Book meme
Posted: Sunday, February 17, 2008 by Travis Cody inWhile 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.
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!