The Profile Books Catalogue

Today cometh the Profile and Serpent's Tail catalogues. I spent a long and happy time looking through the Profile one. It struck me that there was something missing, it took me a little while to put my finger on it: not a single celebrity book. How refreshing! A classy imprint, then, and most of them very interesting. For instance, there is one on The War on Heresy by R.I.Moore. The 'action'in this book is around 1000AD in Europe. It concentrates on the motives of the people involved, their beliefs and why exactly those persecuted were judged to be such a threat. It is a part of history I know little about, and would love to learn more.


Related to this, perhaps, is the book on the Cathars: The Friar of Carcassonne by Stephen O'Shea which has the sub-title 'Revolt against the inquisition in the last days of the Cathars'. This is new in paperback. I think my mother may well find this in her Christmas stocking (just so I can borrow it from her).

Then there is a book called The Buddhas of Bamiyan by Llewelyn Morgan about the Buddhas carved into the rock in Afghanistan, and destroyed by the Taliban. Ever since reading about this in my Silk Road research, and then listening to the Kite Runner, I have been fascinated by Afghanistan. One day I plan to go there.

But there are lots of other books in there too that sound equally interesting: The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama, for instance, or The New North by Lawrence C Smith on how the world may look in 2050; then there's a book on the future of Africa by Duncan Clarke (an area of the world I know lamentably little about, and really should know more); another on the London Underground by Andrew Martin and then there's one by Daniel L Everett called Language and follows on from his absorbing account of his adventure with the Pirahas, which I read a couple of years ago.


Ah, so many wonderful-sounding books! And that's before I even start on the Serpent's Tail catalogue.