on reading

Last year I read somewhere in the vicinity of 185 books (I could check the accuracy of that statement, but I'm too lazy; if you care about specifics, don't be lazy and scroll down to the first of the year and check for your own satisfaction. This year's ambitions are less modest, if only because I'm trying to dedicate more time to writing. Each year I choose a period of history to hone in on; 2017 saw a 50-book reading queue detailing the history of England from prehistoric times to the era of the British Empire, and this year I'm focusing on early modern Europe (around 1500 to 1790). I'm further subdividing my reading list to sharpen the focus on three particular events: the Seven Years' War (known commonly in the U.S. as the French & Indian War, though that war was just one particular theater of the wider Seven Years' War), the American Revolution (with emphases placed on books written from the British point-of-view), and the French Revolution (whose currents would shape and give opportunity to Napoleon Bonaparte). Next year I'm going to dedicate a significant portion of my reading queue to the Napoleonic Wars, which mark the end of the early modern world and the beginning of our current modern era. 

Whew. After writing that I need to take a breath. 

(And I'm sure you do, too).

But we're not finished yet.

During my Claypole House days, I discovered the joy of reading nonfiction and fiction in tandem. It brings both to a more vibrant life. To experience this for yourself, pick up an historical book on the Battle of Gettysburg and read Michael Shaara's Killer Angels in pace with the events. Do it and tell me if you're not hooked. Fiction and nonfiction pair like French cheese and vintage wine, and this year's early modern nonfiction is being read alongside two excellent historical fiction series: The Aubrey-Maturin Series by Patrick O'Brian and The Richard Sharpe Series by Bernard Cornwell. Both authors are fantastic, though O'Brian is more well-known (he received a boost when Russell Crowe played Captain Jack Aubrey in the loosely-based Master and Commander movie). In a stroke of good fortune, both authors bring different aspects of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars together: O'Brian writes about the war at sea, and Cornwell focuses on the land war. Because both series together march upwards of forty-something books, I'm splitting it between this year and next (which is still a good solid twenty-odd books each year). Thus far this year I've finished six of Cornwell and O'Brian's novels (along with a spattering of fiction bringing these events to further life).