Basket.

I always like a historian who can narrate well. A good storyteller, in other words (NO WOMAN WARRIOR WISECRACKS. EAT SHIT AND DIE.). Combining this very commendable quality with the essential skill of being able to dissect and analyse events and occurences is Erik Durschmied, whose books I have grown to love since Mr Lim lent me The Hinge Factor. His narratives are breathless and his books thrilling page-turners; once you start you can hardly stop. His is history for the masses, unlike the technically brilliant but sometimes horrendously boring works of, say, Eric Hobsbawm (which explains how I, shamefully, have borrowed Age of Extremes twice and renewed it on both occasions, yet have not finished reading it).

The fact that his chapters are rich with detail help his cause very well; I have read few other historians who pay such attention to the very words that passed from the lips of historical luminaries. It is history at a micro-level, with a far narrower scope but far greater detail than most other history.

Of course, his books do sound like newspaper reporting sometimes (cue Gulf War references, and in fact he was once a journalist), and I do doubt some of the accuracy of his details (he seems to accept ancient sources almost at face value, which is dangerous), but overall, his books are a superbly entertaining read. They won't bore for a minute, and that is a promise.

In other news, Woodlands regional library rocks.