Choosing Books

[aggienaut]

   This morning while I was huddling under the heater drinking my morning coffee I came across this fascinating three piece article: The Long Way Round: The Plane that Accidentally Circumnavigated the World and didn't even think about getting on with my day till I had finished reading through it. I think I'm going to order the book he mentions.



   And then it reminded me of another story of a crew trying to get around the world. While reading Peter FitzSimmons' "Gallipoli," he had mentioned that the German cruiser SMS Embden was lurking in the Indian Ocean threatening the ANZAC transports, and that the ship was eventually sunk and it's surviving crew marooned on an island, from which they then took a schooner on which they made it to Arabia, had many more misadventures involving bedouins and things before finally making it to Istanbul and being able to get on a train home. FitzSimmons just gave that overview but mentioned there was a book on it, and I had meant to get said book because it sounded interesting, but had forgotten until reminded this morning.

   But now I am confronted by the problem of that there are actually at least five books on the subject, all by authors I've never heard of. They all have about 4.2 of 5 stars from amazon and/or goodread and 6-7 reviews, but I'm assuming most readers/reviewers read only one of them so it's not really a good comparison. So how does one choose??

[Poll #2080976]




   In other news I'm slowly but surely composing the second episode of the podcast, my plan is to conflate all three of my Nigeria projects so I can thematically arrange all the best parts of all three. If I had more audio skills I actually have video interviews I did with local friends in Nigeria at the time which would be a fantasmical addition to the podcast (which may run more than one "episode" length if I put everything and the kitchen sink in, as I rather intend), but I'm not sure I have the audio magic to get the audio off the videos and into the audio recording.

Comments

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

I thought that plane from above looked familiar! I love the flying boats. When we went to Ireland we toured the full-scale replica of one at Foynes, which was the eastern terminus of Pan Am's first transatlantic service (also where the Irish Coffee was invented). It's a shame no flyable examples were preserved.

As to your dilemma, I don't know the answer. I rather like that Dutch surname of the last author.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

But also reading the summary I tihnk that book contains the stories of two ships/crews, which, while I'm sure the other is also interesting, that means the part devoted to the story I'm really into is substantially less than 205 pages. I'm currently leaning towards the longest one, even though it's translated from German and at least one of the reviews mentioned translation resulted in some weird phrasing at some points.

Also, not listed here, but the commanding officer's own account was published and is available, but I'm kind of assuming people have since improved on anything he wrote and all his important details and more are in the more recent books.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

Many thanks for that initial link ... what a great story.

Like more than a few of us, I've long daydreamed about being a time traveler with a trust fund. In that alternate universe, one of the first things I'd do is book a Transpacific flight on a Boeing 314.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

Great!

I'll have to catch up with you, though, because my first time-travel stop will be Rio in 1936, to catch a sailing of the Graf Zeppelin.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

No problem. I’ll cross on the Normandie (in First Cabin of course) and meet you there.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Definitely would love to travel on a zeppelin. I mean I've heard there's a reconstituted zeppelin company making a few new ones but I sure haven't seen them. It seems like it would be the perfect way to serenely tour somewhere like the Grand Canyon or like go on African safari -- airborne view without scaring the animals and/or the shakeup of helicopters and/or zipping by in an aircraft.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

I've heard something about that, too, a few years ago ... but I don't know if anything ever came of the idea. It would be seriously cool!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I was amazed at the pictures which showed the cockpit wasn't the sitting-room-only thing you expect on modern aircraft but actually had a chart table and looked more like the bridge on a ship! Rad!

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

And of course because the world is what it is, I had another conversation about Foynes today.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha oh?

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Yes, The Gym Teacher went to Ireland on vacation (both his parents were born there) so we were comparing notes on where we'd been.

[aerodrome1.livejournal.com]

All three books are good, but I like the Hoyt best. I've been an Emden fan since ever I ran across a good novel about her ww-1 fate (John Jennings, "The Raider") back when I was in high school. And Hoyt was (back in the 1950s-70s) a good writer of popular naval histories--- so I have memories of books of his from local libraries.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! Someone who can actually compare all three! Thanks!!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Also if you know of a better one that's not among those three please let me know!

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

I'm not voting on the books, because I'm afraid to look them up because they'll end up on my TBR list. It's long enough! (grin) Though that title about the accidental circumnavigation intrigues me.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha oh that one is just a series of articles that took maybe twenty minutes to read through, and I found it well worth it!

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

I haven't finished it, yet, but it's wonderful! And it flows right into the book I just finished reading - CODE GIRLS, about the woman who worked breaking the German and Japanese codes during WWII.

Now that book was cool.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ooh I'll have to check it out (:

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

What an amazing story. Thank you for that link.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

No problem! (:

[pundigrion.livejournal.com]

Oooh, and one tab opened for the next time I am actually sitting at my computer for a while. I suspect this will end in additions to my to-read list as well.

Completely different topic, but I think you would enjoy the one I am currently reading: https://www.amazon.com/Plant-Messiah-Adventures-Search-Species-ebook/dp/B01MR4ELAQ

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

That article is fascinating. Thanks for mentioning it.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

No problem! (: