What are you currently reading?

[Coelho]

Re-reading Castaneda's Tales of Power for the nth time... i think i need new books...

[Esoteric416]

I just finished George Orwell's "Animal Farm" I found it among the lost items at work that I'm supposed to send to our overgoods departmant but I had to read it first.
Delightful. I love satire. A little sad though, those poor animals, especially Boxer.

[dragonrider]

I just read two books about the doomed Franklin Expedition to the arctic to find the Northwest Passage in 1845. They were both very good and very interesting.

At that time the British Navy and others were absolutely convinced that there was a passage through the arctic and that you would be able to sail a ship from Europe to Asia without having to go all the way around Africa or around South America. They put huge amounts of money and resources into finding the Northwest Passage, and they made it a major issue of national prestige to be the country to discover it.

The most famous expedition was the Franklin Expedition of 1845. They outfitted two ships with revolutionary technology for the time --- super reinforced hulls with steel cladding to resist the ice, steam engines to supplement the sails, steam heating to help survive the cold. Sir John Frankin was a famous arctic explorer and was put in charge of the expedition. They knew they would probably get frozen in the ice like all the other arctic expeditions, so they took provisions for as much as 5 years. There were huge national celebrations around the country to see them off. They set sail with 128 men aboard --- and they just disappeared. Never heard from again.

Imagine if we put our national pride on the line and launched 100 astronauts to the moon, in the most advanced rockets of the time, led by a famous lunar astronaut like Neil Armstrong --- and they just disappeared without a trace. It was like that.

The first book was The Terror, by Dan Simmons. It is a fictional novel about the Franklin Expedition. There is no doubt that it is completely fictional --- it gets a bit into the supernatural. But the story is really well written and the characters are great. Also the depictions of what it was like to be on an arctic expedition in that era are very accurate, and it really gives you the flavor of what it was like to be trapped in the ice for years. Even though the book is fictional, it is consistent with certain facts that were discovered about the lost Franklin Expedition by later expeditions that went looking for them.

The only complaints I had about this book were that it was a bit long --- sometimes I felt like I was actually ON the Franklin Expedition, trapped for years with no way out. But the book was good enough to carry through that. And the other complaint was that I was not 100% satisfied with the ending. There is a lot of Inuit folklore that comes into the ending and the author has to spend too much time explaining it all. That should have been tightened up a lot. But even if the pace and style were way off at the end, there were definitely things I did like about the end. All-in-all, I highly recommend this book.

The second book was Resolute, by Martin W. Sandler. This book is a non-fiction history about the lost Franklin Expedition and also about the many later expeditions that went looking for them. The effort to rescue the Franklin Expedition or at least find out what had happened to them went on for YEARS and cost fortunes.

One of the ships on one of the search expeditions was the Resolute. The leader of that expedition ordered the ship abandoned in the ice. Eventually apparently the ice broke up and the Resolute SAILED ITSELF over 1000 miles out of the arctic and was salvaged intact by an American whaler! The US government bought it from the whaler, reoutfitted it, and gave it as a gift back to Queen Victoria. It was an act that was so appreciated by the British that it helped to cement the freindship between Great Britain and America that has lasted since then.

Years later when the Resolute was ultimately dismantled, some of its timbers were made into a massive desk that was given as a gift to the American President. It is called the Resolute Desk, and it currently sits in the Oval Office. During the RNC a few weeks ago, I heard President Bush mention signing something or doing something "at the Resolute Desk." There is an iconic picture of President Kennedy sitting at the Resolute desk, while John Jr. looks out of the kneehole panel.

It was interesting to read these two books back to back. The Terror was a fascinating fictional novel, but after reading Resolute, it seems like the truth about the history of arctic exploration is almost as strange as the fiction.

[rebgirl420]

Apocalypse How: Turn the end times into the best of times!

By: Rob Kutner

[rhizome]

Christian Attitudes toward War- Beujolais, 1956

Def worth the read- examines Xtian thought on warfare from the pacifist days of the original cult thru the fall of Rome, Inquisitions, Crusades, up through Second World War.

Interesting to see how the original pacifism was supplanted by the theory of Just War, and how that concept has been watered down in the present day.

Yeah, I know that 1956 isn't the present day, but compared to say, 812 it's pretty damned close.

Also interesting to look at the Bush Doctrine as opposed the the Just War doctrine...

[bhouncy]

Just finished Filth by Irvine Welsh. Brilliant. The main character Bruce Robertson. A twisted individual who shits on everyone trying to get to the top. Highly recommended.

[Nightcrewman]

A Dance Called America, I've had this book on my bookshelf for ages now and finally found the time to read it.
It is an account of what happened to the thousands of people who left the Scottish Highlands to make a new life in the United States and Canada. The book looks at the impact of people from the Highlands on the New World. It looks at how soldiers, explorers, fur traders, lumberjacks, guerilla fighters, railway builders and pioneer settlers from the northern part of Scotland contributed to the United States and Canada.
It's one of those books where you don't have to read from end to end each chapter is a story in itself but they all lead to one conclusion.

I have also just finished Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, excellent book.

Cheers

NCM

[av8610]

wow, ya'll got some good taste in books.

Adding to my list thanks to ya'll: Chaos and harmony, Apocolyse How, and Filth.

Rebgirl, have you read Pillars of the Earth? Being into history, you might like it. It's fiction (takes place around 1100), but Follet (who'd always written spy novels) was interested in cathedrals from a young age and always wanted to find out more about the people who built them. It's a fascinating epic; I highly recommend it to all. And the sequal is about a bridge builder a couple hundred years later.

[DTRave420]

I bought "CATEGORY 7 The Biggest Storm In History" today...

Its written by Bill Evans,(the weather guy on channel 7) and Marianna Jameson

[JeffersonBud]

Carl Sagan Cosmos and The Mystery of 2012