Interesting reading...

This morning I was pretty desperate for something to read on the train. I've already devoured this week's Economist, and I've not ordered any new books from Amazon in some time. I ran downstairs to see if I could find anything that, even though I had already read it once, I wanted to read again, or to see if I could discover something I had overlooked before from DH's collection (his treasure trove of Soviet/Russian history books just isn't that appealing, I have to admit)

I spied one of the older books that my grandfather had given to DH and me. It was called "Hiroshima Diary," and was written by a doctor who was in Hiroshima and was injured by the atomic blast. He survived, and his diary (not written with any intent of publishing) was translated into English and published. I grabbed it yesterday with a thought in the back of my head that I had recently read something suggesting that it was a good read (maybe I read it somewhere online, I can't quite remember where).

Needless to say it is a fascinating personal account of what this doctor experienced immediately following the Hiroshima atom bomb. It's a little graphic, but in a very clinical way that doesn't bother me too much (I'm a bit sensitive when it comes to stuff like this, although really, who isn't). I find myself eagerly waiting for my train rides so I can read this book - and again almost missing my stops since I am so engrossed in the material.

I really, truly believe that books like this and movies like "Threads" and "On the Beach," and "The Day After" should be mandatory material for all, just to convey the gravity and the perilous and precarious position that we, the human race, are in with respect to our long-term survival. India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, China and the US: these are all sparks that could ignite decisions you can't take back, with consequences far outweighing the nature of the conflict behind them.

It makes me want to buy a sailboat and spend my life at sea, far from any "civilization," a term I use here very ironically.