What are you reading today?
 

This one should go for a while I think. When I was in the US Navy back before e-books we had something called paperbacks! On the bases the exchanges (Navy stores) would have a whole isle with both sides coving any type of book you could want. In the 20+ years I read most all cowboy, science fiction, detective and adventure books. There weren't the number of "war" novels except those of WW2 and Korea and there wasn't a lot. Now we have lots of books in the various conflicts and wars and other military screw-ups! I generally like an author that can write a series and those include all the "Shooter" series going both ways and all the "Jack Reacher" series.

I started a day or so ago to redo all the John D. MacDonald books of Travis McGee in order. Have in e-books is pretty handy I think.

What are is the group reading now days?

Tom Wolfe, Kingdom of Speech
Neal Stephenson, the Rise and Fall of DODO
Larry Corriea, some werewolf thing

News of the World.

Re-read John Steakley's Armor last weekend after finishing homework.

Waiting on new fanfiction to be posted for a series I'm following.

Reading a LOT of source code (java and angularjs and typescript and PHP) and text books.

profit and loss statements, W2's and Schedule Ls.

Exciting!
 

Apparently green font doesn't work in title, above.

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True-crime or other non-fiction
I use a Kindle
I have over a hundred read books on it right now...sure saves space.

Just started a re-read of Robert E. Howard's 'Conan the Barbarian' series. I have them all in paperback and have read them all a couple times before.

Sometimes a certain writer sorta sticks with you....

Pelican O.T. :(

I was reading Jack London short stories to my son last night for bedtime stories. They're getting to the grade school/junior high stages where they should start reading literature, and not just stories. Trying to inspire them a bit.

For personal entertainment, I've been reading a couple of those 000 magazines.

Cutting for Stone

The C&O railway in Thurmond, West Virginia. This was a thriving coal railroad town on the New River early last century, which is all but a ghost town today. It's a fascinating little place.

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The hotel (to the far left across the river- barely visible) in the second pic was a notorious brothel, built to pi$$ off the town's founder, General Thurmond (a religiously righteous individual who kept strict moral control of the town) and supposedly is featured in "Ripley's believe it or not" as the site of the world's longest poker game- 14 years.

The station in the foreground was rebuilt, and restored in the late 1980's and was featured in Tom Brokaw's "The fleecing of America" series as a waste of taxpayer money. It is still an unmanned stop for Amtrak. Town was also featured in 80's movie Matewan.

This summer I will try to do a mini trip out there. Although many of the structures are long gone, the town's main street still has some buildings left and is eerily silent. Also good rafting on river!

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Treasure Island

Dune.

Sounds like an interesting book. I'll look for it.
Someone wrote a book about the town my dad was born in, New Burlington, Ohio. It's at the bottom of a lake now. The farm that my grandfather farmed and where I spent many happy hours as a kid is at the bottom of another man-made lake. Maybe that's why I don't like large bodies of water.

Re-reading a new release of "Dereliction of Duty".

Ugh. For some reason I was asked to sit in for a week on "How to teach for the CISSP" course, very daunting. (Not a Cisco guy - I teach Linux admin stuff and programming and sql)

Of course, once you have the cert, you will never be unemployed, even as a consultancy gig.

I'd offer to send you the full book set I was given for it, but I gave them to one of my students a few months ago :(

Might have an ISO of some software still at work... shoot me a PM with your email and I'll let you know if/what I find.

Robert B Parker
Alan Lee
John D MacDonald

Hustler for the very informative articles

Mad Magazine for the sophisticated satire

Archie comics for the latest social conventions

The National Enquirer for the latest and most in depth news.

And for light entertainment Stalin.

This particular book highlights the historical representation of the town, used primarily by model railroaders. It has an interesting intro by a resident who grew up there. It's more of a technical history of the railroad structures. Most of what I have found out about the place was through random unrelated searches on the internet. I do find abandoned/ sunken towns fascinating.

I just reread 'Devil In the White City'. A fascinating history of a serial murderer during the World's Columbia Exposition of 1893 (Chicago World's Fair).

Thanks for the ideas. I really like well written true or sort of true stories. Over the years I tended to have to read an awful lot on "manuals" starting when I was a kid and teenager reading model airplane and R/C magazines, US Navy nuclear power manuals, school books when I was using my GI bill and finally those great but looooong winded Oracle "documentation" docs.

As noted I read everything on my iPhone, usually in a converted PDF format.

One hard cover book I have read 4 times in the past few years is Major Roberts' book called "Muzzle-Loading Cap Lock Rifle". I learn something new every time. He also wrote a great single shot rifle book too.

Poetry :eek:

Mocking Bird Wish Me Good luck, By: Charles Bukowski.

I was born in L.A. and my family moved to San Pedro when I was five.

This guy is a local legend but I never gave him a second thought until someone at work mentioned him. So I googled him and turns out he is rather famous, curious I read some excerpts online and liked it. Got a couple of his books used off eBay.

We should be in a book club together! I wish I read more. I love magazines...always been an addiction of mine!!! Books, eh, I'm a sad sack in that regard! I need to do better...


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Ned Roberts..developed the .257 Roberts rifle cartridge. I have the book having gone through it numerous times.

Roberts grew up in the 1870's using muzzle loading percussion rifles. His book gives you a real flavor or feeling about attitudes of what it was to live in those times. Anybody who is interested in those sorts of rifles should read that book. The accuracy achieved with those rifles is astounding.

In the second half of the 19th century it seemed every town had its own shooting club. Target shooting was the Sunday golf of its day. Or was perhaps as popular as nfl football is today. Popularity seemed to wane after WW1 and 2. It was a different time with a different mindset. Nobody gave a second thought to having guns around.it wasn't a problem.

Hirthcock's "The Age of Eisenhower". Fascinating man and underrated President IMO.

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Still having fun!

Cheers
JB

Expats - by Chris Pavonne

I’m re-reading Steinbeck’s East of Eden now. Powerful book. Steinbeck is my favorite author because of the richness of the characters he creates. He writes of the kind of people I can relate to, his main characters are multi-faceted, but there is a melancholy about them that makes them relatable.
After this I’ll take a break and the re-read Travels With Charley.

The Bible - NIV Currently studying the book of Philipians and Excellence Magazine.

"A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush".

Interesting read but not terribly exciting.

Re reading On The Road by Jack Kerouac, this time it's called The original Scroll, the first draft so it's a little longer and racier. I liked his stories.

Great minds, Patrick.
Last month I stumbled across "The Short Novels of John Steinbeck" in one of those bargain Kindle sites.

I'd read most of these as a boy or a young man, but took great pleasure in savoring every word and sentence and paragraph of this re-visitation because this Steinbeck fella can really spin a yarn, and I didn't want to miss a single nuance.

"The Red Pony"
"Cannery Row"
"Of Mice and Men"
"The Pearl"
"The Moon is Down"
"Tortilla Flats"

Then, in the last few weeks, for some odd reason I'm reading lots of those serial westerns from the forties and fifties by Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour and Max Brand.

Fast reads, all of them are a lot alike, kinda hokey and corney, but I'm nostalgic and I think I'm just worn out from the current state of the world right now and I need a break.

Have you read Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley"? If not, I'd highly recommend it.

+1 on Ts w/C. I took and entire semester of Steinbeck in college and am a huge fan.

I'm reading "Ran When Parked" right now.

The Canoe and the Saddle by Theodore Winthrop.
PNW travel memoir from 1859.

I've been re reading the 20th century this year
Hemingway is my favorite right now- Read The Sun also rises, A Farewell to arms, and For whom the bell tolls. All fantastic, didn't want them to end
Also read On the Road, Slaughter house 5, currently reading Sometimes a great notion which is pretty dense
Long plane trips are my favorite time to read

“The Problem of Pain”, C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis is incredible reading!