"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Chuchill’s Folly (How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq) (Christopher Catherwood, 2004)

Probably to make the book more salable, author tries to pin Iraq situation on Churchill; not that interesting as it just quotes a bunch of letters. Overall background discussion of this part of the world was useful.


  • Sunni = 80+% of Muslims worldwide.
  • Shiites = Iran, Iraq, Azaerbaijani. (Fatimids in Egypt were Shiite.)
  • Kurds tend to be Sunni, ethnically close to Iranian.
  • Arab-centered in Baghdad in 800ish? (previously in Damascus). Had been stopped by Charles Martel at Tours in 732.
  • Mongols take Baghdad in 1258; convert to Islam; center the caliph in Constantinople (Ottoman Turks) after 1453. Taking territory in Africa, Balkans, Iran. Vienna attacks fail in 1529 and 1689; Ottoman Empire weakening thereafter.
  • “Turkification” starts around 1900; WWI intervenes.
Britain sponsors kings in Iraq not thought to be legitimate; Sunnis empowered; fail to create Kurdistan (Kurds split among Turkey, Iraq, etc.)

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Stonehenge (Bernard Cornwell, 2001)

Summary below. I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit even though it's not in my normal reading zones. It did drive imagination as to what might have been going on with Stonehenge.

Another Cornwell novel, also well researched (as far as I know), also via audio book while commuting.

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"He imaginatively unlocks the mystery of Stonehenge's creation in 2000 B.C., at the beginning of Britain's Bronze Age. Lengar, the eldest, murders his own father to become the chief of his tribe. Camaban, a sorcerer ruthlessly determined to have a massive stone temple. The youngest, Saban, will ultimately construct the temple, but not until he has endured torture, slavery and betrayal. The story covers nearly 20 years as the brothers and the people of Ratharryn struggle to survive as a tribe. It is Camaban's idea to build Stonehenge as a temple to create balance between the moon god and the sun god, to eliminate winter and force a change in the circle of life. Cornwell's detailed descriptions of how Stonehenge was constructed utilizing primitive engineering are the real strength of this book."

Monday, August 01, 2005

For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway, 1940)

My favorite of the Hemingway novels.

Robert Jordan (an American fighting on the side of the Republic) is assigned to blow up a bridge in the Spanish Civil War (covered in detail in this book). He works with local partisans. Pilar (steady older woman) is married to Pablo (unsteady partisan leader). Jordan falls in love with Maria. Interesting story line about Jordan's family history.

Hemingway was in Spain for much of the civil war and elements of the book supposedly are based on incidents he observed or heard about.

Like A Farewell to Arms, characters are disillusioned about war and war leadership.