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1. Secrets of the Samurai - The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan by Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook - I've had this book for quite awhile now, I just never read it. Which is stupid, considering how much I love history. Pretty good, although the writing style was a tad too dry for my tastes.
2. The Famine Ships: The Irish Exodus to America by Edward Laxton - I had to read this for one of my history classes, and although the author needs some serious writing lessons (egads, it's awful) the subject matter was fascinating as hell.
3. Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada by Wendy Pearlman - Another one for school, this time for a Global Issues class. This was great, reading the Palestinian side firsthand was interesting and the people themselves were eloquent and smart.
2. The Famine Ships: The Irish Exodus to America by Edward Laxton - I had to read this for one of my history classes, and although the author needs some serious writing lessons (egads, it's awful) the subject matter was fascinating as hell.
3. Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada by Wendy Pearlman - Another one for school, this time for a Global Issues class. This was great, reading the Palestinian side firsthand was interesting and the people themselves were eloquent and smart.
4. The Wild Trees by Richard Preston -This was incredible. It's about the giant redwoods in Northern California and the people who use a system of ropes and pulleys to climb them. Very interesting and makes me wanna go try it, although I'd no doubt die.
5. Codependent No More by Melody Beattie - Read this for school and absolutely loved it. Learned a lot.
6. Nobody Nowhere by Donna Williams -Loved this so much.
7. The Center Cannot Hold by Dr. Elyn Saks - I adore this book and admire Dr. Saks quite a bit. She's a great writer and her descriptions of her life with schizophrenia are amazing.
when I was little, after my mom died, i felt like nobody cared about me. I was in a lot of pain, and the way I was able to get away from it for a little while was through my mom's books. I was only six so I didn't have any of my own, but she had a collection of historical fiction. I read that, and for a little bit I could escape there and my problems and pain didn't exist for me. It was like a movie, except it was in my head. I could see everything I was reading, and I'd make up stories to extend the books when they were done. It was always my escape mechanism. And that carried into my whole life. I love reading about other times and places because it's like I can travel there and leave my own world behind, even if it's only in my head.
..see? Told ya it wouldnt make sense.
And I think it takes a certain type of brain to really like history. Old dusty filing-cabinet type, not computer type. lol.
And I don't think history is important at all. It's completely useless information, because you can't, by its very definition, know all of it...and all that you can possibly know is directly related to where you are and what the powers that be want you to be taught.
History is nothing more than a fictional hypothesis interpreted and taught as it is by those that have conquered. It's all relative and therefore isn't important in the grand scheme of anything.
And that's why I love it, because it's fiction, sometimes interspersed with dates and events that actually happened.
But regardless, you're not dumb. I was god before i got my sammich, and I hath commanded it.
Math is fun, I used to be good at it.