Reviving the 2017 Reading Challenge!

Three and a half years ago, I started a Reading Challenge. My goal was to read 100 books that year, books that had "changed the world"... whatever that might mean. I started off with great intention and by June 30 had reached 50 books... on track to make 100 books by the end of December. But then... life happened and I had to put the Reading Challenge on hiatus. I still read books in the latter half of 2017, I just didn't document it or blog about it...

Now... as I reach the midpoint of 2020... it feels like the right time to pick up the Reading Challenge and complete it. I have a few books already here... and hope that the public library will provide a steady supply... but I am a bit at the whim of the library and which books are available in our local libraries. Inter-library loans and accessing the other libraries within our regional library system isn't necessarily going to work... but I am going to give it my best shot to stick with the list of books I had identified at the start of 2017. Although... I am adding several other books in the interest of racial diversity...

Right now, the list is looking like this... although it is a bit out of date, as there were a number of books I read in 2017 that aren't on this list... so it might get updated in the coming weeks... But for now... it's off to The Little Prince... followed by Demand the Impossible!

	Status	Title	Author		Year	Pages
1	done	Freedom Writers Diary	Erin	Gruwell	1999	316
2	done	Nineteen Eighty Four (1984)	George	Orwell	1949	407
3	done	Silent Spring	Rachel	Carson	1962	378
4	done	Brave New World	Aldous	Huxley	1932	268
5	done	Ways of Seeing	John	Berger	1972	176
6	done	Here Comes Everybody	Clay	Shirky	2008	336
7	done	Sand County Almanac	Aldo	Leopold	1949	269
8	Done	Autobiography of Malcolm X	Malcolm	X	1965	466
9	done	Eating Animals	Jonathan	Safran Foer	2009	341
10	done	Tattoos on the Heart	Gregory	Boyle	2009	240
11	done	War and Peace	Leo	Tolstoy	1865	1392
12	done	Nature & Other Writings	Ralph Waldo	Emerson	1995	225
13	done	The Upcycle	William	McDonough	2013	256
14	done	The Spirit Level	Richard	Wilkinson	2009	372
15	done	The Necessary Revolution	Peter	Senge	2008	406
16	done	Keeping the Bees	Laurence	Packer	2016	288
17	done	The Town that Food Saved	Ben	Hewitt	2010	242
18	done	Wuthering Heights	Emily	Bronte	1847	214
19	reading	The Little Prince	Antoine	de Saint-Exupery	1943	83
20	reading	Demand the Impossible	Bill	Ayers	2016	150
21	Have it	The Alchemist	Paulo	Coelho	1988	197
22	have it	Night	Elie	Wiesel	1958	120
23	on hold	So you want to talk about race	Ijeoma	Oluo	2019	266
24	on hold	White Fragility	Robin J.	DiAngelo	2018	187
25	on hold	From the Ashes	Jessie	Thistle	2019	369
26	on hold	A Long Walk to Water	Linda Sue	Park	2010	133
27	on hold	Things Fall Apart	Chinua	Achebe	2009	224
28	on hold	Burger's Daughters	Nadine	Gordimer	1980	364
29	Public Lib	The Second Sex	Simone	de Beauvoir	1949	746
30	Public Lib	Non-Violent Resistance	Mahatma	Gandhi	1961	432
31	Public Lib	Walden	Henry David	Thoreau	1854	352
32	Public Lib	Brief History of Time	Stephen	Hawking	1987	212
33	Public Lib	I am Nujood	Nujood	Ali	2009	188
34	Public Lib	The True Believer	Erich	Hoffer	2010	240
35	Public Lib	Shake Hands with the Devil	Romeo	Dallaire	2003	562
36	Public Lib	Orientalism	Edward	Said	1978	395
37	Public Lib	Qur'an			650	604
38	Public Lib	General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money	John Maynard	Keynes	1935	403
39	Public Lib	Das Kapital	Karl	Marx	1867	356
40	Public Lib	Rights of Man	Thomas	Paine	1791	229
41	Public Lib	The Sixth Extinction	Elizabeth	Kolbert	2014	319
42	Public Lib	I am Malala	Malala	Yousafzai	2012	327
43	Public Lib	Uncle Tom's Cabin	Harriet Beecher	Stowe	1852	438
44	Public Lib	The Jungle	Upton	Sinclair	1905	335
45	Public Lib	Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee	Dee	Brown	1970	509
46	Public Lib	The Art of War	Sun	Tzu	-450	273
47	Public Lib	The Republic	Plato		-380	416
48	Public Lib	Tao te Ching	Lao	Tzu	-300	160
49	Public Lib	Critique of Pure Reason	Immanuel	Kant	1781	796
50	Public Lib	Mein Kampf	Adolf	Hitler	1925	384
51	Public Lib	Diary of a Young Girl	Anne	Frank	1947	283
52	Public Lib	Survival in Auschwitz	Primo	Levi	1958	187
53	Public Lib	Adios America	Ann	Coulter	2015	392
54	Public Lib	Tibetan Book of the Dead		Padmasambhava	700	592
55	Public Lib	The Meaning of Relativity	Albert	Einstein	1922	176
56	Public Lib	The Search for Roots	Primo	Levi	2003	258
57	Public Lib	Rise and Fall of the Third Reich	William	Shirer	1960	1614
58	Public Lib	Don Quixote	Miguel	Cervantes	1605	1023
59	University	The Sane Society	Erich	Fromm	2003	384
60	University	Hiroshima	John	Hersey	1946	152
61	University	The Feminine Mystique	Betty	Friedan	1963	592
62	University	Hard Green	Peter W.	Huber	1999	224
63	ILL	Deep Work	Cal	Newport	2016	296
64	ILL	The Earth Has a Soul	C.G.	Jung	2002	248
65	ILL	Steal this Book	Abbie	Hoffman	1971	352
66	ILL	Deep Green Resistance	Aric	McBay	2011	520
67	ILL	A Vindication of the Rights of Women	Mary	Wollstonecraft	1790	352
68	ILL	Communist Manifesto	Karl	Marx	1848	288
69	ILL	The Story of my Experiments with Truth	Mahatma	Gandhi	1940	560
70	ILL	Fascism - What It is and How to Fight it	Leon	Trotsky	1944	47
71	ILL	Imagined Communities	Benedict	Anderson	1983	240
72	ILL	Lifelong Activist	Hillary	Rettig	2006	399
73	ILL	Inglorious Empire	Shashi	Tharoor	2018	336
74	no idea	Guerilla Warfare	Che	Guevara	1960	440
75	no idea	Mohammed Code	Howard	Bloom	2013	342
76	no idea	The Man Who Fed the World	Leon	Hesser	2006	263
77	no idea	The Wretched of the Earth	Frantz	Fanon	2007	324
78	no idea	Confessions of a Mask	Yukio	Mishima	1958	256

2017 Book Challenge - Hiatus

I had planned to read over 100 books this year, and to blog about it as I went. Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way. What with one thing and another, I am finding that the continuous, daily reading, note-taking and then blogging is too much of a time and energy drain at this point. I hope to pick it up again. I am still reading books... just not blogging about it.

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - Part 2

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 176-181

June 25 to June 29, 2017 

Book 46 - War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy (1869)
 Part 2 - last 60%
Reading Time - many hours

I finished War and Peace!!! It took me 41.5 hours of reading but... it is done. It was a very, very good book and not at all like what I imagined it might be. The short chapters definitely make it digestible. And the characters are so intriguing and captivating. I didn't want the story to end... but end it did. I do have to say, the last 100 pages or so, the long philosophical musings, were a chore to wade through. Someone had suggested that I could skip that whole section but... I didn't feel like I would have completed the book if I had done it that way. So I wade through it. But if any newbie's out there want to read the book... for heaven's sake, skip the last 100 pages!

I know that I will read the story again some day. Now that I know the characters, I want to read it over again, to really get a sense of their development over time. At the same time, I want to read Tolstoy's other massive tome - Anna Karenina.... So perhaps that will come first.

The London Cage - Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E. - Part 4

The London Cage - Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E.

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 174

June 23, 2017 

Book 50 - The London Cage
Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E.
 Part 4 - p. 161-195
Reading Time - 45 minutes

In the last section we have another big story about German reprisals against the Italians. A bomb had been set off in Rome that killed or wounded a number of German police officers. In retaliation for the 33 dead Germans, Hitler decreed that 10 Italians would be killed for every 1 German. That meant 330 Italians had to be rounded up and executed. Scouring the prisons, the Germans found over 200 "worthy" Italians. The rest were made up from Italian Jews. But... eventually, 335 Italians were executed (possibly a math error). During the war crimes trials, the courts decided that the Germans had been within their rights to execute 10 Italians for every German... and so the perpetrators were only tried for the 5 extra Italians. Scotland is obviously outraged by these miscarriages of justice.

The other interesting thing is that many of the war criminals were given death sentences which were later reprieved. Or they were given life sentences but then freed a few years later. It does make one wonder then, why someone like Rudolf Hess, who flew to Britain on some crazy diplomatic quest in May 1941, was imprisoned in England (and then Spandau, Germany) until his death. Alas... Scotland tells us nothing about Rudolf Hess.

The London Cage - Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E. - Part 3

The London Cage - Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E.

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 173

June 22, 2017 

Book 50 - The London Cage
Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E.
 Part 3 - p. 107-160
Reading Time - 1 hour

In this section, we learn a lot about the Stalag Luft III escape attempt. Stalag Luft III was a POW camp for Allied airmen - mostly British, Canadian, Australian with a smattering from other Allied countries. The airmen constructed a tunnel out of the camp and about 80 men made it out before the Germans discovered the exit point. Over the next few weeks, most of the escapees were recaptured (except for two who eventually made their way back to England). Hitler and his deputies, in the aftermath of the escape had decided that an example needed to be made and ordered the killing of "at least half" of the escapees. As they were captured, the escapees were handed over to the Gestapo, driven down deserted roads and shot.

Scotland spends more time talking about the entire story than he does about how the information was extracted from German prisoners of war. His biggest regret seems to be that not everyone involved in the atrocity was captured and/or convicted. It is a sad story.

The London Cage - Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E. - Part 2

The London Cage - Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E.

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 172

June 21, 2017 

Book 50 - The London Cage
Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E.
 Part 2 - p. 59-106
Reading Time - 1 hour

Much of the rest of the book concerns various war crimes against Allied soldiers. I learned about the Mass Murder at Paradis, where, during the spring of 1940, 98 British soldiers, who had surrendered were executed by the Germans.

There is an amusing story about a German POW who, after the war was over, grew bored with the slow movement of repatriation. He snuck down to Ipswich harbour, onto a Swedish boat and over to Germany. He spent almost a year in Germany but eventually came back because he had no papers. Sneaking back into England, he reported to the POW camp but no one believed him. Scotland eventually had a chat with him, and did believe him.

Scotland sounds like a rather grandfatherly character and yet... it was out of the Paradis crime that rumours circulated of harsh treatment meted out to the German POWs held at the London Cage. Given that his initial manuscript contained details of his non-Red Cross sanctioned methods... it is interesting to see him deny any ill treatment of his prisoners.

The London Cage - Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E. - Part 1

The London Cage - Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E.

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 171

June 20, 2017 

Book 50 - The London Cage
Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland O.B.E.
 Part 1 - p. 1-58
Reading Time - 1 hour

A "work" book this time... or rather, a "research" book. The London Cage was a secret interrogation centre for prisoners of war during World War 2. It was run by MI19, under the command of Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland. Results of the interrogations were used to prosecute war crimes suspects, particularly those engage in atrocities against Allied soldiers. Rumours abounded that the London Cage used coercive methods of interrogation amounting to torture, against the Geneva Convention. The London Cage wasn't on any Red Cross lists. It was a no-where place. After the war, Scotland kept some files and papers from his time at the London Cage and wrote a manuscript. It created quite a stir in Military Intelligence circles, as he revealed a lot of what went on in the cage. The final version of the book was published 7 years later and highly edited (sanitized).

We start by following Scotland as he works in southern Africa for a logistics company that supplies food to the German Army (this was between the Boer War and World War I). It ended up being easier for him to do his job if he was a member of the German Army and so he served with them for four years. Already he had a love for intelligence work and learned quite a bit about how the German Army functioned, information that he then took back and shared with the British.

Several years later, he ended up doing intelligence work during World War I, even making forays into enemy territory to gather information on troop dispositions. Given his excellent command of German, and his understanding of the German psyche, he interrogated a lot of captured Germans. After World War I, he traveled extensively and, during the 1930s, saw the rise of the Nazis as a foreshadowing of the coming war.

Night - Elie Wiesel - Part 2

Night - Elie Wiesel

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 170

June 19, 2017 

Book 49 - Night
Elie Wiesel (1972)
 Part 2 - p. 66-120
Reading Time - 1 hour

With the Russians approaching the camp in which Elie and his father were kept... the Germans decided to evacuate the camp. In the dead of winter. Elie had a foot wound and was in the infirmary but did not want to be separated from his father. Should they stay in the camp, with his father serving as an orderly and risk execution? Or should they risk the unknown march? They chose to march. Two days later, the Russians liberated the concentration camp with all of the remaining prisoners. How much of a difference that would have made. In choosing to march, Elie's father eventually dies. Had they stayed, he might have lived.

Elie wrote this book so that all would remember what happened to 6,000,000 Jews in Europe. "If we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices".

And yet... even today, we have Syria. We have Rwanda. We have Somalia. We have Ukraine. We have Afghanistan. We have the USA. We have so many places were human rights are trampled underfoot. It might start out small... with a few restrictions on freedom... on civil liberties. But what starts small can eventually metamorphose into a monster. We must always remember. We must be vigilant. The Romanian Jews... and likely Jews throughout Europe, refused to believe that something so small could turn into something so awful. But it always starts out small and inconspicuous. We must be alert.

Night - Elie Wiesel - Part 1

Night - Elie Wiesel

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 169

June 18, 2017 

Book 49 - Night
Elie Wiesel (1972)
 Part 1 - p. vii-xxi, 1-65
Reading Time - 1.2 hour

This is a slim volume but a devastatingly powerful. Elie Wiesel was a Romanian Jew who was, along with his father, mother and three sisters, sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in 1944. Elie and two of his sisters survived the war.

The striking thing in the first part is the naivety of the Jews in Transylvania. Even when the Fascists seized power and let the Germans into the country, the Jews tried to keep up an optimistic attitude. It's the 20th Century after all. One foreign Jew who was sent to a concentration camp a year or so earlier managed to escape and came back. He warned them of what was happening... and no one believed him. They thought he was crazy. Such things couldn't happen in this day and age. Yet they did.

The other thing that struck me was how quickly human beings can adapt to cruelty. How quickly the virtues of kindness and compassion can be traded in for selfishness and self-preservation. Anything to avoid getting beaten yourself.

It is in this book that Elie recounts the story of a young boy who was hanged in one of the concentration camps. "Where is God? He is there... hanging on the gallows." I had always seen this interpreted, in Christian circles at least, from a Christocentric perspective. The unity of our human suffering to the suffering of Christ that is, in some way, redemptive. But that is reading too much of Christ into the story. For Elie... his belief in God hung in tatters on those gallows. Where was God? He was dead.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 9

The Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 168

June 17, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1964)
 Part 9 - 441-527
Reading Time - 2 hours

This last section is a lengthy Epilogue written by Alex Haley. It details his history with Malcolm X and the lengthy interviews and discussions that they had while Alex was crafting the book. It gives some behind the scenes information of what went into the book. For example, the whole Nation of Islam section was written while Malcolm was still a fervent member of it - hence the fanatical tone to it.

Haley takes us through the assassination of Malcolm X - apparently conducted by members of the Nation of Islam... although there are rumours that it might have been a government hit as well. Given that there were three major assassinations in the mid 1960s (Kennedy, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr) - one has to wonder at what was going on in the United States during that period.

Malcolm X, after he left the Nation of Islam, and began to think for himself, had huge potential to transform society. It is unfortunate that his life was cut short.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 8

The Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 167

June 16, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1964)
 Part 8 - 394-440
Reading Time - 1 hour

Malcolm, after his visit to Mecca, toured several countries in Africa and the Middle East. He states that "a country's moral strength or weakness is reflected in the attire and attitude of its women". He thinks that if everyone became Muslim, the problems of the world would be solved. I would say that this chapter (minus those few strange comments) is probably the best in the book. His thinking is more balanced and coherent than the "let's extol the virtues of Elijah Muhammed".


He comes to the realization that the African American problem is not civil rights but human rights. On the other hand, Malcolm advocates violence for blacks to get human rights... which seems a bit dangerous and I could see how people saw him as an inflammatory militant. After he came home he realized that many whites were unaware of their own racism - which rings true from my own experience here in Canada. He argues that the political, economic and social atmosphere in the States nourishes a racist psychology - which is intriguing.



Malcolm wouldn't have much time back in America to set up his organizations - he was assassinated in February 1965. So, in many ways, its unfortunate that his thinking never got to mature and develop too far beyond the militant stage.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 7

The Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 166

June 15, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1965)
 Part 7 - 332-393
Reading Time - 1 hour

The beginning of the end shows up in this section. People in the Nation of Islam are getting envious of Malcolm and starting rumours behind his back. Malcolm learned that Elijah Muhammed was not paragon of moral virtue that he appeared to be. Malcolm was suspended for 90 days and during that period he began to "think for myself". He decides to part ways with he Nation of Islam but soon learns that there is a death order out for him. Sounds kind of cultish (Alex Haley - the ghost writer called Nation of Islam a "cult"). Malcolm decides to go to Mecca to learn more about True Islam and has a transformative experience. He sees Muslims of every colour under the skin mingling together in true brotherhood. He realizes that white people are not the problem but racism is...

I came across one commentary on the book that says the autobiography is hagiography... which basically means it portrays the person as a a saint. It does rather read like that - and that is a bit tiring after a while.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 6

The Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 165

June 14, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1965)
 Part 6 - 271-331
Reading Time - 1 hour

One thing I learned... the "X" represents the lost African name of the believers of the Nation of Islam. But eventually it gets a little silly... like "James 67X" (the 67th James in the organization).

Malcolm did a lot of recruiting for the Nation of Islam and eventually got on the radar of the media. He engaged in debates with other mainstream Negro leaders (Malcolm himself uses the word Negro). "The white man is the enemy". The black man's original language was Arabic (that's a bit of a surprise - I would have thought they would have had Indigenous African languages - clearly historical accuracy is not big for them). Malcolm argues that the black people need self-respect - they need to lift up their own sense of values. Which makes sense... they need to be responsible for themselves and not wait for someone else to save them. Much of the section deals with the speeches of Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammed - which... after a while, become a little tedious.

Given, however, that these events took place 60 years ago... and America is still dealing with blatant racism against African Americans... one wonders if anything has really altered?

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 5

The Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 164

June 13, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1965)
 Part 5 - 220-270
Reading Time - 1 hour

Malcolm gets out of prison and quickly becomes more heavily involved with the Nation of Islam. He is a convert and he buys everything that the group says, particularly its leader - Elijah Muhammed. A lot of the stuff that he says is pretty provocative. Black man is the Original Man. White man raping black ancestors. Black people remind white people of their guilt. Malcolm is such a fervent believer that he quickly becomes an assistant minister and eventually goes out and helps establish temples in other cities. He speaks quite harshly about women - "True nature of man is to be strong, true nature of woman is to be weak". His views of women are very misogynistic.

It's hard to take a lot of what he says seriously. A lot of this section is adulation of the leader, Elijah Muhammed who, apparently, can do no wrong in Malcolm's eyes.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 4

The Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 163

June 12, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1965)
 Part 4 - 155-219
Reading Time - 1 hour

We knew this was coming... Malcolm X ends up in prison for robbery. He is sentenced to 10 years. While there, his family gets involved with the Nation of Islam - a splinter group of Islam run by Elijah Muhammed. Malcolm X acknowledges that when he went to Mecca, the elders there were spitting mad at the Nation of Islam for twisting the teachings of Islam. Sooo... anyhow... Malcolm X gets converted and his life turns around. He starts reading as much as he possibly can about history and religion. He discovers the history of slavery in the United States and is appalled. Everything he reads about the world convinces him that the white man is the devil and has oppressed black, brown, red and yellow people throughout history. He joins the debating club in prison and tries to convert other black prisoners to Nation of Islam.

Malcolm X had an epiphany in prison and it turned his life around. One can't really argue with the success of that... he turned from "the personification of evil". What he turned into has yet to be revealed in the book... we shall see!

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 3

Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 162

June 11, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1965)
 Part 3 - 98-154
Reading Time - 1 hour

Well... I've learned a lot about the seedier side of Harlem life in the 1940s. Malcolm X was quite a character who, by his own admission, lived by his wits. He tried everything - armed robbery, drug dealing, etc. He also seems to have been a bit of a misogynist - "all women, by their nature, are fragile and weak: they are attracted to the male in whom they see strength" (p. 108). Can't say as I really agree with him. On the other hand, he's being real... expressing how he sees the world. Throughout the course of this section, Malcolm gets deeper and deeper into trouble... he is on the run from all sorts of people, including the police and the chapter ends with him returning to Boston. I think, though, it's going to be a short-lived reprieve.

I really get a sense of the desperation in which people lived... particularly the African Americans. They really have been taken advantage of... as we have taken advantage of the Indigenous people in Canada. It's kind of sad... but what is the solution? I read a BBC Magazine article online that said, essentially, we are all inherently racist. We all look at the "Other" as different from ourselves, or our tribe, and shun them. If only we could see that we all belong to the Tribe called Humanity... things might be different.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 2

Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 161

June 10, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1965)
 Part 2 - 47-97
Reading Time - 1 hour

We learn quite a bit about Malcolm's time in Boston. He was only 15-16 years old but looked much older. He managed to get a variety of jobs, made some older friends and very quickly started associating with some of the big music names from the 1940s (Duke Ellington, etc). All because he was the shoe-shine boy at one of the big dance halls in Boston! I gather that Malcolm was quite driven... he wasn't going to just take whatever life threw at him, he was going to go out and seize it and make the most of it.

The book reads a bit like a Who's Who of that time - he drops a lot of names which are mostly meaningless to me. Musicians, hustlers, etc. So it's a bit hard to really get into the story sometimes. At one point, he was working as a sandwich boy on the Boston-New York railway run and discovered Harlem in New York. He was entranced and resolved to move there. One does get a very strong sense that Malcolm really has no time for white people... and that he regrets the many ways in which he, and other African Americans, tried to integrate into white society.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X - Part 1

Autobiography of Malcolm X -
Malcolm X

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 160

  June 9, 2017 

Book 48 - The Autobiography of Malcolm X -
as told to Alex Haley
Malcolm X (1965)
 Part 1 - ix-xv, 1-46
Reading Time - 1 hour

This book is on my 2017 reading list! Hooray! I'm sort of reading whatever books I can easily get my hands on at the local library. I have some requests in with them but it can take weeks for some of the books to come in.

I really know nothing about Malcolm X. I know that he was a black rights activist and imagined he was something like Martin Luther King Jr. Turns out... he's nothing like MLK!!

Malcolm grew up pretty much dirt poor. His father died when he was 6 and by the time he was 13, his mother had been committed to a mental institution and he and his 7 siblings were split up between various foster homes. He blames the welfare system (run by whites) for destroying the family. Early on, one realizes that Malcolm has some pretty negative views of white people and white culture. He also admits that many blacks try to fit into the white system, try to integrate. It reminds me quite a bit of our relationship with Indigenous people up here in Canada. Us white people really have no clue of the Indigenous experience... none whatsoever... no matter how many First Nations friends we have. We don't have a clue. And it is the height of hubris to think that we somehow understand their situation.

Malcolm's options were fairly limited growing up in small-town Michigan. He once told his Grade 8 teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer (he was one of the smartest kids in the class). His teacher told him that it was "not possible as a Nigger". Malcolm then moved to Boston to live with his older half sister.

Malcolm sounds like a really "with-it" kid. He was very independent and a mover and a shaker. He wasn't going to take anything lying down and he learned a lot from his experiences. Reading about the situation of African Americans in the 1930s and 1940s... I wonder how much the situation has really changed in America?

Brave New World - Aldoux Huxley - Part 5

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 159

  June 8, 2017 

Book 47 - Brave New World
Aldous Huxley (1932)
 Part 5 - 189-231
Reading Time - 1 hour

This book was actually a really easy read and I whipped through it. The end of it was a bit of a surprise. The Savage watches his mother die in a hospital and then loses it while watching some Deltas receive their daily dose of soma (happy pills). Bernard and a friend of his appear and all three are detained. Bernard and his friend are sent to an island somewhere in the world (basically jail)... while the Savage retires to some deserted part of Surrey, England. His solitude doesn't last long though and hordes of people descend upon him. The book ends with him hanging himself. Kind of depressing... I hope Bernard and his friend made out better on the island. While the three were detained, the Controller has a discussion with the Savage... and therein we learn that science and art, along with Truth and Beauty, were sacrificed for happiness... It makes me wonder at the US motto... Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Is happiness the be-all and end-all? Is pleasure all that it's cracked up to be? If we're always told that we should "be happy", but we aren't, it's not wonder that there are so many depressed people out there.

The second part of the book has a follow-up - Brave New World Revisited, where Huxley looks back on the book from a vantage point of 20 years in the future. I'll read that later... For now, it's on to the next book.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - Part 4

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 158

  June 7, 2017 

Book 47 - Brave New World
Aldous Huxley (1932)
 Part 4 - 142-188
Reading Time - 1 hour

Well... our hero, Bernard, is the Savage's guardian and his esteem takes a big boost. Everybody wants to meet the Savage but... eventually the Savage refuses to cooperate and Bernard's status takes a big hit. The Savage, whose name is John, is quite disillusioned with the Brave New World. He had found a book back in his village of Shakespeare and reads it with avid fascination. Somewhere along the line, he has picked up some old world morals and this new world is just one big shock to his system after another.

This book does give me glimmers of The Hunger Games trilogy... the shallowness of the Brave New World folk. And sometimes, I get a glimmer of today... how we too are wrapped up in shallow pursuits of beauty and youth, games and status. Entertainment that has no depth to it... how we get lost in the television in the evenings, watching other people live their dreams (vacations, property renovations)... living vicariously in many ways.