On November 10, 1939, three days after his eighteenth birthday he enlisted in the United States Army. One of his first assignments was with the air corps (it later became the US Air Force) and was shipped to Hickman field in Hawaii. In 1940 he transferred to 27th Infantry, which was at Schofield Barracks, also located in Hawaii. He was at Schofield when Japan attacked in December 7, 1941.

He left Hawaii on December 6, 1942 to be stationed on Guadalcanal. He was there during the Japanese attack and from those experiences he wrote The Thin Red Line. To many it is the best book about WWII.

Even before the war he had dreams of being a writer. After the war he was able to work with Maxwell Perkins, Thomas Wolfe’s editor. Jones admired the work of Wolfe. He first novel was From Here to Eternity, based on his experiences in Hawaii prior to the attack of December 7, 1941. It was published in 1951 and made into a movie in 1953. The movie won Best Picture Oscar.

Jones went on to complete what he called his WWII trilogy with The Thin Red Line in 1961 and Whistle in 1978. The central characters are actually the same in all three books, though their names were somewhat altered. From Here to Eternity features Warden and Prewitt, who become Welsh and Witt in The Thin Red Line and Mart Winch and Bobby Prell in Whistle. Similarly, Corporal Fife in The Thin Red Line reappears as Marion Landers in Whistle, as does the cook, Storm, who becomes Johnny “Mother” Strange.

While working to finish Whistle, Jones died of congestive heart failure on May 9, 1977. Knowing that he had little time remaining, but wanting to finish the novel at times he worked 14 hours a day on it. When he died he had completed all but the final three chapters. Those chapters were completed by Willie Morris based on notes and taped conversation that Jones had already written.

It must have been for her beauty that Andress was given the role of Honey Ryder in the movie, since her voice was dubbed by two others. Nikki van der Zyl gave the character her speaking voice, while Diana Coupland was her singing voice.

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, mentioned her by name in a later novel “On Her Majesty Secret Service”, where he described her as a “beautiful movie star.” She was one of only two performers to appear in a James Bond Film and mentioned in one of Ian Fleming’s books. The other was David Niven, who appeared as an older James Bond in the 1967 Bond parody “Casino Royale”. Andress also appeared in the film as Vesper Lynd.

In 1957 she became the second wife of John Derek. It was during their marriage that she portrayed Honey Ryder. Also while they were married she posed nude in Playboy Magazine. Those photos were taken by Derek.

Even though she will always be considered the first Bond Girl she was not the first to appear. That honor goes to Eunice Gayson who portrayed Sylvia Trench, who Bond meets at the beginning of the film at a Baccarat Table. Gayson’s Trench would also appear at the beginning of the second Bond film, “From Russia with Love”.

The classic moment of Ryder emerging from the sea would be redone in “Die Another Day” by Halle Berry who wore an Orange Bikini.

The Hobbit, a children’s fantasy novel, was first published on September 21, 1937. It was so popular that a sequel was required. That sequel, much different and more adult, was the Lord of the Rings and set in Middle-Earth, Tolkien’s mythological world.

Ever since the final minutes of the final movie of the trilogy in 2003, Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King, there has been clambering for The Hobbit to be made as a movie by Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings. And finally in December of 2012 The Hobbit will hit the screen.

I was first introduced to the Hobbit and Tolkien’s world in summer of 1977. I don’t really remember why, but I picked up a 4 book package set that included The Hobbit and the three volume Lord of the Rings. I was introduced to Hobbits like all by reading the words, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

Those that read The Hobbit after the Lord of the Rings, may be disappointed since the tone of the telling of the story is much different.

From now until December 14th, the scheduled date for the release of the first of the two Hobbit movies, much will be written and discussed. About the books, the author, and how the movie will presented. And to me, a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world and stories, this is a very good thing. I am looking forward to the Year of the Hobbit.

The story is divided into Staves and not chapters. A stave, which is similar to a stanza, is found in music as a recurring pattern of meter and rhyme. Dickens felt this added humor as it relates to the title.

When Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his old partner and friend Jacob Marley, Marley’s ghost informs “Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls one. … Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The Third, upon the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has cease to vibrate.” In the end the three spirits visited him on one night.

A Christmas Carol has been adapted for nearly every form of entertainment including theatre, opera, film, radio and television. The first film version was made in 1901 called Scrooge. In 1908 Thomas Edison also produced a film version of the story.

Lionel Barrymore’s radio production of him playing Scrooge was so popular that plans were made for him to do a film version. However, before it was filmed he was confined to a wheelchair with crippling arthritis and the role was played by Reginald Owen.

One of the best acclaimed film version of A Christmas Carol starred Alastair Sim as Ebeneser Scrooge. The English produced film was released with the title Scrooge in England and A Christmas Carol in the United States. It however did not attain its stature until the 1970′s when it turned up each year on US TV. Prior to this the most popular version of the filmed story in the US was the 1938 version with Reginald Owen.

This first edition had a printing of 500 copies. The work was not popular, but people did request a larger printing which one was finally printed.

While Hitler was in prison serving his prison term for high treason, he began writing (actually dictating) his autobiography so that the German public would know what he stood for. He was release on December 20, 1924 about a year after beginning his five year term.

The second volume Die Nationalsozialistische Bewegung or The National Socialist Movement was released in December 1926. This was a few months after a second edition of the first volume was published.

After Hitler became chancellor in 1933, the book was extremely popular. In reality it became the Nazi Bible with over 10 million copies distributed in Germany. Every Soldier received a copy as did every newly-wed couple.

In 1928, Hitler felt that even with Mein Kampf the German public did not understand his ideas and brought his loss of the elections of 1928. He began a sequel, which was never finished, that he called Zweites Buch or Secret Book.

Synopsis: After an accident happens at a miltary biological weapon facility a guard escapes infected with adeadly virus known as Captain Tripps, a rapidly mutating flu that.  The flu wipes out most of the world’s population and  the survivors choose between following an elderly black woman to Boulder or the dark man, Randall Flagg, in Las Vegas. The two factions prepare for a confrontation between the forces of good and evil.

For accounting reasons and not editorial ones, King was forced to delete 400 manuscript pages from his original draft.  The reason was that Doubleday wanted to publish a book with the cover price of $12.95, they felt that was all the market could handle.

The novel was re-released as The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition in 1990. King restored some text originally cut for brevity, added and revised sections. He changed the setting of the novel from 1980 to 1990, and updated a few pop culture references.

In 1994 ABC television produces an 8 hour mini-series  of The Stand.  It was scripted by Stephen King, based more on the original 1978 version than the updated 1990 one.

It is considered by many (including me) to be his best novel and it is also one of his most popular.