Now that's a bibliophilist!

Such was his love of learning that the scholarly grand vizier Abdul Kassem Ismael (935-995) of Persia never left home without his personal library. On his many travels as a statesman and warrior, Ismael traveled with 400 camels who carried his 117,000 volume library wherever he went. Even so, his personal librarians could locate any book almost immediately, because the animals were trained to walk in alphabetical order.

-From Abdul Kassem Ismael

I always take too many books with me when I travel, but I am sure this guy gets the prize!

ALA's Banned Books Week

My eldest progeny informs me that this is the American Library Association's Banned Books Week. During Banned Books Week libraries put up displays of books that have been banned at various times during history and encourage library patrons to take one home to read. The list of books that have been banned is quite extensive and includes everything from the Bible to Little House on the Prairie.

Are there books that are not much more than garbage? Absolutely. Are there books that espouse ideas that I think are wrong? Definitely. That's not to say that it doesn't matter what you read - care should certainly be taken to assure that the diet of reading is a healthy one. But, learning to identify what is junk and what is good in a book seems to me to be a better solution than just banning them outright.

Here's what Dwight D. Eisenhower had to say about banning books about communism:

Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.

How will we defeat communism unless we know what it is, what it teaches, and why does it have such an appeal for men, why are so many people swearing allegiance to it? It's almost a religion, albeit one of the nether regions.

And we have got to fight it with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people. They are part of America. And even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them, their right to record them, and their right to have them at places where they're accessible to others is unquestioned, or it's not America.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Fiction. Hardcover from Doubleday. Published 2004. Purchased from Waterstones. Trafalgar Square, London, UK.

This is another of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels and as usual it was very entertaining. His parodies always get me to laughing - this one especially because it's about the post office - with which Steve has had a lot of experience over the last few years.

I'm afraid I'll have to admit to using the book as an excuse to be an absolute slug yesterday evening. I read for almost five hours straight, then when I woke up this morning I finished the last couple of chapters. Ah, bliss!

Publisher's summary:
Moist von Lipwig was a con artist and a fraud and a man faced with a life choice: be hanged, or put Ankh-Morpork's ailing postal service back on its feet.

It was a tough decision.

But he's got to see that the mail gets though, come rain, hail, sleet, dogs, the Post Office Workers Friendly and Benevolent Society, the evil chairman of the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, and a midnight killer.

Getting a date with Adora Bell Dearheart would be nice, too.

Maybe it'll take a criminal to succeed where honest men have failed, or maybe it's a death sentence either way.

Or perhaps there' s a shot at redemption in the mad world of the mail, waiting for a man who's prepared to push the envelope...

To buy from amazon, click here: Going Postal : A Novel of Discworld

High Druid of Shannara: Tanequil by Terry Brooks

Unabridged Fiction. Audiobook from Books on Tape. Published 2004. Downloaded from Audible.com.

This is the second in the series. It's been a good listen - not too long at a little over 13 hours - and has helped keep me distracted for the last several days. As I neared the end of the recording, I realized that Brooks was leaving us with a yet another cliffhanger. I should know better than to read a book from a series when it is just published. I like to wait until the whole series is complete so I can read them all at once rather than having to wait for the next book. I'm not very patient.

Publisher's summary:
The danger is increasing for Grianne Ohmsford, rightful High Druid of Shannara, who has been banished to the harsh world called the Forbidding by a treasonous fellow Druid. Her only hope for rescue is her nephew Pen, but Pen is under siege as well. Both he and his parents are sought by the Druids, who want to make sure that their magic will never help Grianne to return. Yet no one but Grianne is aware that her banishment into the Forbidding allowed the simultaneous transference of a fearsome denizen of the Forbidding back into Grianne's world, an evil creature that can take on any shape, can kill at will, and is only the harbinger of a much greater, devastating invasion.

Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour by Kate Fox

Non-fiction. Hardcover from Hodder & Stoughton. Published 2004. Purchased at Methven's books, Windsor, UK.

Readers of my other blog may think the title of this book sounds familiar. They may even recall how proud I was of myself for having found a copy of this book at the library rather than having forked out the money for it. What can I say? I now own a copy of this very intriguing book. I think I even understand a bit more about English behaviour than I did previously. Well, at least I know more about what compels them to act the way they do. To sum it up would be hard in this limited format, but, according to Kate Fox, most of the way the English behave has to do with social dis-ease and class consciousness. I was quite struck with how often class was mentioned. Did you know that you can tell what social class someone belongs to here by how they plant their garden, what drink they order at the pub, how they pile peas on their fork and whether they call the couch a sofa or a settee?

Publisher's summary:
In Watching the English anthropologist Kate Fox takes a revealing look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. She puts the English national character under her anthropological microscope, and finds a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and byzantine codes of behaviour. Her minute observation of the way we talk, dress, eat, drink, work, play, shop, drive, flirt, fight, queue - and moan about it all - exposes the hidden rules that we all unconsciously obey.

The rules of weather-speak. The Importance of Not Being Earnest rule. The ironic-gnome rule. The reflex apology rule. The paranoid-pantomime rule. Class indicators and class anxiety tests. The money-talk taboo. Humour rules. Pub etiquette. Table manners. The rules of bogside reading. The dangers of excessive moderation. The eccentric-sheep rule. The English 'social dis-ease'.

Through a mixture of anthropological analysis and her own unorthodox experiments (using herself as a reluctant guinea-pig), Kate Fox discovers what these unwritten behaviour codes tell us about Englishness.

Finn MAC Cool by Morgan Llywelyn

Historical fiction. Mass Market Paperback from TOR books. Published 1994. Purchased from the Oxfam used book shop in Windsor, UK.

After a stressful half hour at the bank in Windsor, I decided to take myself out to lunch before heading home. Since I was alone, I needed a book to take to lunch with me. Right across the road from my chosen lunch spot is the Oxfam shop. So, I went into their used book section to see what I could find. This book almost didn't get chosen because I was having a hard time with the silly name. But, nothing better presented itself, so I thought for a couple of quid I would just get it. Then at least I'd have something to pass the time during lunch - even if it didn't turn out to be worth reading all the way through. Turned out to be an interesting book. After a bit of research I discovered that the name Fionn Mac Cumhaill is also used for this historical/mythical character. I think I might have chosen that name to use for the title if I had been the author. But, perhaps people more familiar with Irish folklore know that name and don't think it sounds as silly as I do. (The name brings up images of the Fonz. Though perhaps I'm pronouncing it wrong.)

Publisher's Summary:
Somewhere in the shadowy borderland between myth and history lies the territory of Finn Mac Cool. Mightiest of the Irish heroes, leader of the invincible army of Fianna, he was a man of many faces: warrior, poet, lover, creator, and destroyer. Finn Mac Cool is a man taken from one of the lowest classes of Irish society, driven by ambition and strength to rise above his birth and bring new respect and status to his people.

He had it all and lost it all, but in the end he gained immortality. Finn Mac Cool is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and awesome adventure.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come by Floyd E. Rose

Non-fiction. PDF. (In paperback by Brentwood Christian Press.) Published in 2002. Downloaded from As the Spirit Leads.

I ended up on the As the Spirit Leads site by following a link from Gal328. The booklet (it's about 68 pages total) caught my attention because it specifically addresses why women in the Church of Christ should be able to take part in all areas of church life, and because it was written by an African American, who in my experience are the most conservative members of the C of C. Mr. Rose compares how women are treated with the way slaves were treated, which I have seen in other writings about women and the church. Somehow it seems very personal to him, though. Which it must be for him to put his neck on the line in writing this booklet and starting a gender-neutral church.

He says: "Slavery in America was built on the premise that the worst white man was better than the best black man. Male chauvinism in the church is built on the premise that the least qualified man is more qualified than the most qualified woman." I've certainly seen that in action on more than one occasion.

Publisher's summary:
For thirty years, Floyd Rose was among the most sought after preachers in the Churches of Christ.  In 1978, at the age of forty and the height of his popularity, he was conducting an average of twenty-six gospel meetings a year and featured on Regional and national Lectureships through the United States. To the surprise of his family and friends, in 1979, Rose left the Church of Christ, and with his wife and one other man, Rose founded the Family Baptist Church in Toledo, Ohio.  In just six months, the Family Baptist Church grew from three to five hundred members.  It was Toledo's fastest growing church, and had become the center of spiritual, political and economic power in Toledo's African American community.  Among its guests were Rosa parks, Stokely Carmichael, Louis Farakan, and T.D. Jakes. In 1994, two years after the death of his father, Rose returned to the Church of Christ of his childhood and again his popularity soared.  Between April of 1997 and April of 1998, he traveled more than 75,000 miles accepting invitations to preach, lecture and conduct workshops in thirty different cities in as many states. In spite of his ever increasing popularity, Rose was troubled by what he saw as a parallel between how blacks were treated by a white dominated society and how women are treated in a male dominated church.  So, he established the Church of Christ At Pine Hill; a church without wall-without denominational, cultural, class, race or gender walls; a congregations of Christians where women participate in all of the ministries of the church, without restrictions or reservations.

Big Honkin' Zits : A Zits Treasury by Jerry Scott

Fiction. Comic book. Paperback from Andrews McMeel Publishing. Published 2001. Purchased from Forbidden Planet in London, UK.

In the "just for fun" category, this book certainly fits the bill. Even though I've read it a couple of times before, it never fails to make me "LOL". This comic appeals to both myself and my kids. I think it's most likely because I'm busy relating to the parents in the strip while the kids are tuned into Jeremy, their son. Pretty good writing happening to appeal to both parents and kids. One of my favorite comic strips.

Publisher's summary:
Widely lauded by critics, colleagues, and readers, Zits is on the brink of appearing in 1,000 newspapers-the unspoken threshold of the comic strip elite. The strip has been twice honored with the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award as the Best Newspaper Comic Strip, and received the Max and Moritz Award in 2000 for Best International Comic Strip.This second treasury represents a compilation of Don't Roll Your Eyes at Me, Young Man! and Are We an "Us"'. With friends and family, Jeremy ponders life's great philosophical questions, such as, "If the universe is constantly expanding, how come the sky never gets any bigger'" He tackles serious issues too, deciding with his buddy, Hector, to shave his head to support a friend's mom who's battling cancer. Big Honkin' Zits masterfully guides its readers through the real-life joys and heartaches of being a teenager.

Shameless plug for Audible.com

Listening to audio-books while traveling has been a good way to help pass the time over the years. With the acquisition of my iPod I've realized that audio-books are great for other times, as well. I listen while sewing, ironing, exercising and even sometimes when trying to get to sleep. The kids like listening when they aren't feeling well, or while doing crafts.

For the last year or so I've been a member of Audible's Premium Listener program. For $20 a month I get two audio-books. Since most audio-books aren't inexpensive, I've always gotten much more than the membership cost worth of books each month. Plus I've added to my book collection! I've listened to: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Screwtape Letters; The DaVinci Code; The Last Continent; How the Irish Saved Civilization; The Secret Life of Bees; The Callahan Chronicles; Meditation for Christians; Snow Crash; Angels and Demons; I, Robot; Princes of Ireland ; Split Second; and am currently listening to All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes; Tanequil; The Message and Knowing God.

So, all that said, if Audible looks interesting to you, and you check it out and decide to register or join the Premium Listener program, if you "mention my name" while registering, I can get a chance to win an iPod mini, a Audible gift certificate or free audio programs. Now, normally I don't do this sort of shameless plug thing, but the combination of the lure of an iPod and books was just too much for me.

Unintended Consequences: The Amazing Spider Man by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr.

Fiction. Graphic Novel. Paperback from Marvel Graphic Novels. First published as AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL II #51-56. On loan from the Windsor Library.

PJ just read this one, and said I should read it as well. It was actually a pretty good book. I'll have to say in general I rather like Peter Parker and Spider-man. Seems like he's at least trying to do the right things for the right reasons.

Publisher's Summary:
As Peter and his estranged wife Mary Jane Watson continue to struggle with their recent reconciliation, Peter's wall-crawling alter ego faces a new superhuman threat. A bizarre gamma-powered creature emerges seeking revenge, but what is its connection with the infamous Vegas Thirteen - a group of mob bosses murdered forty-six years ago - and the crime lord Morris Forelli? Spider-man is drawn into a web of deceit and betrayal as he calls on all his astounding abilities in order to save Forelli and his unsuspecting daughter ... as well as saving himself!

In addition, Peter must deal with the unintended consequences of his actions as Spider-man and their affect on the lives of the families of those he has brought to justice.

Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction by David Macaulay

Non-fiction. Hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Company. First published 1973. Purchased from SuperBookDeals through Amazon.co.uk's Marketplace.

This book was purchased as a supplement to Cara's World Studies course. While it certainly is not an exhaustive study of how a cathedral was built, it is very interesting. Great illustrations as well. Even after touring several old cathedrals here, it still amazes me that buildings like this were built in the 1200's.

Publisher's summary:
The Gothic cathedral is one of man's most magnificent expressions as well as one of his grandest architectural achievements. Built to the glory of God, each cathedral was created by the ingenuity, skill, and hard work of generations of dedicated people.

This richly illustrated book shows the intricate step-by-step process of a cathedral's growth. The plan is agreed on; the site is chosen; each craftsman's contribution is presented; his tools and materials are described. The details of the construction are graphically explained from the building of the foundation and the erection of the walls through the details of the flying buttresses, vaulting, and roofing, on to the completion of the towers and the casting of the bells.

The grandeur of the cathedral unfolds through the book until finally the reader shares with the townspeople of Chutreaux a sense of wonder at the power of their creation.

My Forbidden Face by "Latifa"

Non-fiction. Paperback from Virago Press. Published 2002. Purchased at the Bridge Help Point (off of their used books self for .20p), Datchet, Berkshire, UK.

It was a slow day at the Bridge today, so I went into the help point to peruse the used books to see if there was something that caught my eye. As usual there wasn't much to choose from; only occasionally will there be a gem hiding in the midst of the junk. I haven't read any of the books that have come out recently about how women are treated by the Taliban, so I decided to pick this book up and give it a read. The woman who wrote the book is young, and could have perhaps benefitted from a little help from a professional ghost writer. It was an interesting story though, and it is certainly appalling how women are treated under Taliban rule. Here in the UK I have had a very small taste of the distain some men from that part of the world have for women. It just makes me angry, but I can imagine how degrading it must be for the women there not to be able to combat it very effectively.

Publisher's summary:
A poignant story of a young woman's life under the Taliban.

Latifa was born in Kabul, in 1980, into an educated middle-class Afghan family, at once liberal and religious. As a teenager, she was interested in fashion and cinema and going out with her friends, and she longed to become a journalist. her mother, a doctor, and her father, a businessman, encouraged her dreams.

Then, in 1996, the Taliban seized power. From that moment, Latifa, sixteen years old, became a prisoner in her own home. her school was closed. Her mother was banned from working. The simplest and most basic freedoms - walking down the street, looking out of a window - were no longer hers. She was now forced to cover herself entirely with a burqa.

With painful honestly and clarity, Latifa describes the way her world fell apart in the name of a fanatical interpretation of a faith. her story goes to the heart of a people caught up in a terrible tragedy in a brutalised country. But Latifa is determined to survive - and live in freedom and hope.

Deception Point by Dan Brown

Fiction. Paperback from Corgi Books. Published 2002. Purchased at Methven's Books, Windsor, Berkshire, UK.

I've been on a Dan Brown spree. I saw this one yesterday in Windsor and couldn't help myself. (I think that is how I come home with a lot of books, actually.) I finished it in one day - by sneaking in reading between working with the kids on their school work and holding the book in my hand while eating dinner. It was hard to put down. I was definitely surprised at the end when the plotter was revealed.

Publisher's summary:
A shocking scientific discovery.
A conspiracy of staggering brilliance.
A thriller unlike any you've ever read....

When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory -- a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic scholar Michael Tolland, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery -- a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before she can warn the President, Rachel and Michael are ambushed by a deadly team of assassins. Fleeing for their lives across a desolate and lethal landscape, their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this masterful plot. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.

Legend of the Celtic Stone by Michael Phillips

"An Epic Saga of Scotland and Her People" Part 1. Historical Fiction. Paperback from Bethany House Publishers. Published in 1999. Purchased at Half Price Books in Austin, TX.

While browsing in the Christian books section, the title of this book caught my eye. Even though I had never heard of the author or anything about the book, it was not too hard to decide to buy. When I sat down to read it I was rather surprised to find the book starting in modern day London. Interestingly enough, the author goes back and forth between modern times and different times in history. The forays into the past are presented as the main character thinking/reading about the past. I had a little bit of trouble shifting from a modern story to the historical stuff. The history is however very descriptive and interesting. The book is definitely Christian and is a bit heavy on the preaching at points, which doesn't really quite fit in the story. (Easy preaching might have worked better. It's almost like you can see the author switching into high gear during those parts.)

Publisher's summary:
In Legend of the Celtic Stone, Westminster Abbey is the site of a burglary that sets all of Great Britain astir. Both the IRA and Scottish nationalists are thought to be the culprits but no one has the answer to the puzzling crime.

Andrew Trentham, member of Parliament and one of the nation's most eligible men, is as chagrined by the break-in as anyone, and wary of the winds of nationalism sweeping down from the north. It is difficult for him to focus on national affairs however when his personal life is filled with all the trouble he can handle.

Rebuffed in his proposal of marriage by the woman that he loves and suffering through the lingering pain of a family tragedy, this heir of noble blood is compelled to reexamine his foundations. What Andrew discovers in the process is a link to ancient Caledonia, a highland heritage that will forever change the way he looks at the world. As the ancient legends begin to shed light on Andrew's place in the world, he makes attempts to rekindle the love he has lost. At the same time, a resurgent Scotland rises to reclaim the glory of its storied past.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

Unabridged Audiobook from Audible.com. Enjoyed via my iPod.

Angels & Demons was first published in 2000; the audiobook was done in 2004. The narrator David Poe really had his work cut out for him in managing a reading that takes 18 hours and 15 minutes. He did very well and was easy to listen to - it was never obvious that the recording wasn't done in one long take. (Some narrators of audiobooks I've listened to have not been able to keep their voice sounding the same throughout the whole reading.)

I began listening to Angels & Demons on our way to the states in July. I finished it up on our drive from Texas to Michigan. So, it took a little over three weeks to hear the whole book. (I tried to limit myself to just listening while traveling.) I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

Here's the publisher's summary:
World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization, the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth, the long-forgotten Illuminati lair.

Books

It's no stretch to say that I'm a bibliophile. I really enjoy reading books, and collecting them as well. This blog is intended to be a reading list of sorts, along with general bookish comments. I've kept a reading list for several years, but was inspired to add a reading list blog by a friend who did the same.