Wednesday Reading Meme
Oct. 12th, 2016 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat 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.
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no subject
Date: 2016-10-12 01:48 pm (UTC)I might read about the Rapemaster in Chief and co. one of these days. I keep getting my curiosity piqued about the Georgians and then forgetting to do anything about it. One of the novels I'm reading now is packed with the author's research into the seamy side of life and it's a little like reading A Clockwork Orange, though the narrator keeps apologizing to the present.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-13 12:06 am (UTC)I picked up In Bed with the Georgians because I too am always meaning to learn more about them and then letting it fall by the wayside. And then I do read something about them and I'm like OH MY GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE and they fall by the wayside again for a while.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-12 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-13 05:01 pm (UTC)It really is an amazingly well-plotted story, and Sarah is the Actual Best.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-16 02:01 pm (UTC)