Category Archives: General

Tuesday teases and lists

Posted on April 18, 2023 by smellincoffee

This is from Will Durant’s intro to his The Story of Philosophy. I’ve wanted to read this for ages, since finishing his Story of Civilization, and saw it on sale a couple of weeks ago. I won’t be reading it … Continue reading →

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Tuesday teases and lists

Posted on April 11, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s Tuesday Tease comes from Falling into Battle, a novel following four young men (three midshipmen and one ex-midshipman-turned-Territorial) in the first year of the war. Today’s top Ten Tuesday is about books with animals on the cover or in … Continue reading →

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Blogging prompt: Sports

Posted on April 5, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s blogging prompt is sports we’ve played and what we thought of them. Although spectator sports is not my bag, and I’ve always been more of a reader than an athlete, I did enjoy playing pick-up games as a kid … Continue reading →

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Note to revolutionaries: Bard is more cooperative than Bing

Posted on April 4, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today while reading a history of attempts to invade England, I was using Bard as a running cross-reference thing — asking what the Palantine was, for instance, or what a tercio was. (The Palantine is a bit of the old … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday: of natural beauty and human beastliness

Posted on April 4, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is our favorite self-published books, which is problematic for me given how few I’ve read. Disrupting the Rabblement is a much-mention, since it was the first Kindle title I ever read (using Kindle for PC), and … Continue reading →

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Read of England, 2023!

Posted on April 1, 2023 by smellincoffee

Well, dear readers, it’s April first, and that means ’tis time to Read of England. RoE is an annual tradition at Reading Freely, starting with an annual nod to English history in 2010 before growing into a month set aside … Continue reading →

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March 2023 in Review

Posted on March 31, 2023 by smellincoffee

A fourth of the year has gone by already! If January was SCIENCE MONTH!!! and February was as Southern as fried green tomatoes, then March was a month for the ol’ to be read pile. I’ve got a few unreviewed … Continue reading →

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WWW: Favorite Nonfiction?

Posted on March 29, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s blogging challenge from Long & Short Reviews is ‘Favorite Nonfiction Book’, which is…er, problematic. I read over a hundred nonfiction books a year, and have done since I started keeping a book log in mid-2007. which means I’ve read … Continue reading →

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Tuesday Tease: The stuff of empire

Posted on March 28, 2023 by smellincoffee

From Waters of the World, by Sarah Dry, on glaciology, geology metereology, and climatology…so far. Only with the leveraging power of certain technologies was British rule in India even thinkable. Much has been made of the importance of railways, telegraphs, … Continue reading →

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Wednesday blogging: famous book you’ve not read?

Posted on March 22, 2023 by smellincoffee

Long and Short Reviews’ blogging challenge this week is ‘A famous book you haven’t read, and why’. Immediately before college and a little during (before assignments took priority), I sought out books that had changed the world for good or … Continue reading →

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