History Reading Challenge Check-In

By -
Fanda at ClassicLit is doing a check-in for her history challenge:

Time flies so really quickly, and here we are already on the eighth month of 2014, two third of our sail to the past with History Reading Challenge 2014. This is our second check in, to check how we have been progressing since our start. Let’s share in the comment below (or if you want to write it in a post, you could link up your post here),

  • How many books have you read so far?
  • Are you on schedule or left behind?
  • What is your most favorite so far?
  • Which history are you looking forward to read?

(You don’t have to answer all the questions; basically tell us what you think about this challenge so far).

And I would like to remind you, that in the end of this challenge there will be two giveaways, one of them for the Analysis posts. If you haven’t submitted your posts, there is still enough time to do so. 
I managed to miss the last check-in post, so I think this is actually my first.  Here are the titles I've read:
  1. The Perfect Summer, by Juliet Gillespie
  2. The History of the Ancient World, by Susan Wise Bauer
  3. Arthur's Britain, by Leslie Alcock
  4. The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman
  5. A Time of Gifts, by Patrick Leigh Fermor
  6. Savage Continent, by Keith Lowe
  7. In the Steps of the Master, by V. H. Morton
I've therefore technically hit my goal of 7 or more books, but I have at least two more that I would really like to read by the end of the year: The History of the Renaissance World, by Susan Wise Bauer, and Eight Pieces of Empire, by Lawrence Scott Sheets.  I feel that I'm right on schedule.

It's been kind of a blood-soaked year of history reading (I guess that's what history's like, but those WWII books were particularly brutal).  The Guns of August was excellent but not a lot of fun.  A Time of Gifts, though, was just a delight the whole way through, so that's certainly a favorite.  In the Steps of the Master was also wonderful and at the top of the list.  I'm looking forward to both of my next picks, though I don't expect them to be very fun either.
 

Comments

  1. Fanda ClassiclitAugust 20, 2014 at 5:56 PM

    Wow....7 books already? Congrats for achieving your goal! The History of the Renaissance World looks tempting, can't wait to read your thoughts about it.

    By the way, I don't think I have seen any of your history reviews in the linky (in my Master Post), have you submitted them? If you haven't, you can do it here: http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2014/01/history-reading-challenge-2014-master.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. JeanAugust 20, 2014 at 9:17 PM

    Oh, that would be a good plan! I think I somehow got the idea that there wasn't a linky. Will do!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I'd love to know what you think, so please comment!

Popular posts from this blog

The Four Ages of Poetry

By -
Image
  "The Four Ages of Poetry," by Thomas Love Peacock I am becoming fond of Thomas Love Peacock.  Besides his unbeatable name, he was a lot of fun.  Peacock was a minor literary figure of the early 19th century; he tried his hand at poetry but mainly succeeded in satire.  I read his short novel Nightmare Abbey last year, but at the time I didn't know that the young hero of the story, Scythrop, was modeled on Peacock's good friend Percy Shelley.  He and Shelley were quite close and Peacock was the executor of Shelley's will. Thomas Love Peacock Percy Bysshe Shelley "The Four Ages of Poetry," a tongue-in-cheek essay on the history and development of poetry, was published in 1820 in a new magazine called Literary Miscellany , which promptly died.  It would probably have been completely obscure and unknown--it nearly is anyway--but for Shelley.  Peacock sent a copy to his friend, who I guess didn't really have much of a sense of
Read more

A few short stories in Urdu

By -
Image
 Back in August, I got hold of a book of Urdu short stories translated into English.  It's a large book, so I wanted to read just the women authors for WIT, and that would still be a good amount.  August got away from me, and I only read one or two stories back then, but I've continued reading them since.  I've now finished all the short stories in the book that were written by women (luckily for me, there are short biographies in an appendix, since I could only tell from the name about half the time).  I'll just highlight a couple: "The Wagon," by Khalida Asghar, is a hallucinatory, apocalyptic story.  The narrator meets three strange men who are watching the evening sky and point out that it has become red.  No one had noticed until they said so, but the sky is now strangely red.  Then a smell arrives, so offensive and sickening that it causes real pain -- but only once it's pointed out.  And finally, a mysterious wagon, which may be the source of the s
Read more

Faerie Queen Readalong I: Redcrosse, the Knight of Holiness

By -
Image
I did it, I read all of Book I!  My minimum requirement was two cantos a day, but I managed three a couple of times.  I'm hoping to read ahead, because I'll be gone for two weeks in the middle of this event and I'd like to be able to prep a post ahead of time...but the schedule is already pretty demanding.  The reading is not terribly difficult, but it is slow.  I keep thinking that I've read a large chunk, only to look back and realize that in fact I have read six verses.  So here we go with analysis... Each book in the Faerie Queene features a knight, and a story, about a particular virtue.  The Redcrosse Knight, to be known as St. George after he accomplishes his feats, is all about Holinesse .  This does not mean that Redcrosse already exemplifies holiness; he doesn't.  Holiness is what he's working towards and struggling with.  His foes symbolize various forms of unholiness, and he falls into their clutches at least as often as he defeats or avoids th
Read more