Rough Reading - How The Mighty Have Fallen

Jack Higgins has always been one of my favorite authors. The Eagle Has Landed. Storm Warning. Classics.

But what the hell happened with Rough Justice. Ridiculous plot. Even more ridiculous dialogue. Stilted much?

I read the entire 417 pages while traveling on a long overseas flight. If it wasn't for my obsession with always seeing things like reading and movies through to the end, I would have given up after the first 50 pages. So I knocked it out.

Aarrgggh. It sucked.

The Not Enough Time Reading List - "Aaronsohn's Maps"

"Aaronsohn's Maps: The Untold Story of the Man Who Might Have Created Peace in the Middle East" by Patricia Goldstone.

This might take a while. And a few entries.

OK - I'll cut to the chase. Aaron Aaronsohn died in a plane crash from Britain en route to the to the post-WWI Paris talks in 1919. Goldstone does a lot more than hint - in fact, she pretty much slaps you in the face - with the outrageous theory that Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and the British Government conspired to assassinate Aaronsohn by having a airborne British military assassination team kill Aaronsohn and his British military pilot (a known hero for having recently beat the London-Paris speed record with T.E Lawrence in tow). By somehow shooting the pilot mid-flight, from another 1918-era biplane, without a machine gun (which might have attracted attention, since the whole drama played out directly over a an English coastal sea town).

Goldstone's theory apparently, is that Chaim Weizmann convinced the British government to assassinate Aaronsohn (her proof - Felix Frankfurter's comment years later that there was "blood" on Aaronsohn's death somehow). So they arranged to have Aaronsohn go up in a plane. With a well known British military hero as his pilot. And convinced other British military pilots to kill him. By shooting him not with a machine gun. No, but by somehow shooting him with a pistol or rifle shot from a second 1918s-era biplane flying at 75 MPH over the coast of England. Puuuhhhllease! Why not just kill Aaronsohn in a car crash? Or even yet, don't let him fly to Paris by saying the weather is bad or there are no pilots available. And don't even get me started on Goldstone's "cover-up" of the pilot's death. I could go on and on. And on. And on. And on.

Before I go for today. Early on, a great resource for the early history of Zionism and the nascent Israeli state. Fairly good factually, though many Jews and Israelis have pointed out that Goldstone is pretty flippant with her history and understanding of historical Judaism.

Oh, by the way. Everything in the Middle East between Israel and the Arabs could have been cured by Aaronsohn's ideas on shared water rights and river usage. That Arabs hate Jews, and Jews in the Middle East haven't historically make politics any easier for themselves - not a factor. Yeah.

OK. To be continued later. I'm all verklumppt. Talk amongst yourselves.

Reading List - "Feeding A Yen"

I'll keep this short. Sister Katie sent me Calvin Trillin's "Feeding a Yen" I was pumped. I was even more pumped reading about about Trillin's youth in Kansas City, trekking down to the New York City and Deli at it's original downtown KC location.

Time passes. The Kansas City New York City and Deli changed location, and moved over near Hwy 71 at the Watkins/63rd Street exit near the hospital. Tragically across from the cemetery.After a long battle with old equipment, dramatically changing demographics, and KC health inspectors, the last, and oldest, authentic Jewish deli in Kansas City closed in 2009.

The nearest decent corned beef on rye? Des Moines. Really.

The Not Enough Time Book List - Playing The Enemy

I ordered this book from Amazon the day after I saw the movie Invictus with Matthew. Rare enough that nowadays I'll pay full price for a book off Amazon (I couldn't find it on Ebay). But glad I did. Great book. Really, really great book.

By John Carlin, this is one of the best - and most readable - histories of South Africa and the end of apartheid. And a great intro to the novice (like me) into the world and personality of Nelson Mandela. And the story of the Springboks and the rugby World Cup - it's so inspiring, so moving, and well, if it didn't really happen, you'd swear it was a Hollywood movie script. That's probably why Invictus was such a great movie. Heck, who needed to write a script. History wrote it, better than any fiction writer could have.

Reading List - "Diamond, Gold and War"

I picked up this incredible book, Diamonds, Gold and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, by Martin Meredith for $2.00 at a Big Lots in Kansas City. Amazing to find it there. Long story short - an incredibly detailed, yet incredibly readable, history of South Africa from the time of the arrival of Cecil Rhodes through the establishment of the Union of South Africa following the Second Boer War.

Meredith could have easily subtitled the book "How Could These Guys Sleep at Night?". The main character throughout this history is Cecil Rhodes, and what's a recurring theme throughout, and stunning to the modern reader, is not just how cravenly dishonest, feckless, and brazen he and other British politicians and businessmen were in the conduct of their business and politics. Perhaps the only character less honorable than Rhodes was Sir Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner and Governor of the Cape Colony, who almost singlehandedly started the Second Boer War, which killed tens of thousands (over 22,000 British troops) and resulted in a scorched earth policy by the British toward the Boers that drove thousands of women and children to suffer and die in miserable concentration camps, and paved the way for the unique cruelty of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

I could go on and on. Great book. Excellent history. Great read. Jolly good stuff.

Reading List - The Lost City of Z

I received The Lost City of Z by David Grann as a Christmas present from Isaac. Great choice. My only regret is that it took me so long to finish reading it. The book chronicles the career of early 20th Century explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett, from his 19th century youth and military career in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to his final, and fatal quest into the Brazilian Amazon in search of the what he called "Z", but what had for hundreds of years been thought to be El Dorado. The book is a real treat - both incredibly detailed in fact and research, but at the same time very readable.

Flynnfest 2010 #1 - The Sisters

OK, so now it starts. I watched The Sisters this morning on TCM - Errol Flynn movie number 1 (but not the best) in the effort. And the first Errol Flynn-Bette Davis film.

Pretty good movie, based on a novel by Myron Brinig (alas, not Chekhov), who wrote a series of novels about Montana. He was also really, really gay - but that's neither here nor there. Well, perhaps it is. Several of the characters in his books were pretty obviously gay, which was pretty risque stuff in the 1930s. As a result, though his books were popular, they weren't reviewed by the literary critics of the day as one would have expected. Brinig was pretty much ignored by the literary community of his day, and as a result is pretty much forgotten today.

Back to the movie. A big part of the plot revolves around the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Incredible special effects on an era before computer imaging.

And my favorite line of the movie - "You look like someone they forgot to bury."

Followed closely by - "We drank heavily and fought over the women."

Good early Errol. Still at his peak. Good stuff.

Book List Entry - The Americans

At yet another estate sale lately, I was rummaging through a shelf loaded with cookbooks (bad ones, unfortunately) when I spied a copy of The Americans: 50 Talks on Our Life and Times by Alistair Cooke. Quite an interesting read. Published in 1979, this was one of Cooke’s many books detailing his career spent observing life in the United States. What is interesting is that his observations were intended for a British audience (the 50 essays are transcripts of his weekly BBC radio show Letter from America). Running from 1969 through 1979, Cooke gives an interesting multi-part running commentary on the Watergate scandal, which, interestingly, he initially poo-poo’d as a tempest in a teapot ginned up by the Democrats (oh, how hindsight works!). Clearly a man of an earlier era, he takes a dim view of the youth culture of the 1960s, the decline of traditional institutions such as marriage, and the U.S. opening of relations with China (which he clearly saw as a Chinese con-job).

After reading this book, I concluded that Cooke was the Craig Ferguson of an earlier generation. He became a U.S. citizen in 1941, but unlike many naturalized citizens, never felt the need to bash neither his native Britain nor his adopted country, the US. Interestingly, he uses the term “us” in referring to people in the US, denoting that he is firmly one of them, when addressing his British audience. He was a keen observer able to see past the chaff on most issues. One thing I found surprising about the book was his willingness, in picking 50 talks out of over 500 in a ten-year period, he chose some that showed that he himself did occasionally get it wrong. Initially, he clearly liked Richard Nixon, and it wasn’t until after five years and the Watergate scandal that he clearly considered him pretty much an immoral scumbag. Among his many interesting observations on life in America, I enjoyed this one in particular:

“…American football is an open-air chess match disguised as warfare.”

Reading this book, I kept drawing mental comparisons to Craig Ferguson and his observations on life in the US and on becoming a citizen. On the whole, I think Cooke would have approved of Ferguson’s comment “If you don’t vote, you’re a moron.” In reverse, I think Ferguson would thoroughly enjoy this book. Perhaps I’ll send it to him.

Oh, final note. At the estate sale. Old book, obviously in good condition and unread. Open cover. Look at flyleaf. There it is. “Alistair Cooke”. Signed by the author. Cool.

Added bonus - Craig Ferguson's rip on Americans who don't vote. Classic. View at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdRVQ4xwwmQ

New Book Entry - Once A Runner

Once A Runner by John L. Parker, Jr., has been described as the best book ever written about middle distance running.

It is.

Originally published in 1978, Once A Runner was out of print for years. It became a cult classic for dedicated runners (especially middle distance runners), and dog-eared copies were prized and collected by those few who happened to find a copy (for example, there are zero copies of the original 1978 printing available on either Alibris, Ebay, or Abebooks). I discovered this book via an article written last year on-line about plans to reissue it this year in hardback.

What to say? On the downside, there is some topical stuff in the book that is a litle dated, like references to the Vietnam War and such (which, in retrospect, the references to Vietnam in 1978 would have been dated even then - I suspect Parker actually wrote it earlier).

The best stuff - Parker describes running a competitive mile race, practically down to 110 yard increments, with such incredible accuracy that any middle distance runner, past or present, can feel the race in his head. It is a truly amazing narrative. Additionally, he describes a hard interval workout - the bread and butter of middle distance runners, with amazingly spot-on accuracy. I found both of these sections impossible to put down, and truly engrossing. It's like Hemingway in Nikes.

I read one review of the book by a "dedicated triathlete" who said he thought the book wasn't about running, and found it boring. All I can say is - dude, you've never been a miler.

Final note - Parker describes an incident relayed to him by famed American runner Frank Shorter in which Shorter describes running over the hood of a car stopped at a stop light after the occupants of the car verbally hassled him while he was running. I heard the same story personally from Shorter himself, while I was attending summer running camp at the University of Wisconsin when I was in high school. The way Parker writes it is the way I remember Shorter telling the story almost 30 years ago, word for word. We also got to listen to Dave Wottle describe his victory in the 800 meter in the 1972 Olympic Trials, after having been spiked and having lost one of his shoes. He then went on to win the gold at Munich. His gold medal victory in 800 final in the 72 Olympics is one of the greatest races ever run by an American athlete. Cool beans. Very cool beans.

Book List #3 - Nothing But Blue Skies

OK, I actually finished reading Thomas McGuane's Nothing But Blue Skies before the Penn Central book a couple of months ago. The initial interest was a novel about a guy living in the far west mountain country of Montana, a part of the country I really like. In that regard, Thomas McGuane did a great job in capturing the quirks, pace, and humor of life in a small rural mountain town in the far West. Similarly, I thoroughly enjoyed his main character Frank, a man left totally rudderless by his divorce, but comfortable and wealthy enough not to be desperate - and thus having a whole lot of time and aimlessness on his hands to make a whole series of slow-motion train wreck decisions. I that regard, the imagery was perfect - you could see the deliberate absence of reasoned thinking, as well as the oncoming cliff. What put it all together was Frank's basic 'niceness', and your hoping for him to find his way despite his basic knuckleheadedness. I came, I read, I enjoyed. A good read.

Book List Entry - "In Search of the World's Worst Writers"

I now can't recall where exactly I picked up a copy of Nick Page's In Search of the World's Worst Writers (London: Harper Collins,2000). But, oh, am I glad I did. Subtitled "A Celebration of Truimphantly Bad Literature", the book is a collection of short essays describing authors considered by Page to be among the worst ever to been published, culminating with the inimitable Amanda McKittrick Ros (pictured), considered by many as the worst published author ever (or, at the least, the worst abuser of alliteration). How good was this book? Tom's tip - don't read it in public. I laughed out loud reading parts of it, which is kinda frowned upon on Amtrak. Apparently, they have a low threshhold for loony behavior (unlike Greyhound, which is still a rolling freak show).

I would like to add a few quotes from Page's book here, but I don't know how he feels about such things. I've emailed him for permission.

One key element of a great book (like In Search of the World's Worst Writers) is when it inspires you to find out more. After laughing out loud reading Page's essay on Amanda McKittrick Ros, I found out a couple of pretty hilarious factoids:

First, she was considered so bad a writer that "she became the fad of the moment for the London literary crew, who threw Amanda McKittrick Ros parties at which they would take it in turns to recite favourite passages", and

Second, "The Oxford literary group the Inklings, which included such luminaries as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, held competitions to see who could read Ros' work for the longest length of time while keeping a straight face". Whoever laughed first, lost.

My one quibble with Page's list: he only gave Timothy Dexter two stars (on a one-to-five scale) for literary awfulness. I would have given him a couple more, for one very simple reason. "Lord" Timothy Dexter was so bad, he made other writers suck. I've read all of John P. Marquand's books, and Lord Timothy Dexter, which, ironically, was Marquand's first "biggie" that put him on the road to fame, is the only one that I found, in my humble opinion, practically unreadable. So Little Time it's not. Perhaps it just didn't age well.

As for Amanda, rare copies of her works are still around. Alibris.com is currently selling A.A. Milne's first addition of Delina Delaney for $651, and Abebooks has a first edition of Irene Iddlesleigh with a signed letter from McKittick Ros (ZOINKS!) for $251. Ah, for a bit of spare cash to splurge.

As for my copy of In Search of the World's Worst Writers, it's too good to keep to myself. I'll probably send mine on to Katie. For anyone else, it's worth finding, buying, and reading. Your darting orbs will become lachrymal lakes of laughter.

Reading List Entry #1 - Wreck of the Penn Central

One of my new lists is my running list of books I've read (starting now). The first one on the list - that is, the last one I've finished - is The Wreck of the Penn Central by Joseph Daughan and Peter Binzen. I picked this book up at an estate sale for 25 cents a few weeks ago, and discovered it to be fascinating. The book is a non-fictional account, written by two newspaper journalists, of the disastrous 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads, and the ensuing failure of the combined Penn Central slightly over two years later. At the time, this was the biggest business failure and bankruptcy in American history, caused largely by horrible decisions and personality conflicts between senior executives, corporate greed, bad planning, destructive U.S. government policies, petty politicians, and lousy economic times. Change the name of the company to AIG, Countrywide, or IndyMac, and you have a book written in 1971 that could just have easily have been written in real time in 2008. Alas, the more things change, the more they remain the same.