We open a new category today, Books and Literature.

Anyone that knows us knows how passionate we are about reading. Books are scattered everywhere all over the house, my outside kitchen and office, in the cars, trunks, floor, kitchen table- we have a hard time being away from them even for a few minutes.  There are bookshelves floor to ceiling in the book room, smaller ones next to our bed, in the kids rooms. It’s a real love affair.

Leslie writes down each book she reads, when she read it, how she liked it. I do no such thing, but as I advance onward towards my graduate work, I may pick up that habit. For one, you can take notes on it. For two, you can always remember that you read it. Not a bad idea at all.

You can rest assured that if we recommend a book here, we feel it’s superb. Life is short- I’m not sure I have enough time to read all the good ones, much less the trash. We’ve noticed that the more you read, the more you get the feel of a book, the better able you are in picking good books, just from their cover and reviews. Maybe you are reselecting the same intrinsic themes over and over, but  people that like a certain book tend to like the same group of books, the same writing styles, the same flow, and we seem to be drawn towards each other and our books.

So today I have selected the book Man on Fire by A.J. Quinnell.

Most of us have seen the movie, with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning, but I always wondered if there was more to this story. Was it based on someone real? Was it a book first? It’s the kind of thing I tend to get sidetracked on, much to everyone’s dismay.

Well, here’s the gist of it. Yes it was a book first, published around 1980. Yes it was a movie after that, with Scott Glenn as the title character,  sometime after that. Then another movie with Denzel.  No it doesn’t seem to be true, and no one can ask Mr. Quinnell because that’s a pseudonym for Goddess knows whom.

However, it’s all moot because it is one fine read. Without giving too much away, it follows a different path than the movie, has much more background on the events and people, all highly enjoyable. Well woth your time. Especially good is the leadup to his actions, the author is in no hurry.

Note that in the beginning of the  book, it has in the  an opening poem called “The Para’s Prayer”. Very inspirational, Again, I got completely hung up on finding out what the hell this was, and tracked it down. It is short for “The Paratrooper’s Prayer”, something well known in the French Foreign Legion, and is legend amongst the French Paratroopers. A fascinating bit of trivia. Here’s the link.

http://www.iwvpa.net/zirnheldala/index.php

You can buy this book for a penny on Amazon. Don’t pass it up.

That’s it for today. Go do good somewhere.