#she's a bookworm with a thing for philosophical roman emperors

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

I'm a survivor of 2012 tumblr, I fought and defended Amy Pond, Clara Oswald, and River Song from tiresome accusations of being the exact same character, I've argue endlessly about how they have very different backgrounds, personality traits, flaws, character arcs, and goals in life, how they are not defined by their relationship with the Doctor nor the people they are related to, while also acknowledging that there are some valid criticism of how they were written, which is true pretty much every companion, I'm now at the stage where I really just need to bite my tongue when I see this lazy old arguments rise from the grave like the decrepit zombies they are.

[stuffedeggplants]

Bookworm asks

1, 9, 12, 13, 22, 26

What book are you currently reading? I'm reading Ramanuja on the Bhagavad Gita and False Allies: India's Maharajas in the Age of Ravi Varma. The first one is an English translation of a commentary on a pivotal Hindu text--the Bhagavad Gita--by Ramanuja, an influential/major 11th century Indian philosopher. When I'm finished with it I eventually want to read another commentary on the same text by another major philosopher--Adi Shankaracharya--because he and Ramanuja both represent two different philosophical schools and I would really like to see how they expound on the Gita differently.

False Allies uses the life of the Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma to look at how the rulers of Indian princely states during a certain time period responded to evolving socio-political factors and the pressures of dealing with British colonialism. I make it sound like a heavy academic text but it's really not, and I find the author's writing style to make for easy and interesting reading.

What was the first book you read on your own? I have absolutely no idea. I remember my mother reading The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring to me, and then I think I read the rest of The Lord of the Rings myself? If you mean kid's books, I remember liking Verdi (which has beautiful art of snakes if you like snakes) and this other book about a Central Asian (Mongolian?) princess who would only marry a man who could defeat her in battle, she had a massive army of horses, and poisoned cookies were involved somehow? It was great but I barely remember it now, lol.

What are your favourite genres? Historical fiction, science fiction (and various flavors thereof), non-fiction "adventure," and just regular history books whether contemporary or otherwise. I also like books about national security and military issues.

What books make you happy? Master and Commander and the associated series. :) Baudolino by Umberto Eco was also a ton of fun to read-- it follows a fictional boy in 12th century Italy who ends up being adopted into the court of the Holy Roman Emperor and has these adventures involving mythical Christian stuff of that time, i.e. the myth of Prester John is treated as true, that sort of thing. Apparently a lot of the characters are actually real historical figures, and the characters have theological and scientific discussions as people of the time would have. I thought it was super fun and interesting. Lots of mystery and adventure. The author was a scholar of the time and topics he writes about and you can definitely tell.

What is an essential element of a good book? That it keeps you engaged I suppose? My favorites are the ones whose world or topics I feel obsessed with for months afterwards.

Do you judge a book by the cover? I'll appreciate it if the cover is nice but the cover has never been a deciding factor in my decision to read anything, lol.