New: Book Report: Dreadnought

My cousin Betsy was in town this last weekend. She was full of energy. My parents and I had to take her in shifts, and we still got worn out keeping up with her. I accompanied her to a couple of museums and a few meals. My parents kept up with her through some of that, plus some sight-seeing and an opera. Today at work, I could hardly stir from my chair. But that's not my excuse for not making it through Dreadnought. It's not Betsy's fault. I blame Queen Victoria.

Dreadnought, a history of World War I by Robert Massie, revels in detail. At least the first few chapters did. They provided background about Queen Victoria and Otto Bismarck and they went on a lot longer than I wanted them to so I stopped reading. Well, the part about Bismarck wasn't quite so overlong, but I was soooo bored after slogging through tales of the British royals that I ran out of steam.

It's too bad. This book is well-researched and well-written. If only Victoria hadn't reigned so long, I might have kept going and learned something.

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Posted 2005-11-14