Recent reading
Aug. 19th, 2024 04:14 pmCommodore Hornblower by C S Forester (1945)
It was fun to see Sweden and Denmark through Age of Sail eyes: where on the coasts would have been dangerous passage points for ships, and the English equivalents of placenames in these "barbarous northern tongues". The Skaw is obviously Skagen (the northernmost tip of Denmark), Cape Kullen is Kullaberg, and (which never fails to amuse me) Elsinore is the much more prosaic Helsingör. This book feels obviously written as a novel and not as a series of short adventures, which I enjoyed. I recognized with glee several very slashy lines about Bush which I have seen around the fandom before, and enjoyed the dynamic between them as they navigate a new chain-of-command situation. But I am baffled by Hornblower randomly sleeping with some Russian countess, which happens without him ever thinking of it in relation to his marriage. I am amused by the insert of Clausewitz as a minor character, and Forester's guts in portraying his own character as smarter than Famous Military Theorist. I haven't actually read Clausewitz, but I thought he was famous for pioneering ideas about morale and the political and psychological aspects of warfare, and here he's portrayed as doctrinaire and not used to thinking outside the box? But perhaps Forester means to imply that Hornblower has Opened His Eyes to such matters? Heh.
Fröodling by Anders Skarlind (2006) [Seed cultivation]
A slim volume about growing and harvesting your own seeds in your kitchen garden, so as not to have to buy seeds every year. This is obviously easier with some vegetables, such as peas, than with biannuals like carrots, where you typically eat the root during the first year, so that's not what I'm going to try first. Obviously vegetable gardening is shaping up to be a new nerdy interest, which plays well with established nerdy interests such as field biology and history. I can grow the kinds of peas people grew in the 18th century! Which were often "grey peas" with violet flowers, instead of the current strains of peas with white flowers which apparently taste milder. The pea soup would actually have been grey in colour!
I also read a chapter of Violet Jacob's The Lairds of Dun (1931), because![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
regshoe tipped me off that she had based two of the characters in Flemington on her own ancestors and what they did during the '45! And yes, this was obvious, though she has really aged down James Erskine who was 75 (James Logie in the book is in his 30's). Also, I do think less of David Erskine (Balnillo in the book) for having Lord Grange, who famously shipped off his wife to languish on a remote island, as a friend.
I have also read 50 pages of Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake and am not sure I'll go on. I've read and enjoyed the previous two in the Gormenghast trilogy, but it was some time ago. I still enjoy the singular writing style, but I feel that the book somehow lost its magic when it left the Gormenghast castle setting. Opinions on this book?
It was fun to see Sweden and Denmark through Age of Sail eyes: where on the coasts would have been dangerous passage points for ships, and the English equivalents of placenames in these "barbarous northern tongues". The Skaw is obviously Skagen (the northernmost tip of Denmark), Cape Kullen is Kullaberg, and (which never fails to amuse me) Elsinore is the much more prosaic Helsingör. This book feels obviously written as a novel and not as a series of short adventures, which I enjoyed. I recognized with glee several very slashy lines about Bush which I have seen around the fandom before, and enjoyed the dynamic between them as they navigate a new chain-of-command situation. But I am baffled by Hornblower randomly sleeping with some Russian countess, which happens without him ever thinking of it in relation to his marriage. I am amused by the insert of Clausewitz as a minor character, and Forester's guts in portraying his own character as smarter than Famous Military Theorist. I haven't actually read Clausewitz, but I thought he was famous for pioneering ideas about morale and the political and psychological aspects of warfare, and here he's portrayed as doctrinaire and not used to thinking outside the box? But perhaps Forester means to imply that Hornblower has Opened His Eyes to such matters? Heh.
Fröodling by Anders Skarlind (2006) [Seed cultivation]
A slim volume about growing and harvesting your own seeds in your kitchen garden, so as not to have to buy seeds every year. This is obviously easier with some vegetables, such as peas, than with biannuals like carrots, where you typically eat the root during the first year, so that's not what I'm going to try first. Obviously vegetable gardening is shaping up to be a new nerdy interest, which plays well with established nerdy interests such as field biology and history. I can grow the kinds of peas people grew in the 18th century! Which were often "grey peas" with violet flowers, instead of the current strains of peas with white flowers which apparently taste milder. The pea soup would actually have been grey in colour!
I also read a chapter of Violet Jacob's The Lairds of Dun (1931), because
regshoe tipped me off that she had based two of the characters in Flemington on her own ancestors and what they did during the '45! And yes, this was obvious, though she has really aged down James Erskine who was 75 (James Logie in the book is in his 30's). Also, I do think less of David Erskine (Balnillo in the book) for having Lord Grange, who famously shipped off his wife to languish on a remote island, as a friend. I have also read 50 pages of Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake and am not sure I'll go on. I've read and enjoyed the previous two in the Gormenghast trilogy, but it was some time ago. I still enjoy the singular writing style, but I feel that the book somehow lost its magic when it left the Gormenghast castle setting. Opinions on this book?
