Notes from a bibliophile

As a bibliophile, is there any wonder I felt I needed to listen to this course? It's a very interesting look at several books written throughout history that had a profound impact one the world. I've read very few of them, but most of them are on my "to read at some point in my life" list. Here's the breakdown and the lecturer(s) on each: 1. The Epic of Gilgamesh by Grant L. Voth 2. Homer's The Odyssey by John M. Bowers 3. The Bhagavad Gita by Grant Hardy 4. Sun Tsu 's The Art of War by Andrew R. Wilson 5. Confucius's The Analects by Mark W. Muesse 6. Herodotus' Histories by Elizabeth Vandiver 7. Plato's The Republic by Dennis Dalton 8. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics by Robert C. Bartlett 9. Ovid's Metamorphoses by Elizabeth Vandiver 10. Marcus Aurelius's Meditations by Luke Timothy Johnson 11. St. Augustine's Confessions by William R. Cook & Ronald B. Herzman 12. The Koran by Grant Hardy 13. Fibonacci's Th...

If you haven't discovered these short stories by notable authors published by The Mysterious Bookshop, I highly recommend you search them out. I found them at one of my local independent bookstores, Murder by the Book in Houston. As of now there are 26 books in the series, a couple of which I've already blogged about: 1. The Book of Virtue by Ken Bruen 2. The Book of Ghosts by Reed Farrel Coleman 3. The Scroll by Anne Perry 4. The Book Case by Nelson DeMille 5. Pronghorns of the Third Reic h by C.J. Box 6. Death Leaves a Bookmark by William Link 7. An Acceptable Sacrifice by Jeffrey Deaver 8. Book Club by Loren D. Estleman 9. The Book Thing by Laura Lippman 10. The Long Sonata of the Dead by Andrew Taylor 11. The Final Testament by Peter Blauner 12. The Caxton Lending Library & Book Depository by John Connolly 13. Rides a Stranger by David Bell 14. What's in a Name? by Thomas H. Cook 15. It's in the Book by Mickey Spillane & Max All...

History was second only to math in my most hated school topics. The way it was taught in my school it seemed to be like binging and purging - you cram as many dates and really similar names down your throat as you can and then regurgitate it when it's time to take the tests. Take 1066 for example: two of the major players are Harold Godwinson and Harald Hardrada. Then later you need to figure out how to separate the Roosevelts. If I ever get on Jeopardy, a sure way to make sure I don't win is to have a category on US Presidents. Once I finally got through with school, I gradually began to find history more interesting, so much so that I actually considered getting a degree in history (then quickly un-considered it). It's books like this one that make history a delight to me now. Granted, this is a bit unusual, covering everything from the Neanderthals to Jimmy Hoffa. Price gleefully pokes fun at the more ridiculous of theories, and some of them are hilarious. Some people ...

I received this book from a giveaway on Goodreads. This is the story of Amy and her friend Kevin. About to graduate from college in Pennsylvania, they go out to celebrate. Kevin walks Amy home, then Kevin brutally stabs his ex-girlfriend to death. I can understand Amy's obsession with the incident, but my feeling for this book go in completely different directions. First, I feel, like many people Amy knew told her, that this wasn't her story. Emily doesn't necessarily get lost, but Amy is the main character in this story, and nothing really happened to her. Sure, I can understand survivor's guilt and endlessly pondering the "what if's", but still. Then the term PTSD comes out. Can a person be traumatically stressed by an event they did not witness or experience? Apparently they can. It's strange to think an affliction that affects so many battle-hardened soldiers could also affect this young woman who was only incidental to the crime. Kevin h...

Another in the Great Courses series. I'm grateful that I didn't start with this course because I may not have continued. Professor Murray covers a whole slew of cases, from Jack the Ripper to several cyber-crimes and identity thefts. I found most of the stories interesting, especially the really high-profile cases that I had heard about before. Some of the minor cases were interesting as well, but some were just a bit tedious. They were so small, most of the taking place around her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio (which she will tell you is her hometown in each and every course). If this was a course at a Cleveland area community college or university, that would make perfect sense, but this is a course that's being peddled for fairly big bucks to people all over the place. I would expect a more international array of cases. Even worse is her presentation. She has a really monotonous, drony voice. You can tell she's just reading from notes or something and not actually stan...

I ran across this series many years ago when I worked at the bookstore. It was an advanced reader's copy of the first of the series called The Last Kingdom. I was hooked. I think I liked it so much because I was taking a linguistics course at the time, and Cornwell seemed to write the way the Saxons would have spoken (I've since learned that's kind of just his style, but by now I just don't care; I'll read whatever he writes). The series starts, like I said, with The Last Kingdom, where we meet the hero of the series, Uhtred of Bebbanberg. When the Danes invade his home, he is taken as a slave and raised as a Dane. He accepts their religion and lifestyle, barely holding on to his Saxon roots. Throughout the series he increases his reputation as a warrior until eventually he is driving the Danes from Wessex and Mercia for King Alfred and his successors. The battle scenes are amazing. The writing is thrilling and engrossing. Every time I read a Cornwell book, I can ...

Technically this is not a book, it's a recorded lecture. But hey, it's my game, so it's my rules. I keep getting these catalogs from a company called The Great Courses. They sound so cool and there are so many I want to listen to, but, although the catalog advertises that they are 80% off, these CDs range from $20 to $140. Now I have to admit, I'm a bit cheap nowadays. I used to not be so much, which is why I have to be cheap now. Credit cards, man. They are Satan's spawn. Working in a bookstore introduced me to the joys of the Advanced Reader's Copy and I have rediscovered the wonders of my local library, so I can manage to go several months without buying a book and not show signs of withdrawal. One of my discoveries is Audible.com. If you read any of my other posts, you'll see I have quite a few audiobooks.The monthly fee is fairly low, and that brings these lectures well within my reach. There is supposed to be a guidebook that goes along with the co...