I just finished reading a bio of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France. I was inspired to read it after having read The Three Musketeers which actually took place during the reign of 14's father (maybe) Louis XIII and by Stephenson's Baroque Cycle which I actually finished a few years ago.
TTM was a surprisingly good read. I didn't understand (maybe detect is a better word) the humor at first. I practically gave up on the book when the musketeers proved to be such bumbling idiots that they almost got themselves and d'Artagnan caught and killed, but once I understood that the character flaws of these most contemptible heroes was actually a large part of the story I began to enjoy the book. The bio was somewhat cursory, but that's what I was looking for anyway (and what should I expect for a dollar?) Louis XIV was an interesting character and held the throne for 72 years; longer than any other European monarch. That he was a despot, a war monger and genocidal (see the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes) was offset by his centralization of power in France, the sophistication and innovation of his court. Interesting stuff. Next is a History of England by Scottish philosopher David Hume and Bank's new non-culture S.F. novel, Transition. What has everyone else been reading? BTW, I can't recommend the Kindle enough. The interface is great, the wireless feature gives you access to all sorts of stuff much of which is free or very reasonably priced, you can download magazines, newspapers and blogs and you can even send personal documents to it via email for a small fee (I paid 15 cents for a 10 or 12 page document). It has a built in dictionary; just move the cursor in front of the word you want defined and the definition appears at the bottom of the screen. You can annotate text and there's a search function and you can change the font size. I bought a flip-over cover (not the one sold by Amazon) that allows me to set the reader down and read hands free. It's much easier to read than a regular book - especially a hardback. The $300 price tag was a bit steep. I wasn't sure I wanted one, especially at that price, but I'm very happy with it now. Doug _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
