books any more, so the allure of coming home with a pile of books and thinking 'all that was only the price of one new one' has left me needing to buy a new shelf to remove the small stacks cluttering up the place.

Well… you can always sell them yourself on teh Internetz at a couple pounds each. I have a couple foot-high piles here and there, but they're mostly uni stuff that will be dispatched once I have graduated.

Poland-jokes are about Poland, not Israel! Remember that as CFC'ers, we have traditions to keep!

Well, Israel is eastwards from Europe and northwards from Africa…

 

[Arakhor]

They do have a hidden cost - I very rarely buy new books any more, so the allure of coming home with a pile of books and thinking 'all that was only the price of one new one' has left me needing to buy a new shelf to remove the small stacks cluttering up the place.

I do still buy new books occasionally, but you really can't beat a serviceable book for anywhere from 50p to £2.

 

[Tahuti]

Well, Israel is eastwards from Europe and northwards from Africa…

Are you suggesting it is a better Poland than Poland itself?

 

[Flying Pig]

Well… you can always sell them yourself on teh Internetz at a couple pounds each. I have a couple foot-high piles here and there, but they're mostly uni stuff that will be dispatched once I have graduated.

I tend to re-donate rather than selling them, with the logic that there's a pressure on charity bookshops to stock bad books, because people donate the books that they don't want to have any more, but it's only because people donate the sort of books that I like that I find said shops so good. The difficult thing, though, is finding the ones that I want to get rid of: I'm still of the school which keeps most books because I might want them again - I even sometimes end up in discussions on CFC and have to go to my bookshelf to find the perfect passage which just occurred to me.

I do still buy new books occasionally, but you really can't beat a serviceable book for anywhere from 50p to £2.

To be honest I actually prefer having slightly worn paperbacks to having new hardbacks; they take up less space and I don't feel bad about packing them into a rucksack or the like. I do have some very nice editions of classic books that I was given as gifts, and I have to say that I really don't like them: they're pretty to look at on the shelf, but they're physically massive and irritatingly difficult to read compared with ordinarily sized books.

 

[Arakhor]

I think I prefer softbacks to hardbacks, even if the latter generally look nicer on a shelf. They're lighter and generally easier to read, especially in bed.

 

[Cutlass]

I like the bigger print that's common with the hardacks. But then most of the books I read these days I get out of the library.