![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
what i'm reading wednesday
What I finished:
Not unrelated to my mental health struggles, I have had a hard time getting into anything substantive. Lack of interest in things is always the first sign I'm headed down a bad path and it has arrived!
But this weekend I did manage to read Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus. This was not a top tier cultural history, but it was interesting enough and not for the faint of heart! Rabies is scary as hell, y'all! Just so very scary! Louis Pasteur is a hero for the ages!
One thing I would have liked to read more about is the history of rabies scares and how those reflect other cultural issues. This was addressed, but not to the depth I would have liked. There was also some interesting psychological stuff about how our relationship with dogs is uniquely intimate and so makes us uniquely vulnerable to them.
There's a case study chapter about Bali, which had never had any rabies presence until early this century when it was brought to the island. The government kept saying it couldn't be rabies because it had never been rabies before and they didn't have a good approach to dealing with it. This combined with the unique relationships the local culture has with dogs--almost everyone has a dog, they are very fond of their dogs, but the dogs don't live inside and often their owners never even touch them--made it difficult to get a vaccination effort off the ground. When it did, it was a grassroots effort. I tried to find an update on whether they got it under control since the book was published about a decade ago, but it seems they haven't.
Anyway, the book was interesting if not enthralling.
What I'm currently read:
+ I don't listen to audiobooks because a) I can read faster than I can listen, b) I like to be able to go back and reread sentences/paragraphs/whatever as I read, and c) I process information far better by reading it than by listening to it. Podcasts are fine, both because they're shorter form and because they don't exist in other formats. But if I have a choice between a book and an audiobook, I'm always going to choose the book.
However David Mitchell has a book out about the history of the British kings (and queens, but far less of them) called Unruly, and I was like, "Obviously I need to let David Mitchell rant about this in his own voice." And this was the right decision. The book is chatty and sometimes silly and sometimes insightful and it gains a lot from being read by Mitchell himself. I have always been very fond of him, even though he occasionally pisses me off (there's some fatphobia that makes me want to shake him like a terrier with a rat), and hearing him go off about the ridiculousness of British history is a fun way to spend some time. He's just serious enough about certain themes (the importance of stability and predictability in a reign, the slow development of ideas of Englishness, changes in what people were willing to accept from their leaders, the fact that those in power like to use the narrative of "restoration" to legitimize what is in fact sweeping change) to make the book something more than just silliness. If you like David Mitchell and you can handle audiobooks, you should definitely listen to this.
+ I'm about 20% into Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which, now that I think about it, probably launched the ~dark academia~ trend. I suspect that this book is not actually good, but I'm enjoying myself enough to keep going with it. It's very long! Very long! And at least half of it by word count is, like, travel writing descriptions about various places in Europe. Honestly it could use an editor, but I do enjoy how the vampire story kind of lurks around the edges. We'll see how it goes.
+ I have also started Armadale because apparently it's the Year of Wilkie Collins. This is very different from The Moonstone and The Woman in White in that both of those books are epistolary exercises in perspective--the joy of them is as much the narration of the various characters as anything that actually happens. (This is one reason I enjoy TWIW more than TM--TWIW has more narrative voices, which is just fun!)
Armadale is much more straightforward Victorian third person, which is a bit disappointing, but Collins knows how to tell a story and I am certain this one will be sufficiently twisty. Also it has the best character name in the history of Victorian literature: Ozias Midwinter. I wish my last name was Midwinter. Incredible.
Not unrelated to my mental health struggles, I have had a hard time getting into anything substantive. Lack of interest in things is always the first sign I'm headed down a bad path and it has arrived!
But this weekend I did manage to read Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus. This was not a top tier cultural history, but it was interesting enough and not for the faint of heart! Rabies is scary as hell, y'all! Just so very scary! Louis Pasteur is a hero for the ages!
One thing I would have liked to read more about is the history of rabies scares and how those reflect other cultural issues. This was addressed, but not to the depth I would have liked. There was also some interesting psychological stuff about how our relationship with dogs is uniquely intimate and so makes us uniquely vulnerable to them.
There's a case study chapter about Bali, which had never had any rabies presence until early this century when it was brought to the island. The government kept saying it couldn't be rabies because it had never been rabies before and they didn't have a good approach to dealing with it. This combined with the unique relationships the local culture has with dogs--almost everyone has a dog, they are very fond of their dogs, but the dogs don't live inside and often their owners never even touch them--made it difficult to get a vaccination effort off the ground. When it did, it was a grassroots effort. I tried to find an update on whether they got it under control since the book was published about a decade ago, but it seems they haven't.
Anyway, the book was interesting if not enthralling.
What I'm currently read:
+ I don't listen to audiobooks because a) I can read faster than I can listen, b) I like to be able to go back and reread sentences/paragraphs/whatever as I read, and c) I process information far better by reading it than by listening to it. Podcasts are fine, both because they're shorter form and because they don't exist in other formats. But if I have a choice between a book and an audiobook, I'm always going to choose the book.
However David Mitchell has a book out about the history of the British kings (and queens, but far less of them) called Unruly, and I was like, "Obviously I need to let David Mitchell rant about this in his own voice." And this was the right decision. The book is chatty and sometimes silly and sometimes insightful and it gains a lot from being read by Mitchell himself. I have always been very fond of him, even though he occasionally pisses me off (there's some fatphobia that makes me want to shake him like a terrier with a rat), and hearing him go off about the ridiculousness of British history is a fun way to spend some time. He's just serious enough about certain themes (the importance of stability and predictability in a reign, the slow development of ideas of Englishness, changes in what people were willing to accept from their leaders, the fact that those in power like to use the narrative of "restoration" to legitimize what is in fact sweeping change) to make the book something more than just silliness. If you like David Mitchell and you can handle audiobooks, you should definitely listen to this.
+ I'm about 20% into Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which, now that I think about it, probably launched the ~dark academia~ trend. I suspect that this book is not actually good, but I'm enjoying myself enough to keep going with it. It's very long! Very long! And at least half of it by word count is, like, travel writing descriptions about various places in Europe. Honestly it could use an editor, but I do enjoy how the vampire story kind of lurks around the edges. We'll see how it goes.
+ I have also started Armadale because apparently it's the Year of Wilkie Collins. This is very different from The Moonstone and The Woman in White in that both of those books are epistolary exercises in perspective--the joy of them is as much the narration of the various characters as anything that actually happens. (This is one reason I enjoy TWIW more than TM--TWIW has more narrative voices, which is just fun!)
Armadale is much more straightforward Victorian third person, which is a bit disappointing, but Collins knows how to tell a story and I am certain this one will be sufficiently twisty. Also it has the best character name in the history of Victorian literature: Ozias Midwinter. I wish my last name was Midwinter. Incredible.
no subject
no subject
no subject
This sounds like so much fun! I know my library has audiobooks, I guess now I have to figure out how to audiobook. :D
no subject
no subject
Oh cool! I thought I had to get it from the catalogue itself.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Yes it's terrible, but very good in its terribleness and I also enjoyed myself immensely reading back then! I think I gave away my copy and then tracked down another one, not because I wanted to ever read it again but just to have it?
no subject
This is definitely the vibe I'm getting!
not because I wanted to ever read it again but just to have it?
A familiar sentiment!
no subject
Don't worry, Armadale has its own fun in other ways! Hopefully you will too! XD
"Obviously I need to let David Mitchell rant about this in his own voice."
I can't do audiobooks (as opposed to full-cast dramas), but, lol, yes. I mean, I still couldn't, but I'd want to.
no subject
I can't do audiobooks (as opposed to full-cast dramas), but, lol, yes. I mean, I still couldn't, but I'd want to.
I mean, it's David Mitchell! But yes, I definitely understand struggling with audiobooks!
no subject
OZIAS MIDWINTER?!?!?!
no subject
OZIAS MIDWINTER?!?!?!
Isn't it delightful??? The character is introduced and somebody is like "That can't possibly be his real name," and another character is like, "Of course it's his real name, no one would make up a fake name that ridiculous!"
no subject
I really enjoyed The Historian but read it years ago. I suppose it did drag from time to time, but I can't say I remember that. I hope you stick with it and find it more enjoyable as it goes one. I can't remember how it ends, so may have to take another look at it.
no subject
I didn't mean to imply I'm not enjoying The Historian! It's just such a weird book--I'm like two hundred pages in and so few things have actually happened! And yet I am not bored! It's a weird read!
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Exactly! This is why I'm into it even though, as you say, I think it's just fun and iddy instead of Good!
no subject
And yeah, I've never done audiobooks before but this'd make sense as the first...
no subject
no subject
no subject