mark twain's innocents abroad

this one is already fun.

i have become interested in knowing more about mark twain, his works and his beliefs. and i hoped this book would also give me insight into the way americans travel - because the peace corps, as i understand it, was a response to the negative vibes we tend to emit.

i was suprised to read the following early in the book (other readers may not be so suprised):

"The donkeys and the men, women and children of the family, all eat and sleep in the same room, and are unclean, are ravaged by vermin, and are truly happy. The people lie, and cheat the stranger, and are desperately ignorant, and have hardly any reverence for their dead. The latter trait shows how`little better they are than the donkeys they eat and sleep with." p45

here he is describing the Azores because, he says, little is known of it in america and he is moved to include the "dry facts" of it. p44

my goodness.

war in the pacific

my dad got this book as a gift from my mom when thet visited pearl harbor a year or two back. and as my mom said he read the whole thing though he never reads.

he let me borrow it as i was interested in the way timor was treated during world war 2. i learned quite abit about the pacific war and se asia - i guess it didnt sink in in high school.

but the biggest things i learned that may be of use concern the beliefs of the japanese army and the way they dealt with their captives.

there are some boards referenced that i need to fetch...

the first human

i have forgotten to mention that a while back i listened to an audio book of the first human - i need to look up the author again.

i listened to the end hoping to hear something about java man. i was thinking about the history of timor, which is not too far from java, and hoped to learn somwthing i could use in my book.

alas.

nothing. it was very interesting nevertheless - i learned alot about paleontologists.