such breathtaking news of Scythian empire

[hawkwing_lb]

Running. Four five-minute intervals, with breaks of two minutes in between. In the midday sunshine. Ouch.

Today is the sixth day of sunshine, and I appear to be lightly roasted all over. But I think this may have been the last gloriously clear day: clouds are rolling greyly in, so I might be able to concentrate on my study for the next two weeks after all.

I went back out, walking down along the beach to the harbour, taking pictures. There were waves. And the smell, you know the smell, of rocks and sand and brine and seaweed and water in the warmth? The brine-summer-sea-smell there's no name for, that smells different to the sea in autumn, or the sea in winter, or the sea after a storm.

Even the harbour smelled pleasant, with the green smell of still seawater over mud, rich and warm, and yeah, green.

It's been kind of an incredible few days, weather-wise. See here for pictures, some of which may turn out well.

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And now, I should probably crack open this book on the Aegean in the Bronze Age (Oliver Dickinson, The Aegean Bronze Age, Cambridge, 1994), wait for Criminal Minds to miraculously arrive, and decide whether or not I can justify spending fifteen quid on Chinese just because I have a craving for duck.

Bad craving. Down.

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Books 2008: 58

58. David Cordingly, Life Among the Pirates: the Romance and the Reality

Nonfiction. It's a jaunty little book that compares the reality of piracy with its portrayal in fiction since. When it comes to piracy, Cordingly's sympathies appear to be firmly on the side of Church and State, and he lacks the even-handed assessment of Marcus Rediker, whose understanding of 17th and 18th century seamen and the pirate phenomenon appears to be somewhat more nuanced.

Also, his assessment of women at sea (women in general) strikes me as, ah, somewhat odd. That said, this is a decent introduction to the pirate phenomenon, if a little light in parts.

Comments

[clarentine]

I absolutely prefer the Redikers. I've got two of them on my permanent bookshelf. And he responds to email comments. *g* I think I learned more from Rediker than any of the other 20+ piracy/naval books I read in two winters' ago's reading binge.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I need to get to Villains of All Nations and Slave Ship soon. But I read the Cordingly as a break from the 600-page The Victorians (over 400 pages read: nearly there!) I've been reading as non-college non-fiction.

I have his Cordingly's Heroines and Harlots, too. But I am suspecting I will not like it well, because I have a sneaking feeling his gender politics are... ehn. Somewhat with the icky unexamined assumptions.

[clarentine]

I have Villains and Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
Let me know, once you get to Heroines and Harlots, if it's worth reading?

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Deep Blue Sea was excellently crunchy history.

Everything I read, barring college stuff, turns up here eventually. So that's a yes. :)

[clarentine]

If you get to that point and want to read something interesting, see if you can find "The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read" by Tamara J. Eastman and Constance Bond. Actual historical transcriptions.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

*makes note*

I have, however, quite a lot already on my shelves. :P Including all the Rediker.

[clarentine]

I'm not sure what era/area your focus is on, but Donald Shomette (Chesapeake pirates) and Carl Swanson (American privateers) are worth reading.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Golden Age of Sail, really. And it's more to feed the brain than, you know, goal-directed reading.

(The Victorian is goal-directed. Otherwise I would not be reading these Monster Books.)