[books 2011] Look! some non-fiction
Sep. 30th, 2011 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro55. Baroque: Style in the Age of Magnificence, edited by Michael Snodin and Nigel Llewellyn
This is the book that accompanied the V&A's exhibition on the Baroque from a couple years back. It is very shiny and incredibly pretty, and even in paperback weighs in at nearly my own body weight.
The text is, for the most part, pretty interesting - a lot about the social history of the Baroque, light on the details of how particular pieces were made (that always makes for the snooze-tastic-ness. A lot of the book centres round Louis XIV and Versailles, and I've even been to Versailles and it's worth the trip, etc., but I tried to give a shit about Louis XIV back when I was still in school, and failed miserably. It's interesting in the context of how other European rulers tried to copy his style, though. Fortunately, more of the book is about the Baroque as a tool of the Counter-Reformation and its spread by the Jesuits to European colonies in Asia and the New World, which floats my boat much more.
I have come away with a whole big list of places to visit, and a desire to know more about Central and Northern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Plus, did I mention the many very pretty pictures to look at?
56. An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the heroic age of Antarctic science by Edward J Larson
My usual pattern with non-fiction books is put them on my wish list, wait for somebody to buy it for me, and have it sit on the to-read pile for 3 years while I think about reading it,. This, I read the review in New Scientist a few weeks ago (the actual review was a while back, but I'm 3 months behind with New Scientist), ordered the book as soon as I got home (because the net connection in the café I was in at the time sucks), and read it as soon as I got it.
It's a study of the science done on Scott's two expeditions to the Antarctic, with Shackleton's first voyage in the middle. In the aftermath of Scott's failure to be first to reach the South Pole, a lot was made of "we weren't there to go to the Pole, we were there to do science". For a couple of generations this stuck, but then it started to be taken as an excuse. As it turns out, when the facts are examined, the British Antarctic expeditions really were all about the science. This book looks at what and how these expeditions contributed to science, arranged by subject.
The first couple chapters are are studying the earth's magnetism, which I have to admit didn't really interest me, but when Larson gets to biology, geography, geology, glaciology and social Darwinism, I was hooked.
The factoid I came away with is a stupid one from the introductory bit. Apparently, on Asmundsen's successful expedition to the South Pole, he actually gained weight. Even though the Norwegian used sled dogs and wasn't man-hauling like the British were, I find that really, really hard to believe. One of the main reasons for my fascination with polar exploration is that I like the idea of an environment where you can take in 6000 calories a day and still lose dangerous quantities of weight.
Quite possibly you have to be my kind of nerd to get as excited about this as I did, but I do recommend it.
This is the book that accompanied the V&A's exhibition on the Baroque from a couple years back. It is very shiny and incredibly pretty, and even in paperback weighs in at nearly my own body weight.
The text is, for the most part, pretty interesting - a lot about the social history of the Baroque, light on the details of how particular pieces were made (that always makes for the snooze-tastic-ness. A lot of the book centres round Louis XIV and Versailles, and I've even been to Versailles and it's worth the trip, etc., but I tried to give a shit about Louis XIV back when I was still in school, and failed miserably. It's interesting in the context of how other European rulers tried to copy his style, though. Fortunately, more of the book is about the Baroque as a tool of the Counter-Reformation and its spread by the Jesuits to European colonies in Asia and the New World, which floats my boat much more.
I have come away with a whole big list of places to visit, and a desire to know more about Central and Northern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Plus, did I mention the many very pretty pictures to look at?
56. An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the heroic age of Antarctic science by Edward J Larson
My usual pattern with non-fiction books is put them on my wish list, wait for somebody to buy it for me, and have it sit on the to-read pile for 3 years while I think about reading it,. This, I read the review in New Scientist a few weeks ago (the actual review was a while back, but I'm 3 months behind with New Scientist), ordered the book as soon as I got home (because the net connection in the café I was in at the time sucks), and read it as soon as I got it.
It's a study of the science done on Scott's two expeditions to the Antarctic, with Shackleton's first voyage in the middle. In the aftermath of Scott's failure to be first to reach the South Pole, a lot was made of "we weren't there to go to the Pole, we were there to do science". For a couple of generations this stuck, but then it started to be taken as an excuse. As it turns out, when the facts are examined, the British Antarctic expeditions really were all about the science. This book looks at what and how these expeditions contributed to science, arranged by subject.
The first couple chapters are are studying the earth's magnetism, which I have to admit didn't really interest me, but when Larson gets to biology, geography, geology, glaciology and social Darwinism, I was hooked.
The factoid I came away with is a stupid one from the introductory bit. Apparently, on Asmundsen's successful expedition to the South Pole, he actually gained weight. Even though the Norwegian used sled dogs and wasn't man-hauling like the British were, I find that really, really hard to believe. One of the main reasons for my fascination with polar exploration is that I like the idea of an environment where you can take in 6000 calories a day and still lose dangerous quantities of weight.
Quite possibly you have to be my kind of nerd to get as excited about this as I did, but I do recommend it.
