Friday, July 15, 2011

Metamorphosis 8

Got really sidetracked by some non-fiction books that weren't on the list, as well as Richard III: The Maligned King by an online acquaintance, Annette Carson. I haven't believed Richard was guilty of killing his nephews ever since reading Tey's Daughter of Time as a teenager. So this book didn't convince me of anything new, but I certainly learned some new things about Richard and his world courtesy of her thorough research.


Putting in some spaces now to go down to the next book, hope this looks half decent to everyone!






No, this is not a Chemistry textbook. The Periodic Table is an autobiographical narrative by noted chemist Primo Levi, who was also an Italian Jew who spent time in Auschwitz during the war. Each chapter, from his boyhood to middle age, takes the name of an element. Auschwitz is mentioned but his time there is apparently explored more deeply in some other book he wrote, which I may seek out at some point.

Far from being dry and humorless as you would expect, it's full of droll wit and observations about humanity. Apparently he won several awards for this book. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would from looking at the table of contents.