What are you currently reading?
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Ancient Trackways of Wessex
An account of the ancient trackways across the area known as Wessex, the old kingdom of the West Saxons, once ruled by King Alfred the Great: roughly speaking, Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset as well as parts of Devon, Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds.With Salisbury Plain at its centre, the chalk hills and downs of southern England radiate out in all directions, and the ridgeways provided natural routes from one place to another, along which the early inhabitants of Britain travelled.
An account of the ancient trackways across the area known as Wessex, the old kingdom of the West Saxons, once ruled by King Alfred the Great: roughly speaking, Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset as well as parts of Devon, Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds.With Salisbury Plain at its centre, the chalk hills and downs of southern England radiate out in all directions, and the ridgeways provided natural routes from one place to another, along which the early inhabitants of Britain travelled.
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Bradford Angier's 'HOW TO STAY ALIVE IN THE WOODS'.
Written in 1956, still as pertinent today.
Written in 1956, still as pertinent today.
I’ve just started Rifles, Six Years With Wellingtons Legendary Sharpshooters by Mark Urban. So far very good reading.
Churchill's epic work on the second world war. Half way through vol. IV at the moment. But life keeps getting in the way...
just in case anyone else fancies reading this, it's available as a free PDF download
Just starting The Odyssey by Homer, promises to be a challenging read.
Big book - I found I got lost in it.Just starting The Odyssey by Homer, promises to be a challenging read.
School ruined Shakspeare for me, I reckon. Can just never get on with it. Repeatedly being told to like it "because it is good!".
The thing is, some of Shakespeare is without question at the genius level, but the vast majority is pretty average, or worse. I think that the 'Shakespeare Worship' we see is down to two things.
Firstly, because there wasn't a vast amount of stuff at the time and not all of what there was has survived, so the residual stuff has more status / value than might otherwise be the case.
Secondly, and in vein with what you have written, it's the Emperor's-new-clothes syndrome; and, like modern art, people accept it as being 'good' because they have been told it is and don't want to be classed as someone unable to see that.
Baa...
Ahhh...! I get your point. At school I was interested in Shakespeare (from a story line POV) but the enforced academia that came along with it bored me to tears..... now I'm much older, I still like Shakespeare but it's the sonnets that I like not the plays.
Totally agree!!!
The stories are mostly rubbish and obviously politically biased.
The typically Shakespearean trope continues to this day. Antonio fails to recognise his girlfriend in The Merchant of Venice and a pair of specs is enough to disguise Superman from his.
You should get the version published by Loeb. They do ancient Greek one side and a decent translation on the facing page. I used a library one of that and Thucydides histories to get through my ancient Greek GCSE. Got a C without much revision because I kind of mostly memorised the English translation to the Greek original without really learning the language.Just starting The Odyssey by Homer, promises to be a challenging read.
I think the Loeb translation is better than in penguin personally.
Shakespeare is poorly taught. If your teachers and the syllabus basically treats it as the greatest work of literature then you're not being honest and able to be critical. That's how I was taught it, in a good school too. I didn't enjoy it and as such I don't rate his stuff, especially the propaganda stuff. Mind you a mate found a good used for his collected works. Together with his old, full size copy of Oxford English dictionary he used ti stuff his rucksack and go running in the lakes to keep fit. He figured the extra weight over his normal backpack would make his normal trips easier.
