ON BOOKS

I have been listening to audio books and find that a lot easier than reading as I can do other things while listening.  Most of the classics are available free from Libravox (libravox.org).  Many are available, also free, from the Google Play Store.  I use the Nook HD+ with a 64gb micro SD card and can load books via the charging/USB cable but find it much better to remove the memory card and plug that directly into the computer.  I am surprised at the quality of the books available.  I was most impressed by "The Sea Wolf" by Jack London but have also enjoyed "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (Harriet Beecher Stowe) and "Twelve Years a Slave" (Solomon Northup).  I also check out audio books from the library and have listened to Bill O'Reilly's KILLING series, Mark Levin's "Ameritopia" and especially enjoyed "Christmas Carol" read by Patrick Stewart.  He puts his actor's skills to work and makes the familiar story enjoyable for the umpteenth time. Lynn Chaney's book about James Madison "A Life Reconsidered" was excellent as well as "A Time To Try Men's Souls" by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen.  History is a favorite subject and I never get tired of reading or listening to those books. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" was very good and is available at the Google Play Store.

I also read printed books and have, in the last two months finished "Men in Black" and "The Liberty Amendments" by Mark Levin, "Guardian of the Republic" by Allen West and the best of all "Redemption - the Last Battle of the Civil War" which I have in both printed and audio format.  The latter is especially interesting because it has a link to Volusia County.  Adlebert Ames, the last surviving General from either side of the Civil War and reconstruction governor of Mississippi appointed by Lincoln,  lived at Ormond Beach.

Sometimes something lighter is fun.  Right now my wife and I are listening to "Fifty Shades of Grey"!  This book would have been banned in Boston and burned in most communities a short while ago.  It is the most explicitly sexual book I've read since "Fanny Hill".  "Peyton Place" and "Lolita" are tame by comparison.

Books, whether audio or written, are one of the joys of life.  I owe it all to my 8th grade teacher who used to read to us for 30 minutes every day from the Hardy Boys series.  I couldn't wait to hear the next session and started going to the library to find other books like that.  When I went in the Navy I started Mickey Spillane novels but soon decided that, as much as I enjoyed them I should read a better grade of material in an attempt to improve my poor education.  In about 1960, while serving at the Naval Radio Station at Cheltenham, Maryland I landed an evening job selling "The Great Books of the Western World" published by Britannica.  The first thing I wanted to know after the introduction to this wonderful set of 53 volumes, was "How can I get a set of these books?"

"The Great Books of the Western World" was put together at the University of Chicago by Mortimer J. Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins.  Together they represent a classical liberal arts education.  The set begins with the Bible (not supplied, everyone has one.) and includes the Iliad, the Odyssey, Plato, Aristotle, The Greek classics, Shakespeare, Thomas Aquinas and all of the important books up through the last volume which is "Moby Dick".  The set represents what Britannica called "The great conversation."  Each author is assumed to have read the previous authors and use their writings to develop their own ideas.  The really amazing part of the collection is the "Syntopican" or "Synthesis of Topics Contained" which is an index of ideas.  You could follow the idea of love or hate or any other subject by consulting the Syntopican and reading the references in order from volume one through volume  fifty three.

I quickly learned that I was not a very good book salesman.  Britannica insisted that we go through a rigmarole that I considered dishonest and it became harder and harder for me to make a great show of accepting a $10 down payment then dumping on the person who had just bought the books.  When I accepted the down payment I was about half way through the presentation.  I told the boss that it was a great set of books and we should just sell them with a straight forward presentation.  He said that if I attempted that he would fire me on the spot. After a while I didn't think the emotional strain was worth it so I quit but was happy to pay for the set of books which I still have today. And have recently been rereading the Federalist Papers.  The pages are a little brown now but I won't part with the set and will pass it on to my daughter and grand daughters and hope they will come to love it as I do.

I just checked and the set is available on Amazon for around $50 or, for a collectors set $475.  The shipping would probably add a lot to that.