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Feb. 20th, 2026 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fitiaSometimes I wish I could share the non-fiction I read more often (recent find is a book on the history of the political evolution in France circa 1848-1871, that maps the trajectory leading to the 3rd Republic. I picked it up purely out of a desire to learn something new, preferably in relation to the European revolutions of 1848*), but I'm very weird about sharing excerpts. I always feel like I should be adding additional commentary I rarely ever feel equipped to make, or I'm terrified someone will see the title of the book I'm reading and tell me that everything in it is outdated or that it's mostly unreliable, and that I've wasted my time. Which is scary. My reading speed is slow enough as is, I'd like to be sure that whatever I've picked up is worthwhile 😔
The good news is, it's not like I'm obligated to share every little detail of my life, including what I'm reading, but it does give me a weird sense of FOMO to not be able to go "hey, look at this cool thing I've learned!" with any degree of confidence.😔
I started to read, then subsequently dropped, another history book from the same publishing house as this one, and both have the same problem of being very cavalier with footnotes. They're frequently absent even after quotes and references to other authors or to the primary sources the authors have read, and the end bibliography has the same disclaimer of not containing every single work referenced in the book which ??? is that something you can do ??? I'll have to look into it. What I'm reading in this current book is fascinating, but I'm really tempted to drop it and pick up another one on the same topic if there's an issue with reliability. Actually, I should start by reading reviews of it. Not sure why that wasn't the first thing I did!
The good news is, it's not like I'm obligated to share every little detail of my life, including what I'm reading, but it does give me a weird sense of FOMO to not be able to go "hey, look at this cool thing I've learned!" with any degree of confidence.😔
I started to read, then subsequently dropped, another history book from the same publishing house as this one, and both have the same problem of being very cavalier with footnotes. They're frequently absent even after quotes and references to other authors or to the primary sources the authors have read, and the end bibliography has the same disclaimer of not containing every single work referenced in the book which ??? is that something you can do ??? I'll have to look into it. What I'm reading in this current book is fascinating, but I'm really tempted to drop it and pick up another one on the same topic if there's an issue with reliability. Actually, I should start by reading reviews of it. Not sure why that wasn't the first thing I did!
