Breaking rank. Already.

I know yesterday I said that I would stick to this one theme until it was complete. But, aha, I’m not going to.

Today I watched the excellent documentary ‘Jesus Camp’. It didn’t shock me or make me that angry (except when some stupid mother told her kid that a 0.8 degrees centigrade increase in global temperatures was “nothing at all”). Cos I was expecting all that messed up Christian stuff. One half of the world's most powerful nation considers this sort of stuff normal.

But, it did inspire me to take a break from my theme. Something totally different and refreshing, just to get me thinking again and provide some perspective on the topic when I return to it.

That book is going to be my copy of “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins. It is one of the books that helped make his name as a real evolutionary scientist before he (quite brilliantly) poked a giant stick in the wasps nest of Christianity that was “The God Delusion”.

I’m looking forward to it.

Just remember – “Who’s in the house?”

“JC is in the house”

21st century conflict

Recently I have tried to focus my reading on certain areas. Rather than my previous scatter attacks at the world of literature where I would jump from sci-fi one week to economics the next and then on to biography thereafter I have tried to read in depth around a certain subject.

The last few months have been taken up with reading about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are hundreds of books written about this issue and I have been avoiding them thinking it rather un-cool to firstly read books that everyone was getting for Christmas and secondly thinking that it was far too soon for any accurate or insightful analytical works to be written a subject that was in such a state of flux. However a series of excellent documentaries about British troops in Afghanistan got me to reading ‘3 Para’ by Patrick Bishop and then I just couldn’t help myself in going futher.

I was just today keeping track of what I had and hadn’t read as I browsed audible.co.uk, looking for something worthy of my monthly subscription credit when I complied the list you see below. The purpose of the list was actually to see how far I had to go before I could break out of this cycle and start reading about something else. As you can see I still have quite a way to go.

From there I got the idea of writing a paragraph or two about each book, just so in the future I can read through them to jog my memory about what I learnt about the conflicts in each one. Then what with me being unemployed and having little else better to do I thought it might be neat to write a short mini essay of around 1000 words at the end of this mini research topic just to summarise what I found and any changes in my opinions. This is something I know I might happily be able to con a few close friends into reading just to stimulate some fierce argument. Not that we require any stimulant to do that. I thought about writing a short blog entry about this but thought it was far too sad to actually write up. Not many people read my blog and I am painfully aware that the few females that ever did have long given up on it, no longer interested in the self righteous and arrogant opinions of an over grown sixth former.

But then of course! I have the other blog I thought to myself! The one that no one ever used to read because it was primarily all about my school work. That would be the perfect host for this strange experiment. And so here it is!

Below is a list of the books and audio books I have read/listened too in recent months and those that I have purchased or borrowed from the library and lie in wait to do be read. In upcoming weeks I will write a short paragraph or two about each book, going in the order in which I read them, which the list is already in.

So, hope some of this is interesting to you.

Regards,

Benjamin Nakizo


Books I have read regarding Afghanistan and Iraq are:

3 Para, Patrick Bishop
Rules of engagement, Tim Collins
Armed Action, James Newton
Making a killing, James Ashcroft
The bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad
Occupational Hazards, Rory Stewart

Books I have listened to regarding Afghanistan and Iraq:

Night Draws Near, Anthony Shadid
American Soldier, General Tommy Franks
Eight Lives Down, Chris Hunter
Taliban, Ahmed Rashid


Books I have yet to read:
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Swords and Ploughshares, Paddy Ashdown
My Year in Iraq, Paul Bremer
The places in between, Rory Stewart
A thousand splendid sons, Khaled Hosseini
On the road to Kanadhar, Jason Burke
Soldier, Mike Jackson

Audio books I should purchase:
The wars against Saddam, John Simpson à6.99 from audible



I should resist adding any further books to this list.