(no subject)

[skygiants]

After visiting Stromness Books and Prints, I really and truly did not intend to pick up any more books on our trip, and in any case we were spending our last day in the Orkneys kicking around the island of Hoy, which has 400 inhabitants and no bookstores whatsoever.

When you get off the ferry in Hoy, there is a small building with bathrooms and some public service notices, and then one of Hoy's two cafes is about a half-mile down the road, and then it's pretty much sheep and mountains for six miles until you hit the town with the other cafe, which we probably weren't going to get far enough to visit; as a result, we decided it would be wise to use the public bathrooms in the ferry terminal.

To my delight! it also turned out the ferry terminal was having a library sale! Four crates of deaccessioned books next to a donation bucket with a sign saying to help ourselves and perhaps contribute to Orkney public services!

Obviously we had to take something -- one does not simply walk away from a surprise book sale without attending the offerings of fate -- so Beth picked up a murder mystery novel and I picked up Rafael Sabatini's Chivalry in an edition that looked like this. The title of the book does not technically have an exclamation point at the end but I kept pronouncing with one anyway, for obvious reasons.

I've never read a Sabatini book but always kind of wanted to out of a general impression that reading one would feel exactly like watching an Errol Flynn movie, and I was so right about this. Chivalry is about an brilliant! and ambitious! mercenary captain in fifteenth-century Italy who extremely wants to become a count or a duke or something of this nature, but who also desperately wants to Adhere To Chivalric Ideals and Swear His Service To A Lady despite all his friends and colleagues complaining that chivalric ideals are so two hundred centuries ago. Every chapter is titled after a different lady (although several of these ladies turn out in fact to be the same two ladies)! Our hero's reputation is constantly being slandered when it appears that he is pursuing base ambition or betraying his employers for cash, only for it to turn out that he was behaving fairly and honorably all along, except for those one or two times where he sort of accidentally wasn't!

This is the kind of book where if you get attacked by a gang of ruffians at an inn, a noble stranger will inevitably run up and help you fight off the ruffians, only for the tables to turn when the noble stranger realizes that you're the guy he's come to this city to murder and the ruffians help save your life because you talked the noble stranger out of murdering them when he was helping you fight them off five minutes ago. It is also the kind of book where if a guy attempts to blackmail you while bragging smugly about the particularly cunning way that he got rid of an Enemy who Knew a Dangerous Secret, you are absolutely justified in cunningly getting rid of him in the exact same way. You know. Chivalry! It probably would have been most appropriate to read while touring castles in Italy, but experiencing the various Exciting Swordfights and Attempted Betrayals while lounging next to ruined Castle Tioram on a tidal island in the Highlands was really not too bad either.

Comments

[musesfool]

I've never read a Sabatini book but always kind of wanted to out of a general impression that reading one would feel exactly like watching an Errol Flynn movie, and I was so right about this.

Several Errol Flynn movies are based on his books, right? Also, now I am earwormed with "Bohemian Rhapsody."

This sounds like a lot of fun, though, so I might give it a whirl.

[mme_n_b]

Right. Especially Captain Blood which is the Most Romantic Book Ever.

[musesfool]

👍

[skygiants]

Yeah, that was the one thing I knew about him! So I was primed for Flynn-o-vision and BOY HOWDY did it come through.

[troisoiseaux]

I love how the universe is apparently conspiring to put book-purchasing opportunities in your path!!

[skygiants]

haloed with light like a quest-giving item and I'm a completionist gamer

[osprey_archer]

This sounds like an AMAZING find, perfect thing to discover at a library book sale in the Orkneys, A++.

[skygiants]

It really was like "oh? you want a good vacation book?? VOILA!"

[sovay]

it also turned out the ferry terminal was having a library sale! Four crates of deaccessioned books next to a donation bucket with a sign saying to help ourselves and perhaps contribute to Orkney public services!

Your trip was definitely charmed.

[skygiants]

our thank you from the ghosts for the small concert, perhaps

[hilarita]

This sounds like an excellent book to have picked up while also supporting public services!

[skygiants]

It's a fantastic old hardback copy, too, the cover is so silly and I love it

[sholio]

This does sound like an excellent find and an excellent way to find it!

[skygiants]

Yes, a really satisfying acquisition to make! Beth also ended up reading a whole children's adventure book right from the crate while we waited for the ferry, too

[raven]

Ahhh, I love tiny Scottish booksales! there's a periodic one in Malaig which I think they can keep running so often because the organisers don't actually want to sell any books (closed at lunchtime, no plastic, paper or tote bags, cash only and no change) but, y'know, who can blame them.

[skygiants]

who can blame them! books are for hoarding!

[dhampyresa]

experiencing the various Exciting Swordfights and Attempted Betrayals while lounging next to ruined Castle Tioram on a tidal island in the Highlands was really not too bad either.
That sounds really lovely!

[skygiants]

It was delightful! and in true adventure fashion, we even found our way initially barred by highwaymen* when we tried to get to the castle and had to abandon our steeds and go on foot

*highway service doing road repair

[landingtree]

Ambush by book sale! The best thing!

[skygiants]

would that I could encounter such an ambush every day [our bookshelves disagree]

[chestnut_pod]

This vacation wasn't really about vacation, was it? It was about finding book-buying excuses; j'accuse! This one, to be fair, sounds both irresistible and fruitful.

[skygiants]

that was inevitably going to be true as soon as we put Hay-on-Wye on the agenda >.> but we didn't know quite HOW true it would be --

[regshoe]

What a serendipitous library sale :D Chivalry sounds like a load of ridiculous swashbuckling fun—I shall put it on my list for when I next feel like a good silly adventure novel.

[skygiants]

It is indeed that! I hope you enjoy it :D

[larryhammer]

I've heard of this talked about as solid second-tier Sabatini but have never gotten around to reading it.

(Short shameful confession: I consistently misread Stromness as Stromsness. I've no excuse.)

[skygiants]

The pleasing thing about it being my first Sabatini is the knowledge that I still have the top tier to come!

(alas, the stray S)

[obopolsk]

Chivalry really does seem like a title that needs an exclamation point after it.

[skygiants]

With the cover I found, even moreso!