[speaker001:] yeah the question was uh what kind of books do you read for entertainment uh uh I guess
[speaker002:] oh I just read for escape well I mean it's
[speaker001:] okay with two little kids I can understand that
[speaker002:] yes it's that's simple I read to escape and I don't read any Parents magazines either so
[speaker001:] oh what uh what kind of
[speaker002:] well I just finished just I just finished one last night a great book it it's very a typical for my reading though but a great book one called The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
[speaker001:] hum
[speaker002:] and it's uh God I don't know if I would call it a collection of Vietnam war stories or if I'd call it a collection of Vietnam love stories
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] strange book beautifully written
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] just beautifully written
[speaker001:] by uh somebody who was there or
[speaker002:] yeah a guy who was there as a uh foot soldier so he considered himself to be you know a a true Vietnam soldier
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah well any of the guys that were ground yes yeah I can imagine
[speaker002:] yeah so what's the latest one you've read
[speaker001:] yeah well I tell you what I'm a kind of uh a history nut I'm trying to think back now I read an awful lot of uh periodicals and uh you know almost what you call reference book and uh the last uh I'm embarrassed to say the last you know honest to gosh cover to cover book that I read I cannot
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] right offhand I tried to read uh one of the the Michener uh Lone Star or the the Texas History Book
[speaker002:] I have never been able to make it through any of Michener's work
[speaker001:] oh well I've had similar problems it does tend to to
[speaker002:] have you are you a Civil War buff at all
[speaker001:] yeah as a matter of fact yeah
[speaker002:] because I finished one I think this is like two years ago and somebody had given me one of these dinky do crappy women's novels set in the Civil War John Jakes one and the novel didn't do that much for me but boy the period of time was fascinating
[speaker001:] yeah uh-huh
[speaker002:] so I then read was it Battle Cry of Freedom
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] yeah I think it was Battle of Freedom it's kind of like a historical compendium
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] of the Civil War and it's not a story of the Civil War it's a story of all the politics and uh lobbying and just basically state by state events that led
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] to of the events that brought about the Civil War and it's fascinating because I had always you know have been raised on this you know Emancimation Proclamation with the Civil War
[speaker001:] uh-huh there was a lot more to it than that weren't there
[speaker002:] there was a lot more to it than that as a matter of fact that was a very minor part that kind of become like an afterthought
[speaker001:] yeah well it was a political move it was made to placate some of the northern support but not completely alienate all the southern
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] support because you know it was uh if you read it it only emancipated those who were in areas uh in rebellion against the United States all the other areas which would I think at that time would have included West Virginia and oh may have been Kentucky a few states you know that were not part of the South but still had slaves they didn't emancipate them
[speaker002:] um-hum well you know what else really surprised me now I'm married to a native Texan and I'm not
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] I've got the same problem
[speaker002:] yeah I'm glad you put it that way and I have two native Texan children too my husband is always you know talked about Texas being a uh rebel state and oh my God all this Civil War pride
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I kept waiting for where's some reference to this God damn State of Texas and the role that they played either leading up to or in the Civil War they might as well have not even
[speaker001:] isn't isn't much there is there
[speaker002:] been there you know they weren't a state and the only the only way that they had any part in it was after worth as to you know who's going to be going there and I keep telling my husband that and he keeps saying oh no I thought okay
[speaker001:] they supplied some uh you know they were some groups uh the Vicksburg if you ever get a chance to go over to Vicksburg the battleground at Vicksburg uh there's an area there where there was uh some Texas uh groups and they had an interesting time there
[speaker002:] oh I'll bet they did
[speaker001:] and down there at Sabine Pass uh I can't think of the guy's name but he held off the you know just he and a handful of guys managed to hold off the whole Union navy for a while from coming up the Sabine River which was of no consequence but still is an interesting story
[speaker002:] well you know why they actually held them off none of the Yankees wanted to listen to their kind of luted grammar
[speaker001:] that could be it could be it
[speaker002:] now you didn't hear me say that outside of um
[speaker001:] and then the last Civil War battle was fought at Val Verde you know over there on the Texas border you had a lot of of groups heading for Mexico and they were cut off at the pass more or less at Eagle Pass and they didn't get across the river there so they're the last and that was actually after the war was over but it was the last
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] organized battle between the two units was in Texas so yeah Texas participation in the Civil War was uh minor at uh
[speaker002:] boy don't tell that to a native Texan though I mean my God they fought and won the whole thing
[speaker001:] at best yeah yeah well my wife's from Galveston so
[speaker002:] ooh
[speaker001:] yeah Well I'm from New Mexico so you know I was
[speaker002:] that's a beautiful state that's a beautiful state see I was raised in the Midwest which you know hell we didn't even you know
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] we didn't even know where the Mason Dixon Line was and besides you know if corn didn't grow there it didn't matter
[speaker001:] it sounds like Iowa or something
[speaker002:] Iowa and Nebraska
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] yep and then I had probably lived the last eleven years in Massachusetts so you know what does that make me an honorary Yankee or
[speaker001:] hum yeah on yeah
[speaker002:] God knows what
[speaker001:] oh well my sister's living in Illinois right now so
[speaker002:] well then she's going to come out well rounded but outside of those kind of things you know the other thing that I've really gotten into reading
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I think this is because the kids are getting to me
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] is science fiction
[speaker001:] I've always kind of enjoyed it I I used to read a lot more than I do now
[speaker002:] well I've gone to the point where my husband my husband travels I get out like you know two or three books
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and I I'm trying to think of oh Isaac Asimov Robot series
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I mean I think I've read all four of them and I understand that there's a fifth in the last six weeks he's been on the road a lot
[speaker001:] um I just turned around and looked at my brief at my briefcase my uh bookcase up here and I see Armageddon up there and uh the Shadow of Blooming Grove and Two Thousand and Ten and Grant Takes Command and The War in the Year oh Space gee that was the one I was trying to wade through was Space James Michener didn't get very far on that
[speaker002:] you know I think I read Hawaii when I was about ten years old or so which is about the developmental level that you know you need to be at to read those things and I still even then I was so so disgusted with it I I tried to read
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] I don't remember which other one it was whatever one it was it was such a blockbuster seller
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and I just I got about like a hundred pages through it and realized I had like a thousand more I thought I can't do this
[speaker001:] yeah it really the the books are kind of uh imposing to say the least
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] no let's see here's one called Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of New Mexico now not too many people have read that one I don't think
[speaker002:] no
[speaker001:] and there's The History of Yoakum County Texas there
[speaker002:] is that a big thick book
[speaker001:] I've got uh yeah and I've got yeah and I've got a History of Kingsley Iowa
[speaker002:] what the what the hell for why Kingsley Iowa
[speaker001:] well because that's where my folks all came from and they had a centennial here awhile back
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] I read the Grant Takes Command that was pretty good
[speaker002:] well
[speaker001:] that was part of that trilogy that uh Bruce Canton did
[speaker002:] now that's one that's one I don't know see I had never really been into science fiction that much until uh somebody gave me Mist of Avalon probably about five or six years ago I don't know if I'd call it science fiction or fantasy
[speaker001:] yeah sometimes it's awful hard some of those get very philosophical they can be in any setting they just happen to put them in a futuristic setting you know the
[speaker002:] well I loved that novel and then somebody said oh God this would have been even long ago because I was in Boston and it was raining all night and I had a hole in my roof and I was waiting for the whole house to collapse and uh I was reading Dune
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] which seeming rather ironic
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and I read the whole damn book while I was home hauling out you know like ten gallon buckets of of water and waiting for the roof to collapse and reading about these guys wearing their little Freeman Steel suits and
[speaker001:] uh-huh you're reading Dune
[speaker002:] I think that's probably my favorite of of any piece of science fiction that I've ever read and the movie was awful oh yes it was just terrible
[speaker001:] that was a movie too wasn't it was it yeah I'd I didn't see it but uh yeah
[speaker002:] it was it was beyond
[speaker001:] Patrick Stewart was in that I guess the guy that's on the new Star Trek series was in that thing uh
[speaker002:] I don't know I just remember Sting was in it
[speaker001:] oh really
[speaker002:] yeah and if you were trying to follow any type of uh
[speaker001:] uh
[speaker002:] plot it it total even having read the book and I've read that book probably three times watching that movie I couldn't figure out what they were talking about
[speaker001:] um-hum couldn't
[speaker002:] at all
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I was real disappointed in that well I'll tell you another good book do you like scary things
[speaker001:] um well well some history books are pretty scary but yeah
[speaker002:] have you that's true have you read The Silence of the Lambs
[speaker001:] no somebody who saw the movie here the other day told me it was the most terrifying thing they'd ever seen they didn't sleep all night
[speaker002:] ooh well see I'm I'm debating whether I want to go see the movie after having read the book I mean the book is is chilling just chilling
[speaker001:] yeah I have no idea I don't have the foggiest notion what it is about
[speaker002:] then I won't tell you
[speaker001:] okay yeah but
[speaker002:] it's just that if you're ever ever really want to just be scared out of your wits
[speaker001:] um-hum that's the one
[speaker002:] that's the one yes
[speaker001:] even better than Jaws and some of that
[speaker002:] yes because the character the the character that is so horrible is another human being And you're just drawn into his his horror of him that you begin to kind of like him
[speaker001:] yeah oh
[speaker002:] that I mean
[speaker001:] a a Freddy Kruger type huh
[speaker002:] no no This guy's smart and he's suave and he's all the characteristics all the characteristics yeah all the characteristics
[speaker001:] oh the worst kind yeah yeah