The James Bond survey

James Bond was the creation of Ian Fleming through a series of novels and short stories.  Ian Fleming's James Bond is probably most well known to people through the movie franchise, and his portrayal by Sean Connery.  While I do appreciate the Connery Bond, I much prefer the books.  The James Bond of the books is a different sort of animal from the movies.  A good primer on James Bond is to be found HERE.

According to the late, lamented website Make Mine a 007, Bond drinks no fewer than 317 drinks throughout the series of books authored by Ian Fleming (the cinematic version lags considerably behind despite there being more movies than books). One hundred one of those are whiskies or whiskey cocktails, with Bond heavily favoring bourbon over scotch — not an accident that Bond champions the American drink over his closer-to-home companion, really, since Bond also rails against the vileness of tea and expounds at length about why he prefers coffee. But scotch need not worry. Bond’s usual drinking buddy, the American CIA agent Felix Leiter, seems to have two functions in the novels: to slap his forehead and exclaim, “James, you’re right! Why didn’t I think of that?” and to order Haig and Haig scotch whiskey.

I suggest you make your way through the Bond series chronologically, since they tend to, especially as the books progress, become episodic.  My favorites are actually the Bond short stories.  I wish there were more of these.  They can be, at times, like a travel story in a contemporary lifestyle publication from yesteryear.  He travels overseas in every book except Moonraker and in almost all the short stories as well.  The Caribbean is a popular assignment destination.  He advises you on what to wear and what to drink.  For example when in Jamaica wear Sea Island cotton shirts and drink Red Stripe beer.  When in the Virgin Islands I advise you to wear 100% rayon shirts and drink Cruzan aged dark rum.



Funny when I look at this picture and read the reviews I really wish I liked Scotch whisky.  If only they didn't have that bitter flavor.

James Bond really is a lifestyle.  His tastes are exacting, but not necessarily lavish.  Eggs and toast for breakfast, pink champagne after dinner, and a woman who was strong yet vulnerable and probably carrying some emotional baggage.  Bond liked them complicated.  But I must warn you that you may end up with a craving for specialty cigarettes after reading the books.  As Bond says never smoke habitually; It is a pleasure, not a habit.

If you do find the quirks of Mr. Bond to be fascinating, you'll want to bookmark the Commander's Club for reference.  It aided me in my aspirations to excellence, and filled me with the resolve to be uncompromising with my tastes, no matter the variety of snobbery that pushes me.

Libraryster: catching up

I had a few items out and returned them without logging them for you. So instead I'll just mention what I have cooking right now:

Anti-intellectualism in American Life - Richard Hofstadter: originally published in 1963, it won a Pulitzer. In some ways it is a humorous book; the arguments that the American right is making about the left are the exact same today as they were in 1963. While I don't agree with all of his arguments, he makes a few fair points. I'm not far into it, but already I don't agree with the sentiments of intellectuals as "aristocrats". That sentiment is perfectly counterpointed in the book Nixonland (a great read by the way); it fueled Nixon's rise to power in his inquisition against Alger Hiss. I'm less than a fifth through, but it is worth a read.

Penguin Island - Anatole France: winner of the Nobel for literature, Anatole was the spiritual heir of Voltaire. He has the same witty and detached sarcasm. The protagonist in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Offshore Pirate read Anatole France and was an "egoist". So now I read it to understand. Pretty good read too.

Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche: in college I felt that Nietzsche was a product of his time. It reminded me too much of other 19th century industrial revolution Germans: Max Weber, Carl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and the like. I felt compelled to read this one because of our times. These days Ayn Rand is the rage, and the most compelling review of Atlas Shrugged I've read was basically "Nietzsche for stupid people". So I will go to the source and read Nietzsche and then Rand and see for myself.

Beethoven - Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage/Choral Fantasy/Rondo/Preludes and Overtures: What can I say? It is Beethoven. It is good. There are early presages of the ninth symphony, so of course it is worth a listen.

Reading list

So I think I mentioned that I read a lot. Well, I'd like to take a moment to share with you the joys of the library.

First off, the library stinks. It really stinks, because I go to the downtown branch, which is where hobos congregate to keep warm. The "reading" area and the "computer" area stink. Up on the second floor where they keep fiction and it is like the Fortress of Solitude; quiet and stinky hobo free where a man of ability can focus his talents on learning. But over bye the first floor chairs or the computers and it is like a locker room; smelly and uncomfortable; don't look the other patrons in the eye or they will get surly. Or just surly your nose.

So, what have I been reading? Well, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Sometime while I wasn't looking they translated the Vampire Hunter D books into English, and the library has all the English translations. I think there are 9 volumes. I am half-way through book 3. I currently have Hobbes and Locke, because I wanted to read something that was a timeless classic. Short readings, not Leviathan. But also not without merit either. I haven't sunk into those yet.

Did I tell you that I read Fight Club? Well, I did. If you liked the movie, you will like the book. Two things to note, however. First, it is a really fast read. For a retired bum like me one afternoon. Second, I feel that a lot of the changes that were made for the movie made the story stronger, not weaker. This is in contrast to a lot of movie adaptations, which are weaker than the book.

Did I tell you that I read the Bhagavad Gita? Well I did. I was told, years ago, that to characterize the Hindu religion as polytheist is a misnomer, because most Hindu follow the Bhagavad Gita, which states that all gods are incarnations of the Supreme Being. Therefore, in a way they are really monotheists. And this philosophy is in the Bagavad Gita. So I read that book to find out for myself. So are Hindus really polytheists? Read for yourelf!

I read the Book of Mormon along with Doctrines and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. They were all in 1 book in the library. I wanted to read it because a friend of mine was skeptical when I described Mormon cosmology to him. Does the Book of Mormon really say that good Mormons will become gods of their own planets? I couldn't say for sure, it was just what I had read on the internets. And I know that the internets lies. So I read the Book of Mormon for myself, along with D of C and P of G P. So what does it really say? What is Mormon theology really like? Read for yourself!

Here is a funny anecdote; one reason I read the Bhagavad Gita is that it was referenced quite a few times in Thoreau's Walden. And I recently read Walden. One reason is that Walden has a lot of history with Dawn's family. Dawn's grandfather had a B.S. in Chemistry. In the 30s, during the Great Depression, he quit his job as a chemist and dragged his new petite bourgeois wife with him to a farm in Illinois to live off the land, much like Walden. It was a book that had inspired him to give up his life of comfort during one of the worst economic periods of in US history. It sounds like a pretty crazy thing to do. How could one book cause a man to do such a thing? So I read the book to find out.

As you can probably tell, I'm into finding out for myself by reading the book. Not a bad way to do things if you ask me.