Books and Ideas (05)

Books and Ideas (05)

I read for ideas. What follows is my attempt to summarize the main ideas of books I have read.

From time to Time: A Novel. Jack Finney.
If we could travel back in time, could and should we try to change future events by manipulating circumstances in the past?

Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany in world War II. Thomas Childers.
Vivid re-creation of the experience of training for and flying a B-24 in the last days over Germany in WWII. You are there. The story is pieced together from the letters home, documents from the government and interviews with German citizens who were present when the plane crashed.

F Scott Fitzgerald on Writing. Ed. Larry W. Phillips.
Series of short quotes on the act of writing. Example: “The desire for glory has to be matched by the endurance of the monotony needed to acquire it.”

The Future of the Novel: Essays on the Art of Fiction. Henry James.
In his inimitable style [read ‘convoluted sentences'], James writes about the authors of his time, Dickens, George Eliot, Zola, Balzac, Flaubert, deMaupassant, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Trollope, HG Wells, Arnold Bennett and Joseph Conrad. Example of his ideas: “The only purpose of the novel is to reflect life. The good novel should give the reader a sense of experience. Two types of novels are those that have a pattern and a plan and lead to a unity of impression and those that are merely a series of episodes. Character is the essence of the novel. As long as there are people there will be mirrors and novels.”

Future Shock. Alvin Toffler.
People are overwhelmed by change. Acceleration of change. Too much change in too short a time.

The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure and effects of National Socialism. Karl Dietrich Bracher.
Gives the complicated reasons for Hitler’s rise and fall. Concludes that “the German dictatorship has failed, but German democracy has not yet been secured.”

Giants in the Earth. O.E. Rolvaag.
Novel. The effects on the American pioneers’ character of the desolate, endless, malevolent landscapes on which they lived and worked. Gives the reader an understanding of the physical and emotional difficulties encountered by the pioneers.

Good Advice on Writing: Writers Past and Present on How to Write Well. William Safire and Leonard Safir.
Includes this advice: Four questions to ask before writing. What specific point do I want to make? Is it worth making? For whom am I writing? How can I best convey my point to my readers?

The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity. Roy Porter.
A history of medicine from the clearly defined convictions of the Hippocratic oath to the muddy ethical dilemmas of modern-day medicine.

The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Novel. Gatsby’s attempt to re-live his idealized view of his past experience with Daisy. Symbolizes the illusion of the American dream: work hard, achieve success, make money, win the pretty girl and die a failure.