An ongoing thread where people say what they are reading might be useful. Some of the books that get mentioned on this Literature area I have not heard of and it's interesting to read what people say about them - but you have to keep opening and closing threads. So a thread where people say what they are reading and a little bit about it might be more user friendly to me - and maybe a few others.


I have been reading the autobiography of the Emperor Napoleon. Not that he ever wrote a full one, but he did write or dictate an awful lot about himself which a guy with the weird name of Somerset de Chair put together and published in 1992 as 'Napoleon on Napoleon'.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not reading it for any other motive but interest and have no desire to conquer anywhere - but as a character he's always interested me and I saw this coffee table sized book and decided to get it.

The man liked himself a lot which is fairly obvious from the word go. One thing you notice very quickly is that he is always right; always the centre of attention, and always the hero of the hour. I get the idea that he is the victim of his own propaganda. A few years ago I read Hitler's table talk - Goebbels had a guy take down in shorthand every word that the Fuhrer said at dinner - a virtual monologue. He knew everything about everything and the strange thing is that Napoleon struck me in exactly the same way.

It's not a very interesting book I have to say, unless you are seriously into bigheads bigging themselves up.
One thing though that I found very interesting is what he missed out.
He hardly mentions Trafalgar; but Waterloo and the Duke of Wellington get no mention at all. Clearly the memory was inconvenient.

So I do not recommend it as a read - I found it a bit of a slog and finished it only because I made myself.

I think I'll read some fiction now for light relief.


Watcha reading?