What are you reading?

[theCryptofishist]

Yeah, I read the preface and supplemented that with some wikipedia. What's also amazing is how lost that's become. I think it was wikipedia that told me that one out of 8 Californians has Okie/Arkie/dustbowl refugee ancestry. And that Bakersfield became a big country music center because of the influx of that musical tradition at that time. Which is one of those weird facts that made me sit up and take notice. Something like that happens, and 80 years later culture has been changed beyond what might have been predicted. And we've forgotten it.

[lucky420]

The attitudes of the times make it seem like it was longer than 80 years ago...

[Elorrum]

Finally -- finally! -- read The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Didn't see much of the supposed comedy, but did find a couple of interesting philosophical/mathematical concepts. And now I know why the answer to everything is 42.

Half the ladies on the Planet are currently reading "50 Shades Of Gray", so I thought I'd better keep up. Made it thru a couple chapters, which were written by a 12 year old girl for 12 year old girls, and that 12 year old author was getting C- in English Composition. So that was all I could stomach. Guys beware!

Every few years I read Mark Twain's "Roughing It" -- I have a nice issue with the original illustrations for flavor. Possibly my favorite book ever! Twain describes his experiences traveling and living in the American West, hilariously.

this is one of my favorite things from Roughing it, along with his descriptions of Lake Tahoe, and "ballooning" there:

Two miles beyond South Pass City we saw for the first time that mysterious marvel which all Western untraveled boys have heard of and fully believe in, but are sure to be astounded at when they see it with their own eyes, nevertheless—banks of snow in dead summer time. We were now far up toward the sky, and knew all the time that we must presently encounter lofty summits clad in the "eternal snow" which was so common place a matter of mention in books, and yet when I did see it glittering in the sun on stately domes in the distance and knew the month was August and that my coat was hanging up because it was too warm to wear it, I was full as much amazed as if I never had heard of snow in August before. Truly, "seeing is believing"—and many a man lives a long life through, thinking he believes certain universally received and well established things, and yet never suspects that if he were confronted by those things once, he would discover that he did not really believe them before, but only thought he believed them.

[Elliot]

My favorite passage is his description of a hungry coyote, as viewed from the stage coach. It runs a couple pages and makes me roar with laughter every time. Twain could sure write: "The coyote is a living, breathing allegory of Want."

[theCryptofishist]

I'm so glad I'm not a lady.

[Sic Pup]

I never read Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential: adventures in the culinary underbelly" in it's day, although I can comprehend how it may have been an expose in it's time it probably suffers some with time. I'm forever grateful for it being a conduit to Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, bones, and butter / The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef extremely well-written and not a single-minded as the title may make it appear. The story of her life to that point. She made it onto my list of favorite contemporary authors, I've sought out some of her other work including what is included in "Eat, memory : great writers at the table : a collection of essays from the New York Times" but I pine for more.

I then delved into the darkness (or what little is left of it) with "The end of night : searching for natural darkness in an age of artificial light" by Paul Bogard.... enlightening. Followed by Damien Ellis' "Life after death" the true story of the "leader" of the Memphis Three up to his time on death row and subsequent release. I learned a few survival tricks and techniques.

Currently on the lighter side (because time is scarce and I can do it in small doses) "Wild tales : a rock & roll life" by Graham Nash.

[Box Burner]

A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster - by Rebecca Solnit

Very good so far.

[Elliot]

Which ties in nicely with how we how we prefer to hold Burning Man in a harsh location, I should think.

[Savannah]

Oo, Box Burner, that looks interesting.

*adds to online library holds*

[theCryptofishist]

Yes, I really liked that book. Well worth a read, and ties into some things about "burner" "culture".

Last night I finished
It was interesting. For much of the book, I saw the actions taking place as if in a spot-lit section of a large, dark space. I don't know that I've ever had that sensation before.

[BoyScoutGirl]

Nearly finished with Weaveworld. It's my first Clive Barker. I like the fantasy aspects but the horror? Not so much. Thankfully there's not too much of the horror in this one.

[ygmir]

Nearly finished with Weaveworld. It's my first Clive Barker. I like the fantasy aspects but the horror? Not so much. Thankfully there's not too much of the horror in this one.

I liked "Imagica".

[GreyCoyote]

I'm almost feeling like I shouldn't confess this, but I just plowed through "Sun Tsu / Art of War" for the 30th time, and it never loses it's edge. The dude is *good*.

Yeah. I know. Somebody please shoot me. Next thing you know I'll be a card-carrying Tea Party member.

Next up: Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince". (insert sound of crickets and stunned silence here)

[Savannah]

I don't think there's anything weird about that, GreyCoyote! I love to read books that are not (necessarily) aimed at me. It's like being a fly on the wall, rubbing his little mitts together.

I've just begun "Explore Diabetes with Owls" by David Sedaris (love him!) and have the new Chuck Klostermann (about villainry) on deck. I think it may have been Sic Pup who tipped me off to its existence.

[^Rhino!]

I'm almost feeling like I shouldn't confess this, but I just plowed through "Sun Tsu / Art of War" for the 30th time, and it never loses it's edge. The dude is *good*.

Yeah. I know. Somebody please shoot me. Next thing you know I'll be a card-carrying Tea Party member.

Next up: Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince". (insert sound of crickets and stunned silence here)

Dude: Add Miyamoto Musashi's 'Book of Five Rings' to your reading list. THAT has edge, and the guy was probably one of the greatest teachers of kendo of all time. I too own Sun Tzu's "Art of War". Sun tzu KNOWS terrain:

"For this reason it is said 'Knowing the enemy and knowing yourself your victory will not be in peril; knowing the land and knowing the elements, your victory can be complete."

He would have been hard to face in Thunderdome.

[lucky420]

Recently read

New Year Island- fiction about a "survivor" type show/set up gone horribly wrong. A who dun it.

Pilgrims Wilderness-true account of a true crazy religious nut who moves his family of 16 kids to the Alaskan Wilderness to be able to live how he wants without interference.

And now reading Amy Tans newest The Valley of Amazement. A very good read

[unjonharley]

Odd, My netflex movie is a doc. on the true Mayflower..

Just finished, Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu...laurance Bergreen

[BoyScoutGirl]

I liked "Imagica".

Yeah, I definitely think I'm going to give that a try. Thanks for the recommendation.

[theCryptofishist]

I liked "Imagica".

Yeah, I definitely think I'm going to give that a try. Thanks for the recommendation.

Great and Secret Show (although not Everville) and Galilee were also great reads. Although, the fantasy is much more my speed than the horror. A more complicated worldview perhaps? Although why that would work within one writer's oeuvre is mysterious to me.

[Savannah]

I'm almost feeling like I shouldn't confess this, but I just plowed through "Sun Tsu / Art of War" for the 30th time, and it never loses it's edge. The dude is *good*.

Yeah. I know. Somebody please shoot me. Next thing you know I'll be a card-carrying Tea Party member.

Next up: Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince". (insert sound of crickets and stunned silence here)

Dude: Add Miyamoto Musashi's 'Book of Five Rings' to your reading list. THAT has edge, and the guy was probably one of the greatest teachers of kendo of all time. I too own Sun Tzu's "Art of War". Sun tzu KNOWS terrain:

"For this reason it is said 'Knowing the enemy and knowing yourself your victory will not be in peril; knowing the land and knowing the elements, your victory can be complete."

He would have been hard to face in Thunderdome.

EXACTLY.

. . . I did once read a book by a pick-up artist.

[fernley1]

Rereading "Assembling California"by John McPhee.
Good book about California/west coast geology.

[^Rhino!]

Just finished "A World on Fire - Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War". Written by Amanda Foreman, an expatriate Oxford PhD now living in New York, this is a book which, using the wonderful advantage of clarity of distance provided both the subject matter and the era, examines the role of British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic during the war. I never knew that we had asked for $15 billion in reparations for losses from the Confederate raider CSS Alabama, nor how close we came to war with Britain after the Trent affair.

We were also pressing for Canada at the time, but it wasn't happening during the reign of Queen Victoria, who continued on a course of neutrality for the entire war. Rightly so, madam, rightly so.




Well researched. Gives the human side, and intertwines the history of both countries. I enjotyed it.

[theCryptofishist]

Does it discuss Lincoln's statue in Manchester?

[theCryptofishist]

The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East. Robert Fisk. It's tough, there are graphic scenes of war, including gas attack victims. And the huge futility of Western trying to manipulate and own the middle east... I pick up other books in between, I'm interested, but it can be too much in a particular moment.

[^Rhino!]

Does it discuss Lincoln's statue in Manchester?

No, but I found a unique video for you, Crypto, just in case you hadn't seen it, ca. 1956:

[media]

[Box Burner]

A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster - by Rebecca Solnit

Very good so far.

I am about half way through now. There is a reference to the burners without Borders helping buddhist Monks in the aftermath if Katrina in it.

[GreyCoyote]

Just did a re-read of Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince".

It's great stuff if you can get past the... umm...well... Machiavellianistic tendencies of the writer.

[Savannah]

Just did a re-read of Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince".

It's great stuff if you can get past the... umm...well... Machiavellianistic tendencies of the writer.

The same with The 48 Laws of Power, which worships Machiavelli, among other influential people (some benevolent, some not).

The style is grandiose & aimed quite possibly at "Soldier of Fortune" readers, but . . . it's really interesting. Once you read it, it's even easier to spot manipulation, and to understand power struggles and gaining/keeping/losing it.

[^Rhino!]

Just did a re-read of Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince".

It's great stuff if you can get past the... umm...well... Machiavellianistic tendencies of the writer.

The same with The 48 Laws of Power, which worships Machiavelli, among other influential people (some benevolent, some not).

The style is grandiose & aimed quite possibly at "Soldier of Fortune" readers, but . . . it's really interesting. Once you read it, it's even easier to spot manipulation, and to understand power struggles and gaining/keeping/losing it.

I've read the book, Savannah, and I wasn't impressed. I find that the words Davy Crockett, the Congressman from Tennessee during the Jackson administration still hold true : "Make sure you're right, then go ahead.'

I've seen so many people at work afraid to make decisions because they feel future promotions will hinge on it, that it seems that in the move upward they sacrifice their dignity at the expense of their lust for money and its handmaiden, power.

I had an experience occur several years ago that clued me in on this. There was a bridge over the Burlington Northern tracks, not far from Kansas City that a bridge inspector had noted was 'possibly' unsafe. To quote his report, "We need someone from geotech to come and check it out." I got called, and I went there the next day. The bridge foundation and supports were OK, but the end of the bridge deck had been pinned to the rock cut using long metal pins. At one end of the bridge, those pins had worked free and the bridge actually bounced a good six inches at the end as I witnessed a concrete truck going over it. It took about three seconds for me to realize my only course of action. My exact words: "Close this bridge. NOW." Structurally, it was unsafe.

A lot of things happen when a bridge is closed here. The county commissioners are informed, then the state and congressional representatives and senators for the area, local media outlets are informed, and the system fires into overdrive. There was no agonizing over the decision for me. I could only think of the schoolchildren that would drive over that bridge in a bus later in the day. At that point, I drew the line and exercised the option of closure.

I would only check and recheck my feelings over the upcoming months as I asked myself if I'd realistically made the right decision. On another matter entirely the Chief Bridge Engineer gave me a call some time later, and did remark that I made the right decision on a tough call. That remark was all the vindication that I needed. I haven't closed anything else, but I trust in what's right and go ahead, Davy Crockett being the guide. No fear.

[Savannah]

Heh! I lust for neither money nor power, so I don't think I was the book's intended audience. I would've made the same decision you did, if I'd had the know-how. I don't think that was a strange decision at all.

Same with reading about pick-up "artistry". It's just people watching. I'm not really going to be able to use that.