July 17 - Reading kick

I'm still in training at the call centre. Just finished the fifth week and have one more to go.

On the first day, I realized there's a lot of down time in class. When we're not following lessons on the projector, doing exercises on our computers, or doing tests, we're just sitting around, waiting for our trainer to start something new - which is half the time.

Since it could get really boring, I figured I might as well try to be productive, so I started reading every day.

This gave me the opportunity to read books I had planned on reading for some time, since I haven't read that much in the past couple years.

Here are some of the books I read so far:

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden

I love and own the movie that was based on this. I've always wanted more details on the mission and the soldiers' experiences, so I picked this up on my first lunch break.
It proved to be more detailed than I anticipated, providing background on the UN intervention in Somalia; telling the Somalian perspective through individuals who saw or fought the U.S. soldiers; and detailed accounts of the pilots and soldiers' individual experiences.

The film was pretty faithful to the book. I always thought that, in film, the Somalians' poor accuracy was exaggerated, but the book had Somalians admitting the lack of firearms training within the militia. A noticeable omission from the film was how, after a while, some U.S. soldiers would shoot indiscriminately into crowds - hitting women and children - or at men not posing a major threat. It's somewhat understandable, as some soldiers saw instances of men using women as human shields.

The inclusion of the Delta Force perspective was neat, revealing a bit on how they operate.
Overall, it's a great book on modern warfare.

We Were Soldiers Once...And Young by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway

I've always been interested in the experiences of individual soldiers in combat, hence these first two choices. This book was also very detailed in providing tactical and individual details of the Battle of Ia Drang, the first major engagement between the U.S. and North Vietnamese forces.

Again, my lack of believability on certain depictions in the film was thwarted by the book. I thought Mel Gibson's character's claims to "bring everyone back" dead or alive was overly acted and just phony. But the real Hal Moore did make that promise and did risk his life on an occasions or two to recover a body.

A major difference between the mediums was the ending of the film, where the U.S. soldiers make a final charge and thus "win" the battle. In reality, the battalion withdrew by helicopter while another battalion took their positions. This second battalion actually fought a harder battle and suffered more casualties when it attempted to withdraw on foot. This was half the book, but not included in the film. A very good read.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I finished the previous book one morning and needed another book to read, so I picked this one up on my lunch break. It's set in the future where most of the world has been wiped out. It's constantly cloudy, grey; and raining or snowing. There are no animals and vegetation is dying, so a man and his son scavenge what they can, living day-to-day, avoiding marauder and thieves. It's a sad bleak novel but finds heart in the father and son relationship. I recently discovered a movie based on this book is coming out this fall. I shall be going.

Brave New World by Aldonus Huxley

Been meaning to read this classic for a while. It's often compared to George Orwell's 1984 about a dystopian future world. It's not as depressing, however. Basically, in the future, humans are bred in tubes and conditioned to be happy. Ideas of parents, friends are thought of as absurd, and promiscuity is encouraged. Their world is juxtaposed with ours when a literate "savage" from a "reserve" is brought in their society for study.
One reason I wanted to read this was because one of my favourite '90s action movies, Demolition Man, takes many ideas from the book, haha.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

A novel about a Colombian family that founds a town, and the five generations that follow.
This book is beautiful in its style and prose. The story has some magical qualities to it, along with humour and sadness.

It can get confusing at times, since characters are given names after characters from previous generations, but this serves as symbolism, since the characters have personalities similar to their namesake.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading, regardless of genre.

Yesterday, I started Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. It's about an elderly pastor who is dying of a heart condition, and the book contains letters to his 7-year-old son. He reflects on his past, his father, and his grandfather, who was in the Civil War, and incidents from his life that shaped him. I'm about halfway and it's interesting. Drags on a bit at times, but there's a lot of soul and reflection in it.

I'm going to read Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez next. The director (Sin City, From Dusk Til Dawn, Desperado) writes about how he directed his first feature film (El Mariachi, which garnered awards and a pass into Hollywood directing) on a budget of $7,000 and with no crew.

I'm taking film production in college this fall, so I feel it will give me ideas on independent film making. I've never seen El Mariachi so I plan on seeing it, before reading this book.

Anyway, that's what I've been reading. I enjoyed these books and hope to continue reading regularly. They give me a lot of ideas for my own stories.

Until next time, take care.