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Wednesday Reading Meme
Oct. 12th, 2016 07:43 amWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Mike Rendell’s In Bed with the Georgians: Sex, Scandal, and Satire in the 18th Century is an odd book. Some of the chapters are basically just annotated lists: here are all the most famous courtesans of the Georgian period, or all the most infamous rakes. There was one guy whose nickname was the "Rapemaster in Chief," but it took them ages to arrest him for anything because he was a high government official and rich and powerful men could do basically anything they wanted.
It was a bit sobering to read this just as Trump's sexual assault comments were coming out, because clearly Trump still believes we live in that world, although the mass public outrage from both political parties suggests that things have changed at least a little. (The Georgians clearly would have dismissed it all as boys being boys, or whatever the contemporary Georgian phrase was.)
Anyway. There's a lot of interesting and sometimes horrifying information here, if you're willing to pick through the shoddy organization to get to it.
What I’m Reading Now
Welcome to Night Vale - the novel, not the podcast - although I’ve been thinking that I might be enjoying it more if I were listening to it as an audiobook, although then again maybe not.
I've also been rereading Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess. SUCH A GOOD BOOK. I'm planning to write a post about the amazingness of Sara Crewe (and also how well the book is constructed) once I'm done.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have a lot of books on my plate. I got D. E. Stevenson's The Four Graces from the library, and I've got Lisa See's The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane on my Kindle - it's from Netgalley and I'm so excited to get a sneak peak at Lisa See's next book that I've actually been putting it off just in case it doesn't live up to my expectations. See's work can be somewhat uneven, I've found.
Mike Rendell’s In Bed with the Georgians: Sex, Scandal, and Satire in the 18th Century is an odd book. Some of the chapters are basically just annotated lists: here are all the most famous courtesans of the Georgian period, or all the most infamous rakes. There was one guy whose nickname was the "Rapemaster in Chief," but it took them ages to arrest him for anything because he was a high government official and rich and powerful men could do basically anything they wanted.
It was a bit sobering to read this just as Trump's sexual assault comments were coming out, because clearly Trump still believes we live in that world, although the mass public outrage from both political parties suggests that things have changed at least a little. (The Georgians clearly would have dismissed it all as boys being boys, or whatever the contemporary Georgian phrase was.)
Anyway. There's a lot of interesting and sometimes horrifying information here, if you're willing to pick through the shoddy organization to get to it.
What I’m Reading Now
Welcome to Night Vale - the novel, not the podcast - although I’ve been thinking that I might be enjoying it more if I were listening to it as an audiobook, although then again maybe not.
I've also been rereading Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess. SUCH A GOOD BOOK. I'm planning to write a post about the amazingness of Sara Crewe (and also how well the book is constructed) once I'm done.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have a lot of books on my plate. I got D. E. Stevenson's The Four Graces from the library, and I've got Lisa See's The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane on my Kindle - it's from Netgalley and I'm so excited to get a sneak peak at Lisa See's next book that I've actually been putting it off just in case it doesn't live up to my expectations. See's work can be somewhat uneven, I've found.
