Booking Through Thursday: Keeping it Simple

Booking Through Thursday writes, "Let's keep it simple today":

1. What are you reading right now?  I went to the library yesterday morning, and found on the new book shelf Scott of the Antarctic: A Life of Courage and Tragedy by David Crane.  I first learned about the story from watching "The Last Place on Earth", based on the book by Roland Huntford, and then from reading pretty voraciously almost everything I could find on the subject, I learned that the truth, as so often happens, was probably somewhere in between Huntford's inept bungler and the glorious hero of popular mythology.  (One of the best books that I read this past year was Sara Wheeler's Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a fairly minor member of the Terra Nova expedition who afterwards produced one of the most lyrical works on polar exploration, The Worst Journey in the World.)  Crane is obviously, from the subtitle of his book, in the Scott camp, but he does have some interesting and perceptive things to say, in the first chapter alone, about the English character and its need for heroes in the early days of the twentieth century, with its inexorable slide towards the hell of the First World War.

I'm also well into Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose, a literate and elegant guide to the appreciation of great literature.

Comments

[--Deb]

I finished "Reading Like a Writer" last week and LOVED it. What a great look at the way different writers handle different things, without necessarily following the "rules." I thought the author (who has the PERFECT name) had a lovely, interesting voice throughout, and I learned of a few authors about whom I'd never even HEARD. Great book. And how often can you say you loved an analysis about literature??

[Ellen]

_The Worst Journey in the World_ is one of the best books ever written! Especially if you are in love with Antarctica, as I have been all my life, for reasons even I am not sure I can articulate.

If you liked Sara Wheeler's bio of Cherry (which I did, very much), then you might also enjoy her travel writing on Antarctica (if you haven't already read it).

[Cathy]

Have just finished watching a documentary series recreating Scott-Amundsen in order to determine what did go wrong for Scott. If you haven't seen it please keep an eye out. A wonderful show which was utterly authentic. The two teams wore the same Victorian clothes, ate the same food, used the same equipment etc.

I shan't tell you the conclusions reached...but you will be fascinated.

And by the way, yours is the best knitting blog. Cathy