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Winter Reading

Thursday, January 23, 2025 7:01

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Sam not reading.

Like much of North America, we are hunkered down to endure the frigid cold. We haven’t broken any record temperatures, but this is the longest sustained stretch of cold that I recall in quite a few years. With critters, we still have outside chores and checks to do, but we have more indoor time, and for me, that means more time for weaving and reading. After keeping a book list last year, I’m inspired to do another one this year. Here are the first of my entries.

Of physical book reading, I just finished Sharpe’s Tiger by Bernard Cornwell. If you like historical fiction, you’ll find Bernard Cornwell to be one of the best. His work is extremely well researched and the stories are captivating. The Sharpe’s series was about the only thing of his I hadn’t read, because our library doesn’t have the entire series, including this one which is the first book. But Dan got it for me for Christmas, and I’m hooked.

Historical fiction acts as a springboard for me, as I wonder what the historical facts actually are and what life was like in that time period and region (in this story it’s India in 1799). The book I’ve just started on is nonfiction, focusing on a small “undeveloped” region in northern India.

Ancient Futures: Learning From Ladakh by Helena Norberg-Hodge is an extremely interesting book in two more categories I like: culture studies and agrarianism. The author spent a number of years in rural northern India as a linguist, experiencing their culture and witnessing the influence of encroaching global industrialism. While most of the world sees this influence as necessary and positive, the author saw the gradual destruction of a healthy, self-sustaining eco-community being pushed into dependency on modern consumerism. It impacts not only their so-called “standard of living” but also their mental, physical health, and cultural health, and not for the better. Her message is that we need to heed and preserve the benefits of such ancient socioeconomic systems.

When I’m weaving or doing other handwork, I listen to audiobooks.

While I was reading Sharpe’s Tiger, I listened to G. A. Henty’s The Tiger of Mysore, also fiction, also set in the same place and time period. It gave me a slightly different perspective and different details, which is another reason I like historical fiction. (The link is to Librevox, where you can listen to it for free, the physical book is available here.)

I thought Henty told a good story with interesting facts, so I chose another of his works to listen to next. This one related to my interest in genealogy, Wulf the Saxon: A Story of the Norman Conquest. (That link is to Librevox. Physical copy can be purchased here.) It’s interesting to hear how one branch of my family tree fought and conquered another branch. That became a springboard for what I’m listening to now, William the Conqueror by Edward Freeman (title links to Librevox, physical copy here).

While I don’t usually plan my reading too far ahead, I do have the next paper book and audiobook lined up: Sharpe’s Triumph, the next in the Cornwell series, and The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond on CD.

How is everyone else faring the cold? Are you reading? What are you reading? Any good recommendations to share?

Winter Reading © Jan 2025 by Leigh

at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Source: https://www.5acresandadream.com/2025/01/winter-reading.html

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