Bedside Books: Sharing Knowledge Through Fun Contests

mrprofessor (68)in #books • 6 years ago

Sup Mighty Readers! Let's talk about books on this amazing and inteligent contest by @riverflows.

Oy mates, wha ya up to? Did you like my australian accent? hihi

Jokes aside, my dear australian friend @riverflows is not only influencing my accent, but she's also bringing incredible ideas to make us talk about what we generally don't talk - Books!

Her idea is that we have to talk about 3 books that we are reading, or want to read, or that are forced upon us to read; it's basically those that are piling up waiting for our precious time and some hot coffee with chocolate.

I'd like to encourage you into participating too, check out her contest below.

Bedside Books: What are You Reading? + A Chance to Win SBD! - Original Post

Show Me Your Stack: 3 Books Plus a Chance to Win SBD!!! - One week call

Isn't it cool? Even though I'm not an avid reader, and I admittedly consider myself a professional procrastinator when it comes to reading books, I do have some readings waiting in line beside my bed. They are quite different between each other and super interesting in subjects. Let's check em out, shall we?

MY 3 BOOK STACK

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Well, it's hard talking about 3 books that I haven't read yet, but I'll do my best to explain a little bit about each one and tell you why I have chosen them.

In general they are all different in subjects - two of them are history, the other is travel/adventure related. Here we go.

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The first one I'm suspect to talk about, as it's my absolute favourite writer - Have you ever noticed how many times I've quoted this guy in my blogs? The author's name is Amyr Klink, he's a brazilian navigator, speaker and writer. He was the first person, in 1984, to cross the South Atlantic rowing aboard the IAT, a small rowing boat.

In this book A Linha D'agua (Water Line), up to where I've read, he talks about the construction of his biggest sail boats, the Paratii and Paratii 2, then he talks about his journeys and capabilities of those amazing sail boats.

It's interesting to read about all his solutions to make those amazing projects come alive, the many problems along the way and how things conspire against him sometimes. Between a bunch of problems and coincidences he strugles to make his dreams come true, but in the end we all know what happens - Both boats become icons of great adventures exploring Antarctica and it's everything written on books like Between Two Poles, Endless Sea, 100 Days Between Sea and Sky.

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If you want to know about Amyr Klink I wouldn't start by A Linha D'agua as I have a feeling that the book is less adventurous then the others mentioned. However, I havent read it yet!

What made me buy this book? Many reasons. I like what Amyr writes, be it adventure or more technical subjects; I wanted to buy Shackleton's book, but it was not available in Brazil; So I decided to buy Between Two Poles, noup, not available. The option of the day was this one.

The next two books, Brasil Nunca Mais and 1942 are history related books, both from different eras or the history of Brazil, and both of them I'm yet to read. Why history books? Because of the quote below.

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

Brazil has so much to learn from this quote! We seem to keep on doing the same old mistakes for 518 years, but that is a long story.

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The first history book in my list was written by João Barone, son of a WW2 Veteran, it is called 1942 - Brasil and its almost unknown war.

In this book the author talks about his dad's stories on the World War Two and goes into details of what was happening in Brazil during that era, what culminated for our participation, what happened during our passage through Europe and the many men who never returned. He also mentions what happens after the soldiers came from Europe and how many of them were forgotten by the government, at the time Getúlio Vargas.

I'm pretty sure you are thinking this is all so strange... Brazil in WW2? That's right. The Brazilian Expeditionary Forces (FEB) fought in Europe for the liberation of Italy, in Montese and Monte Castelo, with 25.000 men along allied troops. We also played an important role in the air with the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) on destroying strategic sites using the modern P47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber. I won't go through all the history here, for that you'll have to read!

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I absolutely love everything related to ww2, as told by both sides of the history. I respect all those who fought and even more those who never came back. I also like to read about the inovations created during those times, it's so sad to know that many technologies, some of them important today, were developed in difficult times or made to kill people.

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Last but also important, the third book is called Brasil Nunca Mais, written by Paulo Evaristo, ex-archbishop of São Paulo.

I don't know much to talk about this book and copying info from the internet is not my thing... howerver, the colleague who's lended me this book said "This is interesting, but I couldn't read it all... it's too strong for me".

As far as I know it talks about the horrors during the milatary dictatorship in Brazil and all the tortures against those who opposed the government.

Did you know about this dark period of the history of Brazil?

So, from 1964 to 1985, Brazil lived the Military years, when democracy went down and going against the government could cost your life. Again... if you want to know more feel free to ask me on the comments and I'll gladly link you to articles in english. Go read ya bastard!

Why do I have this book on my stack, you may be asking. Because sometimes history is not beautiful and we need to know about it anyway, to make sure we won't repeat it.

Today, Brazil is going through a big political crises and it worries me seeing people asking for military intervention, maybe they should read this book, to know what happens when you are in a dictatorship.

I hope you've enjoyed going through my small stack of books and knowing a little tiny bit on the history of Brazil and my motivations to get those books. They are still waiting in line to be read, but everything in its own time.

Would you like to know more about brazilian history? Drop a message down below, I'll gladly help you.

If you liked this post, please, consider leaving your upvote for a hot coffee.

~Love ya all,

Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broken backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.