Books I Have on my Shelf

Well, as you may or may not know, I love to read. During the day mainly cookbooks on the balcony if the weather is good, but at night I always run through my selection. Sometimes I have three books going in different rooms.

So what are they? Well, I divided them into rough sections. There’s the “Explorer” section. Books about Shackleton and the Antarctic expeditions (a bunch of those), books about Captain Cook, Magellan, and also books of more obscure explorers like William Adams, who was the model for the character of Blackthorne in James Clavell’s Shogun.

Then there’s the biography section, mainly actors and musicians. Vincent Price, William Holden (Damn, I never did receive George C. Scott — it must be juicy) and then the musicians; Elton John, Miles Davis, The Beach Boys (good one!), Bill Evans, the making of “Kind of Blue” and a couple of others.

Then there’s the military wing. I used to be into building model aircraft, so I’ve got books on the Luftwaffe and Pan Am. One all about my father’s bomb group in England in WWII. Books about the battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, all classics.

Then there’s the “eclectica” section. Books in no particular order: science-fiction anthologies (Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg among others), a couple of books about the Andes plane crash survivors (excellent), the complete collection of naturalist Gerald Durrell including his biography (fascinating), a book by Dominick Dunne (?), The Odessa File (wow, haven’t read that in a while!) and a couple of other true crime books. (Can you say “Paul Bernardo?”)

Then I actually have a small but ancient section of computer books. The creation of the Internet. Steve Jobs’ and Bill Gates biographies. History of Apple. Oh and (chuckle) a book on the possibility of teleportation and a book on the possibility of time travel by Paul Davies. I actually had the idea of writing a story about someone who goes back in time but in real time, but I wrote to Paul and he said it had already been done. Yup, by Brad Pitt.

Then the Japanese section — a whole shelf by itself with various textbooks, histories of Japan, grammars etc. that I accumulated in my five years there.

Then: Tintin! All the Tintins! Just missing Tintin in the Congo, possibly the most politically incorrect book ever written! And a biography of Hergé.

And last on the shelves but not least: my GI Joes. I have a Nazi captain, A Japanese corporal, a US bomber pilot, a US sailor (with the blue tunic!) and very last but not least, Roy Batty from Blade Runner!

Some day you should come over and read a few and play with the action figures. I guarantee a good time.