Recent Reads: Ned Blackhawk, Georges Roux and Anonymous (The Saga of the Volsungs)

Books finished:
The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk
Ancient Iraq by Georges Roux
The Saga of the Volsungs translated and introduced by Jesse L. Byock
Also mentioned:
Imperial Reckoning by Caroline Elkins
The Pelican History of Medieval Europe by Maurice Keen
Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition by Marcia L. Colish
BookTuber mentioned: Justin at @TriumphalReads

[@HannahsBooks]

Thank you! I so enjoy your community posts with interesting passages from your reading-especially from historical works. If I can fit it in, I want to read the Saga.

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

That can become a BookTube mantra: “Trying to fit things in (before we die)”. 😂🤣😭

[@HannahsBooks]

@@davidnovakreadspoetry Yes indeed! This time, I meant I wanted to fit it in this month-but gosh, I guess fitting in books before I die is of my lifetime prime directives!

[@PatriciaCrabtree-wm8xd]

Don't mind me but watching you manage Les Miserables is the real poetry here. Before, during and now after your struggle with the text has hooked me. It seems you may be ready to land this beast soon; you're starting to forgive yourself more and maybe blame Hugo less. I'm betting acceptance will come with a better French mammoth like The Count of Monte Cristo.

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

I liked _Count of Monte_ -

[@BookishTexan]

The Ned Blackhawk sounds interesting. It’s not a book I had heard of before you began posting about it. I enjoyed the Volsung more interesting than enjoyable.

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

More interesting than enjoyable is a good way of putting it.

[@chrisbeveridge3066]

reading a translation is like taking a shower with a raincoat on
but also reflect that a TRANSLATION in the proper hands can become a TRANSFORMATION ( Chapman's Homer for example or Golding's Ovid or Florio's Montaigne and more)

[@PatriciaCrabtree-wm8xd]

A few years ago I spent some time with the Icelandic sagas and It was great fun meaning not so barbaric. The time frame was 600 to 800 A.D. and the Vikings had settled in and were sort of behaving themselves. You might try them. You don't have to read them all; just enough to satisfy your curiosity about those folks back then there.

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

I’ve been told _Egil’s Saga_ is a good bet so I have that on my list.