I closed out April with 12 books read, including finishing a long-term hardcover by Hugh Nibley that was an incredible trip down the well of knowledge that man possessed. I’m now over 50 books read and we’re 1/3rd of the way through 2024. Audio and graphic novels are 98% of that though, so as always, don’t treat it like I’m sitting down and reading that much in print, it would be a very different endeavor.
This week I finished a few more chapters of SHOGUN, plus another Bloody Jack novel by LA Meyer (3 down, 9 to go) and an airship history by S.C. Gwynne. Then I wrapped it all up on Friday with LIVE AND LET DIE by Ian Fleming, the second Bond novel. Pretty much everything got a video treatment and I’ve parsed them out over the next few days, so…
S.C. Gwynne’s airship book was really good. Planes > airships because they actually have the power to steer and not, you know, explode. Gwynne took an incredibly obscure incident—one that really deserves wider notoriety—and explored it succinctly and yet in great detail. I’m always impressed with his work.
Anyway, the Nibley book was AN APPROACH TO THE BOOK OF MORMON, the sixth volume of many nonfiction texts he put together in his lifetime. Nibley was a professor of history, among other things, and his efforts centered on providing historical and cultural context to ancient Israel (600 B.C. onward) and how several components of the Book of Mormon are representative of those things—components that the modern man wouldn’t even know to look for.
It’s impossible to summarize in a weekly Substack post, so I won’t. This will be of narrow interest among my reading audience and that’s fine, suffice it to say that I underlined a ton of things as I was reading it, and I’ll go back through it many a time. There are like 16 more books in this series so hoo boy, I’m excited. Best of year list right here.
This week I have another decent-sized docket of books to tackle, including a reread of TOWER OF SILENCE for my summary series about Correia’s Forgotten Warrior books.
What’d you read this week?