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Author Topic: Books  (Read 87572 times)

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Hello Goodbye

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Re: Books
« Reply #640 on: May 08, 2023, 10:32:07 PM »

Oh Barry! That just made me think of a quote from one of my favourite books The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Two characters strike up a conversation with (unbeknown to thrm) the devil (!) and one of them says that fate doesnt exist, and man creates and rules his own course of life. To which the devil replies:

Devil: But here is a question that is troubling me: if there is no God, then, one may ask, who governs human life and, in general, the whole order of things on earth?

Ivan: man governs it himself!

Devil: Pardon me, but in order to govern, one needs, after all, to have a precise plan for a certain, at least somewhat decent, length of time. Allow me to ask you, then, how can man govern, if he is not only deprived of the opportunity of making a plan for at least some ridiculously short period, well, say, a thousand years , but cannot even vouch for his own tomorrow? And in fact, imagine that you, for instance, start governing, giving orders to others and yourself, generally, so to speak, acquire a taste for it, and suddenly you get ...hem ... hem ... lung cancer ... and so your governing is over! You are no longer interested in anyone’s fate but your own. Your family starts lying to you. Feeling that something is wrong, you rush to learned doctors, then to quacks, and sometimes to fortune-tellers as well. Like the first, so the second and third are completely senseless, as you understand. And it all ends tragically: a man who still recently thought he was governing something, suddenly winds up lying motionless in a wooden box, and the people around him, seeing that the man lying there is no longer good for anything, burn him in an oven. And sometimes it’s worse still: the man has just decided to go to Kislovodsk – a trifling matter, it seems, but even this he cannot accomplish, because suddenly, no one knows why, he slips and falls under a tram-car! Are you going to say it was he who governed himself that way? Would it not be more correct to think that he was governed by someone else entirely?

 :)

What do you believe, Lana?




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Hello Goodbye

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Re: Books
« Reply #641 on: May 08, 2023, 10:36:46 PM »

Over the weekend I read...





...en français.
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Dmitry

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Re: Books
« Reply #642 on: July 05, 2023, 10:56:22 PM »

Over the weekend I read...
...en français.

Wow! You know French?!


By the way did anyone read John Adams by David McCullough?
I begun to read, it is quite interesting!

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Re: Books
« Reply #643 on: July 05, 2023, 11:14:39 PM »


Wow! You know French?!


Yes, I studied French for five years in high school and college.  I also had three years of Latin in high school and learned Hebrew in parochial school.



By the way did anyone read John Adams by David McCullough?
I begun to read, it is quite interesting!


I haven't read the book, Dmitry, but I can understand why you find it interesting.  He stood by his convictions and was one of the most influential of our founding fathers.
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Dmitry

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Re: Books
« Reply #644 on: July 08, 2023, 05:11:11 PM »


Yes, I studied French for five years in high school and college.  I also had three years of Latin in high school and learned Hebrew in parochial school.


Wow!
But I should commit to memory about your French and Latin :angel:
Knowing several languages is so cool! I studied French and German many years ago, since then I know French a little, but cannot read such serious books.


Quote from: Hello Goodbye
I haven't read the book, Dmitry, but I can understand why you find it interesting.  He stood by his convictions and was one of the most influential of our founding fathers.


You're right! I wish I could read it till the end sooner or later.
Many years ago I've read The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray.
In Russian though. But it is very interesting!
This book was in my father's library since my childhood.

Dmitry

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Re: Books
« Reply #645 on: July 08, 2023, 05:12:10 PM »

Over the weekend I read...





...en français.


Wait! You have read it in one weekend?!

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Re: Books
« Reply #646 on: July 09, 2023, 08:55:25 PM »

Wait! You have read it in one weekend?!


I was on call at the hospital that weekend, Dmitry.  It was the perfect time to read Cyrano de Bergerac again and keep my French current.

The play doesn't take long to read.  Here's one scene I particularly enjoy reading...






It corresponds to this scene in the 1950 motion picture...


<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J0RFoHGFtY" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J0RFoHGFtY</a>

16:40 - 18:25


By the way, Dmitry, like you, this book was in my father's library.  He gave it to me when I was assigned Cyrano de Bergerac to read when I was in high school.


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Hello Goodbye

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Re: Books
« Reply #647 on: July 10, 2023, 01:27:30 AM »


Wow!
But I should commit to memory about your French and Latin :angel:



Latin was easy after taking French.  There are just a handful of grammatical "exceptions to the rule."

Latin helped me in my study of human anatomy.  In Europe, students use Latin in reference to human anatomy, eg. Musculus pterygoideus medialis.  Here in the United States, that muscle is called the medial pterygoid muscle.

I remember using Latin to answer a question on an anatomy test I took years ago.  The bony structure I named was "dens epistropheus."  I was marked incorrect by the graduate anatomy assistant.  The English terminology for that structure is "odontoid process of the axis, the second cervical vertebra.  Our anatomy professor marked me correct and asked how I knew the Latin name.  I showed him the human anatomy atlas I was using where all anatomical structures where indicated in Latin.   :)



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Normandie

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Re: Books
« Reply #648 on: July 31, 2023, 09:35:04 PM »

This is a short story, not a book, but it didn't seem to justify its own thread, so I'm sticking it here.

"The Rocking-Horse Winner," by D. H. Lawrence. I'd always thought my short-story education in high school and college was pretty comprehensive, but I had never heard of this one. I tracked it down online and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share the link to it here:

https://chsenglishap4.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/5/7/2257880/rocking-horse-winner.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2jRY2d893rH2GtKWuU9ZmSOYYux-aujpeTVUEHDSnhAMi3I1Q_lmAwH0s

Apparently it's also been made into a short film; that's up next.

« Last Edit: July 31, 2023, 10:37:03 PM by Normandie »
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Re: Books
« Reply #649 on: October 27, 2023, 12:43:36 AM »




A fine piece of investigative journalism by Australian journalist Sharri Markson.

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Normandie

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Re: Books
« Reply #650 on: October 27, 2023, 04:35:04 AM »


^^^^^

That looks really good, Barry.
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Re: Books
« Reply #651 on: October 27, 2023, 08:59:05 PM »

^

It was very good, Kathy.

You can also watch her sky news documentary "SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: What Really Happened in Wuhan..."


<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh2Sj_QpZOA&amp;t=157s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh2Sj_QpZOA&amp;t=157s</a>




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nimrod

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Re: Books
« Reply #652 on: October 28, 2023, 10:55:54 PM »




A fine piece of investigative journalism by Australian journalist Sharri Markson.


When you've read it Baz can you tell us what did happen in Wuhan.  ???
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Kevin

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Re: Books
« Reply #653 on: October 31, 2023, 08:36:51 PM »

When you've read it Baz can you tell us what did happen in Wuhan.  ???

Sharri Markson told us what happened in Wuhan, Kev, in 422 pages.  It centered on virology "Gain of Function" research.  It's summed up quite well in Sharri's documentary I linked to above.
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In My Life

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Re: Books
« Reply #654 on: March 03, 2024, 04:19:24 AM »




It took three months for my turn at this audiobook to come up! I’m really enjoying it though so it was worth the wait. It’s interesting how quickly things happened for him in terms of acting, once he arrived in California. He’s paid his dues in other ways, though.


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Normandie

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Re: Books
« Reply #655 on: March 12, 2024, 02:55:27 AM »



Funny how one's thoughts proceed and meander. After reading Euan's post about Julian Lennon's new book, I looked up Julian's White Feather Foundation, which led to a link indicating that white feathers at one time were considered a symbol of cowardice, etc., etc, and that led me to this book, which I'm very much looking forward to reading. I also recently read in a novel that some European soldiers in WWII were only 15 years of age, which made my eyes immediately fill with tears, thinking of my own son at that age. (I'm getting teary-eyed again just typing this.) I know that wasn't new, that, as just one example, in the Civil War the South sent boys that age, and even younger, to battle, but it hits harder now.

Anyway, the book:



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Moogmodule

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Re: Books
« Reply #656 on: March 12, 2024, 08:55:08 AM »

^^

Yes we had some in Australia who lied about their age and went to WW1. The youngest was 14 and he went to Gallipolli where he died from disease.
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Euan Buchan

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Re: Books
« Reply #657 on: March 12, 2024, 10:29:17 AM »

Started reading The Red Arrow The Official Story Of Britain’s Iconic Display Team by Wing Commander David Montenegro.
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Normandie

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Re: Books
« Reply #658 on: March 12, 2024, 03:35:58 PM »


Yes we had some in Australia who lied about their age and went to WW1. The youngest was 14 and he went to Gallipolli where he died from disease.

That breaks my heart.  :'(  I hope that young man had someone to comfort him while he was ill and toward the end.

Started reading The Red Arrow The Official Story Of Britain’s Iconic Display Team by Wing Commander David Montenegro.

That looks good!
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