i'm reading gone with the wind, it's a masterpiece, it actively models itself after and almost achieves standing as the war and peace of american lit
war and peace is transcendental, you will go places and experience things not within ken of mortal man, somehow tolstoy knows, and he makes you not know it but experience it
and more than anything else, it's immensely entertaining, an absolute blast, the greatest movie in your mind you've ever seen
tolstoy is... there aren't enough words
but he burned himself up after his 2 major and one minor masterpiece (ivan ilyich) and he was personally quite the sicko
don't read ilyich, i strongly advise, especially if you're old, it changed my life, i can now never go a minute without contemplating my own demise
the last 30 i've read are:
a bio of the medicis
a bio of the city of athens
an account of the wars of the roses
a telling of the 100 years war
a bio of robert the bruce
the fall of the roman empire, peter heather, 2009
the oxford history of rome
a bio of marco polo
foxe's book of martyrs
the poison king (a small masterpiece, bio of mithradates of pontus, deadly 30-year foe of sulla, lucullus and pompey the great)
a bio of robt walpole, first pm
th wms' huey long, the kingfisher
a bio of wm paley, founder of the tiffany network, cbs
pearl buck's the good earth
a bio of the city of london
the last knight, bio of john of gaunt (ghent), son of warrior king edward 3, brother of the black prince, uncle of shakespeare's tragic richard 2, father of bolingbroke (henry 4) whose usurpation on behalf of lancaster initiated the wars of the roses
a bio of lorenzo the magnificent de medici, one of the most impressive humans i've ever encountered
elizabeth and essex
a "history" of the aztecs, more archaeology than events
will durant's age of faith, 4th entry in his seminal story of civilization, his characteristically comprehensive account of the fall of rome, the survival of byzantium, the age of the fathers, rise and spread of islam, the rediscovery and reuse in the west of the classical heritage (most notably plato and aristotle), the crusades, hi middle ages... to plutarch
general history of ireland
the dreyfus affair (nascent nazism in france in the first decades of the last century)
history of hungary
bio of mozart
geoffrey bibby's 4 thousand years ago, a panoramic view of the world in 2000bc
quo vadis, "where are you going," a colorful novel about the christian community in rome in the time of nero
the french and indian wars (fought almost exclusively on the water bridge from albany to montreal, the hudson and the finger lakes of the north), mainstream america series
a bio of augustus caesar, another head case who managed to keep his private problems from affecting a magnificent public performance
a bio of groucho marx
the fall of paris, 1870, the collapse of napoleon 3's second empire after the franco-prussian war, the commune, the violent recapturing of the city of lights by the armies of the newly born third republic and the execution of some 30,000 communards subsequent
there's a lot out there to know, folks, read
