Book meme

Posted: Sunday, February 17, 2008 by Travis Cody in
15

While I was on my short hiatus, I collected this tag from Shelby.

* Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more - No cheating (closely akin to bribery in Mississippi langugage).

* Turn to page 123 and find the first five sentences.

* Now post the next three sentences.

* The fun begins - - tag some people to play along.

You may know that I love books. During my break I got a chance to catch up on a few. I've got a stack next to the sofa that is at least a foot high. I'm actively reading two of them and both are about Marines.



For the meme I selected First To Fight, An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps, by Victor H. Krulak, Lt Gen USMC (Ret.), first published in 1984. The edition I have was published in 1999. Page 123 is in chapter 8, You Can't Get There From Here: The Inchon Story.

Supported by 1st Marine Aircraft Wing planes (to the extent that they had fuel to fly), we trained at length and with much intensity. Indeed, we spent so much time in the field that the wife of one of my men reproved me, "My kids have forgotten what their father looks like."

While training ashore presented few problems, training in landing operations was a different matter because the Navy's meager amphibious shipping resources had been assigned mainly to work with the Army.


Let me share with you the summary of the book from the back cover:

Deftly blending history with autobiography, action with analysis, the legendary Marine general Victor "Brute" Krulak offers here a riveting insider's chronicle of U.S. Marines - their fights on the battlefield and off, and their extraordinary esprit de corps. He not only takes a close look at the Marine experiences during World War II, Korea, and vietnam - wars in which Krulak was himiself a participant - but also examines the foundation on which the Corps is built. In doing so, he helps answer the question of what it means to be a Marine and how the Corps has maintained such a consistently outstanding reputation.

First to Fight has been included on the Marine Corps' recommended reading list for many years.


I've seen this meme around as I've been catching up on my blog rounds, so I won't tag anyone. If you'd like to do it, feel free to swipe it.

15 comments:

  1. TopChamp says:

    I quite like the sound of this meme. It would be cool if there was somewhere central you could see a load of them together and see the differences in peoples' reading!

  1. Liz Hill says:

    I really like this meme too. And I like TCs idea. Seems you'd be a logical choice sugar

    So good to see you.

    Smooch

  1. Anndi says:

    Interesting meme.. I'd probably pick up one of Chicklet's books first. She has quite a few lying around. Of course, they're in French.

    Nice to see you back.

  1. Unknown says:

    Swiper, no swiping! Swiper, no swiping! Swiper, NO swiping!

    Oh, man!

  1. the book sounds amazing. i stopped by for some cake cause there is none left in my house! ha ha ha

    smiles, bee

  1. Unknown says:

    Glad to see you back, my friend! I missed you - we all did :)

    That MEME sounds like fun... most of my books are in German, but I might cheat a little on this, taking my laptop to those English books on my nightdesk...

  1. Jeni says:

    Welcome back! Missed you. The book sounds very interesting to me as I very much enjoy reading non-fiction as well as fictional accounts of various wars -WWII being one of them.

  1. Linda says:

    Welcome back! Nice to see that you had the chance to do some reading while on your hiatus and were able to tackle at least two books in that one-foot stack of yours.

    I got tagged for this one myself and am hoping to get it done today before I go to work if I can stop being distracted by a bunch of other stuff!

  1. There was a time when I read a huge amount of nonfiction about military history, particularly about WW2, which was such a fascinating war because of it's speed and the powerful machines involved, and yet with still room for human heroics. Some great reading in that field, although I haven't seen this book you mentioned here. Sounds interesting, though.

  1. Thanks to all for the welcome back.

    TC: That would be cool to collect them in one place.

    Turn: It's a good idea, but it would take a lot of time.

    Ann: Lots of books lying around sounds good.

    Dana: Sorry!

    Bee: I'm enjoying the book. And you are always welcome to some of my CAKE.

    Sanni: I think it would be interesting to see the passage in German and then an English translation.

    Jeni: I haven't made enough time for reading over the last year, so I'm trying to correct that now.

    Linda: I definitely understand the distractions.

    Charles: When I read the book Band of Brothers, and then saw the HBO series, the phrase the kept ringing in my head was "ordinary men doing extraorinary things". I think that is why I remain fascinated with all things military, with a special emphasis on WWII and Marines.

  1. Unknown says:

    Sounds like an interesting book.

    If you still want to know the truth about Miss Muffet, drop by...

  1. I love books too! For me, it's an addiction.

  1. Danielle says:

    I might steal this meme. I traveled to the free rice vocabulary test and donated 4320 grains of rice.

    I guess 5 years of Latin in high school is worth something once and awhile.

    Wishing you well as always

    Danielle

  1. RW says:

    I am going to have to grab a copie of that book sounds like a good read! Glad your back Travis!!

  1. Pauline: It has been so far.

    Misty: An addiction in a good way.

    Danielle: YAY for Free Rice!

    Roger: Thanks dude!