Registered: Oct 2001
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The first half of 2003 has rolled around and it is time to report once again the books I read this half. It is a meager list compared to prior years ---in both quantity and quality. I don’t think that I have read so9 little since retirement. I can’t blame my eye problems. My cataract surgery only shut down reading for a few days on each eye. I think that my interest in planting trees and mowing the farm kept me away from books more than anything else. So hear goes:

1. The Pelican Brief by John Grisham---I did not finish reading this book. Some of the things that Grisham writes I really like and others just leave me cold. This book is in the latter category.

2. Hornet’s Nest by “Missy” Cummings---This is a book by a rare person. A female Air
Force officer who was selected for training in F-18 fighter jets. She eventually washes out of the elite training group she is in because of what she perceives as anti-feminist activity by the instructor staff at Pensacola where the training is held. Her story fails to convince me despite a spotless record prior to F-18 training. My opinion is that she broke under the severe tech pressure that super-sonic jet combat imposes on the pilot.
She is now a civilian and on the faculty of some University in the Mid-Atlantic States. I think she was on the faculty of Virginia Tech for a short period of time. She is a very well educated person. I enjoyed reading the book but got tired of her continual complaint.

3. The Code Talkers by Chuck Bianchi—Interesting to me because of my insatiable appetite for Navajo cultural orts from almost any table. It was fact-based fiction and fairly well written and even though I enjoyed it I wouldn’t recommend it for general consumption.

4. The Street Lawyer by John Grisham—Even though I do not have the Liberal’s fascination with the plight of the homeless this was a better effort by Grisham than the book above. It concerns a lawyer who innocently gets himself in a very compromised position and becomes a street lawyer for the homeless and in doing so pins his former very prestigious law firm to the mat. Good writing.

5. King Arthur by Norma Lorre Goodrich—This is a very scholarly book. Ms. Goodrich
is a world renowned linguistic expert and possibly the world authority on Old French
linguistics. She sheds some new light on the Arthurian legend and disputes the fact that
Arthur ever dwelled in what is now Cornwall and also paints him as somewhat less than
a sterling character. It is a very interesting read.

6. Harvard Classics Vol. 42—English Poetry (Tennyson to Whittier)---I was looking up
something in Tennyson and got started reading poetry and couldn’t quit until I finished
the volume. I don’t have a very good poetic education but really enjoyed this read on a
day and learned to appreciate these English poets.

7. Marauders by Charlton Ogburn-- I was familiar with Charlton Ogburn only as the
leading exponent of the fact that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , wrote the plays and sonnets that we have mistakenly attributed to William Shakspeare of Stratford-on-Avon for centuries. In his book, The Mysterious Mister Shakespeare, he quite convinces me of this fact. I never knew however that he fought in World War II in the Burma Theater as a member of Merrill’s Marauders that is another one of my interests. I stumbled on this fact reading one of the many book catalogs, which stuff my mailbox regularly. This book is very well written and takes away some of the critical aspects of the Marauders that I picked up reading Quartered Safe Out Here.

8. Last Train To Blanket by Harry Marlin—This is possibly the best book I have read this
year so far. It is a collection of the newspaper columns written by this hometown
philosopher for the nearby Brownwood newspaper. It concerns events in the daily life of
the people of Blanket, Texas that probably comprise all of thirty or forty people during the
1930s and 1940s. It is a prosaic little book infused with a wry wit that is very pleasant to
read. Marlin has a dry sort of humor that is a bit reminiscent of Will Rogers. I thoroughly
enjoyed the book.

9. Homeland by Jan Epton Seale---Ms Seale is a Jr. Co0llege English Lit teacher at some unnamed school in the vicinity of McAllen. Her husband is also a teacher in the vicinity. This book is really a paean to the Rio Grande Valley and its great “diversity”.
Ms. Seale is a good writer in general and I would have enjoyed the book were it not for her inordinate PC-ness ( I am sure she would mark off for that comment were I in her class but I am not) She leads a community crusade to save a fig tree in a vacant lot that is a chosen building site for a shopping center---stuff like that . I am going to send the book to Dottie Moss whose daughter teaches in a McAllen public school. She might even know this woman. Incidentally they cut down the fig tree. I cheered. She referred to it as a “wild” fig tree. Figs are not indigenous to South “Texas. Someone planted it.

10. Power Of Babble by John McWhorter---A very interesting book to me. It points out
The vast diversity in the 6000 or so languages and dialects that exzist or have existed
on the earth to date. Similarities between various American Indian language families
and Asian or Caucasion languages are shown as helpers in determining origin of
these people and their languages. The book is very well written and I liked it.

11. Talking To The Ground by Douglas Preston---I loved this book. It concerns a
Yankee turned cowboy who lives on the Big Rez near the four corners area. In
addition to being a cowboy he is a writer. At an art sale he bumps into a good looking
woman and they hit it off and she moves in with him as a POSSLQ and oh, yeah, she
has a nine year old daughter going on 23, if you know what I mean, and the daughter
doesn’t like the cowboy. The cowboy/writer explains to the lady that he is impressed
with the Navajo mythology and always wanted to retrace the route of the Creating
Spirit of the Navajo fifth level as he crossed the desert from the sacred mountain of
the Navajo to Shiprock—a journey of about three weeks on horseback with no
access to civilization and the possibility of dying of thirst. The woman says that
sounds great when do we start. The nine year old said, “Bullshit, I’m not going to
piss in the sand for three weeks” But her mother convinces her and they go buy
some horses and do travel across arid desert and have a multitude of experiences
and the nine year old falls in love with the cowboy/writer and he kisses her mother
and rides off into the sunset. It is a beautiful book. I could hardly put it down. All
of the above slathered with great gobs of Navajo mythology. It actually happened too
as the illustrations show. The various comments of the nine year old keep you laugh
laughing.

12. Why Do Some Shoes Squeak by George Simpson—A book of trivia that has
a few very interesting items. The author however is not very rigorous in citing his
sources of information so you never really know if he knew or just made it up. Not
worth walking a mile for.

13. The Enduring Navajo by Laura Gilpin--- This is a coffee table book of some of the
most beautiful and interesting photography of the Big Rez as it was fifty years ago
that I have ever seen. It also has a very enlightening text about Navajo culture , which
you probably now understand interests me. The Navajo have great reverance for the
old whereas the more nomadic tribes like the Cheyenne and Comanche encouraged
them to go off and die quietly when they got to the point that they could not keep up
with the tribe. Maybe that is why I like the Navajo.

14. Inside the Whitehouse by Ronald Kessler---Definitely a gossip book but
never the less interesting. Kessler gets nearly all of his information from former Whitehouse workers and Air Force One crews and the Secret Service. His book covers all of the presidents from Nixon through Clinton’s first term I was astounded that all of the Whitehouse children were such brats. Amy Carter used to routinely crumble crackers on the carpeted floor of Air Force One and then repeat the act as soon as the steward had swept them up. Nixon’s daughters were demons also.If the book were any longer it would have been a bore and I am not too sure that it wasn’t anyway.

15, The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman---Not as good as Hillerman’s usual Navajo Tribal
police mysteries but it is nice to see that he is still trying and he does introduce a great
new character in Bernadette Manuelito who is a rookie Navajo Policewoman reporting
to Sergeant Jim Chee with whom Hillerman readers are familiar.. Bernadette is pursuing
her hobby of Navajo ethno-botany seed collection when she discovers a body she
thinks is a natural death and is busy trying to get away from the dead body when she is
shot at by persons unknown. She messes up the crime scene by inadvertently
destroying some evidence. To top it all off she is in love with her boss Jim Chee.. I
should not have been harsh with my opening statement. It is a pretty good book.

16. Sharpe’Havoc by Bernard Cornwell--- Of course I had to have the latest Sharpe’s
novel. This one goes back to the beginning of the Peninsular war and sharp and his
riflemen are still on their way south toward Lisbon from where they got separated from
Sir John Moore’s defeated column. They are at Oporto just a few steps ahead of
Marshal Soult’s advancing troops. Wellington has not yet arrived on the scene in
Portugal but soon does. Good rollicking Sharpe’s adventure---what else can I say—
It is full of sex and swords.

17. Texas Trees by Benny J. Simpson—A gift from Pam and Pat. Super reference book on native Texas trees. For every species there is a state map showing which counties the tree is adapted to and what type of soil is required. I’ll spend hours with this.

18. The Siunister Pig by Tony Hillerman---Another mystery starring the beautiful
beautiful Bernadette and the unconscious Sergeant Jim Chee who everyone but him
can see that Bernadette is in love with him. Bernadette has resigned from the NTP and
is working as a Border Patrolman when she and Chee independently discover a drug
smuggling scam that is most ingenious and nearly get wiped out before they can wrap
it up. Bernadette resigned from the NTP because she was in love with her boss.

19, Secret Corners Of the World by National Geographic---Another coffee table book
With super photography of some wild and remote places in the world that I would like to visit---like the Marquesas Islands and Northeastern Afghanistan (but not right now).

20. Patience And Fortitude by Nicholas A Basbanes---Patience and Fortitude are the
names given to two marble lions before the entrance to the New York Public Library at 43rd Street. The book is a history and description of the libraries of the world. It is a very entertaining and informative book. I lack a few chapters finishing it but will go ahead and put it in the first half report.. This book was a gift from Cathy and Dave. I was pleased to learn that I have been in three of the most unusual libraries described in it---the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan (the oldest existing public library in the world),
The Vatican Library and the Library of the Palace of San Lorenzo in Escorial, Spain.

21. Someone Has Blundered by Denis Judd---A super little book outlining the major
series of mistakes and blunders made by the British Army and the people who
administer it during the reign of Queen Victoria. Judd points out the Afghan War of 1835-42, the Crimean War of 1854-6, The Indian (Sepoy) Mutiny of 1857-9, the Zulu War of 1879, the First Boer War of 1880-1, and finally the Second Boer War of 1899-02
as being anything but admirable administration although there were exhibitions of extreme bravery and courage by various troop units. Judd feels that the British Army was virtually abandoned from 1815 to 1853 and that it took the rest of the century to get it sorted out. I like the way Judd writes.




So there you have it for the first half of 2003. It is not an impressive list in terms of quantity for me but it does have a few jewels in it. I look forward to a better showing in the second half with my new eyes.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Montreal
Posts: 2984

let's see if I can list....wish i've read more...



The Book Of Five Rings- Miyamoto Musashi
Great read, I picked it up for $1.50 at the second hand store and read it in a day but it was a great translated read. The book itself is just footnotes in a letter it seems but the translated narrative before each chapter is worth picking the book up for. Zen buddhist in all it's props.

Temple of the Golden Pavilion- Yukio Mishima
I picked this up after getting into a Zen mood from the pervious read. Though something is lost in the translation I'm sure this book is a great read. Based on a true story of a Monk that burns down the Golden Temple, this story rewrites what you may have thought about what you think is "beauty".

The art and technique of Sumi-E- Japanese Ink Painting - taught by Master Ukai Uchiyama, by Kay Morrissey Thompson
More of an instruction manual in the (amazing) art form that is Sumi-e. It talks of the history of the art form and shows techniques of how to perfect your own style.

I left my Zen phase and read some old books over again for fun.

Cosmic Trigger 3 (my life after death) - Robert Anton Wilson
The third part of Wilson's diary series, I re-read this cos outta most of his work it's the one i rembered the least. It's a good read if you are familiar with his other work. Inculded is of coaurse a great tale of how he woke up one day to find out he was dead, or at least the internet rumors had said.

(I'm missing a book or 2 in here....)

Damnation Game - Clive Barker
My first Barker book, and I really enjoyed it. I was surpised at how fast I read it, staying up all night in bed just reading. Lots of good creepy parts that made me feel pretty scared and excited, in the end though it was a bit of a let down as alot of horror books go. Still good read, I already plan to pick up a Barker book next time i go shopping.

Evaison - Unknown
Read this fast aswell even though nothing much happens in it. It's a kids diary of a hitch-hiking trip he takes across the US. He dumpster dives, shoplifts and does what ever he can to surive. Alot of real characters in this and its a breeeze to read.

that's about it, I need to get to the book store on sunday.

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"Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd." R A Wilson (R.I.P)

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