QUESTION: Did you read in the Navy?

 

ANSWER: "Yes. Everybody on a ship reads, whether it’s comic books, or Westerns, or the Bible, or whatever. They always read a lot. I was reading Moby Dick, which sounds terribly precious, but I thought if you can’t read Moby Dick in the roaring forties, you’ll never read Moby Dick. So I brought it along. I also read Ulysses on the same trip. I seem to have imprinted the ocean in a very strong way because I end up with all these marine images that just seem so readily at hand for me." --- US writer Robert Stone, author of DOG SOLDIERS.

Those were the days when a sea voyage from Panama to Japan took 29 days and a box of books will still not be enough, even though the radio will not keep the operator busy, with little traffic.

Sometimes a friend on another ship going from Vancouver to Australia with daily contact, will help pass the day. The lonely sea and sky...

 

In rough wx,  tying the chair around the radio equipment would be the only way to send  a Morse message, with a loose  key moving around.     

 

Ulysses...every June in our town the Celtic Club, with the only black Guyanese member,[to add colour to the party as the Irish would say], would visit a 100 year old tourist mining town  and celebrate Bloomsday with JJ poems and songs.

My poem this year was 'The Homesick Pirate', while Roselyn from Dublin played my Mom. 

The Homesick Pirate

There was a homesick pirate,
His name was Danny Dunn,
Last night in bed he made a wish –
He thought it would be fun
To hop aboard a pirate ship
Instead of going to school.
I don’t know why, I guess he thought
It would be kind of cool.
But now he’s going to and fro
Across the Irish Sea

When all he wants is to go home
And settle down to tea.
They hoist the Jolly Roger
And they drink their jugs of rum,
But it isn’t quite as Danny thought:
He’s crying for his mum.
He didn’t know they’re dirty
And he didn’t know they stank
And the pirates keep on threatening
To make him walk the plank.

There’s droppings in the porridge
And no mattress on the bunks;
There’s lice in Blackbeard’s beard
And there’s sand in Danny’s trunks.
Everyone has scurvy
And they scowl with snaggled teeth;
There’s beetles on the top deck
And the rats live underneath.
So next time that you make a wish
Heed what I say, it’s true:
Young Danny hates the pirate life
And so, I think, will you.

[by Joshua Seigal]

Have been so busy did not have too much time to read but will start 'postcard killers' by James Patterson soon.

Has a book ever made you faint?

 

"I have been trying for some time now to write this post, but it’s been very hard for me. Not emotionally, I mean—physically. My hands go funny, my vision blurs, my legs get weak, and I start to feel sick. In short, I get woozy. Allow me to explain.

Not that I really can explain; if I do, I’ll pass out. Just this morning, I started to read a review of a film that mentioned the protagonist’s “suicide attempt” and “bandaged wrists” and I felt shaky and had to immediately close the paper and, what is more, put it down the garbage chute so it couldn’t torment me. At least with books, you have some control over these things; to date I have fainted in The Virgin Suicides, Swing Kids, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Sunset Boulevard. With The Three Faces of Eve, Harold and Maude, and Little Miss Sunshine, I managed to get out in time. I also got woozy once in a college history class; we were discussing the death of Seneca.

Do other people have these sorts of neuroses and aversions? Do they impact your quality of life—and, especially, your ability to enjoy books and movies?"

[SADIE STEIN in Paris Review]

Books and Birds

 

For 45 years he has been one of my favorite authors. His short stories, novels, unusual travel books; none bored me. I like his writing style. I am proud of the fact that he has Caribbean roots. It was an unforgettable day when I spent three hours with him 24 years ago.

Yes, V. S. Naipaul is 82 years old today and I wish him a Happy Birthday.

May Mr. Naipaul feel the warmth of our collective birthday wishes for him!

* I see this thread is still going strong.

 

* My reading has been on the back burner the past 6 months. But I have to get back on track.

 

Rev

Finished reading "Waverley" by Sir Walter Scott.

This novel was written exactly 200 years ago and is generally regarded as the first piece of historical fiction in the English language.

The story is set mainly in Scotland and focuses on the failed 1745-46 Jacobite uprising which had aimed to reinstate the Stuart dynasty to the English throne.

I spent nearly one month plodding through this novel and learned a lot. I had studied the Stuart period of English History in Form 1 at Central High School 52 years ago so I approached the book with a little background knowledge.

While reading, I took special interest in Scottish names which provided a clue to the origin of places in Guyana. Like Caledonia, Strathspey and Dundee. And to people's names like Melville, Cummings and Robertson.

I learnt to read on the Waverly novels.My grandfather had them in his library...old highlander reminiscing I guess.

Finished reading "Anna Christie" by Eugene O'Neill.

This is a Pulitzer Prize-winning four-act play first performed in Broadway in 1921.

O'Neill, an American playwright, won the Nobel Prize in Literature 15 years later.

Attending plays in a theatre in Toronto is costly for me. I could have afforded to watch plays at the Theatre Guild and National Cultural Centre in Guyana.

So, the next best thing is to read plays. Luckily, there are many excellent plays online for free. Just bring your imagination and your own popcorn.

Finished reading "Uncle Vanya", a four-act play by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov.

It was first published in 1897 and premiered in Moscow two years later. Since then, "Uncle Vanya" has been performed numberless times in theatres in the West.

There is one scene which caught my attention, where one character says of another: "He says that forests are the ornaments of the earth, that they teach mankind to understand beauty and attune his mind to lofty sentiments. Forests temper a stern climate, and in countries where the climate is milder, less strength is wasted in the battle with nature, and the people are kind and gentle. The inhabitants of such countries are handsome, tractable, sensitive, graceful in speech and gesture."

Such sentiments couldn't have been more timely, bearing in mind the current controversy surrounding the exploitation of Guyana's rainforest.

Finished reading "THE ZHIVAGO AFFAIR: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book" by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée.

It deals with the Cold War-era controversy surrounding the novel "Doctor Zhivago" and its author Boris Pasternak.

Deeply and widely researched, it details how the Soviet government under Nikita Khrushchev refused to publish Pasternak's novel, deeming it "anti-Soviet", forcing the author to seek the help of an Italian publisher.

Publication abroad resulted in the hounding and pillorying of Pasternak by the Soviet authorities, the compliant Soviet Writers Union, the state-owned mass media and others who labeled the author a "traitor".

In 1958, one year after "Doctor Zhivago" appeared in print, Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature but was prohibited from accepting the prize and royalties accruing from the book's sales.

Naturally, in the midst of the Cold War, the American CIA got into the fray and clandestinely published Russian-language editions of the novel which were then smuggled into the Soviet Union by various means. But, as Finn and Couvée point out, "Pasternak was unhappy about the exploitation of his novel for Cold War propaganda purposes."

I shall soon re-read "Doctor Zhivago with revelations from "The Zhivago Affair" in mind.

Read Ulysses by James Joyce. Not an easy read or a short book but I consider it one of the greatest book ever written. Everyone should read it once in their lifetime.

I have Ulysses on my To-Read Pile. Someone suggested I read the Odyssey of Homer first, to better understand Joyce's novel. What do you think?

Bookie, I just bought http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Wit...Guyana/dp/1452503095


this via KINDLE... will read when I am finished reading -
The Bourne Ascendancy(Jason Bourne series - book #12)

I am surprised you have not read both the Iliad and the Odyssey ( or Aeneid). I think I read the abridged versions in primary school,  the complete versions in high school and the same a couple more times in College.

 

You do not need to know homer or Vergil. You only need to be a good patient reader. The book is life and you have lived so you will understand it. If you have trouble...let me know. I may have a lecture on it somewhere I can send to you.

Like you, I read an abridged version of the Odyssey, at Central High School. I'm truly ashamed to say I haven't read the complete Homer.

I shall appreciate your sending me the lecture you mentioned. Please Dialog me when you find it.

will do as soon as I get back home this weekend.

 Check Dialog on upper right. Let me Know if you got them.

Got them, Storm. Thanks. Check Dialog.

New one out, "Killing Patton" by Bill O'Reilly sounds interesting, all about proving he was in the US and Russia's way, could have been poisoned by a Ruskie agent.

I "might" try and have a read if not too busy posting.

Patrick Modiano is a 69-year-old French writer.

Finished reading The Suffrage of Elvira by V.S. Naipaul. This novel, first published 56 years ago, is set in a fictional Trinidad village in 1950.

It's a satire on a campaign to elect an Elvira representative to the colony's legislative council in the second elections held under universal adult suffrage.

In the context of that period, the characters are not educated but smart people learning by trial and error how democracy works and operating by base gut instinct. Bribery and buying votes play big roles in the victorious candidate's campaign. Even a flee-infested mangy stray puppy plays a part in that superstitious society.

 

 

Finished reading Mr Stone and the Knights Companion by V. S. Naipaul. This novella was first published in 1963 and is set in England with English characters. It deals with ageing, retirement, late life achievement, hope and loss.

Just read, "Keith's life lessons" The we Generation by Dee C Burns.

 

Doing a report on a book which teaches children to understand and accept each others' differences so they can love and respect each other.

 

38 pages with half being pictures....yessssss my kinda book. Should be done by tomorrow or at least nex Tuesday.

Will check that cham.

Finished reading A Flag on the Island by V.S. Naipaul. It's a collection of short stories set in the West Indies and England. I borrowed three Naipaul books from the Toronto Public Library and had three weeks to read them. Mission accomplished.

Just finished reading this Now I have at least a half a dozen more to read just to get all the references. It is an interesting book and gives you a grasp ot the various economic theories, there they diverge and where they intersect and how they impact our lives.

Thought you said Marx was a commie!

 

* Arrite! This book is next on my list! Received it from Amazon yesterday.

 

* A lot of people have never heard of Dr. Norman Borlaug, but that's the guy who probably saved more lives than anyone else in history. It is estimated that his new seed varieties saved a billion people from starvation, mostly from India and Pakistan.

 

* Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal for his efforts — and is one of only seven people to do so.

Rev

said his idea that labor as the only source of value generation was bull crap

Marx:

“The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world...

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

Finished reading The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré.

This novel was first published 51 years ago and deals with espionage and counterespionage between Britain and the then East Germany in the early 1960s, the heat of the Cold War.

In 2006 TIME magazine selected The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as one of the "All-Time 100 Novels".

Finished reading The End of Sorrow: The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, Volume 1 by Eknath Easwaran.

This is a verse-by-verse explanation of the first six chapters of the Gita.

The author, an Indian-born American university professor, encourages readers to meditate not only on the teachings of Lord Krishna but also on that of Jesus Christ, the Buddha, St Francis of Assissi, Meister Eckhart, Rumi and other mystics.

Anyone ever read books by Milan Kundera, Amos Oz, Irving Yalom?

or I am alone in my reading choices?

Just finished reading 'The Racketeer' by John Grisham, it's a bit different from his other books but very good, that 'racketeer' guy was excellent.

 

 

OK! Next on my reading list is this book:

 

 

MAKING THE MODERN WORLD: Materials & Dematerialization By Vaclav Smil

 

Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization considers the principal materials used throughout history, from wood and stone, through to metals, alloys, plastics and silicon, describing their extraction and production as well as their dominant applications. The evolving productivities of material extraction, processing, synthesis, finishing and distribution, and the energy costs and environmental impact of rising material consumption are examined in detail. The book concludes with an outlook for the future, discussing the prospects for dematerialization and potential constrains on materials.

 

* This ought to be an interesting read. Vaclav Smil is an environmental sciences professor who writes histories of things like energy and innovation.

 

Rev

The 11th hour by James Patterson.