Read any good books lately?
#501
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A Brief History Of Time - Stephen Hawking
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#502
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Currently reading Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac".
#503
Pedalin' Erry Day
Just finished reading USA by John Dos Passos.
It's a massive modernist trilogy that attempts to capture the 'voice' of American history from 1900 through 1930 (from Dos Passos' leftist point of view, written between the years 1927-1936) with several different styles of prose and a dozen interwoven storylines. If you have any interest in the history and culture of the US from that period it's fantastic and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
It's a massive modernist trilogy that attempts to capture the 'voice' of American history from 1900 through 1930 (from Dos Passos' leftist point of view, written between the years 1927-1936) with several different styles of prose and a dozen interwoven storylines. If you have any interest in the history and culture of the US from that period it's fantastic and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
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I'm a avid reader. My favorite author is Larry McMurtry. I haven't seen anything new from him lately. But I have read all his books. Currently resding the Money Changers by Arthur Hailey, author of Hotel and Airport which are good reads in themselves. Love Stephen King too but I couldn't stand his Buick book. Seems like someone else wrote it. What a bore that was. Threw it in the garbage after 125 pages.
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Taylor Park - Colorado's Shangri-La, by Eleanor Perry.
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OK bike book fans, here's a challenge. About 15 years ago I read a book about a bike ride across America and I'd love to read it again. I can remember 2 things about it. 1st is that it was a really good well written 1st person travelogue, and second is that there was a chapter where he meets another cyclist who used to be a pro. They ride a while, and it turns out the other chap used to be on a pro team, and was a barber in his other life. He gave up the cycling because it made his hands tremble and he took the decision to keep his long term career over his love of bikes. When they parted company he cut the hair of the writer to perfection.
Name that book...
Name that book...
#508
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#509
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Still struggling to get through Swann's Way, by Proust. Gawd…it's dense stuff.
In the meantime, I read all of the Harry Potter books. Not something I'd normally be drawn to, but found the whole set at a yard sale for seven bucks, and found them mildly interesting. I finished them though. Kind of fun, but I wouldn't do it again.
In the meantime, I read all of the Harry Potter books. Not something I'd normally be drawn to, but found the whole set at a yard sale for seven bucks, and found them mildly interesting. I finished them though. Kind of fun, but I wouldn't do it again.
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A friend of mine was out at the Marin museum a week or so ago, had a great time talking with you(?), and brought back a copy of your book - I thumbed through it quickly and will be getting a copy for myself. Awesome stuff. Thanks.
#513
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I am not an avid reader. Not really a reader either! I did purchase Team 7-Eleven: ... and completed it recently. An enjoyable read.
Currently working on Half Man Half Bike The beginning is more about the author than the Man or the Bike! Although I have been riding a bike since maybe the 50's, I never really paid attention to the whole race scene until I lived in Europe, '69-'71. I learned about Eddie then and still didn't pay much attention, just rode my bike a lot. Now that I am older and have a better appreciation of the sport and the bikes, I am trying to catch up!
Currently working on Half Man Half Bike The beginning is more about the author than the Man or the Bike! Although I have been riding a bike since maybe the 50's, I never really paid attention to the whole race scene until I lived in Europe, '69-'71. I learned about Eddie then and still didn't pay much attention, just rode my bike a lot. Now that I am older and have a better appreciation of the sport and the bikes, I am trying to catch up!
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Apocalypse Now was basically Heart of Darkness. When I said so in an essay in college (we were to watch the movie and describe it as an anti-war masterpiece), and came at it from a the perspective of a combat infantryman, my professor quite angrily threw all her anti-war leftist credentials at me, but I ducked and parried. Somehow, I found an interview with Brando in which he came at it much the same way, and she believed him, so she gave me an A.
To this day, I doubt she's even read Heart of Darkness. It may contain insights into the human condition that she prefers to avoid knowing. Then again, she was a lot smarter than I thought, so maybe she was just glad to have someone thinking outside the pre-programmed box. I imagine reading 100 essays that all say whatever the students think you want is fairly mind-numbing.
To this day, I doubt she's even read Heart of Darkness. It may contain insights into the human condition that she prefers to avoid knowing. Then again, she was a lot smarter than I thought, so maybe she was just glad to have someone thinking outside the pre-programmed box. I imagine reading 100 essays that all say whatever the students think you want is fairly mind-numbing.
#516
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I just finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
It was so great, for so many reasons. It was a 'just what I needed' kind of thing, almost providential'.
I recommend it to anyone who likes a good, thought provoking read.
It was so great, for so many reasons. It was a 'just what I needed' kind of thing, almost providential'.
I recommend it to anyone who likes a good, thought provoking read.
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Read it. Lots of smack talk, couldn't get into the pity side of it. We all make our own bed.
For those who read Half Man Half Bike, you might enjoy Reckless: The Life and Times of Luis Ocana
Matter of fact, if you only read one of them, you have to read the other.
For those who read Half Man Half Bike, you might enjoy Reckless: The Life and Times of Luis Ocana
Matter of fact, if you only read one of them, you have to read the other.
#518
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I'm reading C J Box now and have some Tom McGuane, Jim Harrison, and Barbara Kingsolver (and other C J Box books) in the queue. I tend to like western literature and mysteries.
Edward Abbey is always great too.
Edward Abbey is always great too.
#519
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In B&N looking for a new volume, I picked up a copy of ROAD TO VALOR, about Gino Bartali and his life and what he did during World War Two.
Surprisingly good! Well written and a great story. I knew who Bartali was, but just barely. I had no idea he was a bit of a hero during the war!
Great reading.
Surprisingly good! Well written and a great story. I knew who Bartali was, but just barely. I had no idea he was a bit of a hero during the war!
Great reading.
Next up, The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien. I'll report back...
#520
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I've been reading in Mike Burrows Bicycle design. Very interesting, pithy, opinionated, and(IMHO) very well reasoned. It's not enough to make me sell all my bikes and go full carbon yet, but some of the recumbent designs are super cool.
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The Bartali story is great, eh Gaucho? I watched the documentary the other night. Also quite good. What's it called? My Italian Secret? Or something like that. Worth a look.
Reading: I'm wading through German Expressionism: Documents from the end of the Wilhelmine Empire to the rise of National Socialism.
By Washton-Long. Interesting, and a bit dry. It was a fascinating period in art history.
Last month found an old paperback copy of The Man in the High Castle, by P.K. Dick. The first science fiction I'd read in about forty years.
Then saw on Amazon they had made a mini series of it. Not bad. One pf the pddest books I've ever read.
Reading: I'm wading through German Expressionism: Documents from the end of the Wilhelmine Empire to the rise of National Socialism.
By Washton-Long. Interesting, and a bit dry. It was a fascinating period in art history.
Last month found an old paperback copy of The Man in the High Castle, by P.K. Dick. The first science fiction I'd read in about forty years.
Then saw on Amazon they had made a mini series of it. Not bad. One pf the pddest books I've ever read.
#522
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Two of my faves.
Though I've barely been able to bear Harrison's last several books. And I like him.
His Just Before Dark remains one of the top non fiction books on my list, along with McGuane's The Longest Silence.
The best prose ever written on fishing, IMO.
Though I've barely been able to bear Harrison's last several books. And I like him.
His Just Before Dark remains one of the top non fiction books on my list, along with McGuane's The Longest Silence.
The best prose ever written on fishing, IMO.
#523
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The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine. Excellent read, tho the intro (not by the author) left me...
The Professor and the Mad Man, I don't recollect the author. About writing the Oxford English Dictionary, also an excellent read.
The Professor and the Mad Man, I don't recollect the author. About writing the Oxford English Dictionary, also an excellent read.
#524
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Speaking of magic, and beyond the young adult genre, The Fifth Business by Robertson Davies is fantastic. It's the first book in the Depford Trilogy, though inexplicably I never went on to read the rest of the trilogy (note to self). Someone I didn't know very well gave me a copy. I was very much a book snob at the time, and probably took it like I would now take food from a stranger off the street--with every intention of tossing it in the next dumpster. It was an unexpected joy in many ways!
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#525
Pedalin' Erry Day
The most interesting thing I've read lately is Do You Love Me? by R. D. Laing. Laing was a psychiatrist who wrote extensively about schizophrenia and other disorders, but this book is definitely a unique take on his area of expertise: it's a collection of poetry he wrote depicting mental health issues. Delusions, obsessions, senility, dementia, schizophrenia, "treatment," and more are depicted in verse form that's both engaging and instructive, sometimes amusing, and occasionally distressing. If you have an interest in either the subject material, or just want to read some 'crazy good' wordplay, I highly recommend seeking this book out.