Book Recommendations

Written by a veteran of the American Civil War with illustrations by a friend. This book just may the the definitive reference for the life of the common soldier in the Union Army in the Civil War. Written with fondness and above all, a great sense of humor. Hardcore reenactors love this book. It is very informative, but above that, it is extremely entertaining to read and frequently uproariously funny.

Hundreds of drawings. Some are a complete crack-up (e.g. full sized drawing of a piece of hardtack, enlarged drawing of a body tick, etc.)

Confederates in the Attic : Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
by Tony Horwitz
published by Random House; ISBN: 067975833X (Vintage Departures)

I think the Vintage Departure series is a great collection of books. For a fairly comprehensive list of Vintage Departures books, check out Stephen Littrel's (slittrell@austin.rr.com) web site at UTexas: https://webspace.utexas.edu/swl/www/vintage.html. Exerpt from amazon.com review:

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz returned from years of traipsing through war zones as a foreign correspondent only to find that his childhood obsession with the Civil War had caught up with him. Near his house in Virginia, he happened to encounter people who reenact the Civil War--men who dress up in period costumes and live as Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. Intrigued, he wound up having some odd adventures with the "hardcores," the fellows who try to immerse themselves in the war, hoping to get what they lovingly term a "period rush." Horwitz spent two years reporting on why Americans are still so obsessed with the war, and the ways in which it resonates today.

Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov
published by Knopf; ISBN: 0679410430

I remain mystified about what the controversy is all about. My only guess is that the people who are "shocked" by this book have not read it. I got this book after being captivated by Adrian Lyne's 1997 movie. Far from the erotic thrill I expected, my appreciation of this work follows closely with this snippet from a review on amazon.com:

Playfully perverse in form as well as content, riddled with puns and literary allusions, Nabokov's 1955 novel is a hymn to the Russian-born author's delight in his adopted language. Indeed, readers who want to probe all of its allusive nooks and crannies will need to consult the annotated edition.

At a bare minimum, at least have a dictionary by your side as you read this book. The references to the "adopted language" ring especially true and it is very obvious to me that Nabokov intensely appreciated the richness of the English language.

Guns, Germs, and Steel
by Jared Diamond
W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393038912

A fascinating and scholarly work that proposes that geography, demography, and ecological happenstance have played a much more important role in society than genetics. This book debunks racist theories behind European dominance in a straightforward manner.

Into Thin Air
A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster (The Illustrated Edition)
by Jon Krakauer
published by Random House; ISBN: 0375502807

A riveting and well-written account of the May, 1996, expeditions to Mount Everest. Everyone interested in the outdoors should read this book.

Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
published by Anchor; ISBN: 0385486804

From amazon.com:
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

I got this book after reading Into Thin Air because I liked Krakauer's writing. My fascination with this story is closely aligned with Krakauer's; there but for the grace of God, go I.

The Gettysburg Campaign : A Study in Command
by Edwin B. Coddington
published by Touchstone Books; ISBN: 0684845695

Edwin Coddington took 30 years to research and write what many consider to be the definitive history of the battle of Gettysburg and the movements of the armies for the month leading up to the battle. One of the outstanding aspects of this book is how the personalities of the commanders is revealed to be a major factor in how the campaign developed.

The shear amount of research and meticulous end notes is not to be denied.

Everest : Mountain Without Mercy
by Broughton Coburn, David Breashears
published by Random House; ISBN: 0792270142

This book is written in collaboration between the IMAX film team and the National Geographic Society. It stands to reason that the photography is superb. It is also a factful and sensitive tale with emphasis on the Sherpas, Nepal, and Buddhism. There is interesting material to read in this book, but it is marred slightly by the fact that about 60% of the book is sidebars so the flow of writing is disjointed. The text layout also suffers from this. But it is a great book to just pick up and flip to a random page and start looking at photographs and reading. A great coffee table book.

Orthodoxy
by G. K. Chesterton
published by Harold Shaw Pub; ISBN: 087788630X

From amazon.com:
Gilbert Keith Chesterton called himself a "pagan" at 12 and was agnostic by 16. He then developed a personal, positive philosophy that turned out to be orthodox Christianity. First published in 1908, when he was 35, this intellectual and spiritual autobiography combines simplicity with subtlety in a model apologetic for those who face the same materialism and anti-supernaturalism as the "man at war with his times".

The stunning and beautiful photography of Sharon Green. The ultimate coffee table book for sailors.

Redmond O'Hanlon is a Professor of Natural History at Oxford and tends towards the scholarly, sedate life of academia. So why does he search out the most improbably, most difficult to reach destinations where extreme hardship is guaranteed? As far as I can tell, to give us some of the most entertaining and hilarious travel writing ever. The cast of players are all totally memorable, unique, and complete. Mr. O'Hanlon does a thoroughly enjoyable job of describing his misadventures in the miserable, bug-infested Amazon jungle.

I think the Vintage Departure series is a great collection of books. For a fairly comprehensive list of Vintage Departures books, check out Stephen Littrel's (slittrell@austin.rr.com) web site at UTexas: https://webspace.utexas.edu/swl/www/vintage.html.

An earlier book from Redmond O'Hanlon. His writing isn't quite as mature in this book but the material is rich enough to thoroughly entertain.

I think the Vintage Departure series is a great collection of books. For a fairly comprehensive list of Vintage Departures books, check out Stephen Littrel's (slittrell@austin.rr.com) web site at UTexas: https://webspace.utexas.edu/swl/www/vintage.html.

Exploring Expect
by Don Libes
published by O'Reilly & Associates; ISBN: 1565920902

This is a worthwhile book not only for people interested in Expect, but also simply interested in Tcl/Tk in general. Lots of good examples and real programs. I found Don Libes to be an engaging and interesting author and this book was my first book after Ousterhout's Tcl and the Tk Toolkit; it helped jump-start my understanding of this neat scripting language.

Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk
by Brent B. Welch
published by Prentice Hall; ISBN: 0136168302

This book is the real Tcl/Tk "textbook", in my opinion. It can be read (and the examples worked out) sequentially. I found this book relatively late in my Tcl/Tk learning curve but its clear description of some of the areas I was having trouble with made it a most welcome addition to my library. If I were starting to learn Tcl/Tk today, I would get this book and use the online man pages at Scriptics -- before I would buy Ousterhout's book, even.

Ousterhout's definitive book (Tcl and the Tk Toolkit) is very useful and I own it and reference it frequently, but really only to backup and corroborate what I get from Welch and the man pages.