Glenn A Knight

Glenn A Knight
In my study

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Reading List: December 2011

The New Testament of the Bible ends with a lot of short books, plus the lengthy book of Revelation. I finished both versions of the Bible that I was reading through 2011 by the end of the year.

The Holy Bible, New International Version
  • The New Testament
    • Romans
    • 1 Corinthians
    • 2 Corinthians
    • Galatians
    • Ephesians
    • Philippians
    • Colossians
    • 1 Thessalonians
    • 2 Thessalonians
    • 1 Timothy
    • 2 Timothy
    • Titus
    • Philemon
    • Hebrews
    • James
    • 1 Peter
    • 2 Peter
    • 1 John
    • 2 John
    • 3 John
    • Jude
    • Revelation
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
  • The New Testament
    • Romans
    • 1 Corinthians
    • 2 Corinthians
    • Galatians
    • Ephesians
    • Philippians
    • Colossians
    • 1 Thessalonians
    • 2 Thessalonians
    • 1 Timothy
    • 2 Timothy
    • Titus
    • Philemon
    • Hebrews
    • James
    • 1 Peter
    • 2 Peter
    • 1 John
    • 2 John
    • 3 John
    • Jude
    • Revelation
I also finished reading both editions of the Koran that I was reading.

The Koran, translated by N.J. Dawood (1966). I finished this on December 2, reading pages 390-431 on the first and second of December. Those pages include the following suras:

  • The Unbelievers
  • Help
  • Pilgrimage
  • The Imrans
  • Cattle
  • Prohibition
The Koran, translated by N.J. Dawood (1968). I finished this edition on December 6, reading pages 356-431 from December 3 to December 6. Those pages include the following suras:

  • Women
  • Divorce
  • The Table
  • The Unbelievers
  • Help
  • Pilgrimage
  • The Imrans
  • Cattle
  • Prohibition
The Assassins' Gate, by George Packer.
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett.
Some Days You Get the Bear, by Lawrence Block.
Access 2002 for Dummies, by John Kaufeld.
Access 2003 Bible, by Cary N. Prague, Michael R. Irwin, and Jennifer Reardon.
Excel 2003 for Dummies, by Greg Harvey.
My New American Life, by Francine Prose.
Resistance, by Barry Lopez.
Beyond Black, by Hilary Mantel.
Germinal, par Emile Zola.
Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Reading List: November 2011

The Holy Bible, New International Version
  • Luke
  • John
  • Acts
  • Romans
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
  • Luke
  • John
  • Acts
  • Romans
The Koran, translated by N.J. Dawood (1968).
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoesvsky.
The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
Germinal, par Emile Zola.
Bad Blood, by John Sandford.
The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly.
Moonlight Mile, by Dennis LeHane.
Beyond Black, by Hilary Mantel.
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke, by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo.
The Assassins' Gate, by George Packer.
The Koran, translated by N.J. Dawood (1966).
Some Days You Get the Bear, by Lawrence Block.
The Man on the Balcony, by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo.

Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo were a husband and wife team. She was a poet and he was a journalist, before they wrote ten mystery novels in the 1970s. These novels inspired the Maoist (and otherwise left radical) Scandinavian mystery writers. Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo, and a number of others have followed the path of using the mystery as a mechanism for exploring the faults of society. Not too far, in some ways, from the path of Dashiell Hammett.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Hesiod's Theogony

Hesiod. Theogony and Works and Days. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by M .L. West. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. World's Classics. Oxford Paperbacks. xxv + 79 pages. Explanatory Notes. ISBN 0-19-281788-4. $4.00.

A great many people are familiar with The Iliad and The Odyssey, and some of them think that those two books are the sources of all the stories of Greek mythology. Hesiod was inspired by the Muses to write Theogony (the origin of the gods). The presentation is more systematic than anything in Homer, providing relationships among the gods and demigods in considerable detail. According to the Introduction, there are some three hundred names listed in the Theogony.

The Theogony is consistent with, and may be said to have founded, the literary tradition of revealed religion. God did not speak to Hesiod, any more than He spoke to St. Paul, Mohammed, or Joseph Smith. He was inspired by the Muses, by his own account, as he tended his sheep. So Iris speaks to Agamemnon, the angel speaks to Israel, and the archangel Gabriel speaks to Mohammed.

The unreliability of revelation comes through in this passage:

And once [the Muses] taught Hesiod fine singing, as he tended his lambs below holy Helicon. this is what the goddesses said to me first, the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus the aegis-bearer:

"Shepherds that camp in the wild, disgraces, merest bellies:
we know to tell many lies that sound like truth,
but we know to sing reality, when we will."

If you have not yet read Hesiod, you might well find him of interest. Theogony is interesting in one way, and Works and Days has an entirely different appeal.

Reading List: October 2011

The Holy Bible, New International Version
  • Obadiah
  • Jonah
  • Micah
  • Nahum
  • Habakkuk
  • Zephaniah
  • Haggai
  • Zechariah
  • Malachi
  • Matthew
  • Mark
  • Luke
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
  • Hosea
  • Joel
  • Amos
  • Obadiah
  • Jonah
  • Micah
  • Nahum
  • Habakkuk
  • Zephaniah
  • Haggai
  • Zechariah
  • Malachi
  • Matthew
  • Mark
  • Luke
Crossers, by Philip Caputo
Roseanna, by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler
The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and Hope, 1945-1953, by Robert Dallek
Germinal, par Emile Zola
Nothing to Lose, by Lee Childl
The Koran, translated by N.J. Dawood
Follow Me Down, by Shelby Foote
A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, par Marcel Proust
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

One of these days I should write something about the similarities and differences between the Bible and the Koran. I have a number of the sacred books of various civilizations: The Bible, The Koran, The I  Ching, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Theogony, and The Epic of Gilgamesh. I'm not entirely sure that the last book counts as sacred, and I'm not entirely sure that Virgil's Aeneid doesn't. I could easily enough get a copy of The Book of the Dead (the Egyptian one) or some of the Hindu works, such as The Rig Veda or The Bhagavad Gita. The old staple direction to "compare and contrast" is still an excellent starting point for an essay.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Reading List: September 2011

The Holy Bible, New International Version
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
Shiloh, by Shelby Foote
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, par Marcel Proust
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson
The Koran, translated by N.J. Dawood
The Lost Peace, by Robert Dallek
Sir Dominic Flandry, by Poul Anderson, compiled by Hank Davis
Germinal, par Emile Zola
Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler
The English Assassin, by Daniel Silva
Crossers, by Philip Caputo

The late Shelby Foote was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy The Civil War: A Narrative, partly because he was featured in Ken Burns's documentary television miniseries on the Civil War.

In the late 1940s and 1950s, Shelby Foote wrote a number of novels - five, I believe - and I recently read two of them. Follow Me Down is a story of love and murder set in Mississippi (in Foote's fictional Jordan County), in about 1946. It is beautifully written, and uses very well the narrative technique developed by Foote's fellow Mississippian William Faulkner of moving the point of view from narrator to narrator. Foote uses that same technique in Shiloh, in which he follows a number of people through the fighting around Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. In the course of reading Follow Me Down, I came to the realization that the grandfather to whom one of the characters refers is, in fact, the young boy we have seen in Shiloh. It's kind of nice to know that he lived to be an old man, even if he was missing an arm.

The quality of Foote's writing stems from his choice of subject and his extreme sensitivity to the telling detail. Foote understands how people react in moments of extreme stress.

Robert Dallek doesn't. His rather idealistic work, The Lost Peace, tries to assert that there was an alternative to the Cold War. At least Dallek is an honest scholar; his work reveals that there was no alternative, given the people, their histories, and their interactions. One thing that Dallek shares with a lot of people is the misconception that there are offensive and defensive weapons or forces. Inevitably, forces created with, we may presume, purely defensive motives, will appear to one's opposite numbers as threats. And there are three good reasons for that. First, a rifle fires whether the target is moving or the shooter if moving. I.e., many weapons are more or less equally useful on offense or defense. Second, the felt need to create a substantial defense indicates a level of distrust which will almost immediately meet its doppelganger on the other side. Third, there is the military maxim that the best defense is a good offense. Which is to say, even with motives which may be generally defenses, one may decide that the best way to defends one's own territory is to mount an attack against an opponent.

My reading in September 2011 was also heavy on the prophets. I read Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Reading List: August 2011

The Holy Bible, New International Version
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
Mystery, by Jonathan Kellerman
The Baburnama
Runaway, by Alice Munro
LinkedIn for Dummies, by Joel Elad
Gone Tomorrow, by Lee Child
The Koran, translated by N. J. Dawood
Night Soldiers, by Alan Furst
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crossers, by Philip Caputo

One of these days I will write a review essay about The Baburnama. At this point, let me just say that this is a unique memoir of a Muslim ruler, written in a form of Turkish, rather than in Persian, the literary language of the day. Among Babur's other accomplishments, before he conquered India and founded the Moghul Empire, he ruled Afghanistan. Ruling Afghanistan was just as much fun then as it is now. Babur's favored approach, one he picked up from family traditions, was to pile a pyramid of skulls outside a village after he suppressed revolt. I'm not sure that really worked, but it certainly showed the locals that he was serious.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Reading List: July 2011

The Holy Bible, New International Version
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
The Narrows, by Michael Connelly
Colonel Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris
Worth Dying For, by Lee Child
A Death in Vienna, by Daniel Silva
The World at Night, by Alan Furst
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Koran
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Runaway, by Alice Munro
The Baburnama
The Messenger, by Daniel Silva
Facebook for Dummies, by Carolyn Abram and Leah Pearlman
Mystery, by Jonathan Kellerman
Crossers, by Philip Caputo

Summer reading, some of which I did at the beach. In this case, Holden Beach, down in North Carolina.

Those of you who have read more than one of these notes, you'll see that we've been reading a lot of thrillers, particularly by Daniel Silva, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, and Alan Furst. If you have read and liked Erik Larson's 2011 book, In the Garden of Beasts, I think you'd particularly enjoy Alan Furst's books. Furst sets his books in Europe in the 1930s. His characters are afraid that terrible things are going to happen, but most of them don't know for sure what we all know - the Nazis are coming.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Reading List: June 2011

The Holy Bible, New International Version
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
The Baburnama
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Colonel Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris
Acts of Faith, Philip Caputo
Follow Me Down, by Shelby Foote
Beyond Black, by Hilary Mantel
Runaway, by Alice Munro
Moscow Rules, by Daniel Silva
Facebook for Dummies, by Carolyn Abram and Leah Pearlman
Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child
Reversal, by Michael Connelly
LinkedIn for Dummies, by Joel Elad
The Narrows, by Michael Connelly
61 Hours, by Lee Child

June was a rather busy month, in the reading department. I started nine books during the month, and I finished five. For one thing, following up on various recommendations, I started two books by Michael Connelly (best known for The Lincoln Lawyer) and two by Lee Child.

My reading in the Bible continued, as I finished the book of Job and started Psalms.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Reading List: May 2011

The Holy Bible, New International Version
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
The World in 2011, by The Economist
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
The Baburnama
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
Facebook for Dummies, by Carolyn Abram and Leah Pearlman
Spies of the Balkans, by Alan Furst
The Foreign Correspondent, by Alan Furst
LinkedIn for Dummies, by Joel Elad
Colonel Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

That was a pretty good list, I think. There were a couple of pretty heavy-duty books I started last May. The third volume of Edmund Morris's biography of Theodore Roosevelt was very good. It took up in 1909, after Roosevelt had left the White House.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Measuring Failure and Success

I made the assertion in an earlier post that the United States lost the War of 1812. Agim Zabeli disputed that conclusion, pointing out some of the reasons one might say that the United States won the War of 1812. This difference of opinion actually underlines my original point, which is that it is very difficult to say whether a person, or a country, or an organization, has succeeded or failed in an endeavor, unless one has a clear statement of the objectives they hoped to achieve. In the case of the War of 1812, some of the motives for taking the United States into war with Britain stated before the war, were downplayed after the war, and some different war aims were asserted to have been decisive. If one can move the goalposts at will, one can always claim victory.

One standard for victory in battle is possession of the field. In the American Civil War, there were several battles which might appear to have been a victory for one side or the other, but the palm is usually awarded to the side which stays on the battlefield after the fighting is over. I think it is the Battle of Chickamauga which is particularly troublesome in this regard.

Another standard depends upon a determination of which side was the aggressor. The Battle of Gettysburg, for example, is clearly a victory for the Union forces for two reasons:

First, the Confederates retreated back to Virginia after the battle, leaving the Union in possession of the field;

Second, the Confederate invasion of the North was stopped, and its objectives were not attained.

If, however, one asserts that the objective of General Meade's army was (or should have been) the destruction of General Lee's army, then the Union Army cannot be said to be the clear winner at Gettyburg. Rather, one might say, both sides were frustrated in their objectives.

Whether the United States interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq were successful depends, therefore, upon one's view of what the American government intended to accomplish in those conflicts, as well as upon what has actually been attained.

Reading List: April 2011

During this month I continued to read the New International Version, and the New King James Version, of the Bible.

Captain Flandry, by Poul Anderson, compiled by Hank Davis.
Excel Dashboards & Reports, by Michael Alexander and John Walkenbach
The Rembrandt Affair, by Daniel Silva
Obama's Wars, by Bob Woodward
Wicked Prey, by John Sandford
The Baburnama
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
The World in 2011, by The Economist

The thing that struck me about Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars, was the degree to which the military refused to be pinned down with regard to either objectives or requirements. They kept putting themselves in a position so that they could say later on, as they now do, that they didn't get what they asked for. At one point, the President drafted up a memorandum of understanding and made everyone sign it.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Reading List: March 2011

In the month of March, 2011, I was reading the following books. I might note that I started seven books during the month, and I finished six.

I was reading my two Bibles in parallel, according to a one-year reading plan. In March I finished Deuteronomy; I read Joshua, Judges, and Ruth; and I started 1 Samuel.

Beginning in Archaeology, by Kathleen M. Kenyon
The Night Crew, by John Sandford
Chosen Prey, by John Sandford
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
The View of Castle Rock, by Alice Munro
Farmville for Dummies, by Angela Morales and Kyle Orland
That Old Cape Magic, by Richard Russo
Excel Dashboards & Reports, by Michael Alexander and John Walkenbach
Captain Flandry, by Poul Anderson, compiled by Hank Davis
The Baburnama, translated by Wheeler M. Thackston
The Rembrandt Affair, by Daniel Silva
The World in 2011, by The Economist

Yes, there is a Dummies book for Farmville players. And, by implication, I am a Farmville player.

Reading List: February 2011

The Holy Bible, New International Version
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
Dark Voyage, by Alan Furst
The Koran for Dummies, by Sohaib Sultan
Storm Prey, by John Sandford
Beginning in Archaeology, by Kathleen M. Kenyon
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
Young Flandry, by Poul Anderson. Compiled by Hank Davis.
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
The View from Castle Rock, by Alice Munro
The Night Crew, by John Sandford

There is some good stuff in this group. Alice Munro is one of the best short-story writers around, and this collection contains some prime stuff. Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker prize for Wolf Hall, an historical novel set in the reign of King Henry VIII. Beginning in Archaeology is a classic, aimed at those who want to pursue a career in archaeology, even if it might be an amateur career.

Reading List: January 2011

In January, 2011, I was reading the following books:

The Holy Bible, New International Version
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
The Vampire Archives, edited by Otto Penzler
The Legions of Fire, by David Drake
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
The Koran for Dummies, by Sohaib Sultan
In the Stormy Red Sky, by David Drake
Dark Voyage, by Alan Furst
Storm Prey, by John Sandford

I note that my so-called Current Reading list includes some books I had finished before December 31, 2010. I will be deleting those books from the list today.

Three of the books listed above were completed in January, 2011, and they will not stay on the Current Reading list for very long. Only until the next update, based on my notes for February, 2011.

For those of you who know my skeptical bent, it may seem odd that I was reading four books centered on religion. In 2011, instead of The NIV Study Bible I'd been reading since 2007, I read two copies of the Bible, one in the New International Version transalation, and one in what is called the New King James Version. The Koran for Dummies is the worst-written Dummies book I've ever read, but it contains a lot of good information on how Muslims read, interpret, and use the Koran. While religion is a key theme in The Poisonwood Bible, it is more about the plight of Americans thrust into strange circumstances in the Third World, than about religious belief per se.