Does anyone here read?

[o0Ampy0o]

These are books I am recommending:

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Steig Larsson

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh

 

WWII

After my father passed away I started reading accounts of WWII veteran experiences from US, Italian and German soldiers.

If You Survive by George Wilson

A Higher Call by Adam Makos and Larry Alexander

Beneath a Scarlett Sky by Mark Sullivan

Night by Elie Wiesel

D-Day Through German Eyes by Holger Eckhertz

Blood Red Snow by Gunter Koschorrek

The Liberator by Alex Kershaw

Tiger Tracks and The Last Panzer by Wolfgang Faust

One Girl in Auschwitz by Sara Leibovits and Eti Elboim

 

Fantasy

Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfus

Game of Thrones (first four, lost interest at fifth) by George R.R. Martin ...the first four books are great. I could not get into the television series.

Mistborn (Trilogy) by Brandon Sanderson

The Farseer series by Robin Hobb

The Remaining series by D.J. Molles

Stormlight series by Brandon Sanderson

Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks

 

Biographies

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

 

Autobiographies

The Gospel According to Luke by Steve Lukather

Beauty Disrupted by Carre Otis

 

 

Although there are too many good books that I will never have the time to read I will take a chance and read something questionable (topic, author, motive, whatever) if it intrigues me enough when I am looking. I have read a few books written by people whom I have reason to avoid everything they say but something compelled me to read it anyway.

 

John F. Kennedy Assassination

The Man Who Killed Kennedy by Roger Stone

Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly

 

Note: This week there was a story of a secret service agent revealing he had a bullet from the President Kennedy's motorcade car which would be one bullet too many for the "magic bullet" theory. Why not tell anyone until now? Prior to this I had not had a different question in mind when reading about the assassination. They had to have had several bullet fragments if not whole bullets. The technology might not have existed then but it exists today. Forensic ballistics should be able to determine whether the bullets came from a single gun. The pro-DNA evidence expert made the case against DNA evidence in the OJ Simpson trial. Some expert somewhere can make a strong case against forensic ballistics.

 

Roger Stone's Kennedy book pulls together information from other books adding some of his own firsthand experience and presents his POV. I found it plausible.

 

Years ago before he was on the Fox network screaming at his guests, Bill O'Reilly was on a respectable talk show being interviewed. I subsequently read his book Killing Kennedy. It seemed to exhibit solid journalism. However, his conclusion made no sense given the story arc of the book. Bill O'Reilly's conclusion is that Oswald was the lone gunman and that his motive was for the fame and recognition. Yet when he had the opportunity to take credit for it he denied having any part in it. O'Reilly built this case based on background activity. That is all secondhand information. Oswald may have been in Russia. He may have done many things but none of it means he came to Dallas to kill Kennedy. Most people have seen the live footage of Oswald being escorted to the car as he is shot. When asked by reporters we can see Oswald with our own eyes denying it and he looks sincere to me. O'Reilly had addressed every obvious question chapter by chapter. He proposed this conclusion yet did not address Oswald's consistent denial when he had multiple opportunities to take credit for having anything to do with it, let alone being the lone assassin.

 

Flaw aside the approach O'Reilly took for Killing Kennedy worked and I was interested in reading another O'Reilly book in what seemed to be a series. Not that I am religious, I was curious to see the topic run through a similar structure used for Killing Kennedy. So I picked up Killing Jesus: A History. I was quickly put off by quoted dialogue between people who existed before there was paper to make notes on, when most people could not write anyway and certainly no one was around to witness and pass down these conversations by "nobodies" at that time in history. Bill O'Reilly managed to get a year in at Harvard after attending other schools. He is educated. He expects people to believe these conversations took place and his descriptions are quoted verbatim. I am certain some people, too many, will believe it. He wrote the book for them not anyone intelligent enough to recognize blatant lies and impossible events. Maybe he has a long game agenda and writing the Kennedy book was setting the stage for slipping in a book of total BS?

 

 

[RABid]

I read a book a day through elementary school. Started playing drums in high school. That absorbed all of my reading time.

[jazzpiano88]

2 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh

Wholeheartedly recommend this.  Utterly fascinating read!

Isaacson’s biographies are also great.  Lex Fridman podcast on YouTube has a wonderful interview of him.   

[Sundown]

I read a lot of non-fiction. Funny enough, I’m a Kennedy buff as well (I’ve read a lot of books and it intrigues me). 

 

Todd

[KuruPrionz]

The Idiot (aka The Prince) by Fyodor Dostovesky is a great book. 

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury is one of his best.

The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich by William Shirer covers an important era of recent history. 

 

Too early, I'll think of more eventually... 

[BMD]

Reading is for morans

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, BMD said:

Reading is for morans

 

😄🤣😆

 

I'm jealous of people who read books. After spending all day writing, the last thing I want to do is keep reading.

[BMD]

5 minutes ago, Anderton said:

 

😄🤣😆

 

I'm jealous of people who read books. After spending all day writing, the last thing I want to do is keep reading.

Whereas I spend all day reading. Ergo, the last thing I want to do is post drivel on forums such as this. But sometimes I just can't help myself

[Anderton]

28 minutes ago, BMD said:

But sometimes I just can't help myself

 

You're always welcome here.

[BMD]

Just now, Anderton said:

 

You're always welcome here.

Thanks, Craig. That's nice to know

[RABid]

Some of my favorites ranging from childhood to adulthood...

 

Orson Scott Card - The Ender series - Great books, but Ender's Game was a horrible movie. Very disappointing coming from such a great book.

Rachel Aaron - Heartstrikers series.

David Eddings - The Belgarid series and Mallorian series. 10 books in all.

Larry Correia - Monster Hunter series

 

I missed out on the classics growing up so I have started now, using Audible. First up is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. 

[BMD]

3 minutes ago, RABid said:

Some of my favorites ranging from childhood to adulthood...

 

Orson Scott Card - The Ender series 

David Eddings - The Belgarid series and Mallorian series. 10 books in all.

 

Yes! Although, I only read Ender's Game. It was so good that I didn't bother with the other books. The Belgariad and The Mallorean are excellent. You have good taste, sir

3 minutes ago, RABid said:

 

 

[AnotherScott]

19 minutes ago, RABid said:

Orson Scott Card - The Ender series - Great books, but Ender's Game was a horrible movie. Very disappointing coming from such a great book.

 

I liked the movie! And yes, I'd read the book. Different, sure, but still good.

 

12 minutes ago, BMD said:

Yes! Although, I only read Ender's Game. It was so good that I didn't bother with the other books. 

 

I think I only read the two that came immediately after... but Xenocide was probably my favorite of the three.

 

Coincidentally, among my SF favorites is the Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler.

 

 

[RABid]

My problem with the movie is they did not have time to develop Ender's back story and make the watcher feel for him. A lot of people watched the movie and thought "he's getting what he deserves" when the older kids picked on him.

[Ivan May]

I really like the book Counting by 7s. It's by Holly Goldberg Sloan, and she wrote it about a 12 year old girl named Willow Chance who becomes an orphan after losing her parents in a car accident. It's a very good book, I certainly recommend it. It is very depressing, however.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Counting-7s-Holly-Goldberg-Sloan/dp/014242286X

[David Emm]

 

"Five Carat Soul" by James McBride

 

McBride is a multiple award winner with good reason. The book contains several short stories that are wonderful brain twisters. I can't even describe the first without ruining the surprise, but it has a strong musical pivot and I laffed my arse off at the haunting resolution. I became a permanent fan. He's a black gentleman and his writing is woven with that complex situation in mind, but you KNOW his characters, not at all unlike those you see in Stephen King's work. Its fiction, but it feels quite real. Thought-provoking and highly entertaining.  

...

"Death With Interruptions" by Jose Saramago

 

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. As the back cover states, "On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This of course causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians and doctors. Among, the general public, however, there is initially celebration. Flags are hung on balconies, people dance in the streets. ...  Then the reality hits home. Families are left to care for the permanently dying, life insurance policies become meaningless and funeral parlors are reduced to arranging burials for pet dogs, cats, hamsters and parrots." Its pulling me along by the nose and I'm loving the story's flow.  

...

 

"Immortal Hulk" by Al Ewing

 

He agreed to write just 50 issues of this for Marvel and it presents as both a gripping tale of horror and a whopper of a psychological study of multiple personalities. Its highly original, with intriguing twists. Being The Hulk is really f***ed! 😬I keep casual track of moments like this in the comics field, because the winning moments are huge. Ewing's characterizations are impressive and the cast is well-framed. Here's a colorful taste:  

 

 "When I was eight, I hunted my first bear.
   Big grizzly.
   That was 1911, in the Yukon and he kept us through a cold winter.
   In Spain, I fought bulls and fascists- and I let the bulls live.
   In Nepal, I hunted the Tiger God and killed all fear in me.
   I've fought queens of dreams and the world's secret master.
   I've fought demons in Hell and stolen their thrones...
    and those thrones haven't bound me.
   And it all comes back to one thing.
   I was eight, full of bear meat and adventure....
    and I made a vow, Mr. Creel.
   I vowed I would live an interesting life.
   I think I've done okay so far, eh?"

 

[Bill Heins]

Greg Iles- The Penn Cage Series-

 

#1: The Quiet Game

#2: Turning Angel

#3: The Devil's Punchbowl

3.5: The Death Factory (novella)

#4: Natchez Burning

#5: The Bone Tree

#6: Mississippi Blood

#7: Southern Man(in progess right now)

 

Bill

[Theo Verelst]

Among new movies, Youtube, Netflix , Amazon Prime, Disney and Sky Showtime, who has time ?

 

I in the beginning of high school read every scifi and electronics books in three or 4 major city libraries, including english versions. Currently, apart from manuals (e.g. DaVinci, Computer related developments, Quantum Computer related) I have read almost all of John Sandford's "Prey" novels. All the early ones in hardcopy form, but with recent screens, exchanging paper cost to the environment with some energy to power Oleds is fine.

 

TV

[David Emm]

"Unreasonable Behavior," by photojournalist Sir Don McCullin, who brought the world intimate views of war. He also covered famine in Bangladesh and AIDS in early Africa. He refers to his propensity for running off to war, leaving his family behind, as "scandalous." He calls himself lucky to have them, apologizes for his absences and calls the British countryside his best tool against his own PTSD.

 

Its an unflinching series of stories and sometimes hard to bear, but also brilliantly described. If anyone needs an anti-war book that makes its point with no preaching, here you go. The realities are enough. We're all too familiar with several kinds of war as constants, but this one got down to my marrow. You can smell the fear & taste the misery. The raw insanity of most of it is on full display. McCullin was Knighted for his contributions. Read it and you'll understand why. Its a three-fer: an autobiography, a first-person history book and a dark study in human behavior. As the Beatles' lyric goes, "You don't know how lucky you are, boys." 

[The Real MC]

I read almost nothing except engineering, music technology, and train history books.

[Stokely]

I'm pretty much all sci-fi and fantasy with a few oddballs thrown in like Sherlock Holmes.   And I'm unapologetic about it   

I don't "read" anymore but I do listen to audiobooks.  Long drives are suddenly pleasant, and I tend to listen when doing the dishes, on walks etc.   A good voice actor can really take things to another level IMO.

[timwat]

It's really difficult for me to carve out the time to read for pure pleasure. My life is complicated, time is always at a premium so a lot of reading is work-related. But that being said, I can commend a few:

 

Dune - Frank Herbert

The Weight of Glory - C.S. Lewis

Narcissus and Goldmund - Herman Hesse

Talent is Overrated - Geoff Colvin

Interrogations at Noon - Dana Gioia

The Days After Tomorrow - Issac Asimov

2001 - Arthur C Clarke

Complete Works - John Newton

 

[Nowarezman]

I read a lot.  Music and literature - I spend about equal time on each.  

 

The most recent books - most I've finished, some not.

 

Neal Stephenson - The Baroque Cycle.  I'm a huge Stephenson fan.  The Diamond Age might be my favorite. The Baroque Cycle is three long novels.  You have to be, I suspect, Stephenson-addicted to get all the way through them, much less enjoy them as much as I do.  But I also am addicted to the history of science, and you get at least a Bachelor's degree worth of learning in the Baroque Cycle in Newton's and Leibnitz's  "natural philosophy".  If you're up to slogging through some thousands of pages.  It's fun!  (and it counts as three books.)

 

My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout.  Oh my lord this books goes to the heart.  Mine, at least.

 

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - well, here is a bio directly focused on the American triumph or tragedy, as you see it.  In full, it's dreary and depressing, just like American History.  In detail, it's fascinating and profound.  Jump in...

 

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin.        The more recent reviewers I've read tend to think this sci-fi novel is about gender fluidity.  Geez what an  error.  It's about actual human nature vs the infinite possibilities of evolution.  A very profound book.  I've read a lot - I mean a lot, lot.  This books has, among it's other positive features, the best descriptions of natural, mountainous. and arctic beauty that I have ever read in any novel by anyone whomsoever.

 

Eclipse by John  Banville.   This book is one of a trilogy by the famed Irish author.  How, me being a rube Texan, can any overseas author hit so many of my personal whack-a-moles?  He is an author, to my mind, of the stature of James Joyce, but current.  I read all his stuff over and over and over as if it were bourbon with no hangover

 

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.  I can hardly bring myself to talk about the greatness of this novel.  It's not perfect - it's flawed, no question.  But it's so radical in it's time - so honest, so melodramatic, so gothic, so daring, so smash-in-your-face.  It's about abuse and wild love and oppression and toxic masculinity in an era of pressure-laden conformity...it's beyond category.  Just freaking read it.  Even with the flaws, it's an incomparable work of radical art.

 

David Mitchell - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet.   This is the guy who wrote Cloud Atlas, which was made into an inferior film by the Wachowski persons (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, et al).   The Thousand Autumns is better than Cloud Atlas, which is a very good novel.  

 

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel - another excellent historical fiction remade as a film series, with an extra dose of the fiction part.   I don't think folks in general keep in mind the "fiction" qualifier when it comes to historical fiction.  This is NOT HISTORY.  It's an imaginative "maybe it was like this if all my preconceptions and prejudices are accurate" sort of creation.  Nevertheless....it's a "great read" as they say.  Get your History elsewhere.

 

The Complete Works of John Keats.  No, I haven't read all the lines of all the poems.  But what I've concentrated on, and read over and over, is life-changing.

 

Ulysses by James Joyce.  I list this one because my old best friend from high school has told me recently that he actually finished reading the whole thing.  So, not to be outdone, I was outdone.  I tried again to read it through, and failed yet again.  Oh, it has some of the best sections of fictional prose I've ever read, no question.  But it's a slog that eventually wears me out, does me in, has me flinging it aside as "too much for too little, eventually."

 

A Song of Ice and Fire by you-know-who.  Ok, I"ve read the first one about five times.  The second one, maybe four times.  The third one perhaps thrice?  And so on.  I'm sure I read the fifth one, A Dance With Dragons, only twice, and it was work.  There are supposedly two to go.  Right.  If they continue to decline in quality as they increase in length, even if they are finished and published, I don't think I'll bother.  Perhaps the author should not bother, either.  But I did get a lot out of the first three or so, despite diminishing returns.  Grim.  Some people seem to think it's a realistic portrayal of medieval times or something.  It's not.  It's gritty, low-opinion-of-human-nature material.  A sort of anti-Tolkien, entertainingly so. 

 

A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin.  This is an epic novel.  Long, romantic, a bit sentimental but a very worthy book.  it's an "ordeal" sort of story.  As in, can you imagine a gentle, thoughtful, old school sort of soul in the early 20th century walking from Austria to Italy in a fierce winter just to get back home and to his young love, escaping from war and it's horrors? 

 

A Gentleman In Moscow - Amor Towles.   Another delightful, long, somewhat sentimental but engaging current novel.   What if an old-fashioned aristocratic gentleman was trapped in a Moscow hotel during the Russian Revolution?  Would such a person manage to maintain decorous behavior?  The answer is YES, and entertainingly so.  A bit Disney-ish in flavor, but a very pleasant and curiously inspiring work.

 

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler.   As Wikipedia says, "each story...is narrated by a different Vietnamese immigrant living in the US state of Lousiana...centering on cultural differences between Vietnam and the United States."  Well that's a dull and astonishingly inadequate description of what is a stunning set of short stories that won the Pulitzer.  

 

Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road by Finn Murphy.  Don't be fooled by the Irish-In-Neon author's name, Finn Murphy.  This is an American set of tales in American accents with American resonance through and through.  Hey - in my youth, among many other short-lived careers, I was a loader and driver for a moving van company. and my back still hurts.  This books rings true and it's a lot more interesting than you are imagining.  It's not a Great Work of Art - but it's a great bit of informative entertainment.  Did you ever wonder what it's like to haul some thirteen thousand pounds of some jerkwad's  personal belongings over hairpin turns in the icy Rockies?  Well, it's worth reading to find out.

 

There are many more, but it's time for bed....

 

nat

 

 

 

 

 

                                

 

 

 

[ProfD]

As a young person, I was an avid reader of books and magazines and anything with printed words.

 

Over the past several decades, the majority of my reading has been focused on information and knowledge. 

 

Between life, work and music, I don't have time to read a good book. 

 

However, there is a certain amount of pleasure in information/educational reading material too.

 

If life and health allows me to retire, maybe one day I'll be able to sit in my easy chair and read for pleasure.😎

[Nowarezman]

2 hours ago, ProfD said:

As a young person, I was an avid reader of books and magazines and anything with printed words.

 

Over the past several decades, the majority of my reading has been focused on information and knowledge. 

 

Between life, work and music, I don't have time to read a good book. 

 

However, there is a certain amount of pleasure in information/educational reading material too.

 

If life and health allows me to retire, maybe one day I'll be able to sit in my easy chair and read for pleasure.😎

I have read somewhere that it's been observed that aging readers tend to favor non-fiction over fiction.  Not an absolute of course, but an observed tendency.  I have no idea how universally accurate this observation is, but I can testify that I have seen this trend very markedly in the book group I've been a part of for almost 40 years.  The group started out with a "no non-fiction" rule. Now it's about 3 to 1, non-fiction to fiction.  The guys really like their WWII non-fiction and authors like Erik Larsen, Jon Krakauer, and lots of historical fiction which they tend regard as bona fide history in spite of my protests...

 

nat

 

[o0Ampy0o]

On 9/16/2023 at 4:10 AM, JazzPiano88 said:

Wholeheartedly recommend this.  Utterly fascinating read!

Isaacson’s biographies are also great.  Lex Fridman podcast on YouTube has a wonderful interview of him.   

 

Isaacson, he is an interesting man. I saw him interviewed a couple of times by Charlie Rose. I read his books because Isaacson was interesting. I read his subjects through the interest Isaacson has in them. When approached by Steve Jobs's wife to write about Steve, Walter had not written about anyone still living. It was counter to his objective. She informed him of his health status. His current release is on Elon Musk. I know whatever he does is researched and presented in an intriguing light. But to do Musk at this point seems to be a push by publishers because Musk is a hot topic. Elon Musk will surely have a hand in something else interesting before it is over for him. Why do a biography on him now? It will sell. Isaacson is older and probably not going to outlive Musk. While there are plenty of interesting people to write about who have passed away, an Isaacson book on Musk could outsell them. Make money getting the greatest bang for your time and effort when your time and capacity for the effort is increasingly limited by your own pending end.

[jazzpiano88]

18 minutes ago, o0Ampy0o said:

Isaackson, he is an interesting man. I saw him interviewed a couple of times by Charlie Rose. I read his books because Isaackson was interesting. I read his subjects through the interest Isaackson has in them. When approached by Steve Jobs's wife to write about Steve, Walter had not written about anyone still living. It was counter to his objective. She informed him of his health status. However, Walter has since written about other people still living. The argument against it is that the subject is still in process. He is currently focused on Elon Musk. I am skeptical. I know whatever he does is researched and presented in an intriguing light. But to do Musk at this point seems to be a push by publishers because Musk is a hot topic. Elon Musk will surely have a hand in something else interesting before it is over for him. Why do a biography on him now? It will sell. Isaackson is older and probably not going to outlive Musk. While there are plenty of interesting people to write about who have passed away, an Isaackson book on Musk could outsell them. Make money getting the greatest bang for your time and effort when your own time and capacity for the effort is increasingly limited.

 

My view is that Isaackson (sic) is likely controlled (wittingly or more likely unwittingly) by the CIA, and this is the reason for the Musk biography at this time.   It makes complete sense in the context of all other events over the last 7 years.

[o0Ampy0o]

> Isaacson <

 

 

Please elaborate :-))

[jazzpiano88]

No “k”.

[Stokely]

On 9/20/2023 at 3:20 PM, Nowarezman said:

I have read somewhere that it's been observed that aging readers tend to favor non-fiction over fiction.  Not an absolute of course, but an observed tendency.  I have no idea how universally accurate this observation is, but I can testify that I have seen this trend very markedly in the book group I've been a part of for almost 40 years.  The group started out with a "no non-fiction" rule. Now it's about 3 to 1, non-fiction to fiction.  The guys really like their WWII non-fiction and authors like Erik Larsen, Jon Krakauer, and lots of historical fiction which they tend regard as bona fide history in spite of my protests...

 

nat

 

I figure getting old is a great time for more escapism, not less    I have nothing against reading non-fiction, but I do so to get information as needed.  For enjoyment I like stuff that takes me off this cracked-up world.   Then again I don't follow the "normal" trends about political or religious viewpoints as you age either