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Recent reading
Oct. 24th, 2020 05:49 pmMaskerade by Terry Pratchett (1995). I decided it was time for a Discworld re-read! This was the first time I'd re-read this one since reading The Phantom of the Opera, of which it's a parody, so there were quite a few more jokes and references to get, which was very enjoyable. And Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg in general are as good as ever, individually and together.
A Social History of the English Countryside by G. E. Mingay (1990). I found this one on archive.org while searching for Oliver Rackham's The History of the Countryside, and thought, hey, that looks relevant to my interests too...! It was indeed very interesting. It's pretty much what it sounds like from the title, and covers all sorts of aspects of life in the English countryside—agricultural work, land ownership and class hierarchies, food, housing, disease and medicine, religion, games, etc. etc.—from the middle ages to the twentieth century. Lots of really interesting stuff in there, including some information on things I was aware of but didn't know a great deal about, like the agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century. It is an overview rather than going into tons of detail about specific things, and there were a couple of places where I felt a bit more detail would have been helpful—but nevertheless, in general it's a very interesting and enjoyable overview.
And, technically, Sir Isumbras at the Ford by D. K. Broster (1918) again. :D It was great fun getting to revisit this one, and having to pay such close attention to the details of the text made for an interesting reading experience. I think the weaknesses were a bit more obvious this time through—it is just a bit contrived and overly-sentimental in places—but overall I still like it a lot, especially Raymonde—reading her first few scenes with the knowledge of what's really going on and how it all goes later on was an especially good bit for re-reading, I thought.
A Social History of the English Countryside by G. E. Mingay (1990). I found this one on archive.org while searching for Oliver Rackham's The History of the Countryside, and thought, hey, that looks relevant to my interests too...! It was indeed very interesting. It's pretty much what it sounds like from the title, and covers all sorts of aspects of life in the English countryside—agricultural work, land ownership and class hierarchies, food, housing, disease and medicine, religion, games, etc. etc.—from the middle ages to the twentieth century. Lots of really interesting stuff in there, including some information on things I was aware of but didn't know a great deal about, like the agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century. It is an overview rather than going into tons of detail about specific things, and there were a couple of places where I felt a bit more detail would have been helpful—but nevertheless, in general it's a very interesting and enjoyable overview.
And, technically, Sir Isumbras at the Ford by D. K. Broster (1918) again. :D It was great fun getting to revisit this one, and having to pay such close attention to the details of the text made for an interesting reading experience. I think the weaknesses were a bit more obvious this time through—it is just a bit contrived and overly-sentimental in places—but overall I still like it a lot, especially Raymonde—reading her first few scenes with the knowledge of what's really going on and how it all goes later on was an especially good bit for re-reading, I thought.
