The book thread

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Halfway through Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.

Would thoroughly recommend this to anyone even remotely interested in ancient Rome. Must admit I wasn't before I started but I am well and truly now.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla - now there is a man who could get things done!
 
The Dawes said:
Halfway through Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.

Would thoroughly recommend this to anyone even remotely interested in ancient Rome. Must admit I wasn't before I started but I am well and truly now.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla - now there is a man who could get things done!
Click to expand...

I've never been a fan of Colleen. But then I have read very little of her work, and kind of dismissed it as being 'colourful'. On the other hand, I believe she put years of research into the Rome series.

I love a good historical novel. In this work, does she combine fiction with real historical events and characters?
 
Vicky Park said:
I've never been a fan of Colleen. But then I have read very little of her work, and kind of dismissed it as being 'colourful'. On the other hand, I believe she put years of research into the Rome series.

I love a good historical novel. In this work, does she combine fiction with real historical events and characters?
Click to expand...

Yep, she uses key historical figures, events, etc and weaves them into a narrative. Probably takes some literary licence, but it's great reading.

I'd never read any of her books before now either - not sure I would read the Thorn Birds for example, but the Masters Of Rome series is quite fascinating and very informative re the Roman way of life, body politic, etc.

It's been a real eye-opener for someone like me who had never really been 'into' Rome as such.
 

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The Dawes said:
Yep, she uses key historical figures, events, etc and weaves them into a narrative. Probably takes some literary licence, but it's great reading.

I'd never read any of her books before now either - not sure I would read the Thorn Birds for example, but the Masters Of Rome series is quite fascinating and very informative re the Roman way of life, body politic, etc.

It's been a real eye-opener for someone like me who had never really been 'into' Rome as such.
Click to expand...

The only McCullough I've read, and from my previous reading on the topics historically accurate. Cracking reading :thumbsu:
 
Vicky Park said:
Thanks Bard

I haven't gone down the kindle path yet, as I still prefer a (paper) book. Although I'm probably just postponing the inevitable.
Click to expand...
I carted books for 3 months in a backpack and will be kindling my way through future books as I traverse foreign pastures. I only read one of them, Keith Richard's autobiography which took me 2 months to read. I imagined his life and writing style to be riveting but was disappointed. I blame the book for my phone being forgotten and stolen.

I even had a hard back of the first volume of the Greek Myths, still unread from uni days. I left it and other items, including a 2nd pair of black leather shoes, with a friend in bangkok while I swanned around elsewhere for 2 months.

I also just discovered this thread
But unfortunately it's time
That I went to bed! :drunk:
 
TheGreatGrundy said:
I carted books for 3 months in a backpack and will be kindling my way through future books as I traverse foreign pastures. I only read one of them, Keith Richard's autobiography which took me 2 months to read. I imagined his life and writing style to be riveting but was disappointed. I blame the book for my phone being forgotten and stolen.

I even had a hard back of the first volume of the Greek Myths, still unread from uni days. I left it and other items, including a 2nd pair of black leather shoes, with a friend in bangkok while I swanned around elsewhere for 2 months.

I also just discovered this thread
But unfortunately it's time
That I went to bed! :drunk:
Click to expand...
I only travel with an iPad now for reading:)
 
The Dawes said:
Halfway through Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.

Would thoroughly recommend this to anyone even remotely interested in ancient Rome. Must admit I wasn't before I started but I am well and truly now.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla - now there is a man who could get things done!
Click to expand...
I'm in Rome at the moment.
Anything you want me to check out?:p

This sounds like a good read for when I return. I've walked so much of Ancient Rome and you can't help but try to imagine what it would of been like.
 
Magpie Girl said:
I only travel with an iPad now for reading:)
Click to expand...
When I was travelling I would feel like I was walking the corridors of the dead when I posted on BF. now you are Magpie Girl. You're certainly making use of your Italian opportunities - you seem to spend as much time there as here. Having a good time no doubt?

Back to bed. I can't sleep. A valium at 4am was like water off the back of a duck. Selling a house does not help slumber.
 
TheGreatGrundy said:
I carted books for 3 months in a backpack and will be kindling my way through future books as I traverse foreign pastures. I only read one of them, Keith Richard's autobiography which took me 2 months to read. I imagined his life and writing style to be riveting but was disappointed. I blame the book for my phone being forgotten and stolen.

I even had a hard back of the first volume of the Greek Myths, still unread from uni days. I left it and other items, including a 2nd pair of black leather shoes, with a friend in bangkok while I swanned around elsewhere for 2 months.

I also just discovered this thread
But unfortunately it's time
That I went to bed! :drunk:
Click to expand...

Ha ha! The rock and roll autobiography, and the whole genre of rock music literature. I've found it to be almost universally unreadable. Why is it so bad? Has anyone any good recommendations?
 
I am going to buy a copy of:
The Dismissal Dossier: Everything You Were Never Meant To Know About November 1975, written by Monash University political scientist Jenny Hocking.

I am really fascinated by that period in Australian political history as I was so grateful for the opportunity to enter mature age education all thanks to Gough's NEAT scheme.

Some interesting new revelations:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...to-emerge-after-40-years-20151023-gkhb1a.html
 
Vicky Park said:
Thanks Bard

I haven't gone down the kindle path yet, as I still prefer a (paper) book. Although I'm probably just postponing the inevitable.
Click to expand...
I have tried reading on my ipad, but quickly deleted, nothing like holding a book and turning the pages, putting a bookmark in to hold your place.

To me it is like self checkouts at supermarkets, supporting job losses.
Love going to book-stores and libraries, reading the first page or two and seeing if I will buy or borrow. Can spend hours there.
Some books I keep to read again, others to lend to family and friends.

My daughter keeps telling me to stick at it I will get used to it, err no.
 

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garryoldman said:
Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, Inkheart, the first 3 books in the nne of Green Gables series, The Woman in White, North and South by Gaskell, A Room with a View, The Rosary - by F.L. Barclay, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Northanger Abbey, Little Women, The Commitments by R. Doyle, The Outsiders by E.S. Hinton. And... I think I'll stop right here. xD
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What is it that you have done with these books? Read them? Liked them? Got them on a kindle/ipad? Got an audio version? Or have I missed your last post which explained the context of your list? :confused:
 
garryoldman said:
Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, Inkheart, the first 3 books in the nne of Green Gables series, The Woman in White, North and South by Gaskell, A Room with a View, The Rosary - by F.L. Barclay, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Northanger Abbey, Little Women, The Commitments by R. Doyle, The Outsiders by E.S. Hinton. And... I think I'll stop right here. xD
Click to expand...

Interesting mix. Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey - yes! - but Harry Potter? I can't run with that one!
 
Magpie Girl said:
I'm in Rome at the moment.
Anything you want me to check out?:p

This sounds like a good read for when I return. I've walked so much of Ancient Rome and you can't help but try to imagine what it would of been like.
Click to expand...

Might be the ghoul in me, but one place I find intriguing is the Tarpeian Rock.

It's the place where in Roman Republican times, the state would execute traitors by literally hurling them off a sheer cliff called the Tarpeian Rock which is supposed to overlook the Forum.

Assume it's still there.... although this was over 2000 years ago.

If you see it and post a photo that would be something else...... no expectations mind you.

Enjoy the holiday!
 
I'm currently reading 'Power without Glory'

It was intended as a critical treatise of Collingwood's original patriarch, John Wren.

I'm enjoying the setting of late 19th / early 20th century Melbourne. Interesting characters.
 
76woodenspooners said:
I'm currently reading 'Power without Glory'

It was intended as a critical treatise of Collingwood's original patriarch, John Wren.

I'm enjoying the setting of late 19th / early 20th century Melbourne. Interesting characters.
Click to expand...
A good suggestion and one that I will pry from the bookcase to read. I am sure it's in there somewhere. :cool:
 
The Bronte sisters always fascinated me. All died of consumption or TB by the age of 30+, along with their brothers, and 2 other sisters died in childhood. They all wrote novels after isolated childhoods as the daughters of a stipended clergyman in the Yorkshire Moors. As a male, I find Emily Bronte and Jane Austen easy and enjoyable to read. With Austen I got a feel for English upper class life, the social hierarchy, the manners and entertainment of the time, the art and worth of the letter as a communication, the necessity for people, particularly women, to promote their skills and learning to compete for husbands. I could go and on.

Literature is a wonderful means to understand history. Huck Finn was a revelation to me of the issues at stake between north and south over the treatment of the blacks. The narrator is compromised but doesn't totally drop his southern belief in white supremacy. Jim the negro is so clearly depicted through Huck's eyes as a decent human being. Huck is torn between what he sees and what he has been taught by upbringing. It's a tough moral dilemma for a 14 year old boy, not helped by the low life types going up and down the river fleecing ordinary folk of their money.

The Great Gatsby taught me about the Roaring 20's and the American dream. Then Steinbeck depicted the personal impact of the depression. If you can get a feel for a period, real life is breathed into its history and it is no longer dull text facts or dates.

As far as narrators go, there are none better than Humbert Humbert in Vladamir Nabokov's 'Lolita'. In my 20's and 30's he was one of my favourite writers. His novels are among the funniest of books I've read. He has a wicked dark humour and is a very accomplished writer. He also gives you a feel for a period and environment - in particular, the motel industry in post war America. I love writers who can skillfully create reader sympathy for largely disreputable characters.
 
The Dawes said:
Might be the ghoul in me, but one place I find intriguing is the Tarpeian Rock.

It's the place where in Roman Republican times, the state would execute traitors by literally hurling them off a sheer cliff called the Tarpeian Rock which is supposed to overlook the Forum.

Assume it's still there.... although this was over 2000 years ago.

If you see it and post a photo that would be something else...... no expectations mind you.

Enjoy the holiday!
Click to expand...
Yes, I know exactly where that is, although didn't realise the significance when I was walking past it!
 
76woodenspooners said:
I'm currently reading 'Power without Glory'

It was intended as a critical treatise of Collingwood's original patriarch, John Wren.

I'm enjoying the setting of late 19th / early 20th century Melbourne. Interesting characters.
Click to expand...

It's a terrific work, a fascinating account of religion, politics and crime in inner Melbourne in the early 20th century. As you probably know, it was very controversial when published, and Hardy was a notorious 'stirrer'. The Wren family were not happy about how it.
 
TheGreatGrundy said:
The Bronte sisters always fascinated me. All died of consumption or TB by the age of 30+, along with their brothers, and 2 other sisters died in childhood. They all wrote novels after isolated childhoods as the daughters of a stipended clergyman in the Yorkshire Moors. As a male, I find Emily Bronte and Jane Austen easy and enjoyable to read. With Austen I got a feel for English upper class life, the social hierarchy, the manners and entertainment of the time, the art and worth of the letter as a communication, the necessity for people, particularly women, to promote their skills and learning to compete for husbands. I could go and on.

Literature is a wonderful means to understand history. Huck Finn was a revelation to me of the issues at stake between north and south over the treatment of the blacks. The narrator is compromised but doesn't totally drop his southern belief in white supremacy. Jim the negro is so clearly depicted through Huck's eyes as a decent human being. Huck is torn between what he sees and what he has been taught by upbringing. It's a tough moral dilemma for a 14 year old boy, not helped by the low life types going up and down the river fleecing ordinary folk of their money.

The Great Gatsby taught me about the Roaring 20's and the American dream. Then Steinbeck depicted the personal impact of the depression. If you can get a feel for a period, real life is breathed into its history and it is no longer dull text facts or dates.

As far as narrators go, there are none better than Humbert Humbert in Vladamir Nabokov's 'Lolita'. In my 20's and 30's he was one of my favourite writers. His novels are among the funniest of books I've read. He has a wicked dark humour and is a very accomplished writer. He also gives you a feel for a period and environment - in particular, the motel industry in post war America. I love writers who can skillfully create reader sympathy for largely disreputable characters.
Click to expand...
So true! Love Nabokov - his essays on fiction are also brilliant.
 
TheGreatGrundy said:
The Bronte sisters always fascinated me. All died of consumption or TB by the age of 30+, along with their brothers, and 2 other sisters died in childhood. They all wrote novels after isolated childhoods as the daughters of a stipended clergyman in the Yorkshire Moors. As a male, I find Emily Bronte and Jane Austen easy and enjoyable to read. With Austen I got a feel for English upper class life, the social hierarchy, the manners and entertainment of the time, the art and worth of the letter as a communication, the necessity for people, particularly women, to promote their skills and learning to compete for husbands. I could go and on.

Literature is a wonderful means to understand history. Huck Finn was a revelation to me of the issues at stake between north and south over the treatment of the blacks. The narrator is compromised but doesn't totally drop his southern belief in white supremacy. Jim the negro is so clearly depicted through Huck's eyes as a decent human being. Huck is torn between what he sees and what he has been taught by upbringing. It's a tough moral dilemma for a 14 year old boy, not helped by the low life types going up and down the river fleecing ordinary folk of their money.

The Great Gatsby taught me about the Roaring 20's and the American dream. Then Steinbeck depicted the personal impact of the depression. If you can get a feel for a period, real life is breathed into its history and it is no longer dull text facts or dates.

As far as narrators go, there are none better than Humbert Humbert in Vladamir Nabokov's 'Lolita'. In my 20's and 30's he was one of my favourite writers. His novels are among the funniest of books I've read. He has a wicked dark humour and is a very accomplished writer. He also gives you a feel for a period and environment - in particular, the motel industry in post war America. I love writers who can skillfully create reader sympathy for largely disreputable characters.
Click to expand...

The Great Gatsby is one of my all-time favourite books set in one of my all-time favourite historical periods.

Love the way in which Fitzgerald depicts the excesses and devil may care attitudes of the 1920's.

Along with 1960's London it's a time that holds great fascination for me.

Lolita is a great piece of work too and I love Steinbeck so lots of ticks from me!
 
E-readers are great for traveling as they take up no room. But at home it's a physical book or nothing. Have read several books on both formats and a physical book just reads better and you get more involved in the story
 
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