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The BOOK Thread

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Journey of self-realization through the underworld of Bombay. Rather dark at times. The authors thoughts about riding;
“ There’s a lot of branding that goes into the illusion of freedom on a motorcycle. It’s crazy, as anyone who rides one with a gas tank will tell you. It’s not about freedom: it’s about release.
When you get a bike that likes you out on an open road, and you ride alone for a while, you enter a transcendental state. The balance between naked instinct and machine precision in high velocity open space is cool, which is why we do it, but it’s cool because we’re released.
There’s no hatred in it, and no malice. And there’s no love, either, or ties of affection. There’s no pride or power, no anger or dread. You’re released, for a while, which is how you know what freedom is.”
 
So in the last couple months I've finished the entire Stormlight Archives plus Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind + Wise Man's Fear.

Both series were fantastic and I'd highly recommend them, but it's not for the light reader - each book is ~1200 pages.

Stormlight Archive:
  • The Way of Kings
  • Words of Radiance
  • Oathbringer

So maybe 6,000 pages total.

Next gonna take a break from fantasy/fiction and work my way through Team of Teams by General McChrystal, and Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull.
 
RIP Mr. Wouk ... :rose

Herman Wouk, 'The Jackie Robinson Of Jewish-American Fiction,' Dies At 103

The Caine Mutiny was Wouk's most celebrated book, but he had a substantial career both before and after it ...

"One of the reasons why he didn't get the kind of stellar reviews that writers like Saul Bellow got was because he was accessible." And Wouk did express serious ideas in his fiction [says Jonathan Karp, president and publisher of Simon & Schuster and editor of Wouk's last book].
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:gsxrgrl
 
Not Wouk related (but yeah, a real loss- but his literary contribution will live forever) I'm reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. So gnarly. I don't know if I'll make it through being that I have a son the boy's age and it's pretty tough to feel the feelings the book brings up.
 
NorCalAthlete said:
So in the last couple months I've finished the entire Stormlight Archives plus Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind + Wise Man's Fear.

Both series were fantastic and I'd highly recommend them, but it's not for the light reader - each book is ~1200 pages.

Stormlight Archive:
  • The Way of Kings
  • Words of Radiance
  • Oathbringer

So maybe 6,000 pages total.

Next gonna take a break from fantasy/fiction and work my way through Team of Teams by General McChrystal, and Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull.
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Can't believe I missed this post. Read both books and hate that I am in Song of Fire and Ice mode waiting for the series to complete. I mean what is it these days with authors they get these series started and then just say fuck it and take 9 years between books. Wheel of Time was another one thank god Brian Sanderson finished it but it is probably not the same as what Jordan would have written but at least there was an end.

While looking for the Kingkiller Chronicles books because my library has a bad habit of not carrying the full series I looked online and found it for presale at GoodReads and the response to the comments and 5 star reviews of the book are hilarious. See below.

"While it's nice to see folks out there giving this book five stars, and in some cases even reviewing it, I'll admit that I'm kinda puzzled.

After thinking it over for a while, I've realized there's only one explanation for this:

Time travelers love my books.

This is strangely reassuring, as it lets me know that, eventually, I do finish my revisions, and the book turns out good enough so that I still have a following out there in the big ball of wibbly-wobbly.... timey-wimey.... stuff that I like to think of as the future.

I would also like to say, future readers, that I appreciate your taking time to read and review my books. It's really flattering knowing that even with time-travel technology at your disposal, you'd rather read my stuff and mention it here on goodreads, rather than, say, hunt dinosaurs, get drunk with da Vinci, or pants Hitler.

Secondly, I'd like to say if you're The Doctor, and you're reading this, I would make an excellent traveling companion. I know you normally tend to hang out with pretty young women and robot dogs. And honestly? I respect that.

Still, I bring certain things to the table. Humor, witty banter, and a beard that will allow me to blend in seamlessly with any pre-industrial Germanic culture. I'm also an excellent kisser and play a mean game of Settlers of Catan.

Just throwing it out there.

Lastly, if any of you happen to have a digital copy of the book you'd like to e-mail me, I'd really appreciate it. I'd love to see the five-star version of the book, because right now, the one I'm toiling away at is about a three an a half-in my opinion. It would save me a lot of work if I could just skip to the end and publish it.

Sincerely yours,

pat"
 
You guys are such intellectuals.
 
Beauregard said:
Not Wouk related (but yeah, a real loss- but his literary contribution will live forever) I'm reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. So gnarly. I don't know if I'll make it through being that I have a son the boy's age and it's pretty tough to feel the feelings the book brings up.
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I once sampled a bit of it, but it looked too gnarly for my taste. I may give it another try.

OTOH, his No Country for Old Men was gnarly but excellent, as was the Coens' movie.

BTW, Beau, if you happen upon this post, check out my post a few pages back about Layer Cake the book. You recommended the movie to me, and I liked it. I think you'll like the book, too, which is a bit more darkly humorous.
 
DataDan said:
BTW, Beau, if you happen upon this post, check out my post a few pages back about Layer Cake the book. You recommended the movie to me, and I liked it. I think you'll like the book, too, which is a bit more darkly humorous.
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Dan your timing is impeccable, I re-watched L\"Layer Cake" just last week... I will buy the book right now.

Hope all is well with you my friend!

[EDIT] Just bought it.
s-l500.jpg
 
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Teaser, written by Ruthie the 13 year old
“One People.
The war has left a bloody trail and many deep wounds not too easily healed. Many people have been left with scars that take a long time to pass away. We must never forget the horrors which our brethren were subjected to in Bergen-Belsen and other Nazi concentration camps. Then, too, we must try hard to understand that for righteous people hate and prejudice are neither good occupations nor fit companions. Rabbi Alfred Bettleheim once said: “Prejudice saves us a painful trouble, the trouble of thinking.” In our beloved land families were not scattered, communities not erased nor our nation destroyed by the ravages of the World War.

Yet, dare we be at ease? We are part of a world whose unity has been almost completely shattered. No one can feel free from danger and destruction until the many torn threads of civilization are bound together again. We cannot feel safer until every nation, regardless of weapons or power, will meet together in good faith, the people worthy of mutual association...”


Edit https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.co...er-ginsburgs-essay-in-her-synagogue-bulletin/
 
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rereading Rick Atkinson's history of the North Africa campaign WWII '42-'43
"An Army At Dawn" winner of the Pulitzer Prize
 
Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks
by Juliet Eilperin

...Like, please get me started about shark mating because I could go for hours. Specifically on how some female sharks actually get pregnant by several male sharks, but then their offspring duke it out in the womb, until one male's offspring eats all of the other males' offspring. IN THE WOMB.
My notes actually read "shark babies are monsters." ...
 
The Rabbit Hole

Hugh Tube?
Y’know, click this, that, And hours have passed.

Books do this to me.
“Leave me alone!” I’m reading!
Some books.

Some of you may have similar experiences.

Edit, right now I am reading “Blowout” by Rachel Maddow. Some would say non fiction. Current neverless. Fascinating. I can put it down though. See? I am BARFing right now.
 
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I just finished "Blowout" by Rachel Maddow, about the gas and oil industry.

Fascinating. I have never seen her show so I do not know her views as a pundit, but the book seemed factual.

Rex Tillerson is a piece of work.
Good read.
 
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one of my favorite westerns, True Grit ...

Charles Portis, Elusive Author of ‘True Grit,’ Dies at 86
“The publicity-shy Mr. Portis earned a modest but devoted readership and accolades as America’s “least-known great writer.””
NYT.com, 02/17/2020

The narrative voice of “True Grit” is that of a self-assured old woman, Mattie Ross, as she recalls an adventure she had in Arkansas’s Indian Territory when she was 14, on a quest to track down her father’s killer with Cogburn’s help.

Mr. Portis wanted her to sound determined to “get the story right,” he said in an interview for this obituary in 2012. The book has virtually no contractions, and the language is insistently old-fashioned.

One of Mattie’s first impressions of Cogburn, who patrols the territory out of Fort Smith, is harsh. She finds him in bed at 10 o’clock in the morning, fully clothed and hung over.

“The brindle cat Sterling Price was curled up on the foot of the bed,” she says. “Rooster coughed and spit on the floor and rolled a cigarette and lit it and coughed some more. He asked me to bring him some coffee and I got a cup and took the eureka pot from the stove and did this. As he drank, little brown drops of coffee clung to his mustache like dew. Men will live like billy goats if they are let alone.”
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godspeed, Mr Portis ... :rose
 
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