New Year's Resolution: Book Reviews!

[philmophlegm]

OK, so it isn't New Year and I don't really do New Year's Resolutions, but here's one anyway. In the past, I occasionally wrote short punchy book reviews and posted them on LJ. I'm going to try to do that again. I've written out a list of all the books that I've read since I last did this and the book will be selected at random. I should also point out that I feel strongly that the point of a book review is to say if you liked the damn book, along with enough detail about it that anyone reading the review will get a good idea of whether or not they will like it. So that's what you're going to get in these short reviews, not pseudish cockwaffle.

Here's the first:


Attila the Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire, Christopher Kelly

Decent history of not just Attila, not just the Huns but their role in the eventual downfall of the Western Roman Empire and their interactions with other barbarian nations of the time. Very readable. If you're looking for a detailed account of Hunnic military tactics, then this book probably isn't it. But it's better than most 'barbarians versus civilisation' history books not only at seeing both points of view, but also at differentiating different kinds of barbarians (the Huns from the Alans for example). Recommended.

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Hah, New Year.

I keep meaning to post book reviews too. I find I remember them better if I've written something about them.

I should read this, it would make an interesting contrast to the Bryan Ward-Perkins one.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

So far this year, I've managed to write reviews of everything I've read, and I'm really enjoying doing it. It's inspiring me to read more, and the process of trying to articulate just what I like/don't like, and why, is really adding to my enjoyment of my reading. Even when I don't much like a book, I'm still getting pleasure from trying to work out just WHY it's not working for me. Doubtless the resulting (often long) reviews are full of "pseudish cockwaffle", but they're what I want to write. :-)

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Good tag! (Though not the best tag using "cock" I've read today.)