I just finished Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. The woman really does her research, that's for sure. (She also wrote Seabiscuit, and although I adore the movie, I've never read the book.) If you haven't read it, do so before you watch the movie. I know the film couldn't cover everything in the book, and it's worth the anguish you'll experience as you read Louie Zamperini's account of getting shot down, surviving for over forty days on a raft with no food and little water, getting captured by the Japanese troops and surviving unbelievably bad treatment in a Japanese POW camp.
In my mind, most people are either whiners or sloggers. There are people who complain about what they don't have. They grouse about their job. They whine about their lot in life. At least they are alive, they have a job and there is always someone who was born into a worse situation.
Sloggers keep plugging along. They might be moving at a slow pace. They might have trouble sometimes just putting one foot in front of the other. But they keep moving forward.
What do you do when you're stuck with a whiner or you encounter one? Impatient minds want to know...
It's a new year, and that means a new year for reading.
The first book I'll finish in 2015 is Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. If you've caught any of the numerous interviews of the author, you'd know that while she was working on this book, she dealt with a debilitating disease which prevented her from being able to leave the house for months at a time. Dragging herself to her computer took all of her energy. (It makes me reluctant to whine about my writing obstacles.) And yet she still pushed herself.
She wrote Unbroken without ever meeting Louie Zamperini in person. Instead, they spoke for hundreds of hours over the phone. After the book was finished, the two finally met. Hillenbrand said not meeting him was an advantage. As she wrote his story, she didn't have an old man in her mind. She had a hellion-of-a-boy in her mind as she wrote about his childhood, she had a handsome young man when she was working on his college days, and so on...
I'm only 1/4 through it (100 pages or so), but am thoroughly enjoying it. However, since I am trying to finish procrastinate when it comes to doing my report cards, I can't spend too much time reading.
What is the first book you are going to finish/read in 2015? Procrastinating minds want to know...
