Re: Speed Reading


Paul Ilechko wrote:
> David Loftus wrote:
>
> > By the way, what're you reading now? I finished Ackroyd's new
> > Shakespeare bio and am nearly finished with Neil Gaiman's _Anansi
> > Boys_. Next up, Rafi Zabor's _I, Wabenzi_ and Nate Blakeslee's _Tulia:
> > race, cocaine, and corruption in a small Texas town_.
>
> I'm wrapping up the Dorothy Dunnett "House of Niccolo" series, I'm close
> to the end of the eighth and last book, "Gemini". If you're interested
> in early renaissance history, good writing, and damned good
> storytelling, then the whole set is highly recommended.

Compare with George Eliot's _Romola_ for my elucidation.
I've done little more than peruse Dunnett in bookstores.

Romola is set at a specific time, beginning with the death of
Lorenzo Medici in Florence in 1492, a year marked
as otherwise unimportant by his Italian contemporaries,
but marked as pivotal by the author. Romola makes
a bad marriage with a pretty boy named Tito Melema.
Savonarola's crusading book burners lurk everywhere.


Best thing I read in '05 was Lawrence Norfolk's _The Pope's
Rhinosceros_.

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