What are you reading?

[Sooner Boomer]

Any idea how fast (words per minute) you read? Ever been tested?

 

[Zeus-cat]

Irish.... that reminds me. Gotta find a copy of Leon Uris' "Trinity". It's a fictionalized account of the Irish struggle starting in the late 1800's with the potato famine, and going up to WWII.

We took our vacation in Ireland two years ago and as usual we used one of Rick Steve's book for sights to see. One of the fascinating things we saw, thanks to his book, was the remnants of the potato fields up in the hills. Once you knew what you were looking at you could see the outlines of the rows where the potatoes had been planted. Pretty creepy as those fields were abandoned in the 1840's.

 

[Marc_G]

For anyone that likes things either hard scifi or magically-related, the complete works of Charles Stross are a must-read.

His "Laundry Files" series that starts with the Atrocity Archives is an extremely fun read, describing a variant of our world where magic is real and is invoked by math. Another book in this series is due in a month or two.

Also, his Merchant Princes books involve alternate worlds that connect to our own, for fun and mostly for profit.

Some of his other standalone stuff was mind-blowing, so here is his complete bibliography:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stross_bibliography

 

[ewomack]

I have started this book three times over the past few years and something has interrupted each reading. I'm really going to try to have a go at it this time. It covers more than "the markets," as the cover insinuates, and deals more with how people like to deny that random, unplanned and unforeseeable events shape their lives more than they imagine.

 

[Hobie1dog]

That LDRS book is a whopper

 

[OverTheTop]

I just downloaded the following eBooks from the library at work. About 170MB worth.

• How Apollo Flew to the Moon
• Smart Antennas
• Modern Lens Antennas for Communications Engineering
• Handbook on Array Processing and Sensor Networks
• Coplanar Waveguide Circuits, Components and Systems
• Periodic Structures : Mode Matching Approach and Applications in Electromagentic Engieering
• Antenna Arrays : A Computational Approach
• Conformal Array Antenna Theory and Design
• Modern Antennas
• Modern Antenna Design
• Circularly Polarized Antennas
• Foundations of Microstrip Circuit Design

That should be a year or so worth of light reading before I go to bed. I will mix it up with some slightly less stressful aviation, shooting and 4x4 magazines .

 

[Cape Byron]

I just downloaded the following eBooks from the library at work. About 170MB worth.

• How Apollo Flew to the Moon

My library has nothing cool like this. They couldn't even find a copy of 'The Right Stuff' between here and Queensland.

 

[o1d_dude]

My library has nothing cool like this. They couldn't even find a copy of 'The Right Stuff' between here and Queensland.

If you have Amazon & Kindle in the Down Under you can buy it.

 

[Cape Byron]

If you have Amazon & Kindle in the Down Under you can buy it.

I found a copy in the local Op Shop (Charity Shop) for $2. Just whinging...

My best find ever was a copy of Buzz Aldrin's 'Mission to Mars' for $3. Autographed.

 

[user 30299]

I have started this book three times over the past few years and something has interrupted each reading. I'm really going to try to have a go at it this time. It covers more than "the markets," as the cover insinuates, and deals more with how people like to deny that random, unplanned and unforeseeable events shape their lives more than they imagine.

View attachment 430948

When you finish Randomness - you may want to follow it up with "Darkness by Design".

 

[Sooner Boomer]

I just downloaded the following eBooks from the library at work. About 170MB worth.

• How Apollo Flew to the Moon
• Smart Antennas
• Modern Lens Antennas for Communications Engineering
• Handbook on Array Processing and Sensor Networks
• Coplanar Waveguide Circuits, Components and Systems
• Periodic Structures : Mode Matching Approach and Applications in Electromagentic Engieering
• Antenna Arrays : A Computational Approach
• Conformal Array Antenna Theory and Design
• Modern Antennas
• Modern Antenna Design
• Circularly Polarized Antennas
• Foundations of Microstrip Circuit Design

That should be a year or so worth of light reading before I go to bed. I will mix it up with some slightly less stressful aviation, shooting and 4x4 magazines .

I could use some of those on antenna design. I've got a project that's been percolating in the back of my mind for a while. Lnow anything about "patch" antennas?

 

[prfesser]

I'm trying to find books that might encourage young teens to read. I think there are two boys and two girls, somewhere around 12-14YO. So far, I've given them "Educated Maurice" and "Wee Free Men", by Pratchett; the first two "White Trash Zombie" books by Dianna Rowland; and "The Hobbit" by Tolkein. Waiting to be delivered are "Hat Full of Sky" by Pratchett; "Citizen of the Galaxy", "Podkayne of Mars", and :The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", by Heinlein.

If they haven't read Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, or Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, they may be available free online---haven't checked---but if not, they're out of copyright so print versions are quite cheap. Big Red by Jim Kjelgard(sp?) is online somewhere; boy and his dog, set in the late 1940s. Most of Heinlein's juveniles are good; Space Cadet, Star Beast, Farmer in the Sky come to mind.

Best -- Terry

 

[prfesser]

Re-reading the first version of Marooned by Caidin. The movie was based on the second version, three men in an Apollo. The original is Jim Pruett alone in a "last of the Mercury" flight.

Best -- Terry

 

[OverTheTop]

I could use some of those on antenna design. I've got a project that's been percolating in the back of my mind for a while. Lnow anything about "patch" antennas?

Here is a little project I did with a patch antenna a while back:
https://forum.ausrocketry.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4770&p=55990You might find it useful. Not much for theory, but fairly straightforward to build.

 

[Hobie1dog]

up to page 136 of LDRS, chapter 10

 

[jd2cylman]

I’m halfway through and stalled for some reason. Gotta pick it up again and finish it...

 

[milehigh]

Just finished up reading a 5 book volume of Edgar Rice Burough's Tarzan series:
Tarzan of the Apes
The Return of Tarzan
The Beasts of Tarzan
The Son of Tarzan
Jungle Tales of Tarzan

Currently reading Star Wars: The Old Republic, Fatal Alliance.

 

[jimn]

Moby Dick

 

[prfesser]

I’m halfway through and stalled for some reason. Gotta pick it up again and finish it...

Twelve years on the BoD and I got stalled a couple times. I got *wince-y* reading the stuff about me. Always made me feel funny to be recognized, because I always--and still-- considered myself to be just another rocketeer with maybe different skills.

Best -- Terry

 

[Cape Byron]

Moby Dick

My favourite novel.

Even better, can I say, than Hemingway. And that's saying a Hell of a lot.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I'm !/2 way through the LDRS book by Mark Canepa

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Just finished up reading a 5 book volume of Edgar Rice Burough's Tarzan series:
Tarzan of the Apes
The Return of Tarzan
The Beasts of Tarzan
The Son of Tarzan
Jungle Tales of Tarzan

Currently reading Star Wars: The Old Republic, Fatal Alliance.

I tried going through his "John Carter of Mars" series a few years ago. Read about four or five and couldn't find any more books.

 

[jd2cylman]

I tried going through his "John Carter of Mars" series a few years ago. Read about four or five and couldn't find any more books.

Really? I bought the compilation book and sailed through it.

 

[David J]

The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Time of Pancho Barnes (again)

 

[Jack_L]

Revolution 2020 is a 2011 novel by Chetan Bhagat. It is merely based on Love, Corruption, Ambition.

 

[OverTheTop]

Foundations of Microstrip Circuit Design

 

[Sooner Boomer]

A while back, I had asked about a glue to repair paperback books. A lot of the well-read books I have are starting to seperate and tear at the spine (it usually starts at the lower front edge). I think I've found something that works well; Elmer's Craft Bond. It's a white PVA that sticks and penetrates well into paper, and stays plyable when dry. I've repaired several books with it. Extreme cases may need a bit of fiberglass packing tape to prevent further splitting. I'm about to put it to the biggest test yet. I've got the very first science fiction book I read. Not a copy, THE book. It's Heinlein's "Glory Road". The glue on the spine has competely failed. All I have are the pages and the cover. I think I'll do this in two steps. First I'll clamp the pages together and glue them along the spine. When that's set, I'll glue the cover on. Luckily, the cover is intact, no splitting or tearing. The original glue dried out and failed totally, allowing everything to come apart undamaged. I'll post back with the results!

 

[Cape Byron]

A couple of copies of Scale Modelling I found at the Oppy (Thrift Shop). There's a lot of good stuff in those magazines. $0.50 well spent.

 

[John Kemker]

Keith Laumer Mega Pack from Amazon on Kindle. Currently reading about Retief of the CDT.

 

[Tech 68]

One of those "impulse" things... I went searching and found it on ebay for a reasonable price.
I think I was maybe ten when I first read it... sixty years later I can still remember certain parts.