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Read Any Good Books Lately?

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Yikes - totally forgot the one I just finished. Teachout's The Skeptic - excellent new biography of Mencken.

T.
 
Don_Neff said:
"Patrick O'Brian's Navy."

It explains the factual history behind his "Aubry and Maturin" British war ship series based in the eary 1800s.

I have read the series of 18 books several times and find something new each time. O'Brian had a very complex mind and it is reflected in his writing.

When my XJ-S is in winter storage, I build wooden ship models from that era.

Don
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I've just spent the winter re-reading O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series for the third time, I enjoyed them so much more this time through. (If you only have 18 in the series, your missing three more complete works and the published manuscript of "21" the story he was working on at his death.) The man is positively brilliant in the breadth of his knowledge of the time.)

When those were done I went through Forrester's Hornblower series. I find Forrester's writings flat compared to O'Brian's rich tapestry, but after the middle of the series, he gains in complexity. (I was longing for more from the time.)

I'm currently into an abridgement of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It's interesting, but Gibbon makes too many assumptions about the reader's knowledge, or maybe the abridgement left too much out.
 
Have been reading trash lately. Something lite after my last Non fiction. I'm trying to find the name of a book written by an old NPR newscaster who got his start in the 60's . Heard him on the radio the other day and for the life of me can't recall his name or the book.
 
DNK said:
Have been reading trash lately. Something lite after my last Non fiction. I'm trying to find the name of a book written by an old NPR newscaster who got his start in the 60's . Heard him on the radio the other day and for the life of me can't recall his name or the book.
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Daniel Pinkwater? He writes mostly bizarre kid's books...
 
Not Pinkwater. He's weekly fodder for Click and Clack. Love that guy.
This guy was held prisoner by the Russians and was on Nixon's hit list.
Was once asked which of the 2 was scariest!
 
DNK said:
This guy was held prisoner by the Russians and was on Nixon's hit list.
Was once asked which of the 2 was scariest!
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/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

I stopped listening to NPR awhile ago, AM radio too, it just gets me "riled" up! The "news" is commentary, and the "reporters" mostly shills. I'm not picking sides here, I'm equally disgusted by both sides.

Was it Thomas Payne that coined the phrase "common sense"? I must be jaded. I used to wonder why the old men were always grumbling, now I am one!!! Oh, it's not all gloom and doom, please take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.
 
Anne Rice has a new book coming out ... or so Amazon tells me. I got two books for Christmas both Anne Rice and from the Vampire Chronicles. I still haven't cracked them open yet.

I'm not sure I wanna read her newest book though. It may be a bit too religious-y for my tastes. Then again I did enjoy "Memnoc the Devil" and "Servant of the Bones" by her and it were religious-y, IMO. Well, Memnoc more so than the Servant...
 
I did finish Michener's The Novel last night. I had never read any of his books, but will probably start now working through some of the others.

But this one was of special interest as it was based in the area between Allentown, Reading and Lancaster in the fictional town of Dresden, and much of the action took place at Mecklenberg College. My grandfather graduated from Muhlenberg College which is three blocks from my house, and my daughter is currently on the staff there in the dance and theater departments, so I had a very vivid image of the areas being described. It was interesting reading a novel that was about writing novels...

Now I think I will tackle Herk Hurtubise by Bob Gates about the USAC driver. I found him interesting when he would come to Pocono for the Shaefer 500 with his front-engined Mallard and everyone else was driving rear engined cars. I am sure there will be some interesting stories in this book.
 
I grew up reading Michener. Mother would finish one and hand it to me. Great stuff. Other of her: "Here, read this." were Uris, LeCarre, Kipling... I spazzed out and found Azimov, Heinlein, Norton on my own. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
Loved Jon Krakauer's "Into thin air" about climbing Everest, so I'll have to get Into the Wild.

Currently absorbed in "58 Degrees North" a really well researched book about the sinking of the Arctic Rose, an American fishing boat in the Bering sea.

Also love a series of books that are really character studies, set in Botswana, by Alexander McCall Smith, a fellow Rhodesian. Clever and charming stories with the bonus of making me homesick.

Next up "Duel in the Sun" about a famous marathon race, Boston 1982, between Dick Beardsley and Alberto Salazar.
Simon.
 
Simon:

There was ~A Recent Article~ on Salazar in the Times. I just actually saw it this week when I was searching for something else.
The author is the same person who wrote the book you mentioned.
 
Thanks for the link, Nial. good article.
I love books about people brave and determined enough to do things most of us would not contemplate, sailing single-handed round the world, climbing Everest without oxygen, running the Badwater (a 135 mile race through Death Valley and up Mt.Whitney, in July!)

I met Dick Beardsley here in Toronto at the expo for the Toronto marathon in October, lovely man.
In 1982 he and Salazar ran shoulder to shoulder for 23 miles at a pace faster than 5 minutes per mile. Beardsley tried to drop him by putting on a hard surge and ran the 24th. mile in 4:30, but Salazar hung tough. Giving it all he had he ran the next mile in 4:20, almost suicidal, and Salazar stayed at his shoulder, taking a 2 second lead at the finish.
For sheer guts in distance runners these two and Prefontaine are pretty near the top of the list.
 
Simon, anyone who likes adventure should read Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon Tiki". It's a quick read and absolutely facinating.

Also in that genre is "South" (1998, The Lyon's Press), Sir Ernest Shackleton's quest to reach the south pole 1914-'16. Riveting account of the dangerous and grueling (unsuccessful) expedition. Shackleton had more guts than Dick Tracey and was a true leader of men. It's a fascinating story and a very well-written account in Shackleton's own words.

Love them adventure stories! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif
 
Just starting "Winning is not enough" by Jackie Stewart,
after watching the dvd that came with it about 20 times
 
I've only got "Faster!"


I need to go for B&N...
 
I want to start on Shelby Foote's trilogy, but i'll need to devote a couple of years to them. Man, are they long!
 
We just finished one of my lifelong dreams, a library room in the house, complete with fireplace, etc. I'm in the process of converting many of my paperbacks to hardback (thank you Ebay!), and the first ones I went after were Heinlein and Asimov.
 
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