Office read-off 2012 edition

We’ll still call this year’s friendly reading competition an “office” read-off, even though Blake and I are unfortunately not in the same office anymore since I changed jobs in February and moved to another state. In any case, I’m way behind so far this year after getting a little bogged down in “Madison and Jefferson,” the review of which you can read here.

I’m at 3,265 pages so far this year, which I think is a little behind this point last year. He’s way above that, so yeah, the situation on my end is a bit grim at this point. I’m trusting that he might get bogged down later this year, but if things progress as they are right now, I will get smoked.

Here are the books I’ve finished thus far in 2012:

– “Grant” by Jean Edward Smith, 628 pages, finished late January (minus 200 pages read in 2011)

– “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara, 374 pages, finished Feb. 12

– “General Lee’s Army: From Victory To Collapse” by Joseph Glatthaar, 475 pages

– “This Mighty Scourge” by James McPherson, 272 pages

– “State of Denial” by Bob Woodward, 491 pages, finished April 2

– “The Greatest Show On Earth” by Richard Dawkins, 437 pages, started late March, finished May 13

– “Madison and Jefferson” by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg, 644 pages, started May 16, finished July 21

– “From the Temple to the Castle” by Lee Morrissey, 144 pages, started May 13, finished July 22

Total: 3,265 pages as of July 23.

I’m a little behind on the page count from last year at this time, but I’m pretty confident that I can have a strong rest of the year. “Madison and Jefferson,” which was very good, but to me, it was a bit longer than it needed to be and kind of dragged me down. I’m excited about the books that I have in the works.

They include:

Revelation revisited

Illustration for John Milton’s “Paradise Lost“ by Gustave Doré, 1866.

Here is an intriguing look at the Book of Revelation that claims that the writer of the book, emphatically not John the Apostle, wasn’t writing about the end of the world, but rather about the collapse of the Roman empire, with Nero as the one stamped with the numerals 666.

I don’t know what John Milton’s personal interpretation of the Revelation might have been other than what he wrote in Paradise Lost, but it seems at least plausible to me that Milton, as ever, was onto something revolutionary.

In Paradise Lost, Satan, of course, is actually the Satan of religious lore, but Milton also established his character to symbolically represent Charles I, the king of England, and hell as the British monarch and empire at large. Students of British history well know, of course, that Milton was in favor of dethroning Charles I and supported republicanism, free speech and freedom of the press. In other words, he was well ahead of his time.

Again, I don’t know if a study has ever been undertaken, but what are the implications here if Milton, some 360 years ago, interpreted the Book of Revelation in the more modern sense, with the “end” coming not to the world, but to what was perceived as an evil, oppressive empire?

4 big myths of Book of Revelation – CNN Belief Blog – CNN.com Blogs.

[Image credit: Illustration for John Milton’s “Paradise Lost“ by Gustave Doré, 1866.]

Can you crack the code?

Apparently this opportunity is only open to citizens of Great Britain, but those who can crack the code at this website (http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/) could be considered for a position as a spy with the Government Communications Headquarters. According to the agency, this isn’t a hoax. About 50 have already already solved the puzzle. As it appears to me, you basically have to work through an encoded messages, written in [[hexadecimal]], and then come up with the correct keyword.

Here’s a screenshot: