History, True or Feigned: 2021

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

A Halloween Review: The Lancashire Witches

A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #195 (September, 2013).

One of my greatest joys as a reader is discovering a good book that I have not read before. When it is an old book, an antique book, which I have not only not read but not even heard of, this joy is much greater. Back in 2013, I found that joy while searching for books about witches when I discovered The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest (1848), a novel written by William Harrison Ainsworth.

Ainsworth was trained as a lawyer in London, but never pursued the profession, instead entering into publishing with his first novel, Rookwood, in 1839. His work was popular, and he was extremely prolific; taking English history as his source he went on to write forty or so historical novels covering centuries of English history. He was a friend and contemporary of Charles Dickens, as well as popular writer whose works sold very well, but his novels have generally not stood the test of time well and he is often forgotten by all but literary historians these days.

The Lancashire Witches, first published in serial form in 1848, is Ainsworth’s best known novel and the

"The Incantation." Illustration by John Gilbert.

one which has remained in print the longest. It is a fascinating work which tells a fantastical version of the historical trial of the Pendle Witches. Ainsworth begins the tale with a Catholic uprising against Henry the VIII a couple generations before the Pendle Witch trials, using a conflicted bishop and a fallen priest as a fascinating back drop to the tale, encompassing a quite long introduction. The plot of the novel proper is then contained in three books. Ainsworth builds his plot around a historical account of the trials, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster by Thomas Potts, and makes Thomas Potts himself a wonderfully slimy character in the work. Many of the characters names come from the historical event, but their relationships, roles, characters, and actions are not remotely historical; magic is distinctly real, devils and ghosts make regular appearances.

The novel’s protagonists are the tragic lovers, Richard Asheton and Alizon Device. The witches are quite real, and quite devoted to the devil, yet the witch hunters (save the king, James I) are depicted as venal money-grubbers, anxious to accuse others in order to gain benefits. Alizon’s purity is never in doubt, but her unfortunate relationships to witches make her a target of the witch hunters, even as the witches themselves try to sacrifice her to the devil for her purity.

The novel’s presentations of Lancashire country life in the 1600s may not be perfectly historically accurate, but it is quite enjoyable, and anyone who has attended a Renaissance Fair will quickly recognize it as the source of so many tropes of Elizabethan games, it is self-consciously a depiction of “Merry Olde England.”

"The Ride Through the Murky Air."
Illustration by John Gilbert.

For gamers, this book is chock full of excellent examples and characters to steal. All of the various witches can be lifted whole-cloth for use as village healers, villains, or hedge witches in most roleplaying campaigns. Wonderful examples of spells and material components abound, as well as a great example of the internal politics of a witches' coven. Gamemasters can also see the workings of local versus national political leadership when the king visits in the last book of the novel, as well as some excellent plot ideas and concepts for properly using ghosts to push characters along. But the best steal from the novel is Nicholas Asheton, Richard’s cousin and a splendid character that gamemasters can lift whole-cloth and place in their campaigns as a local squire or other minor nobleman. Most of the funniest scenes in the novel center on his exploits.

Ainsworth was a friend of Dickens, but I found myself constantly comparing his work to a French contemporary, Alexandre Dumas. The Three Musketeers depicts the life of impoverished minor gentry in 16th century Paris, The Lancashire Witches does the same for 17th century rural England: both romanticize the time and place, but do so charmingly.

The Lancashire Witches is still in print, you can find several reasonably priced paper editions easily, and it is also available for free from Project Gutenberg and as an audiobook from Librivox. If you ind a printed version, be sure to get one that includes the original illustrations by John Gilbert, they add immensely to the tale and are just plain fun.

If you enjoy a touch of comedy in your melodrama, and some historical spice in your tragedy, or if you just love witches, give this old book a read. It is rather remarkable.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Spelljammer Reviews

I have many interests, one of my most enduring is Dungeons & Dragons, which I've been playing since 1980. I've played in most of the various campaign settings that have come out for the game, but one of my favorites is Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space. I love the idea of fantastical wooden ships flying through space, and I love that Spelljammer potentially connected all of the AD&D campaign settings.

In fact, I love Spelljammer so much its the only D&D campaign for which I have had some of my writings published - I co-authored the Hackmaster 4e conversion of the setting, Hackjammer (sadly long out of print and difficult to find).

So, along with that published work, I wrote a great deal of material for Spelljammer that was "published" on the web, mostly on what was the official Spelljammer fan site, Beyond the Moons. It's all still there, but the site is a bit harder to link to these days. And I have been converting old works and adding new material to create unofficial Spelljammer 'netbook' pdfs. Mostly these are reference works of various sorts to the Spelljammer products.

I recently completed another of these. Long ago Beyond the Moons put up my "Spelljammer product reviews" (scroll down to the bottom of the page), I decide to reedit these, add new ones for material i missed the first time, and add images of the various product covers to produce an annotated and illustrated Spelljammer bibliography.

So, here it is:

Spelljammer in Review: An annotated and illustrated bibliography of the Spelljammer campaign setting and related products and articles.

If you wish to distribute this work, please contact me first.

I hope Spelljammer fans find it useful.

N.B. I recently came across this blog entry with reviews of the Cloakmaster cycle of Spelljammer novels. It's a bit kinder on the later novels in the series then I am, but it is an excellent set of reviews anyway.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Sunday, July 25, 2021

The Sacred Band tales of Janet & Chris Morris

Portions of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #191 (September, 2012).

One of fantasy’s enduring motifs is the concept of the multiverse, the idea of different worlds and times that co-exist, and which the unwary or wise can travel between via various extraordinary devices or phenomenon. Dungeons and Dragons famously made great use of the concept of the multiverse, it was particularly useful in allowing travel between the various home campaign worlds of gamemasters but also between TSR’s commercially published settings. I dare say most gamers and many fantasy fans find the concept fascinating and enticing, who doesn’t want to see Conan take Elric down a peg? And for writers the multiverse is a wonderful tool, Janet and Chris Morris employed the multiverse motif to free Tempus, Janet Morris’ most famous character, and his followers from the constraints of the Thieves’ World shared universe series.

Janet Morris is a prolific author who got her start in the late ‘70s with High Couch of Silistra, an old

school science fiction novel that reads like a cross between Leigh Brackett and early John Norman. In fantasy fiction, she is best known for her participation in the Thieves’ World anthologies and as the editor of the Heroes in Hell Bangsian shared world anthologies.

I think her best work, however, is I, the Sun, biographical historical ficton novel about Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I. It is a powerful work, extremely well done. It is far better, IMO, than any of her Thieves' World stories. In fact, it is on par with Mary Renault's works, and there is no higher praise from me. Told in the first person, the tale is riveting from beginning to end, in a subtle manner. The relationships are believable, the angst is minimal, and religion is handled just right for the period.

The only real weakness is the military aspects and battle scenes. Morris is obviously fascinated by warfare, but she just doesn't seem to understand it very well. As a military historian I was hoping for some imaginative insights into Hittite military culture and tactics, but those aspects of the novel were minimal.

As with any work on antiquity, especially on a subject like the Hittites, she has to make some things up, and the scholarship is from the 1970s,so there have likely been quite a few changes in how we view the Hittites and the nations around them. So be sure to look to newer works for actual Hittite history. But this one is very fun. I especially love how she deals with the women interacting with the protagonist and the internal politics. This is Janet Morris' best work and the audiobook is also quite well read.

Based on publication dates, it appears that she wrote I, the Sun contemporaneously with her Thieves' World work, there is some obvious connections with Father Enlil and later Shepherd, from I, the Sun, appears in a couple late Thieves' World stories. Her depictions of religious observances are clearly influenced by her Hittite research, and several characters from the series were likely inspired by, or at least named after, individuals from Greek history, notably Critias.

Her most enduring character in Thieves’ World was Tempus, a tortured immortal mercenary who regenerates any wounds he takes and is the chosen avatar of the storm god. Tempus quickly became one of the most popular characters in the series, what teen-age boy could resist a character who takes women when he wants them, constantly insults the god rumbling in his head, is preternaturally strong, swift, and healthy, never sleeps, and is generally feared by all? And, of course, he battles demons and wizards who also fear him. Of course, such a character creates balance problems in a shared world setting, and Tempus and his followers, the Stepson mercenary band, certainly led to the power glut that oozed through the middle volumes of that series.

In addition to short stories, Morris wrote the first three novels for Thieves' World: Beyond Sanctuary, Beyond the Veil, and Beyond Wizard Wall. In the Thieves' World chronology they fell between Face of Chaos and Wings of Omen and they introduced an 'epic fantasy' storyline involving the Nisibisi globes of power that roiled Thieves' World through out the rest of the series. Though they had many interesting scenes and vignettes, these novels were somewhat disjointed and difficult to follow. These novels have some cool ideas - especially the Nisibisi cultures and the basic northern politics. it's a shame they remained so underdeveloped.

They were also very focused focused on Nikodemos, a junior Stepson who gradually took over as the primary protagonist from Tempus. Niko became a problematic character in

the series. the plots all seemed to revolve around witches and gods desiring Niko, but why anyone should want to spend time with Niko is an open question. Sulking angst is his most common attitude, and he never shows any particular intelligence, empathy, or any other desirable trait. He prefers to prey on young girls - criminally young in the modern world. Most damning of all, he is a point of view character, so we see inside his mind often, which means it is clear that Niko is nearly always wrong about what is going on around him. He fails to value wiser, braver, and more ethical characters about him, such as the wizard Randal. Yet we spend nearly all of the remaining tales in his company, following the same storyline repeated over and over - the Nisibisi witch Roxane wants Niko, and so do the gods, and Tempus wants to protect Niko.

When Thieves’ World ended Morris published a series of novels furthering the tales of he and his followers, since she had the rights to the characters but not the setting, Tempus and his band were soon travelling the multiverse.

It is interesting to see how Janet Morris' handling of time and the multiverse differs from Michael Moorcock's, The two authors come from very different backgrounds, and I don't see any evidence that either was aware of or influenced by the other. Nonetheless, in many ways Tempus closest analog in fantasy fiction is Elric of Melnibone, right down to the predilections for philosophy, incest, gods and the cursed destinies that bedevil them. However, Morris' multiverse is far more heavily influenced by the philosophy and mythologies of the Ancient Mediterranean.

The first novel in this follow-on series, Tempus, merely collected the most relevant of the old Thieves’

World stories to provide suitable background for the later works, interspersed with a framing tale. In City at the Edge of Time, the first post-Thieves’ World tale of Tempus, the city in questioned is saved from ‘evil’ and Tempus’ protégé becomes its ruler. In Tempus Unbound, the immortal comes to fabled Lemuria, and is soon drawn into a demon war across time that is centered in modern New York – a tale that reads far better then one would expect from its summary. In Storm Seed, Tempus, now ruler of Lemuria, brings his scattered forces home, seemingly set to begin a new series of adventures across time and the planes.

Instead, the Morrises (Chris Morris being a co-author since the late ‘80s) abandoned Tempus and his Stepsons for twenty years, not coming out with a sequel to Storm Seed until 2010, with The Sacred Band. Working with a new publisher, Perseid Press, the Morris' tied the Stepsons directly into the legend of the historical Sacred Band of Thebes. Most of the tale takes place in Sanctuary, set between the conclusion of the original 12 Thieves' World anthologies, and the setting's 2002 revival.

Returning to an overt connection with antiquity allowed this tale to play directly to the strengths Morris exhibited in I, the Sun. The opening of the tale is very promising, the merger of the Thebans and the Stepsons introduces new characters and we get to see Arton and Gyskouras, the Storm children of Sanctuary's most turbulent story line as young men. And finally we see some actual battles, rather then mere skirmishes, something which was strangely lacking in the previous Tempus stories - for someone fascinated by warriors, Morris appears uninterested in fight scenes.

But there is a great deal that is less good. Too soon the novel shifts focus and once again Nikodemos becomes the center of the same repetitive story lines of the previous tales. Although published 8 years after the 2002 revival, and set between the original series and the revival chronologically, there is no sign that Morris read the linking novel by Lynn Abbey, Sanctuary - how any of this fits into the known history of Sanctuary between the series is a huge puzzle. And one of Morris weakness' as a shared world author stands out in particular in this work, she handles the characters borrowed from other writers poorly. Molin is almost unrecognizable, as is Arton's mother, Ilyra. The relationship between Gyskouras and Arton doesn't seem at all what one would expect after the original series. And Straton and Ischade simply repeat the storyline they were in at the closing of the original series, despite already receiving a proper ending in those tales.

The final work in the series is The Fish, The Fighters, and the Song-girl. This is another short story collection, although this time it does include a few tales not previously published. As with previous Sacred Band story collections there is a 'framing' story meant to put the tales into context, but it is confusing and doesn't seem to have much of a resolution. I don't know if this is intended to be the last work in the series but it felt open-ended, o perhaps we can expect more Tempus and the Sacred Band tales down the road.

Over all, in the Sacred Band series the prose is typically lush, and too dependent on repetitive internal character dialogue, but Morris has a knack for implying a level of complexity and insight that leads the reader to seek more. This is also disquieting; I can’t shake the feeling that if I finally figure out the meaning of her works I will discover a reprehensible philosophy reminiscent of the worst parts of Ayn Rand or Friedrich Nietzsche. But then I think surely not, both are far too modern for antiquarian Morris.

Nonetheless, she explores the multiverse in a unique manner, and the dynamics of the mercenary band she describes are fascinating. The Sacred Band series novels are not to everyone’s taste, but if you like dark military fantasy they are well worth a read.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Saturday, July 24, 2021

My professional works

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

This is crass self-promotion, but I thought a couple posts letting people know where to find my writing might be of interest. After all, if no one reads any of this it is sort of useless. So here is a short bibliography of my professional history work. I did leave out some shorter articles and my book reviews, but this is the bulk of my professional historical writing.

Thesis:

“The development and decline of Romano-Byzantine archery from the fourth to the eleventh centuries”, Master’s Thesis, Ohio State University (1996)

I'd like to expand on this, as a journal article, a book, or a dissertation some day. It's my oldest work, I think I've grown as a writer and historian quite a bit since. It can be down loaded here, at the OhioLink Thesis & dissertation center. It can also be found on Medievalist.net here.

Books:

U.S. Marines in Battle: Al-Khafji, 28 January - 1 February 1991 History Division, U.S. Marine Corps, (2008)

This work can be downloaded for free at the MCU website here. It can also be found in various book sellers on the web.

U.S. Marines in the Gulf War, 1990–1991: Liberating Kuwait History Division, U.S. Marine Corps, (2014)

This is my most significant work to date. It can be downloaded as a free pdf at the MCU website here. It can also be found in various book sellers on the web. I was awarded the 2015 Brigadier General Edwin Simmons-Henry I. Shaw Award by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. A scholarly review of the work on H-War can be found here.

Desert Voices: An Oral History Anthology of Marines in the Gulf War, 1990-1991 with Alexander Hinman, History Division, U.S. Marine Corps, (2016)

Conducting oral history interviews was one of my favorite parts of researching Liberating Kuwait. I wanted to let the Marines we interviewed speak more directly to readers, hence this work. It can be downloaded as a free pdf at the MCU website here. It can also be found in various book sellers on the web.

U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, 2010–2014: Anthology and Annotated Bibliography with Christopher Blaker, History Division, U.S. Marine Corps, (2017)

Intended as a first look and primer for Marines in Afghanistan during the period noted. It can be downloaded as a free pdf at the MCU website here. It can also be found in various book sellers on the web.

The Legacy of Belleau Wood: 100 years of making Marines and winning battles, an anthology Edited by Paul Westermeyer and Breanne Robertson, History Division, U.S. Marine Corps, (2018)

It can be downloaded as a free pdf at the MCU website here. It can also be purchased through the GPO here, or in various book sellers on the web. In 2018 this work was chosen as a Notable Government Publication by the American Libraries Association (ALA) Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) Publications Committee.

The Legacy of American Naval Power: Reinvigorating Maritime Strategic Thought, an Anthology Edited by Paul Westermeyer and Breanne Robertson, History Division, U.S. Marine Corps, (2019)

I worked on both of these Legacy anthologies with Breanne Robertson, together we did a podcast about the book for the Marine Corps War College's podcast, Eagles, Globes, and Anchors. You can download that podcast here. This work can be downloaded as a free pdf at the MCU website here. It can also be purchased through the GPO here, or in various book sellers on the web.

The United States Marine Corps: The Expeditionary Force at War, Casemate Publishers, (2019)

I wrote this for Casemate's Short History series, it is intended as an introduction to Marine Corps history rather than a scholarly work. I am very happy with the reception it has received, especially the reviews from Leatherneck & Wargames Illustrated magazines. It is available on Kindle and in hardback, and can be found here on Amazon.

Articles:

“Shattered Amphibious Dreams: The Decision Not to Make an Amphibious Landing during Operation Desert Storm” Marine Corps History Vol. 3, No. 2 (2018)

My last work on the Marines in the Gulf War, I really wanted to use that title, and I wanted to highlight the value of the Corps' amphibious feint. It can be downloaded as a free pdf at the MCU website here.

“Every Marine a Flag Raiser: The Legacy and Meaning of the Iwo Jima Flag Raisings” Investigating Iwo: The Flag Raisings in Myth, Memory, & Esprit de Corps History Division, U.S. Marine Corps, (2019) Co-author Dr Breanne Robertson

Dr Breanne Robertson's book on the Iwo Jima flag raising is one of History Division's 3 best books (out of over 200), in my opinion, so I'm very glad to have co-authored its concluding article with her. This work can be downloaded as a free pdf at the MCU website here. It can also be purchased through the GPO here, or in various book sellers on the web.

“Historiography for Marines: How Marines should read and understand histories” Marine Corps Gazette (November, 2019 Volume 103, Number 11, p78-82)

This article is something I planned for years, and I always hoped it would be published in the Gazette. I'm not sure it made the impact I hoped, but this article is near and dear to my heart. It can be downloaded here.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Monday, May 17, 2021

Arthurian (Authorial?) Romance and Mary Stewart

The original version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #148 (February, 2009).

I have loved King Arthur tales since I was a small child, and as I grew older I became somewhat obsessed with the Matter of Britain. By far my favorite Arthurian author is Mary Stewart, whose first person account of Merlin' childhood, The Crystal Cave was a wonder. I have reread her works many times over the years, always finding new delights and insights.

English author Mary Stewart has written over a score of novels, many of them romance or mystery books, but she is best known for her magnum opus, the Merlin Trilogy, comprising The Crystal Cave (1970), The Hollow Hills (1973), and The Last Enchantment (1979). Armed with exhaustive research and a vivid imagination she broke through the extremely crowded field of Arthurian fiction with a series that ranks as among the very best, indeed possibly the best, modern work in that field.

The conceit of Stewart’s work is that she takes Merlin, the perennial background character and plot device of Arthurian legend and transforms him into a dynamic and fascinating leading man. Her research is thorough, and she traces the threads of Merlin’s story through myth and legend while placing
him firmly within the context of the post-Roman Northern European world. Specifically, she shows an understanding of the historical phenomenon of the ‘holy man’ or ‘holy hermit’ that allows her to create a believable, approachable Merlin, beginning with his youth in Wales and closing with his slow fade into obscurity at the height of Arthur’s reign. All narrated by the ancient wizard himself, to an unknown listener (a precursor, if you will, of the modern "documentary" sitcom style found in shows like The Office or Modern Family).

In fact her use of the ‘holy hermit’ really struck me when I first began to study the history of Late Antiquity under Dr Gregory at Ohio State in the early 1990s. When reading "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity" (1971) by Peter Brown I immediately noticed was how well Merlin in Stewart's trilogy fit the mold. I don't believe Brown influenced Stewart; The Crystal Cave was out in 1970 after all! But I do think she tapped into the same sources and threads in the jumbled, chaotic, partially destroyed records of late Antiquity that Brown was using as a historian. Or perhaps as I slowly transformed theologically from a fairly conservative, orthodox Roman Catholic into a broad minded theist I was exceptionally sensitive to the comparison. I know my primary attraction to Late Antiquity was the holiness that I sensed in the tales from that period. This is a typically long-winded way of saying that as I get older, I recognize Stewart’s Arthurian novels as some of the works that shaped me theologically. (Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series was also influential.)

In The Crystal Cave the story of Merlin’s origin and early life is told, as Britain suffers from Rome’s abandonment, treacherously weak kings, and the onslaughts of Saxon invaders. Each of the famous legends of Merlin’s childhood life are addressed and explained in a highly plausible manner, and life in 5th century Britain is depicted vividly. But at its heart this is a bildungsroman, or ‘coming of age’ story

and the supernal maturity and knowledge of Merlin does not lessen its impact.

The Hollow Hills presents the story of Arthur’s rise to power, from Merlin’s point of view. Again the legendary events are followed and explained, and Stewart takes great care in presenting a believable ‘historical’ foundation for the legends. It is quite clear how much fatherly love Merlin has for Arthur, an aspect of the story that I find touches me more now that I am a father myself than it did when I first read these books years ago. The great battles and politics that mark the opening of Arthur’s reign create a dramatic, compelling story and Merlin is the perfect guide to these events.

In The Last Enchantment we see the coming of Mordred and Merlin’s fading finale. Ironically, the closer Merlin the narrator gets to his present situation the less clear the story becomes. In this later reign Merlin has truly stepped to the side of most events, and the climatic battles and bright hopes of the earlier volumes have been replaced by the sedate meditations of age and the final follies of one’s antiquity. Stewart grants Merlin a measure of dignity in his downfall that is sadly missing from so many Arthurian tales, and also removes the taint of misogyny from Nimüe’s role. The volume is bitter-sweet, of course, and does not follow Arthur’s tale to its own conclusion.

In a fourth book, The Wicked Day, Stewart brings that portion of the tale to a close. It suffers from the loss of Merlin; he's an excellent narrator and such greatcompany for the reader. Mordred narrates The Wicked Day and he is less enjoyable, in part because he keeps part of himself hidden from the reader as he narrates, Merlin might as well but is less obvious. This hidden aspect of Mordred is necessary for the story, but it leaves the reader, accustomed to intimately knowing the narrator, somewhat bereft.

The last of her Arthurian works is The Prince and the Pilgrim. Certainly not to the same level as the earlier works, it feels far more like a romance, in the modern sense. It is a pleasant read about two minor characters from the Matter of Britain, but it seemed a bit rushed. Nonetheless, it is an enjoyable, self-contained story from the period. I wish she had written more on the Grail Quest, she seemed to set it up in the earlier books but left that story untold. A pity.

For gamers, like myself, these books provide excellent examples of royal politics and dynastic quarrels as well an excellent view of Britain in the 5th century, a historical period perfect for an RPG campaign. Merlin himself serves as an excellent template for a mystic, mage, or even a certain type of priest character. But perhaps the most useful aspect for typical fantasy game-masters is the explanations later pagan religious beliefs and rituals. In the modern world, surrounded by the dominant monotheistic religions it is difficult for us to imagine living in the sort of polytheistic and poly-religious culture of the typical fantasy campaign. 5th century Britain was such a culture, and as imagined by Stewart and presented through the eyes of the wise man Merlin the game-master has an excellent example to follow while depicting his own polytheistic cultures.

Stewart’s prose is detailed yet never boring, and she is often extremely moving. Merlin leaps to life under her skilled pen. She has just the right blend of history and legend, and creates a masterful portrait of the ‘Matter of Britain,’ the tale of Arthur, Merlin, and Camelot. If you love Arthurian tales, or just enjoy solid fantasy or historical fiction, immerse yourself in these tales and you won’t be disappointed.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Friday, January 1, 2021

What I read in 2020

For me, one small thing seems to have gone right in 2020, I managed to post 20 blog entries, some of which actually sparked some conversation. My goals for this blog are modest - I just want to practice my writing and occasionally say things that some folks will think about it. This past year I achieved those goals. Here's hoping I can do the same again in 2021.

Two years ago, a friend of mine posted a list of the books they had read in 2018, I thought it was a great idea so I posted a list myself on Facebook, and then the following year on this blog. I'm posting the list again, since I find this a very useful exercise in self-reflection.

What I am reading both impacts and reflects my mood, especially active reading. Reading in and of itself is fine, but it is often simply a passive exercise. Active reading requires interrogating and questioning the material you are reading, and comparing it to what you have read in the past. It is a conversation on multiple levels between multiple speakers but with only one listener. That solitary listener can be a clarifying concept - it lays bare any given work's most valuable insights.

Of course, once you take those insights and present them to others through reviews, essays, or criticisms on a public forum like this blog, that starts an entirely new set of conversations... with other singular listeners.

Looking over this year's list (see below), these trends stood out:

# of Rereads: 23 (I've marked rereads below with an *)
# Military History reads: 16
# by or about Tolkien: 5
# Forgotten Realms: 4
# of Marine reads: 2
# Frigate Navy period reads: 10

# Thieves' World & related: 7
# Matter of Britain works: 5
# Mythology: 7

# Plato/Socrates: 6

# of holiday reads: 6

I read 58 works this year, a baker's dozen less then last year. There are several reasons for that, I believe. I read more non-fiction this year, for one thing, and several of the works I read required more solid thinking and digestion, primarily in philosophy and history. I often reread books, I find it useful for getting the most from a work. Also, there are works I reread simply because I find comfort in doing so. Last year I reread 48 out of 71 works, 67%. The % of rereads this year was 40%, 23 out of 58 works.

It is very rare that I refuse to finish a book, but it happened again this year; Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy. It might have improved later, but overall it showed its age and his biases were simply too obvious, greatly limiting the value of the work.

This list below is roughly in the same order I read the books, though I am often reading multiple books at a time. I usually have an audiobook I am reading (always unabridged if available) for commuting and walks (my audiobook reading has dropped significently this year, without a commute!), a 'bed time' book for right before I sleep, and a 'Paul time' book for bathroom breaks. I am also often reading books for work, though that varies depending if I am in research or writing mode at the moment, and if I am considering secondary literature or primary sources). I also tend to read pretty fast, one reason I enjoy audiobooks is that they slow my reading down and allow me to appreciate other aspects of a work (plus, the readers accents and inflections add a new dimension to the work).

This list doesn't even begin to touch on all of the reading I do for research for my work of course.

In "What I read in 2019", I planned to finish rereading the Thieves' World series, read more of the Otto Prohaska novels by John Biggins, reread some Plato, and read more Tolkien this year. I didn't really get to finish rereading the Thieves' World series yet, nor did I read more of the Prohaska novels yet. But I was fairly successful on Plato and always read some Tolkien every year.

For next year, I need to read up on the Mexican War & the Seminole Wars, and I'd still like to read more of the Prohaska novels. I'd like to reread more of the Elric series, and I have the two latest volumes from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files still to read and I also want to read Ken Follett's Century trilogy. I've also had a yearning to reread the Harry Potter series, but I've been resisting because there are so many new works to read.

What I read in 2020:

1. Nancy Bunting, "J.R.R. Tolkien's inspiration for Lúthien: the “gallant” Edith Bratt" Journal of Tolkien Research (Vol. 9 Iss. 1, 2020) (since withdrawn from the journal)