if killing is your only talent�.that’s your curse
I got this super cool comment on my, I so AM a Ninja post (totally unrelated) that basically deserves a post of its own.
petrow SAYS:
Very cool of you to be reading shake hands with the devil, I met mr dallaire at a conference in Winnipeg a couple years ago, the man is one of the most beautiful human beings i have ever had the chance to meet, men like him should be presidents.
This book has been sitting under my ‘currently reading’ for a while now. It is taking me a lot longer to get through than most books. The paranoia in me is totally like ‘fuck I hope my readers don’t think I am trying to be all cool leaving my hard core book in the side bar’. It’s simply a heavy read. I have always - since I was young teenager been a reader of ‘heavy’ material. I also spent the majority of my adolescence grounded for ridiculous amounts of time for doing pretty much nothing. Nothing that warranted the lengths of time I was grounded for anyway. When grounded the ONLY thing I was allowed to do was read. It could have gone the other way and I could have ended up hating books, I am so glad I just plain fell in love with them. This post is not about my love of books though it is about Shake Hands with the Devil: the failure of humanity in Rwanda, written by Canadian UN Force Commander Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire.
Books on war have always been pretty close to the top of my favorites behind serial killers and true crime. One of the two reasons I was turned on to Shake Hands with the Devil was the book Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures : a true story from hell on earth. This book is also incredible; it follows three Americans with very different perspectives on UN missions throughout the 90’s to Cambodia, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Liberia and also Rwanda. When I finished it I read Bergdorf Blondes. I love a good chick read in between my heavy non fiction reads.
Yes, I have seen Hotel Rwanda. Although Mr. Dallaire is not called by name in the movie I am fairly certain Nick Nolte’s character is that of Mr. Dallaire. Correct me if I am wrong. But reading it is entirely different. This man is beyond incredible. He fought so hard with NOTHING. And I mean nothing. He is an inspiration. When I am having bad weeks (like this week was) I look at this book and think how can I ever be sad about anything, I don’t know real pain, real loss.
I wasn’t going to post anything on this book until I had finished it but seeing as I got the kick ass comment I thought I’d mention it. Books will be a huge part of this blog because books are a huge part of my life. To the point where I consider myself a book snob, I rarely borrow books, will not use the library and if I can own it in it’s original, first edition hard cover release I will!!
This book is as the cover says: A book of Astonishing Power. This man makes me even more proud to be a Canadian because he stayed when the rest of the entire world turned a blind eye and today most are still seeing these horrific crimes through blinders.
July 9th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
I also think your reading has contributed to your eloquent writing style and your open mind.
July 9th, 2005 at 10:13 pm
That book sounds really interesting. At the moment I’m reading a book called [i]Collapse: How civilisations choose to fail or succeed[/i] by Jared Diamond. It’s mentioned Rwanda a few times in what I’ve read so far and I think there might be a chapter on it later in the book.
I remember reading about Rwanda in Time magazine when it happened. There were so many photos of the dead. I’ll never forget how I sat on the floor of my parents bedroom where I found the magazine not able to tear myself away until I’d read the entire article, there and then.
July 10th, 2005 at 8:40 am
thank you binsk that was very nice of you to write!!
maja: i will for sure check that book out it sounds good.
thanks for commenting on this post, i have read it over it is not very good !! i think i must of deleted a paragragh or two!!
July 10th, 2005 at 9:39 am
there are some people who are destined to be great.. in the little things they do.. it’s as if their sense of humanity and justice is a much higher one than those around them. we could do with more of such people.
July 10th, 2005 at 1:11 pm
i’ll have to add that to my “books to read…”!
and i hear you on the grounded-ness. for me, grounded meant no phone, computer, stereo, friends, etc. so yeah, basically books. i think the longest i was ever grounded for was “until you catch up in your math class”, which ended up being about…oh…7 months.
July 10th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
s!: i couldn’t agree more!
tigerita: i hear ya back man, it was pretty firgin boring at times. i had a lot of imaginary friends i’ll tell you that!!
July 11th, 2005 at 3:39 pm
ditto on the 1st edition hard covers…
josh didn’t understand when i refused to buy a paperback copy of a book.
July 12th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
i am a HARD COVER whore!!!
September 27th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
i started reading ‘the stand’ the other day by Stephen King. it is about a million pages long and may take me till 2020 to finish. i am determined to read it even though i find big books big which can induce laziness which leads to abandonment and that