Do You Read?

by CPO Raymond Kurtz

    “Do you read?”  asked Comedian Lewis Grizzard.
     The late Lewis Grizzard is still one of my favorite comedians.  Work by the current crop of southern, redneck comedians pale in comparison.  Grizzard asked this question in a skit about his role as a newspaper columnist with the Atlanta Journal Constitution. 
     However, with due respect to Mr. Grizzard, the more important question is what do you read?” 
    The hottest book on the market is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which sold 6.5 million copies in a 24-hour period.   But, does this book have any real value? Is it educational or just recreational?
    Any book that has to do with education sounds as exciting as watching paint dry.   A textbook is educational, but would you read it with the same enthusiasm as a good, spine tingling novel?  In my experience(I have read 252 books since the year 2000), reading can be fun and educational.  Take my reading habits, for example.    My interests are 1) American military history (all periods), 2) Sea stories, 3) political commentaries, 4) NASCAR or other forms of racing, 5) the occasional book about other sports, and 6) humor (such as works by Lewis Grizzard).  
    Reading is important to me, as education and recreation.  The book has to be written in a certain manner that draws and keeps my attention.   If I read something that stays with me, then the author did his job. 
    My reading habits have helped me to explain history to my daughters.  How can you have a coherent conversation with someone if you do not know the subject matter?  A book will stay with you for a long time.  When I read American military history I generally stick to the WWII period.  However, every once in a while I will read about other periods such as the Civil War.
    The Civil War is a period that I know very little about, having read only about theGettysburg battle.  Shrouds of Glory: From Atlanta to Nashville: The Last Great Campaign of the Civil War by Winston Groom, (the same guy that brought us Forrest Gump.)  Mr. Groom writes about the last campaign of the War Between the States, the fighting that took place around Atlanta, into Alabama, North and South Carolina.   There is a great contrast in leadership styles between the three opposing Generals (Sherman and Thomas in the North and Hood in the South.)  Sherman was willing to take a chance that he could run roughshod through Alabama and up through Georgia on into South and North Carolina.  It took a great deal of cajoling by Sherman to convince the politicians in Washington that it was the right move.  Thomas entrenched himself around Nashville, waiting for the enemy to come to him.  When he was ready, he attacked and destroyed any hope that the south could win a negotiated peace with the north.
    This is the kind of thing that is very vibrant on paper and is watered down some on the large or small screen.   Another good illustration is Walter Lord’s Dawn’s Early Light, the story of the War of 1812.  The book kept my attention for quite a long time, and even though it has been many years since I have read it, I still think about it.
    Another good illustration of this is The Perfect Storm.   The Perfect Storm was an awesome book that was made into a sub-par move, (let’s face it; compared to the book, the movie stunk, at least in my opinion.)    Wolfgang Petersen chose to change or even ignore some of the most important facets of the book.   For instance, the book shows how a TAMAROA RHIB was sent to rescue the passengers from a sailing vessel.  In the process the RHIB was sunk and the crewmen thrown into the water.  Now there were the rescuers and rescuees in the water to deal with.  Very dramatic stuff that never made it to the big screen.
    My final illustration deals with a book I just finished reading.   Sailing into the Abyss by William R. Benedetto deals with the sinking of the SS Badger State during the Viet Nam War.   Mr. Benedetto weaves a tale that not only deals with the sinking of the Badger State, but events that have affected men and women who have sailed upon the seas.  I learned to bits of information that I had not heard or read before.  The most important one was the policy that was put into effect after the Titanic sank.  It seems that the wireless operators on the Titanic were desperately trying to contact a ship that was within 5 miles of the sinking liner.  However, due to the radio operator on the SS California having shut down his equipment and going to bed, the message was not received.  After the sinking of the Titanic, quoting from the book, “Marconi began experimenting with a means of dealing with this problem.  A simple concept eventually emerged:  a sequence of Morse code signals, four or more dashes of four seconds duration each, would trigger a bell in the radio shack, the bridge, and the radio officer’s sleeping quarters of the receiving ships.  The system worked and is now mandatory for all maritime nations.”
    Reading is something that can be done anytime, anywhere.  It is a pleasurable experience that has helped me to be a better communicator and has been a life long learning experience for me, someone that has no desire to attend college but still wants to learn.