So what have you read recently? what are reading?

Alternative History

Just got thru reading all of Robert Conroy's Alternative History books. Red Inferno 1945, 1901, 1941, 1942 and 1863

What IF, japan did this or the US did this or Russia attaks US troops etc.

Good fast light reading that get one thinking about things that might have been IF.....
 
Attack State Red - about the Royal Anglian Regiment's 6 month tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2007. The UK armed forces right now are one of the few things that make me proud to be British. The stuff I'm reading in these accounts is fantastic - all that fighting carrying 80 pound loads in 45 degree heat...and our lads - the Playstation generation - many 18 & 19 raring to get out there and fight the Taliban - wow!

Only our politicians will lose Afghanistan...
 
I just finished "The Mascot" by the late Mark Kurzem. I'm now reading "Death Traps" by Belton Cooper, and "Launch the Intruders" by Carol Reardon.
 
I'm about half way through Blue Latitudes, where the author revisited Capt. Cooks three voyages in the 1700's. Just finished The Biggest Brother, about Maj. Winters or Band of Brothers fame.
 
"Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain. Classic read. Next will probably be either "The Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne, then back to Twain for "The American Claimant." Or maybe Garrison Keillor's "Pontoon." Not sure.
 
Bellevance --- I'm looking forward to reading Dawkins' Greatest Show on Earth. He's not only an admirable intellect, but also a great writer.

I've read, and re-read The Road, and also have seen the short/limited run film. It affirms my belief in the lowest-common-denominator behavior of humans, as did Lord of the Flies, and similar novels, and prompted hoarding of ammo, &tc.
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jkc-- I know just what you mean about THE ROAD. Makes you want to lay in plenty of ammo--and food, etc. That was one thing that bothered me a little about the novel, though. As recent as the calamity was, it seems to me there would be a lot more firepower still available to a lot of bad people. But McCarthy kept the gun trouble to a real minimum. The book ends at least on a rising note. Still, I prefer McCarthy's earlier Border trilogy as richer in scope.

You'll be interested to read Jerry Coyne's recent enthusiastic review of Dawkins's THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH:

The Improbability Pump
 
I'm currently enjoying Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier, the man who wrote Cold Mountain. Excellent fiction. I also have a borrowed copy of One Second After by William Forstchen. I'm looking forward to getting into that one.
 
bellevance said:
jkc-- I know just what you mean about THE ROAD. Makes you want to lay in plenty of ammo--and food, etc. That was one thing that bothered me a little about the novel, though. As recent as the calamity was, it seems to me there would be a lot more firepower still available to a lot of bad people. But McCarthy kept the gun trouble to a real minimum. The book ends at least on a rising note. Still, I prefer McCarthy's earlier Border trilogy as richer in scope.

You'll be interested to read Jerry Coyne's recent enthusiastic review of Dawkins's THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH:

The Improbability Pump
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I was interested to read Mr. Coyne's review --- thanks!
 
A lot of recreational reading. Let me give props to forum member bellevance (Don Bredes), whose "The Errand Boy" deserves its good reviews. I also read an earlier novel in the Bellevance series, "The Fifth Season." Also very good. To a great extent, the success or failure of a series featuring a private detective or law enforcement officer depends on the ability of the author to detail the society or community in which his lead character operates, and my sense is that Don has northern Vermont down to a T.

"American Detective" by Loren D. Estleman. Formula series novel about Amos Walker, a Detroit PI. He's been better, but he's still pretty entertaining.

Recent crime novels by Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, and T. Jefferson Parker (who's on a weak streak at the moment; skip the last two or three books and read his novels from a few years back, including "California Girl" and "Silent Joe."

Waiting to be completed or begun are a couple of English and Irish crime novels that had good reviews: "City of Lost Girls" by Declan Hughes (very funny Irish-themed dialog in what I have read so far) and "Christine Falls" by Benjamin Black. Also "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," by Swedish author Stieg Larsson.

But in addition the recreational reading I also do more serious stuff. I am partway through "The Strangest Man," a biography of British Physicist Paul Dirac. I am about to begin "No One Would Listen," by Harry Markopoulos, the guy who tried to get the SEC to toss Bernie Madoff's books for seven years before Madoff's scheme collapsed under its own weight and without a single push from federal overseers. And in a return to my language-oriented college education, I just bought "The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World" by Mallory and Adams. A lot has happened in linguistics, archeology and genetics in the last 40 years, and it is time to see what has changed since I studied this stuff at UCLA in the early '70s.

The PIE book is hard copy. Everything else is on my Kindle, and I would guess that 90% of my reading will be Kindle reading from here on out.
 
sipowicz said:
I have a short attention span...right now iI am reading "Famous Minority America Cup Captains."
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If that gets to be too tedious or daunting, try:

Al Gore, The Wild Years, or, How to Sustain a Musical Career, Arthur Garfunkel.
 
Working my way through "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Nearly 1200 pages and not what one would call "light reading", but thought provoking and quite prophetic in today's world, considering that it was written nearly sixty years ago.
 
I'm either impressed that you folks actually sit down and read or worried that you don't get out much.

I haven't done that in at least 20 years-read a book that is. Just no time when working, less now that I am retired. I skim the gun mags I subscribe to, and have cut them to a total of four.

I read the Bible daily in an email program that lets me read it through in a year. It's quick, it gives me the chapters each day, and I can make the print bigger if I want.

I skim the various forums on the net and read what catches my eye.

BUT-I do go through books-about two per week as audio books on CD, cassette or MP-3.

While in the car, I rarely listen to music, once in a blue moon I listen to Limbaugh, but almost always have a book being read to me.

It's more dramatized than reading it, it's very convenient and not all that expensive.

I just finished the latest Hunter book, I Sniper, on MP-3. I am starting Griffin's newest tomorrow on CD. Finishing, today, a Julian Stockwin novel, part of a series on a Napolonic Wars, British Naval Captain, Thomas Kydd. I find these books on Amazon or Ebay and often use the rental companies.

For about $22, I can rent the latest novels, listen to them in my car, and mail them back in the postage paid box.

Amazed you all have the time to read. It's 5:30 AM, time to get going, breakfast, rifle shooting this morning, then up to the Silver Dollar for some lunch and skeet, back home, reload some shotgun shells, dinner, check the computer, bed, up for Trap all day tomorrow. Repeat after Church Sunday, then all next week.

Now, about TV-don't see much of that either.

Bob
 
DCWilson said:
... Everything else is on my Kindle, and I would guess that 90% of my reading will be Kindle reading from here on out.
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How do you like that Kindle, Dave? I like to read, and I like a book, but getting to a bookstore or a library can be a challenge with my schedule and location. And when I travel, light reading, it's finsh one and chuck it, and then off to find another next time in an airport waiting for a plane.

The idea of being able just to download a book, anywhere, any time, appeals. But is it as easy on the eyes as a printed book?

I've been reading that the new IPad screen is better for books, but that it's heavier than a Kindle... Plus, I am not sure if I want everything else associated with an IPad if I am going to travel with a laptop for work anyway. I like to keep my gadgets to a minimum. But i sure as heck do not want to read ebooks on my tiny Blackbery screen..

Anyway, so how do you like that kindle, for reading, compared to a book?
 
Onomea said:
How do you like that Kindle, Dave? I like to read, and I like a book, but getting to a bookstore or a library can be a challenge with my schedule and location. And when I travel, light reading, it's finsh one and chuck it, and then off to find another next time in an airport waiting for a plane.

The idea of being able just to download a book, anywhere, any time, appeals. But is it as easy on the eyes as a printed book?

I've been reading that the new IPad screen is better for books, but that it's heavier than a Kindle... Plus, I am not sure if I want everything else associated with an IPad if I am going to travel with a laptop for work anyway. I like to keep my gadgets to a minimum. But i sure as heck do not want to read ebooks on my tiny Blackbery screen..

Anyway, so how do you like that kindle, for reading, compared to a book?
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I like the Kindle a lot. Remember that the screen is not internally illuminated, so you will need good light to read. But even in low light, you aren't dead in the water because the display size can be adjusted. I bounce back and forth between smaller and larger typefaces as light levels change. I also have a little clamp on book light that I sometimes use. While reading on a computer screen sometimes gives me eyestrain, I have never had that problem with the Kindle display. They call their technology "electronic ink," and that's a pretty fair call. Reading a Kindle really is like reading a regular book in terms of what your eyes are doing and experiencing, except that the background is not paper-white; it's kind of faint gray. With a recent software update (firmware updates are easily done with a computer connection) you can now rotate the display to read wide lines on a short page if that's your preference. The pages are not fixed images; the text reflows to fit the margins and accommodate the font size you have selected.

The screen is great for printed text, not so hot for illustrations. They are kind of washed out and low-contrast on a Kindle. For images and graphics, the iPad has the Kindle beat all hollow. But then the iPad does a bunch of other stuff that I don't need and is larger, heavier and more expensive to boot. The Kindle fits in a coat pocket, and a single battery charge lasts for days if you keep the wireless connection turned off except when you are actually downloading a book. That takes just moments if you are in an area with good signal reception, which means in or near any big city or major thoroughfare. I have heard of Kindle owners who live in fringe areas who have to drive to a hilltop or a few miles to a nearby town to get a reliable download.

I'm talking about the second model of the smaller kindle here. The first one is no longer available, and there is a larger screen version that is intended primarily for newspaper and textbook consumers. But that's too big to carry comfortably as one travels. The small Kindle screen is about the size of a paperback page anyway, though the device itself is a little larger.

I bought mine on a whim about a year ago, and it has become my favorite way to consume books I will probably not read more than once. (Though I also have other books on my Kindle that are worth studying again and again, like Ed McGivern's "Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting."

I think you might like it if you tried one.
 
I am reading "Marlborough" by Winston Churchill; it is by all accounts the best Biography / European History written in the 20th Century.
The drawback, if there is one, is that it is in 4 books totaling 2100+ pages. I am now about 900 pages into it.
It is a great military history. If it were not for Marlborough (John Churchill) and Wellington (Arthur Wellesley) we would be speaking French and it could well be that the states that are now Germany would never have united.
The fractious allies that the man had to deal with in order to fight are almost unbelievable at this remove.
In any event with the squabbling allies of mostly small states, England with Marlborough leading the armies, managed to soundly whip the armies of Louis the XIV at the height of his power.
I watch TV about 2 hours a month.
 
Monster Hunter International by Larry Coreia is good. He's a gun fan who includes lots of guns in the story. Day by Day Armagedon by J. L. Bourne is a zombie novel written by an actve duty navel officer. It also features lots of guns. Both are entertaining and good reads.
 
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