As is my custom here is the list of books I read in the past six months. I am always reading, starting one book as soon as I finish another, but for some reason so far this year I have been reading even more. The list numbers fifty-five books. Of these twelve are books of poetry.
All are readable or I would not have finished them. I have no problem with putting aside a book fifty or a hundred pages in if I find it not worthwhile. There is a cliche that life is too short to drink bad wine. Even more so to read uninteresting books.
Many of these are books I was reading for the second or third time.
Eleven are about war. I have noted that I read a lot about war. Unfortunately it is one of the most fundamental human activities.
Of particular note are:
EIGHT DAYS IN MAY. Nazi Germany between Hitler’s suicide and the country’s unconditional surrender.
UNKNOWN SOLDIERS. An excellent war novel about WW2 Finland against the USSR.
THE FATAL SHORE. Australia’s early days as a penal colony.
THE LUSIADS. Camoes epic poem about the voyage of Vasco de Gama.
LISTENING TO THE WIND. THE LAST POOL OF DARKNESS. A LITTLE GAELIC KINGOM. Tim Robinson’s peerless Connemara Trilogy.
BUNKER HILL. VALIANT AMBITION. IN THE HURRICANE’S EYE. Nathaniel Philbrick’s American Revolutionary War trilogy.
WEST WITH THE NIGHT. Beryl Markham’s nominal biography probably ghost written by her husband, mostly about her early life in Kenya.
THE DEMON OF UNREST. Charleston, South Carolina, and the beginning of the Civil War.
L’ASSOMMOIR. Zola’s great novel on the evils of drink.
CONQUERORS. The brutal founding of Portugal’s overseas empire.
ARABIA FELIX. The true account of a disastrous Danish scientific expedition to Yemen.
THE MIDDLE PARTS OF FORTUNE. Said by some to be the greatest novel of WWI. I am not sure that is true, but it is among the best.
4 comments:
Just wondering how you decide what to read next? Are you working your way through lists or are you going by recommendations from friends?
At present I am reading through Emile Zola’s twenty novel Rougon-Macquart series one novel a month. Thirteen more to go.I also read one of Machado de Assis’s book of short stories a month. Only two more to go. I also read some ancient Japanese or Chinese poetry and some usually modern Western poetry each morning. Of other books, some are suggested by friends. Some I see reviews or comments that interest me enough to buy them. And many books come through BookBud which sends me an email each morning with five or six books all costing $2.99 or less. https://www.bookbub.com/
Am curious as to what electronic device that you use? And, do you store all the books you have read on your device for easy access?
I use a MacBook Air, an 11" iPad Pro and an iPhone. I also have an older 12.9" iPad Pro and an iPad mini in reserve.
While sailing the 11" iPad Pro and my iPhone are primary. All my music and books are on them and using the iSailor app both are used as chartplotters. All the charts of GANNET's circumnavigation are on both and on the older iPad Pro and iPad mini.
I have waterproof cases for all devices.
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