The Supposed Wave of the Future

    Nooks, Kindles, eBooks-- will be taking the place of printed books.At least that's what many people are saying these days, at least that's what Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon would have you believe. It's about the convenience, the cost, the technology. That's great and everything, but I beg to differ. There are plenty of people in the world who hold a book in their hands, the loved books with fine paper/leather/cloth covers and their various qualities of paper and texture held to the bindings. An eBook can only express itself by the words on the screen. A book with paper, ornate bindings and the pungent odors of ink will be absent from the complete package.
    For those who are true book lovers, this new wave of publishing has to be a terrible dream. On demand books that you can get in an instant take away from the thrill of holding a book in your hands. There will be no running your fingers along the spine, feeling the creases in the paperbacks from parts of the book that were especially favored, no tactile appreciation of the finer leather bound tomes. There will be no smelling the pages that seem to unlock more of the story. The paper, some thick and some thin depending on quality, begs the reader to see more than what's written. If it's an old book, you feel the essence of the previous owners. Who read this before? Who pored over the words, painstakingly looking for meaning? What caused that smudge on the print? A tear over the words, a drip of coffee, a quick moment found during a meal for the reader desperate to know what happens next? The musty odors ingrained in the paper speak just as loudly as the print.
    No matter the age of the book, there is a pleasing, comforting scent that can only be found in a book. Have you ever smelled your computer or laptop? It's weird, but I have. It doesn't exactly heighten my excitement for a book if it smells so plastic and factory produced. Reading a book is a sensual experience, requiring more than just the senses of sight and touch. Each edition, volume, size and look of a book are far beyond what a Kindle or Nook can promise. They said TV would replace radio, too.

Why the new blog

    Reading is my sixth sense. I can't remember a time when I haven't read. Novels, poetry, short stories, biographies, essays, columns, ads, shampoo bottles. Whether well written or poorly written, I can't help but lavish attention on them. In short, I always have several books lying around, bookmarked with memos, papers, sales receipts, bobby pins... whatever happens to be around when I am forced to lay aside a fantastic story. This was not always so. Before I had children, I very rarely put down a book until I had read it from cover to cover. I never needed bookmarks either for the few times I did finish. I could remember the page number and the paragraph where I stopped. Not so anymore, but my love of the written word has never diminished.
    So why this blog? Even though I have children, very young ones, I still am enthralled with reading and history. Ask me what I'm currently reading, and you will more than likely not get the answer you expect, at least for a mom. I have a certain, unique fascination-- uh, interest, would be a less creepy descriptor-- with German history, specifically the era of about 1900-1945. I would like to broaden that range by about twenty years on either side, but haven't gotten that far-- it will require several more books and research. That would be my specialty, but I dabble around in early American history and the histories of ancient Greece and Rome. So the purpose of this 'new' blog is to share some in my personal interests and reading.
    My first interest in blogging was my family. I love talking about my kids, but there is a point where my whole life is not about my kids. It sure feels that way sometimes, but this is an attempt to share another side of my life. I would love any questions or comments, any discussion on topics that I touch on. I know many women that  become so wrapped up in their children, that they lost sight of who they were before kids and have no clue who they are after the last child flies the coop. My children are a part of me, but they don't define all of me. So here goes... history can be fun. I promise. This is not high school history.

Voices from the past

    As a historian, I love to delve into the lives of people. I'm what you would call a social historian. I want to know about how people were impacted by historical events, the era they influenced, the ideas they had, the emotions. Centuries have past, each generation claiming to throw off tradition and accomplish what no other generation before has dared to dream of. Goethe said that "Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires" and "The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five." Looking out across history, this is true, no matter the time period or the civilization. If you've heard the saying "history repeats itself," that's really not off.
    Quotes from well-known/famous individuals smattered throughout time bring me great delight. There's a comfort, a settled feeling, that what we experience today is not new; that our struggles are the same, our ideals and goals, in essence, the same, never changing, static. No matter the time period, the words of humanity ring true today and some are, in fact, quite entertaining. The great people of the past were human, they were normal-- most of them not elevated to 'pedestal' status until well after their deaths.
    That being said, here are some of the quotes I have found interesting and enjoyable in recent weeks.

• "The person who in shaky times also wavers, increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe." ~ Johann von Goethe, 1749-1832
• "The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." ~ Edmund Burke, 1729-1797
• "We have the best government money can buy." ~ Mark Twain, 1835-1910
• "There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded." ~ Mark Twain
• "To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence." ~Mark Twain
• "No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864
• "Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda." ~ Hannah Arendt, 1906-1975
• "Revolutionaries do no make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up." ~Hannah Arendt
• "I never expected to see the day when girls would get sunburned in the places they now do." ~Will Rogers, 1879-1935
• "The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution." ~Hannah Arendt
• "Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words." ~Goethe
• "If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick." ~Goethe
• "Nothing is more terrible than seeing ignorance in action." ~Goethe
• "Lifetimes are made up of a lot of little lifetimes." ~Danny Kaye, 1913-1987
• "Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble." ~Phillip Melanchthon, 1497-1560
• "Faith is nothing else than trust in the divine mercy promised in Christ." ~Phillip Melanchthon
• "Only under conditions or tyranny it is far easier to act than think." ~Hannah Arendt
• "People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election." ~Otto von Bismarck, 1815-1898
• "There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America." ~Otto von Bismarck
• "When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice." ~Otto von Bismarck
• "Speech is civilization itself." ~Thomas Mann, 1875-1955
• "I think I've discovered the secret of life - you just hang around until you get used to it." ~Charles M. Schulz, 1922-2000
• "Life is a long lesson in humility." ~James M. Barrie, 1860-1937
• "The perfect normal person is rare in our civilization." ~Karen Horney, 1885-1952
• "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." ~George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950
• "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." ~Hedy Lamarr, 1913-2000
• "Fashions have done more harm than revolutions." ~Victor Hugo, 1802-1885
• "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." ~Otto von Bismarck
• "I love to go to Washington - if only to be near my money." ~Bob Hope, 1903-2003

And last, but not least:

• "When angry, count to four. When very angry, swear." ~Mark Twain

Hey, he said it... a long time ago. So that makes it okay, right?