Completed: Imperial Royal Canadian World Atlas

I know, it's been too long. I've thought of many things that I could have blogged about lately in regards to my reading. But I've been busy. I have two jobs - a nine-to-five and a part-time research gig. Apart from that, I spent the better part of two weeks' worth of free time completing my annual scrapbook for D. I've made him a scrapbook for each year we've been together, and given it to him for Christmas. This year I didn't get it done for Christmas, and barely got it done for his birthday. And I've just had a bunch of outings with friends - a perfectly good reason to not get around to blogging!

All the while, though, I've been reading before I go to bed - at least 15 minutes or so, but often more. It has taken me some time to finish the Atlas, because after the first few introductory chapters on Canada, it became a more monotone laundry list of the world's countries, along with their population size, industries, natural resources, highest peaks, biggest cities, and features of note. Despite it sometimes being a bit of a tedious read, it was also very illuminating.

I've been interested in history and archaeology my whole life. But often the world is divided up into digestible bites when studying history - World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Cold War, etc. I found this atlas incredible because it fell outside of these normal time periods, and also covered the whole globe, not just areas of interest in the midst of a war or something. It mentioned every (political) part of the planet, and what it was like in 1935. Here are some of the more interesting tidbits that I came across:

• There were only three independent states in Africa: Egypt, Liberia, and Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
• They thought that the Arctic would become an 'air crossroads' of the world, with jets flying across the north pole area
• World War I was not yet World War I, as there had been no World War II (it's just something you don't think about until you come across it) - it was the Great War or the World War
• In the 1931 Canadian census, there was only 1 telephone per 10 people in Canada
• In 1935, women still could not vote in Quebec
• In the title of the British sovereign (George V, at the time), the term "Emperor of India" was still used, as it was not yet self-governing. Pakistan did not yet exist
• Newfoundland was not yet part of Canada
• Terms such as 'savages', 'half-castes', and 'pure races' were still used, though of course we abhor such terms today
• Vatican City had only been around as a political entity for 6 years

I think the biggest realization that this book brought me to is that the world in 1935 was really still divvied up between the various European colonial powers. I didn't realize how many colonies still existed at that time (because again, when you study history in school, you don't normally study the parts of the world not directly involved in whatever war or event you're studying). Africa, south/southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean, were almost entirely colonial to some degree or another. Germany, however, had no colonies - they had all been taken away after World War I (and so you see many "British/French such-and-such, formerly German such-and-such"s throughout). 

I'm very glad to have read this historical, geographical snapshot from 1935. It makes me all the more excited to read more of my older books (next up: a high-school poetry book from 1924).

One line in this book was ominous, and foretold of what was to come not long after this book was published. I thought I would finish this entry with that, as it is the line that has stayed with me the most since reading it: "Germany... Government: Republic (since November, 1918); official name, Deutches Reich; Since March, 1933 - Dictatorship". It just puts a pit in your stomach to know what that dictatorship was going to do in the decade following this book's publication. The world did not yet know the horror of the Holocaust. Anne Frank was six years old.

Title: Imperial Royal Canadian World Atlas "An Atlas for Canadians"
Editors: Fred James, Lloyd Edwin Smith, and Frederick K. Branom
Published: 1935
Pages: 216

Total books blogged: 8
Total pages: 2898

Currently Reading: Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

After reading Walking with the Great Apes (see my blog post from January 14), as I mentioned, I picked up two books at the United Way booksale. This was one of them, written by Jane Goodall "with" Phillip Berman. I'm assuming that means he acted in part as the writer? The sentiment certainly all belongs to Jane.

When I took my loot from the booksale home, I must admit I was disappointed by this one. I hadn't read the spine - I just saw Jane Goodall and handed over my two dollars. But once I took a closer look, I realized that this book was not really about the great apes at all, but about Jane Goodall's spiritual journey, from her youth to her adulthood to her reflections in later life.

Ever since I was young, I have not been a particularly spiritual person. I went to church. I understand what people mean when they discuss religion and God. I have moved around the world and been exposed to various other belief systems - Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism. But the idea of spirituality and religion has never gripped me.

Ever since I met D, I have had a greater appreciation for such beliefs. His father was a minister, and his family is quite religious. He himself has a strong connection to First Nations and Christian beliefs. I have a lot of respect for what he thinks, and I now know about loving and believing in someone else, despite the fact that I don't always see things the same way.

Until this book, I haven't ever read a spiritual or religious text of any kind. I remember once when we were living in India, when I was 11 or 12, I decided to read the Bible, and was quite determined to read the whole thing. I think I made it 10 or 15 pages before I left that goal by the wayside. When I get halfway down my second bookcase, I will read the Bible, as I thought I would all those years ago. But for now, I read about Jane Goodall's spiritual journey.

So far, the book has been wonderful. I shall reflect more on it in the coming days, but for now, I have found a new favorite quote, also one of Jane's: "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." It means that your strength will come each day, regardless of what kind of day it is. So I'll leave you with that today. More about how Jane has helped me grow a spiritual smidge in the next post.

The Rules

I think this is a necessary step, though writing it out seems a bit pedantic. Most of the blogs I read have some sort of parameter. Many of them are cooking blogs - I love cooking blogs.

So: here are my 'rules', as it were. I will:

- read from the top-left of my first bookcase to the bottom-right of the final one
- have a home book and a work book. The home books will be 100% in order left-to-right, top-to-bottom. The work books will be taken from close to where I am on the shelves, but there are some books that just don't make relaxing lunch breaks, and that's ok
- blog each book at least once, preferably more
- blog interesting words and facts
- skip things that aren't for reading in the classic sense: Dictionaries, some textbooks, instruction manuals, etc.
- skip duplicates. I will not read 3 complete collections of Longfellow's poetry, for example. I keep duplicates of some books just because both editions are beautiful or meaningful to me
- skip books I've already read, with the caveat that if I cannot really remember the story, I will re-read the book

I think that's it! I'm not so rigid that these aren't open to interpretation and adjustment as I move through my books.

So cheers, and there they are. I'm going to go read now...

Currently Reading: the First Book!

Although I've determined what this blog will be, I only started reading the way I intended to three days ago. I've officially started! I'm reading the top-left book on my first bookcase. Here is the first part of the top shelf:

I am currently reading the tall, cloth-bound book on the left. It is a Canadian 'atlas' (more a geographical survey/textbook including maps) from 1935. The first few pages, as that's all I've read so far, have been fascinating. Really, it's a historical document. It is what people thought of Canadian geography in 1935, some 78 years ago. Pluto was brand-new - only discovered 5 years earlier. There is also an amusing bit about archaeologists:

"There still remain unexplored regions. There are some parts of the world where the foot of the civilized seeker of knowledge has seldom, if ever, trod. But the little known regions are dwindling, year by year, as the adventurers push back the line of darkness. Everywhere, too, are the archeologists or 'diggers', who excavate old cities or old geological strata, searching for relicsof past ages, to aid in the knowledge of early life on the earth."

It is a book that I think I got when my Grampa C passed away, when I was 20. All three of his children, and all 5 of his grandchildren, met at the home he shared with my Grama a little while after he was gone. It was a peaceful afternoon. All of the things that Grama didn't want to keep now that he was gone were laid out on tables in the basement. Slowly, in turn, we all selected things that we wanted to keep. I selected many things: a small bookshelf to hang on the wall; a tin from India (where he lived when he was young), with some 60 old coins in it; some hand-painted teacups; and many of his books. I think this book was amongst them. However, I also got many books when my Grama E moved several years back, and I'm not sure which of the two this book came from.

Either way, this book belonged to one of my grandparents. Maybe it was even one of their schoolbooks. Its spine is fragile, and so I won't be carrying it to and from work with me. It will be my first home book - let the blog begin in earnest!

Completed: Nineveh and Its Remains

I FINALLY FINISHED IT!

I have been reading this book since last spring. It has sat, staring at me, on the dresser next to my side of the bed since last spring. It has been taunting me, but I finally won.

It's not that it wasn't a fascinating read. The foreword, about Layard's life and work, was much enlightening about a name that I came across in my studies (I studied Near Eastern archaeology - not sure if I mentioned that), but never learned enough about to appreciate as a person. The stories Layard told in his own voice, about his excavation campaigns at Nineveh and his travels in Mesopotamia were touching and telling of an age and way of life long gone in that area.

I think the reason I struggled with it was twofold. I started it in the throes of drafting my thesis - a bad time to start a book. Also, once I reached the book itself (not the foreword), I was disappointed. Again, not by what was there, but what wasn't. For a book that was titled "Nineveh and its Remains", there was very little of the site, or the dig. I did learn that excavation was seemingly single-handedly directed towards recovering sculpture. Not even text - just sculpture. Monumental sculpture. Although he appears to have the best of intentions in his excavations, I have to cringe when he discusses things crumbling to dust upon excavation, and tunneling to find artifacts.

No, much of the book was Layard's travels and relations with the local tribes that he worked with. He travels by horse to various areas, meets various sheiks, and witnesses religious and spiritual events. He does much of this with a classic European superiority and detachment, though his seems milder than most of the same era. I feel it was more of a sociological reflection than an archaeological one.

On a different note, every once in awhile you learn something after years of study that makes you giggle. In this book, there were two. Both have to do with Layard's name. The first is that his last name is not pronounced like 'lay-yard'. It's pronounced like 'laird'. Every prof I ever had, every time I ever read his name, I thought it was the former. The second interesting bit is that his name changed - after college he chose to be Austen Henry Layard, instead of Henry Austen Layard. Or it was the other way around - I can't remember. But I love the whimsy of just choosing to reverse your name.

Title: Nineveh and Its Remains
Author: Sir Austen Henry Layard; or, Sir Henry Austen Layard
Published: 1969 (originally 1849)
Pages: 295

Total books blogged: 7
Total pages: 2,682

The cover was just a plain library-bound cover, so here's the title page!

Completed: Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas

To be fair, I finished this book several weeks ago. I just haven't gotten around to blogging it. But I realized looking back that it really looks like I've read very little since September, and it looks that way because it's true.

I've been slowly eliminating TV shows from my PVR, no longer recording ones that I really won't miss. I've been trying to read, at least a bit, every day before bed. And I try to read during my lunch break, though some days that just doesn't happen!

Walking with the Great Apes was fascinating. The four main characters really do read as though they were (are, for two of them) larger than life. Richard Leakey, patriarch of African palaeoanthropology, playboy, scholar and personality. The man who selected three women to study the great apes - two of whom were not even trained in a relevant subject. He believed that women would be better able to empathize with the great apes - better able to understand them.


Jane Goodall - free spirit, kind, spiritual, patient adventurer. Fearless. Even in her old age, she travels more than any of her staff, who work in shifts to keep up with her. As a young woman, she was beautiful, serene, a perfect person to act as a bridge between the human psyche and that of the chimpanzees of Gombe.

Dian Fossey - passionate, psychologically unstable, loner, angry, bitter Nyiramachabelli (read the book for the explanation of the last word). Dian came from an unhappy childhood and lived an unhappy adulthood. Although she loved the gorillas, she slowly removed herself from humanity. Hers was a sad life, despite its many accomplishments.

Birute Galdikas - gentle but utterly firm, commanding and yet soft-spoken. She was the only one already a grad student before being selected by Leakey, and the only one to remain in academia proper.

All three sacrificed marriages and relationships, health and wellness, time, money and comfort, for their dreams. Dreams that Leakey helped to foster but that each woman embraced with all their hearts. The "three primates" have become three of the most influential and well-known women in science, and they caused paradigm-shifting changes in the field of primatology. Crusader (Jane), Sorceress (Dian) and Diplomat (Birute) - truly miraculous women. Well worth a read.

Title: Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas
Author: Sy Montgomery
Pages: 239

Total books blogged: 6
Total pages: 2,387

Christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone in our home. The boys were here with us for the actual holiday, and so that was absolutely lovely.

Many books came into our home as gifts this Christmas, and I look forward to those that were given to me. I have already read most of the boys' new books to them as bedtime stories. I will be sad the day that they decide they are too big to snuggle with me on mine and D's bed and read before getting tucked in. It's such a staple - an almost meditative part of my day. I hold them, and I know the good and the bad of the day, and none of it matters right then because I have two beautiful boys who love me and who I love, and we're sharing books together, sharing a togetherness right before they fall asleep. J often nods off before we're done stories. I'm still able to pick him up and carry him to bed, but just barely. It's scary how big they are getting.

I sit in our mess of a living room, coated on most surfaces (including the floor) with various Christmas presents, wrappings, or instruction booklets. I am not a mess person, and each day this mess will get smaller as I slowly work at it in between playing, reading, cooking, cleaning, and boo-boo fixing. It's amazing to me that this mess is OK only because my boys made it. If I had made this mess it would be utterly intolerable and I'd have to clean it up before bed. But I won't - I'm heading to bed in a moment. I might read a few pages of Nineveh and Its Remains before I tuck in (yes, still working on it - Christmas shopping, cards, visits, wrapping, and a few other work responsibilities means I've abandoned this blog for most of the last month). But I will sleep soundly even though there is a mess downstairs. It's amazing what being a (step)mom will do to you, the things you're able to deal with and better yet, just accept.

G once asked if I would rather have a clean house everyday - we'd just finished cleaning up their toys that evening. He said he knew he made messes, and that I didn't like messes, so would I rather he was at Mama's? Oh, I held him close and it brought tears to my eyes. I told him I'd rather have him and his brother here and have the house be heaped 5 feet high in toys than have a clean house with no boys.

I think he was looking for reassurance, and I hope he got it. But that day was the day I decided that I'd try to let the little stuff go. It's been a long journey so far, adapting to being a Mom. But every day they teach me something new.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you've snuggled your kids too.