What's Everyone Reading These Days?

[Pippen]

I've just finished "Endeavour: The Story of Captain Cook's First Great Epic Voyage" and "The Longitude Prize" which is about the search for a viable method of determining longitude at sea. In the works is "A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World". All good reads.

I'm reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows aloud to my kids and we've just reached the final chapters. This is one series I'm going to be sad to see come to an end, especially since a new school schedule this year is going to make it impossible for us to all read together at breakfast, as has been our custom for the past six years.

What's on your book list these days?

 

[Trident]

Atlas Shrugged -- I am about 350 pages into this 1300 pager. Lifting this large format paperback is like doing curls at the gym...

Wow, this story from the 50s blows me away with its eerie parallels with present day politics. Ayn Rand was a phenomenal writer and thinker. I read The Fountainhead 10 years ago and still think it was one of the greatest reads ever.

 

[Pantherjon]

the obits to make sure I am still kickin!:roll:

Seriously though, I haven't really had much TIME to devote to a book. Am reading through the latest Discover magazine, pretty cool!

Latest book I started was Confessor by Goodkind(can't recall his first name right now ) Last book in the Sword of Truth series..Got to chapter 6 IIRC then got interrupted by life..Will have to get back at it, eventually..

 

[brianc]

Last month I read Always Looking Up; The Adventures of
an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox


BTW- check this link then support the AirFest flight
to benefit the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research-
https://www.rocketryplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4554

 

[Sleepy_Steve]

The goal.

I don't really like it, but I feel like I need to read it in case I need to pick up on any references to it.

 

[Pippen]

the obits to make sure I am still kickin!:roll:

.

One never knows about these things. A few years ago my in-laws got a call from a relative who lives in the small town where they own plots in a cemetary near other family members. The relative was checking to see if they still had two feet on the ground because he'd taken a drive through and noticed that one of the graves was being dug.

They weren't too bent out of shape about it and used the refund money to purchase plots in the town they now reside in.

 

[DRAGON64]

I'm reading Twilight, and soon moving on to New Moon...

 

[gpoehlein]

Gee - I've just been reading light stuff. Just finished the first three books in Patricia Briggs' Mercedes Thompson series (Werewolves and the hero who is a Walker and can change into a coyote!). I'm now reading the second novel Simon Green's newest series about supernatural spies (I love the titles - "The Man With The Golden Torc" and the current one "Daemon's Are Forever"). Also started a strange book set just up the road from here in Santa Claus, Indiana called "In The Saint Nick Of Time".

 

[JoeLaunchman]

Last month I read Carl Sandburg's 3 volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. This month, so far, Buzz Aldrin's new one: Magnificent Desolation, and The Last of the Mohicans (again).

 

[user 13]

Now I'm reading the novelization of the new Star Trek movie. Not as good as the movie. I just finished my yearly re-read of Larry Nivens "The Mote in Gods Eye", what I consider the best science fiction novel ever written. Before that was Alexander Hamilton.

Next is 1634.

 

[jj94]

I guess I'm not reading as much as I SHOULD be, especially considering I'm a high schooler, even though it's still summer break. I'm currently reading the Grapes of Wrath as a summer reading book for school. It's possibly one of the most boring books that I've read so far. After this, I'll probably move on to the Kite Runner. I liked what I read from Homer Hickam, which were October Sky/Rocket Boys, Sky of Stone, and Back to the Moon, even though I've read them a few years ago. I also like Chris Paolini's books and his series. I know the topic of his books are childish, but they are quite enjoyable reads. Waiting for his last book in the Eragon series to come out.

 

[Gillard]

been really active reading several books about the crusades, KT etc just started rreading pratchett's going postal for some light relief

 

[slogfilet]

The goal.

I don't really like it, but I feel like I need to read it in case I need to pick up on any references to it.

So when people start talking about fat kids holding up Boy Scout hikes, you'll know! (I hope I'm thinking of the right book...)

Right now, I'm reading "Godel, Escher, Bach." Pretty good stuff, and rather entertaining.

 

[eugenefl]

Sybex Certified Wireless Technology Specialist (CWTS) certification official study guide. Time to add some other credential to my resume for those hiring managers hung up on letters and paper certs.

 

[RimfireJim]

I've just finished "Endeavour: The Story of Captain Cook's First Great Epic Voyage" and "The Longitude Prize" which is about the search for a viable method of determining longitude at sea. In the works is "A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World". All good reads.

I'm reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows aloud to my kids and we've just reached the final chapters. This is one series I'm going to be sad to see come to an end, especially since a new school schedule this year is going to make it impossible for us to all read together at breakfast, as has been our custom for the past six years.

What's on your book list these days?

If you liked "Endeavour", you might also enjoy "Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook" by Martin Dugard (have I been using Amazon.com too much?)

and one of my favorites of all time:

"Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing (far better than Shackleton's own "South")

I just finished "Until It Hurts: America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids" by Mark Hyman and now I'm reading "Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People" by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley. After I finish it, I'll read another mystery by Margaret Coel.

 

[MarkII]

For the most part, various posts on three online rocketry forums, actually. I used to be quite the avid reader. Then I got married. If I get lost in a book now, my wife comes looking for me. Usually with a chore in mind. :roll:

Seriously, when I do pick up a book these days, it is always non-fiction. I haven't had any interest in reading fiction in a dog's age.

Maybe I just don't have the attention span anymore. When I do pick up a book, I tend to browse it, rather than read it cover to cover. And all the while, a little voice in the back of my head keeps saying, "Gee, I could be building a rocket right now." The reading session usually ends shortly thereafter.

I did pick up a copy of Gene Krantz' Failure Is Not An Option last month, and I do intend to read it. One day. And that's a book that I really, really WANT to read. I also occasionally read books that are posted online by NASA's History Division.

MarkII

 

[roadkill]

Sybex Certified Wireless Technology Specialist (CWTS) certification official study guide. Time to add some other credential to my resume for those hiring managers hung up on letters and paper certs.

Yupp,

Thats my life for the past three years...
Manuals for certs, more manuals for more certs etc...

Gotta get at least one more by the end of the year
to hopefully survive this tsunami of lay-offs...

I guess (by the layer of dust on it) that the last book I
read was Jack Higgins' 'The Eagle Has Flown' about three years ago...

I love to read and once I dig into a book I gotta finish it before I lay it down,
its just too sad that the past few years I've had no time for it...

At least I still have a decently paying job...

 

[user 13]

I did pick up a copy of Gene Krantz' Failure Is Not An Option last month, and I do intend to read it. One day. And that's a book that I really, really WANT to read. I also occasionally read books that are posted online by NASA's History Division.

MarkII

Thats a very good book, I read it a few years ago. One warning thou, he's a rocket guy not an author. Stick with it.

 

[MarkII]

Yupp,

Thats my life for the past three years...
Manuals for certs, more manuals for more certs etc...

I went through that about 7 years ago. Not to keep a job but to get one. It didn't work, though. All of a sudden no one was interested in an auto-didact trying to break into the IT field. Every ad and recruitment announcement clearly specified "must have at least an AAS in an IT-related discipline, and recent college graduates only." That last little bit was code for "middle-aged career-changers need not apply." I got a handful of interviews, but they never went anywhere.

The ironic thing was that all of the hiring managers that I talked to had come into the field with such IT-related degrees as, for example, a BA in Medieval French Literature, a BA in Philosophy, a college drop-out who had been an art major, etc., and they were all totally self-taught themselves. (One guy just had a HS diploma for the first 12 years of his IT career.) Nothing like slamming the door shut behind you once you get in.

Mark II, MCP (Windows 2000) -- this was back in 2002, after all
MCSE-candidate, until I read the handwriting on the wall

 

[RocketT.Coyote]

I read the recent message from Semroc regarding the new Saturn V kit. A most exciting bit of prose.

 

[MarkII]

I read the recent message from Semroc regarding the new Saturn V kit. A most exciting bit of prose.

So true! Definitely part of my summer reading list!

MarkII

 

[Shade]

Liberty and Tyranny, Mark Levin

 

[sailmike]

Just finished reading The Pelican Brief by John Grisham. Took me two days to finish it. For some reason I couldn't put it down. :jaw: First book by Grisham I've read. Now I have to read the others by him.

I'm a fan of Terry Brooks. His science-fiction-fantasy books have been pretty consistant.

Then there's Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. He passed away before he could finish the 12th book in the series. So, his wife, publisher, and author friend are finishing the series. The first 3 books to conclude the series should be out this fall. I can't wait!

But, my all time favorite author is Isaac Asimov. His robot and foundation novels are second to none.

Mike

 

[Sleepy_Steve]

So when people start talking about fat kids holding up Boy Scout hikes, you'll know! (I hope I'm thinking of the right book...)

Right now, I'm reading "Godel, Escher, Bach." Pretty good stuff, and rather entertaining.

Don't know about any scouts in the book... Its more of a book about business practices, and the theory of constraints.

 

[BsSmith]

If you haven't read it, read the Eragon series. They are my favorite books.

I haven't read a book for a few months because I can't find anything that I like. Maybe I'll find something once school starts.

 

[Fred22]

My latest read was John Keegan's "Face of Battle".
Cheers
fred

 

[luke strawwalker]

I've been out at our ranch digging out the pond while the drought has it totally dry... been a LONG three days in 107 degree heat on the loader tractor. At night I stay in the old farmhouse, with no TV, so I've had plenty of undisturbed time to read of an evening (except during the severe thunderstorm that knocked the lights out for a while) Anyway, I've been reading "Failure Is Not An Option" by Gene Kranz. VERY good read; lots of 'personal stories' and 'behind the scenes' stuff that you never really knew about the space program. I got this book, "Korolev","For Spacious Skies" (by Scott Carpenter, Mercury astronaut) and "Mars Direct" by Robert Zubrin, all at half price books-- I nearly cleaned out the spaceflight section, but got a great deal on them all.

I just finished "Mars Direct" by Zubrin last week at my daughter's swim class, and it was excellent. Really shows how little has changed at NASA for the last 20 years or so, and how they're more interested in getting funding and stringing it out as long as possible so they can do EVERYONES pet project, rather than actually achieving anything in space like we did in the 60's.... It's sad in a way, but not unexpected. I read "Challenger" and "the Space Shuttle Decision" and they are both good reads, and really show how institutionalize bureaucracy has killed the NASA of the 60's... sad.

Anyway, they're all good reads... OL JR

 

[AKPilot]

Some books by the English author/philosopher Karen Armstrong.

 

[MarkII]

... I read "Challenger" and "the Space Shuttle Decision" and they are both good reads, and really show how institutionalize bureaucracy has killed the NASA of the 60's... sad.

Anyway, they're all good reads... OL JR

The ironic thing is that NASA was an institutionalized bureaucracy (with a HUGE budget) back in the 1960's, too.

Bureaucracies are a way of bringing together and coordinating a large amount of resources in order to address a long list of goals simultaneously. A bureaucracy is merely one form of organizational structure; as such it has a proper place in the management toolbox. It is neither inherently good nor bad. The vast majority of us work or have worked in a bureaucratically-structured organization. If your business has more than one division, if it has subdivisions that are individually managed by people who answer to the CEO, rather than all being directly managed by the CEO, and if the work of the business is done out of more than one office (even if they are all in the same physical location, such as a suite of offices in an office building), then your business is a bureaucracy.

MarkII

 

[jadebox]

I usually read two books at a time, generally a non-fiction book and a fiction one. Right now, I actually in the process of reading four books!

I'm reading Rocket Men by Craig Nelson. I'm only a couple chapters in, but it already looks to be a very good read - a bit more in-depth than most of the books about the astronauts. It's already covered some territory - the concerns by NASA and the astronauts themselves about the level of training of the Apollo 11 astronauts - that I didn't know about in such detail.

I'm also reading a book of short stories by Jeffrey Archer. In the car, I'm listening to the latest Spencer novel by Robert Parker.

The fourth book I'm reading is David Gerrold's Jumping Off the Planet. It's a novel for teens. To explain why I'm reading a book written for kids ....

I like to read in bed, but my wife usually wants to watch TV. She thinks the TV will bother me, so she turns it off when I read. I realized that she was bored, so some time ago I just started reading my book out loud. She enjoyed that, but I discovered that novels for grownups are just too long and complicated to read out loud.

So, I starting picking up novels written for teens and young adults for me to read aloud. It turns out there are quite a few good ones - including the Harry Potter series, of course. Holes and The Thief Lord are two other really good ones that come to mind. (As an aside, Holes was made into a pretty good movie. The Thief Lord was made into a really bad one.)

-- Roger