hi, its a borrowing thing/temporary type download. Before Covid you could borrow for about 14 days and they would automatically undo the borrow if you didn't return the book on time. They also send a mail if you want a book to read and someone else has it, so you fall in queue. But if you dont take that window when the date comes, then it passes to whoever is next in line.
For the last one year or so however, you can only download for an hour., though you can keep refreshing during that hour if you are reading something and want to continue reading. Usually there wont be anyone else coming in when the time is just an hour, in my experience. Maybe in the case of some extra popular book there might. I have no idea. I think they probably shortened the borrowing time because when people borrow they get lazy about reading and returning quickly (like any normal library) and two weeks per book for a global audience (not a local one) is quite a long time. So its possible they just want to get the stragglers to speed up and everyone else to get on with it:D.
When I was in my 20s and 30s, I practiced aikido about 15 hours a week. One day when I was 25, I met a doctor from Vietnam maybe 20 years older than me, who was delighted to hear that I did that. He said, "Aikido helped me survive a prison camp!" This astonished me a bit, until he explained. Aikido (correctly instructed) had taught him mindfulness and to think only about the next thing he had to do. His explanation matched that to be found from Victor Herman in his book "Coming Out of the Ice". Herman was an American who went to Russia to work at a plant that Ford built for Stalin, and like almost all his colleagues, landed in the gulag, but was one of the few who survived. Very much like the Vietnamese doctor told me, he wrote that the key to survival was to focus only on the next thing to be done. Herman said that many literally worried themselves to death in the gulag thinking about their past, their future, etc.
"Coming Out of the Ice" is a powerful memoir that was taken off the market when it was high in the bestseller lists, apparently because the New York publisher had gotten a deal to publish Brezhnev's autobiography if they pulled Herman's book off the shelves. He found a large stock of them still unsold somewhere and sold them from his home until they sold out, and then the book was republished by a company somewhere in the Plains states. It has also long been out of print, and used copies of the paperback go for $300 on Amazon, and the hardcover goes for over $500.
I know that book well. I was shocked to hear that a reader for the New York Review of Books publishing arm rejected the title for reprint. I'm happy to have a British second edition from 1961.
How ridiculous! I first heard of the book in a collection of recommendations from Harvard, where it was cited by no less than three professors. That NYRB have an animus towards your exemplary suggestions speaks volumes about their criteria.
I’m a fairly jaundiced sixty-six year-old novelist who has probably spent too many years critiquing the work of young writers in MFA programs. It’s hard to impress me, and even harder to move me, and harder yet to make me say “thank you for allowing me to read this.” Thank you for allowing me to read this, Ted. It made today a better, more rewarding day. You do that again and again.
Solitude - or more specifically the absence of fear of solitude - is indeed freedom. Even the most introverted of us may ultimately be social creatures that need social contact, but becoming comfortable with your own alone-ness is indeed one of the most liberating skills one can have.
Thanks for this little-known story of human endurance. Now I wonder how Christopher Burney's hard-won mindfulness affected the rest of his life. Also, I hope I remember the things he did if I'm ever in similar straits!
This was a captivating essay to start my morning! I found it interesting that he discovered that rhythm provided a sense of liberty. It reminded me of walking the Camino pilgrimage in Spain, where I would just hear the rhythmic crunching of gravel under my feet for hours and nothing much else; it provided a calm sense of serenity that I had not even been looking for.
"If mindfulness is possible in those circumstances—with so little to see, touch, hear, or taste—imagine what riches it can offer to us, with the whole world at hand." Having the whole world at our hand is what makes mindfulness so elusive in our overstimulated, distracted routines. One of the practices that many of us are in need of is 'cognitive liberty' as we are become increasingly enslaved by algorithms that tug at us every few seconds. See 'From feeding Moloch to 'Digital Minimalism'. https://schooloftheunconformed.substack.com/p/from-feeding-moloch-to-digital-minimalism
I dimly remember reading about a musician being imprisoned , without access to his instrument. When he was released, he gave a concert. Those who had known him and the fact of his situation in the prison were amazed at his level of musicianship after release. His explanation was that he had visualized his instrument and “practiced” every day. I think I found this in a book about sports visualization, but nights when I have trouble sleeping I try creating chords in my mind, seeing the fretboard or keyboard and spelling the chords. I would love to know what the rest of Burney’s life was like…did he survive to the end of the war? What was he like then?
Superb piece on Christopher Burney. As a complement, you might look at Jim Stockdale, fighter pilot shot down over Vietnam, seven and a half years the leader of our POWs in the Hanoi Hilton, and a devotee of stoicism.
Being a bibliophile, I noticed a lot of book marketing prioritizes different demographics when it comes to the war. Which also takes second place after Holocaust lit. Saying that only to mention a reality in the publishing world: accounts of British spies do not rank high, just as Polish Holocaust lit is often lower in the ranks because it's not "West" enough. (like Kazimierz Moczarskis Conversations with an Executioner) I would have thought a book like this would still be in print in Britain. Sad to see that after Burney's service, he's been forgotten by the publishing world.
You have definitely made a stunningly great case for its continued readership. I'm glad to add it to my reading list.
They sure are! (Though the Nobel has been an exception with the Poles: five Laureates, six if you include Isaac Bashevis Singer) I hope to try and change that perception on my Substack not just with Poles and Czechs, but the region in general. My first Czech lit review will be soon. (Saturnin, by Zdenek Jirotka) Since we see eye to eye on that, I'd be delighted if you subscribe!
I have a few books from that series in my collection. I like his involvement with that better than his fiction. :P It's one of the few series where every single author is worth taking a chance on if you find one of these in the bookshop. (The Case Worker is an unquestionable masterpiece) But I especially appreciate that series bringing Tadeusz Konwicki into English. It's not only criminal that he's been forgotten since 1989, but unfortunate for our times since he had a distinct "post-Orwellian" style in his novel A Minor Apocalypse. Very relevant for today. Thankfully the Dalkey Archives Press has made a good effort to keep him around.
ted…. there are a few other books out by those who lived in solitary confinement for many years…. jay jarvis masters has a few books out that i highly recommend.. also, albert woodfox wrote one a few years ago.. finally, someone earlier mentioned nelson mandela and his autobio. long walk to freedom.. they are all really great books..
Makes me think of Notes of a Dead House, Dostoevsky’s memoir about his four years in a hard labor camp. Intense stuff. Ditto the book Gulag Archipelago about the concentrations camps in communist Russia in the Stalin years. Ruthless, tortured prison experiences. Music and solitude to survive make a lot of sense. Thinking. Honestly sometimes I think, Lock me up but give me 500 books and I’d be fine.
thanks for this. several copies of the book are available for free on Internet Archive if anyone is interested. Reminds me of Victor Frankl.
Ah yes: Man’s Search for Meaning
Can the copies over at Internet Archive be downloaded to computer for people to keep? Or is this a borrowing/temporary type download?
hi, its a borrowing thing/temporary type download. Before Covid you could borrow for about 14 days and they would automatically undo the borrow if you didn't return the book on time. They also send a mail if you want a book to read and someone else has it, so you fall in queue. But if you dont take that window when the date comes, then it passes to whoever is next in line.
For the last one year or so however, you can only download for an hour., though you can keep refreshing during that hour if you are reading something and want to continue reading. Usually there wont be anyone else coming in when the time is just an hour, in my experience. Maybe in the case of some extra popular book there might. I have no idea. I think they probably shortened the borrowing time because when people borrow they get lazy about reading and returning quickly (like any normal library) and two weeks per book for a global audience (not a local one) is quite a long time. So its possible they just want to get the stragglers to speed up and everyone else to get on with it:D.
Thanks Shana. It sounds like too much of a hassle for me personally. Even reading news or substacks, I have to step away quite often for real life.
Sure thing, still if you're suddenly in the mood to read a hard to find book, here's one more place to think of at the top of your head. Cheers!
When I was in my 20s and 30s, I practiced aikido about 15 hours a week. One day when I was 25, I met a doctor from Vietnam maybe 20 years older than me, who was delighted to hear that I did that. He said, "Aikido helped me survive a prison camp!" This astonished me a bit, until he explained. Aikido (correctly instructed) had taught him mindfulness and to think only about the next thing he had to do. His explanation matched that to be found from Victor Herman in his book "Coming Out of the Ice". Herman was an American who went to Russia to work at a plant that Ford built for Stalin, and like almost all his colleagues, landed in the gulag, but was one of the few who survived. Very much like the Vietnamese doctor told me, he wrote that the key to survival was to focus only on the next thing to be done. Herman said that many literally worried themselves to death in the gulag thinking about their past, their future, etc.
"Coming Out of the Ice" is a powerful memoir that was taken off the market when it was high in the bestseller lists, apparently because the New York publisher had gotten a deal to publish Brezhnev's autobiography if they pulled Herman's book off the shelves. He found a large stock of them still unsold somewhere and sold them from his home until they sold out, and then the book was republished by a company somewhere in the Plains states. It has also long been out of print, and used copies of the paperback go for $300 on Amazon, and the hardcover goes for over $500.
Wow--fascinating! Wish I could get my hands on a copy! Thanks
Thank you--really appreciate it!
“The tiniest window bringing light will always dominate the bleak and oppressive walls.”
Such an inspiring quote. Thank you Ted for bringing this fascinating person to my attention.
I feel like live music acts as a lantern
during this time of global crisis, and find hope in the idea that music will “dominate the bleak and oppressive walls.”
Several copies available on vialibri.net
Not anymore! But thanks
I know that book well. I was shocked to hear that a reader for the New York Review of Books publishing arm rejected the title for reprint. I'm happy to have a British second edition from 1961.
How ridiculous! I first heard of the book in a collection of recommendations from Harvard, where it was cited by no less than three professors. That NYRB have an animus towards your exemplary suggestions speaks volumes about their criteria.
Why?
I’m a fairly jaundiced sixty-six year-old novelist who has probably spent too many years critiquing the work of young writers in MFA programs. It’s hard to impress me, and even harder to move me, and harder yet to make me say “thank you for allowing me to read this.” Thank you for allowing me to read this, Ted. It made today a better, more rewarding day. You do that again and again.
Thanks for bringing this author to our attention.
Solitude - or more specifically the absence of fear of solitude - is indeed freedom. Even the most introverted of us may ultimately be social creatures that need social contact, but becoming comfortable with your own alone-ness is indeed one of the most liberating skills one can have.
The book needs to be back in print. Thanks for the synopsis.
Thanks for this little-known story of human endurance. Now I wonder how Christopher Burney's hard-won mindfulness affected the rest of his life. Also, I hope I remember the things he did if I'm ever in similar straits!
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone," wrote the French philosopher Blaise Pascal.
Burney and Pascal were both blessed with that most pointed of tools: a mind.
What will those addicted to video screens do?
This was a captivating essay to start my morning! I found it interesting that he discovered that rhythm provided a sense of liberty. It reminded me of walking the Camino pilgrimage in Spain, where I would just hear the rhythmic crunching of gravel under my feet for hours and nothing much else; it provided a calm sense of serenity that I had not even been looking for.
"If mindfulness is possible in those circumstances—with so little to see, touch, hear, or taste—imagine what riches it can offer to us, with the whole world at hand." Having the whole world at our hand is what makes mindfulness so elusive in our overstimulated, distracted routines. One of the practices that many of us are in need of is 'cognitive liberty' as we are become increasingly enslaved by algorithms that tug at us every few seconds. See 'From feeding Moloch to 'Digital Minimalism'. https://schooloftheunconformed.substack.com/p/from-feeding-moloch-to-digital-minimalism
I dimly remember reading about a musician being imprisoned , without access to his instrument. When he was released, he gave a concert. Those who had known him and the fact of his situation in the prison were amazed at his level of musicianship after release. His explanation was that he had visualized his instrument and “practiced” every day. I think I found this in a book about sports visualization, but nights when I have trouble sleeping I try creating chords in my mind, seeing the fretboard or keyboard and spelling the chords. I would love to know what the rest of Burney’s life was like…did he survive to the end of the war? What was he like then?
Superb piece on Christopher Burney. As a complement, you might look at Jim Stockdale, fighter pilot shot down over Vietnam, seven and a half years the leader of our POWs in the Hanoi Hilton, and a devotee of stoicism.
Being a bibliophile, I noticed a lot of book marketing prioritizes different demographics when it comes to the war. Which also takes second place after Holocaust lit. Saying that only to mention a reality in the publishing world: accounts of British spies do not rank high, just as Polish Holocaust lit is often lower in the ranks because it's not "West" enough. (like Kazimierz Moczarskis Conversations with an Executioner) I would have thought a book like this would still be in print in Britain. Sad to see that after Burney's service, he's been forgotten by the publishing world.
You have definitely made a stunningly great case for its continued readership. I'm glad to add it to my reading list.
You’re right--Polish and Czech literature (with a few exceptions) is way underrated
They sure are! (Though the Nobel has been an exception with the Poles: five Laureates, six if you include Isaac Bashevis Singer) I hope to try and change that perception on my Substack not just with Poles and Czechs, but the region in general. My first Czech lit review will be soon. (Saturnin, by Zdenek Jirotka) Since we see eye to eye on that, I'd be delighted if you subscribe!
https://timelessfelixpurat.substack.com/p/an-afternoon-in-ostrava
Done!
I have a few books from that series in my collection. I like his involvement with that better than his fiction. :P It's one of the few series where every single author is worth taking a chance on if you find one of these in the bookshop. (The Case Worker is an unquestionable masterpiece) But I especially appreciate that series bringing Tadeusz Konwicki into English. It's not only criminal that he's been forgotten since 1989, but unfortunate for our times since he had a distinct "post-Orwellian" style in his novel A Minor Apocalypse. Very relevant for today. Thankfully the Dalkey Archives Press has made a good effort to keep him around.
ted…. there are a few other books out by those who lived in solitary confinement for many years…. jay jarvis masters has a few books out that i highly recommend.. also, albert woodfox wrote one a few years ago.. finally, someone earlier mentioned nelson mandela and his autobio. long walk to freedom.. they are all really great books..
Makes me think of Notes of a Dead House, Dostoevsky’s memoir about his four years in a hard labor camp. Intense stuff. Ditto the book Gulag Archipelago about the concentrations camps in communist Russia in the Stalin years. Ruthless, tortured prison experiences. Music and solitude to survive make a lot of sense. Thinking. Honestly sometimes I think, Lock me up but give me 500 books and I’d be fine.
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/dostoevsky-russian-wizard