So...what are you reading (Vol VI)

That's Margeret Bourke White, the first female war correspondant and great photo-journalist.

Just finished volume two:



If you're interested in "the first draft of history" by some great reporters, these books are awesome.

Moved onto The Portable Dante, edited and translated by Mark Musa. Can't find a decent image that would fit on the page, but it's basically "The Divine Comedy" plus "La Vita Nuova." It's a really good, readable translation. Just got around Satan yesterday and I'm about halfway up the first floor of purgatory.

Just finished Promises To Keep by Joe Biden

The Arabian Nights by Sir Richard Burton
wonderful book..especially the way these stories are woven altogether..

Yes, that photo perfectly captures a moment in time.

I'm going to have to find copies of those books. It looks like I can find plenty of reading for the new year just on this page alone.

"The Arabian Nights" by Sir Richard Burton. One I keep forgetting about. I read his bio way back when and enjoyed the movie (a lot) they made about him looking for the source of the Nile. Brilliant mind and spoke 29 languages. I can barely ask for a beer in 2 languages.

His bio states: He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information. Sounds, to me, like he may have kept true to the stories.

White House Diary by Jimmy Carter

Using my son (i.e. helping him pick out books) as an excuse to catch up on some classics I missed as a youth.

This book is my favourite book of all time!

Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View by Stephen Breyer

Well done. I will always contend that Brice Courtenay's "The Power of One" is a book for all boys to read. A young boy growing up and coming of age in the years leading to WWII
I bought some used and gave them to the kids in the team I coached. Great reception.

A lot of people got killed..?

Picked up "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" at a used book store today and finished it in a few hours, loved it. Got a $25 Kindle gift card, so I just purchased The Karla Trilogy books on it as well as "The River War" (for free!) by Winston Churchill after catching the last half of the movie "The Four Feathers" and getting caught in a wikipedia loop until I came upon Churchill's account of the real events in the movie. Also, got The Mauritius Command at the used book store along with The African Queen. I still have to read HMS Surprise before I get to the Mauritius Command. I should read Post Captain as well, since I've only read Master and Commander! Lot of reading for me to do, which is fine by me. Traveling for work a few times in the next few weeks.

Dostoevsky's The Idiot in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. So far, better than the older translation I tried to read way back.

Some fun stuff to read there. I got into the Churchill stuff a few years back. He had to really push some buttons to get up the nile with Kitchener, or his mother, the American did. Churchills account of the Battle of Omdurman is really good. He was in what was the last real cavalry charge of the British Army there. The 'modern' british Army just about wiped out the Dervishes.

And, in preparation for trip to Paris this winter:

Guy Gavriel Kay Sailing to Sarantium
Continuing a full author revisit.

Dostoyevsky is a beast!

I was touting "The Power of One" last week as a great book. Today I found the follow up book "Tandia" Both are from South Africa's apartheid period.

I'm only a couple of chapters into it but already it's gripping and compelling reading. I'm going to enjoy this one.

Anyone who is interested in boxing would enjoy these two books.