Booking Through Thursday - 25 August 2011

Sometimes I feel like the only person I know who finds reading history fascinating. It’s so full of amazing-yet-true stories of people driven to the edge and how they reacted to it. I keep telling friends that a good history book (as opposed to some of those textbooks in school that are all lists and dates) does everything a good novel does–it grips you with real characters doing amazing things.

Am I REALLY the only person who feels this way? When is the last time you read a history book? Historical biography? You know, something that took place in the past but was REAL.

Currently I am reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to The American Revolution. I finished reading British History for Dummies, and prior to that I read The Tudor Family for Dummies. That may not seem like really good history reading, but it is actually is excellent - the authors are not dry and dull and giving rote answers as only tenured teachers who have lost any interest do. I do read other history, such as J.M. Roberts' The History of the World and The History of Europe. I have also read Barbara Tuchman's The Bible and the Sword, covering the Britons following the Bible to the crusades, missionaries, merchants, explorers, etc. and also A Distant Mirror, covering the 14th century Europe and especially changes brought about by the plague. It is excellent reading.

I have a huge number of Idiot's and Dummies books, spanning the various wars (American Revolution, The United States Civil War, World War I and World War II), different countries: Ireland, England, Canada, European, the Crusades (this could go under wars, really), on and on. I hope they come out with more. I would love to read history for all the countries, such as India, Iraq, Iran, Colombia, African nations, Egypt (I may have something on Egypt, come to think of it), Japan and China. And the rest, too. British history is excellent reading, from the very earliest times up to Queen Elizabeth II's reign.