wildbill's 2008 reading challenge

I started the book challenge last year but bogged down when it took me three weeks to read War and Peace. I felt like I could never meet the 50 book goal and quit. I am starting again for two reasons. One of the other members listed my library under the most interesting category and after I looked through my books I was encouraged to read a lot of unread books that I own. I also decided to plan my reading so that along with the two week books I had some short ones that could keep me on track to my goal.
I read a lot of history and have been reading American history from the Revolution through the Civil war. Right now I am reading The Road to Disunion. It is in two volumes going from 1776 to 1861 from the Southern point of view. I have found it very interesting. The author skips the usual narrative of political events and covers a lot of cultural history and events that were only significant to the South. For example I just read an interesting chapter on the effect of the opening of the Savannah to Charleston railroad on South Carolina's decision to secede.
This year I resolve not to quit even if I am only able to read 30 books in the year. Hopefully the challenge will help me get the best use of my reading time and stay focused instead of meandering with a lot of half read books. I will also try to keep up with the other members so that my participation goes beyond reading and listing books. This seems like quite a goal. Wish me luck.

Number 1 The Road to Disunion Vol. II all 534 pages. Still working on Vol. I. For a change of pace started The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes. The leading characters are Gravedigger Jones and Cotton Ed Catton. Godfrey Cambridge and Bill Cosby did a movie based on these characters long ago. Also on the TBR list The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing another novel in the Library of America Crime Noir volumes. I first read Fearing's poetry which is very working class America of the 30's. These novels are shorter and should help me get on schedule. Having fun.

I don't have a schedule, but I'm all for padding the numbers with shorter books! I have a couple of longer books I put off from '07 (Watership Down & The Book Thief) so I could take my time and enjoy them this year... good luck on your challenge!

On the one hand, this isn't a race or a contest, so if you don't meet your goal, it's ok, it really is! :)

On the other hand, if you're planning to read a lot of long books, you might try doing a page count goal instead of (or along with) the book count goal. That can correct for the longer books, since on long book can be equal to several shorter ones.

No. 2 Real Cool Killers 143 pages. bluesalamanders, I appreciate the suggestion on the page count. I plan to list the pages on each book for my information.
TeacherDad, I try not to look at it as padding the numbers. I am not sacrificing quality and it does me good to vary my reading diet. It is just a plan to make the challenge something realistic. If I don't have a plan I get too discouraged and quit. If I quit then my plan to accomplish a varied schedule falls apart. The challenge also gives me a book journal for the year.
I have a good number of unread Library of America volumes. They each have several books each. The challenge will give me an outlet for going through them and increasing my fiction reading diet.
My most recent book is an example of good things in small packages. This book is part of the Library of America, Crime Noir 50's volume. The character is Cotton Ed Johnson not Catton. It was a good mystery with lots of violence and some good plot twists. It also is an up close tale of race relations on the street in Harlem in the 50's. I recommend it on both counts.
Thanks for the moral support.

StartedThe Roots of Romanticism it is short but very difficult reading. I have to underline to keep track of the ideas set forth. The author is one of my favorites and the topic is very interesting. I am shooting for the end of the week for the finish.

No. 3 The Big Clock 132 pages. I first read Kenneth Fearing's poetry in the American Poet Project's edition. I enjoyed it very much. He has a working class frame of mind and writes very well. Then I discovered in the Library of America's American Noir 1930's and 40's this book. It is crime suspense and I read the last 20 pages very fast because I had to find out how it was going to end. The twist of the story is the protagonist knows his boss murdered someone because he saw him with her right before the murder. The boss saw him but couldn't identify him and the boss assigns him to find the person who saw him with the victim. It is beyond a page turner and the end was very satisfying.
Back to Isaiah Berlin.

No. 4 The Road to Disunion Vol. 1 565 pages. This volume covers a much greater period of time and is able to analyze the tensions within the South and the growth of Slave power. The end of the book deals with the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the end of the Missouri Compromise. There is a very good analysis of the weaknesses of the Whig party as a national party and how the Kansas-Nebraska ended the national unity of the Whig party.
These two volumes provide unique insights into the causes of disunion. One of the primary causes is the fact that the South was never really united. The attitudes to slavery beginning with Jefferson were varied. The South really consisted of the Border South, the Middle South and the Lower South. Each area was distinctively different and upon secession Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware of the Border South remained in the Union. Virginia split between the nonslaveholding West and the slaveholding East. Those areas had experienced political strife beginning in 1829 based on the difference in their social structure.
Another area of conflict was between up country and low country South Carolina. Low Country South Carolina was different from everybody. Stuck in 18th century social attitudes it resisted republicanism more than any other area in the country. At the same time it provided leadership for secession.
These two volumes provide a well written and insightful history of the South from 1766-1861. The author asks many thought provoking questions while giving a unique portrait of events and their causes. The Civil War was only the culmination of these events and reading these volumes has greatly deepened my understanding of that War.
I am not sure I am going back to Isaiah Berlin. I think a day or two of reflection and contemplation comes next. I want to plan and focus my reading to get the best out of my challenge.

No. 5 1812 The War That Forged a Nation 304 pages. I was at page 439 rereading Henry Adams History of the United States during the Administrations of James Madison when I picked up this book. While it is not the level of Adams it was a good book that told the story much more quickly. I read the 304 pages in 1 1/2 days. It takes that much time to read 100 pages of Adams. Borneman does use a lot of secondary sources sprinkled with some contemporary quotes but he does tell the story well. Having had enough of British high handedness and with dreams of conquering Canada the U. S. goes to war. A lot of fumbling, no conquest of Canada, some naval victories and the Battle of New Orleans after peace was declared and the United States was changed. Adams does a beautiful job of describing the U. S. after the war and this book is no substitute for Adams. It is still a good story, the pages turned and you get some of the feeling of how the U. S. grew up and became a nation instead of an ex-colony.

No. 6 Red Harvest 197 pages. This is a reread of one of my favorite Dashiell Hammett. Welcome to Poisonville. This story spins out of control with characters including a rich old man, a crroked police chief, gangsters and pretty girls. Then the protagonist awakes from a gin and laudanum high with his hand on an ice pick stuck in the breast of a pretty girl. From there the solution to a number of murders comes out with the last story being told by a tough guy as he bleeds to death. It's not Sam Spade but it is good hard boiled crime action.
I recently read an essay by Edmund Wilson about how he couldn't understand why people read mysteries. He gave a number of examples and pointed out their literary shortcomings. I have read the Red Harvest three times in about 8 years. It has interesting characters, pace and surprises. Maybe those are not the qualities of good literature but I imagine in about three years I will read it again. It is entertaining and I guess sometimes that is all that I want at the time. I have also read the other four Hammett novels and can recite passages of The Maltese Falcon dialogue by heart.
I am now reading The Landmark Herodotus The Histories, a recent present. He reads easier than Thucydides but with the appendixes it is 842 pages. I am sure that I will have to sneak something short in in order to keep on pace.
I am enjoying the "challenge" because it helps me to keep a book journal. Plus it makes me plan my reading. I think this way I will get better variety and not just spend all of my time in graduate seminars. It makes my reading more fun and not just work.

No. 7 James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights 11 hours and 25 minutes (352 pages). This is the first audio book I have completed. It is a convenient way to "read" a book but I don't like it as well as the traditional book. In the evening I fell listening to the book put me to sleep more than once. The book was about a topic I find very interesting. It provides a detailed exposition of the enactment of the Bill of Rights. Patrick Henry was a strong opponent of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and I learned a great deal about him in this book. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in this important event. Now I need to get busy and get back on schedule.

No. 8 The Civil War: A Narrative Volume 1, 40 hours (840 pages). Another audio book. I really missed the maps which are in the written edition. I have the Oxford Atlas of the Civil War and I used it extensively listening to the book. The narrator for the book is very good. Shelby Foote's three volume history of the civil war is a true classic. His writing is thorough and detailed without ever being dry. Foote's writing is literature of the highest caliber. He also does not have the northern slant of Bruce Catton and James McPherson, two other well known authorities on the civil war.
I really enjoyed Foote's details regarding the people involved in the war. He does very good capsules on the major figures, generals and politicians. He also presents the point of view and interesting bits of conversation of the enlisted men who did most of the fighting and dieing. I would recommend this volume as excellent narrative history and a very good book. The civil war is part of our history that is especially important in the South where I live. The saying is that in the South the civil war is not over yet. Listening to this book while I watch the campaign of Barack Obama is a lesson in what social change really means. On to number 9.

No. 9 The Civil War: A Narrative Volume II 55 hours (1000 pages). This portion of the war contained a lot of the significant action. The battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg marked the real turn in the war against the Confederates. I think I am going to stop the series here for now. I feel the need for some variety. Also I cannot keep going with books this size and keep up any kind of schedule for 50 books this year. Time to go through the tbr pile and come up with something a little lighter.

No. 10 Paris 1919:Six Months That Changed the World 494 pages. A very interesting book about the Paris Peace Conference after WW I. The author gave interesting descriptions of the characters and the pace of the book made it seem shorter than it was.
It is still pretty creepy to read about the Big Four playing cut and paste with the rest of the world. Wilson's Fourteen Points just confused everyone. They point up the hypocrisy of the U.S. At least the French didn't pretend that they had a moral compass they just acted the victor. I would recommend the book, but it is long.

No. 11 Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 396 pages. This was a very good book. It was done as a dissertation and after the death of the author edited by two other historians. The editors made very few changes and were careful to let you know where they made their changes.
The heart of the book is a very detailed narrative of the battle of Shiloh. The narrative has an incredible amount of detail that gave me a "you are there" feeling. The author describes the movements of the major units involved and there are numerous descriptions of the injuries and deaths of individual soldiers, from privates to generals. After reading the book I can understand why the editors wanted to see it published.
The first 100 pages cover the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson and there is a bit at the end about the battle of Corinth. I can see I am getting really gone on the Civil War reading this book. That said it is excellent narrative history. The facts and just the facts, a description of the separate incidents that together make up the historical record. Reading this I am reminded of Isaiah Berlin's description of what history is and why no one can formulate a system of laws that can explain the actions of history.
Berlin's The Hedgehog and the Fox deals with that question and I should pick it up and reread it. It is also discussed in his essay The Sense of Reality in the book of the same name.
My challenge seems to be getting some traction. I am on schedule for four books a month or 48 for the year. I will be quite happy with that and enjoy keeping my little book journal. I can see there are a lot of other people enjoying the challenge also. It is a fine idea and the person who started should get a gold star.

No. 12 The Battle of the Wilderness, May5-6, 1864 by Gordon C. Rhea 452 pages. When I list the pages I only include the text, not all the way through the index. This book in total is 512 pages. This makes 5 out of 12 Books I have read so far that are about the Civil War or secession. I think I see a theme here. This was a very good narrative history chock full of footnotes from all types of contemporary sources. It was not quite as good as the Battle of Shiloh but it was close. The author has three more books in a series that covers the "forty days", the initial battles between Lee and Grant. I will buy the others soon.
While reading this book I also read some excerpts from other books dealing with the battle such as the chapter in Grant's memoirs. The Civil War is an incredibly important event in American history and is part of our national consciousness to this day. I have only started serious reading on the topic in the last five years and now it is a consuming interest. It is not just what happened but what Americans write, think and say about what happened that makes our nation what it is.
I associate history with Jung's theory of the collective subconscious. The events of history still live in there. After I read this book I will try to think what the experience described added to the human subconscious. All of the people who lived and died in this spot during these two days and the thoughts their minds imprinted as they passed through. All of the violence.

It's getting quite crowded. I had to go to the third page to find my list, quite a popular topic.
No. 13 Sciousness 230 pages. This was a gift from the early reviewer program. A real change of pace from what I have been reading. If you are interested I have a full review in my library. This book was a series of essays, several by William James, on the process of experience and thought. The premise is that this process is non-dualistic. The essays by James show how his thinking went beyond the staid limits of pragmatism. He was supposedly the first person to use the term stream of consciousness. I enjoyed the book but will need to read it again to get a better understanding of the ideas set forth.
No. 14 A Coffin for Dimitrios 256 pages. I read this about ten years ago and it has not lost its appeal. Written in 1937, my edition was published in 1939, it is one of the first modern spy, suspense novels. Eric Ambler is one of my favorite authors and this book set the pattern for many of his later novels. An author gets involved in tracking Dimitrios after seeing his body in a Turkish morgue. Many twists and turns later he finds himself face to face with Dimitrios. That is enough of the plot. The author sets forth the circumstances of post WW I Europe and the actions of Dimitrios in an analytical and nonjudgmental fashion. That approach lifts the book above the standard good guy bad guy approach and takes it out of the ordinary. Ambler went on to become a Hollywood screenwriter with an Academy Award nomination to his credits.
I was able to read this book in about two days and it was a great change of pace from the non-fiction that I usually read.

I'm stuck. I am reading The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam which is very long. Also two other books that are very slow going. I think it is time to dip into some fiction rereads to pad up my numbers. Hope to have some new postings soon.

No. 15 The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern 327 pages by Gordon C. Rhea. This is the second volume in the series and describes some of the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War. In the epilogue the author does a good analysis of the campaign and the actions of the generals. Lee comes off a little better than Grant but the significant figure is that Lee lost one-third of his army while Grant lost one-quarter of his in the campaign to date. The absolute numbers for Grant were higher. At this point I am tired of reading about killing and will turn elsewhere. There is no glory in war only death and injury. The author's descriptions of battlefield scenes would give me PTSD if I had been there. I need a rest.

No. 16 The Professor and the Madman 224 pages. I did not enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The writing did not have a good pace and it was not a page turner. I read Winchester's book Krakatoa and I thought that was much better. At the same time I bought this book I bought A Crack in the edge of the World about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Hopefully it will be a better read.
This is the 17th week of 2008 and my 16th book so I am on pace for 50 for the year. I am pretty compulsive about staying on schedule. I have The Landmark Herodotus going but it is 842 pages of text with the appendices and I do well to get 20-30 pages an hour. It is a very good book I like the writing better than Thucydides. I am looking forward to getting to his account of the Persian war. I have both of those in my goals for this year. I will have to pull out a one day read to keep up, I think it will be The Thirty-nine steps. I read it once long ago and it is a well written story. It is part of a six volume set I have published in 1939 that includes A Coffin for Dimitrios which I read earlier. All of the volumes are classic mysteries and I will put the other four in the tbr pile.
As you can tell reading is what I do and I really enjoy the chance to at least write about it on LT. I hope I get some responses and get some chat going. The 50 book challenge ends up being a book journal with not a lot of chat.

I just put that Battles for Spotsylvania... on my wish list; drove by signs for the area just last weekend, but the only battle place we got to visit was in Fredricksburg... love your "There is no glory in war..." although something about war, especially the Civil War for me, is very intriguing and interesting...

and that 842 page book? should count as 2, at least...

No. 17 The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant 439 pages. This continues my Civil War reading but at a different level from my recent detailed descriptions of specific battles. This was written in 1929 but reads as if were written in the last decade. J. F. C. Fuller is a well known military historian and I am now interested in reading some of his other books starting with The Generalship of Alexander the Great. This book was about 50% description and 50% analysis. Fuller considers Grant the only general of the Civil War who applied an overall strategy that encompassed all of the theaters of war. For this reason Fuller rates him as the premier general of the war. Lee fought battles, Grant fought the war. His coordination of the campaign in Virginia and Sherman's campaign in the Deep South led to the final victory of the Union.
The book was a very good read and I would recommend it to students of the Civil War and general military history.

No. 18 The Thirty-Nine Steps 231 pages. A very entertaining Sunday morning read. I read this once before long ago but I kept getting the ending mixed up with the movie version. A pre-WW I suspense espionage that introduced the character Richard Hannay. The story involves someone getting caught up in an espionage plot somewhat like Eric Ambler's stories. The difference is that here there is a definite good guy and bad guy and the good guy wins. The book is well written and I recommend it as an entertaining story.

No. 19 The Bush Tragedy 9 hrs. 27 mins. (304 pages). I bought this on impulse based on the subject matter and the author. There was some good material on the Bush-Walker family relationships. Also an interesting chapter on Dick Cheney. The author uses as a comparison the relationship between Henry IV and Henry V of England with Bush 43 being Henry V, quotes from Shakespeare's play are used to head up each chapter. The comparison seems overused and in my opinion weakens the book. Bush's presidency is clearly a tragedy for himself and may others. This book does provide some insight into how it got that way.

I have started a lot of books recently but I don't have one that is finished. I seem to have hit a patch of meandering reading. I have been reading The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam. (touchstone error) Also Fields of Honor which is an Early Reviewer book that I really should finish, The Constitutional Convention an abridged version of Madison's Notes on the Convention and The Landmark Herodotus. I just got six new books yesterday which is another distraction, particularly since they are all good books.
Another problem is that I am seriously out of book shelf space. I have at least 50 books with no place to shelve them. They are on the floor, my desk, a table, all over. Organization is impossible. A row of books on the floor in front of the bookcase is really out of hand.
I know I am ranting but sometimes it is good to flush out my mind with a good rant. Since Fields of Honor is an Early Reviewer I will focus on finishing it. It is a good book and reads well. This weekend I have a friend coming over to help with putting up another bookshelf and that will solve that problem. I am a little bit behind but two of my new books should be a quick read. I will keep Herodotus going, I am on page 329 out of 842. With luck I will finish it by July 1.
I really admire the people who read up to four books in a day. I can't do that. In order to bolster my accomplishment I have decided to start adding up pages. As of my last book the total is 7,420 pages. At that rate I will read about 20,000 pages if I complete 50 books. I will be on the look out for a set of books with 20,000 pages to have something to compare to.

I feel your pain about storing books, I have a hardback pile and a paperback pile looking for a home. Thanks to Abe those are the two piles I'm talking about. Not to mention two stacks of library books: going back and yet to read. sigh. I was looking at a wall I might have my carpenter do a built-in for me, right now it houses some reference books and my desk. A whole wall of built-ins would be sweet!

No. 20 Fields of Honor 430 pages (7,850 total pages).
This is a book I felt really lucky to get from the Early Reviewer program. The author works for the National Park Service and part of his job is conducting tours of Civil War battlefields. This book covers about fifteen critical battles in the Civil War. The author provides an excellent overview of the battles interspersed with interesting details. There is a map that accompanies each chapter that helps to follow the progress of the battle.
It is evident that the author has a vast knowledge concerning the progress of the war and the battles covered. I feel one of his strong points are the descriptions of the individuals involved from Generals to privates. The narrative gives an excellent "you are there" feeling for each battle. Along with the maps there are pictures in each chapter that provide helpful details. I had never seen a photograph of the house where Lee's surrender took place.
I have done a lot of reading on this topic but that did not detract from this book. The author was able to provide details I had not read before and an analysis of the battles that kept my interest. The book closes with a chapter on the raising of the Cairo an ironclad that was sunk during the war. This showed the author's many faceted involvement in all aspects of Civil War history.
I give the book a 9 out of 10 and recommend it for readers with a casual interest in the war or its' most dedicated students. Thank you again LT.

No. 21 This Kind of War 466 pages (8,316 total pages).
I have been reading The Coldest Winter; America and the Korean War and I wanted to read a military history of the war. Besides the history the author spent some time on the fact that a free society must be prepared to fight for its ideals when necessary. Parts of what he said could have been written by Robert Heinlein but he had a war with 40,000 American casualties as a background.
I felt the book was well written and provided a good description of the frustrations of fighting a war of containment. Knowing nothing about the war I learned a great deal. As I see it the real victors in the war were the South Koreans who kept their country and the Chinese who showed their ability to fight the Americans to a standstill.
I am feeling more confident about completing the challenge. I still marvel at people who put up one to three books every day.

No. 22 The Light of Day by Eric Ambler221 pages (8,537 total pages). I read this at least ten years ago. The book was the basis for the movie Topkapi with Peter Ustinov. It was a very entertaining read. The protagonist also appears in Dirty Story. He is a weasel of a man always fighting in little ways to get over.
The story concerns the robbery of the Seraglio. Simpson becomes involved when he drives a car into Turkey and it is discovered to be loaded with guns and explosives. One of the participants in the robbery gets cut up by a drunken cook and Simpson is forced to take his place. He foils the robbery and is rewarded with the princely sum of $500.00. Touchstone has gone crazy.

Just found your thread here after becoming acquainted with you in the gathering place. What a lot of wonderful reading you're doing. I'm interested in your No. 12, The Battle of the Wilderness, as one of my husband's relatives was involved in that one. I was not familiar with Rhea before, but I'm definitely going to get a copy of this book.

No. 23 A World Undone The Story of the Great War 1914-1918 763 pages (9,300) total pages. This is a well done survey history of WWI. Interspersed with the military history are short chapters ranging from the role of women to a short biography of Clemenceau. I have read other histories of the war and found this was one of the best. This was more than a narrative of four years of trench warfare with discussions of changes in tactics by each side as the war went on. The author's style and the variety of topics discussed maintained my interest to the end of the book. It is the author's first book of military history and he definitely brought a fresh approach. I would recommend the book as an introduction to the war which changed the face of Western Europe forever.
Reading this book and still reading The Landmark Herodotus has slowed my production toward the 50 books for the year. I am listening to A Confederacy of Dunces and will pull out some of my shorter volumes in the TBR stack to pick up the pace. I am reaching half-way in Herodotus just starting the Persian wars.

No. 24 The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations 138 pages (9,438 total pages). Actually an interesting little book. It has about 80-100 maps which I love. The text is a simplistic survey of ancient civilizations all around the world. I enjoyed the book, learned a few things and had a pleasant time reading it. It is probably more appropriate for juvenile readers but with the maps it has material for everyone. I also enjoyed the thorough coverage.

no. 25 Inherit the Wind 115 pages (9,553 total pages). I usually read this play about the Scopes Monkey Trial every four or five years. I have another book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion which is a very good history of the trial and the events surrounding it. This time as I read the play I was surprised how contemporary the issues still are. Does a person have the right to think? Is there a right to be wrong? When I was younger I thought that in time this type of ignorance would disappear it is almost sad to think how wrong I was.
With the new rise of "creative design" it is obvious that the conflict of ideas set forth in the play is still ongoing. While I consider myself a Christian and even meet some of the criteria of a born-again Christian I can never believe that God intended humans not to think. My only conclusion is that some people are afraid to think. Just as Matthew Brady in the play they embrace an ideology that provides all of the answers without the necessity of thinking. This seems to be part of human nature that will not disappear.
I have gotten ahead and now have a couple weeks to finish The Landmark Herodotus. I plan to dive into that and not come up until I am done.

I love Inherit the Wind "Do you think about things you DO think about?"

Just checking in to let you know I'm still around. I am hitting the home stretch on The Landmark Herodotus I am on page 662 of the text with about 60 pages to go. Then there are 100 pages of appendices and it is finished. June 30 is my goal. Then back to the tbr list for something shorter and easier going.

Theoretically, 25 books should be read by June 30 to stay exactly on track for 50. Well, the good news is that the second half of 2008 has 2 more days than the first half had, including leap day. I hope you have factored this into your plan (smile).

I've been following this thread and I think you'll reach your goal easily--even though you seem to fret about it. I, on the other hand, am behind, but I'll catch up sooner or later--until George R.R. Martin's new dragon book comes out in November. If I miss 2008, I won't regret anything I've read--and there's always 2009!

No. 26 The Landmark Herodotus 1,024 pages,
(10,577 total pages). I had been using the last page of the text for a page total and here used the publisher's total. The Penguin Classics edition is 789 pages.
I was given this book for Christmas and started reading it in March. Many of my posts have referred to reading the book and now I can say it is finished. I enjoyed this book very much and am looking forward to rereading it.
There are good reasons to refer to this edition as the "Landmark". To begin it has 127 maps which are an invaluable aid in understanding the text. All of the places in the text are referenced to a specific map, with location references where necessary. The maps are fine specimens of draftmansship and on several pages are inset maps in a series of three, from the overview to detailed maps of smaller sections. The book also includes 21 appendices written by various authors; discussions by different authors about Herodotus' comments in the text on specific topics. There are a good number of photographs of relevant artifacts, monuments and places. there are three photos of a column named a victory tripod erected by the Greeks at Delphi celebrating their victory over the Persians. Through the vagaries of conquering heroes the piece was moved to Constantinople. The inscription listing the states who participated in the war is still legible. The maps, appendices and illustrations are not bells and whistles but integral parts of the book that add greatly to understanding and enjoying the text.
One-third to one-half of the text is a discussion of the Greco-Persian Wars the narrative ceter of the book. There are large sections on Egypt and Scythia and smaller sections which discuss the majority of the civilizations in the Mediterranean. There are discussions of a variety of topics ranging from religion to clothing and everything in between.
Herodotus often repeated what he was told without further confirmation and a portion of what he repeats is pure mythology. Some of the text is the best factual accounts we have of the some very important events. His account of the Battle of Thermopylae is a very important primary source for that event. Herodotus traveled widely and gathered information from many sources. He was many of the buildings and monuments he described. His wide interests indicate a person who was afflicted with a great curiosity about all aspects of human behavior. Herodotus was focused on the importance of the Greco-Persian war and provides a good deal of detail on all of the other events associated with the war.
I think that this book is essential for anyone with an interest in ancient Greece. Reading any other edition of Herodotus would not provide the reader with the richness of experience and knowledge contained in this edition. It will now sit on my bookshelf like an old friend waiting for another visit.

Congratulations. I'm not sure I will ever read that book from beginning to end, but I love dipping into it. It is gorgeous, and so full of information. Quite an accomplishment to read it in its entirety.

No. 27 To The Gates of Richmond:The Peninsula Campaign 512 pages, (11,089 total pages). This was a very quick read and it was not a very good book. Stephen Sears has a good reputation but Gordon C. Rhea's The Battle of the Wilderness was a much better book which also took about three times as long to read. I spent less time and I got what I paid for. This book is about on the level of 1812 The War That Forged a Nation, history light.

I became irritated by Sears' constant listing of casualties by battle and by unit. I got to feel that it was just an easy way to fill space. Sears was very light on analysis and did not provide good character sketches of the individuals involved in the battles. I did get a general idea of the course of the battles and I do know more than I did before.

Partly based on Sears' reputation I kept waiting for the book to get better. I have two other books by Sears and I will only give them 100 pages before I cut them off. I know I am being a snob but its my time.

I've just read your review of The Battle of the Wilderness and gave it a "thumbs up". I also put the book on my wishlist. My husband's great grand-father was captured at Wilderness on May 5, 1864, and apparently survived several months in Andersonville.

No. 28 State of Siege by Eric Ambler (touchstone error) 248 pages (11,337 total pages). This was written in 1956 and is actually one of the later Ambler's, but one I had never read. It is a familiar story. The protagonist is an engineer who gets involved in a coup in the Indonesian part of the world. Unlike most of Ambler's story there is a very poignant romance that begins and ends in about 200 pages. Like most Ambler stories the characters and plot are mostly in shades of gray. The good guys and bad guys have their other sides and in this tale the only real goal is to survive the violence of the situation.
The bad guy is killing people but he has been talked into doing it by a double agent. The double agent doesn't think either side is right. One side is guilty of incompetence and brutality and the other side is maliciously destructive. To avoid years of malicious destruction to his country the double agent sacrifices his honor and instigates the bad guy to go forward with his coup d'etat while he can still be destroyed by the not so bad guy.
Two people fall in love half out of fear. They part knowing that the memory of their love is better than their love would turn out to be. There is an Asian, Eurasian and European triangle that focuses on the netherworld of the Eurasian. A lot of grays like life really is. I will give this a four star recommendation for an engrossing afternoon. It gets the fifth star for some good food for thought from the romance, the double agent and the focus on the half breed status of the Eurasian . It is the food for thought that separates this book from the usual suspense thriller and makes Ambler one of the best writers in this genre.
I am now well on my way to 50 and went back to make sure this was No. 28. Reading for the challenge has added variety to my usual fare. At the same time I have not watered down the quality of what I read. That was my goal when I started the challenge and it has worked well for me. I am very glad I to be able to work in The Landmark Herodotus and still keep up with the challenge.
Now I have started Ulysses. I was reading along and all of a sudden the words started jumping off the page and I was immersed in the author's world. I am having to learn to read in a different way.

Standing on your head, perhaps?

No. 29 American Wits 200 pages (11,537 pages). This is anthology of light verse of 20th century American authors. Many of the authors in this anthology are not poets per se. Dorothy Parker is a good example of the writers whose work appear in this book. She made her living as a journalist but was a very skilled writer of verse. There are poets whose work was selected but they are in the minority.
The editor points out that there is a difference between wit and humor like the difference between wisecracks and jokes. The writers often poke fun at themselves and others. While reading I spent more time chuckling than laughing. I read the book twice. The second time I got a better appreciation of the verse elements that provides a lot of the enjoyment. The editor emphasizes that the authors made a serious craft of their work. The book is one of the American Poets Project series and upholds the standards of the Library of America editions. As mehitabel would say, wotthehell just read the book toujours gai.

No. 30 Shades of Blue and Gray 296 pages (11,833 total pages) Disappointed. A lot of the reviews said this book was for a beginning reader of the Civil War. For the last 4 to 5 years I have been reading a lot about the Civil War and the ante-bellum period. This book didn't add much information to what I already knew. I did not consider it well written. It went through the battles of the war like a laundry list with very little analysis or anything but the basic information. I don't recommend this book.

No. 31 To the North Anna River 505 pages (12, 338 total pages). This is the third in the four volume series, The Overland Campaign. The books are very well written and make good use of contemporary sources. This is really very good history. The author provides good analysis of the actions by Grant and Lee and their subordinates. The difference between good and excellent history is the analysis. In this volume the author points out that Lee is winning the battles but Grant is winning the campaign. The Impending Crisis is one of the best history books I have read in a number of years because the analysis is excellent.
This volume does not have the large battles in the other volumes of the series. The emphasis is on movement by the armies. The next volume is Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee May 26-June 3, 1864. Grant in his memoirs expresses regret for the last assault at Cold Harbor. It was a smaller version of the first day of the Somme, a large number of men were killed in a short time for no advantage. I'm not looking forward to reading that part.
Right now I am reading the Robert Fagles translation of The Odyssey. I read The Odyssey and The Iliad every two to three years. I enjoy them every time. I have the second Library of America Philip Dick volume on the way and am looking forward to that. All this good stuff, I am blessed.

No. 32 The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles 560 pages (12,898 total pages). The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of my top five favorite books. I first read an abridged addition of each when I was about 12. I now have at least six translations of each book and read them every two to three years.
This translation by Robery Fagles is fairly recent verse translation and is one of my favorites. It is good poetry that tells the story very well. When it was published in 1996 it was well received by scholars and also became a Book of the Month Club selection.
The Odyssey is a great tale of adventure and struggle. It was one of the first examples of the fantasy quest genre that is so popular today. It tells the story of the individuals involved and also provides a panorama of Ancient Greek society.
Each time I read this book something different grabs my attention. This reading it was the public and private expressions of grief and sorrow that occur in many passages. The descriptions of funerals with people crying and cutting their hair is quite a contrast to many modern funeral scenes with large groups of people standing silently as the burial ritual takes place. This is a striking example of the emotional vitality and public life of Ancient Greek culture.
I don't feel that I have finished my exploration of the adventure of Odysseus and look forward to reading it again.

No. 33 General lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse 624 pages ( 13,522 total pages). This book is quite a thorough social history of The Army of Northern Virginia. The focus is on the Army not the military history. There is some material on the battles but very little as a percentage of the book. It is evident that the author has done a tremendous amount of research using primary sources. The excerpts from letters would probably amount to 25% of the text. In addition there is a large amount of statistical research on all aspects of the Army.
There were times when I considered not finishing the book. The author's style is dry and there is a good amount of repetition. When I had finished the book I felt I had added a significant amount of knowledge regarding the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia and all aspects of their experience in the war. The manner in which the material was set forth was necessary to impart the complete experience of the soldiers who fought for Robert E. Lee.
They were a heck of an Army. Almost always outnumbered, under equipped, lacking basic supplies they took on the Army of the Potomac and with rare exceptions defeated them. They fought with a confidence in themselves and their generals that compensated for their material shortcomings. Up until the end of 1864 they were confident that they would not be defeated. They became the heart of the Confederacy and embodied the best and worst of the people for whom they fought.
Their destruction proved the efficacy of Grant's strategy beginning in May of 1864. His tenacity wore them out while the destruction wrought by Sherman destroyed the support of the Confederate people for their fight.
All of the repetition and the statistics made reading the book a total immersion experience in the life of the Army. It is not the book to read for entertainment. It is the book to read to gain a unique understanding of General Lee's Army.

Although I love poetry, I get bogged down in narrative verse. Is there a decent prose version of The Odyssey you would recommend?

No. 34 Starship Troopers 200 pages (13,722 total pages) A blast from the past. I first read this book in my teens and most recently about ten years ago. Definitely fiction light. I guess from the rereadings the book has grown a little stale. I also do not enjoy Heinlein's preaching as much as I once did. He does make some points but now they seem rather simplistic. I am dragging through the summer and have a number of books going and this one finished first.

No. 35 Dr. Bloodmoney or How We Got Along After the Bomb 223 pages (13,945 total pages). This is an excellent book. The science fiction aspects of the plot are interwoven with good character development to provide an entertaining and thought provoking story.
It starts with the bombs going off and then goes to seven years later set in northern California. The author shows great imagination in portraying what was left after the destruction and how the remaining people adapted. There are two characters that provided a tour de force of imagination. One is a twin, named Bill, that was never born and lives inside the body of his sister. I watched a show recently documenting this type of phenomenon. He talks to his sister and speaks with the dead. The other is called a phocomelus named Hoppy Harrington. He is a person with no arms or legs who functions with artificial extensors and has amazing powers. As the story goes Hoppy's magic becomes powerful and threatening.
The plot moves very well and for the last fifty pages I didn't put it down turning the pages to see what would happen next. Philip Dick shows an incredible imagination, an empathy for characters and an insight into the human condition. I felt this book was much better than The Man in the High Castle the first book of his I read. In the two volumes from Library of America I have seven more of his books to read and they are moving to the top of my tbr list.

I've been trying to decide which of Dick's novels to read next, so thanks for the tip. I had the same unputdownable experience with A Scanner Darkly and the drug culture of the 70s.

No. 36 Miss Pym Disposes 235 pages (14,180 total pages). I found out about this book courtesy of LibraryThing. The first book I read by Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time, was many, many years ago. I thought I had read all of her books and cannot recall ever reading this title. One afternoon while doing a some sightseeing on LT I found this book. It is a good example of the amount of information available on the website.
The book is set at Leys Physical Training College and the author attended a similar school in Birmingham, U.K. Miss Pym is a retired teacher who wrote a best seller on psychology and became a celebrity. The Head Mistress of the college is a childhood friend of Miss Pym's and invites her to visit for the graduation festivities at the school. The crime that provides the mystery does not take place until about three quarters of the way into the book. Prior to the crime is some very good exposition of the characters and description of the countryside.
The plot moves well and the crime, though unexpected, is a natural outcome of the preceding events. As in all good mysteries there is an end and then a final surprise twist to the plot which is the final ending.
Josephine Tey wrote eight novels and died in 1952. My research indicates that her novels have remained in print continuously since her death. That is quite a tribute to her talent. This book is very well written. The plot contains a number of surprises but none of them appear contrived. I disagreed with Miss Pym's actions at the end and the twist at the end left even more questions than answers.
Ms. Tey ( Elizabeth Mackintosh) is an excellent writer. Even if you are not a mystery reader you should get one of her books and find out for yourself.

No. 37 Jesus Out to Sea 240 pages (14,420 total pages). This book came my way courtesy of my friend BrainFlakes who read it earlier this year and posted it on his challenge list. There are 11 stories in the book. A few of them have the same characters and all but two are set in the South. They are all very well written. The author uses understatement to portray the world with a blue collar point of view; realistically hard and painful with enough humor and humanity to make life worthwhile. I particularly like the details in his descriptions of the scenery and the world around the characters such as the crackle of lightning and its course across the sky or the crunch of dead leaves underfoot.
I enjoyed all of the stories with the title story as a slim favorite. It is set in New Orleans Ninth Ward after Katrina. There is a poignant contrast of beautiful memories with the destruction that will forever change the city. This deepened my understanding of the impact of the disaster and the passing of the New Orleans that used to be.

I'm reading 1 dead in Attic right now, rather I'm trying to, it brings back the nightmare and makes me cry. The anniversary is coming up this week which makes it even harder to read this book. I'll add yours to the list.

Bill & beeg: Burke's full-length novel, Tin Roof Blowdown, is about Katrina while it is happening and the following few days. It is a tough book to read and, for me, unforgettable.

No. 38 The Iliad Homer translated by Stanley Lombardo 516 pages ( 14,936 total pages). I listened to portions of this on an audio book that was narrated by Stanley Lombardo. The audio book was very good. It had some very primal music at the beginning of each book and there was also music behind the similes, which are italicized in the text. I had always wanted to hear the poem read. I like to imagine sitting around in a group at night by torch light listening to the poem being being narrated. The only other narrated version of The Iliad I am aware of is an abridged version of the Fagles translation read by Derek Jacobi. I don't like abridged versions of books a quirk of mine that I can live with. Jacobi also does a narrated version of The Odyssey that is not abridged.
This time reading The Iliad I was attracted to the cultural and historical items that are mentioned in the book. The methods of prayer and sacrifice, the descriptions of the armor and how the chariots were used in fighting. There was one item I had never noticed. At one point Homer mentions the noise made by cowherds using bolas, which I would assume from their description and the use of the word were like the ones used in Argentina as a substitute for lassoing cattle. I have never seen these in any Greek artwork or heard of them before being used in Ancient Greece.
I enjoyed the book and know that I will read it again. The Iliad has a great emotional power that I do not find in The Odyssey. Lombardo's translation is very effective in transmitting that power. His language is described as "a racy hard bitten idiom" or "taut and punchy verse".
Only twelve books to go and four months left. It looks like I could exceed 50 books this year.

No. 39 Retribution:The Battle for Japan 1944-45 by Max Hastings 656 pages (15,592 total pages). (touchstone problems)
This book is a companion to Armageddon written about the last year World War II in Europe. The author throughout the book makes it clear that the Pacific war which included China, Malaya, Burma and the Dutch East Indies was a massive conflict that involved the deaths of tens of millions of people. It is primarily for cultural reasons that it does not receive the attention given to the European war.
The author does a thorough job of narrating the events of the war. He gives more attention to the policy makers and politicians than the foot soldier. His book is more of an analysis of why things happened the way they did than of the events themselves. One item, new to me, was the refusal for political reasons of the Australian army to do any substantial fighting during the period covered by the book.
The behavior of the Japanese leadership is a prime topic of the book. Their refusal to acknowledge the reality of Japan's defeat needlessly prolonged the war and caused the loss of the lives of their troops and the Americans. Also the arrogance and brutality of the Japanese troops is set forth in numerous incidents. This arrogance has continued in the refusal of the Japanese as a nation to acknowledge their acts of brutality to this day. The Japanese have never paid any reparations to slave laborers or "comfort women" to name two groups of their victims, while Germany to date has paid 6 billion dollars to 1.5 million victims of Hitler's government.
There is a lengthy discussion of the United States decision to use the atomic bomb. It is more accurate to characterize the process by saying that no decision was made not to use that weapon. Many more Japanese were killed in the firebombings than the two atomic bombs. There are many arguments made today that it was not necessary to use these horrible weapons to end the war. While much research has gone into proving the veracity of those arguments they were not as obvious at the time. Until the surrender the Japanese gave every impression that they were prepared to die to the last man in resistance. American leaders were concerned with ending the war with the least loss of American lives. They were also concerned with preventing the Soviet Union from gaining a bigger role in the defeat of Japan. They were imperfect men faced with choices for which there was no perfect answer. The author's conclusion is that they did the best they could with what they had and he does not find fault with their decisions.
I found the book to be well written and a good coverage of the events of the last year of World War II in the Pacific. The coverage of the military engagements is good though somewhat cursory. The analysis of the leadership decisions is very thorough without providing any new insight. This is a good book that does not set forth any new source material or break any new ground. It was valuable to me because of my lack of knowledge of the material covered.

No. 40 A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick 239 Pages (15,831 total pages)
A story about drug culture and the destruction of individuals by drug use. Based upon the author's note the story has some autobiographical basis. In the note the author writes about people who went out to play and were severely punished. The story carries a strong emotional impact through the novel the main character Bob Arctor deteriorates from severe brain damage caused by drug use.
The book is well written. I seem to have an empathetic sensitivity to well written fiction and become pulled into the author's reality. Reading this book I felt that I experienced some of the suffering of the characters. Bob Arctor's girlfriend seems to play a double role she sold him his drugs with some purpose that is hinted at but left unanswered.
I would recommend the book and now have read three out of the eight novels in the Library of America two volume edition. Each book has been unique and shows the author's wide range of skills. I also recently bought two volumes of his short stories. I look forward to continuing to read his works.

No. 41 Ubik Philip K. Dick 189 pages (16,020 pages). This is my third PKD novel in less than a month. The main similarity in the three books is the incredible imagination of the author. In each of the three novels I have read recently this author has used his imagination to draw the me into a story that I could not put down for the last 50-75 pages. The author creates different worlds that change during the story in bizarre ways. The only author that I can think of with a comparable imagination is Isaac Bashevis Singer in his supernatural or fantasy short stories. Singer has greater range and I consider him a great writer while Dick is a very good writer. Singer did win the Nobel Prize after all.
The story in this novel really begins when a bomb goes off in a room where Joe Chip and eleven other people are. The rest of the book is the story of Joe Chip trying to figure out what happened. That is a much abbreviated explanation of the plot. There are many twists and turns involving time change, people maintained in half-life at the moment of death and a bizarre version of the future in 1992.
Ubik is more entertaining than A Scanner Darkly and less depressing. I think it is a well written story and it did maintain my interest very well.

No. 42 The Stranger(touchstone error) Albert Camus, trans. Matthew Ward 144 pages (16,164 total pages). I Wanted to write a review of this book and ended up reading it. I did write the review which was a bit of work.
This is a very powerful book. Meursault the protoganist is an unemotional detached person. The only real choice he makes in the book is when he murders someone. He is tried and sentenced to death. In a confrontation with the chaplain he states that nothing matters because we are all condemned to death. He then opens himself to the gentle indifference of life. His only wish is a crowd greeting him with cries of hate at his execution.
I think the book deals with a fundamental question of life. Does anything matter? The author was in the French Resistance against the Germans so he lived as if something mattered. That gives another interesting twist to the book.
I have read it several times and I intend to read it again. I am sure next time I will notice something different in the book. I consider it a classic that will continue to be read.

No. 43 Burning Angel 351 pages (16,515 total pages). My first Dave Robicheaux mystery. James Lee Burke's minimalist writing style effectively portrays reality where not all questions are answered. The unnamed character in the book is the nature and scenery which provides a poetic background for the story.
The main character in this story is Sonny Boy Marsallus. A one time street hustler who became transformed into a shadowy character who exists on the edge of the supernatural. The story mixes tales of mafiosi, government spooks, and a love story that crosses racial boundaries.
The ending provides resolution of some of the plot lines but leaves some to be continued. I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of Robicheaux's relationship with his daughter which like everything else in the book has the imperfections of reality.
I look forward to the other two of these mysteries I now own and exploring further into the long running series.

Dave Robicheaux is my favorite flawed hero. Admirable for his ongoing efforts to do what's right, even though the reader may not always agree with his assessment of "right".

I'm glad that you had a favorable first encounter with Dave and his environs. I don't know about Burning Angel, but the Civil War often comes up in the Robicheaux novels.

And I think Tripod is the perfect name for a three-legged raccoon.

the Civil War often comes up in the Robicheaux novels As does the supernatural.

No. 44 Dime Novel Desperadoes:The Notorious Maxwell Brothers 448 pages, 17,003 total pages. This was an Early Reviewer book, otherwise I would not have finished it. I did spend time writing my review and there are pluses to the book. The story is well researched, there are 50 pages of notes. I enjoyed the detail on life in Joliet prison. There is a good story of outlaws who were only one notch below the James brothers.
Unfortunately the author wrote an awful book. The author blames their life of crime on their poverty and the fact that Ed, the older, was short. This is said again and again. The author forgets that not all short, poor people have chosen to commit crimes. If you trust my judgment don't waste your time reading this book.

No. 45 The Greco-Persian Wars by Peter Green (touchstone problems). 356 pages, 17,359 total pages.
After reading The Landmark Herodotus this was a natural follow-up. The author does quote heavily from Herodotus. He also uses other semi-contemporary sources and some other significant books on the topic. I thought this was an excellent book. At least 25% of the book was analysis. Comparison of the sources and the theories of other authors to get the best idea of what happened. Why did Xerxes or Themistocles or the Spartans do or not do something. Excellent portraits of the major characters. Some real insight into what life was like, how wars were fought.
The story is very familiar but the author brought fresh life to the events. The struggle is covered from start to finish in great detail. My only problem was the author's use of short phrases in several languages other than English that I didn't understand. Maybe that is my problem.
I enjoyed the book and it made me want to read more about this era and also Persian history. While not emphasized there is always the thought of what would life be like if the Greeks had lost. I think it would be a very different world and that is to me what makes the story so significant. Looking at the forces involved and the outcome is what makes it so interesting.

No. 46 The Four Kings by George Kimball 352 pages, 17, 711 total pages. An Early Reviewer book. This is a book about Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran. It is written by George Kimball who was a boxing writer for 35 years and wrote this after he retired. He is also a member of LT.
Boxing is one of my secret pleasures and I really enjoyed this book. These boxers were the finest of the 1980's fighting in the featherweight to middle- weight classes. They also fought each other during those years in fights that were the biggest of the era.
The writer begins with each boxer from the start and then goes chronologically through each of their big fights. The writer is very knowledgeable and obviously did his homework when he wrote this book. It is obvious that he loved the sport and his book is a tribute to the best of boxing that he saw in his career. The careers of the four fighters intertwine to make a very good story. The different personalities of each are well drawn and the reader learns something of each as a fighter and a person.
The descriptions of the fights include all of the behind the scene angles. The promoters and the trainers have their roles in the book and the business of boxing is set forth in detail. At The end of the book the writer gives a where are they now chapter which shows that not all boxers end up punch drunk and broke.
I thought the book moved well and was well written and edited. The conclusion that this was a unique era and these were exceptional fighters seems well justified. I would think that the author has one or two more books in mind and only hope they are as good as this one.

No. 47 A Stained White Radiance by James Lee Burke 369 pages (18,080 total pages)
My second book in the Dave Robicheaux series. This was more of a whodunit that Burning Angel. Early in the book a police officer on the New Iberia force is murdered in a particularly grisly fashion. The suspects include members of the Ayran Brotherhood, a New Orleans mafiosi and a racist politician. Also at the center of the book is the Sonnier family. Robicheaux had grown up with the Sonnier's and been briefly romantically involved with the sister Drew. Lyle has served in Vietnam with Robicheaux who had ordered him into a VC tunnel where an explosion wounded him severly and left him scarred for life. He had become a TV evangelist with the power to heal others through their faith. The other brother, Weldon, had also served in Vietnam and then flew for Air America. When desperate for money for his business Weldon had done some work for Joey Gouza, the New Orleans mafiosi, that ended with Weldon ripping them off and dumping their guns and cocaine into the ocean. Weldons wife was the sister of Bobby Earl the racist politician whom Robicheaux despised. Verise Sonnier the father of Lyle, Weldon and Drew who had been thought dead appears in the book. He had always carried an evil soul and the accident that supposedly killed him had left him disfigured with burn scars that showed the evil on the outside.
There is ample action in the book to keep it interesting but the real action is the interplay of Dave Robicheaux with the characters including his wife Bootsie, his daughter Alfaria. It is Robicheaux interior life that separates these books from the standard mysteries. He shows great sensitivity to everything going on around him and his own flaws. The plot lines are tied up by the end but there is always a feeling that this is not the end for Dave Robicheaux. As always the author highlights the physical world from the texture of St. Augustine grass to the gnarly backs of gar fish in the river to complete the picture of the world going on in the book. I enjoyed this book more than Burning Angel and I now have seven more to look forward to.

No. 48 The Guns of August 640 pages (18,720 total pages) This was an audio book and the narrator Nadia May was very good. I read this book for the first time in college. I am a fan of Barbara Tuchman and have a number of her books.
The starting of W W I was like pushing over one domino and then numerous rows of dominos fall over in synchronization. All of the countries of Europe were lined up ready to go to war and all they needed was a push. So the Archduke is killed and the Germans give the Austro-Hungarian Empire a blank check, the Russians come in on the side of Serbia bringing France in etc. Very few people had any idea what they were starting just like every war. All the leaders expect a glorious victory in 90 days. Instead millions are killed and the world is irrevocably changed.
I consider this book a fine example of narrative history. Ms. Tuchman just tells the story as accurately as she can. It is good to see that someone who doesn't have Ph. D. after their name can write good history. Since there are no footnotes the book is almost like a novel. I guess that is why she sold so many books.
I am pretty sure I will make 50 now. I am still working on The Age of Federalism and then plan to make The Landmark Thucydides number 50.

I remember reading this book years and years ago too, and liking it because it was accessible to a non-history reader like me.

And you know, since you have a new Opus book you might even hit 51 this year. I am working on 49 and 50 now, and I suspect I'll just keep going like the Energizer bunny . . .

Charlie

i read this book ages ago, too...it was my first foray into war history, and i was so impressed with her writing that it got me hooked on this subject.

you've got a list of very interesting books there. keep it up, you're very close to the goal...

Dear Wildbill: I was just glancing through other people's entries in the 2008 reading challenge and saw that you like reading history. I devoured War and Peace on tape--I think it was 30+ tapes. But worth the effort---it must have been a summer I wasn't working fulltime. I am going to take your recommendation to read The Road to Disunion. I am will be teaching the Civil War to my U.S. History classes the next few weeks. Sincerely, Alice

No. 49 Dark Star 464 pages ( 19,184 total pages). It's been a while. Since my last post here I probably read the first one-third to one-half of four books before I finally got one finished.
I thought this was a very good book. It is a spy novel set in the years 1937-1941 in Europe. It is similar to some books by Eric Ambler where a novice is thrust into the world of espionage. The protagonist, Andre Szara, is a writer for Pravda who through circumstance becomes an agent of the Russian foreign intelligence service. His Jewish background figures prominently in the story because that fact was significant in all of Europe in that era.
Szara is always at the center of the plot. He becomes involved in separate ongoing plot lines as a journalist, a Russian spy, a British spy, a Zionist agent and a lover fighting an on and off battle for personal survival. The author fashions the characters with great subtlety. They all move in a world where the truth is not obvious and what is obvious is not the truth. Even Szara does not always share his thoughts with the reader until necessary.
Szara's two love affairs are portrayed with tenderness and poignancy. Szara shows a belief in love as the true goodness in life. He falls in love quickly and fully and this provides for Szara and the reader a respite from the quietly vicious actions that make up the majority of the interplay between the characters in the book.
The historical background of the book cuts a wide swath through the events of the period. Szara runs from Nazi bullies on Kristallnacht and travels with a Polish officer during the invasion of Poland. He reads a dossier of the early career of Stalin as a double agent of the Czar's secret service. These events add to the drama and emotional intensity of the book.
I would recommend this book as a well told adventure in an interesting historical era. The variety of characters and the significance of the events portrayed add to the enjoyment. I have one other book by this author and plan to read it soon.

No. 50 Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis 464 pages ( 19,648 total pages).
David M. Potter is a very good author who wrote one of my favorite books, The Impending Crisis. This books covers a short section of the same period. Potter does very thorough research and always writes from the perspectives of the time he is writing about not from what we know now.
In this book Potter refutes the thesis of many Southern writers who argue that Lincoln tricked the South into starting the Civil War. The Lincoln portrayed here is almost naive in his belief of strong Unionist sentiment in the South. Many of his actions were taken in an attempt to bring about a peaceful reunion based upon this belief. I have never seen the idea of peaceful reunion emphasized as it is here. The strategy was to keep the border states, including Virginia, from seceding. Then the seven gulf states would return. There was actually a period in February when five states voted against secession. Other writers seem to accept the secession and war as inevitable and do not explore the alternatives seen by the leadership at the time.
Seward was even more placating to the South and his attempt to run the administration began with the policy on Fort Sumter. As portrayed here up until early April of 1861 there was strong sentiment to evacuate the fort. Seward even made some commitments that the fort would be evacuated. The actual beginning of the war is beyond the scope of the book.
This book was written in 1942 but the conclusions of the author are still new ideas in the writing about secession. I enjoyed the book and think that anyone studying this period should get the benefit of the author's perspective.
50 I made it and still one month to go. Now everything is gravy. I will keep plugging and see where I go.

Congratulations, Bill, on an especially heavy-duty 50. Since you have a month of gravy time, perhaps you should rest your brain cells with some fiction . . .

Charlie

Your No. 50 sounds like a fascinating read, Bill. It's going on my TBR pile right away.

No. 51 Spoon River Anthology 248 pages (19,896 total pages)
This is my second book of poetry for the year. The book I have was published in 1915 shortly after the poems were serialized in
" Reedy's Mirror".
The book begins with the poem "The Hill" which introduces the reader to the town cemetery. The residents of the cemetery tell the tale of their lives in remainder of the poems. The author does a good job of telling a short story in two or three paragraphs of verse. There are separate stories from a husband and wife, members of a family or different people involved in the failure of a bank. There is a mixture of humor and tragedy as the
the history of the town unfolds.
Towards the end of the book the author runs out of "A" material and I did not care for the last poem "The Spooniad" a nine page contribution attributed to a town resident. All in all it is an entertaining book for the short time it takes to read.

No. 52 The Proud Tower 615 pages (20,511 total pages). This book is a reread from about ten years ago in the form of an audiobook. It was written by Barbara Tuchman after The Guns of August and covers the period from 1890-1914. I have always enjoyed Tuchman as an "amateur" historian who wrote popular narrative history.
The social unrest present in that era caused the assassination of six heads of state in the twenty years before WWI for the cause of anarchism. These actions were done by individuals in contrast to the acts of modern terrorist groups. Anarchism was a symptom of the great economic inequality that existed. The section on the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 where the nations of the world discussed rules for warfare shows a higher degree of civilization than the present day.
Tuchman places an emphasis on the social and cultural issues of the time. There is a portrayal of the end of the veto by the House of Lords as the power of the landed classes in England came to an end. In the chapter on the rise of Germany more is written about Richard Strauss than Kaiser Whilhelm. The social conflict during the rise of imperialism in the United States another chapter of the book.
The book is entirely Euro-centric and barely mentions the Russo-Japanese war, one of the most significant events of the period. It does not have the drama of The Guns of August and I did not enjoy it as much as that book. I recommend it as a solid well written narrative history that contains a good deal of information about a period of history that is often neglected.

#52 ". . .where the nations of the world discussed rules for warfare shows a higher degree of civilization than the present day."

The days of uniformed Armies and equipment, battle lines, behind the lines, battle strategy, treatment of POWs, and conventional weaponry appear long gone. Without rules, a war is nigh on impossible to win . . .

Charlie

No. 53 Darkness at Noon 267 pages ( 20,778 total pages). This book was published in 1941. The edition I have is from the Modern Library and cost $1.65 when new.
The book is the story of the interrogation and trial of Nicolas Salmanovitch Rubashov an ex-Commissar of the People. It begins with his arrest and ends as did most of Stalin's purge trials of the 1930's. The front flap describes it as a fictional critique of the ruthlessness of modern revolutionary procedures.
The story is not modern and with the fall of Russian communism the ideas discussed are somewhat stale. The book is well written and sets forth the perverse logic of a revolutionary being called on to confess his sins for the good of the revolution.
It was a feature of the Russian purges that those on trial were urged to make false confessions as an act of service to the revolution. The real motive of the interrogators was to remove a possible threat to Stalin's power. Still there were those such as Rubashov who made their confessions in the name of the revolution.
There is little real conflict in the book. Emotionally it is very drab. The only relationship Rubashov had was with his secretary Arlova. That ended with Rubashov giving her a shove over the edge as she became the subject of denunciation and trial. I read this book to compare it with "1984" and "Brave New World" which are on my tbr list. They all deal with similar subject matter and I hope and expect that the next two will be better.

No. 54 Crusader's Cross 512 pages (21,390 total pages).
This is one or the more recent Dave Robicheaux stories. The more I read him the more I like him. Now I look forward to the author's descriptions of the surroundings. I have seen a Florida swamp and some of the plants he describes. He also makes New Iberia a place with his descriptions of the buildings and their stories.
This involves a serial killer and a story out of Dave's past (there are a lot of those). The ending was tied up very neatly answering all of the questions in the book. That is not typical for Robicheaux.
My favorite line in the book is "Our moral failure lies in the frailty of our vision and not in our hearts". For me a big part of the Robicheaux books is watching Dave walk the tightrope of life seeking his guidance from an inner moral compass that is not always pointing true north. In other words he is trying but he is human.
I think that along with the surroundings is what makes these books better than just a whodunit. I have about five others in the series and I look forward to reading another one soon.

An excellent review blurb, Bill, and I think you're right on the money about Dave's struggles. There are some photos of New Iberia on Burke's website, but I don't know the URL.

Let me oblige...
James Lee Burke's website

What I'd like to know is, when is the movie based on In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead going to be released? No info out there beyond "It's in post-production".

No. 55 Gates of Fire 400 pages (21,790 total pages).
I was worried about 50 and I have made it to 55. I like participating in the challenge. It makes me keep a book journal and it keeps me focused on reading, hats off to Heina and LT.
I enjoyed this book. It was interesting from the start and kept my interest throughout the book. Earlier this year I read the history of this story in The Landmark Herodotus. The importance of the Greco-Persian war contributed to my interest in the book. I am sure my reading made it easier for me to concentrate on the part of the book that describes the life of a Spartan.
It is stated but not emphasized that Sparta was a slave society. That held true for a lot of the world in those times. Xeo, The narrator, is a slave but he is proud of being a Spartan slave.
Uniquely Spartan was the practice of housing men in dormitories beginning at the age of seven when the agoge, a period of military training, begins. As the only Greeks who trained for war full time the Spartans were very effective soldiers.
Discussion of philosophy is also a big part of the book. Dienekes, the Peer for whom Xeo is a squire, ponders the question; What is the opposite of fear? throughout the book. He does reach the answer. Generally the tenor of discussion is basic and very serious. On the third day of the battle, when everyone knows they will die, the discussion of the situation is as much of the story as the fighting.
The battle scenes in the book are every bit as gory as the Iliad. They are told from the point of view of a participant and convey very well the action of hoplite warfare. Much of the battle consisted of getting behind your shield and pushing on the soldier in front of you. When you were on the front you skewered the enemy with your eight footer or sliced him open with a xiphos.
The book is not just about the battles. There are also some personal relationships woven through the story. The author does a good job portraying the role of women in Greek society. In the sphere of the family they were powerful and in a speech at the end of the book the King makes it clear how important they were to Sparta.
This is a good book to learn some of the day to day details of Greek life. Personally I prefer the Athenian way of life to the Spartan regimen but in the war between the two many Greeks supported Sparta. Sparta personified the older, simpler and more virtuous way of life.
Next up I have a book titled The Ten Thousand which will continue my sojourn in ancient Greece.

No. 56 Night Soldiers by Alan Furst audiobook, 462 pages (22,252 total pages).
I use the page total for the paperback edition for this audiobook. When I read Dark Star I started by listening to an audiobook and finished reading a text book. I wish I had done the same here. I listened to the book and recall many incidents from it but for me the audiobook format does not provide the same type of story and character memories as text.
This is a well written historical fiction, espionage novel by Alan Furst. This book covers the period from 1934 to 1945. Khristo, the protagonist, proceeds from Bulgaria to NKVD school in Moscow, fights in the Spanish Civil War, is a waiter in Paris and spends time in a French prison. He then fights in the French resistance and concludes his adventures with a trip to Romania.
There are many interesting characters along Khristo's journey and a love affair in Paris. The ending of the book was done in a very interesting manner. It was narrated by by someone telling the actions of Khristo and a friend with no dialogue or any input from the main characters.
I intend to read some more of the author's books and I mean read.
This is the end of my first challenge. I enjoyed it very much and will continue next year. Thanks to everyone who provided encouragement and a Happy New year to All!

Well done, Bill. I'm looking forward to your 2009 thread.

Great to hear you'll be back in 2009, Bill, but without the worry of making it to 50,

Wishing you a readerly 2009,

Charlie