Holiday reading
Apr. 26th, 2020 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeI have had a relaxing week's holiday, despite being a little wistful about how good all those planned bike and train trips around the county would have been in this lovely weather. However, I've been sitting out in the garden every afternoon and have managed to actually start doing my permitted single daily exercise (it turns out going out for a walk at 5am makes social distancing much easier, plus you get to listen to the dawn chorus properly!). I have also, of course, had lots of time for reading, and along with starting a very slow, detailed re-read of The Flight of the Heron (which I am greatly enjoying getting to know better), have got through several other good books. These, plus the couple from earlier in the month that I haven't got round to writing up yet, were...
Henry IV Part II by William Shakespeare (1597-ish). Another good one! On the whole I definitely don't enjoy Shakespeare's comedic scenes as much as the more serious dramatic bits—I think that's partly just a mismatch in sense of humour (although I don't include the puns in that. Shakespeare is incredible at puns, and I appreciate them very much—but they're not always really humorous, of course), and partly because it seems like the comedy relies much more on things that go over my head because of language change or historical context, and I think the effect of comedy also suffers more from having to stop and read the footnotes every few lines to follow what's going on. All that said, however, I liked this one a lot, both the dramatic and the funny bits—Justice Shallow in particular was great fun, and I enjoyed Prince John's brief but devious appearance.
The '45 by Christopher Duffy (2003). The definitive book about the 1745 Jacobite rising and excellent background reading for The Flight of the Heron—it's incredibly detailed and very engagingly written, exploring various parts of the background, the events of the rising itself, who took part and what they all did and, all-importantly, what the weather was like on various crucial dates. I've said bits and pieces about it elsewhere, but, overall: really, really good, highly recommended. Duffy has apparently written another book about the '45 which is even more detailed, so I'll have to give that one a go sometime in the future—but I think my binge-reading of Jacobite history is probably going to pause for a bit now, since I've got too much else to read.
First Term At Malory Towers by Enid Blyton (1946). Something a bit lighter! This was a nostalgia re-read, and very enjoyable as such—Blyton's prose leaves a little to be desired and she definitely has some Period-Typical Attitudes, but that doesn't really take away from the sheer delight of the book. It's a boarding-school story, following the main character Darrell Rivers, a twelve-year-old girl with a good heart and a hot temper, at her first term at a new school, and there are five more books chronicling Darrell's later years at Malory Towers. The relatively low stakes of the plot were very refreshing after all the dramatic and bloody historical things I've been reading recently, and some of the character dynamics are really good—I especially felt for poor Mary-Lou, with her timidity hiding a great bravery and with her hero-worship of Darrell. I intend to carry on and re-read the rest of the series soon!
The Worm Forgives the Plough by John Stewart Collis (1946-7). This is an omnibus of two books: While Following the Plough, which describes the author's time going to work on two farms in the Land Army as his contribution to the war effort, and Down to Earth, which is split between some general essays on natural history and science and an account of Collis's later land work managing a patch of woodland. All three parts were good in different ways. They're all split into very short chapters or pieces, which generally start with some particular piece of work Collis does on the farm or some animal or plant he observes, and go on to general meditations on all sorts of things from the relations between farmers and labourers, the changing conditions of working men over the course of the twentieth century, the revelation of God in the natural world, the place of physical and intellectual work in a good life, etc. etc. There's surprisingly little about the actual war. Collis writes really imaginatively about natural history, although he wasn't a scientist and some of of the facts are in any case now out of date—the essay on ants is particularly memorable, and he's really good at conveying a sense of how marvellous the fine details of the workings of nature really are.
Henry IV Part II by William Shakespeare (1597-ish). Another good one! On the whole I definitely don't enjoy Shakespeare's comedic scenes as much as the more serious dramatic bits—I think that's partly just a mismatch in sense of humour (although I don't include the puns in that. Shakespeare is incredible at puns, and I appreciate them very much—but they're not always really humorous, of course), and partly because it seems like the comedy relies much more on things that go over my head because of language change or historical context, and I think the effect of comedy also suffers more from having to stop and read the footnotes every few lines to follow what's going on. All that said, however, I liked this one a lot, both the dramatic and the funny bits—Justice Shallow in particular was great fun, and I enjoyed Prince John's brief but devious appearance.
The '45 by Christopher Duffy (2003). The definitive book about the 1745 Jacobite rising and excellent background reading for The Flight of the Heron—it's incredibly detailed and very engagingly written, exploring various parts of the background, the events of the rising itself, who took part and what they all did and, all-importantly, what the weather was like on various crucial dates. I've said bits and pieces about it elsewhere, but, overall: really, really good, highly recommended. Duffy has apparently written another book about the '45 which is even more detailed, so I'll have to give that one a go sometime in the future—but I think my binge-reading of Jacobite history is probably going to pause for a bit now, since I've got too much else to read.
First Term At Malory Towers by Enid Blyton (1946). Something a bit lighter! This was a nostalgia re-read, and very enjoyable as such—Blyton's prose leaves a little to be desired and she definitely has some Period-Typical Attitudes, but that doesn't really take away from the sheer delight of the book. It's a boarding-school story, following the main character Darrell Rivers, a twelve-year-old girl with a good heart and a hot temper, at her first term at a new school, and there are five more books chronicling Darrell's later years at Malory Towers. The relatively low stakes of the plot were very refreshing after all the dramatic and bloody historical things I've been reading recently, and some of the character dynamics are really good—I especially felt for poor Mary-Lou, with her timidity hiding a great bravery and with her hero-worship of Darrell. I intend to carry on and re-read the rest of the series soon!
The Worm Forgives the Plough by John Stewart Collis (1946-7). This is an omnibus of two books: While Following the Plough, which describes the author's time going to work on two farms in the Land Army as his contribution to the war effort, and Down to Earth, which is split between some general essays on natural history and science and an account of Collis's later land work managing a patch of woodland. All three parts were good in different ways. They're all split into very short chapters or pieces, which generally start with some particular piece of work Collis does on the farm or some animal or plant he observes, and go on to general meditations on all sorts of things from the relations between farmers and labourers, the changing conditions of working men over the course of the twentieth century, the revelation of God in the natural world, the place of physical and intellectual work in a good life, etc. etc. There's surprisingly little about the actual war. Collis writes really imaginatively about natural history, although he wasn't a scientist and some of of the facts are in any case now out of date—the essay on ants is particularly memorable, and he's really good at conveying a sense of how marvellous the fine details of the workings of nature really are.
no subject
Date: Apr. 26th, 2020 07:38 pm (UTC)I am (as always) impressed by your speedy reading powers! That slow re-read of TFOTH sounds lovely, it really is one of those books that keeps revealing new things on each reread, isn't it? <3
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Date: Apr. 27th, 2020 05:02 am (UTC)That slow re-read of TFOTH sounds lovely, it really is one of those books that keeps revealing new things on each reread, isn't it? <3
It is! Really, I can't wait until it's one of those books I just know completely back-to-front, every sentence familiar, like JSMN is at the moment—but this takes lots of re-reading :D
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Date: Apr. 27th, 2020 03:18 pm (UTC)And speaking of re-reads, yes, there are few things as wonderful as re-reading a book so much that you basically know it by heart--and yet remain surprised by the new things that pop up each time! It's so special when it happens, and a lot of my favourites (like JS&MN!) are like that! <3
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Date: Apr. 27th, 2020 04:25 pm (UTC)I always think the Discworld books are the best for re-reading and noticing new things—every time I re-read one there's always some joke or reference that I didn't get before. It's the best <3
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Date: Apr. 27th, 2020 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 27th, 2020 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 27th, 2020 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 27th, 2020 06:45 pm (UTC)