Booking Through Thursday - It's All About History Today!!

As anyone who follows my blog will know, history and anthrolopogy are two of my favourite topics.  I tend to go through phases with my reading, but will browse through any bookstore with the intention of looking for historical fiction, historical biographies, and historical texts first and foremost.  What I don't seem to have anymore is the time to really devote myself to them like I used to have.  Unfortunately, my day job, my kiddies, my hubby, and other activities get in the way.

Today's Question: Sometimes I feel like the only person I know who finds reading history fascinating. It’s so full of amazing-yet-true stories of people driven to the edge and how they reacted to it. I keep telling friends that a good history book (as opposed to some of those textbooks in school that are all lists and dates) does everything a good novel does–it grips you with real characters doing amazing things.



Am I REALLY the only person who feels this way? When is the last time you read a history book? Historical biography? You know, something that took place in the past but was REAL.

My Answer: I love historical biographies and other assorted history texts and constantly browse the libraries and bookstores looking for something interesting to read.  These books are the only books, other than personally signed editions from authors, that I never get rid of, and I have shelves full of history books and novels.  I have one shelf alone dedicated to the French Revolution.  I try to read anything written by David Starkey as I love his biographies.  I also tend to read anything by Antonia Fraser.  And there are a host of others that I read as well.  I also collect books about events and time periods as I find them fascinating.  If I travel somewhere and want to learn more about the places I'm travelling, then I will collect history books about the regions.  I'm just a history buff through and through.  I believe the last historical text I read was, Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone.  Up next is one I have been wanting to read for a while, Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman.  While I am interested in anything historical, my real passion is anything to do with the French Revolution first, the working backwards through time.  I did go through a phase where I researched a lot of things about the Black Plague and read a lot of historical accounts about the events surrounding that time period.  I am currently just finishing a fictional novel about another Plague as well. 

I also read a lot of historical fiction and pretty much have since I was a child.  I'm currently reading Queen By Right by Anne Easter Smith, an author I just love.