For the past couple of weeks we've been privileged to read the contributions of some highly talented, interesting members of Readers and Book Lovers. But because we don't have a contributing diarist today, we'll have an open forum instead. Please do step up to the plate so "Books That Changed My Life" won't shrivel up and die!
To show you how easy it is, here’s the template—just three paragraphs and you’re home free! Just tell me which week you want and your name shall be entered into the Sacred Logbook.
In the first paragraph, all you need to do is introduce the title of the book and the author, and mention the circumstances in which you encountered it—did you buy it, borrow it, or receive it as a gift? How old were you? Were you at school still or working?
In the second paragraph, you could provide a quote from the book, or briefly describe the contents, or tell something about the author. If it’s a classic and has been reproduced on line as part of The Gutenberg Project, you could provide a link. Or if there’s an entry in Wikipedia about it, you could link to that.
In the third paragraph, you would state how reading the book changed your life—by making you aware of politics, or history, or seeing the world beyond your own cosmos of home, family, friends, and school, or thinking about things in a new way.
You will need to add at least three tags to the bottom of your diary: Readers & Book Lovers, R&BLers, and Books That Changed My Life. Feel free to add more, according to your subject.
So which book changed YOUR life?
The Kama Sutra? REALLY? Oh, wait, no, perhaps you really meant
The Call of the Wild or
Into the Wild. You can talk about any book, even
The Upanishads.
Please kosmail me and tell me you’ll do a diary in October so this series won’t fall flat on its face!
On this late September morning it’s rather chilly, so for refreshment we have a huge urn of delicious Royal Blend tea (Ceylon and Assam), with milk and sugar. There’s also an urn of freshly brewed Colombian for those who prefer coffee. If you’re hungry, help yourself to crumpets, toasted a golden brown and dripping with melted butter and honey, in the large silver bun-warmer over there.
Now that you’ve refreshed yourself, we can talk. Our good friend Limelite suggested this topic: “Which book do you read under the covers with a flashlight?” Aha! No hiding, you’ve got to tell us!
Is an iPad with Kindle the modern equivalent of a hardcopy book and a flashlight? It’s true I can read that way even if the room is completely dark, no need to stick the device under the covers. All right, I’ll confess: I read cheap, junky, trashy spy stories. They’re full of violence--guys getting kicked through windows, stunned with the butt-end of a gun, blown up with well-tossed grenades, and so forth. I like it even more when the operative in question is a 28-year-old woman who speaks seven languages and is an expert in karate and several other martial arts.
For some reason I simply adore spycraft. I live in the Washington, DC area, so when I’m stuck in a traffic jam on I-66 I amuse myself by trying to figure out which car ahead of me contains a spy on his or her way to a drop. It’s interesting to know that if you want to block directional microphones that might pick up your conversation with a fellow operative, you should park your van under a canopy of trees—the foliage will block the waves or whatever. It’s also prudent never to enter an establishment without circling the block two or three times first, to make sure that no one from the other side is there staking out the place. Another good tip is that if one operative is a man and the other a woman, they can exchange information even over the telephone by talking like lovers--the lover-like language is a code for what’s really going down.
I’ve learned about keeping large amounts of cash and a couple of passports in bank accounts around the world under fake names, using burner phones to communicate and then disabling them by removing the battery and dropping them into a lake, and borrowing a dog to walk around the neighborhood you’re interested in. Sometimes it is necessary to observe a target’s habits and house before you can make your move, but no one suspects a person out walking a dog at night. It’s just so ordinary.
Okay, that’s my dreadful secret reading habit. Please tell us about yours!
P. S. By the time you read this I'll be in Vancouver, and it'll be approximately 5 a.m., so most likely I won't be able to join you. Please feel free to discuss the topic among yourselves!
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