What Are You Reading

[Corto]

James Jones got hit on Guadalcanal, then subsequently broke sergeant
across a Camp Campbell, KY court martial board that busted him down to
private and packed him off for a nine-month stockade before cashiering
out with a bad conduct discharge in 1944. Prew was an actual character
in Jones' Schofield Barracks pre war company, and Jones drew on his own
stockade experience, which apparently witnessed the murder of a prisoner.

I'm just getting to the part of the book about the Stockade...Very intense, very vivid stuff!

I wonder if on his first day James Jones was also reminded about what John Dillinger's stint in the Schofield Stockade did to his disposition...That part is too good not to be true...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman
by Mark Girouard
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981)

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, England was witness to a fascinating phenomenon: the revival of the mediaeval code of chivalry. Until well into the twentieth century, the metaphors of Camelot and the mediaeval knight's concept of honour, bravery, service and self-sacrifice took on a new meaning and shaped the character of English society. The adaptation of these ideals as an appropriate mode of behaviour for contemporary gentlemen was reflected not only in the art and culture of the period, but in its intellectual and political life as well.

In this readable and often witty volume, Mark Girouard traces the impact of the revival of chivalry in all its various aspects including politics, sport, literature, art, love and war. His narrative ranges from the novels of Walter Scott and the poetry of Tennyson to the art of the Pre-Raphaelites; from the popularity of fancy-dress balls and knights in armour to the ill-fated Eglinton Tournament, the ultimate re-enactment of the mediaeval fantasy. Among his cast of characters are Victoria and Albert, Carlyle, Disraeli, and many other well (and less well) known Victorian figures. Although much of the book centres on the upper classes, Girouard illustrates how the infatuation with chivalry spread to the middle classes through the public schools and the Boy Scouts. He discusses how the traditions of courtly love were adapted for Victorian and Edwardian use, and how the concept of "playing the game" which loomed so large in the code of conduct of modern gentlemen ultimately derived from that of mediaeval knights.

Throughout the book Girouard traces the influence of chivalry on politics. In the concluding chapters, he poignantly shows how the very concepts of glory and honour that made war acceptable, and even desirable, dissolved in the trenches of World War I.

 

[Harp]

Wrigley Field summer reading... Marguerite Duras' Hiroshima Mon Amour;
The Need for Roots by Simone Weil; Celine's Conversations with Professor Y.
The Cubs are struggling, Lou's gonna be packin', and Zee shoulda signed with da Bears.
...maybe Zee can skate with the Black Hawks next season. :coffee:

 

[Sarge]

I just started "The Nightmare Years 1930-1940" by by William Shirer.

 

[kinetickyle]

I'm reading Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad and I just started the laborious task of trying to read Atlas Shrugged. Wish me luck on that one.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Came across a couple of rediscovered treasures while doing a bit of housecleaning yesterday.

The New Order by Arthur Szyk
(New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1941)

Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist/illustrator/cartoonist whose cartoons of Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito/Tojo graced the covers of magazines such as Collier's and Look during the war. The New Order is a collection of some of his wartime cartoons. I picked up my copy at a library sale some 15 years ago for only 50 cents!

You can see some of the cartoons from the book here

and the other one is:

The Boys' Book of Engines, Motors and Turbines by Alfred Morgan
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946)

When I was in junior high school the school library had a copy of this book which I had checked out numerous times. Years later I managed to acquire a pristine copy! It has some really great chapters on how to build a model steam engine, a dry ice engine, an electric motor and more.

I just started the laborious task of trying to read Atlas Shrugged. Wish me luck on that one.

I would say that Atlas Shrugged is definitely the literary equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. Over the years I've made numerous attempts to read the entire book to no avail.

Who is John Galt?

 

[Mr Vim]

Disney's World by Leonard Mosley, a biography on the Titular Mr. Disney.

And I recently finished Rocket Men, a fantastic look at the Apollo 11 mission.

 

[Chasseur]

My usual strange mix of books for work and pleasure:

Work:
Drea's "Japan's Imperial Army: Its Rise and Fall;" Evans and Peattie, "Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy;" Two excellent recent works on the politics and formation of the Imperial Japanese military.

Baer's "100 Years of Seapower" on the US Navy.

Pleasure:

"HP Lovecraft's Book of Horror"

Work and Pleasure: Desai's "Rediscovering India"

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Sin City

Tim Girling-Butcher


New Zealand-born Tim Girling-Butcher moved to Sydney in 2000 and very quickly developed a fascination for its rich and colourful criminal history. While well documented, Girling-Butcher was surprised by how quickly some of these stories and events had been forgotten or swept under the carpet, leading him to author the book and curate the exhibition ‘Sin City’.

 

[Grant Fan]

I am presently ready Shutter Island , I saw the movie and was very confused so i thought the book might help. It is much less confusing. Oh and I am still ready Mein Kompf ( I do believe I spelled that wrong), it is taking forever because it reads like a 12 year old angry boy wrote it then never edited it.

 

[Diamondback]

it is taking forever because it reads like a 12 year old angry boy wrote it then never edited it.

lol Funny 'cause it's true. (At least, it's an apt summary of that narcissistic megalomaniac's profile...)

 

[skyvue]

I just finished Jim Thompson's POP. 1280, which I didn't much like, and have just started Ursula Parrott's EX-WIFE (which was made into the 1930 Norma Shearer pre-code picture THE DIVORCEE).

 

[YesterdayGirl]

I'm currently obsessed with Richard Yates. Revolutionary Road was just fabulous, and I'm now working my way through Easter Parade, next on my list is Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Even though they are pretty depressing, I love his way of reflecting real lives in Mid Century America, and yes, real life can be depressing. Highly recommended!

www.jennyjenny-yesterdaygirl.blogspot.com

 

[Antje]

Doctor zhivago by boris Pasternak.

 

[lostinthe50's]

I am reading Platinum Girl about Jean Harlow...great book.....found it at a rummage sales...

 

[JazzyDame]

The Four Feathers

"Lieutenant Sutch was the first of General Feversham's guests to reach Broad Place. He arrived about five o'clock on an afternoon of sunshine in mid June, and the old red-brick house, lodged on a southern slope of the Surrey hills, was glowing from a dark forest depth of pines with the warmth of a rare jewel. Lieutenant Sutch limped across the hall, where the portraits of the Fevershams rose one above the other to the ceiling, and went out on to the stone-flagged terrace at the back." The opening lines from A.E.W. Mason's "The Four Feathers", a brilliant and beautiful read that meets all of my requirements for a grand novel. It is a powerful story of adventure, of cowardice and disgrace, of courage and redemption; one of the most intensely passionate love stories ever written, with nary an embrace or a kiss. Please read it...I am sure you will love it!

 

[deco_darling]

Marlene by Marlene Dietrich

Before that I was reading Huruki Murakami Dance Dance Dance.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

Going through the Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood. They're quick, fun flapper reads.

 

[Smithy]

"Lieutenant Sutch was the first of General Feversham's guests to reach Broad Place. He arrived about five o'clock on an afternoon of sunshine in mid June, and the old red-brick house, lodged on a southern slope of the Surrey hills, was glowing from a dark forest depth of pines with the warmth of a rare jewel. Lieutenant Sutch limped across the hall, where the portraits of the Fevershams rose one above the other to the ceiling, and went out on to the stone-flagged terrace at the back." The opening lines from A.E.W. Mason's "The Four Feathers", a brilliant and beautiful read that meets all of my requirements for a grand novel. It is a powerful story of adventure, of cowardice and disgrace, of courage and redemption; one of the most intensely passionate love stories ever written, with nary an embrace or a kiss. Please read it...I am sure you will love it!

I've only seen the film of the book JazzyDame which I enjoyed. Thank you for the recommendation, I think I'll give it a go.

 

[JazzyDame]

I've only seen the film of the book JazzyDame which I enjoyed. Thank you for the recommendation, I think I'll give it a go.

I've not seen the film, so we're even...I'll watch the film, you read the book, and we'll talk. By the way, Smithy, thank you...my first post and, from you, my first reply. I shall never forget this moment...sigh...