Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

I don’t think I’ve finished anything this week! Well, the Krakauer book earlier this week, but nothing since then.

What I’m Reading Now

I’m still working on William Dean Howells’ Venetian Life, which is growing on me in a mild sort of way. It is reminding me yet again how fervently anti-monarchy many nineteenth-century Americans were, and how very proud of their republican form of government, and I think that pride is giving Howells a certain sense of fellow-feeling for the Venetian Republic even if it often fell short of its republican ideals. But then what country does not? The US was having a civil war when Howells served in Venice, and that’s a failure of representative government if I ever heard of one.

And I started reading Tom Reiss’s The Black Count! The book kicks off with Reiss cracking into a safe to get access to papers about Alexandre Dumas’s father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, which seems like an appropriately dramatic way to learn about the Dumas family honestly. (Although he did have government permission for this spot of safecracking, which perhaps makes it slightly less Dumasian.)

What I Plan to Read Next

I don’t usually read the Big Idea pieces on John Scalzi’s blog, but the art for Above the Timberline caught my eye, as did the author’s reference to Dinotopia - anyone who lists Dinotopia as an influence has to be good, am I right? - and now I super want to read it. Bring it to meeee, library!

Comments

[missroserose]

My husband, whose literal job it is to break into things with permission, points out that permission hardly makes things less exciting - it's still fun just to See If You Can Do It. :) I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on The Black Count! It's less thorough but much better paced than Alexander Hamilton, I thought.

[osprey_archer]

Dumas once made a scene of concentrated eyeblinks breath-takingly suspenseful, so I daresay he could have done something with legally permitted safecracking. Although I still think Dantes would probably safecrack illegally, just to thumb his nose at the law.

[ivy]

I also look forward to hearing about "The Black Count". I loved that book, though I liked the beginning of it better than the end. (I think part of that is that rising from obscurity and being a totally kickass general is more interesting than languishing in jail. But, you have the material to work with that you have.)

[thisbluespirit]

he book kicks off with Reiss cracking into a safe to get access to papers about Alexandre Dumas’s father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, which seems like an appropriately dramatic way to learn about the Dumas family honestly. (Although he did have government permission for this spot of safecracking, which perhaps makes it slightly less Dumasian.)

The Musketeers totally had gov't permission for what they did! I mean, which member of the gov't and how they got it was another matter, but I don't think it detracts from the perfect Dumas-opening there.

[osprey_archer]

He did get permission by taking said member of the government to dinner with the Dumas club, where they all got slightly soused and talked about the importance of Dumas for The Glory of France. Which might indeed be worthy of a Dumas hero!

[thisbluespirit]

Definitely!

[evelyn_b]

That is a very Dumas way of getting permission to crack a safe and get some Dumas papers. <3