A place for the discussion of all things not closely related to the sport and its competitive side. (Locked down several times a year during the major championships)
trig wrote:Okay, we had the thread on the number of hours read. But what exactly are you reading?
I am reading Rex Stout's "Death of a Doxy", a Nero Wolfe mystery and the DK "World War I".
By the way, I had a good idea what it meant but I looked it up to be sure.
–noun . 1. an immoral woman; prostitute. 2. Archaic. a mistress.
[Origin: 1520–30; of obscure orig.]
When I'm not working on my concordance of Finnegan's Wake , I'm reading I, SNIPER by Stephen Hunter. I appreciate a strong story and attention to detail You sort of need some background and interest in guns, of course; but this is a cracking good story per se. I say per se because it's got the larger-than-life non-ex-marine as hero(s) pulling off amazing derring-do. And shooting. I mean I was a pretty good ratkiller when I was a tadpole on a ranch, but these cats, these snipers have racked op nearly a hundred--recorded--kills.
Well, never mind that there's some overblown heroism and marine corp hoorah, just read it for good story-telling and a welter of gun and shooting details.
p.s. my wife doesn't want t me to take the book out of the house or let anyone know I read such burgoise trash--hell, I can't even spell burgeoiuse....
I am reading Oxygen; I am not sure what I expected but this is different.
One interesting item concerns the diffusion of Oxygen into tissues and into the cell powerhouse. Oxygen, of course, is a very dangerous substance and has to be carefully managed in an organism. If the concentration is not limited to very low levels the cells get trashed (Daisy can weigh in here). Basically, organisms have evolved to deal with the concentration of Oxygen that they face. The cover has a dragonfly from an era with a concentration of 35% (vs 21% now); the size is twice as large because the body can be bigger since the Oxygen can diffuse further in.
Now go to track, particularly distance running. animals that have lived many generations at altitude probably have less 'filtering' to the cells with the lower partial pressure of Oxygen. When the pressure is higher (sea level) are there negative consequences? I also remember reading that populations in three high-altitude regions, Tibet, Peru, and Kenya?, had different adaptations (Heamotocrit (sp?) in Keyna,...)
There is a Sherlock Holmes story, The Red-Headed League, where Professor Moriarty concocks a plot to break into a bank through an adjoining business, by getting the owner out with a cock and bull story about a will and a pointless job of copying encyclopedia from A to Z.
Don't know if he's been mentioned before, but I heartily recommend Peter Hessler. He writes about China, non fiction. "Country Driving," "Oracle Bones," and "River Town." He's funny, insightful, and shows a China we know little about. He has driven across China, lived in villages, factory towns, Beijing, and he looks at China from a personal story view. After reading these books you won't see China as such a big threat.......yet. I'd recommend starting with his most recent: "Country Driving."
jeremyp wrote:Don't know if he's been mentioned before, but I heartily recommend Peter Hessler. He writes about China, non fiction.
And he is/was a runner! Some good bits about running in China in at least one of his books...
He is also a former Peace Corps Volunteer. I have read quite a bit of his stuff in the New Yorker.
Haven't got to the running bit yet. I knew about the Peace Corps. I was in it as well (Indonesia/Thailand), but was amazed that China, of all countries, would let them in.
I had a three musical autobio week. Lieber/Stoeller, Kooper, and the current best seller Life by Keith Richards. My only answer as to why he's still alive to complete Life, is a sturdy gene pool/luck. The book was a bit different than I'd expected. A pleasing conversational style but nothing special in terms of content.
After the Ice, a history of the human race between 20,000BC and 5,000BC by Steven Mithen. It's a big hefty book, but if you're interested in prehistory, the beginnings of agriculture, etc, it's well worth a read. It draws together information from archaeological digs around the world about the development of the human race over those 15,000 years up until civilisation, writing and history begins.
gh wrote:ANY book by Bryson should be mandatory reading.
Just finished his new one, At Home. Like his other books, it's difficult to put down. the first chapter is about the Crystal Palace. As an amurkin, I had no idea it was a actual structure and not just a place for track meets.
Now I'm on to Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter which is my first book on my new Kindle.
Just before the Xmas break, I read "Just Kids" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo". Both were pretty good. I was a Patti Smith fan back in the day, and the sad story of her and Maplethorpe was interesting. The Girl was well written for the genre and I will read the other two. The town of Stragnas, where some of the action takes place (suburb of Stockholm) is where my brother lives in the summer. Next up will be the current "Wheel of Time" volume. Hernia time
I just read The Mother Tongue (English & How It Got That Way) by Bryson. For at least the third time. I picked it up to reference an obscure word and got hooked and ended up reading the whole thing. Bryson really is addictive.
Have now moved on to The Knife Man (Blood, Body Snatching, And The Birth Of Modern Surgery). It's a biography of renowned 18th-century pioneer John Hunter, by Wendy Moore. Only a couple of chapters in, but I'm hooked. Fascinating character, and Moore is really bringing him to life.
I may terminate that book early! A few more sections like the one I just endured on the era's procedure for lithotomies (removal of bladder stones)....
I thought I was reading A Dummy's Guide To The Inquisition, by Torquemada.
(and if you're thinking Al Swearengin's stone in Deadwood, you ain't even close!)
It's a memoir that probably was never meant to be published. It was supposedly found in a trunk after Garcia had died. Garcia was a settler of Montana in the late 1800s. It's an unbelievably detailed first person account of pioneer life and a quickly disintegrating Indian culture. There's more adventure and tragedy in this book than pretty much any dozen westerns you could name. It may be up there with Blood Meridian as one of the greatest westerns ever written.
i only really read history books this year so far i've read
A biography of Julius Ceasar by Adrian Goldsworthy (really interesting one of those people you've always known but realise you don't really know anything about)
Biogrophy of Jean Harlow called Tarnished Angel by David Brett (one again really interesting but one of the worst written books i've ever read)
A novel called Heartstone by CJ Sandson it's a kind of detective story set in Tudor times
and She Wolves the stories of 4 women who rules england (somewhat tenuously) before the first official Queen Mary I and her better known sister Elizabeth I
next i've got biographies of Stalin to finish and then We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Just finished a non-stop reading of the the Stieg Larsson trilogy..Girl With Dragoon Tattoo, Girl Who Played With Fire and Girl Who KIcked Hornets Nest.. riveting and ultimately satisfying stuff.. Question for the Swedish posters: Are the geographical and place references accurate or fictional?
lonewolf wrote:Just finished a non-stop reading of the the Stieg Larsson trilogy..Girl With Dragoon Tattoo, Girl Who Played With Fire and Girl Who KIcked Hornets Nest.. riveting and ultimately satisfying stuff..
Just finished Johnathon Franzen's Freedom which i enjoyed but found unconvincing, in the middle of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, it's semi autobiographical, about a australian convicted bank robber who escaped and went to india to live in the slums of Bombay. Also reading biography of Lillian Gish
52 Pickup. Every once in a while there's no better tonic than a vintage bit of Elmore Leonard. Speaking of Leonard, is there any author who can remotely compare with him in terms of number of books turned into movies?
(this one became a Roy Scheider/Ann-Margaret vehicle in '86)
I finally read "Making of the Atomic Bomb" It was much more comprehensive than I had anticipated. It starts in the 1800s and weaves through a number of the scientists, in particular the sections with Bohr were interesting. (almost 900 large pages)
Now, on to another prize winner - the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - and How to Pick a Peach.
Was so enamoured at the no-brainer-enjoyment of the last Elmore Leonard that I banged off two more, Swag and The Switch.
Still debating how cerebral to get for the long flight to Daegu and back next week (and some sleepless nights on the ground).
ps--this on Leonard from Wiki <<...Commended by critics for his gritty realism and strong dialogue, Leonard sometimes takes liberties with grammar in the interest of speeding along the story. In his essay "Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing" he says: "My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." He also hints: "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."[5]...>>
Currently: Siri Hustvedt's "What I Loved" (wow, her and hubby Paul Auster are a power couple of novel-writing!). Just finished: Sam Lipsyte's "The Ask" and Jospeh O'Neill's "Netherland" (both impressive, but Hustvedt has upped the ante)
In non-fiction land, I finally got around to Matthew B. Crawford's "Shop Class as Soulcraft" (front half is captivating and convincing... but he gets a bit too repetitive after a while)
Law, no ones here done said nothin' 'bout "The Help" wrote by Kathryn Stockett? Da Help, it be good book! Hear tell gone be movie soon. If'in you be's from da South, o' even you's not, you gots to read Da Help. Make yo' eyes see things differnt ways, affer you done readin'.
Morbidly enough I'm reading 2 books on the Rape of Nanking. I've just seen a movie called: John Rabe, about a Nazi living in Nanking who helped save 1,2 hundred thousand Chinese from the Japanese. Knowing how movies expand the truth I like to read up on historical issues. In his case the story is largely true. The irony of a Nazi saving people from genocide intrigues me.
, I'm reading I, SNIPER by Stephen Hunter. I appreciate a strong story and attention to detail You sort of need some background and interest in guns, of course; but this is a cracking good story per se. I say per se because it's got the larger-than-life non-ex-marine 
as hero(s) pulling off amazing derring-do. And shooting. I mean I was a pretty good ratkiller when I was a tadpole on a ranch, but these cats, these snipers have racked op nearly a hundred--recorded--kills.
