READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[rossylass]

Reading Engels which was being promoted at Waterstones. Interesting and has not lost it's relevance, but I'll be glad when I've finished it. Very harrowing.

Engels was an anti semite.

[Stanley]

Rossy, funny thing that. I was looking at my copy of the Condition of the Working Class only yesterday and thinking it was time I read it again. Bit like Das Kapital, a good thing to remind yourself every now and again what these people wrote.
'A Delicate Truth' arrived yesterday so I've put Lila on hold and will read le Carre's latest. There was a review of it in Private Eye yesterday. I think it's the first time I've ever read a review of my current book.

[Stanley]

Half way through 'A Delicate Truth'. Le Carre has lost none of his skill, a rattling good read, didn't want to put it down. Enjoying it.

[Stanley]

Finished 'A Delicate Truth'. Reviewer was jaundiced, it's a splendid book, had to read through to the finish. Back to Pirsig and 'Lila' today....

[Nolic]

Henry VIII's Enforcer. Thomas Cromwell. Noticed that this is coming up on TV this Fridayhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01t03ky Nolic

[Stanley]

And I also noticed that Diarmaid MacCulloch is either presenting it or is the main adviser. This means That it will be historically accurate, he is a brilliant theologian and historian.

[Stanley]

I finished Lila by Pirsig and it was hard work! Shortly after finishing it he was re-admitted to a mental hospital and died there. It shows in his writing. Hard work and quite depressing, still, I've crossed it of the library bucket list! I'm drawn to Mrs Gaskell's 'Mary Barton' while I wait for Diarmaid's book on the Tudors and the Reformation.

[Stanley]

Mary Barton demonstrates clearly that Mrs Gaskell knew what she was talking about and understood her subject. Very good descriptions and she even has the dialect correct. It struck me that she has one of her characters referring to the Dyer's Union as being a 'bang-up' union, in other words active and efficient. 'Bang-up' looms was a description of very powerful fixed reed Lancashire Looms that could weave very heavy cloth. Same root and directly textile related. Impressive!

[Stanley]

Finished 'Mary Barton', bleak but accurate account of Manchester in the 1840s. Still waiting for Diarmid to arrive so I'm reading Engels' 'Condition of the working classes' again. Superseded in many ways but still the standard text on the social history of 1840.

[Stanley]

Enjoying Engels. He was so far ahead of his time and though his description is dated and flawed in parts on detail, his account of the Industrial Revolution is still superb.

[Stanley]

Diarmid's book on the Late Reformation arrived yesterday and I started on it. I love the way he writes, totallt believable, well referenced and set out in such a clear manner.

[Stanley]

Enjoying Diarmid MacCulloch's book. Amazing how interesting the history of theology can be! (All right, it's a minority view!) For example, did you know that until 1606 there was no restriction on the activities of Recusant gentry who controlled the allocation of some benefices? Not surprising that they favoured anti-reformation candidates and helped preserve the Bells and Smells in the Anglican church

[Stanley]

Finished with the Reformation for the time being. Back to Engels!

[Stanley]

Engels is frustrating me because he keeps making statements which are so pertinent to today's world that I keep wanting to quote them! Trouble is I'd bore you..... Wonderful account though and despite his occasional misapprehensions he was decades before his time.

[Stanley]

Finished Engels, well worth the effort to remind myself that despite it being a polemic for revolution and out of date as soon as it was written it was so far ahead of its time.
Started on the Penguin Classic edition of Suetonius' 'The Twelve Caesars'. It came to my notice in a BBC2 programme on ancient Rome and though I've only just started it it's a good read. One of those areas where I know so little..... Funny how the older I get the more I realise what huge gaps there are in my knowledge!

[Stanley]

Suetonius is a good read. Glad I found it. Lots of surprising facts about life in Rome in those days. The historians accept that he is on the whole, very accurate.

[Stanley]

Suetonius has revived my interest in the massacre in the Teutoberg Forest in 09AD when Arminius defeated three Roman legions and killed Quinctilius Varus. I've seen the replica of the famous statue in the forest that the citizens of New Ulm in the US put up on the edge of town.

[Stanley]

Really enjoying Suetonius. He tells us all about the sexual antics of the Caesars and apologises each time he does it! I consulted my mate Roger in Northfield about Teutoberg and it turns out he has just finished teaching a course on early German history which featured Arminius and so I have the titles of two good books on Teutoberg and the early tribes. You've guessed it! Must stop buying books......

[Stanley]

The books arrive today...... Added them to my credit card bill and sent a cheque off yesterday so they are paid for...
The young lads who visited me yesterday were amazed by the number of books that line the walls. I don't they quite understood!

[Stanley]

I finished Suetonius and started on 'Rome's Greatest Defeat' by Adrian Murdoch. It's the latest thinking on this famous event, the massacre in the Teutoburg Forest and he starts by saying that it is more properly the Teutoburg Pass. Fascinating stuff if you like that sort of thing, I'm going to enjoy this book. (My mate Roger gave me good advice!)

[Stanley]

Murdoch is brilliant! I'm really enjoying his account of Teutoburg, can't put it down.

[Stanley]

Finished Murdoch and went straight into Krebs, 'A Most Dangerous Book' which is an account of the effect that Tacitus' 'Germania' a thirty page publication dated AD38 but lost until the 15th century has influenced German culture from then until the Second World War. Totally fascinating and I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in German history. Himmler was still searching for copies of it in 1943 and it was the basis for much of his thinking when setting up the SS. Hitler at one time considered giving his book 'Main Kampf' the title 'Germania' because of the influence it had on him.

[Stanley]

'A Most Dangerous Book' is fascinating, really enjoying a very dense, well researched account of the effects Tacitus had on Europe. The main message you get is how the various commentators used and misused quotations and in some cases completely falsified excerpts and used them for their own purposes.

[Stanley]

Finished 'A Most Dangerous Book' and I recommend it to anyone who takes an interest in German history. Explains a lot about the culture that allowed the National Socialists to come to power between the wars. I'm having a rest now by reading 'The Great Gatsby', I've never looked at it till now.

[Stanley]

Great Gatsby didn't take much polishing off. Can't quite see what all the fuss is about. I think its main strength is the evocation of the mad Twenties. Started reading another classic I have ignored so far, Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring'. I realise its importance but what a depressing and worrying read it is, especially when it was written.