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I'm reading Capital: A Portrait of 21st Century Delhi, by Rana Dasgupta. It's about how India's 90s economic liberalisation and other earlier historical factors contributed to Delhi as it is today. It's largely told through interviews, mostly with Delhi's oligarch class but also some poor and middle class people. I like it partly because I agree with the author's politics, but also because he usually writes fiction so the prose is more interesting than usual. I also like books that are a deep dive into a city.
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Dec 26, 2023 11:21
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 23:35 |
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I finished the book about Delhi and started 1835: The Founding of Melbourne & the Conquest of Australia by James Boyce. I like it because I live in Melbourne and the written history of the early city has been very white and elite for a long time, the book shows how messy the political situation was at that time of great change in England and how that was reflected in the colonies
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Dec 31, 2023 04:55
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Worf posted:The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Good book I'm reading Rejoice Rejoice: Britain in the 1980s by Alwyn Turner. It's a bit like Perlstein's books about recent American history in that it encompasses political, social and cultural events in a very readable narrative
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Jan 25, 2024 09:19
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I've started The Danube, by Nick Thorpe. It's a kind of travel/history account of tracing the Danube from the mouth in Romania to the source in Germany. I like books like this written by journalists because they sniff out interesting people and stories. I'm travelling to Europe later this year so I'm in the mood for this kind of book
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Jan 30, 2024 04:50
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TK8325 posted:I'm in the middle of War and Peace and I'm really enjoying it. I don't get the reputation it has as a hard book to read. It's not a difficult book at all. Some people find the military stuff towards the end, particularly the kind of essays a bit of a drag. I found it to be a page turner though, my wife also did, and she's not into those kinds of books usually.
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Jan 30, 2024 09:53
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Doctor J Off posted:I guess back when Joyce was living it would be impossible to store the full readout of Finnegan's Wake. My library has an audiobook copy, so maybe I should read the book with the audio along with it to pair a supplement. I use Libby, can't complain, it does the job. Syncs well between devices Ive been mostly reading library books for a few years, I like history and I'm not too fussy about subject so long as its well written.
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Feb 5, 2024 09:32
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I have access to 3 libraries from different local government areas I've lived in around Melbourne, they all use Libby so I have a pretty good selection of ebooks to choose from.
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Feb 5, 2024 23:21
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Started Killing For Country by David Marr. It's a history of early colonisation of Australia and all the massacre and dispossession of the indigenous people. It's partly told through biography of the author's ancestors which I think got him started on the whole thing. Very well written. We still have things named after genocidal murderers in this country
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Apr 25, 2024 02:57
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From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple It's a history/travel book where the author loosely follows in the footsteps of 2 6th century byzantine monks through eastern Europe, Turkey and the middle east. Covers stuff about early christianity, the fall of Constantinople, the crusades and links it to what was going on in 1994 when it was written. I've read a bunch of Dalrymple's history books, he mostly writes about India, he's good. There's some very 1994 opinions in it though
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May 13, 2024 02:00
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 23:35 |
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Samovar posted:I've been listening to his podcast on Empires, and it has been pretty good, too Didn't know about the podcast, I'll check it out, cheers!
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May 13, 2024 10:15
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