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camwynI'm looking at my bookshelf and thinking 'huh, I wonder...'
So without further ado, I present:
Books I've Got That I'm Reasonably Sure My Friends List People Haven't Got. (Restriction: I cannot count books I own but have not yet read.) The basic idea here is just to say 'bet you didn't know these books existed, I liked these, you might want a look yourself'.
1. 1421: The Year China Discovered The World, by Gavin Menzies. First edition, and I think first printing. None of this 'discovered America' bollocks in the title. This book about the Grand Fleet expedition sent out by the last really exploratory Chinese emperor in the early 1400's was absolutely fascinating to me when it came out- and since Mr. Menzies hadn't put his foot in his mouth by revealing just how bad some of his archaeological analysis really was (he claimed the Bimini Road undersea rock formation might have been fallen ballast stones from the giant Chinese ships of Admiral Zheng He's fleet), I still have very fond memories of it. The Grand Fleet expedition is a fertile source of alternate history and alternate universe inspiration.
2. Unmentionable Cuisine, by Calvin W. Schwabe. This is simultaneously an anthropological exploration of taboos on foods of animal origin, and a rather disturbing cookbook. It starts off with cattle flesh, and then goes on to pigs, sheep, goats, horses, dogs and cats, rabbits, etc... I'm pretty sure as a result of this book that I'm the only person on my friends list who has a recipe for guinea pig. Or locusts.
3. The South Pole Ponies, by Theodore K. Mason. This is an examination of the Shackleton and Scott Antarctic expeditions in the early part of the 20th century, with most of the focus on the horses used for cargo and hauling. It has the feel of a graduate thesis of some kind; I have a hard time imagining someone not trying for scholarly acclaim putting quite so much effort into combing the expeditions' records to retrieve accounts of the ponies' names and how they behaved on any given day. Fascinating stuff, really.
4. Courtship, Love and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century English Canada, by Peter Ward. If this was NOT a book primarily written for the academic market I shall eat my hat, but I am a tremendous anthro geek and in love with Canada, so I don't really care. This book and a small Thai restaurant are among my fondest memories of things I found in San Diego. It's really quite fascinating to get a proper look into what people in other countries were doing in the most basic parts of their daily lives when my ancestors were busy farming, fishing, and trying to get their asses the hell out of their own countries. And, y'know... CANADA. C'mon.
5. Secrets of a Jewish Baker, by George Greenstein. Not only the source of the best rye bread recipe I've ever used, but the only cookbook I know that presents the recipe for the cookie part of real live honest to Koch NYC black-and-white cookies. You'll have to find the fondant part somewhere else. The recipe for cinnamon stickybuns is an excellent jumping off point, too.
6. Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey, by Ralph Leighton. Before I was a Canada fangirl, before I was a China fangirl, I had such a thing for the life and exploits of the nuclear physicist Richard J. Feynman. And he had such a thing for a small country that was part of the Soviet Union for many years, a country called Tannu Tuva, where they sing two notes from a single human throat at one go and otherwise live quiet Siberian-climate lives. This book was about his efforts to get there, and the people he came to know along the way. Plus it came with a flimsy 45 rpm recording of some Tuvan throat singing. Huzzah!
7. The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman's Commentary on the Torah, by Ellen Frankel. I'm unfamiliar with Torah commentaries in general, but this one caught my eye when I visited a local Jewish Community Federation's annual book sale. As someone who was raised Catholic but had a Confirmation sponsor who a) was a Dominican nun and b) gave me a copy of The Mists of Avalon to read and recommended the Free Amazons of Darkover books, I'm always interested in a good healthy examination of gender, religion, and the stories associated therewith. Frankel does quite a good job of bringing out the parts and importance of the various female figures in the Torah stories.
8. From The Zen Kitchen To Enlightenment, by Dogen and Uchiyama. Monasteries are full of people. People gotta eat. Food doesn't cook itself. Someone's gotta feed those people, and in monasteries that generally means a monk. Given that the monk who does the cooking is out for enlightenment too, how's he supposed to get any closer to his goal when he's got to spend most of the day working his ass off? By making every single thing that he does a part of his spiritual practice, and living his life in a manner that both reflects and contributes to real understanding. And by making decent, nutritious, but not terribly distracting food.
I'm tired and don't feel like finding any more books tonight. Eight's a good round number anyway.
So without further ado, I present:
Books I've Got That I'm Reasonably Sure My Friends List People Haven't Got. (Restriction: I cannot count books I own but have not yet read.) The basic idea here is just to say 'bet you didn't know these books existed, I liked these, you might want a look yourself'.
1. 1421: The Year China Discovered The World, by Gavin Menzies. First edition, and I think first printing. None of this 'discovered America' bollocks in the title. This book about the Grand Fleet expedition sent out by the last really exploratory Chinese emperor in the early 1400's was absolutely fascinating to me when it came out- and since Mr. Menzies hadn't put his foot in his mouth by revealing just how bad some of his archaeological analysis really was (he claimed the Bimini Road undersea rock formation might have been fallen ballast stones from the giant Chinese ships of Admiral Zheng He's fleet), I still have very fond memories of it. The Grand Fleet expedition is a fertile source of alternate history and alternate universe inspiration.
2. Unmentionable Cuisine, by Calvin W. Schwabe. This is simultaneously an anthropological exploration of taboos on foods of animal origin, and a rather disturbing cookbook. It starts off with cattle flesh, and then goes on to pigs, sheep, goats, horses, dogs and cats, rabbits, etc... I'm pretty sure as a result of this book that I'm the only person on my friends list who has a recipe for guinea pig. Or locusts.
3. The South Pole Ponies, by Theodore K. Mason. This is an examination of the Shackleton and Scott Antarctic expeditions in the early part of the 20th century, with most of the focus on the horses used for cargo and hauling. It has the feel of a graduate thesis of some kind; I have a hard time imagining someone not trying for scholarly acclaim putting quite so much effort into combing the expeditions' records to retrieve accounts of the ponies' names and how they behaved on any given day. Fascinating stuff, really.
4. Courtship, Love and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century English Canada, by Peter Ward. If this was NOT a book primarily written for the academic market I shall eat my hat, but I am a tremendous anthro geek and in love with Canada, so I don't really care. This book and a small Thai restaurant are among my fondest memories of things I found in San Diego. It's really quite fascinating to get a proper look into what people in other countries were doing in the most basic parts of their daily lives when my ancestors were busy farming, fishing, and trying to get their asses the hell out of their own countries. And, y'know... CANADA. C'mon.
5. Secrets of a Jewish Baker, by George Greenstein. Not only the source of the best rye bread recipe I've ever used, but the only cookbook I know that presents the recipe for the cookie part of real live honest to Koch NYC black-and-white cookies. You'll have to find the fondant part somewhere else. The recipe for cinnamon stickybuns is an excellent jumping off point, too.
6. Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey, by Ralph Leighton. Before I was a Canada fangirl, before I was a China fangirl, I had such a thing for the life and exploits of the nuclear physicist Richard J. Feynman. And he had such a thing for a small country that was part of the Soviet Union for many years, a country called Tannu Tuva, where they sing two notes from a single human throat at one go and otherwise live quiet Siberian-climate lives. This book was about his efforts to get there, and the people he came to know along the way. Plus it came with a flimsy 45 rpm recording of some Tuvan throat singing. Huzzah!
7. The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman's Commentary on the Torah, by Ellen Frankel. I'm unfamiliar with Torah commentaries in general, but this one caught my eye when I visited a local Jewish Community Federation's annual book sale. As someone who was raised Catholic but had a Confirmation sponsor who a) was a Dominican nun and b) gave me a copy of The Mists of Avalon to read and recommended the Free Amazons of Darkover books, I'm always interested in a good healthy examination of gender, religion, and the stories associated therewith. Frankel does quite a good job of bringing out the parts and importance of the various female figures in the Torah stories.
8. From The Zen Kitchen To Enlightenment, by Dogen and Uchiyama. Monasteries are full of people. People gotta eat. Food doesn't cook itself. Someone's gotta feed those people, and in monasteries that generally means a monk. Given that the monk who does the cooking is out for enlightenment too, how's he supposed to get any closer to his goal when he's got to spend most of the day working his ass off? By making every single thing that he does a part of his spiritual practice, and living his life in a manner that both reflects and contributes to real understanding. And by making decent, nutritious, but not terribly distracting food.
I'm tired and don't feel like finding any more books tonight. Eight's a good round number anyway.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-14 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-14 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 06:23 am (UTC)My dad owned Feynman's physics lectures, having had an undergrad degree in physics. I don't know if Mom got rid of them after Dad died. Hm.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-14 11:58 pm (UTC)*so proud*
But the others are reasonably obscure, though they sound interesting. *adds some to Christmas wishlist*
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 12:59 am (UTC)Been a while since I read any Feynman though.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 06:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 06:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 06:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 01:56 am (UTC)I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, said the person who, up till the collection was dispersed, had Strange Writing (an analysis of Chinese ghost stories and supernatural tales in the most academic terms I've ever see) down as 'light reading'.
Then again...yaks!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 02:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 06:06 am (UTC)Fish roe recipes
Date: 2004-10-17 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 05:23 am (UTC)I only have The Road Kill Cookbook and How to have Sex Outdoors. I am also too lazy to figure out how to underline the book titles.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 06:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 11:55 am (UTC)