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@Missoni
Thank you for taking the time to respond - Kindles? I really can't argue with your points - I know - I'm being willfully thrawn about it - I was talking to my other half about your comments - a former educational librarian incidentally - and she made an interesting point - observing that I am quite happy to use both film and digital cameras - with no apparent problem - even these days - a mobile phone - granted - one with a very good image capture system in it. They are complimentary to each other - good at different things - I couldn't argue with that either. I'm just not over the line with Kindles yet - the lack of understanding of linear progress you highlight - is an important issue for me - e-books just don't exist in any real sense - when I read a book - it becomes part of the sum total of who I am - and I prefer that to be tangible - I have kept every title I have read in the last 25 odd years - never - ever - lend books to people - it is common for me though - if I think someone might enjoy a title - just to send them a copy. I did go as far as checking out the models you mentioned - I was amused that - with the refurbished versions - you need to pay to stop the adverts - a very Amazon way of doing things. I might try one on my next trip away - see how it goes - not a big investment - as you point out. I'm trying not to be Luddite!
I agree with your comments about 'Seven Pillars' - it can be very dense in places - his language can be problematic - an indication of him really being more 19th century than 20th - but - as you highlight with the quotes - capable of rhetorical flourishes that astonish. When it is good - it is very good - the light and space of the desert landscape comes across amazingly well. I went to hear a talk delivered by Robert Fisk - on the occasion of a new edition of Lawrence which he had written the introduction to - ended up talking to him - and raised something that has long intrigued me - why the seeming natural affinity of English public school boys with the desert? Lawrence, Thesiger and Sir Richard Burton - to name but three. We kind of agreed with each other - they were inured to physical and emotional deprivation by their schooling and used to a society almost entirely lacking female interaction - they felt right at home. Interesting. So - Fisk - I recommend his 'The Great War for Civilisation - The Conquest of the Middle East,' to you - if you haven't read it - which I suspect you might have - being pretty much a reference text on 'sandpit' affairs. I have read Seale before - his book on Abu Nidal - but not the one you referenced - on the list - thank you.
So - finally - "The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon,' - within very few pages I was utterly taken up by it - rapt - it is like nothing I have ever read before - unique - granted I don't go for fiction that often. I have sent the book to half a dozen people subsequently - not one failed to be amazed by it. I didn't think it was particularly challenging in plot - in the sense it didn't outrage me in the slightest - but I wouldn't consider myself in any way shape or form prudish - we all have our boundary lines - and this didn't approach mine. The memorable quote? "nobody hates like a Christian.' A direct result of 'The Man' was that I realised I knew next to bugger all about Native American history - and read 'In the Hands of the Great Spirit - the 20,000 year history of American Indians,' by Jake Page and 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,' - Dee Brown - as my next two books. Bugger me - that was depressing - I kind of understood that the locals had been royally shafted by European colonists but had no concept of the scale of what was - by any standard - a campaign of genocide - in 1491 - 100 percent of the population of the continent were native Americans - now they are less than 1 percent - end of. I was particularly dis-heartened to learn that Scots were among the worst offenders - given that a lot of them - and the Irish - were escaping poverty and land theft by the English - they might have been a wee bit more enlightened - but no. Truly depressing. On that cheery note - cheers - I.
@Scotshave @Ferry-shave @patw @Blademonkey @Skylarking
Thank you for taking the time to respond - Kindles? I really can't argue with your points - I know - I'm being willfully thrawn about it - I was talking to my other half about your comments - a former educational librarian incidentally - and she made an interesting point - observing that I am quite happy to use both film and digital cameras - with no apparent problem - even these days - a mobile phone - granted - one with a very good image capture system in it. They are complimentary to each other - good at different things - I couldn't argue with that either. I'm just not over the line with Kindles yet - the lack of understanding of linear progress you highlight - is an important issue for me - e-books just don't exist in any real sense - when I read a book - it becomes part of the sum total of who I am - and I prefer that to be tangible - I have kept every title I have read in the last 25 odd years - never - ever - lend books to people - it is common for me though - if I think someone might enjoy a title - just to send them a copy. I did go as far as checking out the models you mentioned - I was amused that - with the refurbished versions - you need to pay to stop the adverts - a very Amazon way of doing things. I might try one on my next trip away - see how it goes - not a big investment - as you point out. I'm trying not to be Luddite!
I agree with your comments about 'Seven Pillars' - it can be very dense in places - his language can be problematic - an indication of him really being more 19th century than 20th - but - as you highlight with the quotes - capable of rhetorical flourishes that astonish. When it is good - it is very good - the light and space of the desert landscape comes across amazingly well. I went to hear a talk delivered by Robert Fisk - on the occasion of a new edition of Lawrence which he had written the introduction to - ended up talking to him - and raised something that has long intrigued me - why the seeming natural affinity of English public school boys with the desert? Lawrence, Thesiger and Sir Richard Burton - to name but three. We kind of agreed with each other - they were inured to physical and emotional deprivation by their schooling and used to a society almost entirely lacking female interaction - they felt right at home. Interesting. So - Fisk - I recommend his 'The Great War for Civilisation - The Conquest of the Middle East,' to you - if you haven't read it - which I suspect you might have - being pretty much a reference text on 'sandpit' affairs. I have read Seale before - his book on Abu Nidal - but not the one you referenced - on the list - thank you.
So - finally - "The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon,' - within very few pages I was utterly taken up by it - rapt - it is like nothing I have ever read before - unique - granted I don't go for fiction that often. I have sent the book to half a dozen people subsequently - not one failed to be amazed by it. I didn't think it was particularly challenging in plot - in the sense it didn't outrage me in the slightest - but I wouldn't consider myself in any way shape or form prudish - we all have our boundary lines - and this didn't approach mine. The memorable quote? "nobody hates like a Christian.' A direct result of 'The Man' was that I realised I knew next to bugger all about Native American history - and read 'In the Hands of the Great Spirit - the 20,000 year history of American Indians,' by Jake Page and 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,' - Dee Brown - as my next two books. Bugger me - that was depressing - I kind of understood that the locals had been royally shafted by European colonists but had no concept of the scale of what was - by any standard - a campaign of genocide - in 1491 - 100 percent of the population of the continent were native Americans - now they are less than 1 percent - end of. I was particularly dis-heartened to learn that Scots were among the worst offenders - given that a lot of them - and the Irish - were escaping poverty and land theft by the English - they might have been a wee bit more enlightened - but no. Truly depressing. On that cheery note - cheers - I.
@Scotshave @Ferry-shave @patw @Blademonkey @Skylarking