Hey friends! Oddly enough I'm in the category of folks who've become busier during the covid thing. I consider it a blessing. But the strange thing is that even though I have less time, I've started reading more. By "more," I mean I started reading books. I typically don't read anything besides technical articles, manuals, etc. But a friend lent me this book and I can't put it down. So...what are you reading???
I’m sure I’m not supposed to admit this here, but I’m about half way through The Watch Book: Rolex, by Brunner. Still a pretty good read. The Operator looks like it might be good, I’ll check it out next!
I've got several books going right now, a biography of Teddy Roosevelt, a history of the naval war during the American Revolution, Dune (I read it in jr. High but decided I should probably revisit it), but the one I've actually got open today is The Man-Eaters of Tsavo by Lt. Col. J.H. Patterson, about two lions that attacked and killed several rail road workers working on the Mombasa to Uganda railroad in 1898.
I just blazed through the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante. Seriously phenomenal, can’t wait for the HBO show. I also have been working through The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, which is quite a trippy yet mellow experience. Next on my list is probably some other Ursula LeGuin books (I’d just finished The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness), or finishing In Search of Lost Time, depending on what I’m feeling.
With the normal daily digestion of the WSJ, NYT and Washington Post newspapers (some are worse than others), I'm reading two books that will likely set off alarms with the OF crowd as shown by the recent kerfuffle on the now shut down post on an OF member leaving. Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, by Michael Shellenberger False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet, by Bjorn Lomborg Read on.
Timely, I'm reading Fahrenheit 451. I just finished reading I Am Legend for the first time, Hollywood should be drawn and quartered for what they did to it.
After about a month, I REALLY wanted to be "off" somewhere else, so I read/listened to: "13.8" John Gribbin. "Welcome to the Universe" Neil deGasse, et,al. "Our Mathematical Universe" Max Tegmark Grabbed a bit on first listen, after several, more, but not alot, now after 4-5, I can grasp enough to follow, somewhat, lectures on YouTube about the discoveries made by Hubble deep field pictures and it is fascinating to see and hear the awe these top people convey. Palate cleansers in and around these: (to keep my brain from just melting and leaking out my ears) "The Perfect Pass" S.C. Gwynne "Streets of Laredo" Larry McMurtry....and circling back through a bit of "Lonesome Dove" just because it's the best novel ever written and I cannot get enough..... "The League" John Eisenberg "Sam Phillips: The Man who Invented Rock "N" Roll" Peter Guralnick
I have these two books that need to be read. I will get started on one during the Thanksgiving break next week.
Just finishing "The Monuments Men: Allied heroes, Nazi thieves, and the greatest treasure hunt in history"
Is this actually a thing?? Because I'd love to have it on my coffee table as a really silly conversation starter. My brother would lose his shit laughing
Finally getting around to reading Gene Kranz' book "Failure is Not an Option" which he personally inscribed and sent to me.
The war, this race has been known as the toughest Ironman ever raced. The raced, toe to toe the whole distance.
The Silmarillion by Tolkien. I also bought the Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy books. I first read these in the mid 60's but gave away or lost my old copies.
I usually have a couple of books going at the same time. Right now it is this interesting thing: And this by one of the great historians
Just finished: One Second After is a 2009 novel by American writer William R. Forstchen. The novel deals with an unexpected electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States as it affects the people living in and around the small American town of Black Mountain, North Carolina. My take- Wild! Makes me want to buy a bunch of guns. And the scary thing is that this could actually happen... Just started: