Back to The Art Of War. . .

I finally started the next chapter in "art of war" and you probably know what its called because I've said it so many times. For the people who don't know its called "maneuvering" and its about war tactics. At the beginning of the chapter he makes a point toward harmony and its place in the war zone. he says without it the army and the country will fall to their knees in defeat. one tactic he notes is about confusing the enemy and making them seem like you are far away so they let there guard down, and then swiftly closing that distance and arriving at the battle ground first. this makes sense to me, but you would think that that would tire an army out quickly. according to him "the one prepared for battle is less likely to be exhausted than the one that hurries into the battle".
This book is confusing because every time he tries to explain a long distance he measures it in "Li" which is apparently how they measured things 2 thousand years ago. They also explain things with "Chinese" metaphors which don't really make any sense to Americans. Here is an example of one "we shall be like to rats fighting in a whole-and the pluckier one will win!". please leave a comment if that makes ANY sense.

survivor. . .

This book is questionably the strangest book I've ever read and its also not a good book to read if you have a headache because it just makes you question the author to often. And just some advice to any one else writing a blog post, its not a good idea to write anything when you have a headache because it just makes it 20 times worse. So back to the book, first the book is backwards, because it starts at chapter 47 and on page 285. This is one of the reasons I'm so interested in the book, and the other reason is that the main character is has a "one of a kind" personality. he tells this story about where he grew up and his brother telling him "stories" from the "outside world". they are forced to live in this church district which sounds like a culted community from the way they describe it in the book. they are only allowed a chance to escape when they reach the age of 17. him and his brother take this chance as soon as possible he never says any else about his brother except that he was  naive and stupid. Well he gets a job cleaning up after other people in their houses which i can tell is going to be some type of metaphor later in the book.
   It fast forwards to about 10 years later where he still holds the house maid job. he frequently adds comments like "ask me how to get blood stains out of wallpaper?" and "ask me how fix stab wounds in suits?" he says these things because he has had to learn how to accomplish these tasks in his experience as a house maid. many of the things are very strange, but a few are helpful and some what handy to a very industrious person i guess. this book does have its comical moment's, but some of the stuff he says is nothing but sick and disturbing. If anyone is debating reading this book, they definitely should because it is totally worth reading.

Currently. . .

Books I've read this week:
Art of war-Sun Tzu
Survivor-palahniuk

Pages: 311 pages this week

Favorite sentences:
(1.)"By means of these seven considerations I can
    forecast victory or defeat."-Sun Tzu "Art of War"

(2.)"Sun Tzu said:  The good fighters of old first put
    themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then
    waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy." "Art Of War"

(3.)"In battle, there are not more than two methods
    of attack--the direct and the indirect; yet these two
    in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers." "Art Of War" Sun Tzu

The second sentence is my favorite Because it seems like I could actually use that in life.The third one is sweet because it makes warfare seem almost simple. And the first one almost seems like a weather forecast and that's why I like it.

New book. . .

I got stuck on a new book today and its confusing, but its also very interesting too. its called "survivor" and its about this guy who hijacks this plane and is heading toward his inevitable fate because he killed every body on board and let the captain parachute out. That's as far as i got today, but I'll read more tomorrow and update whoever is reading this with more of the story. I' tell you the author name too, so you can read it if you want. "survivor"-Palahniuk he also wrote "Fight Club" if that helps your search for a good book.

I said that I was going to talk about the next chapter called maneuvering in my last post, but I decided that I was just going to explain the previous chapters. The most helpful chapter for me so far was the chapter call "weak and strong points". It explains how and what to attack if you have a weak or strong enemy and no matter the size of the enemy's forces. This book almost has to much information to take in. I think I might have to reread the book if I want to understand it fully.
I feel so wise when I'm reading it I defintely feel like a wise chief. And yes that's where got the blogs title. I'm thinking that I'll read "war and peace" next. And I'm going to actually read chapter 6 and hopefully understand it. I'm going to change my goal for book, it was to just read it for class, but now it's going to be concentrating on learning and understanding it. And I think I'll throw a sweet quote in too. This is one of my favorites "He who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven, making it impossible for the enemy to guard against him. This being so, the places that I shall attack are precisely those that the enemy cannot defend...He who is skilled in defense hides in the most secret recesses of the earth, making it impossible for the enemy to estimate his whereabouts. This being so, the places that I shall hold are precisely those that the enemy cannot attack."- sun tzu

First post. . .

I'm Reading Art of War by: Sun Tzu Also known as the book that was literally written on scrolls all the way in 2nd century B.C. Today it is still one of the most popular books for military personnel and war strategist around the world. This book has 13 chapters all covering the basics of war strategy and the ideals of generalship. I've only read about 6 chapters, but so far the book has been incredibly interesting to read. The book does get very confusing because it’s translated from 1000 year old scrolls by wise Chinese generals. And that was only the process to translate it to simplified Chinese. The process continues from this point to have the book translated into English. Which has left quite a lot of errors still in the text because the Chinese language does not translate fluidly into the English language? I've read about 277 pages in the last couple of days and that’s excluding the 256 page intro to the book. That has to be the longest intro I have ever read in any book by a long shot. I'll post more about the next chapter I’m reading tomorrow. It’s called Maneuvering it should be the best one yet.