My brain was still mostly mush for much of the month, due to the infection of my operation scar. I’d hoped for a nice recovery with lots of book reading, but even daytime television was a bit of a stretch… Few books read in other words, and even fewer was it not for rereading a slew of Pratchetts.
Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Guards, Guards! and Men at Arms — Terry Pratchett.
I started rereading Jingo for its antiwar message, which at the time seemed over the top but which events have proved right, then wanted to read more of the City Guards subseries. A comfort read.
Mesopotamia: the Invention of the City — Gwendolyn Leick
A very interesting history of some of the oldest cities in the world, ten chapters depicting ten cities, in chronological order from Eridu to Babylon. The oldest were as far away in time from the Roman Empire at its height as it is from us.
The Trojans and their Neighbours — Trevor Bryce
A slim book looking like it should be used in some dull IT course, rather than as a history book. Never judge a book by its cover though, this is a great account of the ancient city we’ve named Troy, what we know of its true history, its association with Homer’s stories and the evidence for this link. It also examines the city’s history beyond the Trojan War.
Transition — Iain Banks
A proper science fiction novel under Bank’s lit-fic pseudonym.
History of the First World War — B. H. Liddel Hart
Originally written in 1929 and extended in 1934, this is the seventies reissue of this classic work of military history. Liddel Hart has his axes to grind and his history is written to showcase the lessons he wants the reader to learn from the war. Interesting but difficult to read and certainly not to be used as the history of WWI.