Book post!
May. 3rd, 2009 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
froggy_dearx-posted to my running book tally.
5/2: In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made by Norman Cantor. A pretty short book, and certainly not technical. The spacing on the page is quite wide. Cantor is clearly very conversant with medieval Europe, as well he should be, and this book reflects that. It feels like a good university lecture, where the professor can tell the story of what happened because she knows the material so intimately, and where she can slide from topic to topic to topic and make them all fit together. That said, I didn't actually like this book a whole lot. I can't put my finger on it. There was a lot of good information, but I think I was hoping that most of the book would focus on the material covered in the last chapter, but in greater depth. For a book about the wake of the plague, the book spent a lot of time in the plague. Cantor does do some interesting "What if"ing about various aspects of things: what if this guy or that guy hadn't died, mostly. Worth a read. Should be a pretty fast one.
4/15: Spinning in the Old Way: How (and why) to make your own yarn with a high whorl handspindle by Priscilla A. Gibson Roberts. This little book is an excellent reference for many aspects of hand spinning. I was really hoping to get a little more technique from it, but I was edified to learn that I wasn't doing anything really "wrong." I'm glad to have it on hand, but am also very glad that YouTube exists, because for some things, it's just easier to see others do it.
Not sure what book I'll read next. Possibly Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church, possibly one of the many vintge sci fi books, or possibly Quicksilver. Actually, that last is most likely, considering I bought it new and I'm making an effort to actually read the books I buy new.
5/2: In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made by Norman Cantor. A pretty short book, and certainly not technical. The spacing on the page is quite wide. Cantor is clearly very conversant with medieval Europe, as well he should be, and this book reflects that. It feels like a good university lecture, where the professor can tell the story of what happened because she knows the material so intimately, and where she can slide from topic to topic to topic and make them all fit together. That said, I didn't actually like this book a whole lot. I can't put my finger on it. There was a lot of good information, but I think I was hoping that most of the book would focus on the material covered in the last chapter, but in greater depth. For a book about the wake of the plague, the book spent a lot of time in the plague. Cantor does do some interesting "What if"ing about various aspects of things: what if this guy or that guy hadn't died, mostly. Worth a read. Should be a pretty fast one.
4/15: Spinning in the Old Way: How (and why) to make your own yarn with a high whorl handspindle by Priscilla A. Gibson Roberts. This little book is an excellent reference for many aspects of hand spinning. I was really hoping to get a little more technique from it, but I was edified to learn that I wasn't doing anything really "wrong." I'm glad to have it on hand, but am also very glad that YouTube exists, because for some things, it's just easier to see others do it.
Not sure what book I'll read next. Possibly Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church, possibly one of the many vintge sci fi books, or possibly Quicksilver. Actually, that last is most likely, considering I bought it new and I'm making an effort to actually read the books I buy new.