Sixty Five Thousand or More

There have been 65,000 books published about the American Civil War since it ended in 1865, which is more than one a day, at the last count, and still rising. The War ended at a place called Appomattox in Virginia in case you ever wondered, when Lee surrendered to Grant. How many Americans have ever heard of it? I'm told not many, but maybe my sources are dodgy.

Lord knows who reads all these books, someone must or they wouldn't be published I guess. So if you are planning to write one beware of the competition.

One of the best, if not the best, not that I've read the other 64,999,  is a book called "The March" by E.L. Doctorow, which is a great read, and highly recommended. It follows Sherman's march through the South to the sea, which involved a fair bit of pillaging and destruction as they went along as well as a few mighty battles with the Confederates. The song "Marching through Georgia" will never seem the same.

Whole cities were burnt and ransacked and  the army got bigger and bigger as the freed black slaves and refugees followed along. Anyone with an interest in the history of the Civil War should read this book and if you're not you should read in anyway because it's beautifuuly written and a great story. Powerful stuff.
I didn't know until some time after I'd read the book that he had used Sherman's journals and diaries more or less verbatim in his account of the march. He takes you right in there into his psyche. Or so it seems.

I hope you all like reading about the books I read. I know some people must as there are still qiite a few readers around. I seem to have picked up a reader(s) in Honduras, Austria, Columbia and Greece, which is nice. Wish I knew who you all are.

Not much has happened this past week in Edinburgh. Teacher read out another of my stories last week, very strange feeling. I think I wrote my best one this week so am keen to see what he has to say about it. Though I don't think I'll be giving up the job anytime soon. Well at least not before next year.