..., and it wasn't a compliment back then. But, I certainly take it as one now. Jen, the wonderful book blogger of Jen's Book Thoughts, has so graced me. And, I thank her for it. Now, for my part in this, I'm supposed to do the following:
"Open the closest book to you--not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment--to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence as well as the next two or three sentences. Pass this on to five blogging friends."
The closest book is the one on my computer table, right next to my iMac, it is The Great Raid on Cabanatuan, by William B. Breuer. It is one of the small handful of historical books chronicling the Raid at Cabanatuan. Between the fictional books/audiobooks I read, I always throw in some of history into that mix--it comes by way of having a father who fought in WWII. I had read one of the other books on this event, Ghost Soldiers, by Hampton Sides, some years ago and wanted another author's take on it. Eerily, when I opened the book for this post, it opened right on page 56. Some things are meant to be, I guess...
For seven days, the prisoners were kept there, unprotected from the pot-boiler sun. No food was provided. They had to line up for the twelve hours to get a canteen of water from the lone spigot. They fainted by the score. Each morning, a hundred or more unconscious POWs were hauled away to unknown fates.
The ordeal in the Pacific for the survivors wasting away at this Japanese POW camp was just another level of misery piled on them. These were the same men who to this point in the event had already survived what many would think have been two lifetimes worth of torment:
If this were someone's fictional story, the publisher would have rejected it for its cruelty and unbelievability. But, its a true, life-affirming and absolutely heroic written account of what happened there.
I will pass this bookworm award to the following and invite them to play (but only if it is their wish to):
- Gay Degani of Words in Place (a wonderful writer--but I know of no writer is not a book worm)
- Bryan of Agressive Fiction (another writer I wish would write and post more)
- the Greenleaf Book Group of big bad book blog
- the voracious reader of bookbitch
- Patricia of Booklust
No worries...
Thanks for the award! I finally posted my result...
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