Writing the Blockbuster Novel

About 20 years ago, I began to work more seriously toward a lifelong goal: to write and publish a novel. I invested in subscriptions to "Writer's Digest" and bought quite a few books on how to write novels, how to publish them, etc. I read many of them in those first few months, enough to get a good grasp on the ins and outs, but always realizing that this would be a continuous learning experience. Now, 20 years later, I've read the last book that I bought from those days. Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman is not for the absolute beginner but rather for those that have a fairly good grasp of how to write and how to publish.

Al Zuckerman is a very successful literary agent who has worked with some of the biggest name authors extant. He uses five major works as examples in this book: The Godfather (Mario Puzo), The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough), Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell), The Man from St Petersburg (Ken Follett), and Garden of Lies (Eileen Goudge). I have read three of these books and so found the material easily relevant. Much of the book is written as a sort of textbook and I do recommend reading these five books first in order to get the most out of this one, especially the Ken Follett book. Of special interest to me was seeing how The Man From St Petersburg changed from first draft to subsequent drafts. I certainly know how writing a novel can be lots and lots of downright hard work but this really brings that point home.

Obviously, this book is not for every writer. If you are interested in writing short stories, or aspire to the smaller, more intimate books, children's books, etc, then this one can still be read just for expanding your knowledge and insight of publishing, marketing, or even some of the basic chores of writing like outlining or re-writing. However, if you are looking for the big commercial success, then this one is ideal. Zuckerman lays out his value criteria: "high stakes; larger-than-life characters; a strong dramatic question; a high concept; a farfetched plot premise; intense emotional involvement between several point-of-view characters; and an exotic and interesting setting."

Overall, I thought the book was well done even though I no longer see myself as writing hugely commercially successful fiction. In fact, this book helped me to focus my own writing efforts; just what I had hoped for when I first opened it up.

England, The Autobiography

This is a book that my wife picked up for me several years ago during her first visit to England. I was still active duty Air Force and stationed in Germany and was unable to get away for that trip although was fortunate enough to be able to go the next year.

This book, England, The Autobiography, edited by John Lewis-Stemple, is a collection of first-hand accounts of English history written by English men and women from all walks of life, some famous and some not. As such, most of the accounts are quite interesting, while others are less so. They are presented chronologically, beginning at 55 BC with an account written by Julius Caesar of his invasion and traversing history all the way to its publication date in 2005 with an account of "England Wins Ashes, the Oval, London." In between there are a hundred or so sketches summarizing 2000 years of English history, from those that were there.

I found most of these sketches to be very interesting, whether it's from the point of view of a Saxon warrior at the Battle of Maldon in 991, or about the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, or a piece by Winston Churchill during WWII, or The Beatles in Performance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1961 by none other than Brian Epstein. Taken all together, these sketches provide a nice overview of English history for somebody who is already at least partially familiar with that history. If this is the first book ever picked up on the subject I don't think it would go very far in educating somebody about it...it's just too little detail about too many events, and each event is only addressed once, often by somebody who has a strong bias one way or the other. But as a companion book to a library of history, this is a fascinating read and makes me want to search out other such books for other countries/cultures.

"I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said"

I'm not really sure which is the title and which is the subtitle of The Yogi Book by Yogi Berra. But that really doesn't matter in the big scheme of things. This is a little book that takes about 10 minutes to read, one of those you might find near the checkout counter of a large book store chain. But it is filled with the delightful sayings of Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame catcher with the NY Yankees, Manager, and coach. Yogi goes through each one of his famous one-liners and cites the origin and the circumstances in which it "just came out." The sayings and explanations are accompanied by photographs of Yogi with some of the best know baseball players of his era, as well as friends, family members, childhood playmates, etc., many of them from his family's personal collection.

Who could forget great lines like these: "It ain't over 'till it's over"; "I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question"; "If I didn't wake up I'd still be sleeping"; "90% of the game is half mental"; or my favorite, when asked for directions, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Contrary to the subtitle, "I really didn't say everything I said," these are all legitimate quotes by Mr. Berra himself. Every one has an origin although a couple of them he doesn't remember saying but admits that he probably did.

A fun book for all, but as Yogi would say (and did) "If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."

Running the Books

Running the Books, by Avi Steinberg is subtitled, "The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian". On the surface, it's an interesting look at how the author spent two years as a librarian in one of Boston's prisons. Avi Steinberg was an obituary writer and had no previous training or experience as a librarian. He answered a want ad and the next thing he knew he had landed an interview.


But this book is about far more than that. It is a poignant examination of people. Not just any people, but the sort of people that are in prison as well as the guards, the prison staff, and the author himself.

I was attracted to this book for two main reasons: 1) I like books and anything to do with them, and 2) I am always up for learning about aspects of life that I've never personally encountered. Prison life has long been an enigma for me and although I enjoyed watching "Prison Break" on TV I assumed that wasn't normal prison life. Parts of this book are humorous, parts sad, and parts downright disturbing but I think the author really gets down to the nitty gritty of how the people interact, especially with him. We see the ugliness of prison politics, how the author himself tries to do the right thing only to get caught up in it himself. We see a wide variety of inmate personalities, and dive in deep to see a handful of them up close. I won't go into details so as not to provide spoilers but rest assured many of the inmates’ stories are tragic. Along the way, we learn about the author's own life experiences both inside the prison library and outside. One can't help but to wonder how we, the readers, would handle some of the situations he encounters and how they would affect us and our outlook on life.

This one will be on sale in the US in October 2010.

An Age of Extremes 1880-1917

Book 8 of Joy Hakim's "A History of US", An Age of Extremes is another fine entry in the 10-volume young adult US history set. Even though I like to consider myself quite knowledgeable about history in general and US history in particular, I always uncover new facts when I read these books. Moreover, I gain greater insight on the happenings of the era because of the excellent presentation. I love all of the interesting sidebars, pictures, and diagrams that are included.

This volume covers numerous topics from 1880 to the beginnings of World War I such as the rise of industry, the politics of business vs. government, and inventions galore. We get nice summaries of the major players of the day: tycoons such as Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, or JP Morgan; Presidents like Grant, Hayes, Taft, Teddy Roosevelt and Wilson; and other prominent people who impacted US history like John Roebling, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Muir, William Jennings Bryan, and the Wright Brothers. Of special interest to me, because I like reading about the history of books, were nice summary biographies of L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz books, as well as the Muckrakers like Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair, not to mention Sam McClure and his stable of writers: Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Stephen Crane, and Willa Cather. We bought this set of books for use in our kids' homeschooling effort and they are perfect for that purpose as they bring the history to life. Highly recommended.

The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World

This is the book I've been reading lately during my mornings. It's actually my daughter's book, purchased during our June trip to Florida, and she found it so fascinating that I just had to read it too. I was skeptical at first because I fancy myself a pretty knowledgeable Disney World visitor, having been to the park at least 5 times in the past 20 years.


I've also read several Walt Disney biographies as well as related books and seen documentaries about how the parks were built, etc. So I just didn't think there was too much more for me to learn. But I was very pleasantly surprised. This book, The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World, by Susan Veness is packed full of little known information, much of it in plain view if you visit the park, if you only knew what you were looking at. Almost every ride/attraction has hidden meaning. Everything is done on purpose so if you see a name on a window of one of the upstairs "offices" along Main Street, this book will tell you it's one of the original imagineers that designed it. At Star Tours in Disney's Hollywood Studios, you may hear a page for "Egroeg Sacul" which is "George Lucas" spelled backwards. This book is packed with such tidbits.

The book is divided into 4 sections, one for each of the major parts of Walt Disney World. Each section also includes a timeline from the moment it was conceptualized through now (2010) and lists all of the changes that happened along the way. Since I've been so many times it was nice to remember some of the stuff that is no longer there. But it was also nice to see how the imagineers incorporated a now defunct attraction into an existing one. And finally, it was very interesting to read about ideas that didn't make it...and why. For example there were plans at the Japan pavilion in EPCOT's World Showcase for a "Mt Fuji Rollercoaster" but it was nixed by the sponsor, Kodak, so as not to promote rival Fuji Film.

And tons more like that. The amazing thing about this book was that I'm not sure it's available at Disney World itself. We bought our copy at Borders just before we got on the plane so that makes me wonder if Disney doesn’t really want all of this Hidden Magic widely known. But if that is the case, I can't see why because this book is very flattering towards Disney and would seem to be a nice companion for the visitors.

Castles of Colorado

I've been fortunate in my life to have been able to travel over large parts of the world, particularly in Europe, and I've seen a lot of castles. As a child/young adult I played games like D&D and I've always loved historical fiction and fantasy and other genres where castles play a role. So it was with some skepticism that I began to read Castles of Colorado, by Ann Westerberg. After all, surely there are no real castles here in the state I call home.

The subtitle of the book is "Scandals, Hauntings, and Tales of the Past," and I suppose that was my first clue about how this book would read. It is sort of a "coffee-table" book in that most people probably just pick it up in passing and glance through the pictures. I like to read my books however so when my wife and daughter brought this home after their tour of "Miramont" in Colorado Springs, I couldn't just let it sit there.

I have to say the book looks gorgeous. Lots of glossy full color pictures in perfect weather conditions amidst beautiful scenery. Of course I was right to be skeptical though. There are no real castles, at least by my definition, in Colorado. The author shows some good solid research though in providing a good summary of each of the places she displays within the book. Most are estates of one form or another but reading the history of each one was fun. I preferred that part to the "This room can seat 75 guests and overlooks the lawn and three tiers of trout ponds..." parts. I'm not much of a HG TV fan either. Each "castle" is covered as a tour, and then depicts the history of the dwelling as well as any scandals or purported hauntings of the property. There is also a section on "castles" that are no longer around.

All in all it was an interesting book, even if I don't consider a vast estate to be a castle just because it has decorative turrets and a round tower as part of the architecture.

Blood and Thunder

I've completed another of my "morning reads".  For the uninitiated, these are books that I used to read during the half hour or so before leaving for work in the morning, usually taking a month or more to complete.  However, now that I am unemployed, I still use the early morning hours (when it's nice and quiet) to work on these books.

Blood and Thunder, subtitled, "The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West", was written by Hampton Sides and was an important book for me.  You see, I grew up in the Southwestern US, namely New Mexico, and have since lived all over the western US including California, Utah, and Colorado, also spending lots of time in Nevada, Arizona, and Texas.  And yet, I have long felt my historical education of the region has been aquired in bits and pieces only with no real handle on how it all fit together.  I was first attracted to this book by the great cover art and the subject of Kit Carson since I had always wanted to read about his life.  But this book turned out to be about quite a bit more than just Kit Carson's life.

Don't get me wrong, Kit Carson's life and deeds are incredible.  He seems to have been everywhere in the West, at most of the important events, often effecting them in astounding ways.  We read of John Charles Fremont and his Pathfinder expeditions, with Kit Carson as his guide.  We follow the Civil War events in New Mexico (a good followup to the set of four novels I read last year by P.G. Nagle), as well as learn about General Stephen Watts Kearny, the conquerer of the West.  And through it all is the plight of the Navajo Indians, and their leaders.  These events and characters just scratch the surface of what this book covers.  I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in a good all-around discussion of the history of the American South West.

On the Grid

This morning I woke up early to get some quality time on the internet as well as check out how many books I sold last night from my on-line bookstore, only to find out it wasn't working (the internet, that is).  That seems to be happening more and more to us in our household, requiring us to re-boot our LAN/router doo-hickey and hope it starts working again.  But while I waited, I went ahead and finished up the reading of Scott Huler's On the Grid.  The subtitle of this book (due to be published/available in May 2010), is "A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems That Make Our World Work."

I think of myself as a pretty average suburban home owner who takes the city's infrastructure for granted.  I assume that when I turn on the water faucet, fresh, clean water will come out, and I assume that when I put something down the garbage disposal, it will get chopped up into tiny pieces and go whereever it is that it goes and all will be well in the world.  I don't really understand how these systems work, but, unlike most folks, perhaps, I have at least been curious.  So when I got the chance to review this book, I was only too happy to give it a crack.

Mr Huler lives in Raleigh, North Carolina and uses his house and city as launching pads to discover how our central infrastructure systems really work.  He takes us through such systems as storm water drains, sewage systems, the power grids, transportation systems, and communications systems (including the internet).  He follows one element of the infrastructure back to its source or destination.  Along the way he talks with experts in that system such as engineers, sanitation experts, gas company employees, etc.  If nothing else, this book certainly shines the light on the critical roles these people play in all of our lives.  But he doesn't stop there.  Each chapter also goes into detail on the history of each of the systems, beginning at its source whether it was ancient Rome, prehistoric man, or Benjamin Franklin.  The author does a good job at tying it all together and I did come away from this book with a greater understanding of what all of those poles, iron plates, and utility boxes in my neighborhood are really for.  But really, the book just scratches the surface.  It does demonstrate just how massively complex our infrastructure is and there is no way somebody can get a thorough understanding of these systems from just one book. My only negative comment is that the cover states the book is "mesmerizing and often hilarious."  It was interesting, but hardly "mesmerizing" and I found very little of it to be mildly humorous, much less "hilarious."  This is more of a straight informational book, not a Dave Barry collection of essays.

And I still don't understand how my internet/router doo-hickey system really works.

I also read a classic short story, the next in The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century, "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury.  This was one of the first stories ever written to extrapolate an event changed in the past to its corresponding resulted change in the present day...sort of a butterfly effect.  In this story which starts in the year 2055, a hunter/tourist pays a time travel company to go back in time to hunt a T-Rex.  The hunter panics at the sight of the T-Rex, strays off the "path", accidentally steps on a butterfly, and when he returns to the present day, sees the vast, far-reaching results.  This is a pretty typical time-travel story but was quite original back when it was first published.

Next up: The Cat Who Saw Stars, by Lilian Jackson Braun.

Eisenhower, Soldier and President

Every time I take a trip somewhere, I always buy a book to add to my library.  As often as possible I try to get a book about the area I am visiting.  About a year ago I took a trip to Washington DC for about the 12th time but since I've seen just about every tourist attraction there is to see there, I decided I would finally visit that which I had been putting off all this time...the Pentagon.  I had never been all that excited about the Pentagon; when you get right down to it it's just one of the world's largest office buildings.  But I did go, and while I was there, I saw a hallway tribute to Eisenhower and thus, the book, Eisenhower, Soldier and President by Stephen E. Ambrose, came into my possession.  I also chose it because I thought it might be a good companion volume to the major biography I read last year, American Ceasar, by William Manchester, a biography of Douglas MacArthur.  Since I knew Eisenhower served as MacArthur's exec officer in the Phillipines, I was curious if there would be a different point of view presented.

Mr Ambrose is known as one of the great US historians, having written some 20 books, several of which have become quite well known.  Among them is a comprehensive 2-volume work on Eisenhower as well as this one which is a consolidation of those two volumes.  In my view Mr Ambrose does a good job of presenting Eisenhower's faults along with his positive traits, his failures as well as his triumphs.  Undoubtedly Eisenhower was a great general and as the primary architect of Operation Overlord (D-Day invasion), he deserves the accolades of his military accomplishments.  But what I really like about a well-done biography is to see the early years, the childhood influences which led to the way the subject reacts to experiences in adult life.  Mr Ambrose provides that for us here, taking the little boy from Abilene Kansas all the way to the Presidency.  Unfortunately, my hopes for the tie-in to MacArthur's Phillipine experiences were dashed as that realtionship was glossed over almost completely.  I suppose a biographer needs to keep to his subject and not let other notable figures of the time take over.

Most of the book deals with the Eisenhower presidency, a time in the 50's that most knowledgeable people refer to as the age of missed opportunities and Eisenhower himself as the "do-nothing president."  While Mr Ambrose does point out Eisenhower's penchant for stearing down the middle of the road, pushing off any responsibility in dealing with the racial divides of the country, and unwilling to deal with McCarthyism in any definitive way, he also spends time on the positive things such as keeping the budget in balance, establishing the Interstate Highway System, and keeping the peace for his entire 8 years as president. 

Along the way we do get to witness some great moments in history and meet the towering figures of the time such as Montgomery, Churchill, DeGaul, Stalin, Truman, Nixon, McCarthy, and his own family of Maime and son David.  I came away from this book with a much greater appreciation for the era of the 50's (I've never studied much from that decade) as well as a better understanding of how all of that led us to the 60's.  Mr Ambrose, I know, came under fire several years ago for plagarism (something about quotes not used correctly) but this book does not seem to ever be mentioned as a case of that.  This biography still is known as the definitive Eisenhower biography and I, for one, appreciate it.  I certainly have a much better understanding and "feel" for one of my nations true heroes while at the same time appreciate one of our more under-rated presidents. 

Sure wish we had him now.

Selling Used Books On-Line

As mentioned briefly in recent blog posts, after 20 years, I am now in my last couple of weeks of my Air Force career.  I have hopes for other career options but am choosing this opportunity to do something I've always wanted.  Since I've loved books (and reading them) my entire life, I've long wanted to own my own book store.  I've actually planned to do that for about 15 years now.  But as the years passed and I got closer to that magic date when I would actually be able to achieve my dream, the more it was becoming elusive.  It was at least 10 years ago that I discarded the idea of a traditional new book store.  Afterall, it is darn near impossible to compete with the likes of Barnes & Noble and Borders. 

My thoughts turned to a used book store and while that remains doable, I just don't relish the risk associated with the investment necessary for an actual storefront complete with leasing costs, employee costs, utilities, advertising, etc.  Nor do I want to be tied down to such a full-time commitment.  Besides all that I just don't have the funds available to start up such a venture.  So a few years ago I turned to the idea of an on-line bookstore and have since refined it even further to selling used books on-line via Amazon.com and other venues.  I've done some solid research on the topic and now feel ready to tackle the idea head-on.  I've even managed to accumulate almost 4,000 books (now stacked in boxes in my basement) as my opening inventory.

For my final bit of research I bought three books written by people who have done just what I want to do and I've studied them carefully.  The first one, On-Line Bookselling by Michael Mould I actually read over a year ago as my first piece of formal research and I found it to be excellent.  He covers all of the details and since the author is a structural engineer by day (he runs his book business part time), he is very thorough and exacting in his techniques.  He even includes a CD containing business tools like spreadsheets he uses for accounting, inventory, sales tarcking, etc.  The second book, The Home-Based Bookstore, by Steve Weber appears to be the leader among books on this subject.  I found it to also be excellent.  Of course many of the tips and strategies were similar to the first book but there were enough different aspects to make it worth the cost.  Finally, the third book, The Stay-at Home Mom's Secret Guide to Selling Used Books on Amazon, by Christine Miller was a less formal approach and probably not neccessary to my education.  Her book was more fluff than substance.  For example, she spends almost the first third of the book providing motivation for opening a store in the first place, no doubt aimed at other part-time non-business people to get them to realize it ain't that hard. But she does bring home some points that are worth pondering as I begin my venture, especially in the book scouting chapter.

All in all, these three books have provided me with enough information to get started with this project.  All three have good reference sections loaded with websites for the tools I'll need to be efficient and productive.  While I already know a lot about business processes (I have an MBA and have been a small business consultant) I now know a lot more about the particulars of what makes this niche-business tick.  Hopefully, I'll be able to reduce those 4,000 books down to a more manageable level!

Next up: back to the Advanced Reader's Copies as I pursue another new author for me, Ted Dekker's The Bride Collector.

Among the Gently Mad

The full name of this book is Among the Gently Mad: Strategies and Perspectives for the Book Hunter in the 21st Century.  I read this one for my morning reading program, where I read a book every workday morning for about 20-30 minutes before I drive to work.  These usually tend to be non-fiction as it's easier to read those in little doses without losing  the thread of a plot line or character motivation, etc.  This book, by Nicholas Basbanes is a sort of follow-up to his lengthy but amazing 1999 book, A Gentle Madness, where he goes through the history of bibliofilia and provides numerous examples of book collectors throughout history. 

This time, the book is much shorter but no less interesting as Mr Basbanes focuses a bit more on how to collect books, emphasizing that book collecting is not just about finding and collecting rare and valuable books but also about accumulating that which interests any particular collector.  In other words, for every book afficianado out there that is looking for a quality first edition of Catcher in the Rye there is also a collector of pop-up children's books through history or a collector of all books with the name "Billy" in the title.  He sprinkles numerous anecdotes about the collectors themselves, many of whom he had interviewed for the first book and also offers lots of tips for how to go about starting a collection of your own.  He examines book fairs, auctions, catalogues, etc. and also provides a thorough discussion on the pros and cons of the impact of the internet on modern book collecting.

Just as when I read the first book, I found myself wondering if I am a book collector at all.  I am first and foremost a book reader and consequently I tend to accumulate lots of books but I can't say I've ever searched for a book based on its monetary value and I probably never will.  It would be fun to do so, especially for some area I really like, perhaps the early pulp fiction era, but I suspect I'm too frugal to spend the kind of money I would need to do so.  I certainly don't mind if others choose to collect books that they have no intention of reading but that's just not me.  After I read a particular book, I do tend to cherish it and I love looking at my book shelves, reminiscing about the memories.  I suppose I could categorize myself as a collector of "books I like to read" but that seems rather silly, even though I own and catalog over 7,000 books in my house. (Yes, I fit the description of a "gently mad" person).  I think it's pretty good that I only have ~300 still unread although I can't seem to get that number much lower.

Anyway, I very much enjoy Mr Basbanes' books; they leave me with a deep sense of satisfaction and I always love books about books or book people.  He has more published so I hope to add them to my "collection" one day.

Castles on the Rhine

Today, I completed the latest book in my morning reading program. For new readers of this blog, these are the books I read in the 30-40 minutes before driving to work each day. Since I had recently completed the gigantic biography of Douglas MacArthur, I chose a relatively then book this time, Castles on the Rhine. This is a thin volume that I bought years ago when I lived in Germany the first time. I often pick up books that will later remind me of the times I spent in certain parts of the world. I'll often save them to read until years later when they really serve their purpose in bringing back the fond memories. This one was no exception.

The book is actually volume 2 of the "Rheinisches Land" Collection. I do not have the first volume and am not aware of it's subject matter. This volume was prepared by Dr. Walther Ottendorff-Simrock and does a good job of detailing most (if not all) of the numerous castles along the Rhein River in Germany, between the cities of Mainz and Cologne (Koln). There are a lot of castles through this stretch and I have seen many of them from boat as well as car as we drove along this fantastically scenic part of the world. I've been in about 6 of them but there is so much history surrounding this area that I was happy to dive back into it via this book. I will say that it did serve the purpose but I was a little disappointed in the format of the book. There are lots of great photographs of the castles but generally only of the exteriors. This works for the castles that are mostly ruins but the others often have fantastic interiors which would be of interest. The author presented the history of each castle, what its primary purpose was (defense, river toll collecting, etc.) and added in some info for tourists such as if the castle is open to the public or a private residence, operating hours, etc. The second problem I encountered was that most of the castle descriptions were many pages away from their photos. That required lots of paging back and forth in order to see what I was reading about. I didn't see a need for that; it's not as if all the pictures were collected together in plates. Pretty much each page had a photo on it as well as description...just not matching. I had to count on the "picture on page xx" instructions and when we're talking about 45-50 castles, that's a lot of paging back and forth.

But still, it really brought me back to that time and place, both the times when the castles were active as well as back to the time I lived nearby. Fond memories indeed.

American Caesar

This morning I completed the latest book in my morning reading program, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964 by William Manchester. Wow, what a read! This is a long biography, coming in at over 700 pages (not counting the lengthy bibliography and source material references). I bought this book back at the beginning of the year when I was on a trip to San Diego for work. I always pick up a book of some kind, usually nonfiction to help build my library and usually, I take years to get around to reading it. But this one seemed to fit my needs when I was ready and so I was very happy to tackle it.

This is, I believe, the best historical biography I have ever read...and I've read some great ones. Part of that may be due to the subject at hand, Douglas MacArthur, one of the more complicated personalities of history out there. A brilliant man, but flawed in several respects, he was such a major figure of American history and, indeed, world history. He was at once, a genius, a great leader of men, a supreme strategist, as well as an incredible egoist capable of monumental mistakes in judgement. I have heard numerous anecdotes throughout my life about this man but had never developed a complete picture of him or his life. William Manchester certainly satisfied that for me.

The book itself is delightful to read, packed not only with the facts of MacArthur's life and times, but also making a compelling case for MacArthur being one of history's greatest generals. We get a close-up look at his development of brilliant warfare strategies and how they came about. We see his tactics in war and we see how he reacts to his superiors and subordinates. We see his entire life, starting, actually before his birth with a good look at his father, a great general in his own right and we progress through his childhood and then his amazing career at West Point. We see his success in WWI and then spend a lot of time with him in the Pacific during WWII, and his ultimate shining moments as the near-emporer of Japan after the surrender. MacArthur seems to be mostly remembered for his time in the Korean War and his ultimate firing by Truman and that is truly unfortunate given his numerous remarkable accomplishments for so many decades prior.

But this book is far more than historical facts. The author gets behind the public personna and shows us the man himself. While reading the book, I felt like I knew MacArthur personally and was able to understand how and why he reacted to the great and tragic events of the 20th century. The book's title says it all...MacArthur was, indeed, the American Caesar. The author does a superb job of showing us all aspects of his character, making the reading of this book a truly great experience.

Reconstructing America

I've completed another in my WOE (While Otherwise Engaged) reading. This is my bathroom reading material for those that remain uninitiated to this blog. Joy Hakim's Reconstructing America, 1865-1890 is the 7th volume in her encylopedic set of "A History of US" and examines the period of reconstruction after the Civil War in the US.

I enjoy reading these volumes a lot. Together they form a complete history of the US. Meant for children and young adults they, however, do not at all simplify the issues of the time but rather highlight the people who lived through them. For example, in this volume, we read about famous people like Booker T. Washington, Thomas Edison, and Susan B. Anthony but we also get to hear of the experiences of lesser known people who had large impacts on history. But probably most interesting to readers is the chapters where the author delves into what day-to-day life would be like for somebody living in the times...like a Chinese immigrant working on the railroad or a child of a formerly enslaved family now forced to fend for themselves during reconstruction. That truly brings history alive for students (and for middle-aged codgers like me).

Ms Hakim does a wonderful job of distilling all of that history down into coherant pieces of information. She takes major themes of history and makes them relevant to individual people, telling their stories and thus illustrating the theme. There are lots of pictures and sidebar descriptions that serve well to keep up interest and keep readers turning the pages. You just want to keep on reading that next little bit.

Next up for WOE reading (after a quick read of the latest Reader's Digest) is The Crucible the classic play by Arthur Miller.

Nelson

I've completed the latest in my morning reading program. It seems now that I don't have to drop my son off at school on the way in to work, I have an extra 15 minutes or so each day so my morning reading productivity has picked up a notch. Nelson, the Man and the Legend by Terry Coleman is the latest and it is a biography of Lord Horatio Nelson, legendary, almost godlike British admiral of the Napoleonic era. As usual I tried to do some research on this book and author prior to discussing it here but this time it was very odd because I could not find it listed anywhere. I did find another book entitled, The Nelson Touch, The Life and Legend of Horatio Nelson, also by Terry Coleman and then the light dawned on me. I had purchased this book while in London two years ago. No doubt the name had been changed for publication in the US. At least that is a plausible explanation because the Amazon description seemed perfectly suited to the book I had just read.

Anyway, this is one of my "travel" books. That is to say it's not one I meant to read while traveling nor is it some sort of travelogue. Rather, every time I travel (and I do that fairly often) I buy a book to add to my library, usually nonfiction and if possible, relevant to the place I am visiting. This time it was London and during the city tour I kept hearing about Lord Nelson, saw the monuments, statues, etc. and realized I really knew very little about the man. It certainly seemed like Londoners revere him like people in my country revere George Washington. So I purchased this book. It also helped that I was reading (and have now completed) all 11 Horatio Hornblower books, about a fictional character with more than a passing resemblance to Nelson. My interest was high.

Mr Coleman goes out of his way to demystify Lord Nelson in this book; indeed even to go far toward the other side of his legend and present him as a much more human character, suffering from a large ego and power hungry for more and faster self promotions than most people believe. The very first chapter calls out predecessor biographers as falling for the propoganda that was put out at the time of Nelson's death at Trafalgar and producing haphazard facts based on sloppy research. Mr Coleman, who has a journalistic background,I understand, claims to use all available documents including letters in and among senior British Navy personnel, personal letters between Nelson's relatives including between he and his wife, etc. And to give him credit, he includes a lengthy bibliography to support his depiction for those that may want to check his sources.

But Coleman doesn't "trash" Nelson. He takes pains to also point out instances where Nelson backed underlings despite risking his own reputation and he is shown several times taking care of his crew and foregoing standard punishments for his men such as flogging or hanging. That's not to say that he never did that but rather he seems to have taken into account all angles of a situation before issuing orders. There is no doubt that Nelson had one of the largest impacts on the history of sea warfare that we know. And there is no doubt that he achieved some remarkable successes. This book however spends less time on the military engagements and more on the motivation of the man himself. After all, a sea captain/admiral who gave up eyesight in one eye, lost one arm, incurred a possible skull fracture, and ultimately gave his life in the name of doing his duty, is certainly to be admired. Surely his bravery is beyond question. Nor does Coleman question it other than to suggest his bravery was unnecessarily foolhardy. His death at Trafalgar, for example, seems as if it could easily have been avoided. I've read biographies of other great military men and it seems that trait is a common thread whether we are talking about Nelson, or Custer, or Crazy Horse.

I learned a lot, as expected, about Lord Nelson in this book and now feel I have a much greater understanding of him, his life, his loves, his very essence. I'm sure Nelson enthusiasts would prefer I read other works to get other opinions on his life but this is probably enough for me. I plan to read a couple of non-biographies next during my mornings before returning to more great lives.

The Mythology of Native North America

Last night I completed reading The Mythology of Native North America, by David Leeming and Jake Page. Followers of this blog will remember that I like to intersperse my novel reading with short stories, breaking up the longer works as well as allowing me to actually read some of my short story collections. For some reason I have never enjoyed reading many short stories one after the other so this process works for me.

I had hoped this book on mythology would work in the same way. After all a myth is usually written as a short story and I could simply read one or two of them between novels. However, this particular book is more of a text book, in some ways, about Native American Mythology. It certainly relayed many myths from widespread native American tribes and I enjoyed most of them pretty well. But there was also a lot of good explanation about the origins of the myths, how similar they were to many other world religions, and other pertanent facts. The book was a very good introduction for those that know little about this sort of mythology even if it wasn't what I had hoped for as far as serving my short story purpose.

The book is written almost like it was a master's thesis--lots of references to other works, citing source material etc. Definitely a necessity for the acedemic environment for which I believe it was intended. The authors divide the myths into major themes such as creation, flood, the afterlife, etc. I was truly surprised to see the similarities to other world mythology including Greek/Roman, Norse, Hebrew, Egyptian, etc. Most of the actual stories involving the myths were fairly plain and simple but the last section that dealt with the heroes and monster killing was probably my favorite. I suppose I am always a sucker for action and adventure no matter what form it takes. Since the book didn't break down into just a bunch of stories like I was expecting, I found myself reading quite a bit of it in between novels. I now have a taste for what these myths are and where they came from and can appreciate the themes that are there. I'm glad to have read this book but I think overall I still prefer the more common, familiar mythology such as the Greek pantheon, perhaps because it is so familiar.

So my next short story collection will be a return to the more normal format: Stephen King's Skeleton Crew. I'll share my thoughts on each entry as I finish it, tacking it on to the novel blog entry just as before.

Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity

Wow, that title sounds like I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning doesn't it? Actually, it's the title of the morning book I've been reading for the past week and a half or so. It's by John Stossel, the co-anchor of ABC News' 20/20 fame, and the full title of the book is Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel - Why Everything You Know is Wrong. It's an interesting title and how I came to read this book is interesting in itself. You see, my college-enrolled daughter got the list of books required for last year's Fall semester and she and my wife decided to try and buy them on-line which is usually a much cheaper route for buying text books. (Just make sure you get the correct edition and not last year's version). Now the fact that my daughter is majoring in archeology and the required reading would include a book by a major league consumer reporter on TV didn't lead them to question the choice because as we all know a "well-rounded" college education includes all sorts of required course work that might be outside the main subject matter.

Well, turns out the list was wrong after all; they had listed the wrong book for the course. But by then we already had it and I, for one, was happy to see this book arrive in the mail. It would be perfect for my morning reading program! (The 20-30 minutes prior to driving to work each morning). Now, I don't watch a lot of TV when it actually aires, mostly confining myself to DVDs so I can watch entire seasons without interruption or commercials and I particularly don't care for shows like 60 Minutes or 20/20. But over the years I have seen John Stossel a time or two and I've seen him as a guest on other shows. I have admired his history in overcoming a stuttering problem and I knew that he has become a voice for Libertarians, something rarely found in the main stream media. And he isn't an ambush reporter...you know those kind that ambush people, stick a microphone in their face and expect them to come up with coherent answers to provocative questions. John Stossel gets their permission before putting them on camera. But besides all that there is just something about John Stossel that I like.

The book itself is a series of ideas that the vast majority of Americans (and citizens around the world) hold to be truths, but in this book Mr Stossel holds them up to the light of evidence and exposes them as merely myths. They are grouped in all sorts of major categories such as "Clueless Media", "Bashing Businesss", "Monster Government", "The Lawsuit Racket", "Consumer Cons", etc. He does an excellent job I think at debunking most of the myths he presents although there are a few that could have used more substance to back up his view. He is strongest in the chapters on business, big government, and America's public schools. I've heard some of the consumer myths before such as the one about the use of cell phones causing explosions at the gas pump. I actually saw that one debunked on the TV show "Mythbusters". But his greater point is that even though we know that to be a myth, we still require gas stations to put those stupid stickers on every gas pump in America. Once an "improvement" has been made, it stays around forever, even if the unintended consequences are worse than the original problem.

And this leads to his larger arguement which is to support the concepts of Libertarianism. In fact, the final chapter in the book, a short wrap up of his philosophy, summarizes why he considers himself a Libertarian. Bigger and bigger government, despite the best of intentions, (hopefully) often leads to less freedoms for all of us. It's interesting to note the Amazon reviews of this book. While some like it for what it is, many throw it away in disgust because he has a different political viewpoint from them. Where has the concept of open-mindedness gone in this country? Are we so partisan that the other side is 100% wrong on everything they do? Is there no room for a third point of view? or 4th or 5th? This book is a fairly easy and quick read and while it may not change your particular political philosophy it does have quite a few eye-opening points and I think if you let yourself be open to it, it will at least make you think. In fact I've noticed a change in my own behavior in the last week or so as I've begun to question what everybody in the office just accepts as fact. I'll ask questions like "How do we know such and such is really the case?" It might be just a long-held belief in how a process works when in fact the process isn't working at all. Now that's the kind of book that can change things for the better!
Strange...this post didn't take when I tried to post it last week. Some kind of problem they were having with Blogger I guess. Anyway, my apologies for any confusion from the odd posting that has been up since last Friday.

A Gentle Madness

For quite some time now (more than 20 years) I have classified myself as a bibliophile. In my mind that means I love books...everything about them from reading them to collecting them and in my dreams I like to write them. So it was with great anticipation that I began to read A Gentle Madness by Nicholas A. Basbanes. This has been my morning reading book (the one I read for 30 minutes or so before I head off to work each day) for the past couple of months. It has been a fantastic read for me and always puts me in a good mood first thing in the morning.

The title alone is fantastic. I can think of no better way to describe the often illogical mania people like me have for books. We are, I think mad in many ways and yet it is a non-threatening sort of madness. I have been crazy about books since I was a little boy and used to gaze up at my parents crowded book shelves in the living room. And to this day, when I have a couple of minutes to spare, I love to glance over the titles in my own library at home, reminiscing about past reads and anticipating future adventures. A gentle madness indeed.

Mr Basbanes does a fantastic job of cataloguing most of the famous and infamous bibliomaniacs in history. He describes the famous historical collectors as well as modern examples. He discusses what they do and how they do it and somehow is able to get into their psyches and examine why they do it. Of course not all are the same but they all do seem to share the same indescribable love for books. Some collect for the benefit of mankind while others do it for their own bragging rights. I enjoyed reading about the collections that 19th and 20th century collectors put together, fantasizing about what it would be like to be rich enough to build the kind of library they could. But I think I preferred reading about the more common person who put aside other pleasures of life in order to pursue their passion on a more modest basis. I guess I identify more with them. I also enjoyed the story of Stephen Blumberg, known as the most successful book thief of the 20th century. He had stolen more than $20 million dollars worth of books from libraries all over North America before being arrested in Riverside California in the early 1990s. In his mind he was accumulating a collection and preferred to think of the books as on an inter-library loan. This was definitely a gentle madman.

This book gave me an interesting perspective. First, it's nice to know I am not the only one out there with my "disease". But secondly it helps clarify the purpose of my own library collection. You see I don't collect books just to have books. I don't collect books because they might be valuable someday. I collect books in order to read them and so I think I am slightly different than most of the people discussed in this book. I guess I am a collector of "reading experiences" more than of books. Although I rarely depart with a book that I own, even after reading it and even if it is unlikely I will ever read it again. I love to see it on the shelf and remember the time I spent with it. So I guess I am still mad...but gently so.

All The Best

This morning, I completed my "morning reading" book, All The Best, George Bush. For those of you who have read my first couple of postings on this blog, you'll remember that I have one book that I read exclusively in the mornings before going to work. I read about half an hour per day on it and just keep going Monday through Friday. That's why it has taken me all the way from January 1st to today to get through this one.

This was a book that has been on my shelf for quite a few years. I received it as a Christmas present from my parents and I thought its format would suit my morning routine well. You see, it's a collection of letters and personal dictations from George H. W. Bush throughout his life. The book is divided into major sections that align with what he was doing at the time. It includes letters to his mom back when he voluntered to enter the US Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and goes all the way up until the date of publication of the book, just prior to 9/11. It includes sections during his time as an oil man in Texas, as a congressman, as the Ambassador to the UN, as the Chairman of the RNC (during the Watergate era), as the Director of the CIA, as the US liaison to China, and of course as the Vice President to Ronald Reagan and ultimately as the US President.

I have not read very many political autobiographies, at least not of the modern era. I figure they are pretty much attempts to justify their own actions, show things from their point of view, etc. But since this was a collection of actual letters written at the time I think that phenomenan is lessoned. Overall, I was very happy to have read this book...it was a far better experience than I was expecting. Afterall, George Bush, our 41st president is usually considered forgetable, despite Desert Storm. This is probably due to being only a one term president sandwiched between the personalities of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. It was fascinating, however, to see what his thoughts were regarding all of the events he participated in. He spent a lifetime at or near the top of huge events in this world and that fact can be easy to forget. I was struck by the very nature of the man. This book confirmed my impressions of him, showing him to be a compassionate man, who holds high ideals, who loves his family above all else, and who tends to give everybody, even his political foes, the benefit of the doubt. Of course an arguement can be made that only the letters that showed him in a positive light were included but there is just too much here to dispute the very nature of the man himself.

I'm not sure of my next pick for my morning reading program...I have plenty of books to chose from but I prefer to use this time for factual reading, not fiction. So we'll see...