Reading Logs

GOING SOLO

BY ROALD DAHL 

Roald Dahl’s autobiography, Going Solo follows his life and how he came to be a writer. It starts with a sixteen year old Roald Dahl traveling to his new job in Tanyanika (now known as Tanzania). This trip was the first time he has been away from home in London and he is excited to meet new people. He says the “Shores of the coast and be seen in the far distance, the area the shores of a new adventure, a new life.” When he arrives in Mombasa he is taken to a lavish country house which is his and his coworkers base of operations as they work on maintaining the oil pumps throughout easter Tanyanika. This job includes his co worker Clyde and him traveling hundreds of kilometers a day, this creates many great anecdotes. And it tells us about how anywhere Roald Dahl when he made friends with the people there.

In the second part of the book Roald Dahl is conscripted into the Royal Air force (RAF). He trains in Nairobi with fifteen other pilots all a similar age known as 80 squadron. Once the squadron completes basic training they are sent to Iraq to complete the training. The entire 80 squadron with the edition of six new pilots and their new squadron leader Pat Pattle, who Roald Dahl describes as “A legend within the RAF” is sent to eastern Libya to fight the Italians. While fighting in Eastern Libya, Roald Dahl’s plane is shot down and he crash lands in the middle of the desert. Many days pass before he was recovered and sent to the Anglo-Swiss hospital in Alexandria. After recovering from his injuries he is sent to fight in one of the of the most prominent air battles of WW2, the Battle of Athens. In the battle 5 of his squadmates are killed including captain Pat Pattle. Whilst recovering from the battle in Northern Israel Roald starts to develop crippling headaches as a result of his injuries. He is sent home to live with his mother in their house in Buckinghamshire. Five years later in 1947 he is posted as an Air Attache in the British Embassy in Washington. Where he publishes his first novel. 

Roald Dahl is one of my favorite authors because his work carries so much heart, He usually writes straight from his imagination, but this time he’s not spending his time describing the world he’s created, In this story he can just focus on writing brilliantly. This really shows in how smooth his writing is; it is my favorite of his books because of how captivating the writing is you can read it for hours without getting tired.

Many of Roald Dahl’s books are very enjoyable because of the way he writes in the characters. In his books there is always an innocent child a wondrous old man and some kind of comic relief character, but in this book because it is an autobiography he has taken characters from his life. My favorite of these characters is Robert Stanford aka, The Snake Man. He is a professional snake catcher that Roald Dahl meets in Tanyanika. He saves Roald Dahl and the members of his house from a poisonous Black Mamba that gets into the house. He catches the Black Mamba while saying a fantastic quote.

“Black Mambas are the fastest snake in Africa, the only thing faster is my fist.”   

Before punching the snake in the head. He saves everyone in the house except sadly the house dog. These great characters all are actual people from his life and yet they have such interesting stories and personalities, this shows that even though characters from fantasy are amazing people in the real world are just as amazing. 

I really enjoyed this book because it’s really fun and easy yet captivating and suspenseful. The characters are relatable and enjoyable and he has had an amazing life I love this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Animal Farm 

by Orson Wells

Animal Farm is one big allegory of communism. Based in 1948 at the end of World War 2, it is a prediction of how Communist Russia will turn out and how the communist party had worked so far.

The story starts off with the animals of Manor Farm being told by a grisled old pig known as Major about a glorious future where the animals work together to survive instead of relying on the owner of the farm. This causes the animals to riot and overthrow the human ruler and owner of the farm, known as Jones. The animals seize control of the farm and start to work together to run the farm, they grow the crops and maintain the farm, each working together and each getting the same as each other. But this doesn’t last long as soon the pigs; the smartest animal on the farm, take control. This causes the power hungry pigs to start to unbalance the seemingly balanced farm. They start to dish out extra food rations to the pigs and of course the pigs as the leaders of the farm need not do manual labour. 

This is the stage at what Communist Russia was at the time that Owsen Wells wrote the book and from there on it is a scarily accurate prediction.

Two pigs arise as leader of Animal Farm, Napoleon a seemingly angry power hungry genius, and Snowball Napoleon’s more heroic intelligent but less power hungry rival. They fight over power and in the end Napoleon wins throwing Snowball out of the farm and blaming any misfortune that napoleon’s brings to the farm on snow ball. If any of this sound familiar it is similar to how Stalin took power and ruled. 

This is the point where things go down the drain for animal farm. At the start of the book all the animals get together and write a set of defining rules on the side of a barn. But as the pigs get more power hungry and more greedy. The rules seem to change and none of the animals can figure it out. 

After the pigs recover a create of old whiskey in the manor house they drink it all in one night. The rest of the animals check the rules and discover that the rule that previously said “No animal shall drink alcohol” has suspiciously changed to “No animal shall drink alcohol in excess”. But the animals are to dumb to realize the change and accept it. This is just the start of the discrepancies in the rules that the pigs create. This has a worldly context as from the readers perspective, it is easy to see that the animals are being deceived, but from the animal’s perspective they cannot, this is teaching the lesson of always being aware of your surroundings and striving for the truth.

The book finishes with the animals realizing that the pigs are worse that Jones and his men ever were. But not having the power to overthrow them and get their freedom back. This was a state at which many people felt like inside the Soviet Union. This book serves as a kind of warning to other people and countries. This is summed up in the quote “All the animals worked as hard as the next, apart from the pigs who were reversed from doing any labour”. This illustrates the equal but separate ideology of the Soviet Union and of Majors farm.

The reason I liked this book was how it blatantly is an allegory but because of how it is written and how ridiculous the story is it never gets boring unlike reading the actual history of Communist Russia. The way it is written is also very compelling as it balances well written happy scenes with dark meaningfulness.

I enjoyed how Animal farm mixes comedy and dark seriousness together and it made for a compelling and interesting read. I would recommend this book to people who know the history behind Communist Russia or just for anyone who wants to learn in an interesting way.  

Alexander, Child of a dream

By Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s Alexander Child of a Dream, is the first book of three. The historical drama follows the story of one of the greatest conquerors of the ancient world; Alexander, son of Philip, the king of Macedon. I have read books of the same genres and really enjoyed them. The ancient world is

definitely an interest of mine, especially the Roman and Greek civilizations and there is so much we can learn from their successes and mistakes.

Alexander was the only son of Philip and Olympias. He was born in the early 300 hundreds BC. He was educated by Aristotle when he was a teenager. His father was killed at his daughter’s wedding in front of the entire high court.

This experience threw Alexander into a mad revenge mission deep into Asia 

Minor. Alexander conquered the largest kingdom of the ancient world, spanning from modern day Ukraine to Southern Egypt and all the way to the Himalayas. But the great conquer sadly died  at an early age of 27.

The story of Alexander is an amazing true story with great characters. I really enjoyed the battle scenes that were incredibly well portrayed with actual Greek battle formations and dialogue from histories of the battles. History always is important to know about as we can learn from the mistakes of the past and the successes of the people. 

The main characters are very easy to connect with, and this means that you get very involved in the book. The way that Valerio Massimo Manfredi describes ancient Greek life and the way that the high class and the lower class live their lives is brilliant. The objects and beliefs of the Greeks are explained in great detail so that you can picture an Oxen Plow or the Temple of Delphi. But the best part of the book is the way that Valerio describes the character of the people in the book. His technique is very blunt stating how they feel all the time, so you start to build a mental picture of the character and can predict what he or she is going to do next. 

Lots of the dialogue is lifted right out of the histories of Alexander’s conquests. And in these histories there are lots of great quotes like.

“I am the absolute embodiment of pure human ambition with all its good and evil consequences.”

This one resonated with me a lot because it can be seen in any one, as most people put their goals above the greater good.

“the universe must have been created by an all-powerful being who, however, took no interest in his handiwork.”

A great quote with worldly connection, as so many people can blindly follow religion without thinking about the way that it affects other people and just claim that their religion is enough to give them reason.

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. “

Quotes like this could be true or could be exaggerated for effect but they are still great quotes whether Alexander said them or some historian five hundred years later. They show the humility of Alexander and his powerful presence. 
I really enjoyed Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s Alexander Child of a Dream and am looking forward to reading the two sequels. It has a lot of good messages and also give a great insight into the history involving the ancient greeks and Macedonians. I would recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in history.

Small Gods

By Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods is a thrilling short story based around the events and actions of a monk of the Order of Om, a sinister religion based around the god Om. One day the young monk discovers a tortoise in the cabbage fields that he is tilling. The tortoise speaks to him and claims to be the Great God Om. The tortoise demands to be taken to the highest reigning priest; the patriarch. But the monk is scared of the patriarch and instead keeps the tortoise secret. But soon he gets caught up in a plot by the patriarch to try and destroy their peaceful neighbors the Ephebians, the monk takes the tortoise with him to Ephebes where he discovers that there is thousands of different gods in thousands of different places not just Om. When the evil patriarch burns the city of Ephebes and kills nearly all of its people, the monk and the tortoise escape with a group of Ephebian survivors. But when escaping on the sea one of Oceania’s (the goddess of the sea and by far the most popular goddess) storms hits and the monk and the tortoise are washed up on the shore of the harsh desert. He makes his way across the desert and back to Omnia to discover that the patriarch has returned and is governing the city even harder killing everyone who speaks out against him. The monk and the turtle tries to overthrow the patricah and fail, but just as the monk is about to be killed Om turns from the turtle into his original form of a giant human like bull and obliterates the patriarch. Just as the story is seeming to rap up the remaining Ephibians and all there allies turn up and are about to destroy the city when Om returns to Cris Celisti (the cloud home of all the gods) and wrestles the gods of Ephebes and they have a big brawl in the middle of the battlefield. Everyone in the battle realizes that the gods are all powerful as they are are all equally stupid and power hungry so they unifie all the city states and decide that anyone can worship any god they want.

Terry pratchett is by far my favorite author and all the stories in his Discworld series are entertaining but this one was rare because it was not only a short graphic novel (the only one he’s ever done) but it actually teaches us some good lessons. the one that stood out to me was that gods need us more than we need them. A god doesnt exist if no one believes in them and the only way they become more powerful is from more people giving them power. It also illustrates the point that no matter where you go everyone has a god or multiple gods this shows that no matter how much power your god has or how much truth he or she offers, there is always someone who believes that their god is more powerful and more truth giving. 

I love Terry Pratchett’s style of writing it is very sarcastically brilliant. If you look at his Discworld series you will notice that lots of the characters and places are pulled right out of our own stories and legends. On the great Disc there are places such as Ephebes and Tsort which are modeled on ancient Greece and Turkey; the world also includes characters such as Tomeo and Bruliet the Disc’s answer to Romeo and Juliet. Interesting little features such as this make Terry pratchett’s writing engaging because your attention will be caught by something that you recognise. 

As usual of Terry Pratchett’s books this one includes some great quotes. The book releases lots of existential questions that will help you think for yourself this is put amazingly in this quote 

“Gods don’t like people not doing much work. People who aren’t busy all the time might start to think.”

This shows that whatever god you believe in they are promoting blind allegiance not self reliability. This is a great quote and it has a deep meaning backed by humour. But my favorite quote from this book is, 

“What’s a philosopher?’ asked Brutha.

“Someone who’s bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting,’ said a voice in his head.”

I believe that this quote requires no explanation. But this quote gives us insight into the humor that terry pratchett uses. 

This was the best book I have read this year and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone, especially if the are just looking for some nice easy reading for the day.

Thief Of Time

By Terry Pratchett

Thief of time is a fantasy story based in a world similar to our own apart from the fact that it is flat, and carried on the back of four elephants riding on the back of a giant green turtle floating through space. In this strange world there is a plethora of mystic creatures and strange Magic. (Ranging from a suitcase with 100 legs that follows its master around, to the granddaughter of death; who happens to be a school teacher.

The Discworld series contains 41 books with most of them being unrelated to the other, this particular story is based in a strange time for the world. The Discworld is going through a period of time not unsimilar to our industrial revolution. Humans have recently discovered how to manipulate electricity from lightning; one of the storylines in this book is based upon the creation of one of these exciting new inventions. Jeremy Clocksmith is a famous clock builder and has been tasked by a mysterious deity to create a clock made completely out of glass which could theoretically measure the “Atomic tick”, the smallest measurement of time and therefore never go out of time. But the true purpose of the clock is much more sinister. The clock has the ability to trap time and the strange deity hopes when the clock works time will stop and the world will be perfectly balanced, with nothing changing in the world. But there is one group of “people” that can stop it. The history monks of Oi Dong. These strange monks can bend time to their will. The history monks can sense that time is coming undone and send their best after the source. The final storyline is based around the personification of Death and his granddaughter Susan. Susan has inherited special characteristics from her grandfather, such as the ability to live outside the flow of time. She is featured in some of the other Discworld novels but in this book she too has senses the stopping of time and is rushing to figure out the cause.

Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors and I have read many of the Discworld series before and I can confidently say that this is one of my favorites. The characters aren’t reliable but because they are so likeable you really feel attached to them. Lu Tze is the charismatic older hero in disguise whos outlook on life makes him a successful monk, his apprentice on the other hand is young and ambitious but grounded. These two characters have conflicting ideologies and that is what makes their relationship so interesting to read about. My favorite character in the book though is the personification of Death. Death is pictured not as an evil entity devouring souls and laughing, but as a loving a loving grandfather and someone who feels proud of his job but sorry for the people that he escorts to the afterlife. The way that people greet Death in the book is very interesting; everyone in the Discworld is used to strange things so the are relatively indifferent to the fact that they have just meet the personification of death. This is a great worldly message as people should not fear death instead love the life they are living. 

This book isn’t trying to hammer in ideas about inequality or looking through people’s exterior. It isn’t a fun loving kind book, which is something that really stood out to me about Terry Pratchett’s books he’s not thinking about what messages his books are portraying he’s thinking about how to make an interesting story. 

Terry Pratchett’s blunt kind of writing means that there are lots of great deep  quotes in all his books. 

 “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” – Terry Pratchett

 this one stood out to me because its very true. People are always trying to make you think one way or another. People are always trying to effect your own ideas and change your perspective. 

“Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.” – Terry Pratchett 

This is my favorite terry pratchett quote as he has a point, experience comes from failure, but wisdom and success comes from experience.

This book was great because it didn’t teach me to be a better person, it didn’t have a moral or a message. It was just an entertaining story with great characters and an interesting plot. I would recommend reading it to anyone even if they don’t enjoy the genre.

V for Vendetta

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V for Vendetta is a political movie set in a dystopian future where most global superpowers like America and China have collapsed into war. The story takes place in the now oligarchic state of great britain. The city of London is completely controlled by the so called High Chancellor Adam Sutler (not Adam Sandler) and his board of directors. A curfew has been emplaced and many items, movies, songs and books have been “blacklisted”. Our hero and protagonist are both introduced to us in the first five minutes, the hero is an eccentric self proclaimed man of the people nicknamed V who was experimented on and burnt until he was terribly scared, this means that he permanently wears a guy fawkes mask and a long heavy cape and robes but his lack of a physical look means that the viewer is forced to focus more on his words and actions.

The protagonist is a 25 year old woman called Evie played by Natalie Portman whose parents were political activists fighting to stop the rise of power from the high chancellor. All of the main characters are portrayed brilliantly especially how Hugo Weaving plays V bringing out the intelligence and wit of the character. Also Stephen Fry plays Dimitri an eccentric tv presenter who is Evie’s boss and looks after her. Stephen Fry brings out the kindness of this character and shows off his collection of blacklisted items such as an accent picture of the long dead royal family and a copy of the Koran. He says when showing Evie the Korah. Evie asks if he is Muslim and he says “no, but things of such beauty should not be forgotten because someone more powerful hates it.”

This quote is beautiful and really shows how much some people regret the culling of foreigners and the shutting down of the borders.      

When V and Evie meet she begins to know the man behind the mask, but there peaceful lives are disturbed when Evie is thought to have been captured by the Chancellor but after weeks of torture and imprisonment it is revealed that the person who has imprisoned Evie is V who captured her to make sure of her loyalty, which is an interesting way to prove loyalty. But Evie of course does not take this well and storms off just a few months before V’s plan comes to fruition.

In the end it is revealed that the bio weapon that was used on London was sinfersised from V’s blood when he was contained in a government  and it was not released on London by terrorists but rather by the government, in an attempt to influence the election and shut down the country. So as a final act V sacrifices himself in order to blow up Westminster Palace on the 5th of November, to show that there is a choice between tyranny and democracy. With some beautiful final lines from Evie as V gives his life for others she says “No one will ever forget that night and what it meant for this country. But I will never forget the man and what he meant to me.” This movie shows us that to break the rules is sometimes the best way to change the things that are wrong with the world. 

 The movie brings showcases many important issues. In the near future great britain has shutdown it borders and imprisoned everyone who is “Different”. It’s a society that is shut off from the rest of the world choosing to arrest everyone who is gay or muslim or foreign. The country was shut down after a bioterrorism attack on a school and a water treatment plant in the center of London, this attack killed thousands and terrified everyone in london. This is a more extreme version of terror attacks throughout history and the response of the people after an attack such as the Twin Tower attacks. 

This movie has a very interesting perspective of good versus evil, by definition, the protagonist is a terrorist and planes on blowing up parliament and killing the ruling party, but the way that the story shows it he is framed as having justification and doing his crimes for the greater good of the country. This forms an interesting conflict between what V is doing and being the protagonist. One of the was that the writers have made it easy for the view to be on V’s side is by framing the chancellor as sure and evil authoritarian figure, the initere government was is also portrayed in an evil form as the people all come together at the end of the movie to rise up against them. This movie has a great worldly connection as it shows that no matter how people are mistreated they can rise up. It also shows that how a government or leaders only have power if the people allow them to have power. 

I loved this movie and it has influenced the way I think in my life, it made me think of the big picture and how we still have power even if we feel helpless. It may not be your ordinary contemporary movie but it is well worth the watch.