Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room
What books are you reading?
rjbull:
Just finished: Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
The first volume in a series that's a sort of a Spanish equipment of the Three Musketeers, by an author who's a fan of Dumas. I was a bit disappointed, especially after the same author's excellent free-standing present-day novels, The Flanders Panel and The Seville Communion.
* Arturo Pérez-Reverte home page
* Arturo Pérez-Reverte's FantasticFiction record
Just finished: The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins.
The original ley-line book, that was later to inspire a multitude of nutters. The ley-line fuss seems to have died down at present.
tomos:
Just finished: The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins.
The original ley-line book, that was later to inspire a multitude of nutters. The ley-line fuss seems to have died down at present.
-rjbull (December 05, 2010, 04:34 PM)
--- End quote ---
true havent heard anything about leylines in a while -
so what was your opinion of that one ?
just had a quick look in Amazon, I see it's from the 1920's
mouser:
Just finishing up "23 Problems in Systems Neuroscience":
I had really high hopes for it from the table of contents -- looked like it was going to be a collection of high-level chapters laying out fundamental questions that as of yet are unsolved.. But the chapters almost all seemed to fall short. I wouldn't really recommend it.
rjbull:
true havent heard anything about leylines in a while -
so what was your opinion of that one ?
just had a quick look in Amazon, I see it's from the 1920's
-tomos (December 06, 2010, 08:15 AM)
--- End quote ---
You're right about the date. I read a facsimile of the 1925 edition, complete with original typewriter-like typeface. I think he got the ley-line idea first, then tended to co-opt any evidence he could find to substantiate it. But that's a bit "superior," as I haven't gone ley hunting myself. I think I'd like to see a reasoned critical review with statistical analysis of the chances of finding "x" number of significant items on a straight line. Watkins probably didn't have much in the way of statistical methods available to him back then, and I imagine that much of the archaeological and other evidence he quotes has been updated as well. But, he wasn't himself an idiot; he was the inventor of the Watkins Bee Meter, and early photographic exposure meter, and had his own photographic business. He doesn't go in for soggy mysticism of the "earth energies" variety either. He comes over to me, lacking qualifications for sensible criticism myself, as having been carried away by his idea.
Ampa:
Just read and thoroughly enjoyed...
How To Be Free by Tom Hodgkinson.
The Idler Shop | Amazon.co.uk
It made the middle ages sound very appealing compared to our current Western capitalist culture, and I'd like to read more about the European guilds system. Any one know a good book on the subject?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version