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August 12, 2003
Booke of Days: An early blog.
I just finished reading Stephen J. Rivelle's, Booke of Days. Its out of print, but easy to find HERE at Amazon. The intro contends it is a true story. I have my doubts, but whether it is or not, it is still one of the most amazing books I've read. The author's story of how the book came about is equally interesting. In 1990 while working for National Geographic Magazine, he was assigned to do a piece on French monasteries. While there he decided to try and learn about his heritage. Long story short, he found himself in a small town in France called Lunnel where a town hall clerk, the mayor, the police commissaire, and the town priest, after much disbelief, told him that his distant relative was the Duke of Lunnel and had written a journal during his voyages on the first crusade. It had been kept in a sealed wooden box underneath the church in Lunnel for over 900 years and was still mostly intact. Stephen spent the next 5 years translating it (as it was written in an older form of French known as Provencal).The journal itself is astounding. While it contains a tremendous amount of history in the people, places and events it covers, it is more about one mans search for faith, redemption and himself. It journal is very well written, with sometimes gruesome accounts of battle and their living conditions. It covers a wide range of topics such as love, sex, devotion, servitude, faith, religion, idealism, racism, sexism, and the list goes on. Perhaps most astounding is the realization that this man 900 years ago was struggling with the same things we do today. Some things don't change.
The end is both surprising and a bit sobering. I'm still dissecting what I took away from the book. One page in particular made me think. I'll be commenting on that in a subsequent entry though. I couldn't help but view it as an early blog of course as I am so rapt in mine. He seemed to share the same devotion to writing his thoughts down as I do. For him it was therapeutic I'm sure, but also provided respite from the horrors around him.
If anything I've said sounds in any way interesting, don't walk, run to your computer and buy this book. As much as I could hype this book, I'm sure I couldn't give it half the praise it deserves.
Posted by wonko at August 12, 2003 02:23 PM
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