What Book Are You Currently Reading?

**peat moss** · 10-30-2004, 10:16 PM

I just started reading The Green Mile , by Stephen King . Great movie but thought the book would be worth checking out.

**TheNobleEU** · 10-31-2004, 03:59 AM

Originally Posted by Guillaume

Sahara was once a verdant place...
But the dates wouldn't match since the last climate change took place 4,000 to 3,600 years ago and, if I remember correctly the sphinx was built under Chephren (2558-2532 BC).

Yes, "Khafre" ("Chephren" is his name as transcribed by the Greeks) erected the second pyramid at Giza.

As Guillaume suggests, you should know that professional Egyptologists totally reject the 'weathered Sphinx' hypothesis, originally suggested by John Anthony West (a layman with no formal training). He originally teamed up with a geologist called Robert Schoch (from Boston University, who does not incidently work in geology, but rather teaches math last I heard) who provided evidence to support the weathered Sphinx theory, but IIRC has since backpeddled on a lot of it under the scrutiny of his geological colleagues. I thought he had actually abandoned West's argument and stepped away from the debate completely, but a quick check of his website would seem to suggest otherwise.

An in-depth (but somewhat out of date) review of the debate:
http://members.aol.com/davidpb4/sphinx1.html

A good archive of websites and position statements by individual (lists the in/famous people involved in various debates, not the least of which is the age-of-the-sphinx fiasco):
http://www.ianlawton.com/gttindex.htm

This is a good website to check before you start reading the known quacks: Graham Handcock, Zecharia Sitchin, Erich von Däniken, etc. Might also want to look for an entry for someone you're unsure about at the Skeptic's Dictionary: http://skepdic.com/

BTW: re: this second last link, _Giza: The Truth_ by Lawton and Ogilvie-Herald (if you can ignore the connotations of the title) is actually a good overview of back-door politicking and scandal of un/professional Egyptology of the 20th C. An interesting and quick read that anyone familar with the history of excavation of ancient Egypt would find most eye-opening.

Edit: Currently reading:
_The Cambridge Illustrated History of China_ by Ebrey
_A History of Chinese Civilization_ by Gernet

Bought recently:
_The Japanese Sword: A Comprehensive Guide_ by Sato
_The Complete Roman Army_ by Goldsworthy
_Miyamoto Musashi The Book of the Five Rings_ by Brown, Kashiwagi, Barrett, and Sasagawa (a translation providing a lot of transcripted Japanese in context).
_Continue to Pester, Nag, and Bite: Churchill's War Leadership_ by Gilbert
_Wellington's Armies: Britain's Campaigns in the Pennisula and at Waterloo 1808-1815_

Cheers,