The reason that I had read this book was for a class and I had to do a book review. And in that review I used that chapter for the reason as to not to read it or to have salt near by when reading it. Considering that Tolkien and Lewis are both known for works for fantasy. And when I saw that Lewis was part of the book, I was surprise. Because I did not know that Lewis had worked for the University of Oxford. While for Tolkien, I was not really surprise because he is also known as a linguist.

Also, this chapter is not the reason why it is considered to be controversial, surprisingly. It is the two chapters that deals with the Annales school (basically a Marxists school) founder and a certain German Medievalist.

And really despite the fact that I really did not enjoy the Tolkien/Lewis chapter. He does a really good job of detailing the rise of the different ways of looking at the Medieval Europe period.

Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a Irish-born, British writer and lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge University (Magdalene College, 1954–1963).

Lewis and fellow novelist J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends. They both served on the English faculty at Oxford University and were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis


John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE FRSL (/ˈruːl ˈtɒlkiːn/;[a] 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic.

He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford from 1925 to 1945 and the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford from 1945 to 1959.[3] He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, a co-member of the informal literary discussion group The Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

In their way, both were historians or at least researchers in that field, especially Tolkien. Probably why they got a mention, as both have aired their views on Medieval Europe and writers etc.

Nice one, but I think Chesterton should decide if he wants to write fiction or non-fiction. This book was something from between and in my opinion it's one of the worse books of GKCh.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

On a recommendation, this likely marks the start of a year or so of non-fiction, translated too, and it was far easier to read and less infuriating than I thought. Current Leftist views of economics are necessary, the first part explains well and the facts and figures and explanations, as well as some of the points made, remain positive aspects throughout. The attacks on economists, by an economist, were also rather refreshing, as was the statement that the current supposedly meritocratic justifications of inequality are worse than the past ones. And saying that refusing to deal with numbers, and I'll add also politics, rarely goes in favor of the poor is a good ending.
However, some parts are too technical, many of each chapter's, if not each part's, points could have been made in a handful of pages, much space which could have been better filled with some of the things strangely left in an on-line "annex" seeming wasted, and part four seems rather a train of thought, even a mind dump, just pushing one idea and going this way and that around it. But the main problem is that, while pointing out the inherent flaws of capitalism, it clearly states, and proves throughout, that it doesn't actually attack it, nor inequality in itself for that matter, instead aiming to just tweak systems that are inherently flawed and need replacing. It also focuses almost exclusively on the rich, barely mentioning the rest and the means of improving their situation. There are also indefensible stances, like repeatedly emphasizing the benefits of population growth, enough on its own for me to consider the author an opponent; continual, albeit weak, growth in general being seen as, well, possible; or repeatedly stating the positive effects of inflation, with too little attention paid to the devastating effects it can have on the savings and plans of regular people. Then again, what's clearly indefensible is that it starts by basically praising subjectivity even when it comes to such fundamental matters that define a society... And including conclusions in the introduction is not a good practice either.

Rating: 3/5

Tacitus, Agricola, ed. by A. J. Woodman (Cambridge Greek and Latin classics)


Latin text and commentary for Tacitus' biography of his father-in-law Agricola. Commentary is fine, very helpful for translating the text.
Have mixed feelings about the Agricola itself, the Latin style is challenging and beautiful, but the content will strike many today as pretty dubious. Agricola is basically presented as a model imperialist, with a strong focus on his governorship of Britain culminating in the battle at Mons Graupius (where the famous speech "The Romans have created a wasteland and call it peace" by the British leader Calgacus is set). The upper class whining about how Agricola wasn't given his just reward for his achievements by the evil emperor Domitian and had to avoid fame out of fear of the emperor also gets a bit too much imo. But of course it would be a mistake to judge such a work by modern values. In any case, I can recommend this edition to those interested in the 1st century AD Roman empire and Latin literature.
My rating: 5/5.

I finally finished reading Macbeth and the animals farm

Markus Pöhlmann, Der Panzer und die Mechanisierung des Krieges. Eine deutsche Geschichte 1890 bis 1945.

A book about tanks in German armies from WW1 to 1945. Includes discussion of armaments programmes, development of doctrine, different types, operations and cultural perception of tanks. I liked the parts about WW1 and the interwar era; found the parts about WW2 less enjoyable (had a feeling the author didn't do as much research of his own there; this was especially so in a chapter about tank forces and war crimes, which seemed more like an afterthought). It's a decent book, but written in a rather complex academic style which I found a bit tiresome. I caught one major mistake (mis-dating of the 1944 Soviet offensive to 22 July instead of 22 June).
I would only recommend it, if one is really interested in military history (which I've realized I'm probably not).
My rating: 3/5.

Gee that was quite a time ago since I reported my last reads... Paradoxically, being forced to stay home in a small apartment almost killed my desire to read books... Anyway, here are the last ones:

Shadow Games + Dreams of Steel - Glen Cook

The following of the Black Comapny series. Where the Doc and the Lady go on a trip to find again the mythical city from where the Black Comapny comes. Of course, after the fall of the archenemy in the last story ark, his ancient minions are scattered but by no means reduced to powerlessness! So the Doc and the Lady will have to display the full array of their skills and leadership to progress towards their goal.
A really good read, Glen Cook is still on top of his game!

A crime in Holland - Georges Simenon

Another social studies/crime story with Maigret, being called in Holland when a French professor is suspected of the murder of the man who welcomed him in his home during his conferences. Of course, the case is not as simple as it looks and Maigret's cold reasoning and acute social observation skills will have to be fully employed to solve the case.

Les rapines du duc de Guise - La guerre des amoureuses - La ville qui n'aimait pas son roi - Jean d'Aillon

A trilogy taking place during the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants in the 16th century France. It's a mix of a history book and a novel, since the author used many many real historical informations and inserted his characters (some of them are real historical figures of the French history). I was a bit reticent at first since it's not my favorite historical era, but Jean d'Aillon's writing really kept me on my toes until the last sentence of the last book. Very well done! I hope it gets translated in English and other foreign languages, so even more people can enjoy these books and learn about this historical era.

So far in 2021: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2021/post37

Shadow man
Tarnsman of Gor
Outlaw of Gor

As a young man nigh on 20 years old, I eventually read probably the first dozen GOR novels, and certainly really enjoyed the earliest ones the most ... great Fantasy stuff somewhat in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Norman's writings though, eventually became too sexist for me ... he just didn't leave it alone and each later novel featured more and more of it and the fantasy I loved, got less. It very much seemed like he was trying to prove a point about females are happiest when subservient to males .. at least subconsciously.

While I was a young man back then (over 40 years ago now) and unsure about my place in the world and what it meant to be male etc, and what was the ideal female, I have long since moved well and truly on. So it was somewhat titillating at the time, but no longer something I would ever want to read again, good fantasy aspects aside. A shame really, because the fantasy aspects were good ... Norman was a good tale spinner in that regard, and I guess he did make a young person think. Many of course despise his writings and view of females ... rightly so for the latter.

Tacitus, Dialogus de oratoribus, edited by Roland Mayer (Cambridge Greek and Latin classics)

Latin text and English commentary of Tacitus' least well-known work, the Dialogue about the orators. It's set in 75 AD and purports to report the discussion among a group of senators about the causes of decline of the standards of oratory since the time of the late Republic, with various theses advanced by the different participants in the discussion (decline of educational methods, change in the political system, also the relative merits of oratory and poetry).
It's interesting (also for its style, markedly different from Tacitus' other works, more in line with Cicero's dialogues), but will obviously only appeal if you're really interested in ancient Rome. I saw negative reviews on the net about this edition, but for my purposes it was decent enough.
My rating: 4/5.

Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson 02/10

The last 250 pages are the only ones worth reading and where interesting events occur, the rest of the book 800+ pages are slowed down by too many inner thoughts and the characters don't do too much, even though they know something bad is going to happen, they just wait until it happens before acting.

The writer's flaws seem to multiply in this book.

Supercade, by Van Burnham. My wife gave me this coffee table book, which is a visual history of video (arcade) games from 1971 to 1984. It was published about 20 years ago. It's not an exhaustive history, just a selection of games the author likes or considers important. Other events, like the introductions of home consoles or the classic 8-bit generation home computers, get a page or two of explanation but the games for these systems aren't highlighted beyond a couple of namedrops. As a coffee table book, it's mostly just fun to pick up and look at the pictures.

Some of the images are a bit rough, particularly the vector graphics games, which are heavily pixelated, as if they didn't have good video capturing equipment or something. You really don't get a sense of how those games are supposed to look. There's some sloppy writing here and there (e.g., Crazy Kong was a bootleg of Donkey Kong, not an official sequel). There are a number of secondary contributors whose work varies in quality. Some fit in just fine. Others come across as pretentious, self-loathing windbags. The book concludes with a selection of quotes from industry luminaries on what the future of gaming holds. Being 20 years down the line, we find that the only one who came close to being right was Ed Logg, who predicted that game budgets would further escalate, resulting in the industry becoming much more corporate and creatively risk-averse. The others mostly just stuck to better graphics, more lifelike gameplay! No one predicted the explosion of anti-consumerism along with digital downloads.

Rot & Ruin - Jonathan Maberry

Another variation on the Zombi trope. And another good one! I've never considered myself a "zombie story" fan, excepted maybe for the TellTale games, but I must admit that there are several novels worth a read!

And Rot & Ruin is one of them. The author says he wrote it for a "young adults" public, and I can understand it, because he could have written his story in a much more "gory" way, but still, it doesn't prevent the story to be well-written. At least, I was interested enough to read it entirely!

So take a zombie apocalypse, the collapse of the civilization and the survival of some communities. And then you have some zombie hunters, who are there to give the last rest to the walking corpses. And kids living in town and minding their own business. But they will soon discover that zombie hunting is not always what it seems to be.

A really good story and good characters. I can't ask for anything more!

So far in 2021: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2021/post37

Well I finished the 7th and final Foundation novel this morning - FORWARD THE FOUNDATION by ISAAC ASIMOV. Like the other six it was a good read and nicely rounds the series out. I've still got a few related novels to read by the author, plus some written by other authors that are directly related.

FORWARD THE FOUNDATION was better written in some regards, especially compared to the original trilogy. For some reason (no doubt the title), I presumed the book was at the end of the series timeline wise, when really it was a direct sequel to PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION, so book two in fact. If I'd known that, I probably would have read it some months sooner, as I put it off a bit, in expectation of having to come to grips with a new period of time and characters, and I was waiting to be in the mood for that.

Anyway, it was a very enjoyable read, and in some ways I am glad I waited.

P.S. You really need to read these novels in the order they were written (published) or you will get severe spoilers.

My reading list for 2021