Two non-fiction books

Comment: The most recent books I've read were both non-fiction and both lent to me by an acquaintance of mine, someone who has the habit of giving me books I might be interested in reading. Of course some are so, while others not so much.

I'm not going to write much about these books because despite their intellectual validity and content, the experience of reading them both was not much fun. The writing style of both was very heavy, in the sense that for a person not familiar with the subjects, the way the information is given feels very dry, very unappealing in its structure.  

I'll include the original cover or close to it (although I read them both in Portuguese) and a few words about each one.

Hitler and the secret societies by René Alleau

This could be the translation of this French book. The edition I read was a very old one, from the 70s

I think, which means the style is definitely dated.

Basically the premise is set on the fact Hitler and, in general, the nazis, used occultism and myths to support many of their ideas to convince and influence the people they were right in their demands.

The author did an excellent job in writing an academic-styled work, where he structures the genesis of these myths and their role in the history of what is now Germany, as well as the way some individuals carried it out before and during the III Reich.

I mean, the subject does have some fascination but to be honest, so much of the book is spent on setting up the ground for this to happen, practically half the book is on historical background, that the idea of reading about secret societies à la Dan Brown quickly disappeared.

I think the title shouldn't be this, it made me think I'd e reading a certain type of book and it was not so. As for the content, it was quite interesting yes, but not everything was written in a way that I would feel eager to keep reading.

Grade: 4/10

Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed

This is considered a classic on the Russian revolution and the beginning of communism, interestingly seen and reported by an American journalist, also communist, who was in Russian when the events happened.

This book is an exhaustive compilation of those days and how everything came to pass. The author clearly felt what he was reporting, he was both an intimate spectator of everything, he met people like Lenine and Trotsky, and a person who could write in a certain style, so that someone not there could feel all the euphoria of what was accomplished. 

This was very interesting but, again, the problem for me was precisely how this is written. The style is very dated and it makes it very difficult to focus, I admit I was bored a lot of time. Besides this, one needs to accept the fact there is a lot of nomenclature and technical names/structures/organizations that are named and referenced and that makes the book difficult to read.

I liked reading this but another confession: it was made more interesting for me because of the author's identity and background rather than his ideas (which I don't dismiss).

Grade: 5/10