Anyone else on LibraryThing?

My reading list is longer right now than it has been in quite a while. These are the books that I will be reading in the near future:

Death from the Skies by Philip Plait
This is a wonderful, wonderful book, the second from the Bad Astronomer and JREF President, Dr Phil Plait. The book goes through all the ways that the universe can kill us. How can you complain about a book where the first sentence is "The universe is trying to kill you"?

Bad Astronomy by Philip Plait
His first book. Debunks the moon landing hoax and other misuses of astronomy.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
I'm actually halfway through this. The Plait books interrupted me, and I'll be getting back to it forthwith. Especially since I borrowed this book from lilysea. It's a fascinating look at the many strange ways that the human brain can go wrong.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
I really have no idea what this book is about, but it keeps getting recommended to me by a wide variety of people, and I recently saw it in Borders and purchased it, along with...

The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams
His last book. In fact, this is a collection of the things that were found on Adams' hard drive after he died - including 11 chapters of a third Dirk Gently novel. I'd been meaning to read this for some time.

An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks
The next book. I'm enjoying TMWMHWFAH, so I expect I'll enjoy this too. Also borrowed from lilysea.

I've also ordered from Fishpond Malcom Gladwell's latest book Outliers which should be arriving in about a week (as opposed to 6-8 weeks from Amazon). Thanks to wolfkit for recommending this site. I've loved both of Gladwell's other books, so there's no reason why I should have a problem with this one.

That should keep me going for a while, don't you think?

I've moved my entire bookshelf over to LibraryThing! Woo-hoo. No more Shelfari (which for a number of reasons annoyed the carp out of me).

I'm just updating my covers (which is more extensive than Shelfari) and my profile, and updating the Who Is Arthwollipot page on my website. I'll probably try to do some more tweaking over the next few days - I need to check whether LibraryThing is canned by my work's draconian access policy.

The rules are the same. We have more books than God and it's not realistic to consider adding them all. I will be adding books as I read them. So if you're really interested - like, stalker-interested, you can subscribe to the RSS Feed for recently-added books.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Arthwollipot

Although circumstances are conspiring against me adding this to Facebook. Gaaahh!

And, LiveJournal doesn't permit the widget. Gaaahhx2!!

Does LibraryThing have any capacity to import lists from other applications, like say Shelfari?

I currently have a Shelfari bookshelf, but it seems that LibraryThing is the thing these days. Can I convert or will I have to re-enter all the books I've already listed on Shelfari?

I've just taken delivery of a few books from Amazon, and there's another couple on their way. These will go up on my Shelfari once I've read them.

The first is The Great Awakening - reviving faith & politics in a post-religious right America. Now this might appear to some of my readers an odd choice. Essentially we (AMD, HR and myself) were watching The A Daily Show with Jon Stewart a couple of weeks ago, and this "conservative evangelical" was his guest. The three of us all agreed (and anyone who has spent any time with the three of us together knows that's pretty rare) that we wanted to read this book. It's a bit of Kevin Rudd's idea of "taking back religion from the right" - that religion can be a force for Good, and how when politics fails, religion spurs social movements that change politics.

I don't expect to agree with everything in this book. Not by a long shot. But the author - Jim Wallis - is unusual in American religious writers/commentators in that he acknowledges the existence of the non-religious! One of the things he said on The A Daily Show became my latest sig line on my Forums:

Religion does not have a monopoly on morality.

The second book that arrived today is The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins. It's the only one of Dawkins' primary books that I haven't yet read. So I'm looking forward to that too. I have a fair idea of what it's about by the references he's made to it in his other books (such as Climbing Mount Improbable, but it will be nice to finally read it.

The last is Sources of Power - how people make decisions, which was recommended to me by a poster on the JREF Forums when I was talking about Malcom Gladwell's books The Tipping Point and Blink (both of which are on my Shelfari). This particular poster opined that Blink didn't really cover the subject in a complete way. So I decided that since I liked Blink (which is all about how we can "think without thinking" - an entire post (in fact, an entire book) on its own), I would also get this book.

So that's my next couple of weeks' reading wrapped up tight. Unfortunately, during that time I am also due to take delivery of the first two books of the Strongbow Saga by Judson Roberts - a series aimed at the late-teen "harry potter market", but which draws heaviliy and exclusively on historical sources. The AAF's Archery Marshall posted a link on the AAF website about the Vikings' use of archery. This link led to the Stongbow Saga Website which contains archaeological information, teachers' aids and supporting information about the period.

Happy bouncy. I love getting new books!

I've occasionally encountered skepticism when I tell people that we have so many books that we need compactus...es to keep them all. When I tell them that even the compactus (compacti?) are insufficient, they laugh and say "no-one has that many books!" Well, to silence the skeptics, I have created a page on my website.

Check it out, doubters!

I just bought the book Blind Faith, which is Ben Elton's latest masterpiece. This is from the back cover blurb:

As Trafford Sewell struggles to work through the usualy crowds of near-naked commuters, he is confronted by the intimidating figure of his parish Confessor. Why has Trafford not been streaming his every moment of sexual intimacy on to the community website like everybody else? Does he think he's different or special in some way? Better than his fellow man and woman? Does he have something to hide?

Imagine a world where everyone knows everything about everybody. Where what a person 'feels' and 'truly believes' is protected under the law, while what is rational, even provable, is condemned as heresy. A world where to question ignorance and intolerance is to commit a crime against faith.

Ben Elton's dark, savagely comic novel imagines a post-apocolyptic society where religious intolerance combines with a confessional, sex-obsessed, egocentric culture to create a world where nakedness is modesty, ignorance is wisdom and privacy is a dangerous perversion.

A chilling vision of what's to come? Or something rather closer to what we call reality?

I haven't read any of Elton's other novels other than Stark and Gridlock, although considering how much I enjoyed them and how much I enjoyed Blind Faith, I really really should.

Elton takes us on a wild ride down reductio ad absurdum street and takes us to a place where those of us who have blogs and personal websites are forced to reconsider our positions in the world.

All of you readers of my LiveJournal, all of you voyeurs of my most intimate thoughts, buy and read this book immediately. What's not to enjoy?

Does anyone here (other than wolfkit of course) use Shelfari? It's essentially an online book club. You can add books to your own bookshelf, and connect with other Shelfari users who are reading the same books. I've recently started using it. You can see my bookshelf here.

The Three Musketeers is only the first part of a long story.

I'm slowly working through the rest of the d'Artagnan Romances - the second part to the story is titled "Twenty Years After". Guess when it takes place.

This carries on the story - which is much bigger in scope than the Musketeers that the first part of the story is titled for. DR2 (as I call it) covers the English Civil War, Charles I and Cromwell in England (from a French point of view, of course), and among other things follows the fortunes of one Raoul, the Vicomte de Bragellone - the ward of the Comte de la Fere (known during his musketeering days as Athos).

The whole story up to this point (about halfway through DR2) is pretty complicated, but in presenting this chapter to you, I will summarise the most important preceding events as best I can. Beware: Here Be Spoilers!

( Summary of The Three Musketeers )

This chapter opens after a meeting between young Raoul - the Vicomte de Bragellone, Queen Henrietta Maria of England (who, having been routed by Cromwell, is refugeeing in the Louvre), and Lord De Winter - who is searching for Athos in order to try and enlist the help of him and his musketeer friends for Charles I and Queen Henrietta. Lord De Winter leaves the Louvre after this interview, intending to seek out Athos. But he realises that he is being followed...

( Chapter 40 )

This chapter gives a taste of Dumas' style, and an indication of the strength and the power of his writing. Alas, I cannot give you an idea of the epic scope of the story, since to do so would take much longer than I have already taken up with this one chapter. Suffice to say that it is of a quality that makes my head spin, and I am only up to the second part of the story. There are plenty more, and they are all available from the Gutenberg Project:

DR1: The Three Musketeers
DR2: Twenty Years After
DR3: The Vicomte de Bragellone
DR4: Ten Years Later
DR5: Louise de la Valliere
DR6: The Man in the Iron Mask

It helps that these Gutenberg texts are pretty good translations. I don't know who the translator was, but I haven't yet come across a phrase or an idiom where I said to myself "Hmm. I suppose that works better in French". The language is a little archaic (there's the occasional "S'blood!" and "Ho! there"), but you get used to it, and in fact I think it adds to the ambience.

It's a great read. If you're interested in the history (which so far as I can tell is pretty accurate) or if you just want a damn fine political thriller, then grab these e-books and devour them. Grab even the first one, the famous one. It does not force the reader to take up the next book to wrap up loose plot threads - it is pretty much self-contained. So you won't be compelled by the plot to spend a month reading them. You will be compelled by the style, the scope and the sheer page-turningness of Dumas' writing.

I've just finished The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. It's another of those classics that I never read when I was thirteen. I was too busy with Anne McCaffrey at that time (Hmm. Must go back and read them again one of these days). I really wish I'd bothered, because it's one of the best books I've read recently.

I was absolutely stunned by this book. I've seen some of the movies, but none of them really got me going - except for the swordplay of course. I was actually quite surprised how little swordplay there was in the book. There were a few duels at the beginning, and then it was all politics and intrigue. There was a wonderful scene where d'Artangnan and his friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis held a bastion for an hour and a half during the siege of La Rochelle while they had breakfast, but that was about it for the fighting and violence.

It is a long book, but well worth it in my opinion. When I had finished it, I had that contented, awestruck feeling that one gets from reading a good book, or seeing a good movie. The last time I remember that feeling was when I saw The Two Towers at the cinema. It's that kind of feeling where you just sit back and go "wow". And then you go "wow" again. And then you post about it in your LJ and tell all your friends.

I heartily recommend that you read this book.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1257

There is actually a whole series, known as the "d'Artangnan Romances" which starts with The Three Musketeers and ends, about forty years later, with The Man in the Iron Mask. I plan to read them all.

But I've started writing a novel now, and that may take up my time.

THE STORY OF SIGNORE ROCCO AND AUSTIN BAGGER
Reproduced from George Silver Paradoxes of Defence, 1599.

There were three Italian teachers of offense in my time. The first was Signior Rocco, the second was Jeronimo, that was Senior Rocco his boy, that taught gentlemen in the Black Friars, as usher for his master in stead of a man. The third was Vincentio. This Senior Rocco came into England about some thirty years past. He taught the noblemen & gentlemen of the court. He caused some of them to wear leaden soles in their shoes, the better to bring to nimbleness of the feet in their fight. He disbursed a great sum of money for the lease of a fair house in Warwick lane, which he called his college, for he thought it great disgrace for him to keep a fence school, he being then thought to be the only famous master of the art of arms in the whole world.

He caused to be fairly drawn and set round about his school all the noblemen's and gentlemen's arms that were his scholars, and hanging right under their arms their rapiers, daggers, gloves of mail and gauntlets. Also, he has benches and stools, the room being very large, for gentlemen to sit round about his school to behold his teaching. He taught none commonly under twenty, forty, fifty, or a hundred pounds. And because all things should be very necessary for the noblemen & gentlemen, he had in his school a large square table, with a green carpet, done round with a very broad rich fringe of gold, always standing upon it a very fair Standish covered with crimson velvet, with ink, pens, pen-dust, and sealing wax, and quivers of very excellent fine paper gilded, ready for the noblemen & gentlemen (upon occasion) to write their letters, being then desirous to follow their fight, to send their men to dispatch their business. And to know how the time passed, he had in one corner of his school a clock, with very fair large dial. He had within his school, a room the which was called the privy school, with many weapons therein, where he did teach his scholars his secret fight, after he had perfectly taught them their rules. He was very much beloved in the court.

There was one Austin Bagger, a very tall gentleman of his hands, not standing much upon his skill, but carrying the valiant heart of an Englishman, upon a time being merry among his friends, said he would go fight with Signior Rocco, presently went to Signior Rocco his house in the Blackfriers, and called to him in this manner: Signior Rocco, you are thought to be the only cunning man in the world with your weapon, you that takes upon yourself to hit any Englishman with a thrust upon any button, you that takes upon yourself to come over the sea, to teach the valiant noblemen and gentlemen of England to fight, you cowardly fellow, come out of your house if you dare for your life, I am come to fight with thee.

Signior Rocco, looking out at a window, perceiving him in the street to stand ready with his sword and buckler, with his two hand sword drawn, with all speed ran into the street, and manfully let fly at Austin Bagger, who most bravely defended himself, and presently closed with him, and struck up his heels, and cut him over the breech, and trod upon him, and most grievously hurt him under his feet. Yet in the end Austin of his good nature gave him his life, and there left him. This was the first and last fight that ever Signior Rocco made, save once at Queen Hith he drew his rapier upon a waterman, where he was thoroughly beaten with oars and stretchers, but the odds of their weapons were as great against his rapier, as was his two hand sword against Austin Bagger's sword and buckler, therefore for that fray he was to be excused.

So I've been spending time more recently reading George Silver's Paradoxes of Defence, a work which is usually dismissed as a long-winded assault on the Italian rapier masters - which it is - but the actual content regarding English swordsmanship is frequently ignored. He does go into more detail in his Brief Instructions Upon My Paradoxes Of Defence, but I find it a lot harder to follow than the first work. It is in Paradoxes that he lays the ground rules that the Instructions build upon.

Again, it's hard to read properly. It is written in Elizabethan English, and while all the words are, as it were, the same as we read now, yet the language, and the formulation of the sentences, with their endless stacked commas, over and over, making sentences the length of the Amazon, all these make it difficult, without practice, to read, as can be seen in the excerpt quoted below.

The old D&D bugaboo of polearm nomenclature raises its head though. Silver refers to the short staff, forest bill, partisan, glaive, halberd, black bill, morris pike and javelin, and it is not at all clear what these weapons look like, although some details can be glarked from context. It is apparent, however, that the forest bill is superior to all other weapons. I just wish I knew what it looked like.

I rather liked Silver's description of a maneuvre called "Cob's Traverse", which is (or should be) well-known to AAF fighters:

Then thus do I conclude, that he that fights with a long rapier, against him that fights with short sword, can do nothing in due time to defend himself, or hurt the other, but is still in danger of his life, or at the mercy of him that has the short sword, or else has no safe way to help himself, but only Cob's Traverse(29). This Cob was a great quarreler, and did delight in great bravery to give foul words to his betters, and would not refuse to go into the field to fight with any man, and when he came to the field, would draw his sword to fight, for he was sure by the cunning of his traverse, not to be hurt by any man. For at any time finding himself overmatched would suddenly turn his back and run away with such swiftness, that it was thought a good horse would scarce take him. And this when I was a young man, was very much spoken of by many gentlemen of the Inns of the Court, and was called Cob's Traverse and those that had seen any go back too fast in his fight, would say, he did tread Cob's Traverse.

Linked on the same site is DiGrassi's fencing manual, which I found a lot less interesting. For a start (and having read it after Silver), DiGrassi makes the same arguments in favour of the rapier that Silver debunked. For example, DiGrassi advises that the thrust is superior to the blow, because a thrust travels in a straight line, while a blow compasses a circle, and thus travels longer. Whereas Silver points out that the blow is just as fast as the thrust, and is more likely to inflict grievous injury on its target.

DiGrassi also appears to present only one possible strategy with each guard and opposition. For example, if you are in high ward, you should always strike thus.

I've also been doing some reading, mostly through Project Gutenberg. I've caught up on some of the old classics that I have previously missed. I read all four of H. G. Wells' best-known novels, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine. I found all of them extremely readable and interesting. It's amazing what liberties film adaptations take.

I also forced my way through both the Iliad and the Oddysey. I picked up Samuel Butler's translations from Gutenberg, and while they were quite readable, it was a bit of a strain.

The Iliad took me the longest. It's a dreadfully long piece of work, and mostly a catalogue of who killed whom, and how. It's also filled with the most amazing extended similes:

Meanwhile the Trojans kept on flying over the middle of the plain like a herd of cows maddened with fright when a lion has attacked them in the dead of night--he springs on one of them, seizes her neck in the grip of his strong teeth and then laps up her blood and gorges himself upon her entrails--even so did King Agamemnon son of Atreus pursue the foe, ever slaughtering the hindmost as they fled pell-mell before him.

It also uses the Roman gods' names, rather than the Greek, which I found quite disturbing at first. But once I got past the nine hundred and seventy-fourth repetition of "daughter of aegis-bearing Jove" I got used to it. A fascinating story all in all, and (for me) well worth struggling through. I amused myself by trying to mentally pronounce the Greek names with as little hesitation as possible:

Peneleos, Leitus, Arcesilaus, Prothoenor, and Clonius were captains of the Boeotians. These were they that dwelt in Hyria and rocky Aulis, and who held Schoenus, Scolus, and the highlands of Eteonus, with Thespeia, Graia, and the fair city of Mycalessus. They also held Harma, Eilesium, and Erythrae; and they had Eleon, Hyle, and Peteon; Ocalea and the strong fortress of Medeon; Copae, Eutresis, and Thisbe the haunt of doves; Coronea, and the pastures of Haliartus; Plataea and Glisas; the fortress of Thebes the less; holy Onchestus with its famous grove of Neptune; Arne rich in vineyards; Midea, sacred Nisa, and Anthedon upon the sea. From these there came fifty ships, and in each there were a hundred and twenty young men of the Boeotians.

The key is to pronounce every vowel - Democoon is pronounced "de-mo-co-on" not "de-mo-coon".

And there are some great taunts and insults. One that I plan to use in the next AAF display is "Only cowards and weaklings inflict minor wounds!"

It was interesting seeing how natural phenomena were attributed to the meddling of gods and goddesses. Ajax didn't just miss with his spear, Minerva turned its path. It didn't just rain, Jove sent the rain. However, it is a bit hard to interpret the battle between Achilles and the river Scamander in natural terms.

I read Treasure Island, which was fantastic. I wish I'd read it when I was thirteen. But I didn't. Again with the movie interpretations - I have seen Muppet Treasure Island and Treasure Planet, both of which are "based on" the original, but neither of them compare.

I also tried to read Moby Dick, but a more boring exposition I have never come across. It's almost as long-winded as the Iliad.

12/08/2005: tags: photography,books
( Cloud Cascade )

( Dan Brown )