Finished reading THE HOUSE OF TWENTY THOUSAND BOOKS by Sasha Abramsky. Published in 2014 this is a grandson's memoir, a labour of love, about his bibliophile grandfather Chimen Abramsky (1916-2010).
Born in Tsarist Russia, son of a renowned Rabbi, Chimen migrated to Britain, schooled himself in languages and history, and became Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of London. He was a voracious reader with photographic memory, and also a bookseller and collector.
Chimen Abramsky's London house contained one of England's most important private libraries. For a few decades it was one of leftwing London's great salons. Up to 1958 Chimen was a member of the British Communist Party. His extraordinary collection totalled about 20,000 volumes including rare books hundreds of years old.
Excluding kitchen and bathroom, every room was crammed with books from floor to ceiling. Books on tabletops too, and in closets, cupboards and wardrobes. It was a working library that Abramsky accessed for essays, articles and books that he wrote.

Finished reading "CUBA DIARIES: An American Housewife in Havana" by Isadora Tattlin. From 1995 to 1998 a foreign energy consultant was assigned to Cuba. He was accompanied by his American wife and their two children. It was a period of economic austerity caused by the collapse of the Eastern European communist bloc that had subsidized Cuba for three decades. The author of this book kept diaries of her sojourn in Cuba.

Finished reading "TRINIDAD NOIR: The Classics", an anthology of short stories and poems edited by Earl Lovelace. It features Trinidadian writers by birth, passport and domicile. CLR James, Sam Selvon, Eric Roach, VS Naipaul, Michael Anthony, Harold Sonny Ladoo, Derek Walcott, Lawrence Scott, Willi Chen, Robert Antoni, Ismith Khan, Elizabeth Nunez, Wayne Brown, Jennifer Rahim, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw, Barbara Jenkins, Sharon Millar and Shani Mootoo. There is a story written by Earl Lovelace too.

When I was 16 years old I read Earl Lovelace's first novel "While Gods Are Falling" that won the British Petroleum-sponsored Trinidad and Tobago Independence Literary Prize in 1962. Lovelace later won more literary prizes for his novels, poems and plays. He never emigrated from Trinidad and, at age 83, is still writing.

"Trinidad Noir: The Classics" was published in 2017.

So far this year I finished reading 44 books. Here are some of them:
(1) "Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy" by Nicholas Reynolds.
(2) "Back to the Law" by Max Brand.
(3) "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh.
(4) "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway.
(5) *Alcatraz" by Max Brand.
(6) "The Romans" by Grace Cole.
(7) "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
(8) "The White Album: Essays" by Joan Didion.
(9) "Rabindranath Tagore: His Life and Work" by Edward John Thompson
(10) "Tibetan Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction" by Matthew T Kapstein
(11) "Bill Moyers Journal" by Bill Moyers.
(12) "The Tree Where Man Was Born" by Peter Matthiessen..
(13) "Profiles in Courage" by John F Kennedy.
(14) "Invitation to Sociology" by Peter L Berger.
(15) "Notes on the Death of Culture" by Mario Vargas Llosa.

(16) "Almayer's Folly" by Joseph Conrad.

Readman tarasss

Finished reading "CHANGING PLANES" by science fiction & fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin. A collection of 15 short stories.

Gilbakka posted:

So far this year I finished reading 44 books. Here are some of them:
(1) "Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy" by Nicholas Reynolds.
(2) "Back to the Law" by Max Brand.
(3) "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh.
(4) "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway.
(5) *Alcatraz" by Max Brand.
(6) "The Romans" by Grace Cole.
(7) "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
(8) "The White Album: Essays" by Joan Didion.
(9) "Rabindranath Tagore: His Life and Work" by Edward John Thompson
(10) "Tibetan Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction" by Matthew T Kapstein
(11) "Bill Moyers Journal" by Bill Moyers.
(12) "The Tree Where Man Was Born" by Peter Matthiessen..
(13) "Profiles in Courage" by John F Kennedy.
(14) "Invitation to Sociology" by Peter L Berger.
(15) "Notes on the Death of Culture" by Mario Vargas Llosa.

(16) "Almayer's Folly" by Joseph Conrad.

After reading so many books, how come you haven't written one?

The man busy reading you want him stop to write?  That's also like asking someone who loves listening to music how come he hasn't made a song. Or a man who love big bubby how come he doan have a pair himself.

seignet posted:

Gilbakka posted:

So far this year I finished reading 44 books. Here are some of them:
(1) "Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy" by Nicholas Reynolds.
(2) "Back to the Law" by Max Brand.
(3) "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh.
(4) "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway.
(5) *Alcatraz" by Max Brand.
(6) "The Romans" by Grace Cole.
(7) "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
(8) "The White Album: Essays" by Joan Didion.
(9) "Rabindranath Tagore: His Life and Work" by Edward John Thompson
(10) "Tibetan Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction" by Matthew T Kapstein
(11) "Bill Moyers Journal" by Bill Moyers.
(12) "The Tree Where Man Was Born" by Peter Matthiessen..
(13) "Profiles in Courage" by John F Kennedy.
(14) "Invitation to Sociology" by Peter L Berger.
(15) "Notes on the Death of Culture" by Mario Vargas Llosa.

(16) "Almayer's Folly" by Joseph Conrad.

After reading so many books, how come you haven't written one?

In all honesty, what else can a lowly gilbakka add to all the books that have been published? 

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

There we go, attacking white ppl again. And you benefit from their atrocities.

Gilbakka posted:

seignet posted:

Gilbakka posted:

So far this year I finished reading 44 books. Here are some of them:
(1) "Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy" by Nicholas Reynolds.
(2) "Back to the Law" by Max Brand.
(3) "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh.
(4) "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway.
(5) *Alcatraz" by Max Brand.
(6) "The Romans" by Grace Cole.
(7) "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes" by Robert Louis Stevenson.
(8) "The White Album: Essays" by Joan Didion.
(9) "Rabindranath Tagore: His Life and Work" by Edward John Thompson
(10) "Tibetan Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction" by Matthew T Kapstein
(11) "Bill Moyers Journal" by Bill Moyers.
(12) "The Tree Where Man Was Born" by Peter Matthiessen..
(13) "Profiles in Courage" by John F Kennedy.
(14) "Invitation to Sociology" by Peter L Berger.
(15) "Notes on the Death of Culture" by Mario Vargas Llosa.

(16) "Almayer's Folly" by Joseph Conrad.

After reading so many books, how come you haven't written one?

In all honesty, what else can a lowly gilbakka add to all the books that have been published? 

yuh never know, unless yuh put a word after a word after a word, the thought, a scheme, a character, a book.

seignet posted:

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

There we go, attacking white ppl again. And you benefit from their atrocities.

You think the atrocities committed should be ignored?

seignet posted:

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

There we go, attacking white ppl again. And you benefit from their atrocities.

Siggy, Anta is not attacking white people. He is merely giving a synopsis of a book that he has read. He is in order.

seignet posted:

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

There we go, attacking white ppl again. And you benefit from their atrocities.

  learning about whitey's atrocities is too inconvenient for your adulation

Gilbakka posted:

seignet posted:

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

There we go, attacking white ppl again. And you benefit from their atrocities.

Siggy, Anta is not attacking white people. He is merely giving a synopsis of a book that he has read. He is in order.

Your response might be a waste of time . Nothing can make him see reality.

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

A similar book is THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN by Thomas King. I plan to read it in the new year.

Gilbakka posted:

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

A similar book is THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN by Thomas King. I plan to read it in the new year.

Thanks. I'll add it to my list.

Finished reading THE ONE-CENT MAGENTA by James Barron.
In 1873 a white British Guiana schoolboy Louis Vernon Vaughan found a locally printed dark red postage stamp on an old newspaper wrapper in his uncle's abandoned house. What later became renowned as the One-Cent Magenta and the world's rarest stamp was first issued by the British Guiana Post Office in 1856.
Vaughan, a stamp collector, was not impressed with the condition of that particular stamp but kept it in his album until one in better shape turned up. Five years passed and, needing money to buy an attractive set of stamps, Vaughan sold the One-Cent Magenta to a much older philatelist for 6 shillings or BG$1.44. The buyer was Neil Ross McKinnon, first Mayor of New Amsterdam.
A few months later McKinnon sold the One-Cent Magenta to a Scottish stamp dealer named Thomas Ridpath for £120, ie 400 times the amount he had paid for it.
Over the years that little piece of paper from Guyana increased exponentially in value and became the Holy Grail for serious philatelists and rich investors. At its last auction 5 years ago the One-Cent Magenta was acquired for US$9.5 million by American shoes designer Stuart Weitzman.
This book about the continuing odyssey of that 163-year-old British Guiana postage stamp gripped my attention from beginning to end.

cain posted:

seignet posted:

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

There we go, attacking white ppl again. And you benefit from their atrocities.

You think the atrocities committed should be ignored?

There is a time to move on. Vengeance is Mine said the The Lord. The Jews said, never again will they edure another holocaust, yet they create sufferings for the residents of Palestine. We have the Liberals in Canada who plays lip services to Native Issues, it is a white government that neglects and natives kill themselves. It is dying, by ones own actions or a conflict. There are no solutions for man as pertains to man being his brother's keeper. "Treat your neighbour as you would have him treat you", not going to happen until Christ come back.

antabanta posted:

seignet posted:

antabanta posted:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History Of The American West, Dee Brown. A damning indictment of the atrocities committed against native Indians to satisfy greed and economic expansion, with complete lack of concern for their welfare, humanity, and lives.

There we go, attacking white ppl again. And you benefit from their atrocities.

  learning about whitey's atrocities is too inconvenient for your adulation

Bro, I know dey is the baddest ppl from personal observations since me ketch sense some 75 years ago, five years after me born. My fore-fathers bare their wrath in India for hundreds of years, likewise, wherever their boats took them. Vasco Da Gama, upon his arrival off the coast of malabar, his first act was the slaughter of the envoy sent to meet him by the King of Cochin. He was setting an example for his tryanny. In the Spice Islands of the East Indies, the Dutch upon arrival killed all the Headmen, once again is terror. Dem bad no azz, can we escape dem, hell no. Do we like dem lifestyles, sure we do. Can they enslave ppl again and invade other countries, hell yes. Who can stop dem. I prefer dem to black, chiny or Indo rule.

Great ppl wid culture, music and decency.

seignet posted:

Bro, I know dey is the baddest ppl from personal observations since me ketch sense some 75 years ago, five years after me born. My fore-fathers bare their wrath in India for hundreds of years, likewise, wherever their boats took them. Vasco Da Gama, upon his arrival off the coast of malabar, his first act was the slaughter of the envoy sent to meet him by the King of Cochin. He was setting an example for his tryanny. In the Spice Islands of the East Indies, the Dutch upon arrival killed all the Headmen, once again is terror. Dem bad no azz, can we escape dem, hell no. Do we like dem lifestyles, sure we do. Can they enslave ppl again and invade other countries, hell yes. Who can stop dem. I prefer dem to black, chiny or Indo rule.

Great ppl wid culture, music and decency.

So your adulation is based on fear and you want the rest of us people of color to be as fearful and subservient as you. Their legacy is theft, brutality, genocide, enslavement, and exploitation. They have no decency. There is nothing great about such people. Overcome your fear and you might see the truth.

antabanta posted:

seignet posted:

Bro, I know dey is the baddest ppl from personal observations since me ketch sense some 75 years ago, five years after me born. My fore-fathers bare their wrath in India for hundreds of years, likewise, wherever their boats took them. Vasco Da Gama, upon his arrival off the coast of malabar, his first act was the slaughter of the envoy sent to meet him by the King of Cochin. He was setting an example for his tryanny. In the Spice Islands of the East Indies, the Dutch upon arrival killed all the Headmen, once again is terror. Dem bad no azz, can we escape dem, hell no. Do we like dem lifestyles, sure we do. Can they enslave ppl again and invade other countries, hell yes. Who can stop dem. I prefer dem to black, chiny or Indo rule.

Great ppl wid culture, music and decency.

So your adulation is based on fear and you want the rest of us people of color to be as fearful and subservient as you. Their legacy is theft, brutality, genocide, enslavement, and exploitation. They have no decency. There is nothing great about such people. Overcome your fear and you might see the truth.

I should quality my comments. I do not believe all white people in general are brutal. I believe the lower echelons are manipulated to satisfy the greed of the elite as they have always been. My comments are about those people who lose their humanity in pursuit of wealth.

Finished reading IMPERISHABLE MEMORIES by Seegobin Ragbeer. This memoir was published in 2011. Seegobin Ragbeer was born in De Hoop Mahaica in 1934. He didn't attend high school. After gaining his school-leaving certificate from De Hoop Primary School he became a pupil teacher, sat and passed the pupil teacher examinations, attended and graduated from the Teachers' Training College, earned a Professional Certificate in Education and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of the West Indies, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto. He worked as a school teacher in Guyana and Canada.

Seegobin Ragbeer is the brother of Mohan Ragbeer who wrote a two-volume memoir titled THE INDELIBLE RED STAIN. Dr Mohan Ragbeer was Deen of the Faculty of Medicine in UWI.

I have started reading "THE DAWN WATCH: Joseph Conrad in a Global World" by Maya Jasanoff. I like Conrad's writing, having read his "Lord Jim", "Heart of Darkness", "Almayer's Folly" and some of his shorter works. Next year hopefully I shall read him more.

"The Dawn Watch" is my 48th and last book this year. Without doubt, reading is keeping me alive. I live to read more than I live to eat. My rib cage shows on my body, and my shoulder and neck bones too. I weigh 105 pounds at age 68. Not bothered at all because I am still heavier than Mahatma Gandhi. He had weighed only 102 pounds at age 70. 😀

Gilbakka posted:

I have started reading "THE DAWN WATCH: Joseph Conrad in a Global World" by Maya Jasanoff. I like Conrad's writing, having read his "Lord Jim", "Heart of Darkness", "Almayer's Folly" and some of his shorter works. Next year hopefully I shall read him more.

Apocalypse Now is based on Heart Of Darkness. Both are compelling stories. I'm big into Cormac McCarthy and Elmore Leonard.

Finished reading THE DAWN WATCH. Started MIRROR OF THE SEA by Joseph Conrad. This is a collection of essays and articles Conrad, an experienced seaman before becoming an author, wrote about sail & steam ships, seafaring etc. This will be my last book for 2019. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all GNI book readers.

Once Night Falls, Roland Merullo. A fact-based fictional account of the Italian resistance during WWII, incorporating the daring rescue of Il Duce from the Gran Sasso mountain. The novel is intriguing with excellent portrayal of the emotions of the main characters.

Finished reading three books so far in 2020:

1. GRAYSON WYATT, "THE AMERICAN WEST: Cowboys"
2. RAM DASS, "Still Here"
3. LEO TOLSTOY, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"

The Lost World, Arthur Conan Doyle. After seeing many movie versions, it's a treat to absorb the original literature from a master like Doyle.

Some books I finished reading recently: 1) THE ODESSA FILE by Frederick Forsyth 2) THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU by Leo Tolstoy 3) GANDHI'S PASSION by Stanley Wolpert 4) TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY IN SEARCH OF AMERICA by John Steinbeck 5) THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA by Philip Goldberg 6) THE FEAST OF THE GOAT by Mario Vargas Llosa 7) THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford 8) ASHENDEN by W Somerset Maugham 9) THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER by Aleksander Pushkin

Finished reading "NEHRU: A Contemporary's Estimate" by Walter Crocker. Jawaharlal Nehru was India's Prime Minister from 1947 to 1964. During that period Crocker served two nonconsecutive terms as Australian Ambassador to India. In this book he describes his many interactions with Nehru and expresses his views on the freedom fighter, the politician, the intellectual, and the personality.

I'm reading 'US Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story' by Stephen Rabe. All Guyanese should read it and be enlightened! 

@Former Member posted:

Finished reading "NEHRU: A Contemporary's Estimate" by Walter Crocker. Jawaharlal Nehru was India's Prime Minister from 1947 to 1964. During that period Crocker served two nonconsecutive terms as Australian Ambassador to India. In this book he describes his many interactions with Nehru and expresses his views on the freedom fighter, the politician, the intellectual, and the personality.

Nice to see you back on your favorite topic...

Finished reading "A PLACE WITHIN: Rediscovering India" by M. G. Vassanji, an award winning Tanzania-born Canadian writer. His great grandparents had migrated from Gujarat, India, to East Africa. They established themselves as merchants in colonial Kenya and Tanganyika.

This book is Vassanji's memoir of a series of journeys he made to India between 1993 and 2007. He travelled from Shimla in the north to the southern tip of the subcontinent. And Gujarat, of course. He provides a millennium of historical background to the places he visited.

Finished reading UNTOUCHABLE by Mulk Raj Anand. Written in 1933, this novel focuses on India's untouchables or outcasts in the lowest and most oppressed stratum of its age-old caste system. Today they are called Dalits.

When this book was written untouchables could not access schools, hospitals, clean water and other amenities that their upper-caste countrymen enjoyed in varying degrees.

Mahatma Gandhi called untouchability an iniquity and a blot on Hinduism. He fought to uplift the status of untouchables and also to remove the social stigma against them. Mulk Raj Anand credited Gandhi for inspiring the writing of this novel.

Finished reading BOMBAY STORIES by Saadat Hasan Manto. It consists of 15 short stories originally written in the Urdu language. This English language translation was done by Matt Reeck and Aftab Ahmad. Saadat Hasan Manto was born in 1912 in British colonial India. After independence and partition he migrated to Pakistan in 1948. He died there in 1955.

Finished reading STRONGMEN, a collection of long essays, edited by Vijay Prashad. The essays feature five world leaders who share an authoritarian mindset. Donald Trump (USA), Narendra Modi (India), Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey), Vladimir Putin (Russia), and Rodrigo Roa Duterte (Philippines). STRONGMEN was published in 2018.

Former Member posted:

I have a huge picture of Che in my house.  My son asked me who's that rebel?  

 

TI, Ignatius reminds me of D3.

I saw the Movie "CHE".    How he helped Fidel Castro invaded Cuba and how he died in Bolivia,  trying to create a revolution in Latin  and South America.

Finished reading THE ULTIMATE ERNEST HEMINGWAY, a collection of 61 short stories by the Nobel prize-winning American writer. Themes include fishing and hunting in the United States, hunting in East Africa, bullfighting and civil war in Spain, world war in Europe. My favourite stories in this book are "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", "Big Two-hearted River", "A Clean, Well-lighted Place", "The Butterfly and the Tank", and "The Last Good Country".