Paul

Yes. No. Yes, my mother was born in Helsinki,but emigrated to the US as an infant with her mother circa 1908. I can't imagine a north Atlantic crossing with an infant in those days, yet many did it in droves. No, I've never been to any part of Europe -- American through and through -- but maybe some day it will happen. Chances not great, but never say never. And definitely Finland when it happens. Thanks for asking.

Curious G, I think you raise a fascinating question, and one very well worth thinking about, both i) in general and ii) also using as a specific example the possible connection of On Tne Beach and the anti-nuclear movement. In a very general sense, I have often wondered how one can characterize "the temper of the times." People who have lived through the times often put labels on them, such as the Beat Generation, The Silent Generation, The Angry Young Men, The Hippie Generation, the Baby Boomers, and so on. And these terms gain a certain currency as they are first announced in the media and then adopted by the media for general use. I am one of the so called Silent Generation and have often wondered about myself and why someone who never knew me put me there. So I have always been a bit skeptical of identifying so-called trends in larger society and supposing they represent the attitudes of individuals in the society at the time. I think your mention of On The Beach and the anti-nuclear movement is a good way to isolate and focus on one strand of intellectual thought in a much larger society which can contain a much broader range of conflicting views, both agreeing and opposed, at the same time. From my own memory: I can mention: i) an arms race in which having a larger number of missiles and warheads was thought to be a good thing; ii) an alleged "missile gap" which was used as a key part of a campaign to unseat a previously respected President; iii) a Cuban Missile Crisis which scared the bejeezus out of everybody. And someplace, in the middle of all of that real saber-rattling and official belief in atomic and nuclear superiority, On the Beach was published, and (maybe) an anti-nuclear faction was beginning to grow. Chicken and egg? I'm not sure how the intellectual realization spread, but I think the realization of Nuclear Winter marked a real turning point against hawkish thinking. PS: One should never forget that an esteemed and intelligent a man as Dr. Albert Einstein himself, was strongly in favor of building "the bomb." So there was a time when it definitely seemed to be a good thing to those who knew. These are my initial reactions and I will be very interested in any further discussion of how we got to where we are.

Short answer: I don't. I count them as reference books and someplace I read that the definition of a reference book is a book not designed to be read, but to be used to find specific information as the need arises. Anyway, 1001 books is way too long a list; that's a list for young people, young young people. I can do maybe 50 books a year, and anyone can do the arithmetic down to 20 years. So I have edited the list down to about 300 books by allowing only one book per author, and eliminating all the Dickens, , and any author or book I had never heard of, and using other esoteric and whimsical criteria. But most of my reading is still off-list, so you get the point. I'll never get around to reading many from either list. But to answer your specific question -- how would I read the 1001 book itself? I would, and do, turn the pages, look at the pretty pictures, skim for whatever a caption might say and keep going, seeing if any book might from time to time leap out at me to be read. I do read long novels -- that's different! --- word by word, page by page when I am in the mood for climbing Mount Everest, and am glad when I have accomplished the feat. But, more and more, I think carefully before starting. PS Currently part-way through Miss Macintosh, My Darling. /Taking a break to get my second wind./

Maybe the book hasn't yet been read in all the countries of the world who are making mischief; but I think the bigger ones have taken the message and are doing their best to keep the lid on it. Separately, we just watched the Ava Gradner/Gregory Peck/Fred Astaire film. Wonderful performances all around and a credit to the book. Still a weeper.

Just for the record, and for context, On the Beach was a popular book published early in the possibility and contemplation of atomic war, back when it was thought that such a war could be fought (and won).. It is bracketed between major technical works discussing the details of atomic and thermonuclear wars. More recently, the SALT Treaties and thoughts of nuclear winter have moved forward into popular consciousness and gradual disarmament seems to reflect thinking that such weapons can never be used. The timeline of major works is listed here. Happy browsing for anyone who is interested. 1. The Effects of Atomic Weapons by Samuel Glasstone and J.O. Hirschfelder (1950) 2. On the Beach by Nevil Shute (1957) 3. On Thermonuclear War by Herman Kahn (1960) 4. SALT Treaty (1979) See Wikipedia for complicated history. 5. Alexandrov, V. V. and G. I. Stenchikov (1983): "On the modeling of the climatic consequences of the nuclear war" The Proceeding of Appl. Mathematics, 21 p., The Computing Center of the AS USSR, Moscow. 6. "Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions". R. P. Turco, O. B. Toon, T. P. Ackerman, J. B. Pollack, and Carl Sagan (23 December 1983). "Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions". Science 222 (4630): 1283–92. 7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter

I have only just finished reading the book and am still feeling its enormous emotional impact. I have finally read through the discussion and can't really add much to what has already been said. But I did have one immediate reaction when I closed the cover. It seemed to me the book was finally about love. Love by people for others or for other important things of their life. As each person faced their final moment they embraced who and/or what they loved, to the full extent they could, and some more than others but, still, love. Which, by free association, brought to mind the words of St. Paul: "So finally there are these three things, faith, hope and love [or "charity" in the KJV] And the greatest of these is love." An insight from 2,000 years ago, or more, and captured again powerfully by Nevil Shute. All three are reflected in the book, it seems to me, and in the order Paul suggested.

My sincerest apologies, Kylie and Athena, for being such a wet blanket on this one. It is apparently a great favorite everywhere I look. On another forum, it is the subject of overwhelming gushing praise, so I am clearly the one who is out of step. That being the case, the less said by me the better. Nobody enjoys a grouch. I'll try to pick a better one next time.

Finally finished If On a Winter's NIght a Traveler. It took all of March and was a slog all the way. Thanks Athena for the encouragement..

Kylie, Julie, Athena, Thank you all so much for having me in mind. You stiffen my resolve to reach the finish line, what with so many people now watching. :D Curious Georgette, Your method sounds exactly like my magpie approach. If it looks interesting, I want it. But there comes a time when one has to either fish or cut bait, and my challenge was to finally tackle those books I have always heard about -- for maybe, oh, twenty years or more, maybe 30 or 40 -- but never got around to. So this is finally a grit-my-teeth-and-read-it list. On the other hand, if you look carefully -- which I'm not asking -- you'll see that I have gritted my teeth for about two books and read about 18 others for candy. But one day, hopefully this year, I shall indeed complete my challenge and finally get rid of some long-term nags. That goal is finally near enough to think about reaching. Very best to all, Paul

Athena, maybe I'm breaking through. 85 pages and 3 days to go. Should be able to do that and put one marker up for March. Thanks for the encouragement Frankie, I'm going to give Henry James another try sometime, even though Washington Square left me a little cool. But his whole series? Not yet, that will have to wait for Faulkner first, if I even do all of his. Finnish band ? Hurricanes? Not a foggiest, but definitely interesting because my mother was from Helsinki.

Hi Kylie, I wouldn't be so sure that I'll get to Little Big first. So far, in March I haven't completed one book. First time for that negative accomplishment in many a year. Dunno why. But I am going to push to finish If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, to make it one, anyway, for March. Am adding Taylor Caldwell's bio of Cicero, A Pillar of Iron, to my Challenge list and am seriously thinking of reading it next. Kate will be so happy. Might sample the first chapter of Little, Big, for a taste of it, but promise not to get caught.

Finally encountered a couple of interesting chapters in Winter's Night (chapters 7 and 8) It's about time! I'm on the downhill slope now and should have it done soon, for my single solitary book read in March Shall definitely, and I say definitely, get around to Pillar of Iron this year and your man Cicero. Don't know a thing about him so far

Oh, mah pontalba , , ,

In between parades we get some reading done. That's just a segue into some TBR talk. Somewhere along the line, my Decades Challenge slowed down -- again. But I did make some progress earlier. I've been plodding through If On A Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino. For the second time! To brush up for discussion elsewhere. Pontalba thinks I'm crazy. The first time it was enjoyable enough, as I skimmed over the deliberately scattered and jumpy multiple stories. This time I decided to try to get to the root of the narrative architecture, keep track of details, and find out what Calvino was driving at in writing it. So far I haven't collected the Golden Bowl of Understanding, not having finished it yet, but my hopes are waning. Anyway, it goes on the TBR and soon-to-be-finished list. And two others have also moved from Pontalba's stack to my stack: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and The Sound and the Fury. For some reason, I am only creeping along this year, but they'll get done. And that's it for now.

Welcome Georgette! What a welcome surprise to see you here! I would recognize you anywhere by your list(s). Have only skimmed through, but your Dale Carnegie thoughts caught my eye. Excellent summary I would say. I am a Dale Carnegie Instructor (now retired) and have seen first-hand how effective the Course can be in changing people's lives. It is amazing the difference that even simple "people skills" can make for a person's happiness/career. Welcome aboard Paul

Regarding Lolita's culpability, one has to read very carefully. There is an early-on paragraph where one can definitely read of Lolita stoking Humbert's fire, to use a phrase. She was still slightly naïve, even though knowledgeable and no longer a virgin at that point, and may have thought she was just playfully flirting. However, the reaction she did get is probably more than most readers would have expected to read about, if they noticed Nabokov's phrasing of the event at all.

Ooh! That smiley gives me goosebumps.

Oh, Wow, Pontalba! That review is 5 stars in itself. Just blew me away! /whoosh/

Hi Little Pixie, Wow! A practical application in finding where the bodega cats live? Yay! I hope my rather coarse grained description helps a little. Otherwise, an online map should pinpoint things. Nothing is secret anymore .

Hi Kylie, Glad you asked. In the song it's a pun. The Battery is the southernmost tip of Manhattan Island. It was the area of first settlement (by the Dutch), and a fort was erected there with a battery of large cannons pointed out toward the harbor to protect the settlement from sea attack.

LOL Julie, That's new to me; I missed it (showing my age). My remembrance is Sinatra: "New York, New York, It's a wonderful town! The Bronx is up, and the Battery's down. They ride around in a hole in the ground. New York, New York, It's a wonderful town!" No place like it! Except perhaps in the rest of the world: London, Paris, Hong Kong and so on, for all the places I'd love to see.

The Intercept by Dick Wolf An excellent police procedural "ripped from the headlines," as they say of Dick Wolf's other excellent work, the Law and Order TV series. This is a modern up-to-the-minute story of trying to catch a terrorist loose among the millions of people in New York City,, complete with all-pervasive surveillance technologies and names of living people. Wolf has not left his pen at home in shifting from TV episodes to a full-length novel. If his episodes are excellent, novel-length is even better. Five stars and strongly recommended. This is headed toward my Best of 2014, already. Ah-woooo.

Hi Little Pixie, Google has nice maps for the names and locations of Manhattan's neighborhoods if you search for "areas of Manhattan." For kinds of people, it is more of a hodge podge as areas are continually being gentrified. But here is my very rough breakdown. Upper East Side is where the money lives. Think of the late Mrs Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Or Donald Trump. Or the people who have multiple homes around the world. And some of the name celebrities one sees day-in day-out on TV. Lower East Side is the original immigrant area where many new arrivals with very limited means found their first densely packed living quarters. The avenue named The Bowery was originally synonymous with the derelict, street population, but has come up in the world in recent years. The West Side is home to the broad middle class. Think of shows by Seinfeld, movies by Woody Allen, Law and Order, and maybe Sex and the City for its population. Zabar's is its famous delicatessen. Greenwich Village, lower down on the west side, is the original Bohemian area, and once was an original village separate from the much smaller Manhattan to its south, back in colonial and early days, with narrow crooked streets and quaint vistas to this day. The north of Manhattan has Harlem and Spanish Harlem with large black and Hispanic populations. Times Square is in the Theatre District Macy's is in the Garment District The World Trade Center is down in the financial District, just off the river. And West of Times Square, along the river, is Hell's Kitchen, an originally transient and rowdy community of sailors living along the docks, but now (alas) renamed Chelsea to help real-estate values among the high-rises. /erk/ Couldn't resist. History perishes. Hope this helps. Any specific questions? Glad to answer.

Well, Julie, reading Little Big is no place in sight yet. But quick glance looks like pure fantasy. However, I am making some progress on the oldest decades on my list:, reprinted here just to keep from having to back to my first post to update each time. But slow going still. 1800 Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust (1800) Pt I, tr Yuan Shi. Completed 1810 Walter Scott - Waverly (1814) 1820 Wolfgang von Goethe - Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (1821). In progress. 1830 Stendahl - The Red and the Black (1830) 1840 Mikhail Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time (1840) - Nabokov translation, In progress. 1850 Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (1857) - Completed

Hi Athena, I really did enjoy reading the summary. The exposition of the plot was very clear and seemed complete with respect to significant detail. The author clearly knows how to write detailed summaries. But the Analysis section was a revelation to me. The author analyzed each chapter with respect to plot and dialogue structure to show, for example, the gradual maturation of Finch's children's attitudes toward tolerance and understanding of other people. I'm sure I would have missed the details in just reading along. So the summary provided more than just the book alone, something that very pleasantly surprised me. But, how many last year? Well, it was a good year for reading, so I read 68 books. Usually my number is 50 or below, once as low as about 35. Anyway, 68 is not astounding when compared to many others here, even if I myself enjoy having reached that new height. I blame my slow start on my new Kindle Fire, which I spend endless time playing around with, even though I could in principle be using it for reading.