Carroll, Michelet

Since my last post, I've read 3 issues of Eclectic Reading, and an issue each of OK Magazine, The New Yorker, The Economist, and The New Scientist.

I've also read a book by Stuart Carroll about the Guise ducal family of France, Martyrs and Murderers, and Michelet's 3000 page history of the French Revolution. Michelet was almost too long and too detailed, I had trouble with the forest for the trees. I was also struck by the similarities between it and the Russian Revolution, with the assassinations of Marat/Trostky, the massacres by troops in the capital, the extermination of the monarch's family, etc. As far as the Guises are concerned, I was particularly interested in the discussion of various historical interpretations of la Saint-Barthalemy, the massacre of protestants by their Catholic countrymen in France.

Giono, Gracq, Graves, Hamsun

Since my last post I read three issues of Eclectic Reading.

I read both volumes of I, Claudius by Robert Graves. The first volume was more entertaining than the second, and I read it primarily comparing it to the trashy BBC series from the 1970's. I also read Knut Hamsun's Growth of the Soil, a Norwegian pastoral, complete with long-suffering men and women committing infanticide. I enjoy pastorals, but this was fairly ordinary. I then read the first three volumes of Giono's novels. There were occasional passages where Giono captured the exact feeling of being along in nature, the rythm, the peace. Then I tore through Julien Gracq, and it was quickly done since I had read his main novel already, Rivage des Syrtes. I confess I found him a little ordinary to be included in this distinguished series, La Pleiade, named after a constellation.

Giono, Himelstein, Shelden, Wilson, Kilcullen

Since my last post,I've read an issue of Gentleman's Quarterly, OK Magazine, The New Scientist and Eclectic Reading.

I have also read the first three volumes of Jean Giono's novels, which are in chronological order, and his essays, journal, and short stories. I found his essays and journal of little interest, except for his pacifist essays and his impressions of the Liberation of France. He does break out into short plays and embryonic film scenarios, in the middle of essays, which shows a certain freedom about forms. I found his early novels and his short stories or novella also to be of little interest, but his latter novels are much more interesting, more gripping and more lively. I had to order the last 3 volumes of the complete novels from inter library loan, and I now look forward to reading them, as opposed to a chore.

I also read three biographies, two literary and one popular. I read a biography of George Orwell, by Michael Shelden, which I found both sad and interesting, and a biography of Siegfried Sassoon through the end of World War I, by Jean Moorcroft Wilson, which was incredibly detailed for his youth and somehow quite superficial for the crucial war years. I also read a biography of Smirnoff, the vodka maker, by Linda Himelstein, which was not very interesting because it was in a journalistic style.

Finally, I also read David Kilcullen's Accidental Guerrilla. This book, about a new kind of counterinsurgency and what to do about it, is going to be read by a lot of people. It is written in accessible language, and it proposes quite a simple change to the way of thinking about insurgency. I'm not sure it will make much difference, however. I have my own competing theory, that this about strong-side versus weak-side strategy, and if I am correct, then my criticism of Kilcullen is valid. However, the chances of my work attracting any attention at all, since I have no experience in military counterinsurgency, are very low.

Giono

Since my last post, I've read one issue of Hello Canada, OK Magazine, The New Yorker, The New Scientist, Vanity Fair, and The Economist.

Because I'm reading only complete works right now, my blog has slowed down, so I thought I'd give an update. I'm reading the novels of Jean Giono at the moment, in three volumes, and I'm working on volume 2. He is more bucolic than I realized. I've ordered about 13 complete works to see me through the December break.

Julien Green, Sunstein, Bottigheimer, Mackenzie

I have completed reading the works of Julien Green. I have found that his diaries were fascinating and his writing there, so alive, was like learning French all over again. His novels and plays, however, I find his plots psychologically improbable and his characters curiously flat and lifeless. I suppose it is with good reason that his journal is considered his masterpiece.

I also read three essays -- a history of fairy tales by Bottigheimer, which was interesting for the sake of the preservation of culture through folkways; and Infotopia and Rumours by Cass Sunstein. These latter two books tread on ground I'd covered before. He seems to write books about topics that others have written about more, and in greater depth, a recapitulateur, we would say in French.

Finally I read Lewis McKenzie's Soldiers Make Me Look Good, his autobiography. I didn't much like it. It seemed to me a book written by someone who lost his professional status and never got over it, never quite found his place in the world.

James VI and I, Sunstein, Mantel, Crawford

I read three biographies of James VI and I, because I had read several times that he was unlikeable. I read his biography by Antonia Fraser, David Mathew, and by David Wilson. I found that his manners were poor by the standards of the English court, and that he was some sort of bite problem that made him an ungracious eater, but so what? I also read a history of the end of smallpox, which was written by one of the workers in the trenches who insert himself too much into the story, and a book on Shop Craft as Soul Craft, by Matthew Crawford, which I found unconvincing since the author has given up the manual labor. I also read three of Cass Sunstein's works, Why groups go to extremes, Going to Extremes, and Worst-Case Scenarios. I was reading them to try and figure out what students do when they use the Internet, but these books were about a different topic. I also read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, which I didn't find enthralling.

Julien Green

Since my last post, I've read an issue of The Economist, two issues of The New Scientist, three issues of Eclectic Reading, an issue of OK Magazine, and two issues of The New Yorker.

I've also finished reading the three volumes of Julien Green's journals, which were wonderful in every respect. I've now moved on to short stories and novels, and the characters are flat. He is indeed a better diarist than a novelist. I also read a Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich. I wasn't enthralled. Now I'm reading another murder mystery, using Internet stalking, and that managed to scare me. Can't remember the author off the top of my head.