All Reviews by Seb
The First Book of Farming
by Charles L. Goodrich
This is quite a good book once you get past the first chapter which is repetitive and full of questions. I'm glad I carried on reading it though because it does have some good information. Shame the illustrations aren't included, some of the examples are a bit hard to follow based on the text which replaces them.
Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World
by Ignatius Donnelly
I picked this book up because B Chons review of it appeared on the recent reviews page and it sounded interesting. It sat on my PDA for a while unread but once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. What I'm trying to say is even if you've no interest in Atlantis give this book a try, you might find yourself caught up in the mystery.
The Second Deluge
by Garrett P. Serviss
The earth passes into a nebula that causes massive flooding, only one odd genius knows what's going to happen and does his best to warn people and build an ark to save himself and as many people as he can. Great reading for a rainy night!
Japanese Fairy Tales
by Yei Theodora Ozaki
These folk tales are not very engaging and their endings have little relation to the rest of the story making them interchangeable.
A rich/brave/poor man meets a badger/fox/fish and does something nice for them and in return gets a trinket of some kind, the end.
A bit of a let down, maybe one of the other collections of Japanese folk-lore is better.
The Night of the Long Knives
by Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr.
The setting is interesting but I didn't really buy into the idea that after a nuclear war people would just randomly kill each other rather than trying to band together to survive in some form. Not much happens and the writing isn't great either.
Scorched Earth
by Walter D. Petrovic
I seriously doubt anyone will ever read more than twenty pages of this book, I certainly couldn't and I'll read just about anything. Anyone could sit down and write this sort of tripe because it's not storytelling it's just pure waffle full of empty and laughably grandiose language.
It reads like 'the infinite space rejoiced at the infinite wonder of the swirling infinite joy of the infinity and swirled infinitely in the cosmic wonder of infinity.'
I'm not kidding, imagine page after page of that! The preface expresses the authors hopes that he will be published and that people will enjoy his writing. As someone who has had the pleasure of working in publishing all their adult life I can honestly say neither of these is likely.
Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt
by James Baikie
Quite interesting in places, I liked the tour of the city but it doesn't really give much of an idea how ordinary people lived. There's also a few stories that end with "and that's where the papyrus was torn so we don't know how this one ends" which is a bit pointless! A bit muddled and probably aimed at a younger reader but it's a quick read and has some interesting information.
Simple Sabotage Field Manual
by Strategic Services
"For example, what benefit do you gain from polluting your own water supply?" asks a reviewer. None really, that's probably why this isn't mentioned in this book.
It's probably also forgiveable that it doesn't mention video surveillance given that it was written in 1944.
Anyway, since neither of the other reviewers seem to have actually read this pamphlet before reviewing it I thought I'd give it a go. This is an interesting historical document but it's advice ranges from the mildly plausible (using coins to blow fuses) to the absolutely ridiculous (remove toilet paper from lavatories!).
The reason this is interesting is that most of these acts of sabotage existed only in the paranoid minds of secret service types on both sides of the war. There's very little evidence that small scale sabotage of this kind was widespread mainly because the punishments were so severe if caught and the actual effect would be so negligible to the war effort. Despite this the USA was especially fearful of the hidden saboteur and many a clumsy or inept worker was interviewed as a potential spy.
It's great that documents like this are being preserved though I think it's unlikely to be of interest to anyone but historians and perhaps the most disgruntled of employees.
Four Weeks in the Trenches
by Fritz Kreisler
This is an unusual memoir, it tells the story of an Austrian fighting the Russians at the start of the first world war.
It's really well written and features some genuinely surprising events which I won't mention so as not to spoil it for you. The author really brings the events to life in a straightforward way but there's some great insights too.
''Contemptible''
by ''Casualty''
I really enjoyed this book about a soldiers experiences in world war one. It's written early in the war and you can already see certain themes appearing - the exhaustion and inertia of the forces, the gulf between the officers and the men and the terrifying power of modern weapons. If you are interested in what the early war was really like I think you'll find this honest and undramatic account very readable but I have to warn you there are page after page of account of long marches which take a while to get used to.
When the armies do clash the descriptions of the battles are surprisingly short but very well written. At first I was somewhat put off by these short reports of battle hidden in pages about food, sleep and marching but after a while I came to appreciate that the book is written exactly as the author remembers events and many of these early skirmishes are explosions of sudden shocking violence in between long periods of more mundane life. This book really captures that brilliantly.
The good humour of the soldiers, the personally observed little splashes of local colour and the time when this was written all make this a book well worth preserving, and reading if you have an interest in the war.
Little Wars
by H.G. Wells
This book is fascinating for anyone with an interest in wargaming or the writing of H.G Wells. What I especially liked was the way it really gave an insight into the authors character, he comes over as warm hearted, playful and every bit as intelligent as you would expect from the author of so many great books. I have wanted to read this book for a long time but have never been able to find a copy, it's a superb read.
Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
I read this book as a child and loved it because it was something so totally different to anything I had read before. Reading it again as an adult I saw different things in it as you'd expect but I loved it just as much because it offers you a world that you feel you may have half glimpsed in your dreams. Once read, never forgotten - it's a classic read.
The Worm Ouroboros
by E.R. Eddison
This book is really different to most fantasy books, the style is extremely - and I mean extremely - hard work. I got about a third of the way through it before abandoning it because I just got a bit sick of the style, not the story though. It might appeal to you though if you can take the saga style of writing, it's certainly very different and has some good scenes from what I read.
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells
One of my favourite books, it tells a completely convincing story of alien invasion and the plight of humans caught up in it. I don't think I've ever read a science fiction book that has caught my imagination quite like this one, it's a masterpiece of storytelling that you're sure to love.
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontė
This is a great read, the story is absorbing and the setting and characters so vivid you'll feel like you were there and you knew them. I don't think you can really give a book more praise!
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens
I loved this book, I found myself rereading paragraphs just because I wanted to savour the flavour of it a second time. You can see why Dickens writing sparked an outpouring of guilt from the middle classes after they were published, the picture of grinding poverty it gives you is too realistic to be anything other than rooted in cold unpleasant fact. I was gripped by this one till the last page and sad to finish it.
The Blue Lagoon: A Romance
by H. de Vere Stacpoole
I can't really explain what it is about this book that's so good, it's not the characters or the plot so perhaps it's just the setting which is very believable and leaves a lasting impression. It's very well written and hard to put down, definitely worth a read.
My Man Jeeves
by Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
I laughed out loud many times reading this book just like I do whenever I read PG Wodehouse! The characters, the names..it's all brilliant. A hugely undervalued writer in my opinion and this is a great book to start on if you've never read any of his other ones. You will fall in love with these characters!
King Solomon's Mines
by H. Rider Haggard
More action and adventure than you can chuck a spear at! This is a great read full of scenes you'll probably never forget. I can see how this might not be to everyone's taste but it's a lot of fun and has a fantastic setting.
The Trial
by Franz Kafka
This book is nightmarish, and scarily relevant to the prison-like environment many politicians want to see. Everyone without exception should read this book though you may well not enjoy the experience you'll never forget its message and it's an important one about freedom. Scarier than any ghost story and as good as 1984.
Tarzan of the Apes
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
If it's adventure you're looking for this book won't let you down! It's a great yarn.
Right Ho, Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse
Great book, the ever resourceful and wise Jeeves is such a classic character. Bertie's attempts at playing cupid are very amusing and it's all described in such a charming way you can't help but love this book.