Zorba the Greek

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis translated by Carl Wildman?

The book is narrated by George Guidall who is one of my least favorite narrators. Part of the problem is that many of the books he has narrator are on the "boring" side and his voice is associated with the boredom. Just hearing his voice makes the book go down a notch.

As for the book, it feels very Greek. Zorba comes across as an outgoing boisterous Greek man. Things happen. They do crazy stuff. There is talk of women as a sort of idolized object. This book was referenced in another book from the middle east. Maybe that is not the best reason to pick a book.

The Complete Adventures of Curious George

The Complete Adventures of Curious George: 70th Anniversary Edition by H. A. Rey and Margret Rey

Curious George (1941)

Curious George Takes a Job (1947)

Curious George Rides a Bike (1952)

Curious George Gets a Medal (1957)

Curious George Flies a Kite (1958)

Curious George Learns the Alphabet (1963)

Curious George Goes to the Hospital (1966)

This collection has all the original Curious George books. They are of a higher quality than the newer stories by other authors. They also have various elements that would not be considered appropriate today. In the first book, George is found by the Man with the Yellow Hat in Africa. He smokes a pipe and then eagerly goes to the zoo. In all the books, George gets in trouble in various ways due to his curiosity. However, he always manages to get out of the trouble - often by using some of the same skills that got him in trouble in the first place.

These stories are quite old. Some look data. In Curious George Gets a Medal, George is the first animal to bail out of a rocket in space. This was before the space program had really taken off. In others, they just show a time of the past. In Curious George Rides a Bike, George gets a bike that he rides around. He later takes over a friends paper route, breaks his bike, and then joins an animal circus. He gets banished from the circus, then rescues a bear and gets to join. Everyone in the town knows each other and forgives him for not delivering their papers.

While he sometimes seems to be in a bucolic small town, other times he is in the middle of a big city. However, everyone still seems to know each other.

The collection includes CDs that include the audiobook versions of the stories. These include background music for almost the entire time.

The "Learns the Alphabet" was my least favorite. It seemed to be too slow and the pictures formed with letters was forced. For my favorite, I'd pick the first, though the early ones were all good.

Player Piano: A Novel

Player Piano: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

This is a "futuristic" story written 70 years ago. Machines have taken over much of society. People have many creature comforts, but life is fairly regulated. 

I got pretty lost in the plot, but found many of the random bits to be amusing. In one discussion, we learn that authors have to get their works adopted by the appropriate book clubs with their many members. An author that didn't do what he was supposed to failed to achieve the appropriate position and thus left his family on the lurch. Seems prescient as to mass media today.

In another bit, the Cornel football team is discussed in depth. The team has been providing huge amounts of revenue for the school and wants to have more money to invest in itself.  As for football players going to school? Well, there just isn't time for that anymore. Maybe in past days it would be possible. Vonnegut would not be surprised at all with what college football has become today.

The Chocolate Touch

Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling

Chocolate Touch is the Midas story told with Chocolate instead of gold. A boy loves to eat chocolate. He gets a magical coin one day. After that, everything turns to chocolate. He craves drinking water or even eating vegetables, but all he gets is chocolate. He is thus able to learn his lesson that we need to live on more than just chocolate.

Currents of Space

A scientist discovers that a planet is about to be destroyed. When he tries to tell the authorities, he is hushed up and eventually "brain-washed" in to a village idiot. His prediction leads to a great deal of political intrigue. The planet (Florinia) he predicted would be destroyed is currently the only place in the galaxy where a valuable cloth can be grown. The trade, however, is controlled by another planet (Sark), that has made the Florinians in to virtual slaves. (They have even gone so far to take all "exceptional" members of society and move them in to positions of responsibility - but prohibiting them from reproduction.) After a lot of politics, it turns out the planet will be destroyed. But, this knowledge provides the insight needed to grow the cloth material elsewhere in the galaxy. Most everyone is evacuated and people are happy.

The story was interesting, but the story-telling had much to be desire. The story consisted of a number of overlapping narratives, told from different points of view. The last part of one narrative would be described again in the second narrative. At first, I had to check to make sure I didn't go backwards. I knew how it would turn out. Why do I have to go through it again.

The story also became fairly predictable early on. Sure, there were some twists, but it was fairly easy to predict what was going to happen. The multiple narratives also ruined what could have been suspenseful twists.

Invisible Man

A black boy starts out with idealistic views of society, but finds himself beat down by society. Both blacks and whites accept the status quo of society. He gets a scholarship to a black college, but finds himself in big trouble when he takes a white trustee to see how the "other side" lives. The trustee claims that the boy is his "destiny", but is visibly upset at seeing the continued conditions of squalor in the black community. He still maintains his idealism as he is sent to make his way in the big city. However this is shattered when he discovers that his letters of introduction say that he is a persona non grata at his college.

He then has numerous experiences in the city, and becomes primarily involved with "the brotherhood". Eventually, he even has a falling out there, and becomes "invisible". Eventually, he meets the trustee that caused his trouble. He introduces himself as the trustee's "destiny", yet the trustee fails to identify him.

He realizes that he is being used as a pawn by others to achieve their goals. When his goals are in sync with their's, he feels great. But problems occur when they start to diverge.

There is an obvious statement being made of race relations and unfulfilled promises. However, this is only one symptom of the underlying problem. In a large society, the "goals" of the group are often set by a few strong individuals. These goals may be shared by some people, but rarely does one person share everything. When the initial focus is on the areas of strong mutual agreement, things go well. But what happens when we move down to the areas of less consensus? And what happens when "theory" and "practice" come in to conflict? It is easy to encourage others to "suffer" in order to bring up the underprivileged. But opinions change when that suffering is inflicted upon oneself. What is one without power to do? And how do you deal with conflicting forces for the same "ideal"?

Alas, the narrator here simply gives up, leaving many of the large questions unanswered.

What Christians Believe

What Christian's Believe is a short Christian apologetic essay. The ideas closely resemble those in other C.S. Lewis Christian works. He presents an argument in favor of general Christianity over atheism and pantheism. Atheists have the burden of proof that their is no deity and all religions are wrong. One bit of truth from one religion would disprove atheism. Other religions and belief sets may have perfectly valid belief sets even if they lack some key components. Thus, Christians can believe that other religions have valid truths, even if they don't believe them completely.

A dualistic belief of equal forces of good and evil is refuted because evil is a negative response to good - and many evil actions use are enabled in part by "good" characteristics.

The arguments are more well thought out than the summaries I have given. However, since this is a brief book, there is not a whole lot more to them. "Mere Christianity" may be a better place to go to get the detail of his arguments.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This book in the Narnia series contains a series of "adventures" similar to Gulliver's Travels or a Jules Verne novel. A couple of the "Narnia" kids are with their do-gooder intellectual cousin (Eustace) when they get sucked in to a picture of a ship they see. On the ship with Prince Caspian, they participate in a number of fairly unrelated adventures. They are sold as slaves, only to depose the ruler of a realm. Eustace is turned in to a dragon, only to be eventually rescued by Aslan. They run in to invisible monopods that they help turn visible. (And in the process Lucy regrets that she cast a spell to learn what everybody thought of her.) And what magical adventure is complete without water that turns everything it touches to gold?

Eustace becomes the main thread through the story. He is a bookworm, snobbish teetotaler who is set in his ways. (Lewis also uses alcohol as part of his 'separation', with the others freely drinking while Eustace stays away.) Eventually, he starts to realize that perhaps he is part of the problem. When the kids finally return home, he is seen as having a much improved character.

This is a "fun" novel in the Narnia series with a number of small adventures. It ties in a few moral and religious messages (such as faith, and the disadvantage of knowing too much about others.) And it also ties in Lewis's views of the benefit of socializing and not being too uptight. Each of the adventures could just about be released as its own short story. Thus far, this is probably my favorite Narnia story.

Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis professes not to be a religious leader. Instead, he presents an intellectually rigorous layman's view of Christianity.
His attempt is to provide an intellectual foundation for Christianity regardless of sect. He points out that science can know everything about the entire Universe, yet still not know where the universe came from. With God "outside" the known universe, we would not expect to find fully about him through scientific inquiry.

He brings few additional interesting analogies for Christian principles. He uses the "dimensionality" argument to explain the lack of "time" in God's world. (He can move along dimensions around us.) He also analysis sexual urges by comparing it to food. While we all eat, we don't have food strip-teases or similar things as with sexual desire.

It provides many other good "arguments" for Christian principles (including the resurrection) that help make them clear from the point of view of somebody inside or outside of a Christian sect.

Foundation and Empire

The second Foundation book is more of a novel than the first. The story centers around The Mule, a "mutant" who is able to break the plans for the Foundation as predicted by "psycho-history". The futuristic predictions predict the actions of "mobs". However, it was not very accurate at predicting the actions of a single person. Enter the Mule. His mutant ability allows him to control the emotions of people, and thus to take over the whole empire himself.

In the first book, non-comformist actions by individual were merely "inevitable" actions needed to continue the group actions. In this book, the actions of the Mule are truly 'original', and thus can change the course of history.

It would be interesting to explore the importance of other historical characters. Which historical figures truly changed history, versus simply moved forward the plans already in process?

The first part of this book is a little confusing, but it eventually starts to become coherent. The final part seems an odd monologue by the Mule, seeming to only explain things. (The character of the Mule was, however, set up to provide these monologues - however, we don't actually see him do it until the end.)