a report on the reading ~

[lookingland]

still chipping away, ever so slowly, at Quicksilver. i'm less than 200 pages in and continue to feel that it is heavy-handed, but entertaining.

meanwhile, i thought i ought to log a few books i read this month as research for NaNo. nothing terribly exciting here, but every book counts toward the 50bookchallenge!

no. 38 ~ The Patapsco: Baltimore's River of History by paul j. travers ~ didn't like the way this book was organized. it had some interesting and useful information, but required churning through a lot of stewage to get to it. someone remarked in some other review (i think on amazon) that this is like a bunch of essays thrown together, and i agree.

no. 39 ~ The American Tintype by floyd rinhart, marion rinhart, and robert w. wagner ~ the most interesting thing about this book is that it opens with the line: "There is no tin in a tintype". beyond that it strikes me as almost a vanity press volume (put out by ohio state university press), with a substantial sampling of images, but nothing particularly spectacular. it has detailed chapters on the photographic processes, but the history is rather dry here and the lackluster images are poorly described. i had been curious about this book because it sells on amazon for a whalloping $78! but there's really nothing here to justify the price tag. it's neither comprehensive, nor visually stunning enough to make any sort of impression. boo.

i picked up Flashman and the Angel of the Lord by george macdonald fraser. i want to read this and geraldine brooks' pulitzer prize-winning March in between the long haul of stephenson's cycle.

Comments

[cathellisen.livejournal.com]

You've read the other Flashmans first right?

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

noooo ~ i was told i dinna have to!

: o p

[cathellisen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd at least read the first Flashman book, just to get a feel for the horrible git. ;) Actually, Angel is one of the few I haven't read, so maybe it works well as a stand-alone, I don't know.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

well i've read Tom Brown's Schooldays if that's any consolation.

: D