A satyr's reading list.

I love this book so much. It goes into detail about all the different tropes of anime and manga and playfully pokes at them.

Great read for anyone who loves the manga. Fantastic art to boot.

Just to give a heads up, this is a reprint of a document from 1888. So for everyone looking for information Yersinia pestis or how it was carried by fleas you will be disappointed. That was discovered later. Also this was when the miasma theory was falling out and germ theory replaced it. So there does appear to be a bit of both sprinkled in. He does talk from time to time about bad air coming from the earth being the cause. With that said however this is still a good book. It's major key points is the detail involved with the patients disease, the overall death toll and how it spread across europe. It also goes into a lot of detail about what happened afterwards. Like how the plague caused the weakening of the catholic church when the fanatics came in and how the Jews were blamed and persecuted for it. The second part of the book talks about the dancing mania which is really just a continuation of the black plague. The dancing mania, which caused hoards of people to dance until they died, starts right after the black death is over in Europe and continues up until the late 1700s. He goes into a lot of description of this and how it was most likely a psychosis from all the mental anguish mixed with superstition.

Fantastic book. chapter 13 was probably my favorite chapter. Thats where everything comes to a head and he brings up the similarities between different species as well as vestigial organs and how it could have served previous generations but be rendered useless or redundant now. It was impressive that he noticed and brought up several things that would later be fully explained by science. One such thing was linked genes. When talking about pigeons he mentioned that beak size and foot size would always be correlated. He admits hes not sure why but in all cases with pigeon breeding if you have a small beak you have tiny feet. As an interesting note: he never brings up the finches. Ever. He hardly ever mentions the Galapagos. Mostly that he visited it and it had a small highly specialized group of species.For the most part he talks about fancy pigeons. So if you want an easier time reading the book go look up fancy pigeons, look at all the different breeds of domestic pigeons, memorize them, then read the book. Trust me he brings them up a lot.

In truth I didn't manage to finish the book. However by 60% the way through all of my patience was worn out.This is by far the worst book I have ever read. It started off good with normal bram stoker Gothic flare. The ghosts were introduced far far earlier than I expected. Then came Marjory... The Mary sue from hell. At this point the book's plot grinds to a halt as the main characters just go full stupid. Absolutely NOTHING Marjory does makes a bit of sense. She has the most inappropriate reactions to situations and has the depth of a single sheet of rice-paper.The next part will be a synopses of the story up until I finally decided I had enough.Marjorie introduction: Her and her friend mrs james finds themselves stuck on a rock in the middle of rock while the tide is coming in and a nasty storm. The main hero, Archie Hunter, swims out and saves both girls by tying a rope to them and swimming back. They go back to the inn to rest after their near death experience. The storm raging, wind howling ect ect. After maybe an hour mrs james falls asleep and Marjory decided she would like to take a stroll on the beach near where she was almost killed while the storm is still present. The main character decides to spill the beans of whats been happening up to now to Marjory. She was informed that: he has second sight, recently followed a bunch of ghosts while caring a dieing man, after seeing the dead man's ghost drops him into a well, and that several of the ghosts are guarding a treasure who took notice and acted menacingly towards him. She takes this entirely too well. Her response was pretty much "oooooh treasure!? Where? We should go find it!" At this point Archie goes full stupid: On the second meeting he takes her to the well mentioned above so the can look around. The whole time walking to the well he is thinking to himself "I'm sure people have proposed and knew each other for a shorter period of time. It works out well for them right? oh heck I'm going to go for it!" He at this point proposes to her. She turns him down. (This is one of Marjorie's more sane moments.) He then goes back to tried to win his girls love with deciphering a cryptograph. Because the lades love those cryptographs. Later a government agent, by the name of Sam Adams, informs Archie of who the girl he is stalking truly is. Apparently she is a heiress of the largest fortune in America, so large in fact she bought a battleship for the US on a whim and gave it to them so they could kill the Spanish. By the way shes very racist towards Spanish people. Her parents have also recently died so she is an orphan millionaire. (How convenient for the main character) So Archie confronts her. She admits she left America to avoid all those awful love letters and people proposing. At the end of this conversation she proposes to Archie. Apparently 2 days is too soon but 3 days is just right. Especially when you flee a country to avoid marriage >.< WTF!? She also goes on about how she is independent but needs a man to make decisions for her and this makes her just like Joan of arc. I kid you not she compares herself to herself to THE Joan of arc.She also claims that the secret service knows nothing because they are getting information from their supervisors, the only way to find out about international affairs is by consulting the hired help that mops your floors. She manages to get stupider as it goes on. It is then revealed that there is a plot by some Spanish people to kidnap her to hold her for ransom. When Archie explains this her reaction is "ooh what good fun. Tell me more, we can play a prank on them." When she realizes he is being serious and is worried she blows him off and then laments that she would be engaged to someone who would burden her with not getting herself killed. After this... for no good reason at all she throws herself at the hero and begs for sex. I guess the thought of being murdered and kidnapped turns her on.Next day they marry and then try to keep everyone else from every knowing. At this point I was so aghast at Marjory's behavior I started to wonder if this was a strange satire. I don't believe it is, the other characters take themselves so seriously and actually plan things out so it's hard to imagine it being a satire or parody. Marjory is the only one that acts completely out of place.Marjory continues her crusade of being stupid. Once they survived the rising tide of the cave with a kiss I just decided I had enough. I really can't believe bram stoker wrote this. This is so absolutely atrocious it's beyond belief. I may eventually try to finish it to see just how deep a whole it digs itself but for now I am done with this horrible book.

Not as funny as the gentleman's guide to etiquette.I did nearly die of laughter when the book had to make a special point not to suck on the end of your parasol while strolling down the street. However theres a few sections I think people may like for things other than etiquette. In the section that talks about achievements at the end it goes into a lot of detail about knitting and crocheting. Mainly about different popular types of garments and the popular way to knit them. So if you want some info on period piece knitting this is a good reference.At the end of the book there is a "receipts" section. Despite how it sounds its instructions for different health care products for the time and how to make them yourself. So also if you are interested in Victorian era products this is a good area to reference.

This is one of those accidentally funny books. Granted some of the book is quite helpful in manners so if you ignore the crazy parts its not a bad instruction book.On to the funny: During the dinner party monologue I kept picturing someone's spinster aunt glaring at the end of the table glaring at the guest. The inner monologue getting more and more angry as it goes along.The next oddly funny part was the end of the ballroom section. It was mentioned to be careful dancing with a girl because if you move too fast because she might bump into another women with disastrous results. And by disastrous results the book meant that the other girl's charm-bracelet would hurt your date in such a way as to cause her to bleed profusely on her own dress. So many questions at this point. First: how much psi would one's blood have to be under in order to soak ones own dress from a charm prick. Damn those corsets. Second: what on earth were they wearing for charms... ginsu knives? Then there was the whole “be careful if the girl accidentally promises to dance with two men on the same dance but didn't realize it.” Apparently a great many a ballroom brawl has been started by this and you may end up with a horrible gash on your cheek or your arm in a sling. Then the dangers of the waltz: with people galloping around the room with a vigorous waltz you run the risk of breaking your own foot by falling and possibly some bone in her body. … all from the waltz.I love reading about the Victorian time and I have to say this is the first time I have every heard anything about this with ballrooms. I find it impossible any of this is even close to happened but I so want to read a story with this in it. From the 101 tips section of the book. 30. avoid personality: nothing is more ungentlemanly.I'm not joking. This is a quote. There is more but this was my list of highlights. If you don't mind digging amongst the helpful tips this makes a funny read. XD

Very good summary of a lot of mythology. I would recommend it for anyone who likes mythology or wants a good overview.