what i'm reading wednesday
Oct. 2nd, 2024 10:12 amFlist, forgive me: it has been three weeks since my last post.
What I finished:
+ Pilgrim's Rest, a not-a-standout Miss Silver novel. It was fine, as all Patricia Wentworth novels are at a minimum, but it was no The Chinese Shawl or The Key.
+ Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan by Frank L. Holt. This was an attempt on my part to learn something about the Greek colonies in Afghanistan in antiquity; as such it was not successful. It's a military history (aka my least favorite kind of history) about Alexander's campaigns there. It was not uninteresting--the writer was clear that he started writing it because when he heard about the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, he had a sinking feeling of, "Oh, that's a bad idea" because of the history of what happens when Western powers (Britian--twice--Russia, etc.) invade Afghanistan. It initially goes fine, then they find it impossible to hold onto.
So anyway, he's a classicist, so he got his thoughts together re: how Alexander invaded Afghanistan and then couldn't hold onto it (despite the continued existence of a few colonial cities for centuries). The actual information about the military stuff is very good and well-researched (if not a real draw for me), but I think he leans a little too hard on the idea that you can't subdue Afghanistan--basically he hops from the Greeks all the way to the UK and Russia while ignoring the many centuries in between, during which Afghanistan was invaded by various powers. I guess Holt could make the argument that "Eastern" powers are better at conquering that area than Western ones, but he doesn't really make that argument. I kept going, "But what about the vast majority of Afghanistan's history???"
However, the last chapter was about some of the archaeological history of the country--the history of people trying to find these cities and digging them up, etc. I'd read a whole book about this! The incredible finds keep getting destroyed or captured or sold off due to the political situation, but it's clear that there were amazing cities in this region throughout time. The vast, vast majority of what we know from this time period from coins, most of them from hordes, including some of the largest hordes ever found.
The appendix was also very good--basically a short but excellent (so far as I can judge these things) breakdown of what kinds of sources we have from the ancient past, what their limitations are, etc. I can see an Intro to Ancient History professor assigning this to a college class. Whenever I read about antiquity, I am amazed at both how much we know and how much we don't know about those times. It seems incredible that any texts survive at all, but also a lot of them are actually secondary sources or are particularly biased.
Anyway, this book was not what I wanted it to be, but if you're into military history, it's good for what it is. I will have to search further afield for more information on ancient Afghanistan. From what I can figure out, the religious history of most of Afghanistan was: polytheistic local religion --> [Zoroastrianism under the Persians --> [Greek gods for those who were impacted by the Greeks, though that was probably a small part of the population -->] Buddhism --> Islam, which is just a fascinating trajectory and I want to read more about it!
+ His Majesty's Dragon. This was entertaining enough. It kept my attention throughout (except for a few of the battles at the end--I always zone out during battles) and the worldbuilding was fun if not impressive (basically, very few things seem to be different than they are in our world, and I'm sorry, if there were dragons, I think things would be different). I'm glad I read it but I don't know whether I'll read any more of the series--9 books is so many!
My two biggest takeaways were: 1) the dragon personalities were very fun, particularly Temeraire, who was my favorite character, and 2) what are the logistics of dealing with all that dragon waste??? Novik goes into great detail about how they're feeding and kitting out the dragons, but who is shoveling all those mountains of shit??? I would have appreciated a single sentence addressing this!
+ The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. A very readable account of the most prolific art thief in known history. The author goes into great detail about how the thief pulled off all his thefts (the thief turned out to be a talker after he was arrested and has done many many interviews talking about it), most of which were the result of a complete lack of security in the many, many small art and history museums scattered around Europe. This lack of security is understandable since almost all of them are underfunded, but it really does bring home how, really, most people behave themselves in museums--the whole system is predicated on people not taking things they could fairly easily take, and 99% of the time, no one takes them. Of course, that means when the 1% comes along, he can take literally hundreds of pieces.
The guy's psychology is both interesting and frustrating, his relationships (such as they are) are opaque and frustrating, and the results of the whole thing are harrowing.
What I'm currently reading:
+ Listening to: Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Year of Conspiracy Theories by Mike Rothschild (no relation). I'd greatly prefer to read this one, not least because it's quite repetitive, but the library only has the audiobook so I'm struggling through it. More on it when I'm done.
+ Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle inspired by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sawthefaeriequeen, who recently read and loved it. It's been on my list for a long time and I finally got around to it.
I can't remember who it is on my flist it is who raves about this book and how impossibly well Beagle writes from the perspective of a thirteen-year-old girl, but whoever you are: you are correct, it really is incredible how good at it he is for someone who was never a thirteen-year-old girl and who was old when he wrote it.
What's on hold:
The Historian and Armadale. I will definitely go back to both of them.
What I finished:
+ Pilgrim's Rest, a not-a-standout Miss Silver novel. It was fine, as all Patricia Wentworth novels are at a minimum, but it was no The Chinese Shawl or The Key.
+ Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan by Frank L. Holt. This was an attempt on my part to learn something about the Greek colonies in Afghanistan in antiquity; as such it was not successful. It's a military history (aka my least favorite kind of history) about Alexander's campaigns there. It was not uninteresting--the writer was clear that he started writing it because when he heard about the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, he had a sinking feeling of, "Oh, that's a bad idea" because of the history of what happens when Western powers (Britian--twice--Russia, etc.) invade Afghanistan. It initially goes fine, then they find it impossible to hold onto.
So anyway, he's a classicist, so he got his thoughts together re: how Alexander invaded Afghanistan and then couldn't hold onto it (despite the continued existence of a few colonial cities for centuries). The actual information about the military stuff is very good and well-researched (if not a real draw for me), but I think he leans a little too hard on the idea that you can't subdue Afghanistan--basically he hops from the Greeks all the way to the UK and Russia while ignoring the many centuries in between, during which Afghanistan was invaded by various powers. I guess Holt could make the argument that "Eastern" powers are better at conquering that area than Western ones, but he doesn't really make that argument. I kept going, "But what about the vast majority of Afghanistan's history???"
However, the last chapter was about some of the archaeological history of the country--the history of people trying to find these cities and digging them up, etc. I'd read a whole book about this! The incredible finds keep getting destroyed or captured or sold off due to the political situation, but it's clear that there were amazing cities in this region throughout time. The vast, vast majority of what we know from this time period from coins, most of them from hordes, including some of the largest hordes ever found.
The appendix was also very good--basically a short but excellent (so far as I can judge these things) breakdown of what kinds of sources we have from the ancient past, what their limitations are, etc. I can see an Intro to Ancient History professor assigning this to a college class. Whenever I read about antiquity, I am amazed at both how much we know and how much we don't know about those times. It seems incredible that any texts survive at all, but also a lot of them are actually secondary sources or are particularly biased.
Anyway, this book was not what I wanted it to be, but if you're into military history, it's good for what it is. I will have to search further afield for more information on ancient Afghanistan. From what I can figure out, the religious history of most of Afghanistan was: polytheistic local religion --> [Zoroastrianism under the Persians --> [Greek gods for those who were impacted by the Greeks, though that was probably a small part of the population -->] Buddhism --> Islam, which is just a fascinating trajectory and I want to read more about it!
+ His Majesty's Dragon. This was entertaining enough. It kept my attention throughout (except for a few of the battles at the end--I always zone out during battles) and the worldbuilding was fun if not impressive (basically, very few things seem to be different than they are in our world, and I'm sorry, if there were dragons, I think things would be different). I'm glad I read it but I don't know whether I'll read any more of the series--9 books is so many!
My two biggest takeaways were: 1) the dragon personalities were very fun, particularly Temeraire, who was my favorite character, and 2) what are the logistics of dealing with all that dragon waste??? Novik goes into great detail about how they're feeding and kitting out the dragons, but who is shoveling all those mountains of shit??? I would have appreciated a single sentence addressing this!
+ The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. A very readable account of the most prolific art thief in known history. The author goes into great detail about how the thief pulled off all his thefts (the thief turned out to be a talker after he was arrested and has done many many interviews talking about it), most of which were the result of a complete lack of security in the many, many small art and history museums scattered around Europe. This lack of security is understandable since almost all of them are underfunded, but it really does bring home how, really, most people behave themselves in museums--the whole system is predicated on people not taking things they could fairly easily take, and 99% of the time, no one takes them. Of course, that means when the 1% comes along, he can take literally hundreds of pieces.
The guy's psychology is both interesting and frustrating, his relationships (such as they are) are opaque and frustrating, and the results of the whole thing are harrowing.
What I'm currently reading:
+ Listening to: Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Year of Conspiracy Theories by Mike Rothschild (no relation). I'd greatly prefer to read this one, not least because it's quite repetitive, but the library only has the audiobook so I'm struggling through it. More on it when I'm done.
+ Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle inspired by
sawthefaeriequeen, who recently read and loved it. It's been on my list for a long time and I finally got around to it. I can't remember who it is on my flist it is who raves about this book and how impossibly well Beagle writes from the perspective of a thirteen-year-old girl, but whoever you are: you are correct, it really is incredible how good at it he is for someone who was never a thirteen-year-old girl and who was old when he wrote it.
What's on hold:
The Historian and Armadale. I will definitely go back to both of them.
