Posted on 03/29/2011 9:52:18 AM PDT by MplsSteve
Hi everyone! It's time again for my "What Are You Reading?" thread.
As you know, I consider Freepers to be among the more well-read of those of us on the Internet. I like to find out what all of you are reading these days.
It can be anything...a technical journal, a NY Times best seller, a classic work of fiction, a trashy pulp novel. In short, it can be anything.
However, please do not defile this thread by posting "I'm reading this thread". it became really unfunny a long time ago.
I'll start. I'm about 15% of the way thru "Henry Clay: The Essential American" by David & Jeanne Heidler. Many books have been written on Henry Clay but this one seems to be the most comprehensive. At times, the authors can be a little long-winded - but all in all, it's a good book about one of the giants of the early 19th Century.
Well, what are YOU reading?
I think you’re a little cynical. Fiction may out-sell non-fiction, but this is FR. Folks here are probably heavy duty readers, at least most of us, and seriously minded, except Laz.
Why expect FR demographics to mirror the demographics of the nation at large?
With the exception of daily Bible reading, which I never even list because I don’t much think it’s what the thread is about, I read almost exclusively fiction. Which is all I ever list.
But I believe the FReepers who post the historical and political stuff. I doubt they are all conspiring to post such things.
For all the FR fiction readers out there I’d like to mention I’ve read a few Oleg Steinhauers lately, Cold War behind the Iron Curtain stuff, and really enjoyed most of it.
‘Decision Points’, GW Bush.
I finished that about a month ago. Fascinating indeed, esp. with a sib in the medical research field.
LOL! Well, I'm not reading them anymore, at least not for awhile. That project took fourteen months.
I am reading Democracy In America for the next FR Book Club. I do believe it's the first time all the way through it.
Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse by James Wesley Rawles.
It is an interesting take on a possible next path for our country.
Thanks! I’m number 3 on the Mecklenburg library wait-list. Anoreth will have to buy one, I’m afraid.
The Great Tradition: classic readings on what it means to be an educated human being, edited by Richard Gamble... specifically reading from this book Plutarch’s “from ‘On Bring up a Boy.’”
Walter Winchell: gossip, power and the culture of celebrity
by Neal Gabler
Our library never got it. I had read some of the content online, but the whole thing was just overwhelming. And it can’t have gotten any better there over the last 15 years.
It’s not like “Midsomer Murders” at all!
The Bible as History - Werner Keller
Polar Star - Martin Cruz Smith
Catching Fire — Suzanne Collins
I'm currently up to page 170 in BONHOEFFER: PASTOR, MARTYR, PROPHET, SPY by Eric Metaxas and page 139 in WAR by Robert Greene.
Already I can recommend the Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer book. The author did his research and writes well too.
“The Triathlete’s Training Bible” by Joe Friel - to support my midlife crisis.
My wife and I love that television series. I usually get her a set of the DVDs each time a present is due, then we get to spend a few hours watching them together. Don't tell her English villages aren't really like that, I'm fairly sure she plans on retiring to Badger's Drift.
“The Lost Boys” on my MP3 player for when I walk the dog
“Absolute Zero” in paperback (I’m not real impressed with this book, it’s definitely a man’s book, but it’s not bad enough to pitch)
“The Tourist,” by Olen Steinhauer. If you’ve never read Olen Steinhauer, I highly recommend him, brilliant writer.
Reading the Bolo series started by Keith Laumer and taken over by various authors after his death.
Includes
The complete Bolo By Keith Laumer
The Honor Of The Regiment
The Unconquerable
The Triumphant
Last Stand
Old Guard
Cold Steel
Bolo Brigade
Bo;o Rising
““The Tourist,” by Olen Steinhauer. If you’ve never read Olen Steinhauer, I highly recommend him, brilliant writer.”
Oh, did you see my comment, I recently read a bunch of him too? I think his name is Oleg, though? Anyway, yet, I really like his books and plan to read them all.
Just finished “New Deal or Raw Deal: New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America” by Burt Folsom and “The Forgotten Man: : A New History of the Great Depression” by Amity Shlaes.
After those two, I need some time off from depressing failed Democrap politics and the long-march take-over of America, so I’m enjoying “The Girl Who Played With Fire” by Stieg Larsson.
Just finished “The Worst Hard Time” (Timothy Egan) about the Dust Bowl. Harrowing reading, it’s unbelievable the privations those people suffered.
Now reading “The War Of The Copper Kings” (G. B. Glasscock), about the early copper industry in Montana. Robber Barons unleashed!
It's fascinating. Rumsfeld had an uncommonly close-up seat for some very interesting decades of our history. Getting his perspective and his version of events is enlightening. He starts at the beginning too... way back... and tells the story more or less chronologically. So far I'm only through to his years at Searle. He's got amazingly detailed notes and backup. In fact there's a website that serves as a companion to the book, where not only does he cite a source document, but ~provides~ the actual source document, some of which I think was de-classed just for the book.
In the middle of “Marine Rifleman” by Col. Wesley Cox.
“Unbroken” the story of POW Louis Zamperini is on deck.
“Just finished “The Worst Hard Time” (Timothy Egan) about the Dust Bowl.”
I read that, very good. We think we have it bad!
Last week I read ‘The Fountainhead’ from cover to cover. Yes, all 694 pages of it—kids were on Spring Break! LOL
Now reading:
‘Almost a Crime’ by Penny Vincenzi—British author who likes to write big fat novels that are right up my alley (her ‘Spoils of Time’ trilogy was quite good)
‘Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Ghostly Locales from Around the World’ by Jeff Belanger. I love ‘Ghost Hunters’ ‘Ghost Adventures’ and all those ghost hunting shows—my guilty pleasure in life ;)
‘Paul Revere’s Ride’ by David Hackett Fisher; nonfiction.
‘7 Events that Made America America’ by FReeper LS.
My husband just gave me back ‘Atlas Shrugged’ which he just finished reading recently. I read it many years ago, but I’m ready to read it again (I gave him the copy for his birthday in November).
Thank you...I will look forward to reading. I really enjoyed his briefings during the war and how he handled the media. He always had the upper hand. Was sorry he resigned but understood why it had to be.
I loved that book so much I wore out my copy reading it over and over again. My mom was crazy about it, and she doesn’t usually read stuff that long, LOL. I think I need to pick up another copy for my bookshelf. I am not sure my mom ever gave me back the one I loaned her ;)
“Turn Coat” - The Dresden Files - James Butcher.
"Henry VII: Mask of Royalty" by Lacey Baldwin Smith, another biography. This one seems to be a psychological study of King Henry VIII--interesting.
oops, “Henry VIII: Mask of Royalty”. No one should confuse the VII and the VIII King Henries.
Glad to hear there’s another Olen Steinhauer appreciator. He’s a brilliant writer. If you have a chance to “read” one of his books on tape, they are excellent to listen to. I’ve read “Bridge of Sighs” and “36 Yalta Boulevard,” working on “The Tourist,” and have four others checked out of the library to read (or listen to—some are books and some are CDs). I love it when I find a good author and there are lots of their books to go through. However, Steinhauer’s books cannot be read breezily, IMO, there’s a lot to them.
Just finished the Secret Garden. About 1/3 through Shoot Him If He Runs. It’s pretty awful, especially the scenese where 4 middle-aged men and women get naked for cocktails and sunbathing, while discussing the case at-hand.
And I have the neverending mostly-translated epics of the (shapeshifting? demi-god?) Icelandic Vikings (?), with two hundred(ish) different reocurring characters to keep track of, who randomly break into poetry that appears to have nothing to do with the actual story, in order to prove their ablities to talk themselves up at any given moment. It's like reading the Bible, but worse.
And The Once and Future King, conveniently sized to fit in the side pockets of a pair of ODU pants, which is my flightcon book.
Jan’s Story by CBS’ Barry Peterson. It’s a story about his wife, Jan’s coming down with early Alzheimer’s in her 40/50’s and what he should do. She is still alive but just not there.
I got a lot of episodes from the library, and now I’m requesting them from Netflix.
If I were going to retire in Midsomer, I sure wouldn’t pick Badger’s Drift, though ... I practically expect the Zombie Plague to break out there, next.
Thanks, I just added that to my library list. I look at books at The Salvation Army sometimes, but they’ve never had any Thomas Sowell!
You would like “Paul Revere’s Ride.” (The recent history book, not the Longfellow poem.) John Adams is in it, talking a lot.
Life.
A little lite reading here.
Total Resistance{ Swiss army guide to Guerrilla warfare}
Special Forces Guerrilla warfare Manual....
Plus the latest issue of Military History Quarterly
It shows how to make a radio from junk around the house.
You can actually make radio parts from scratch.
I've made radio parts from wire, foil, safety pins, old pennies, razor blades, 2 liter bottles with salt water inside, a noisemaker like you would find in a greeting card, pencil lead, fool's gold, etc.
Unless you live 2 blocks from a radio station, you'll probably have to mix these parts with manufactured radio parts.
However, I've heard stations 200+ miles away with a razor blade as a detector. I've clearly heard stations over 200 miles away with a noisemaker for an earphone.
None of these radios used a battery or electricity. The only electricity was the tiny amount of electricity coming from the radiowave itself (a few millionths of a volt).
This is a very good book that sifts throught the Hohokum. Mogollon and Anasazi history and tracks it to the current Hopi, Pueblo and other southwest peoples.The Period is 500 ad to present. Most of what is known is very recent, last 50 years or so.
It must certainly be controversial because he takes on the parochial south west archeological types with great thoughts as to how the history of these people developed. It is well written and is not a dry scholarly work. It is half book and half notes. The notes are sometimes obtuse but sometimes very juicy as a fellow archeologist is pilloried.
On the shelf to follow is the Architecture of Chaco Canyon also by Lekson, next up
I sat down last Saturday begin Winds of War by Herman Wouk only to discover I had the sequel War and Remembrance I hope to get it tomorrow
Lee Child - Die Trying
I’m reading “Story Engineering” by Larry Brooks, and making plans to tweak the Great American Novel.
You might also like the Nero Wolf series. I picked up the complete set off a clearance rack cheap. We thoroughly enjoyed them.
My wife has asked me for some of the Midsomer and Nero Wolf books to complement her massive Agatha Christie collection.
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