Tag: Types

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The White Company | Review

Title: The White Company

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 338

Rating: 3/5

This is some more of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s historic fiction, but unfortunately I didn’t quite find it as gripping as his Brigadier Gerard stories. I liked the accuracy and the research that he’d put in clearly comes across, but the plot itself wasn’t quite as gripping, perhaps because Sir Nigel Loring is less gripping than Gerard was. And both are pretty much standard old school colonialist types fighting for queen and country, which I can’t exactly relate to.

As you might expect from the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the plotting and the pacing was pretty good. Some of the dialogue was questionable because he spent a lot of time trying to imitate dialects etc, but overall it was readable enough. If anything, it was more the setting and the characters that held me back from loving it, although I did appreciate it for what it is.

There’s always something kind of fascinating about reading historical fiction that itself is historical, and I’ve always thought it was kind of cool that as well as writing the Holmes books, Conan Doyle also wrote The Lost World (a cracking read) and some historical fiction. Let’s just not talk about when he started to believe in fairies and stuff.

So this isn’t really something for the general reader, and it’s probably best avoided if you only know of Conan Doyle because of Holmes. If you’re a long-term fan and want to delve deeper into his work though, or if you’re particularly interested in historical fiction, it might be worth checking out.

For my part, I’m glad I read it, but I’m also glad that I read it as a bedtime book and so I didn’t have to spend huge chunks of time with it. I could dip in and out at will, often reading chapters instead of entire stories, so there was plenty there to enjoy – just over time.

Learn more about The White Company.


Charles Bukowski – On Love | Review

Title: On Love

Author: Charles Bukowski

Type: Poetry

Page Count/Review Word Count: 216

Rating: 4*/5

 

Charles Bukowski - On Love

Charles Bukowski – On Love

 

This book does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a collection of different poems by Charles Bukowski that focus on the topic of love. What’s interesting is that there are different types of love represented here, from the love he had for women to his love of the horses, his cats and his typewriter. But mostly, the poems here follow his musings on love and the phenomenon that it causes inside a person. After all, just because Bukowski was a cynic, it doesn’t stop him from having the same feelings as the rest of us.

That, by its very nature, makes this one of his more approachable books. It doesn’t push the reader away – it invites them in, which makes it the perfect introduction to his work for people who’ve never read him before. The presentation of it is fantastic as well, and it even includes a few of his doodles. Some people have said that this is just an attempt to make money from his memory, but I think it’s a beautiful little book and a great addition to my collection. I’m glad I own it. Buy it – you will be, too.

 

Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski

 

Click here to buy On Love.