What are you reading?

[vcp]

I'm in the middle of one that a lot of folks here will probably love......

"How to Invent Everything - A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler" by Ryan North. Brilliant, funny, and actually very informative.
s6

That sounds fabulous. I've often thought that an "Investors Guide for the Time Traveler" would be interesting.

So I just ordered the 'Survival Guide' from the library. So if I take it with me when I go back, it won't be due until....

 

[jlabrasca]

re-re-re-reading...

I recently finished the latest book by Andy Weir: Artemis: A Novel. A pretty good read...

I couldn't stay with Artemis. About 100 pages in I put it aside and, honestly, I don't think I'll pick it back up.

Just finished reading Dreadnaught and Sovereign (books one and two of the projected Nemesis trilogy by April Daniels). They are marketed as YA, and each follows a fairly predictable arc, but the heroine is likable and they are set in well-realized version of the real-world-with-superheroes trope. I picked them up for an easy read during two crappy weeks.

I'm on book two of the "Three Body Problem" trilogy by Chinese author Cxin Liu...

I heard Adam Savage gushing over that series and have added the first book to the to-be-read pile. I was going to get to it after taking another crack at Voices of Time (J.T Fraser) and Ursula LeGuin's The Language of the Night, But the next couple of weeks (months) look to be as crappy as the last few, so I am going for less weighty diversions. Opened a box paperbacks in the attic, grabbed these for the top of the pile.



Thinking I'd rather re-read Startide Rising than Sundiver, though. Might have to dig a little deeper to find that.

 

[dhbarr]

Mmm, greasy cheeseburgers for the mind. Yum!

 

[watheyak]

I just started the third book of a great fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson called The Stormlight Archives.

I’m also reading Dressing for Altitude, a history of US pressure suits. Really interesting with lots of cool tidbits about gory high altitude physiology and creative problem solving. You can download it for free-https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/683215main_DressingAltitude-ebook.pdf

 

[OverTheTop]

Dressing for altitude was a good read about the pressure suite development. Interesting stuff.

 

[watheyak]

Dressing for altitude was a good read about the pressure suite development. Interesting stuff.

Come to think of it, I may have heard about it here. Maybe from you?

 

[jlabrasca]

Mmm, greasy cheeseburgers for the mind. Yum!

Yeah, couldn't stick with the program. Found this in a late stratum, deposited above the layer of David Brin's Uplift books. Not quite the empty calories I intended.

I...I’m also reading Dressing for Altitude, a history of US pressure suits. Really interesting with lots of cool tidbits about gory high altitude physiology and creative problem solving. You can download it for free-https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/683215main_DressingAltitude-ebook.pdf

Have you seen this?

 

[tightwad]

I just finished reading "Stall Words" by authors unknown. Definitely not classic reading but else are you supposed to do while sitting on the thorn in Kroger's!

 

[watheyak]

Have you seen this?

[/QUOTE]

I have not! But I share Adam’s space suit fetish.

 

[OverTheTop]

Come to think of it, I may have heard about it here. Maybe from you?

Quite probably . NASA have some good eBooks and I usually comment on them somewhere.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

"The Great American Read" is on PBS. Each week they have quick discussions about which of the selected 100 books is the best. Which of the 100 have you read?
https://bento.cdn.pbs.org/hostedben...greatamericanread/TGAR_BookChecklist_2018.pdf
They're not all (single) books, some are series. I don't know how they made the selection, there's quite a scattering of genres. I can only claim 26 of the listed titles. Some on the list I have no interest in (or refuse to read). With some, I haven't read the listed title, but others by the author.

 

[OverTheTop]

Found a little light reading on the bookshelf:

About half way currently.

 

[Tim51]

Found a little light reading on the bookshelf:
View attachment 364262
About half way currently.

Remember it well - enjoy! I remember there seemed to be a lot of those kind of books around when I was a kid in the 1970s. Interesting how the whole 'Ufology' thing seems to have faded away in the years since

 

[jlabrasca]

"The Great American Read" is on PBS. Each week they have quick discussions about which of the selected 100 books is the best. ... I don't know how they made the selection ...

They hired polling company to conduct the survey, and a panel of literary experts to tweak the list to "maximize variety" (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

https://www.thirteen.org/blog-post/the-100-books-on-the-great-american-read-list/

Also worth reading:

https://articles.latimes.com/2013/s...-reading-classic-novels-survey-finds-20130906

Remember it well - enjoy! I remember there seemed to be a lot of those kind of books around when I was a kid in the 1970s. Interesting how the whole 'Ufology' thing seems to have faded away in the years since

<smile> In the summer between 4th and 5th grade, I was a fan of John. A. Keel. I think I might also have had a subscription to The Fortean Times -- or maybe I just ordered one issue. I remember getting it by international parcel mail. My mother met me at the door when I got home from school, to tell me it had arrived.

UFOlogy hasn't really disappeared, it has just moved out the supermarket check-stand book rack and onto Facebook. I agree, though, that it doesn't seem to have fared as well as cryptids and ghost hunting in the marketplace of crackpottery and cargo-cult pseudoscience.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Charles Fort - there's a name that brings back old memories! I did a book report on his "Book of the Damned" in (I think) 8th grade. It was all about rains of frogs, fish, blood, whatever. All kinds of weird, "anomalous phenomena". Didn't remember until I just looked it up that it was published in 1919. There were also a bunch of books that came out on the ancient austronauts, etc. mostly by a guy named von Daniken. His theories sounded good, but didn't stand up to examination as the books were full of errors and a lot of his basic assumptions were disproven by archeologists. Another fun one is "Worlds in Collision" by Velikovsky.

 

[Bat-mite]

My favorite authors have been:

Stephen King
Frederik Pohl
Robert Ludlum
Dean Koontz
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Michael Crichton

But I think my all time favorite book is Armor, by John Steakley.

 

[Cl(VII)]

Just finished Death's End (third book in the Three Body Problem Series). I liked it more than the first half of Dark Forest (2nd book), which I didn't think lived up to the first book. I think it got much better as the second book went along, and maintained nearly to the end of book 3. Just a very different series.

 

[jlabrasca]

Charles Fort - there's a name that brings back old memories!...

I reminisced about this with my brother since posting. He recalled taking me to the post office to get International Reply Coupons to defray the postage on some magazine or catalog from overseas. I am fairly certain it wasn't for a copy of FT, but I remember getting and sending off the IRCs.

There was some other UFO magazine, in which I remember ads for magnetometers to "detect" UFOs. I very much wanted one of those. My father asked "How do you know UFOs are magnetic?" I didn't have an answer, so I stopped asking. He did buy me a Radio Shack electronics kit, though.

What strikes me now, is how it didn't seem odd to me then (in the late 1970s) that stores would shelve books about UFOs next to books about Bigfoot, which were next to books about the ships "vanishing" in the Bermuda Triangle, which were next to books about Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce, which were next to books about Noah's Ark...

 

[dhbarr]

Just finished Death's End (third book in the Three Body Problem Series). I liked it more than the first half of Dark Forest (2nd book), which I didn't think lived up to the first book. I think it got much better as the second book went along, and maintained nearly to the end of book 3. Just a very different series.

Good to know. I bolted down the first, but have restarted the second a few times. I'll power through if the rest is worth it.

 

[jd2cylman]

I just started Crisis by Felix Francis. Horse (ish) related mystery novels. His father was Dick Francis who wrote a crapton of mystery novels, all having a horse related slant... He was a fairly famous English steeple chase jockey (even rode for the Queen). Dick passed away, but before he did, his son Felix started co-authoring novels with him. Now he's on his own, but still has his dad on the jacket... Name recognition, maybe?

 

[Cl(VII)]

Good to know. I bolted down the first, but have restarted the second a few times. I'll power through if the rest is worth it.

I like the series mostly because it struck me as unique. I thought the problem with the first half of book 2 is that it got conventional scifi for awhile. It definitely recaptures the surreal as it moves along.

 

[prfesser]

Charles Fort - there's a name that brings back old memories! I did a book report on his "Book of the Damned" in (I think) 8th grade. It was all about rains of frogs, fish, blood, whatever. All kinds of weird, "anomalous phenomena". Didn't remember until I just looked it up that it was published in 1919. There were also a bunch of books that came out on the ancient austronauts, etc. mostly by a guy named von Daniken. His theories sounded good, but didn't stand up to examination as the books were full of errors and a lot of his basic assumptions were disproven by archeologists. Another fun one is "Worlds in Collision" by Velikovsky.

"anomalous phenomena"; it's funny. Now that almost everyone carries a camera with them 24/7, there are almost no photos/video of UFOs, Bigfoot, etc. that aren't obvious fakes.

Best -- Terry

 

[prfesser]

I often read several books at the same time. And re-read a LOT. Just finished "Ignition!" by john Clark for about the dozenth time. Available online:
https://archive.org/details/ignition_201612/page/n0
Do not drink any beverage while reading the anecdote on pp. 28-29, unless you enjoy the flavor of Pepsi as it exits the nose.

Re-reading "Amateur Rocket Motor Construction" by David Sleeter. Definitely worthwhile for the rocketeer who wants to know details about practical BP motor construction, though the price is outrageous; it's hard to find. (For perspective, the price upon publication was around $40)

Also reading "Chemistry for Changing Times" 15th edition, for the fourth time in about 8-9 months. It won't be out til January/February. I'm a time traveler, that's how.

Finally, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", lost count of the number of times I've read it. Go ahead and laugh; I like the HP series.

Best -- Terry

 

[jlabrasca]

"anomalous phenomena"; it's funny. Now that almost everyone carries a camera with them 24/7, there are almost no photos/video of UFOs, Bigfoot, etc. that aren't obvious fakes.

Best -- Terry

Then again, a yeti could probably walk (scuttle, shuffle, hover...whatever yeti* do for locomotion) unnoticed through a crowd of people using those camera-equipped devices to look at pictures of other people's lunches or to read the twittering of some celebrity warning about the "dangers" of fluoridated water (and, BTW, would you be interested in some magical healing biofrequency energy stickers at $5 apiece?)

I often read several books at the same time. And re-read a LOT. ... "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", lost count of the number of times I've read it. Go ahead and laugh; I like the HP series.

Best -- Terry

I wonder about those who do not read more than one book at a time. How else to get to it all?

I smile, but do not laugh. Upthread, I wrote admiringly of April Daniels Nemesis books. I bought my kid a boxed set of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. She was much too young when we got them, and it would be a lie to say that they were ever really for her.

*would the plural be abominable snowmen or abominable snowmans?

 

[jsdemar]

I often read several books at the same time. And re-read a LOT. Just finished "Ignition!" by john Clark for about the dozenth time. Available online:
https://archive.org/details/ignition_201612/page/n0
Do not drink any beverage while reading the anecdote on pp. 28-29, unless you enjoy the flavor of Pepsi as it exits the nose.

Likewise, I just finished "Ignition!". Bought the newly reprinted paperback edition. Required reading by anyone interested in professional rocketry.

Started reading "The Science and Design of the Hybrid Rocket Engine" by Richard Newlands. I forgot more than I thought I knew. ;-)

Also reading "From Omaha to Okinawa". History of the Navy Seabees (construction battalion) which my Dad served in during WWII in the Pacific. He wasn't far from the A-bombs when they were dropped on Japan. I'll give the book to him afterwards (he's 94).

 

[Bat-mite]

I totally think everyone here would enjoy Airframe by Michael Crichton. A real nail-biter, and spends a ton of time delving into how commercial jetliners are designed, made and flown. Most of the book is spent troubleshooting a problematic jumbo jet, interspersed with scenes of the main character fleeing for her life. Good stuff.

 

[jd2cylman]

I'm working my way through all the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler. Just finished Valhalla Rising and I'm 5 chapters in on The Trojan Odyssey.

I am a big fan of the Dirk Pitt books... I started reading them in middle school in the 90's, and love them! Cant seem to get into Cussler's other series, though.

I missed these posts... I too, enjoy Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels. And like Kris, cannot get into the NUMA files and his (?) Oregon series... And like Dick Francis, Cussler's son is starting to write the Dirk Pitt novels. I'll have to talk to my dad about setting me up in my next career as a wealthy... farmer...

 

[Zeus-cat]

I am a big fan of the Dirk Pitt books... I started reading them in middle school in the 90's, and love them! Cant seem to get into Cussler's other series, though.

...

I like the Dirk Pitt series too. The Oregon Files are Ok, but never cared for the Isaac Bell series.

...

Finally, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", lost count of the number of times I've read it. Go ahead and laugh; I like the HP series.

Best -- Terry

We have the entire Harry Potter series (books and movies) and enjoy the a lot.

 

[Cl(VII)]

Finally, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", lost count of the number of times I've read it. Go ahead and laugh; I like the HP series.

No judgement here. My kids don't do super heroes, but they are way into Harry Potter. My wife is also WAY into the series. I believe we have two full (well worn) sets, and are accumulating the illustrated versions as they come out. Our home is Hogwarts as we have one from each house represented (I'm the Ravenclaw) according to the sorting on Pottermore.

While not my favorite books (The Half Blood Prince is up there though) I have great admiration for the series as they pushed my kids to up their reading level immensely. The first read the entire series by the end of third grade, and the other is out to beat him by doing it in second...he is on book five now.

As a rocket related aside, the rest of the family wants me to name the 75MD I have on the bench "Wingardium Leviosa"

 

[Steve Shannon]

I totally think everyone here would enjoy Airframe by Michael Crichton. A real nail-biter, and spends a ton of time delving into how commercial jetliners are designed, made and flown. Most of the book is spent troubleshooting a problematic jumbo jet, interspersed with scenes of the main character fleeing for her life. Good stuff.

He was one of my favorite authors of all time. I enjoyed all of his books.