[DaveC]

I've just worked out that I finished 48 books in 2013 (and just put another back on the shelf today!) Looking back here's my top five...or maybe six:

1. The Pike - Lucy Hughes-Hallett. Superb biography, recommended to me by a writer friend and clearly my book-of-the-year.

2. A People's Tragedy, Orlando Figes. A classic account of the Russian revolution.

3. A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchmann. Wonderfully literary telling of the story of fourteenth-century western Europe, and particularly France. I love Tuchmann's writing and I have three more of her books on the shelf to look forward to.

4. Demanding the Impossible, A History of Anarchism - Peter Marshall. A huge book that may be a bit dry and esoteric for most peoples taste but I love a book that tells me things I don't know about a subject that at first glance seems so obscure. I now have a considerable appreciation of "libertarian socialism" whereas a year ago I could barely have told you what it was!

=5. Museum Without Walls, Jonathan Meades. Special thanks to this thread for alerting me to this one (and the Meades Shrine on YouTube.)
=5. Bloodlands, Timothy Snyder. A book about the fate of the vast expanse of Europe trapped between the two most appalling regimes of the twentieth century, Stalin's USSR & Hitler's Germany. Truly appalling numbers have a tendency to overshadow the narrative but the book is well-written and holds up well.

[fried]

Nice history list, any suggestions for Ottoman empire books?

[DaveC]

Nice history list, any suggestions for Ottoman empire books?

I know of three quite different single volume histories of the Ottoman Empire:
1. The Ottoman Empire by Lord Kinross. An old classic work but still a great read and more recent works don't really have much to add.
2. Osman's Dream by Caroline Finkel. Came out about 7 years ago and the most comprehensive single volume (at something over 650 pages) on the subject that isn't a completely dry academic work. If you want full and accurate history this is the one to get.
3. Lords of the Horizon by Jason Goodwin. An excellent layman's history written back in the nineties. There are some dodgy apocryphal stories that have been cited but they help make the whole book much more enjoyable to read. This is the one for an introduction to the subject.
Hope this helps.

PS Sadly, yes I have read all three...

[fried]

Cheers, I'll have a look at 2 and 3. I do like a good apocrypal story to keep thing moving.

Have you read 'Empire of the steppes' by Grousset which is another 600 odd-page sweep through the early history of central Asia and the roots of the Turkish people. Academic in parts but one to take your time on, recommended if you like that sort of thing.

[andy popp]

Good work DaveC.

[DaveC]

Have you read 'Empire of the steppes' by Grousset which is another 600 odd-page sweep through the early history of central Asia and the roots of the Turkish people. Academic in parts but one to take your time on, recommended if you like that sort of thing.

I had heard of it but have never seen it around. Now added to my buying list for this coming year, cheers.

Good work DaveC.

All part of the service.

[andy popp]

First two books of the year:

L.P. Hartley, The Boat. I read Hartley's much more famous The Go-Between last year. The Boat is apparently very simple tale of English village life during WWII (pub. 1949) but as it progresses it develops an unsettling, almost uncanny atmosphere and I wasn't surprised to learn Hartley also wrote ghost stories. The Go-Between probably deserves the masterpiece tag; this doesn't but is still an interesting worthwhile read.

Patrick Leigh-Fermor, A Time of Gifts. I've been aware of Leigh-Fermor for a long time. In 1932, aged 18, he walked from Rotterdam to Constantinople. AToG is the first of three books recounting this walk and has a stellar reputation - which it totally deserves; an almost visionary, very erudite, and entrancing read.

[fried]

Nice history list, any suggestions for Ottoman empire books?

I know of three quite different single volume histories of the Ottoman Empire:
1. The Ottoman Empire by Lord Kinross. An old classic work but still a great read and more recent works don't really have much to add.

Ordered this today, hope it doesn't stop me finishing 'Moby dick'.

[seankenny]

Nice history list, any suggestions for Ottoman empire books?

Dalyrmple's "From the Holy Mountain" is about Christians in the Middle East, so includes lots of Ottoman history. Not a hard read at all. Inspired me to visit places like the Church of St Simeon the Stylite which are now completely inaccessible - alas none of UKBs emoticons come close to capturing anything to do with Syria right now.

[fried]

That'a good holiday reading book. I love Dalyrmple. If you haven't read it 'Age of Kali' is worth your time.

[Muenchener]

I love Dalyrmple. If you haven't read it 'Age of Kali' is worth your time.

+1, Dalrymple is fantastic. White Mughals probably my favourite by him, could be a tragedy by Shakespeare.

[fried]

Good call. I've got it in hardback and only read it once, must be due a reread.

[DaveC]

I love Dalyrmple.

Ditto. Age of Kali is one I haven't read so that's gone on the "find" list now as well.
I actually picked up a beautiful first edition of Dalrymple's "The Last Mughal" just before Christmas for A$20 and realised when I got home that it was actually a signed copy! Nice.

[DaveC]

First two books of the year:
Patrick Leigh-Fermor, A Time of Gifts. I've been aware of Leigh-Fermor for a long time. In 1932, aged 18, he walked from Rotterdam to Constantinople. AToG is the first of three books recounting this walk and has a stellar reputation - which it totally deserves; an almost visionary, very erudite, and entrancing read.

Andy, my sister has just read all three books in succession and reckons the third book (released posthumously last year I think) is a little weaker than the first two (she found the ending a bit...meh!) but still well worth it.

[andy popp]

First two books of the year:
Patrick Leigh-Fermor, A Time of Gifts. I've been aware of Leigh-Fermor for a long time. In 1932, aged 18, he walked from Rotterdam to Constantinople. AToG is the first of three books recounting this walk and has a stellar reputation - which it totally deserves; an almost visionary, very erudite, and entrancing read.

Andy, my sister has just read all three books in succession and reckons the third book (released posthumously last year I think) is a little weaker than the first two (she found the ending a bit...meh!) but still well worth it.

I'm not surprised to hear that; I don't think he'd really finished it when he died. I will read all three, but I'm not going to read them in succession. I think you'd like it Dave, full of deep mittel-europe history, especially the meeting of East and West.

[DaveC]

My sister is currently trying to clear some of her books out so she can finish renovating her apartment, I already have my name on the Leigh-Fermor trio! 

[fried]

Another one while we're on the subject. 'The way of the world' - Nicolas Bouvier. A journey from Geneva to Afghanistan in the 1950s in a clapped out Fiat. An absolute joy.

[Fiend]

The Road is bleak as fuck, I am surprised it got popular and all.

The film is well worth watching, it is more sad than bleak though.

[andy popp]

I read it last year and was very impressed; very bleak as everyone says. But did anyone else think it copped out a bit at the very end? It seemed to offer a tiny chink of light that jarred for me.

[andy popp]

I read it last year and was very impressed; very bleak as everyone says. But did anyone else think it copped out a bit at the very end? It seemed to offer a tiny chink of light that jarred for me.

A hard story to end maybe, whatever the tone?

Total hopelessness?

The parenting angle is interesting, one I'd not really thought about properly.

[seankenny]

Finally tackled The Road ... the long winter nights here are pretty quiet and lonely, so it was easy to sink into the mood of the thing.

I read most of The Road in a single night, in a compound in a mountainous and remote part of Afghanistan. No electricity, very dark, totally quiet. Going out to pee I felt like the last person on earth. Perfect.

Blood Meridian is also good. Alas, his stories are essentially about men chasing each other, but you read them for the mood and the setting rather than the plot.

[andy popp]

Sometimes obvious might be best.

[Falling Down]

Finally tackled The Road ... the long winter nights here are pretty quiet and lonely, so it was easy to sink into the mood of the thing.

I read most of The Road in a single night, in a compound in a mountainous and remote part of Afghanistan. No electricity, very dark, totally quiet. Going out to pee I felt like the last person on earth. Perfect.

Blood Meridian is also good. Alas, his stories are essentially about men chasing each other, but you read them for the mood and the setting rather than the plot.

I hear there is a film of Blood Meridian in production.  Anyone read Suttree? It's been on my shelf for years but I've never opened it.

[Rocksteady]

I really liked The Road, and No Country for Old Men. The film of the latter was excellent. Haven't seen the film of the former, worried it might be a bit too depressing to watch.

One thing I'm not sure about: lack of grammar/punctuation. In The Road I thought this worked really well - for me it evoked the breakdown of language along with everything else in the post-apocalyptic future. In No Country for Old Men I wasn't sure that it added anything or represented anything.

Is Blood Meridian written in the same style? What do other people think about the style?

[SA Chris]

me too