Contemplative Thought # 7

"There's one good thing about old-age. It usually don't last long." - Cormac McCarthy

Red Sky, Blue Bridge

Somewhat Apocalyptic Eh???

An Average Man's Book Review - Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

My grandfather, a tailor who lived in Brooklyn, was a Jack London fan and loved to read adventure books sitting by his old reading lamp in his apartment in Flatbush. Being rather a couch potato myself, I nevertheless love reading adventure genre books. I believe that my Jack London, is the author Jon Krakauer. I've read all his books and eagerly await any new ones he's written. Into Thin Air, which is Krakauer's account of a disastrous ascent up Mt. Everest was my first Krakauer read followed by Eiger Dreams, an  accounting of people who are driven to do what most of us wouldn't dare doing. Krakauer makes us wonder whether these people are crazy or are they experiencing life at it's very fullest. After all, we're only here once. Might as well go for it. I found Under The Banner Of Heaven a fascinating story of violence, lust and everything that is wrong with religion gone amok. Into The Wild is the book I recently finished. It's the story about a young man, Chris McCandless, a recent Honors graduate of Emory University, who withdraws his $25,000 life savings, donates it to charity and leaves his comfortable middle class existence for a life on the road. This book is more of a study of a young man who rejects it all and decides to just vanish "Into The Wild". It's a harrowing tale but I was totally absorbed by it. The rights to this book were recently purchased by Sean Penn who was as smitten with it as I was, and has recently made it into a movie. Let me know what you think. -Miles

An Average Man's Book Review- No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Many times reading an excellent book will make me want to see the movie. Other times, seeing the movie makes me want to read the book. In this case, I didn't see the movie, but when I heard that the Coen brothers made a movie called, No Country For Old Men, my interest was peaked. You see, the Coen's have been responsible for some really great pictures that have included Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski among others. Author Cormac McCarthy is no slouch himself having written the Pulitzer Prize winner, The Road. The first sentence of No Country For Old Men begins, "I sent one boy to the gaschamber at Huntsville." from that point on, I was seriously hooked and couldn't put the book down! The pacing is faster than you have the ability to turn the page. If you crave action in a novel with loads of interesting characters, and incredible descriptive settings, you will really love this book. I'll tell you something else without divulging too much. The book doesn't end the way I thought it would, but after thinking about it, I think it ended just about right. Let me know what you think and what you recommend. (I think I'll run out to see the movie today!) -Miles

An Average Man's Book Review - A Death In Belmont by Sebastian Junger

Junger is quite an accomplished author. He authored the books, Fire a collection of journalistic essays, and is probably best known for his work entitled, The Perfect Storm which you may recall was made into a major motion picture. If you enjoy reading non-fiction crime books, you will  enjoy Junger's book A Death In Belmont. This book deals with the sensational murders that took place in 1962 - 1963 and which were attributed to Albert DeSalvo, aka The Boston Strangler. Without divulging too much of the book, it features a very weird connection between DeSalvo and Junger when the author was a mere infant. It also features another man by the name of Roy Smith, a black ex-con, who was convicted of one of the murders and may be innocent due to the frenzy caused by the murder spree, and race relations that existed at that time in the United States. Junger's book is very well written, easy to read and extremely interesting if you like this kind of book. If you've read it, please comment and let me know what you thought of it. If you've read something that you can recommend, please do!                                                         Regards and good reading - Miles