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Are Your Interrests the same in real life as what you read?

For discussions of historical fiction. Threads that do not relate to historical fiction should be started in the Chat forum or elsewhere on the forum, depending on the topic.
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EC2
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3661
Joined: August 2008
Location: Nottingham UK
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Post by EC2 » Tue October 14th, 2008, 10:30 pm

My interests and my day job overlap. I've always got some book on the Middle Ages on the go - but it's always factual research reading.
As far as leisure reading goes. I used to read every piece of fiction set in the middle ages I could lay hands on. However, I found that as I researched further I became more and more picky about accuracy which means that my author pool diminished to a minute handful - and that's how it remains today.
I will read fiction set in any period and across all genres. It's variety that matters. I will read a historical, followed by a thriller, followed by a Terry Pratchett, followed by another historical, followed by a Tim Severin travel book, then a literary book. I don't care if the books are by men or women, or whether the protags are male or female. It's all grist to the mill. I struggle with chic-lit. I won't say never, but two a year is about my limit, and any heroine who displays symptoms just for one minute of TSTL is on her way to hitting the wall with the rest of the cast!
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

Ash
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2475
Joined: August 2008
Location: Arizona, USA

Post by Ash » Tue October 14th, 2008, 11:32 pm

I wish I could make a living in history, I've always loved learning about it and reading books about it. But my other passion is teaching, something I came to early life. You'd think I'd be teaching history. Nope. I teach preschool kids with disabilities and wouldn't do anything else. But when I come home, you bet the first thing I do is grab up the book Ive been reading...

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Misfit
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Posts: 9581
Joined: August 2008
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by Misfit » Wed October 15th, 2008, 12:15 am

Well since my day job is something mundane (not!) like chasing contractors for money (it does have it's interesting moments), I am more than happy to lose myself in the past once the workday is over.

chuck
Bibliophile
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Location: Ciinaminson NJ

Post by chuck » Wed October 15th, 2008, 3:53 am

Early on HF has let me escape and do some time traveling through the reading experience......some authors are better than others in describing the place, the characters and the sense of time..........

Ash
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Joined: August 2008
Location: Arizona, USA

Post by Ash » Wed October 15th, 2008, 4:18 am

[quote=""EC2""]. I will read fiction set in any period and across all genres. It's variety that matters. I will read a historical, followed by a thriller, followed by a Terry Pratchett, followed by another historical, followed by a Tim Severin travel book, then a literary book. I don't care if the books are by men or women, or whether the protags are male or female. It's all grist to the mill. I struggle with chic-lit. I won't say never, but two a year is about my limit, and any heroine who displays symptoms just for one minute of TSTL is on her way to hitting the wall with the rest of the cast![/quote]

Throw a non fiction history into the mix, and thats pretty much my reading style. I also tend to have two or three books going at once. I am also a HUGE Pratchett fan; eagerly awaiting my copy of his latest, "Nation". BTW do you read Gaiman as well?
I struggle with chic-lit. I won't say never, but two a year is about my limit, and any heroine who displays symptoms just for one minute of TSTL is on her way to hitting the wall with the rest of the cast!
Oh, I can't bear that stuff. And now that I know what TSTL means, yes, it becomes a wall banger for me too, chick lit or not!

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Carine
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 675
Joined: September 2008
Currently reading: Jonkvrouw - Jean-Claude Van Ryckeghem
Interest in HF: I love history
Favourite HF book: Can't pin that down to only 1 :-)
Preferred HF: Medieval, Tudor and Ancient Egyptian
Location: Ghent, Belgium
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Post by Carine » Wed October 15th, 2008, 6:12 am

I just love history ! I read rarely anything else but HF or sometimes non fiction but still historical.
My job has nothing to do with history at all, I work in an office of which the main purpose is to pay bonusses to people that work in the territory of laying out of gardens.
But if you could enter my house you would see that a history-loving person lives in it :)
I love knight-related ornaments !!
Plus, last year we broke down the existing mantlepiece and built a new one and at both sides is a medieval figure, a woman on one side and a man on the other side.

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Alaric
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Post by Alaric » Wed October 15th, 2008, 6:42 am

Most of my time is spent doing readings for my classes, a lot of those deal with history and most of my reading for leisure is either politics or historical (non-)fiction, so definitely they overlap.

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Wed October 15th, 2008, 8:49 am

[quote=""Carine""]
But if you could enter my house you would see that a history-loving person lives in it :)
I love knight-related ornaments !!
Plus, last year we broke down the existing mantlepiece and built a new one and at both sides is a medieval figure, a woman on one side and a man on the other side.[/quote]

LOL, I identify. When my son moved into his own house, I took over his former bedroom and turned it into an overflow study. All my re-enactment show and tell equipment are displayed in there, including my sword and shield and helm.
I have some slightly tacky but fun drunken knight bookends in my main study, their task being to hold upright the books I'm currently using for research, and a table in there is covered by a Milles Fleures tapestry - of the kind in the Gryffindor common room in the Harry Potter Films.

Ash, I haven't read Gaiman but I intend to. He's a definite gap in my reading awareness and he's always being recommended.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Madeleine
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 5860
Joined: August 2008
Currently reading: "Mania" by L J Ross
Preferred HF: Plantagenets, Victorian, crime, dual time-frame
Location: Essex/London

Post by Madeleine » Wed October 15th, 2008, 10:49 am

I used to quite like history at school and at one time wanted to work either in a museum or be an archaeologist, however more mundane things came my way and I worked in an office for 23 years. HF has re-awakened my interest in history and is a form of escapism whilst learning about real people and real events, and a way of shutting off from all the irritations of modern life (although I expect there were just as many in the past!).

What does TSTL mean?

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diamondlil
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Post by diamondlil » Wed October 15th, 2008, 10:53 am

Too Stupid To Live.
Last edited by diamondlil on Wed October 15th, 2008, 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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