rootboy 

You mean...movie of the same name?
One of my faves. Anything German Expressionism period.

rootboy 

Just got myself a signed copy of The Road Home to add to my collection, as well as a few other titles. I've always loved Harrison, but I have to say, yet hate to, his last, The Ancient Minstrel was....nearly pure drivel.

Anyway...having recently discovered my signed copy of The Illustrated Man, I've recently been revisiting Ray Bradbury, which I hadn't read since I was a young man. Mostly putting together nice copies of his 70's Bantam paperbacks with the cool and creepy cover artwork. And also, for some reason, several hardback copies of Fahrenheit 451 in various editions. A true classic.

Pemetic2006

I just got a signed copy of "The Ancient Minstrel", which is the book I believe you're referring to.
The "Road Home" is great as is it's predecessor: "Dalva".

Ed.

Just finished [I]The Wright Bothers[/] by David McCullough. I liked it, a lot. Peculiar folks. My only disappointment in the book was it's lack of detailed discussion of 'wing warping' (Wright's technique) vs aileron development. With my scrambled head I am not reading anything at the moment.

rootboy 

HA! Yes. Freudian slip. The Ancient Mariner is a good read! Can't say the same about The Ancient Minstrel, unfortunately. I think it sad that Harrison fell so far, after such greatness. Yes, Dalva is excellent. I bought his books because I loved him. But, I just don't know what to think about his last protagonist Sunderson.
Other than he was a pedophiliac scoundrel. Oh well.

Harrison died with his boots (pen) on, though. As good a way to go as any.

Henry III

I'm getting close to finishing up "Road to Valor". Good stuff! Bartali FTW!

Jadesfire 

+1 for this. First read it in high school. My first introduction to the story was the movie, so the differences came as a surprise. But he certainly had a wonderful writing style. Sorry for the brief derailment, but I was just thinking about this book the other week and found it as I was wandering through B&N the other day. I should have picked it up.
I would recommend, along these lines- The Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard. The movie was brilliant, but the book more so. Now I'm going to have to go looking for it among my boxes of packed away books. (So this is not a recently read book, but it is one that will be read in the recent future....)

Shifty

An English chap decides to ride the route of the worst Giro de Italia ever, 1914. Then decides that he must ride this on a period correct bike. He finds and rebuilds a ~1914 racer and the story is off and riding. Fun read, Gironimo, by Tim Moore.
Gironimo!: Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy: Tim Moore: 9781605987781: Amazon.com: Books

rando_couche

Currently reading "Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs - holy s**t!What a train wreck!

SP
OC, OR

jimmuller 

Recently finished Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh. Interesting story if you like math. Pierre de Fermat (1601 - 1665) wrote in one of his books "I have a marvelous demonstration of this conjecture which this margin is too small to contain." The conjecture was
x to the n + y to the n = z to the n has no whole number solutions for n > 2.
It's like the Pythagorean Theorem with the solution we all studied, the 3x4x5 triangle but with higher powers. It seems so simple but remained unproven by all the world's great mathematicians for 350 years. Simon Singh takes a few diversions but also fills in some interesting history of number theory. Great fun if you like math.

rootboy 

That sounds way over my head, Jim. But interesting. I sucked at math.

At the moment I'm wading through Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. Dense and full of train of thought ramblings, with all manner of slang and made up bumpkin colloquialisms. 635 pages of VERY small print.

They made a good movie out of it. Sort of.

eschlwc

I'm a fan of Paul Bowles and have his collected works. His stories are beautiful, though often strange, tragic, and violent. Here's one of the more acclaimed shorts if you have thirty minutes:

read the short story, 'A Distant Episode.'

excerpt ... "It occurred to him that he ought to ask himself why he was doing this irrational thing, but he was intelligent enough to know that since he was doing it, it was not so important to probe for explanations at that moment."

jimmuller 

You don't have to unsuck at math to appreciate the history and drama of the story.

Fermat was not an academic and worked alone as an amateur. But he was also very, very good. He never published much because he didn't want to get caught up in peer criticism, nor did he bother to write down his proofs. He did correspond with a few people though. Much of his work was done as scribbles in the margins of his copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica. One thing to remember is how early this was in the development of modern algebra. Singh states that this conjecture, which became known as "Fermat's Last Theorem" though technically it isn't a theorem until proven, was probably written around 1637, IIRC. That's well before Issac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz independently developed calculus. Newton wasn't born until 1642, the same year Galileo died, BTW.

After Fermat's death his son published his work and over the next century or so mathematicians proved all of his claimed theorems except one. Andrew Wiles, an Englishman teaching at Princeton, had a lifelong fascination with the problem and more or less went into seclusion to solve it. It took him seven years and he finally published the solution in the 1990's. It took him another year to overcome one "issue" discovered by reviewers. His proof used math that wasn't even invented until the 1950's, after Wiles was born. Along the way he also proved some other key conjectures from modern math.

So the math problem, proving Fermat's Last Theorem, was finally solved after 350 years. But the mystery remains - What was Fermat thinking? Was he mistaken? Probably not. He had to do it with math known in the 17th century. He claimed it was "marvelous", his word though written in Latin. So what was his proof********** We still don't know, possibly never will.

jimmuller 

Nice sentence, nice thought.

drlogik 

Tylert Hamilton's The Secret Race. Read it in two days, couldn't put it down. Very well written and intriguing. Reading Mark Cavendish's At Speed now. Way more self-serving and me, me me than Hamilton's book. Tough to get through actually because of that. If you haven't read Hamilton's book you should. It really is a page turner!

gugie 

Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start Up Bubble by Daniel Lyons. What happens when a 50-something journalist needs a job and takes one at a unicorn start-up.

kevins08 

In the middle of this one at the moment. Great read so far, and definetely one i think most in this forum would enjoy.

bici_mania

I have found that there are numerous nuggets of wisdom and insight in that book that have forever changed the way I see the world, my place in it and how it all fits together. Some of the ideas put forth in that book I didn't like or necessarily accept as true or correct at first, but after having spent some time thinking about it I find some of those ideas are correct and give me a clearer understanding of 'Life, the universe and everything else...'

Philosophically and religiously I have been all over the map searching for what is 'truth' and 'real'. It is my belief that we should not ever fear any idea, that everything will ultimately be revealed for what it truly is. We can therefore follow any idea, read or dig through anything without fear so long as we hold on to reason. I have at times been Christian. I have at times been to some degree/version an atheists or agnostic. I have at other times come very close to becoming Buddhist and then Islamic. Most Philosophies, Religions, sects and cults contain within it something that is true and real but ultimately someone figures out how to manipulate others with it, it becomes corrupted and then perverted. What ever that is/was true within it, if it remains, is so distorted or obscured that the truth is not easily found any more. Each method of looking and thinking have their own 'sacred' text, but because this is one of the main tools used in manipulating others, so much gets put into the text that truth is either lost or obscured.

One of the things about this book is that it contains more that is truth, real and insightful than most any other non-sacred text. Because it is not directly attached to any religion or philosophy it has not been perverted beyond what may have existed in the authors mind at the time.

This book is for me on the same level as the bible, the Koran, the writings of Ayn Rand or Douglas Adams

kevins08 

Agreed with a lot of what you're saying and is true of my experience with it so far. About halfway through at this point, so Im sure im in for quite a bit more. Its been a very slow read as it is so thought provoking on every page. I find myself pondering as much as reading throughout the novel thus far.

Have you read any Daniel Quinn? Ishmael and Story of B (and the 3rd 'Ishmael, My Ishmael') are two wonderful philosophical stories that have, for me, done what you describe of Zen. I would highly recommend them if seeking reason, truth, and higher thought are on your agenda. Cannot recommend this trilogy (though specifically the 2 i mentioned) enough! Excellent storytelling and stimulating ideology as well.

rootboy 

Update:

Nearly finished with Sometimes a Great Notion by Kesey. What a fine novel. He was (is) a very good writer.
While I liked the movie, and would like to watch it again if I could find it, like many movies made out of great novels, it is a mere shadow of the book. Kind of like the difference between seeing Gauguin's The Siesta, on a coffee mug or greeting card, versus standing in front of the real thing.... For instance.

Jadesfire 

One of the books I have going at the moment is The Last Lion- a 2 volume biography of Winston Churchill. I think this is the third time I've read this particular book- highly recommended.
However, my point in searching for and bumping this thread up is to ask the knowledgeable C&V community if there are any recommendations for a good history of World War I? I have the 7 Pillars of Wisdom on my bucket list of books already. What are some good titles and/or authors I could be on the lookout for?

seedsbelize 

I'm almost halfway through "War and Peace", kindle edition

willydstyle

The Lillith's Brood trilogy, which is simultaneously amazing and horrifying.

gaucho777 

I've been on a history podcast bender recently. If you are willing to listen instead of sit down & read (good way to pass the time while wrenching or riding), Dan Carlin's 6-part series on WWI called "Blueprint for Armageddon" is great. It's part of his ongoing Hardcore History podcast series. Each episode is around 3+ hours long, and not only gives a detailed account of the events but also a visceral feel to the experiences of the front-line soldiers and really engaging narrative style. Highly recommended. This series is still available free on his Hardcore History Library or you can subscribe on iTunes, etc. (Only the most recent few series are available free before rotating out so catch this now before you have to pay for it.)

And if that interests you, I also recommend Daniele Bolelli's History on Fire podcast, and the Revolutions podcast by Mike Duncan (creator of the History of Rome podcast series), though not on WW1.

Pemetic2006

"Nothing But Blue Skies" by the great Thomas McGuane.