The Lemon Fool

I read quite a lot, mostly non fiction and since the clocks changed I have been reading more than usual and will probably keep that up over the winter.

I can recommend the last three books I have/am reading. The first is A Bookseller's Tale by Martin Latham. On Amazon, a number of reviewers have been disappointed that it is not a sort of bookseller's diary. This is a wonderful book covering more or less the history of books, quirky bookshops and collectors, amongst many other topics related to books, including some personal comments by the author during his time as manager of Waterstones in Canterbury. It is written in a free and flowing style and is a great read for any booklover who could not fail to learn something

The second one is very different being a history of the Habsburgs of Austro Hungarian Empire fame. It takes us from their humble beginnings in the 13/14th centuries up to 1918 when the empire, such as it was by then,fell apart with the rise of nationalism after the First World War. I had not appreciated just how extensive their holdings had been at one time and just how ramshackle a lot of it was. They were also responsible for a lot of the beautiful 19th century buildings in the centre of Vienna. Again, although at times I found it hard going , it is written by the author Martyn Rady, in a very easy to read and flowing style.

I am about half way through the latest non fiction which is Russian Roulette, The Life and Times of Graham Greene, by one Richard Greene (no relation we are told) The author is Professor of English at the University of Toronto and it shows. It is written in a relatively dry and academic style which contrasts very much with the other two books. However apart from the fact that Graham Greens is an interesting character in his own right, very many of the literary characters of his period (1904-1991) keep floating in and out of the pages which I find quite fascinating and of course Greene was widely travelled as is obvious from the range of subjects and settings for his own books. I have always enjoyed reading Graham Greene and so this is a wonderful background to his novels.

Dod

I like the sound of the first one , being an avid book buyer/collector myself (although now limited by space/itinerant lifestyle...)

I may give the Greene on a go at some point also -of heavyweight literary biogs I enjoyed The Real Life of Anthony Burgess (Biswell) and The Life of Kingsley Amis (Leader)

Thanks for the recommendations Dod, they all sound right up my street.

MM

AleisterCrowley wrote:I like the sound of the first one , being an avid book buyer/collector myself (although now limited by space/itinerant lifestyle...)

I may give the Greene on a go at some point also -of heavyweight literary biogs I enjoyed The Real Life of Anthony Burgess (Biswell) and The Life of Kingsley Amis (Leader)

You will almost certainly enjoy The Bookseller's Tale. No doubt they will be in paperback before too long or are quite possibly available on kindle. Although I have one I do not use it much. Like a comment in TBT I love to handle and indeed smell a new hardback!

Dod

eBooks are a poor substitute for the real thing !

AleisterCrowley wrote:eBooks are a poor substitute for the real thing !

The "real" thing? Are you talking about this "modern" trend of chopping the thing up into pages to make it easy to stack them. Fie I say upon you. If scroll's were good enough for our fathers, why should they not be good enough for us.

I note that the trend has even infected the mind's of the machines. Instead of scrolling through a scholarly work on that electronic device, people tap to turn a page!

By modern I of course mean since we abandond clay tablets, which must of course be baked before you can stack them. This new paprus suff is far lighter and easier to transport.

https://sfbook.com/the-evolution-of-the-book.htm

Urbandreamer wrote:By modern I of course mean since we abandoned clay tablets, which must of course be baked before you can stack them. This new paprus suff is far lighter and easier to transport.

Ah .... the death of civilized thought. What was wrong with writing on the walls (Lascaux, for example), a custom that has lasted to this day as Banksy exemplifies.
Yours etc
Disgusted of Tunbridge Henge

stewamax wrote:

Urbandreamer wrote:By modern I of course mean since we abandoned clay tablets, which must of course be baked before you can stack them. This new paprus suff is far lighter and easier to transport.

Ah .... the death of civilized thought. What was wrong with writing on the walls (Lascaux, for example), a custom that has lasted to this day as Banksy exemplifies.
Yours etc
Disgusted of Tunbridge Henge

Of course TRUE civilisation should tell their "stores" just as the tail of Gilgimesh and Enkidu. Or more obviously the Iliad or Beowulf.

Look all the above have been both written down and screen play's produced.. movies etc.

WHY? Well there is some advantage at least (according to some on this thread) of translating to a media that they will use.

I have a daughter who views books as a physical pleasure. Myself, I instantly fall to the fictive delusion. I fall through the prose portal. I no longer see the page or screen and don't smell the page. Instead visions pass before my eye, It's the text that I smell and the wind described runs through my hair.

Non fiction, can I recommend "The Silk roads", "Prisoners of geography" and "Other minds".

For those who want to actually experience history can I recommend the time travel guide books like these.
https://www.audible.co.uk/series/Time-T ... faee9d0cfa

Time traveler's guides --Those are good. I have the medieval and Restoration ones somewhere