Topic: Books Thread

[mark]

Apocalypse...    Now?

http://www.ebookee.com/The-Long-Emergency-Surviving-the-Converging-Catastrophes-of-the-Twenty-First-Century_246292.html

sort of a prequel to World Made By Hand.

sort of.

[jaknight]

A Fascinating Look Into Lifestyles,

Try Errol Flynn's autobiography, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways."

Give it a little time in the beginning and get into his life as he matures in years, though
not necessarily in wisdom, and it gets fascinating.

It has been said by some that he had a ghost writer do the book for him.  I don't
believe that.  He had a very unique writing style of his own; no one else could match
it.

When he was 21 years old, he wrote another book..... way before he got to Hollywood
and became an actor.  It was called either "Beams End" or "Beam Ends." I can't remember
which.  I thought it wasn't bad..... about his experiences as a cargo sailing ship captain.

After he did make it big in Hollywood, he also wrote another 2 or 3 books.  I have not
been able to find copies of those.

The man tried and did just about everything.  Perhaps he was selfish, but, it cannot be
denied that he lived life with a full zest for adventure of all kinds, from bedrooms to
jungle gold mines and live fire shoot outs (he had to stand trial for murder, among other
things).

Though he made millions in Hollywood, his real desire was that he wanted to be a
good writer.  Well, I think he was.

   ~ ~ ~ jaknight ~ ~ ~

[Caaveman82]

Finished Naked Lunch. Better drug ramblings than Hunter S. Thompson.

On to some Stephen King, The Gunslinger. I found it laying around outside on campus. Doesn't bode well lol, but what the hey. Better than spending my own money.

I have a signed first edition of the Gunslinger, pretty good. I read the whole series.

I have been reading a guy named Greg Iles. Mystery stories with a some nice twists and violent action.

Is the whole series worth reading or is it just okay?

[ryder60]

Stegner and Doig, along with Jim Harrison are some of my very favorites.  Also a huge fan of Literature of the American West. 

For non-fiction try Savage Dreams - A Journey into the Hidden Wars of the American West by Rebecca Solnit.  She's an amazing writer.  Her little brother David, who she dedicated the book to, was a friend of mine back in the day.

-----

I know the name Solnit.  Are you familiar with Leslie Marmon Silko?

I've read her stuff, but not for quite some time.  Also like Louise Erdrich alot too.  She's best known for Love Medicine, but I really liked The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.


Highly recommend Solnit, she's one damn intelligent woman.

-------------

I have Solnit's 'Wanderlust' (the history of walking) from the library.  Very good reading.

Have any struggled with the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins?

I found Edward Abbey a bit flip but easy to cruise along with.

[BeSeeingYou]

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

Written in 1947 and finally translated and published in English in what the New York Times Book Review called the signal literary event of 2009.  It is a portrait of life in wartime Berlin in 1941-3 when a working class couple start a subversive campaign to foment a rebellion against Nazi rule after their son is killed at the front.  Based on a true Gestapo case file the book is a detailed look at life under a totalitarian regime.  Hans Fallada was a well known prewar German novelist.  The book was written in 24 days and the author died shortly before it was first published in Germany in 1947.

[BobbyR]

Finished Naked Lunch. Better drug ramblings than Hunter S. Thompson.

On to some Stephen King, The Gunslinger. I found it laying around outside on campus. Doesn't bode well lol, but what the hey. Better than spending my own money.

I have a signed first edition of the Gunslinger, pretty good. I read the whole series.

I have been reading a guy named Greg Iles. Mystery stories with a some nice twists and violent action.

Is the whole series worth reading or is it just okay?

I did enjoy the whole Dark Tower Series. The ending of the last book was a bit week but he did something very interesting which makes it worthwhile reading. He made me care
about the characters which made me keep reading.

[BobbyR]

I am not a big fan of Military books, but someone gave me this book.  I liked the main character so I stayed with it as he progressed in his career and life.

[Frankenkit]

Has anyone read "The Things They Carried"?  We read the short story (a version of the first chapter of the book by the same title) and I was wondering what folks thought about the book itself. 

[MacM2010]

Has anyone read "The Things They Carried"?  We read the short story (a version of the first chapter of the book by the same title) and I was wondering what folks thought about the book itself. 

The whole book is terrific.  The title story works on its own, but it fits into the whole of the book really well.  I think my favorite is "How To Tell A True War Story," but they're all really good, and hard to separate from one another.  The different pieces come together to tell a larger story - I highly recommend it, whatever that's worth.

[modzsquad]

I have read quite a few of his series , all the way through the spy series then I found out they are all the same.

I am not a big fan of Military books, but someone gave me this book.  I liked the main character so I stayed with it as he progressed in his career and life.

[BobbyR]

I have read quite a few of his series , all the way through the spy series then I found out they are all the same.

I am not a big fan of Military books, but someone gave me this book.  I liked the main character so I stayed with it as he progressed in his career and life.

I agree, I just liked the people so much I wanted to see what happened. 

[modzsquad]

I guess you can't go wrong with a Marine Corp Book though...

I have read quite a few of his series , all the way through the spy series then I found out they are all the same.

I am not a big fan of Military books, but someone gave me this book.  I liked the main character so I stayed with it as he progressed in his career and life.

I agree, I just liked the people so much I wanted to see what happened. 

[sangyo soichiro]

Some of you may like this book.  A lot of what's in it also applies to bikes.

[sangyo soichiro]

I sort of have a thing for reading about the glory days of the space program.  I mentioned some other books I really liked on this subject in this thread a while back.  

Here's another I liked a lot.  Collins didn't use a ghost writer, so everything is in his own words... and he's surprisingly a great writer.  He has a great sense of humor.  This is one of my favorite astronaut books I've read.  Highly recommended, if you're into this sort of stuff.




But Rocket Men is to be avoided.  It is entertaining and well written, but full of errors.  And if you simply watch the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, you'll see that that's where the author gets almost all of his quotations from (the rest I recognize from some of the other books I've read).  Oh, and some of those quotes that were taken from the documentary... were attributed to the wrong astronaut!  Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.    This book feels like one that was simply rushed to press in time for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing just to make a buck.  Do not get this book.

[BeSeeingYou]

I just started Rocket Men and would agree that it is poorly written and not very comprehensive.  I ended up just skimming through it.

One thing I did find interesting was the confirmation of something I had read in another book relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The fact that the Russians did have operational missiles in Cuba and were under orders to launch if the U.S. invaded Cuba as the Joint Chiefs had wanted to but Kennedy resisted.

[sangyo soichiro]

I just started Rocket Men and would agree that it is poorly written and not very comprehensive.  I ended up just skimming through it.

One thing I did find interesting was the confirmation of something I had read in another book relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The fact that the Russians did have operational missiles in Cuba and were under orders to launch if the U.S. invaded Cuba as the Joint Chiefs had wanted to but Kennedy resisted.

Yeah, there's some interesting stuff in it, but there's so many errors that it doesn't leave me with much confidence.  In the Amazon reviews, different folks point out lots of errors - a lot that I didn't catch myself.  But the first one I caught was a quote early in the book attributed to the wrong person.  I knew who really said it because it was taken from the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon.

[BeSeeingYou]

A couple of books on mountain climbing I read recently that were very good.

Dead Lucky by Lincoln Hall  
Tells the story of a 2006 expedition to Everest where he was to be a cameraman for a documentary.  The subject of the film is stopped early in the climb due to illness so Lincoln, an experienced climber, relinquishes his camera duties and climbs to the summit with three members of the team.  Shortly after leaving the summit he is struck by cerebral edema and is in such bad shape that he is left for dead by his team mates who have to get off the summit ridge to save themselves.  Against all odds he survives the night lapsing in and out of an hallucinatory trance in what is called the "death zone" and is found by another team who give up their summit bid to help save him.  In the meantime his team mates at base camp and family back home have been notified of his death.

Savage Mountain by Jennifer Jordan
This is the story of the first five women who climb to the summit of K2.  2nd tallest behind Everest but more dangerous to climb with a 25% death rate.  Tragically 3 of the women die on the descent and the other 2 later on other mountains.  This book lays bare some of the out sized egos, competition, and callous but necessary selfishness that is part of this sport.  Since this book was written in 2004 I believe one other woman has made it to the summit and survived.

[BlindJoe]

Got any good summer reads going?

[Kframe]

Got any good summer reads going?

Pick up any Vince Flynn novel if you like stories about spooks, feds, terrorists, etc. 

Fast paced, very detailed (but not too detailed like Clancy tends to be), real suspenseful page-turners.

-K

[racerx95]

"operation ice burg".its about the battle for okinawa.

[sangyo soichiro]

"operation ice burg".its about the battle for okinawa.

I have that book!  Haven't read it yet, but I have it.  Thanks for the recommendation!

[racerx95]

I just wanted to know more about my uncle,he didnt talk about it for fourty years.

[BeSeeingYou]

Just finished White Limbo by Lincoln Hall.
Details the first Australian expedition to make the summit of Everest in 1984 and pioneering a new route.  The book starts at the planing stages and follows the small team all the way through to and down the summit.  Many ,many excellent photos make this almost a picture book.  Great book.

[FrankenFrankenstuff]

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1982368256/tt1024715
I have been poking around this book.
I prefer the classics and am trying to memorize poetry. Not doing so good though. I have been doing Robert Frost over and over today.....did I get it right?

Natures green is gold
The hardest hue to hold
Her first leafs a flower
But only so an hour
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sinks to grief
So Dawn goes down today
Nothing gold can stay

[seaweb11]

A Fascinating Look Into Lifestyles,

"Errol flynn"
 (he had to stand trial for murder, among other
things).

   ~ ~ ~ jaknight ~ ~ ~

Dragging up an older post Great post info by the way.

 Found this after doing some searching for the information on your post.

"The energetic and rambunctious Mr. Flynn was never tried for murder. he was brought up on charges of assaulting police officers in NYC (on Pearl Harbor day- December 7) and rape charges"
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_was_errol_flynn_tried_for_murder&src=ansTT