wg1This week’s Weekly Geeks questions (and there are quite a few) are:

  1. With Memorial Day in the U.S. this coming Monday, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on the military. Either share your favorite book on war or movie on war and why. Provide a clip from the movie if you’d like or a passage from the book that shows us why you it’s your favorite book or movie. Or do both. OR choose your own military theme, for example, if you have a relative or friend in the military and you would like to send them a video or a message of thanks, do that on your blog. OR do all three. The book and movie also don’t have to be “patriotic” necessarily. For example, one of my favorite fictional books on war is Johnny, Get Your Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
  2. Again with Memorial Day Weekend here in the U.S. starting traditionally on Friday evening, it also is unofficially the start of summer. You’ve probably been asked this in other meme groups in which you participate, but do your reading habits change over the summer? Do you choose lighter fare? What do you enjoy to take to the beach, for example? What is the ultimate summer book? OR what are your favorite travel guides — official or unofficial guides? Again, an example, I think of Holidays In Hell by P.J. O’Rourke, of places I’d rather not vacation. Along those lines, where do you vacation? Any places you recommend or even don’t recommend?

War
I think I consume more war movies than war books. Good war movies: Blackhawk Down. Hotel Rwanda. The Devil Came on Horseback. (Maybe I just don’t mentally classify the books I’ve read the same way, though.)

I like these war movies because they tell truth. They’re not fun or easy to watch, but I believe the message is important.

Oh! Just thought of some more, this time not set in Africa: Schindler’s List, The Pianist, Life is Beautiful. As these depict a different aspect of war, they have a different truth to convey.

Summer reading
My reading habits don’t really change with the seasons. I’m not in school, and I don’t have children, so my life is not impacted much by the school calendar. That also means I don’t get the whole summer off. We sometimes take vacation time for nontraditional time away from work.

Next month we’re traveling to Florida for a family reunion. Seeing the people and all will be well and good (my in-laws), but I’m not looking forward to the climate at all. I am very fair skinned. Even with heavy-duty sunscreen, I burn quickly in intense sun. I’ve been known to burn in 10 minutes here in Northwest Arkansas, so being further south doesn’t help that. Plus, so much of Florida is swamp-land, and my husband is allergic to mold. The last time we visited, he was on allergy meds and miserable the whole time. Oh, and when we visited then, it was February, but it was still plenty warm for me. :) That’s pretty much the extent of our vacation this year, other than the vacation days we spent in January for my brother’s wedding. [Surely this Florida thing won't be quite as bad as I've depicted it here; I like to keep my expectations low so I'm not disappointed.]