Saturday, May 8, 2010

Books

I just finished reading two books. Each book was good but they could not have been more different if the authors had set out to do so, BUT - they were very similar and I am sure neither author had seen the others work.
The first was a sci/fi set several thousand years in the future but with a very different twist. The second was set in Australia in the early 1800s. More specifically, it started in Jolly Old England and the entire middle part was about the sea voyage over to Van Diemen's Land, or as we now know it, Tasmania.
The amazing similarity between the two books was the inhumanity man showed to man. The cruelty shown in the Australia book is what one would think Hell would be like. The absolute potentiality of the ruling class toward the lower class and the jailers toward prisoners may leave some people unable to sleep. Other books, both fiction and non-fiction, confirm the horrible treatment of the transported prisoners and most sources say that the written word doesn't go far enough.
We are a cruel species and even after these thousands upon thousands of years, we still have more ways of being evil than we should.
The scifi book was, as I said, set way in the future but because of a special condition the people were living in what compared to 1400s on Earth. Too long of a story to tell.
But what was so very similar to the first book was man's inhumanity to man. The reach for power and wealth was so pervasive it was destroying this world which was mankind's last hope in the whole universe.
A fascinating book. One I didn't think I would even like after I bought it but I didn't want to put it down and now am almost saddened as their is no sequel yet.
Hmm, maybe I should have started this first book blog in a lighter vein but I haven't been able to get those books off my mind.
Now I have started Elmo Leonard's book, Pagan Babies, and it tells of the Hutus massacre of the Tutsi people. Instead of the U S stopping the slaughter of probably a million people, we invaded Iraq to free them from a dictator who would have been considered a boyscout in comparison to the Africans killing the other people. The people in Iraq would have been considered, by the people in Africa, to be living in a near paradise. Our leaders said we were going to war to free the Iraqi people from a horrible dictator when in Rwanda the actions of the dominant people were beyond comprehension.
Again, power and greed.
But, enough of that. I have started reading again after a layoff and am enjoying it. It does cut into my bee bizzness, however, so am looking for a middle ground compromise. If only I could stay up as late as I did many years ago and if only I could get by on the lesser amount of sleep as I did years ago.
That would be great.
More later
CCC

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