5 posts tagged “books books books”
What set you apart from the rest of the kids at school?
Submitted by jks.
Probably the constant reading. I was reading Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara in fifth grade. All the books got me in real trouble with my eighth grade teacher, too. I would be reading in class, he would ask me a question (which he thought I wouldn't be able to answer with my nose in a book), and I would answer it. Every time.
Then he gave me a bad grade, just because he thought I wasn't paying attention in class. Despite copious evidence to the contrary.
Your favorite lawyer/blogger/radio talk show host extraordinaire, Hugh Hewitt (author of "BLOG", and "A Mormon in the White House?: Ten things every American should know about Mitt Romney"), is broadcasting from some kind of South American Temple. And who shows up to be interviewed?
Scott Sigler. And then you start gushing to Mr. Hewitt about Scott's books ("Oh my gosh! It's Scott Sigler! Author of EARTHCORE, and ANCESTOR" you say in your best radio announcer voice as you're pumping Sigler's hand for all it's worth).
And when Hugh looks up from his desk at you with an annoyed glance, you immediately promise not to say anything during the show. And you'll go sit down over there. And you go sit. (Luckily it's a commercial break). But then you pipe up before the show kicks in - "Ancestor hits stores April..." and you want to say the 15th, and you wake up cursing yourself because you couldn't tell Hugh it hit Amazon on the 1st, made it all the way to 7th on that day (beating the aforementioned "Mormon in the White House" by about 20 places), but you know that just would have annoyed Mr. Hewitt all the more.
Yeah. Forgetting Sigler's release date. That's when you know you're dreaming.
With the Bar past, I can move on to other projects. I'm looking forward to doing some original writing, we'll see what happens with that. I'm also looking forward to some great reading. Gotta finish Stephen Pressman's "Gates of Fire".
Seriously, I was reading this on the plane on the way back from Chicago last week, and I started tearing up. Crying. Like a baby. You've seen that woman with the romance novel and the box of Kleenex? That was me on a plane last week reading about Dienekes riding off to war, leaving his wife and children behind. Sad, sad, tragic, tragic stuff.
Embarassing, really.
And with the Bar past, I don't want to give up the study practices I've built up over the last few months. Maybe tone things DOWN a little bit, but I want to keep reading and studying things that will make me think, and make me a better person, so yesterday after work, I went to the local bookstore and picked up a copy of the Penguin edition of Aristotle's ethics. I came to the realization a few months ago that while I have read a lot of things, lately I haven't had the time to do that. More to the point, I was playing a lot of video games (!), and reading blogs and listening to podcasts. So while I was doing a lot of reading, and have always been someone who reads a lot, I didn't really consider myself well-read. In the same way, I have a B.Sc. and a J.D., but for some reason, I don't really consider myself well-educated. I think I'm going to do something about that, and it starts with this book. Can't defend Western Civilization from the rampaging hordes without knowing what it is you're defending.
Darn C.S. Lewis and my adopting that line of his as a personal motto: "Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered".
I'm kind of in the middle of three books. It's been a while since I've really read for fun, but after reading through Heinlein's "Have Space Suit Will Travel", I've been looking for more. So, not that it's anything special, but here's what I'm currently working on.
The books is more of the same. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this particular piece, the opening of the book looks at demographics, and how they are likely to shape politics to come. Rather than population growth across the globe, people in Western Progressive Democratic States (like Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, Japan, etc.) are not reproducing at replacement rates. (2.1 children per female). Instead, they are at significantly lower birth rates. This is going to cause economic problems, as fewer young people will be entering the work force to help pay for social programs like welfare and universal health coverage. But the economics isn't the only problem. The countries that are reproducing at replacement rate or higher are by and large Islamic. With time and manpower, the Islamic states are betting that they'll be the ones to dictate international policies in the future, and they could well be right. When the most popular baby boy's name in Belgium and Amsterdam is "Mohammed", there's a huge cultural shift going on.
Unfortunately, Claire has not been as enthusiastic about it as I was. So instead of us reading it together as I'd originally planned, I'm going to read it myself. The beginning is interesting, the site (at www.venpolypheme.com) also has an essay contest for children to win a trip to Chicago and sail on a tall ship (which may or may not have a pirate encounter on the Lake). And one of the judges for the contest is, of course, The Rock. Always nice to see people you want to do well diversifying.
Then I decided to cheat and just read ahead. Such is my current (successful) plan of action. I'll go back and re-read it to Claire when I'm done. Which, considering opportunities to read over the next few days, should be Monday.
Now with the Bar behind me (hopefully forever), my mind turns lightly to something I
First, The Warriors of Spider. Looks like a good read. I'm a fan of military sf (Bolo, Heinlein's Starship Troopers, most anything by David Drake, David Weber's Mutineer's Moon...)
And second..
And, of course, all the Azumanga Daioh I converted for my iPod. Should be a nice, relaxing weekend.
