Break The Spine.

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Tawmis
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Re: Break The Spine.

Post by Tawmis »

Collector wrote:Odin wants to come with you.
Heh. I doubt if he'd enjoy a cruise boat. :) Though there's plans of swimming and beaches, which he would probably love.

But he will be in good hands with the mother in law (who freaking spoon feeds him sometimes!)
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Re: Break The Spine.

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I bought A.F.Th van der Heijden's book Tonio, for my sister, who has enjoyed many books by the author. Read the first chapter in the store and am trying to finish it before St Nicholas - can't help it.
Tonio is a biographical book about the author's only son, who died in a traffic accident. The book has won many prizes and sold many copies. One traffic violator was ordered by the judge to read it.
The book's heartbreaking. :cry:
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Re: Break The Spine.

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It sounds heartbreaking. :( I hope you can finish it before Sinterklass.

I'm re-reading "The Classical Compendium" by Philip Matyszak, one of my favourite authors and books. It's a collection of anecdotes, jokes, bizarre beliefs and scandalous gossip from ancient Greece and Rome. A little light reading involving Herodotus, Catullus, Pliny, Xenophon and all that crowd.

Sorry if I bored anyone there, but I am a student of classics in my spare time, you know. ;)
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Re: Break The Spine.

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Oh no, not at all. I used to be a history student!
I found a wicked 1946 book entitled Op Leven En Dood by F.A. de Graaff, it chronicles the history of WW2 in Rotterdam, which was bombed pretty badly. The author was an employee of beer brewer Heineken. It's amazing how he captures human spirit. Among others he posts a lot of jokes and anecdotes to bring life to the people he writes about. One interesting letter he put in there is an order of confiscation - one beer engine with the note to deliver it at the brothel of the Wehrmacht in Veere.

I finished it - it took me quite a while, considering I made 28 pages of notes.
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Re: Break The Spine.

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BBP wrote:Oh no, not at all. I used to be a history student!
I found a wicked 1946 book entitled Op Leven En Dood by F.A. de Graaff, it chronicles the history of WW2 in Rotterdam, which was bombed pretty badly. The author was an employee of beer brewer Heineken. It's amazing how he captures human spirit. Among others he posts a lot of jokes and anecdotes to bring life to the people he writes about. One interesting letter he put in there is an order of confiscation - one beer engine with the note to deliver it at the brothel of the Wehrmacht in Veere.
:lol: Why doesn't this surprise me? ;) Yep, using jokes and anecdotes is a great way to breathe life into history. Speaking of which, I'm currently writing a short story based in medieval Paris - I thought perhaps I could set it during the Wars of Religion, but it's probably better to keep it vague - and in order to spice things up, I looked up various French words and phrases, as well as anecdotes and even jokes from that period.

History can easily be fun. :) This is why I don't like the way that it is taught in schools - all facts and figures and names. It just becomes so boring for the kids. :(
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Re: Break The Spine.

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I'd agree from this side of the globe. History education has changed a lot over the years, but somehow people don't remember it at all. I found that out when a history teacher on another forum asked me how Dutch people looked upon Seyss-Inquart; I had to double-check who he was and what he did. His name is a brief mention in children's history books, but he was essentially the leader of the Netherlands during the Second World War, a post he got as reward for leading Austria into the Anschluss. The nazis had intended in the long run to add The Netherlands to the Great German Empire. As Reichskanzler he was as such the responsible figure for the five-year reign of terrorism I just read about. From other books of the period, and this one, I notice a profound dislike of the "traitors", the Dutch nazis. The leader of the Dutch nazi movement was Anton Mussert, and everybody knows him as the leader. Hitler had indeed named him as such in 1942, but that was an empty post. Not even the Germans liked the uncharismatic Mussert much - he was married to his aunt and didn't speak German.
Asking around, I do notice people are barely familiar with that name. It's not as easy to remember as Mussert, maybe that's it, but it's the person responsible for the immense toll of Dutch Jews...

I'm thinking of publishing the notes I made, since this book was so utterly fantastic.
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Re: Break The Spine.

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I'm sorry to say that I've never heard of either Seyss-Inquart or Mussert. :( But then, my family were mostly east European Jews, not west. My grandparents were originally Romanian Jews who had to adapt to Soviet rule during the war. My grandfather fought for the Soviets in Stalingrad, and didn't get bupkes after the war. But that's how it is with the Russians - you work your back off for them, and hardly get squat. :x

I wonder how many people today remember the name of Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, an attache for Nazi Germany in Denmark. He warned the Danish Jews about their intended deportation during the German occupation of Denmark in 1943, and arranged for their reception in Sweden. It is estimated that he and his operation saved almost 95% of Danish Jews from the work camps and the gas chambers. In 1971, two years before his death, he was honoured by the Israeli government who named him Righteous Among the Nations (an honorific used to honour those who saved Jews during WW2), and included his name in the the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem. (Yad Vashem commemorates the destroyed communities as well as recognizing and honouring gentiles who, at personal risk and without any reward, helped to save their Jewish brethren from the Nazis. The name, meaning "A Place and a Name", is a biblical quote to convey the idea of a place for the names of Jewish victims who have no one to carry their name after death).

Personally, I prefer ancient and medieval history. It's nowhere near as well-documented as the 20th century, so it gives me a lot more scope to have fun when I'm writing. ;) Besides, in the popular imagination, it's also a lot more colourful. ;)
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Re: Break The Spine.

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It's St Nick now and I finished Tonio in time! :cry:
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Re: Break The Spine.

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How sad was it? :( It seems like a very sad book.

When I was much younger, I read the two books King Matty the First (pub. 1922) and King Matty on the Deserted Island (pub. 1923), by the Polish-Jewish educator and psychologist Janusz Korczak. The books are fun, but very sad (particularly towards the end).

Have you read them? If not, I'd recommend them. Just keep in mind that since they were written in the early 1920s, there is obviously a racist element shown towards Dark Africa in general - but of course, people weren't as aware of racism then as they are today.
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Re: Break The Spine.

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Very, you can tell he's heart-broken. He writes about his son with so much love, you can almost touch him.

For St Nick I got some lighter material, two Murakami novels and a book of verse by John O'Mill. O'Mill is the pseudonym of Jan van der Meulen, who taught English and compiled his pupils' blunders in his verses, they're very funny but totally unreadable if you don't speak both Dutch and English. He also writes in English, Dutch, French and German - whatever is at his disposal.

To crown divine creation
with fitting final touch
God spoke in exultation
"Now let there be the Dutch!"
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Re: Break The Spine.

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:lol: I love that poem. Very cute. ;)

I'm only fluent in Hebrew and English, unfortunately. I can speak a few words and/or phrases in most languages of western Europe (plus a little Yiddish, a little Nahuatl, a little Old Norse and a little Old and Medieval English), but... *shrug*
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Re: Break The Spine.

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Inner Space - John O'Mill

Seven dinners could I eat
and then start eating again,
if ever my stomach, my gentle Sir,
should be as empty as your brain.
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Re: Break The Spine.

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Fokker - More Than Just An Airplane, by Drew Baringmore...

Okay, actually Fokker - bouwer aan de wereldluchtvaart by Thijs Postma. Currently I'm building a model Fokker E.III, which got me especially interested in the manufacturer.
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Re: Break The Spine.

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Put down HARRY POTTER for right now, because - AT LONG LAST - the 4th and final book of Dragonships came out:

Image

But strangely, that's not what I am reading right now! When I put down Harry Potter, in anticipation of reading "high fantasy"

I am actually reading:

Image

I have read this before (once) - this is the first time re-reading it... and WOW... This is why you need to go back and re-read books. Because you forget how incredible it is.

I think when I finish Dragons of Summer Flame, when I read Dragonships - I am going to start with the first book and just read all four that way, rather than read the 4th book now (because I've already read 1 through 3... but again, reading Dragons of Summer Flame; re-reading a book is a great way to rediscover how awesome it is - so I plan to do that).
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Re: Break The Spine.

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Yay, Dragonlance! :D I remember playing quite a few DL adventures back in the day, plus some Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, al-Qadim, Greyhawk and (eventually) a little Planescape. It was fun. :)

Unfortunately I had to stop playing D&D a while back. I hung up my dice and put my D&D books on the market, but I still have a few AD&D books kicking around, and I still read KODT and other RPGing mags from time to time. It is fun. ;)
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