More Books I Need

[inulro]

This one might be of interest to some of you who have a morbid streak:

Necropolis: London and the Dead by Catharine Arnold.

And it was reviewed right next to another book which is of great interest to me, given that I'm interested in urban development in general and in the developing world in particular but is probably much more of a minority interest amongst my readership:

Planet of Slums by Mike Davis

Comments

[nemesis-to-go.livejournal.com]

Necropolis: London and the Dead by Catharine Arnold.

Thanks for alerting me to that one - I think I might just have to buy it.

The whole concept of modern London being, by and large, built on the dead remains of previous Londons (or even the dead remains of previous Londoners) has always been an odd fascination of mine. When Terry Pratchett wrote, 'Ankh-Morpork is built on black loam, broadly, but mostly what it is built on is more Ankh-Morpork' I'm sure he had London in mind.

markrimmell used to work for BT, and I remember him telling me on several occasions that the installation of underground phone line ducts and the like had to be interrupted because 'We've hit a plague pit.' This seemed to be a fairly common hazard...

On a slight tangent, I find things like this and this endlessly fascinating.

But that's just me.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I also find the whole cities on top of cities thing endlessly fascinating - things like when they built the New Town in Edinburgh literally on top of the Old town and stuff.

It probably explains why I'm so interested in New York - the process of building one city on top of another is happening there at a much more accelerated rate.

I'll probably not be buying the book myself any time soon, partly because of the size of my unread books pile, and partly because I have to get my head in the "you can't buy stuff" headspace for my impending period without income.

Thanks for the links - I'd point you to forgottenNY.com, except you probably already visit regularly.