Return To Blogging

After a long absence from blogging I will be back, writing and observing on this blog, and I will be creating a second blog, location and platform to be announced when I figure out the details.  That one is going to be focusing on the craft of writing, as well as the tools of writing.  

Field Notes

I've noticed on various blogs and forums Ive visited dealing with writing and stationery, that one type of notebook commonly used is the Field Notes notebook, a 5.5 by 3.5 inch notebook.  Rugged and at ten dollars for a pack of three, these are highly regarded for portability.  I decided to finally try them out for myself.  They aren't easy to find at any corner store so I stopped off at one the few places in my area that sells them, McNally-Jackson Books on Prince Street in Manhattan.
I like the notebook, nice size and I was impressed by the fact that it comes in dot matrix paper, which I like more than lined paper and plain paper.  I recommend the Field Notes notebook for anyone looking for a small, handy item to jot down ideas and notes.

Writing Tools

I recently spent a good deal of time researching tools to further my writing.  After a few years of  mostly writing on my phone and iPad, I decided to get back into writing with pen or pencil and paper and I did a lot of research on what are the best tools of writing.  Over the next few weeks I am going to be posting some ideas and tolls that I've tried.  There are a number of blogs and podcasts that detail  stationery that people check out and I've visited a number of these sites.
I'll go into more detail about some of the pencils and pads I've tried but now I am using a Pentel Kerry 0.7 mm pencil and yellow Rhodia pads with their smooth paper.  Using these in combination with each other has been a pleasure and my hand suffers from less fatigue when doing a lot of writing than on many cheaper notepads.

World War 1 book recommendations

This should have been posted a few months back but for some reason didn't post here when I originally intended to send it so here's the second try. June 28, a week and half ago was the hundredth anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination of  Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, an event that had tremendous consequences, consequences that culminated in World War I and all that followed.  I posted on a forum that I frequent an answer to a question about some good books to read pertaining to the World Wars:

Quote: Originally Posted by SwishaSweet  question to the history buffs in here...what are some good books over WWI and II? Both wars have enormously vast quantity of books, but here are some to start with. WW 1 The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark, an excellent account of the origins of the war A Peace To End All Peace by David Fromkin, brilliantly sums up the consequences of the First World War for the Middle East Catastrophe 1914 by Max Hastings, Hastings is one of the best military writers, in my opinion and this is a comprehensive description on the first year of the war, you could substitute Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August, which is considered the best on the beginning of the war. The Hastings gets my nod if you have to pick one, but you wouldn't be doing yourself a disservice to read both. As far as an overview of the war, there are so many to choose from. A World Undone: A Story of The Great War by G.J. Meyer, John Keegan's The First World War, Martin Gilbert The First World War and S.L.A. Marshall The First World War are all strong contenders. My advice would be to go to a bookstore and flip through them to get a feel for which one's writing style clicks with you and pick that. Or read them all. WW 2 The literature on WW 2 is even more than the First World War. My favorite overview of the war is A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II by Gerhard Weinberg. Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives by Alan Bullock, a biography of both that covers a lot of aspects of the war, For the Pacific Theater, The Rising Sun:The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945 by John Toland There are countless excellent books dealing with specific subjects and battles. Max Hastings has a few I recommend, one on D-Day and it's immediate aftermath, one dealing with the last year of the war against Germany and one dealing with the last year of the war against Japan. I am currently reading Guadalcanal:The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle by Richard B. Frank

Thirteen years ago today, I remember walking across the Queens Plaza bridge to work and seeing the Twin Towers as I did everyday, and looking at them, which was something I regularly did.  Then, barely an hour later someone ran by my desk and told me a plane hit one of the towers and I got up and went to the window watching the unfolding horror with a growing crowd of people.  Workers were gathering on the roofs of other buildings watching as the smoke grew.  Then, the stunning impact of the second plane hitting the up-to-that point undamaged tower and the fireball that blew out of the side of the building.  I still remember seeing the flames popping out of both buildings and we were all wondering whether those buildings could even stand.  We could see the helicopters circling the buildings and wondering whether those helicopters were going to rescue victims, then one of the towers had a total collapse.  People watching were screaming, it was like nothing I had ever experienced.  The fact that it was only a few miles from where I was standing made the impact even greater.  At the end of the day, it was a surreal sight to see people coming off of the 59th Street Bridge from Manhattan looking like they came out of a zombie movie, covered in grey soot with looks of shock on their faces.  A number of people at work had relatives nearby and I knew some people who were in the general vicinity of the WTC.  I had just been at the shopping center in the WTC four days before, going to the Borders there and eating at the Sparro's in the center.  

      

The other tower collapsed and the smoke was so heavily that the downtown skyline was obscured as if it had disappeared.  I can still remember that smell that was in the air that was like a cross between electrical wires and chemicals burning, the smell that hung over the air for weeks, even months after that.  I remember seeing those signs all over the city, particularly on the wall of St. Vincent's Hospital, put up by people looking for their loved ones.   As soon as were allowed down there, some friends and I went to Church St. right in front of the ruins of WTC and it was overwhelming to see that amount of carnage firsthand.  Pieces of the Twin Towers were sticking out of other buildings, including the World Financial Center towers.  

Now, that area is changed so much that it is hard to believe that anything that devastating ever happened there.  New buildings, older buildings that have been repaired, new parks, it is all different.  

The Book of the Year

This year I've been doing a lot of reading.  A lot of history reading, to be specific. I think I've read more this year than any year in the past and learned a tremendous amount.  Now at the end of the year I made my list of what the best books are for the year and I think the actual best book of the year is Wilson by A.Scott Berg, a tremendous biography of the President Woodrow Wilson. I've read several biographies of Wilson but this one does an excellent job of combining the research involved in presenting his life and his two terms as President, while reading like a very entertaining novel.

The runner up and very close behind Wilson by a margin, is Catastrophe:1914 by Max Hastings about that first year of World War 1. Max Hastings is perhaps the best battle writer out today.

Shelby Foote's Civil War Trilogy

I just finally finished tackling the massive three-volumes of Shelby Foote's narrative of the Civil War. It took three months, about the same when I read the trilogy the first time ten years ago. Foote was such a tremendous writer, he brings the war alive. With all the stellar volumes about the American Civil War, it's no small compliment to say that Foote's trilogy is pretty much certainly the standard as the overview of the whole war. Bruce Catton's civil war trilogy comes close and McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom is the best one-volume history of the war, but Shelby Foote's is the monumental achievement.