400 Windows, 400 Worlds: November 2016

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

After Yorktown

Well, I got off on some tangents with library books the past several weeks, but now I'm back reading my own books. I finished the "D" category and decided to start on "F" authors, with a history of the American Revolution by Thomas Fleming, The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival after Yorktown. It's quite interesting. I didn't know anything about the immediate aftermath of the victory over Cornwallis in 1781.

Times in our fledgling republic were tough, apparently, with a lot going on. So far Fleming draws a very chaotic picture of people's response to the surrender of Cornwallis, some thinking the war was over, others trying to get the Army back together to continue the fight since the war was decidedly not over. George III was not conceding defeat and the new American government was out of money. It looks like this will be a good story.

About this blog . . .

Welcome to 400 Windows, 400 Worlds!

Update: I'm back at it, reading all my books! Now I've got an additional 100 books to read (or at least attempt to read), so I've got to get cracking! Not all of them are "readable"--by that I mean that they are reference books, so it might be less than 505 before I'm through. But I'm heading down the road, anyway. This time I plan to read one book per week, on average, so I can get done in under 10 years (!) Why not come along?

My mother always used to say . . .

that a person could travel the world without leaving her chair, just by reading a book. Mom was a little girl when she fell in love with reading, and from her I learned to love reading too. I still remember my first trip to the library where I borrowed a stack of books almost as tall as I was. As I grew older, I started to acquire books, and over the years I've bought and sold hundreds of books, at one time owning as many as 1,200.

Right now I own about 657 books, most of them unread. To me, an unread book is like a promise, a pleasure I look forward to indulging some time in the future. At least that's what I've been telling myself for years. I look at the book, thinking of how I'll enjoy it one day, when I have time . . .

Well, I'm not getting any younger, and some years ago I realized that if I don't get to reading all my wonderful books, I may never have the chance. So I starting reading them, one at a time.

Currently, about 210 of the 657 in my collection are either books I've read or reference books. But the rest--about 447--are worlds waiting to be explored. I don't know how long it will take to read all the books in my collection (assuming I don't add too many), but I continue on my quest.

This blog has been created to document that quest--to chronicle my progress and to share my insights with anyone who cares to stop by.

One of my goals in starting this blog is to get other people interested in the books I'm reading, even though many of them were published years ago. It will, I hope, revive interest in some of these books and spur discussion of their ideas.

Another of my goals is, of course, to finally read all my books. I'm hoping this blog will help with that by giving me people to share impressions with and spur me on to further reading adventures.

So please join me in opening 400 windows to 400 worlds!

About me . . .

I'm a life-long avid reader who believes that people should not restrict their reading choices to only serious or scholarly books. My choices are wide-ranging, as you can tell from my reviews.

I currently live in the midwest, though over my lifetime I've lived in just about every region of the country. I'm retired now, and really enjoying my free time. Though I'm getting up there in years, I still have plenty of energy to learn new things and start new projects, one of which is to read all my books!