Point of order

In my outbound box for the coming week, among and amidst the dreamy pens and bits and boxes of cool swag- (including one of the dreamiest laser etched pieces ever, and the mother of all business card holders) are a few books that I cannot wait to share, again.

The swagmobile is rapidly becoming the bookmoblie.

Curiously, even though they are different genres, they are all by the same author.

Steven Pressfield wrote the penultimate book on writing and creative 'resistance'.

And breaking through it.

The War of Art, a twist on the classic warfare (and business) book-Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

And I am excited to be giving it to a writer friend who has broken the back of writer's block (I hope!) this week.

A classic!

The Legend of Bagger Vance, also by Pressfield, was a greater book than movie, and it really came down to casting. Don't get me wrong- I loved the movie, and am a huge Will Smith fan, but he did not carry the character of Bagger Vance as someone older, with more gravitas.

Louis Gosset, or even better, Morgan Freeman, would have carried that movie into greatness.

I am sure Morgan Freeman has got to be getting tired of being typecast as a God figure, but he has this aura and poise that carries the role better than anyone I can imagine.

It's kinda funny to plug in other people into the God role and see how it works out; Steven Wright would make a funny and irreverent God, Andrew Dice Clay- not so much.

George Carlin would make a great God figure, he is sort of an uber edgy George Burns.

Anyway, I am excited to share Bagger Vance, in his written form, and this is about the 4th person I have turned onto this awesome read.

The last book-The Virtues of War- is about Alexander the Great and his march to the East, in search of an Empire. As historical fiction, it is a great read and really hits home to the point that the 'conquering' force does not usually (if ever) improve things for the newly 'conqured/liberated/freed' people in their realm.

There is a great exchange between Alexander and a local peasant who has resigned himself to a life of sustenance farming, who turns down the offer of gifts or higher posts, and he says, presciently, 'The neighbors would just steal whatever I had gained, and what they don't steal my wife's family, the local temple, and distant relatives would all grab up anyway.'

In an even more interesting exchange, he encounters a monk who does not show proper obeisance, and when questioned about his lack of servile behavior.

' Don't you realize you are speaking to master of the known world?' he says, 'I have mastered my need to be master of the known world.'

The pause it gives Alexander, fictional or not, still resonates with me, even after 4 readings I still am drawn to that conversation.

Master the need to master the world.

Ouch.

The Virtues of War is really the best of the three books headed out this week, imho.

I am continuing to struggle with my need to master my own need to be 'master of the known world'. But, like the monk passing out wisdom, I will continue to give out books I am moved by, and that is enough mastering for now.

Kamran the Great Book Giver.

Not claiming monk-like wisdom, just kinda giving up on the field-marshaling behavior I have been associated with in the past.

For now.

Carry on.