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Personally, I agree that it is hard to choose, but I really like stories set in the British Isles and in feudal Japan. It is especially gratifying as a reader when the writer has researched the time period and gets the historical facts correct. When an author uses the facts as an outline, and then adds his/her own colorful story, the result is often a thouroughly engrossing read.
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Oh, what titles on feudal Japan? Sometimes I love watching Japanese films but I have not read fiction about feudal Japan.
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One of the titles I really enjoyed some years back is called "The Tale of Murasaki". It is an historical fiction about the woman who actually did write a series of illustrated scrolls detailing the life of the hero Genji. I think this might be a good place for you to start.
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After reading Tuchman's Distant Mirror the 14th Century has always been my favorite period.
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rob
- Friday, January 18 2008
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oh, probably the Crusader period for me...I love reading about the Militant Orders, though I steer clear of the fiction on Templars...I'm writing my own novel involving them so it kinda weirds me out to read anyone else's fiction on them, especially when they get it wrong or veer off into the myths and legends which just annoy me...
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ChoChi
- Friday, January 18 2008
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Medieval Period...
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I really enjoy reading about the Scottish Wars of Independence, Robert Bruce, William Wallace, The Good Sir James Douglas and the like. That is such and interesting period of time with so many battles fought over the same pieces of land. All of it ending up being kind of pointless in the end as well, considering they united under a single monarch anyway.
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My favorite is The times between 900s and 1400s. My favorite place is the locations of the crusades and anything to do with the knights Templars. I love the whole crazy religious thing. I am atheist myself but like the whole conspiracy and different point of view on the crusades and Templars. I enjoy non fiction the best because I am more interested on what really happened and not what others say happened (i like to do the imagining myself).
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For me it's the general era, with Russia, the Baltic lands and Scandinavia that hold my main interest.
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hmm... the era that gets my attention is the crusades from the first to the last. the main thing from the crusades is the Knights templar. from their greats moments to their persecution.
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I enjoy cultural and art history. I highly recommend Frances & Joseph Gies' "Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel" for a survey of the great technological advancements of the so-called "dark ages."
Also, Peter Ackroyd's "London: A Biography" is one of the most fascinating -and overwhelming- books ever published. You really MUST check it out!
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I would like to be a mendicant Friar teaching in Oxford and Paris during the mid 13th century-early 14th century.
High Scholasticism is love :-)
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For me it's a complete tie between 1st-15th century Persia, viking-era Northern Europe, and the rest of Europe just as Christianity was seeping in.
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Scotland: 1) reign of James IV which was probably closer to renaissance 2) war of independence and the period of the growth of monasticism in the border/sw abbeys. Any Scottish period in history, but medieval offers the most diversity.
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I'll read novels in any medieval time period, but Henry II of England is my all-time medieval historical hero. It's hard for me to read novels set in that time period, though (unless they're my own :-) ), because I have such a specific picture of Henry II and the people around him in my head, that he feels "out of character" if portrayed any other way. Love reading non-fiction about him, though.
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