Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist

A weekly round-up of my book news.

What I've been reading...

Finished Darwin's Armada, which I enjoyed very much and  would recommend to anyone.  The voyage of the Beagle is well-trodden ground, but less well-known are the travels of Darwin's later allies Huxley, Hooker and Wallace.  A good read.

I had another go at Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes.  I'd been given it last Christmas by someone who knew I was interested in nesuke and I read half of  it some months ago before resting it.  I persevered with another fifty or so pages, but I've given up.  Despite all the praise it's got, I just find it turgid and the author's 'journey' into his family history dull.

Started Stephen Jay Gould, The Lying Stones of Marrakech, which is up to his usual standards.

A weekly round-up of my book news.   Not a lot to report this week - I've not been well.

What I've been reading...

Finished Jim Butcher's Grave Peril .

Carrying on with Darwin's Armada and The Voyage of the Space Beagle.

A weekly round-up of my book news.

What I've been reading...

Carrying on with Darwin's Armada. I've really quite enjoyed reading about Hooker and Huxley - I must dig out a book on the Ross expedition.

On the fiction front, I've carried on with The Voyage of the Space Beagle and started Jim Butcher's Grave Peril, another from the Dresden Files.

First appearance of the short story

As my post on retrofuturism proved so popular, I thought I'd share some covers from old editions of The Voyage of the Space Beagle.

The book, which was first published in 1950, was a 'fix-up' of a number of short stories, the first of which - 'Black Destroyer' - appeared in Astounding Science Fiction for July 1939.  One of the stories was allegedly the inspiration for Alien, and van Vogt got a pay-off from 20th Century Fox after threatening to sue.

Lots more versions of the cover here.

First edition of the novel

The less interesting (to me) 1977 version I own.

What I've bought...

Gail Carriger, Souless - 30p
Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - 30p
Leon Tolstoy, War and Peace - £1.75

Siegfried Sassoon, The War Poems - 95p

Herodotus, Snakes with Wings and Gold-Digging Ants - 95p

Bernard Ireland, The Fall of Toulon - £1.99
Paul Jordan, The Atlantis Syndrome - £1.99
Marilyn B. Ogilvie, Searching the Stars: The Story of Caroline Herschel - £1.99



And finally...

I've been introduced to goodreads.com.  By me listing the books I own and rating those I've read they've produced some interesting recommendations for me to look out for.  I've also been 'befriended' by one of the authors I've rated, which is an interesting situation!

A weekly update of my book news.

What I've been reading...

Iain McCalman, Darwin's Armada.  The Beagle voyage is very familiar of course, but the book is very well-written, and I'm looking forward to Hooker, Huxley and Wallace.

I also turned to a couple of recent purchases.

First, John Scalzi, Old Man's War - not as profound as some on-line reviews might suggest, but still an enjoyable read.  He wears his debt to Robert Heinlein on his sleeve.  I'll look out for him in the future.

Second, A.E. van Vogt, The Voyage of the Space Beagle, which is turning out to be quite good, if of it's time.  I can't understand why I'd never read any of his books when I was going through my major sci-fi phase.

 What I've bought...

Jim Butcher, Grave Peril: (The Dresden Files Book Three) - £4.24.

 And I do get rid of books sometimes....

I'm not like someone I know, who seems to be trying to teach his children 'One In, One Out', but I do occasionally have a clear-out.

You never get any money from second-hand dealers, and the local charity shops only end up selling decent books for pennies, so we've had to find somewhere else.  This afternoon we sent four boxes of books to anybook.biz, who sell second-hand books on-line and send the proceeds to support the public library of your choice.  They're very easy to deal with and arrange all the pick-ups, etc.  Check them out.

A weekly update of my book news.

What I've been reading....

I finished Fool Moon.  Second book in to the Dresden Files and I'm now hooked - the plot is intelligent and the pace fantastic.  Harry Dresden is feeling left out in the cold by his police contact, but once he's called in after a particularly grisly murder, he's soon up to his elbows in werewolves in several different flavours...  Great stuff!

Sadly, there aren't many people selling these for a penny on Amazon.  I'll pause in the series before I get carried away.

Having got my pulp fix that out of the way, I picked Shark Island up again and finished that.  I must stick to one thing at a time...  This was the second in the Wiki Coffin Series - murder mysteries set on the American Exploration Expedition of 1838-1842 - and it settled in nicely, with some decent character development and scene-setting.  The murderer was less glaringly obvious than in the last book, which always helps!

I'd recommend both these, very different, books.

After that, I feel the need for non-fiction, so I've started a book I bought last month - Iain McCalman, Darwin's Armada, which is about the different voyages made by Darwin, Huxley, Hooker and Wallace. 




What I've bought....
For some reason I've never read any A.E. van Vogt, so I've picked up the 1950 classic The Voyage of the Space Beagle (£2.80), which came highly recommended.  Onto the to-read pile it goes...

John Scalzi, Old Man's War (£2.81) - I've heard some good things about this, but we'll see.  I was a little disappointed by this when it arrived.  I'd bought it second-hand through Amazon but hadn't read the small-print well enough - when we opened the packet we found that the cover was badly torn.  Caveat emptor!

Beagle (not at the Galapagos)

 
Today is the anniversary of the arrival of HMS Beagle at the Galapagos Islands.  It  could very nearly have been HMS Chanticleer, but 'Voyage of the Chanticleer' wouldn't have had the same ring.


Beagle was at sea for just short of five years (December 1831 to October 1836) on its second voyage under FitzRoy, but it's the five weeks spent at the Galapagos that are remembered.   During this time, Darwin visited four of the 18 islands, taking samples and making copious notes.  From his diary entries, it seems that he wasn't particularly impressed with the place - yet it was the surprising variation between the species of mockingbird found on each island which shaped his thought on natural selection.

Both Darwin and FitzRoy are on my long-list to blog about (as is Beagle 2), and one day I will get around to it.

Charles Darwin

Robert FitzRoy