What are you reading at the moment?

Digimonkey said:
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What I am actually reading at the moment - I just put it down to take its picture - it is a big, expensive hardback - suits the subject - wonderful

@Missoni - 'Thanks for this; just checked it out, it comes across as a must read. I have downloaded several free texts on the early history of the region and added them to my reading list but this looks like a real gem'

Thanks for saying so - that will remain - I think - a unique experience in my life - ordinarily - recommending books about Mesopotamian religion - is not fertile ground - ironically - I have found. The Jacobsen book was the perfect primer text for me - I very much needed someone to 'hold my hand' through the basics - if you didn't have a guide - the source texts would be so obtuse - as to be opaque. I think it was the guy's PHD worked up to a full book - all the quotes he uses - to illustrate and argue his point - he transliterated himself - from cuneiform - hence why its transliteration and not translation - that's quite impressive - in my book or tablet. If you are still reading this - then give it a go - what is virtually identical - in all but minor details - woven into long standing beliefs - is the biblical 'Genesis' flood - albeit being written down at least a millennia and a half before the formulation of the old testament we know now. In the Babylonian version - Enlil - the senior god - just gets sick of all the noise humans make - they had been created by the usual sort of pantheon - named deities for crops, seasons, moon & sun - that sort of thing - to do the hard work - but turned out to be too noisy for the gods. Plus ca change?

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@Scotshave - I think our 'willfully obscure' book challenge might well get out of hand quite soon. I didn't have enough background on the Egyptian stuff to follow it properly - I know who Akhenaten was - at least. Ill judged ideas of monotheism before its time - the axial age hadn't been invented at that point. I'll see your obscurity - and raise you - Coptic in twenty lessons - to be honest - I could have done with another twenty - if not more. Densely impenetrable - it reads from right to left - for starters. Like ancient Hebrew and Arabic - it doesn't have anything you would understand to be a vowel - no critical marks - nothing - no guide to pronunciation - which is fair enough - nobody speaks it any more - an awful lot of primary sources for early Christian theology are recorded in the language. Mixed between Coptic and Greek - The Nag Hammad texts - most obviously. An awful lot of scripture - that circulated freely at the time - valued enough - that the enormous amount of time and resources involved with copying them happened - until Athanasius of Alexandria put a tin lid on it - the early 5th century. And thus the canon we know now - the scripture we lost - the faiths we never knew - on that obscure note - yours - I.
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...both of these look great; I fear a little challenging and maybe inaccessible for me though, at this time. I have become curious regarding the Psalms and I have downloaded several versions of the Old Testament for the Psalms and also downloaded the Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms by Stephen Langdon and plan to read and contrast both. I doubt I have the knowledge to pick-up on any metanarrative but something about them drives my curiosity.
 
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Scotshave said:
For @Digimonkey and @Missoni (only since we're on the subject; and not excluding anyone else, you understand).

As outlined above, not a biography (although a resumé is given). More a metabiography, which explores how he has been understood and represented in socio-cultural contexts in the nineteenth and twentieth century; and how a Eurocentric bias can limit understanding in the absence of hard evidence.

It does make some maddening claims, so watch the blood pressure...
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Thank you for the recommendation. The forward picture of a relief or statue alone peaks my interest; I will check it out...
 
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Warming to the idea of willfully obscure - so - do you want? - more Coptic lessons - no - didn't think so - the book on the left - sent to me from the sand pit - by my friend in Saudi Arabia - there are going to be a lot of Quranic verses - I can tell - without even opening it - no problem - as long as you can tell your Meccan and Medinan versus apart - the recitation becomes less obscure. I.

@Scotshave @Missoni
 
'There are 21 surahs in the second Meccan period. These surahs have, on average, ayah between twelve and twenty syllables in length. Some surahs have fewer than fifty ayah, while others, such as surah 20, “Ta-Ha,” have well over 100 verses.[13] These surahs do not necessarily have distinct features, as the surahs of the first and third Meccan periods do, but instead display a blend of features from both earlier and later Meccan surahs. These middle surahs keep and expand upon the tripartite structure of the verse. According to Ernst[citation needed], surahs that adhere to this structure (common in pre-Islamic Arab poetry)[clarification needed] will have shorter first and third sections that parallel each other in scope and audience. The third section will “normally conclude with a flourish.” These parts bookend a somewhat larger middle section, which is “typically a narrative of prophecy and struggle”.[14] These surahs also tend to use fewer oaths than earlier Meccan surahs, but take a much more confrontational approach in regards to the disbelievers.[13] Some surahs in this period adopt a form resembling a monotheistic service, as is often seen in later Meccan surahs.[15] For example, surah 20 begins with a section proclaiming the greatness of God, and then transitions immediately into a story about Moses. After the lengthy story concludes, several verses are devoted to explaining the meaning of the story, especially as it relates to the disbelievers.[16] Due to the presence of elements from earlier and later Meccan surahs, surahs of the middle Meccan period exemplify the gradual development of the Qur'anic revelations over time, as Muhammad's community slowly grew and changed. This is manifest in the fact that surahs of the second Meccan period tend toward self-referentiality, wherein the Qur'an uses "qur'an" (recitation or the Qu'ran) and "kitaab" (book) to make mention to its own existence (surahs 54, 37, 15, et al.), noting that indeed there is a holy message coming from God. Controversy from these verses have sprung up, wherein the question of the Word's existence is debated. Some believe that the Qur'an existed/exists for all time with God, while others believe that the Qur'an was simply the Word for the Arab peoples of Muhammad from his prophecy onward' - quoted - I

@Scotshave @Missoni .
 
Digimonkey said:
'There are 21 surahs in the second Meccan period. These surahs have, on average, ayah between twelve and twenty syllables in length. Some surahs have fewer than fifty ayah, while others, such as surah 20, “Ta-Ha,” have well over 100 verses.[13] These surahs do not necessarily have distinct features, as the surahs of the first and third Meccan periods do, but instead display a blend of features from both earlier and later Meccan surahs. These middle surahs keep and expand upon the tripartite structure of the verse. According to Ernst[citation needed], surahs that adhere to this structure (common in pre-Islamic Arab poetry)[clarification needed] will have shorter first and third sections that parallel each other in scope and audience. The third section will “normally conclude with a flourish.” These parts bookend a somewhat larger middle section, which is “typically a narrative of prophecy and struggle”.[14] These surahs also tend to use fewer oaths than earlier Meccan surahs, but take a much more confrontational approach in regards to the disbelievers.[13] Some surahs in this period adopt a form resembling a monotheistic service, as is often seen in later Meccan surahs.[15] For example, surah 20 begins with a section proclaiming the greatness of God, and then transitions immediately into a story about Moses. After the lengthy story concludes, several verses are devoted to explaining the meaning of the story, especially as it relates to the disbelievers.[16] Due to the presence of elements from earlier and later Meccan surahs, surahs of the middle Meccan period exemplify the gradual development of the Qur'anic revelations over time, as Muhammad's community slowly grew and changed. This is manifest in the fact that surahs of the second Meccan period tend toward self-referentiality, wherein the Qur'an uses "qur'an" (recitation or the Qu'ran) and "kitaab" (book) to make mention to its own existence (surahs 54, 37, 15, et al.), noting that indeed there is a holy message coming from God. Controversy from these verses have sprung up, wherein the question of the Word's existence is debated. Some believe that the Qur'an existed/exists for all time with God, while others believe that the Qur'an was simply the Word for the Arab peoples of Muhammad from his prophecy onward' - quoted - I

@Scotshave @Missoni .
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Uh-huh!
 
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The third of my Macfarlane readings. I think this one is a suitable companion piece to The Old Ways. I finished Underland and, whilst enjoyable, I did find the prose somewhat dense. Landmarks takes (so far) the premise of the demise of language used to describe landscape, environment, nature and animals.

Like The Old Ways, it emphasises the interrelationship between language and place and that a dilution of the former will render toponomy, geography and nature abstract. Macfarlane cites a recent edition of The Oxford Junior Dictionary where words including acorn, adder, ivy and kingfisher have been excised. To this end, a series of glossaries are included where regional and local terms are given; as part of what he terms ‘A Counter-Desecration Handbook'.

This isn't a didactic call-to-arms, however; language and meaning are fluid. It is (thus far) beautifully written.

(Edited for the inclusion of @patw, @Missoni, @Digimonkey, @Ferry-shave, @Boycie83, @RussellR5555)
 
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sharpstrings said:
Been really enjoying the Cemetery Of Forgotten Books series by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I've just started the final book, ''The Labyrinth Of Spirits''.
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I liked ‘The Shadow of the Wind' and ‘The Angel's Game'. Still to read the third. Anyhow, on the uncanny recommendation of Iain @Digimonkey, I find myself immersed in collation, uncials, insular majuscules and diminuendo; together with exemplars and amended variations on the Vulgate Gospels of St. Jerome. And I'm only on Chapter Three!

The agnostic or atheist shouldn't baulk, however; de Hamel wears his ecumenical armour lightly and writes adroitly; although (I feel) with a slight touch of self-indulgence.

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What I am actually reading at the moment.....

and what I would recommend - if you haven't read it -

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From the publisher's website - Eland - first chapter

'When does one first begin to remember?

When do the waving lights and shadows of dawning consciousness cast their print upon the mind of a child? My earliest memories are Ireland. I can recall scenes and events in Ireland quite well, and sometimes dimly, even people. Yet I was born on November 30, 1874, and I left Ireland early in the year 1879. My father had gone to Ireland as secretary to his father, the Duke of Marlborough, appointed Lord-Lieutenant by Mr Disraeli in 1876. We lived in a house called ‘The Little Lodge', about a stone's throw from the Viceregal. Here I spent nearly three years of childhood. I have clear and vivid impressions of some events. I remember my grandfather, the Viceroy, unveiling the Lord Gough statue in 1878.

A great black crowd, scarlet soldiers on horseback, strings pulling away a brown shiny sheet, the old Duke, the formidable grandpapa, talking loudly to the crowd. I recall even a phrase he used: ‘and with a withering volley he shattered the enemy's line'. I quite understood that he was speaking about war and fighting and that a ‘volley' meant what the black-coated soldiers (Riflemen) used to do with loud bangs so often in the Phoenix Park where I was taken for my morning walks. This, I think, is my first coherent memory.

Other events stand out more distinctly. We were to go to a pantomime. There was great excitement about it. The long-looked-for afternoon arrived. We started from the Viceregal and drove to the Castle where other children were no doubt to be picked up. Inside the Castle was a great square space paved with small oblong stones. It rained. It nearly always rained – just as it does now. People came out of the doors of the Castle, and there seemed to be much stir. Then we were told we could not go to the pantomime because the theatre had been burned down. All that was found of the manager was the keys that had been in his pocket. We were promised as a consolation for not going to the pantomime to go next day and see the ruins of the building. I wanted very much to see the keys, but this request does not seem to have been well received.
In one of these years we paid a visit to Emo Park, the seat of Lord Portarlington, who was explained to me as a sort of uncle. Of this place I can give very clear descriptions, though I have never been there since I was four or four and a half. The central point in my memory is a tall white stone tower which we reached after a considerable drive. I was told it had been blown up by Oliver Cromwell. I understood definitely that he had blown up all sorts of things and was therefore a very great man.

My nurse, Mrs Everest, was nervous about the Fenians. I gathered these were wicked people and there was no end to what they would do if they had their way. On one occasion when I was out riding on my donkey, we thought we saw a long dark procession of Fenians approaching. I am sure now it must have been the Rifle Brigade out for a route march. But we were all very much alarmed, particularly the donkey, who expressed his anxiety by kicking. I was thrown off and had concussion of the brain. This was my first introduction to Irish politics!

In the Poenix Park there was a great round clump of trees with a house inside it. In this house there lived a personage styled the Chief Secretary or the Under Secretary, I am not clear which. But at any rate from this house there came a man called Mr Burke. He gave me a drum. I cannot remember what he looked like, but I remember the drum. Two years afterwards when we were back in England, they told me he had been murdered by the Fenians in this same Phoenix Park we used to walk about in every day. Everyone round me seemed much upset about it, and I thought how lucky it was the Fenians had not got me when I fell off the donkey.

It was at ‘The Little Lodge' I was first menaced with Education.

The approach of a sinister figure described as ‘the Governess' was announced. Her arrival was fixed for a certain day. In order to prepare for this day Mrs Everest produced a book called Reading Without Tears. It certainly did not justify its title in my case. I was made aware that before the Governess arrived I must be able to read without tears. We toiled each day. My nurse pointed with a pen at the different letters. I thought it all very tiresome. Our preparations were by no means completed when the fateful hour struck and the Governess was due to arrive. I did what so many oppressed peoples have done in similar circumstances: I took to the woods. I hid in the extensive shrubberies – forests they seemed – which surrounded ‘The Little Lodge'. Hours passed before I was retrieved and handed over to ‘the Governess'. We continued to toil every day, not only at letters but at words, and also at what was much worse, figures.'

Great stuff - highly recommended - if that might be your sort of thing. I.

@Scotshave @Missoni @patw @Ferry-shave @RussellR5555
 
Digimonkey said:
View attachment 54340

What I am actually reading at the moment.....

and what I would recommend - if you haven't read it -

View attachment 54341

From the publisher's website - Eland - first chapter

'When does one first begin to remember?

When do the waving lights and shadows of dawning consciousness cast their print upon the mind of a child? My earliest memories are Ireland. I can recall scenes and events in Ireland quite well, and sometimes dimly, even people. Yet I was born on November 30, 1874, and I left Ireland early in the year 1879. My father had gone to Ireland as secretary to his father, the Duke of Marlborough, appointed Lord-Lieutenant by Mr Disraeli in 1876. We lived in a house called ‘The Little Lodge', about a stone's throw from the Viceregal. Here I spent nearly three years of childhood. I have clear and vivid impressions of some events. I remember my grandfather, the Viceroy, unveiling the Lord Gough statue in 1878.

A great black crowd, scarlet soldiers on horseback, strings pulling away a brown shiny sheet, the old Duke, the formidable grandpapa, talking loudly to the crowd. I recall even a phrase he used: ‘and with a withering volley he shattered the enemy's line'. I quite understood that he was speaking about war and fighting and that a ‘volley' meant what the black-coated soldiers (Riflemen) used to do with loud bangs so often in the Phoenix Park where I was taken for my morning walks. This, I think, is my first coherent memory.

Other events stand out more distinctly. We were to go to a pantomime. There was great excitement about it. The long-looked-for afternoon arrived. We started from the Viceregal and drove to the Castle where other children were no doubt to be picked up. Inside the Castle was a great square space paved with small oblong stones. It rained. It nearly always rained – just as it does now. People came out of the doors of the Castle, and there seemed to be much stir. Then we were told we could not go to the pantomime because the theatre had been burned down. All that was found of the manager was the keys that had been in his pocket. We were promised as a consolation for not going to the pantomime to go next day and see the ruins of the building. I wanted very much to see the keys, but this request does not seem to have been well received.
In one of these years we paid a visit to Emo Park, the seat of Lord Portarlington, who was explained to me as a sort of uncle. Of this place I can give very clear descriptions, though I have never been there since I was four or four and a half. The central point in my memory is a tall white stone tower which we reached after a considerable drive. I was told it had been blown up by Oliver Cromwell. I understood definitely that he had blown up all sorts of things and was therefore a very great man.

My nurse, Mrs Everest, was nervous about the Fenians. I gathered these were wicked people and there was no end to what they would do if they had their way. On one occasion when I was out riding on my donkey, we thought we saw a long dark procession of Fenians approaching. I am sure now it must have been the Rifle Brigade out for a route march. But we were all very much alarmed, particularly the donkey, who expressed his anxiety by kicking. I was thrown off and had concussion of the brain. This was my first introduction to Irish politics!

In the Poenix Park there was a great round clump of trees with a house inside it. In this house there lived a personage styled the Chief Secretary or the Under Secretary, I am not clear which. But at any rate from this house there came a man called Mr Burke. He gave me a drum. I cannot remember what he looked like, but I remember the drum. Two years afterwards when we were back in England, they told me he had been murdered by the Fenians in this same Phoenix Park we used to walk about in every day. Everyone round me seemed much upset about it, and I thought how lucky it was the Fenians had not got me when I fell off the donkey.

It was at ‘The Little Lodge' I was first menaced with Education.

The approach of a sinister figure described as ‘the Governess' was announced. Her arrival was fixed for a certain day. In order to prepare for this day Mrs Everest produced a book called Reading Without Tears. It certainly did not justify its title in my case. I was made aware that before the Governess arrived I must be able to read without tears. We toiled each day. My nurse pointed with a pen at the different letters. I thought it all very tiresome. Our preparations were by no means completed when the fateful hour struck and the Governess was due to arrive. I did what so many oppressed peoples have done in similar circumstances: I took to the woods. I hid in the extensive shrubberies – forests they seemed – which surrounded ‘The Little Lodge'. Hours passed before I was retrieved and handed over to ‘the Governess'. We continued to toil every day, not only at letters but at words, and also at what was much worse, figures.'

Great stuff - highly recommended - if that might be your sort of thing. I.

@Scotshave @Missoni @patw @Ferry-shave @RussellR5555
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I really enjoy the Richard Hannay novels. Thirty-Nine Steps was wasted on me at school but I thoroughly enjoyed coming back to it a couple of years ago along with the rest of the series.

The Hannay-Pienaar partnership is both heartwarming and entertaining.
 
@Scotshave @Missoni @patw @Digimonkey @RussellR5555

I love reading about space flight, mainly Mercury - Apollo; last summer I bought some of the books that came out for the 50th aniversary of the first moon landing (I have a good friend who maintains that there was a US moon base in advance of July 1969).

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James Donowan's Shoot for the moon (thus far - nearly finished) is an excellent read - it introduces several new angles/snippets on the space race - revealing a little more about the men and the families of the astronauts, possibly as many have now passed on. It also goes into a little more depth on the engineering and those involved.

I still find it amazing that over 50 years ago a nation decided that it was going to put men on the moon and return them to the earth safely. I hope that in the near future we can do so again - not least as there is potential to use helium-3 in fusion reactors.

All the best,

Chris
 
Ferry-shave said:
@Scotshave @Missoni @patw @Digimonkey @RussellR5555

I love reading about space flight, mainly Mercury - Apollo; last summer I bought some of the books that came out for the 50th aniversary of the first moon landing (I have a good friend who maintains that there was a US moon base in advance of July 1969).

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James Donowan's Shoot for the moon (thus far - nearly finished) is an excellent read - it introduces several new angles/snippets on the space race - revealing a little more about the men and the families of the astronauts, possibly as many have now passed on. It also goes into a little more depth on the engineering and those involved.

I still find it amazing that over 50 years ago a nation decided that it was going to put men on the moon and return them to the earth safely. I hope that in the near future we can do so again - not least as there is potential to use helium-3 in fusion reactors.

All the best,

Chris
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C. - you might find this of interest - I heard it on the World Service - but you can download via the BBC app - Apollo 13

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC World Service - 13 Minutes to the Moon, Season 2: The Apollo 13 story

Apollo 13: the extraordinary story, told by the people who flew it and saved it
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Heavily based on interviews with the people involved - archive of the comms between the doomed lunar lander and mission control as the whole thing unfolds - the event lives on in our everyday speech - 'Houston - we've had a problem.'

This is series two - the first is about Apollo 11.

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC World Service - 13 Minutes to the Moon, Season 1: The Apollo 11 story

How the first moon landing was saved. The story of the people who made Apollo 11 happen
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Again - an event written into our common vocabulary - 'Houston - Tranquility base here - the Eagle has landed.' Let's leave aside the whole 'one giant leap' thing - an appalling grammatical error - when 20% of the entire world population were watching - in fairness Armstrong probably had bigger concerns at the time than satisfying pedants.

Give it a listen - see what you think - it is worth noting that the smartphone next to me - or indeed the laptop I am typing on - have more computing power available to them - than any Apollo mission - makes it seem all the more remarkable.

Yours - I.
 
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