12-02-2023, 11:20 AM
I read a book! It only took me 2 months (getting harassed by the library is pretty good incentive for me).
Some thoughts:
- I know this was created from log/diary entries, but the deaths - on both sides, must have been horrific and as readers, we only glimpse it.
- I live in what was former Ft. Ord. There are old base building 1/2 mile from here waiting for someone to put in $$$ to renovate them, so they sit boarded up. There are some historic plaques indicating what each building type was and what it was used for. There are 8 warehouses and the plaque says that they housed German POWs here during WW2. Reading the book, I kept thinking about the logistics of having to manage captured soldiers. You have to feed and house them, and if you are on the move constantly, it must be a huge hassle. And the Germans constantly shipping captured airmen to Stalag 13 or whatever seemed crazy…it did put Hogan's Heroes in better context.
- Short format journal entry style was great for my poor reading habits. Very easy to pick up where I left off, or read a few short passages between doing other things.
- I would have liked a glossary. There are some terms that weren’t explained right away and I sometimes wanted an explanation. I can’t remember specific examples, but a table of plane nicknames/models is one.
- I would have like an overall timeline of events and map in the appendix.
- There’s a little bit of redundancy in phrasing or sentiment here and there. As if the author was busy focused on other things (go figure)
I liked the George Dorval’s Survival story in the appendix. Similar context, different cadence to the story telling. A nice compliment to the other material.
If you ever do a second printing, here are some proofreading notes:
P18 - 2nd to last paragraph “some of use wondered why” should be “some of us wondered why”
P66 - bottom photo is really blurry. I would sharpen it
P275 - The Florence phot is captioned “I took the volleyball team to Florence”, but the actual passage describing that event doesn’t appear until P288.
Style comment: I didn’t like that every new chapter starts on the right. With the short form entries, it leaves a lot of blank left pages. I think for this diary-esque book, new chapters should just start on the next page, right, or left, with no blank page in between…
Kudos, Greg, that was a big undertaking!
—tg
Some thoughts:
- I know this was created from log/diary entries, but the deaths - on both sides, must have been horrific and as readers, we only glimpse it.
- I live in what was former Ft. Ord. There are old base building 1/2 mile from here waiting for someone to put in $$$ to renovate them, so they sit boarded up. There are some historic plaques indicating what each building type was and what it was used for. There are 8 warehouses and the plaque says that they housed German POWs here during WW2. Reading the book, I kept thinking about the logistics of having to manage captured soldiers. You have to feed and house them, and if you are on the move constantly, it must be a huge hassle. And the Germans constantly shipping captured airmen to Stalag 13 or whatever seemed crazy…it did put Hogan's Heroes in better context.
- Short format journal entry style was great for my poor reading habits. Very easy to pick up where I left off, or read a few short passages between doing other things.
- I would have liked a glossary. There are some terms that weren’t explained right away and I sometimes wanted an explanation. I can’t remember specific examples, but a table of plane nicknames/models is one.
- I would have like an overall timeline of events and map in the appendix.
- There’s a little bit of redundancy in phrasing or sentiment here and there. As if the author was busy focused on other things (go figure)
I liked the George Dorval’s Survival story in the appendix. Similar context, different cadence to the story telling. A nice compliment to the other material.
If you ever do a second printing, here are some proofreading notes:
P18 - 2nd to last paragraph “some of use wondered why” should be “some of us wondered why”
P66 - bottom photo is really blurry. I would sharpen it
P275 - The Florence phot is captioned “I took the volleyball team to Florence”, but the actual passage describing that event doesn’t appear until P288.
Style comment: I didn’t like that every new chapter starts on the right. With the short form entries, it leaves a lot of blank left pages. I think for this diary-esque book, new chapters should just start on the next page, right, or left, with no blank page in between…
Kudos, Greg, that was a big undertaking!
—tg