As you will have observed I'd stopped writing this blog for a few months. Hopefully I shall do some more posts in the future, but for now here's a list of the books I've read since I last blogged. I would recommend all of them except for the Hemingway - how can a person who cannot write sensible sentences have been so successful a writer? I've put a star against the ones that I would say are must-reads.
Leo Tolstoy - Resurrection*
Leo Tolstoy - War & Peace*
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - The First Circle*
Mikhail Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time
W. J. Corbett - The song of Pentecost
Oliver Goldsmith - The vicar of wakefield
Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina*
Dorothy Scroggins - Emma's War*
Asne Seierstad - The Bookseller of Kabul*
Francois Bizot - The Gate
Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms
Giles Milton - Nathaniel's Nutmeg*
Christopher Robbins - In Search of Kazakhstan, the Land that Disappeared*
Friday, 11 December 2009
Friday, 24 April 2009
Under the Yoke - Ivan Vazov
Publ: 1893, ISBN: 0543691780
Thanks to nationalpallets for recommending this in response to my post on books on Bulgaria.
Under the yoke is the most famous piece of classic Bulgarian literature and has been translated into over 30 languages. It is a tale of the bloody uprising of 1876, when Bulgarian patriots fought to free Bulgaria from 500 years of Ottoman rule.
I actually found it a little difficult to get into, probably because of my lack of knowledge of Bulgaria and Bulgarian words (though the translator of this version did kindly explain them all), but once I'd made it past the first 50 pages I found it both very enjoyable and informative.
Thanks to nationalpallets for recommending this in response to my post on books on Bulgaria.
Under the yoke is the most famous piece of classic Bulgarian literature and has been translated into over 30 languages. It is a tale of the bloody uprising of 1876, when Bulgarian patriots fought to free Bulgaria from 500 years of Ottoman rule.
I actually found it a little difficult to get into, probably because of my lack of knowledge of Bulgaria and Bulgarian words (though the translator of this version did kindly explain them all), but once I'd made it past the first 50 pages I found it both very enjoyable and informative.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Publ: ISBN: 0374528373
Widely acknowledged as one of the supreme achievements in literature the Brothers Karamazov portrays a patricide in which each of the murdered man's sons share a varying degree of complicity. On a deeper level, it is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, reason, free will and modern Russia.
Although I am a big fan of Russian literature I was surprised to find how addictive this was. Indeed I found it difficult to put the second book down. I'm afraid the religious discussion was not to my liking, but I will definitely read it again nonetheless.
Dostoevsky intended this to be the first part in an epic story titled 'The Life of a Great Sinner', but unfortunately he died before he could write any more.
Widely acknowledged as one of the supreme achievements in literature the Brothers Karamazov portrays a patricide in which each of the murdered man's sons share a varying degree of complicity. On a deeper level, it is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, reason, free will and modern Russia.
Although I am a big fan of Russian literature I was surprised to find how addictive this was. Indeed I found it difficult to put the second book down. I'm afraid the religious discussion was not to my liking, but I will definitely read it again nonetheless.
Dostoevsky intended this to be the first part in an epic story titled 'The Life of a Great Sinner', but unfortunately he died before he could write any more.
Saturday, 14 February 2009
A concise history of Bulgaria - R. J. Crampton
Publ: 2005, ISBN: 0521850851
Ian went to Bulgaria as a conservation volunteer a few years ago and made a good friend Ivan with whom he is still in touch. We hope to visit Ivan sometime in the next couple of years so I was determined to find out more about Bulgaria.
This quote on my father's book blog seemed most appropriate for this book.
"There are only a finite amount of books you can read in one lifetime, so spending time with one that you know within 50 pages is going to stink like two-day-old roadkill in the sun seems counter-intuitive. It makes far more sense to put it down and pick up something else from the ever-increasing to-read pile. Yet I feel somehow incapable of doing so." - Stuart Evers
I really tried hard to like this book, but I found the writing just didn't flow. Being in chronoligical order it began with a period in Eastern Europe that I knew little about, which admittedly made it more difficult to follow. I really tried hard to reach the 20th Century, but gave up midway through the 19th.
One thing I did find interesting was a paragraph on the Bulgarian language:
"Bulgarian had once ranked with Greek, Latin and Arabic as the major tongues of the civilised European world,... but when, in the second half of the eighteenth century, Catherine the Great compiled her samples of 279 languages and dialects, included in which were some North American Indian tongues, Bulgarian was not mentioned."
Ian went to Bulgaria as a conservation volunteer a few years ago and made a good friend Ivan with whom he is still in touch. We hope to visit Ivan sometime in the next couple of years so I was determined to find out more about Bulgaria.
This quote on my father's book blog seemed most appropriate for this book.
"There are only a finite amount of books you can read in one lifetime, so spending time with one that you know within 50 pages is going to stink like two-day-old roadkill in the sun seems counter-intuitive. It makes far more sense to put it down and pick up something else from the ever-increasing to-read pile. Yet I feel somehow incapable of doing so." - Stuart Evers
I really tried hard to like this book, but I found the writing just didn't flow. Being in chronoligical order it began with a period in Eastern Europe that I knew little about, which admittedly made it more difficult to follow. I really tried hard to reach the 20th Century, but gave up midway through the 19th.
One thing I did find interesting was a paragraph on the Bulgarian language:
"Bulgarian had once ranked with Greek, Latin and Arabic as the major tongues of the civilised European world,... but when, in the second half of the eighteenth century, Catherine the Great compiled her samples of 279 languages and dialects, included in which were some North American Indian tongues, Bulgarian was not mentioned."
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Captured at the Imjin River, the Korean War Memoirs of a Gloster 1950-1953 - David Green
Publ: 2002, ISBN: 085052959X
A much more readable and informative history of the Korean War than the book by Charles Whiting that I read earlier in the year, written by someone who was actually there. David Green was a teenager undertaking National Service when the Korean War began. He quickly signed up to ship out to Korea, though like most of his generation he barely knew where it was.
Green was captured by the Chinese in 1951 and spent the next two and a half years in a Chinese POW camp in Chongsong. Green intersperses his accounts of his own experiences with summaries of general events during the war.
A much more readable and informative history of the Korean War than the book by Charles Whiting that I read earlier in the year, written by someone who was actually there. David Green was a teenager undertaking National Service when the Korean War began. He quickly signed up to ship out to Korea, though like most of his generation he barely knew where it was.
Green was captured by the Chinese in 1951 and spent the next two and a half years in a Chinese POW camp in Chongsong. Green intersperses his accounts of his own experiences with summaries of general events during the war.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
The Wolves of Time: Seekers at the WulfRock - William Horwood
Publ: 1998, ISBN: 000649935X
The final volume of the Wolves of Time: though the first book mentions that there will be two later volumes I'm assuming Horwood decided to combine these in this single volume. Unfortunately Horwood decided to shift from narrating as a wolf to narrating as a shaman. This makes little difference, with the exception of several annoying breaks in the wolves story that I personally don't see the need for.
As the world of men collapses the wolves of the Heartland and their offspring attempt to unite the packs across Europe as the era of the wolf returns.
Although the end of the earth as we know it might have been difficult to visualise, Horwood shows us how such self-destruction could easily by possible by beginning with an account of the massacre of the citizens of Oradour sur Glane during World War II (see GB's account of his visit to Oradour).
The final volume of the Wolves of Time: though the first book mentions that there will be two later volumes I'm assuming Horwood decided to combine these in this single volume. Unfortunately Horwood decided to shift from narrating as a wolf to narrating as a shaman. This makes little difference, with the exception of several annoying breaks in the wolves story that I personally don't see the need for.
As the world of men collapses the wolves of the Heartland and their offspring attempt to unite the packs across Europe as the era of the wolf returns.
Although the end of the earth as we know it might have been difficult to visualise, Horwood shows us how such self-destruction could easily by possible by beginning with an account of the massacre of the citizens of Oradour sur Glane during World War II (see GB's account of his visit to Oradour).
Saturday, 31 January 2009
The Wolves of Time: Journeys to the Heartland - William Horwood
Publ: 1996, ISBN: 0006496946
Written by one of my favourite authors, Journeys to the Heartland follows the fate of a number of wolves, all from different parts of Europe. These wolves hope to form a pack and regain lost territory: the Heartland. The story is set at the end of the Dark Millenium, during which there has been a decline of mankind, corresponding to their destruction of the earth and ultimately of themselves. The wolves too are in decline as a result of persecution from man and the destruction of their habitats. The pack that become the wolves of time set to redress the balance by bringing humans and wolves together in harmony with the earth.
Not as enjoyable as the Duncton Chronicles. Personally I find that wolves are less loveable than moles, probably due to their more aggressive nature. The story of the destruction of man and civilisation as we know it is rather depressing, but not unrealistic.
Written by one of my favourite authors, Journeys to the Heartland follows the fate of a number of wolves, all from different parts of Europe. These wolves hope to form a pack and regain lost territory: the Heartland. The story is set at the end of the Dark Millenium, during which there has been a decline of mankind, corresponding to their destruction of the earth and ultimately of themselves. The wolves too are in decline as a result of persecution from man and the destruction of their habitats. The pack that become the wolves of time set to redress the balance by bringing humans and wolves together in harmony with the earth.
Not as enjoyable as the Duncton Chronicles. Personally I find that wolves are less loveable than moles, probably due to their more aggressive nature. The story of the destruction of man and civilisation as we know it is rather depressing, but not unrealistic.
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