Author Topic: Books Thread (Read 25379 times)

ryder60 · « **Reply #150 on:** September 07, 2009, 07:56:55 PM »

Ryder60 did you ever hear the interviews Zotski did with Bill Mitchell (sorry about the Spelling on Peter's name) they are priceless.
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No I didn't. I can't spell his name either. My one big claim to fame is that I had my picture taken standing in front of Wairton Willie.

BeSeeingYou · « **Reply #151 on:** September 07, 2009, 11:03:13 PM »

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson

This is a fascinating look into the world of deep sea wreck diving and revolves around a group of divers that in 1991 discover the Holy Grail of wreck diving, an undiscovered shipwreck 60 miles off of New Jersey. The wreck in question turns out to be a WWII German U-boat in about 250 feet of water. A check of U.S. Navy records show no reports of an attack or claims of sinking a U-boat within 100 miles of it's position. So now they have a mystery and the story evolves into a effort to identify the U-boat and how it came to be there. They discover the indentity but it only deepens the mystery. U-869 is reported to have been sunk somewhere off of Gibraltar. Through German records and with information from surviving family members of the crew they piece together a portrait of the crew on their last patrol and the reason that U-869 lies thousands of miles from it's reported sinking location.

I had a hard time putting this book down.

Ingrid · « **Reply #152 on:** September 08, 2009, 07:43:14 AM »

There's always at least one book on the go.
I keep (re)reading JRR Tolkien, LOTR.
Latest books I bought were when we went to London.
Stieg Larsson, The girl with the dragon tattoo (thriller)
Bernard Cornwell, Azincourt (historical novel)
C.J. Samdom, Revelation (historical novel)

I love David Baldacci, John Grisham is always a safe bet for me.
Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter' series (and they are called childrens books...)
Katherine Kerr, Terry Brooks if I want some fiction...
And the list goes on.

martini · « **Reply #153 on:** September 08, 2009, 08:41:15 AM »

A few that come easily to mind:

True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey
Dr. Zivagho - Boris Paternak
Life of Pi - Yan Martel
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
1984 - George Orwell
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Waiting for the Barbarians - JM Coatzee
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

alltherightpills · « **Reply #154 on:** September 09, 2009, 05:37:27 AM »

Life of Pi is one of my favorite books of all time. It's one of those books that's never on my shelf because I'm always lending it out to people.

JS550 · « **Reply #155 on:** September 09, 2009, 05:57:09 AM »

About 2/3rds through "Endless Horizon". One of the motorcycle mags pimped it so I picked it up. If your interested Im almost done, dont spend the $28! Not an easy read, he says at the beginning his writing isnt that good, & he's right. Long story short, 1 man, 1 bike traveling the world, gets into some stuff. Good story, just overly descriptive. I guess would be the way to describe it. Could have been written in about half the pages & told the story.
jim

demon78 · « **Reply #156 on:** September 09, 2009, 06:12:17 AM »

Any one ever read Homage to Catalonia by Orwell?
Bill the demon.

JS550 · « **Reply #157 on:** September 09, 2009, 07:03:36 AM »

Read 1984 and Animal Farm but not that. Like his writing though so I'll have to check it out.

flybox1 · « **Reply #158 on:** September 09, 2009, 07:31:19 AM »

Every three or four years i pick up Moby Dick. Just finished it for the 5th time. For one of my Theology courses in college, we dug deep into this story. I have margin notes on each page, and continue to add to them each time i read it. Interesting to read some of my thoughts from back then, and see how full of $ht i was

On The Run - DiBenedetto
Story about chasing striped bass during migration along the E Coast.

martini · « **Reply #159 on:** September 09, 2009, 07:58:42 AM »

I'm currenlty about half way through Moby Dick. Its a tough slog. I find sometimes I can really get into the writing style and at other times I get very impatient and just want him to get on with the story. Also finally read War and Peace this year, another long hard slog.

kslrr · « **Reply #160 on:** September 09, 2009, 08:57:19 AM »

Currently reading Charlie Wilson's War.
My favorite books are Si Fi.
Larry Niven: Ring World series, Integral Tree series, Known Space short stories.
Issac Asimov: Foundation series, Robot series.
I also like mystery novels.

mark · « **Reply #161 on:** September 09, 2009, 09:25:24 AM »

Quote from: bucky katt on September 04, 2009, 11:34:30 PM

i'm now looking for an entire library of tom clancys fiction books. the wifes anti-christ dachsund ate, chewed, peed, crapped on a couple of boxes of books this afternoon. including hard backed, original printings of cardinal of the kremlin, sum of all fears, red dawn rising. it's lucky for the dog i would never hit, kick or otherwise hurt an animal. paperbacks asd long as there readable, i dont buy books to collect, i buy them to be read over and over.

Take a trip to a Goodwill or two or three. Or some such places. I see a few in there every time. Even at book rate it still costs bucks to mail 'em.

Red Storm still has 50¢ penciled on the flyleaf.

was going to say something about the anklebiter but never mind.

sangyo soichiro · « **Reply #162 on:** September 09, 2009, 10:12:36 AM »

Because of my Honda, I feel a strange kinship with test pilots and astronauts. I can't figure it out other than the 'man and his machine' type of thing. Anyway, I recently read and enjoyed
Man on the Moon, by Andrew Chaikin,
The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe, and
Yeager, by Chuck Yeager.

If anyone's in the mood for the glory days of flight and early space flight, these books might be worth checking out.

(On a side note, I can no longer see an airplane without telling myself that Yeager would 'fly balls out' and 'wax that guy's tail' in a dogfight. Anyone that has read that book probably knows what I mean.)

Frankenkit · « **Reply #163 on:** September 09, 2009, 01:11:45 PM »

soichiro, is that the same as wanting to call everyone a crumby phony after reading Catcher in the Rye?

Duke McDukiedook · « **Reply #164 on:** September 09, 2009, 01:19:15 PM »

Yeah, Yeager is the man- pilot's pilot, Wolfe was dead on in The Right Stuff, great book.

Currently reading Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, another excellent book.
I love his humor, sometimes I catch myself laughing out loud.

sangyo soichiro · « **Reply #165 on:** September 09, 2009, 02:21:12 PM »

Quote from: Kit on September 09, 2009, 01:11:45 PM

soichiro, is that the same as wanting to call everyone a crumby phony after reading Catcher in the Rye?

Yeah, I do recall thinking everyone was a phony after I read that book about a fifteen years ago. Maybe I'm impressionable.

ryder60 · « **Reply #166 on:** September 10, 2009, 08:30:13 PM »

Interesting to read some of my thoughts from back then, and see how full of $ht i was Quote
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Been there many times.

Buber · « **Reply #167 on:** September 11, 2009, 12:45:04 AM »

http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks

Just check the sections - HUGE amounts of books to download. My favorite section is History/military. Sometimes you need to dig deep, but then some really interesting books show up...

Just read this - http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/science_books/astronomy_cosmology/The_Tunguska_Mystery.html
Fantastic mystery, and well written.

Just try it...

ryder60 · « **Reply #168 on:** September 11, 2009, 10:18:00 AM »

Currently reading Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, another excellent book.
I love his humor, sometimes I catch myself laughing out loud. Quote
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I used to spend a lot of time in traffic commuting and I listened to stories all the time. I listened to Twain whenever I could and had this experience. I once listened to Twain and then Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat done by the same reader, probably within the same month. Not withstanding the influence of the style of the reader, you would have thought they were written by the same author. Twain was a humorist, there is subtelty and innuendo and twists and turns, hence a great difference between humor and comedy. In this case you can see the influence of Twain on Steinbeck. To call him the father of American literature may be a bit over the top but Twain sure is a major influence on 'good' American literature.

Duke McDukiedook · « **Reply #169 on:** September 11, 2009, 10:37:36 AM »

I wouldn't call it over the top, I consider Twain to be the best American writer, period.
People try to write him off as a satirist or a humorist but he is so, so much more.

If you haven't done so, crack open The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn again, I did it recently and was greatly rewarded.

Operator · « **Reply #170 on:** September 11, 2009, 11:05:18 AM »

Currently reading Long Way Down, the sequel to Long Way Round by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.

Makes me realize how short even my "longer" trips are.I like the way it is written from both points of view.

I am currently on the waitlist at the library for "Jupiter's Travels" by Ted Simon. Looks really good if anyone has read it let me know what you thought

Also a big Anne Rice fan and of course, Shakespeare..........

demon78 · « **Reply #171 on:** September 12, 2009, 04:27:08 PM »

Huckleberry Finn is one of my all time favorites, read it several times when I was young, Twain was a man of the world and understood how life worked.
Bill the demon.

mark · « **Reply #172 on:** September 13, 2009, 01:55:01 AM »

Quote from: Buber on September 11, 2009, 12:45:04 AM

http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks

Just check the sections - HUGE amounts of books to download. My favorite section is History/military. Sometimes you need to dig deep, but then some really interesting books show up...

Just try it...

Neat link!

Found a 1937 copy of Jane's Fighting Ships......

... that someone had used to keep score, starting a couple of years later.

Strange and sad, in a way. Couldn't read the penciled notes - looked like Russian and some of the penmanship was pretty rough.

Things like Royal Oak with an X and 14.10.39 or Arizona with an X and 7.12.41 .......

the message gets through anyway.

Mediconi · « **Reply #173 on:** September 13, 2009, 06:14:00 AM »

I'm always reading something. Need it when I'm at work and not in the mood to study textbooks (always have one or more with me). Right now I'm reading Rescue 471 by Peter Canning. Great book about someone's first few years as a medic.

shacolaid · « **Reply #174 on:** September 18, 2009, 03:40:07 PM »

Just started reading a book by Matthew B. Crawford titled Shop Class as Soulcraft, An Inquiry into the Value of Work.

Essentially he saying that many in America have lost their ability to fix things. On the front jacket a book description says that "Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a 'knowledge worker.'"

I think that most of us on here would appreciate this book.

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Author Topic: Books Thread (Read 25379 times)

Mediconi