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Aug. 8th, 2004 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mojosmomIt was a gorgeous day today, so I spent the afternoon on the back porch, with a glass of iced tea and the cats, finishing this book:
#85
Birth of the Chess Queen: A History, by Marilyn Yalom
This is a fascinating book, even for non-chess players such as myself. Today, the queen is the most powerful piece on the chess board. But she wasn't always there -- indeed, in some parts of the world she still isn't there -- and when she arrived she she was the weakest piece, as her predecessor, the vizier, had been. Yalom traces the arrival of the chess queen, and the growth of her power, to the power of women rulers in medieval Europe. Along the way, she shows the connections between chess and Mariolatry, and between chess and the Courts of Love, and ties the spread of "queen's chess" to the rise of the printing press and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. The book ends with speculation as to why women, who in past times played chess on an equal footing with men, rarely play, much less compete, today.
I found out about this book in a "What Are You Reading Now?" thread on BookCrossing, in which Sonora mentioned this. So, thank you, Sonora!!
While we were hanging out on the porch, Lucas, the neighbor's cat, was sitting inside on their kitchen window sill. Mojo hopped up on the storage box outside the window, climbed on the outside sill, and spent much effort trying to figure out why batting at Lucas wasn't accomplishing anything. Quite an amusing sight!
#85
Birth of the Chess Queen: A History, by Marilyn Yalom
This is a fascinating book, even for non-chess players such as myself. Today, the queen is the most powerful piece on the chess board. But she wasn't always there -- indeed, in some parts of the world she still isn't there -- and when she arrived she she was the weakest piece, as her predecessor, the vizier, had been. Yalom traces the arrival of the chess queen, and the growth of her power, to the power of women rulers in medieval Europe. Along the way, she shows the connections between chess and Mariolatry, and between chess and the Courts of Love, and ties the spread of "queen's chess" to the rise of the printing press and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. The book ends with speculation as to why women, who in past times played chess on an equal footing with men, rarely play, much less compete, today.
I found out about this book in a "What Are You Reading Now?" thread on BookCrossing, in which Sonora mentioned this. So, thank you, Sonora!!
While we were hanging out on the porch, Lucas, the neighbor's cat, was sitting inside on their kitchen window sill. Mojo hopped up on the storage box outside the window, climbed on the outside sill, and spent much effort trying to figure out why batting at Lucas wasn't accomplishing anything. Quite an amusing sight!
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Date: 2004-10-20 11:10 am (UTC)I'm not sure about livejournal etiquette, so I apologise in advance if this is a cheeky question ... I just wondered if you might add me to your friends list so that I could read your journal. I enjoy reading your forum posts on BC (even though we often have different opinions) so I think I'd probably enjoy reading your journal. But of course I understand if you don't want to - just thought I'd ask.
Take care :-)
MyopicMeringue
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Date: 2004-10-20 01:32 pm (UTC)(I try to add my bookcrossing friends, but don't always know when they've joined LiveJournal, so thanks for the asking!)
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Date: 2004-10-23 09:13 pm (UTC)