Book Notes: "Reach for the Sky" by Paul Brickhill

Reach For The Sky: Story Of Douglas Bader, Dso, Dfc by Paul Brickhill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Each time I read this book I am overwhelmed by the Boy's Own enthusiasm that pervaded my early youth. But this reading was different. I picked up on numerous philosophical perspectives resembling Stoicism, confirmed by the quote from Hamlet at the end of the work: "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". There is so much of the history of the Battle of Britain that I did not know at the time of my earlier readings. With a better understanding of Leigh-Mallory's "big wing" theory, and Bader's part in it, made very interesting reading. Not that all agree with either the success of the theory or indeed the truthfulness of its successes in practice (see Tom Neil's comments here. Regardless, Bader's story is written in captivating style by Brickhall and still manages to excite this poor, brain-washed Colonial time and again.

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Book Notes: "General and Social Letter Writing" by Andrew George Elliot

General And Social Letter Writing by Andrew George Elliot

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This work was a quaint historical oddity, dating to the early 1950s. I recall learning the fascinating rules and etiquette of letter writing in the 1970s and early 1980s, from the days of the address slanting from top left to bottom right, and new paragraphs indented under the first end point of the previous paragraph. Then came golf ball typewriters and later word processors, and the formatting was all left aligned for speed of communication. Letter writing is a lost art, and although there was little in this book I was not taught previously, it does remind me of a time when communicating in writing was an act of good grooming. It is regrettable that email and more recently social media-speak has deteriorated written communication to an ego-driven demonstration of bad manners and laziness. Reading Elliot's guide to the art of the simple, meditative function of letter writing was a peaceful activity. I am glad to have read it, and I immediately put it to good use by pursuing one of my favourite hobbies (letter writing) and wrote to my dear mother.

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Book Notes: "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've had this book on the shelf for nearly three years but decided to read it after reading Do the Work. I have been procrastinating by reading about ways to stop procrastinating, but since starting this book, I am now 6,000 words down and off and running. TO keep the momentum going, I have Turning Pro on the way, too. Usually when I read modern self-help books, the authors are either overtly atheist or overtly Christian. Each to his own, and while it is always possible to absorb some insights or (at least be exposed to) wisdom from books, I find it difficult to identify with the author when their approaches differ markedly from mine. Not so with Pressfield. There was one part where I felt like I had bought the same book twice (many parts of Do the Work are more or less replicated here, but the overall experience was quite different. As a handy reference to flick to for inspiration when stuck, the Tom Peters-esque format suits this function well. It is interesting how, once you name something (Resistance), and label it as the enemy, one's subconscious takes over the battle. I find my subconscious rising up with words such as "That's Resistance, that's the enemy. Do the work!" And my obsessive compulsiveness is having a field day. Whenever I go to leave something (the washing up, putting something in the drier, changing the chook's water, you name it - oh, better change the chook's water straight after this), my subconscious says "Do it now!" Of course, when I wake tomorrow, I will have to go to war again, but Pressfield has made available to me Somerset Maugham's approach: "I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp". Better change the chook's water now.

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