Current Reading

During this early winter freeze, I am reading “Endurance”, by Alfred Lansing. Written in 1959, it is about the 1914-1916 Ernest Shackleton expedition to Antarctica. It is unbelievable what the 27 men went through and what is even more amazing is that all survived! The book is not one that I would normally choose. It is the first selection for our book group that I belong to here in town. We meet the second Tuesday of each month (except December) at a local craft tap house. This is the second year for the reading group. It is an enjoyable group of people from a variety of backgrounds. Most are retired, but towards the end of the year, we began to pick up some “younger, working” people. I’ll talk more about the reading group in another post.

            Another book I am reading, or actually, just finished it in one day is a graphic novel called, “The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan”, by Bryan Doerries. It’s about a present-day Marine sergeant who tells the story of Odysseus and his attempts to return home and bring his men safely with him. The author is very into how Greek tragedies can help play a part in helping returning soldiers from war. This actually is not exactly a new idea.

            In 2003, Dr. Jonathan Shay wrote a book titled “Odysseus in America”. It had the same general theme. He had written another book in 1995 titled “Achilles in Vietnam” which initiated the subject with him. Anyhow, both of Shay’s books were done in the traditional sense whereas the Doerries’ book is basically a modern-day comic book. I imagine it was done as a comic book so as to be attractive to the young soldier of today.

            The third book is “The Inklings, by Humphrey Carpenter. It is an older book, written in 1979, and is about C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their friends who were members of the subject group, and met regularly, usually on Thursday evenings to discuss a variety of things, as well as read their writings and poetry. It’s a rather interesting read, though not light. But it is satisfying my craving for Lewis and Tolkien before I tackle their opuses.

            The last book I am just starting is “The Annotated Flatland”, by Ian Stewart, written in 2002. It is based on the original “Flatland”, by Edwin A. Abbott, written in 1884. The latter is my selection for the reading group and we will be discussing it in March. Since I will be leading the discussion, and have already read it, I am now reading Stewart’s annotated copy so I can have a better background. On the surface, it is supposedly about mathematics, space, and dimensions. Underlining all this, it takes on Victorian values and women’s rights and social standing in 19^th century England. I enjoyed very much. It will be questionable if the others will.