Astraeus

Well I ventured to my university library yesterday to grab one of Echo's recommendations and they all looked a little tatty. However, the section of the library provided a relative goldmine of books on the subject and so I've come away with "Empires of the Atlantic World" by J.H. Elliott, a book which details the period of British and Spanish conquests in the new America between 1492 and 1830. So far it's an entertaining read - if a little academic - and seems to be the broad topic I was looking for!

I was just becoming disillusioned with my search having spent an hour in Waterstones reading the blurbs of various books only to find not one concerned the subject or period in which I was interested. Alas, returning to this forum seems to have given me my first rich pickings! I will retrieve The Conquest of New Spain from my university library tomorrow and see how it shapes up, as I shall with "A Land So Strange". If you would be so kind as to name a couple more books that your other half is eyeing-up, it'd be most appreciated. Readwine, I shall look into that book. It is an interesting tangent from the main field of my research but fascinating and appealing nonetheless. Thank you.

Thank you for the very prompt response. That's the second recommendation I've had for Marco Polo but I was hoping for something a little more all-encompassing. I read Empires of the Sea by Roger Crowley and was hoping for something similar as that book surely ranks as one of my favourites owing to its ease-of-access in writing style and very dynamic story-telling means of narrating history.

Hi! I guess this includes my introduction given that it's my first post here - I've long been searching for an active(ish) book forum to give me inspiration as I'm finding The Times and The Economist aren't quite as varied in their scope for recommendations as "normal" people. I'm in the market for a good book on the age of exploration - Magellan, Columbus, Vespucci and the ilk. Does anyone have any recommendations?