Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe, Simon Winder

So on the one hand, I loved this book. The author is just plain old funny. He is wry and a often sarcastic, and there's a lot to mock about the poor Habsburgs, who had an empire but never really did much with it, and certainly weren't successful at much. In his introduction he promises to avoid talking about how one ethnic group is spicy, or another is cold, or another is always joyful and drinking, and I love that level of metacognition about history writing, especially when discussing Eastern Europe, where everyone is constantly trying to merge or differentiate themselves.

On the other hand, he constantly describes castles, or paintings, or suits of armor, or museum exhibits in a way that sounds hilarious, but I want to see it. There are almost no photographs, but the whole book is predicated on traveling from city to city and castle to castle. I spent a lot of time on my phone looking at google images, and it added a ton to the book. It needs both maps and photographs. Also, Winder talks about classical music as if we're all totally familiar with every Austrian (etc etc) composer. I like classical music, too, but it genuinely made me feel like he was condescending to me a little, and that made me like him less.

Grade: C
#54 in 2016