I’m currently reading ‘Churchill’s ministry of ungentlemanly warfare’ by Giles Milton.
Perhaps somewhat Britian centric, but a good introduction to the Special Operations Executive, SOE, in WW2. I’m led to believe that my great uncle was involved in SOE somehow, but he died before I was old enough to ask pertinent questions… Oh to travel back in time to be able to ask him.
Or LotR, for that matter. I did, at some point, force myself through it, but it never really clicked for me and was much too verbose for my taste (or lack thereof). I mean, I get it, world building, character building, yes, of course, but it dragged on a bit.
As for what I’m reading: I’m re-reading The Long Mars, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. I read the series years ago and decided to refresh it (something I tend to do with all things Pratchett had a hand in, I much have read Good Omens five times, by now).
Between 7th grade and adulthood I probably read LOTR ten or twelve times. And Unfinished Tales, and Lost Tales, etc.
I’m reading a 40th anniversary edition of Silent Spring that my wife thrifted for me. Given that the 40th anniversary was over 20 years ago and I’m old enough and interested enough in this type of thing, none of it is too surprising to me, though it is still an interesting read for the specifics.
The book is about how humans continually shoot themselves in the foot, realize their foot is bleeding, and somehow come to the conclusion that the best path forward is more foot shooting.
Reading it, I feel like Captain James T. Lunatic from the Upright Citizens Brigade “Bucket of Truth” episode. Captain Lunatic is an unhinged cop on the warpath for justice. The “bucket of truth” is a plastic bucket in a suburban middle-class home and anyone who looks into the bucket shall know unmitigated, unadulterated, immutable truth. For most, the revelations drive them insane. For Captain Lunatic, after chasing the Unabomber and the girl scout child of the home’s family into the house, he peers into the bucket, stares up at God, and yells “You think I don’t know that!”
Which is to say, it’s a depressing read and sad how little things have changed over the years.
Lichtenstein by Wilhelm Hauff.
A historic novel written 200 years ago and set 500 years ago. It’s much easier to read than I expected, given its age. I genuinely enjoy the fact that it’s set in the very region where I life, so I know many of the places that are mentioned.
It has been on my reading list for a long time, as I grew up very close to the Lichtenstein Castle, which (in its today form) was actually built based on the book.
I’ve just read Men in My Situation by Per Petterson.
Men in my own situation (past the zenith of life) may find it as entertaining/thoughtprovoking and recognizable as I did.
I just finished George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a book I’ve known about for my entire thinking life, but somehow never got around to reading it.
Of course its tropes have so deeply seeped into all contemporary media that I knew its plot and characters entirely, without having read a single word of it. More pointedly, I now realize that several entire books I’ve read could easily be summarized as “Animal Farm in space” (or similar).
However, because of that, the book itself was a bit boring. But at just over 100 small pages, it was still a good read, if more as a culture-historical artifact, than as an enjoyable piece of literature in its own right.
Older books, ones that stand the test of time, tend to be slower and complex. They become easier for modern audiences after being post-processed by editors and historians and perhaps truncated or abridged, though such actions tend to contribute to other issues.
I am glad you are all reading. I stopped doing much of it after I reached adulthood. Strange, because in childhood I would read all the time, especially the adult-oriented tomes, the richer and more challenging the better. Garbage literature may have caused the decline of this passion of mine.
I have a copy of 1984 that I picked up recently sitting on my desk, which I’ve never read (same with Animal Farm). Kinda the same boat as Silent Spring, I didn’t exactly live my life in a vacuum, I feel like I could summarize it without reading at this point. But soon I’ll get to it.
But re: Animal Farm, it did inspire one of the best albums of all time…