books: what are you currently reading?

Started by Caleb, June 21, 2006, 11:58:08 PM

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The Last Stand. Nathaniel Philbrick. Very good.

And working through the Robert B. Parker list of hits....like eating Yodels.  :donut2 :donut2 :donut2
www.rakeandsplay.com

00-03 Special Edition

"Under the Black Ensign" (L. Ron Hubbard 1936)

Quote from: broKen on August 18, 2010, 12:24:48 PM
Hello Gents. I stopped by to have a listen at what's going on here. Very interesting. You guys ARE readers. I read very little these days but Ryler said something that caught my attention so I'll add my comment. Ryler, L'amour is a great story teller, and if you wanted a sample of his work that is not western, check out The Walking Drum, which is set in the 1100's in the near east. Or for a more modern setting, The Last of the Breed, which is set in the 1950's - 60's about a fighter pilot shot down and imprisoned in Russia. Both are typical L'amour, but fun reading.
Ken

Thanks, Ken, for those recommendations.  I've got to check this guy out.

Quote from: broKen on August 18, 2010, 12:24:48 PM
Or for a more modern setting, The Last of the Breed, which is set in the 1950's - 60's about a fighter pilot shot down and imprisoned in Russia. Both are typical L'amour, but fun reading.

In the same vein is James Dickey's novel To the White Sea, about a WWII airman who survives being shot down behind enemy lines in Japan and proceeds to make his way ever northward.  Dickey (famous for Deliverance) writes fiction with a poet's sensibilities . . . assuming the poet is also a bare-knuckle brawler.
". . . if I only had a brain . . ."
___________________________
'08 L-03 Silver Oak

"Last of the Breed" was a great book. I have to dig it out and read it again. If you can find "Mountain Man" by Vardis Fisher (the inspiration for the movie Jeremiah Johnson) it is another well written and similar story. Especially the escape of the main character Sam Minard from his captors (A band of Blackfeet Indians) in the middle of the winter to return to Kate's cabin (The crazy woman from the Wolftail Valley in the movie).

I just finished "Last Words" the autobiography of George Carlin. I saw him perform three times in the 10 years before he died and he never did the same material twice. One hour of standup without notes. Pretty amazing to watch a guy whose career spanned nearly 50 years.

"Just because you got the monkey of your back doesn't mean the circus has left town." George Carlin


Reading lots of poems by Longfellow, Dickinson, Frost. 

Also, I'm on a George Macdonald kick.  I've got the Golden Key going, Phatastes is up next and The Princess and the Goblin.  Good stuff. 

Okay...this certainly isn't going to be read in a Classics of Literature course, but I'm reading "On the Grid" by Scott Huler.

http://www.scotthuler.com/grid/

If you've ever wondered how you get drinking water, where storm runoff from streets goes, how roads are laid out, how you get your power, etc. (i.e. how the infrastructure that we all take for granted actually works)...this is highly recommended.

Written for the average person, by someone with no engineering background after spending countless hours asking questions and taking tours around his hometown.

A very easy, quick, but informative read.
Three Larries and a Guild and an A&L...and electrics...and a mando

"Your lack of technique can be part of your style. The thing about style is that it's more entertaining, more important and hopefully more intellectual than technique."
Kim Thayil (Soundgarden)


George Macdonald has been blowing my mind.  I took a break to read a bit from his disciple, C.S. Lewis.  I'm reading his The Great Divorce right now.  I'm also reading a biography on Lewis right now from Alan Jacobs called The Narnian.  Very good stuff all.  
Up next: more George Macdonald.  

"The Case for God" by Karen Armstrong. And "Pacific Vortex" by Clive Cussler, the 1st Dirk Pitt book.
Chris
Larrivee's '07  L-09 (40th Commemorative); '09 00-03 S.E; '08 P-09
Eastman '07 AC 650-12 Jumbo (NAMM)
Martin   '11 D Mahogany (FSC Golden Era type)
Voyage-Air '10 VAOM-06
-the nylon string-
Goya (Levin) '58 G-30
-dulcimer-
'11 McSpadden

     "The Bone Orchard" by D. Daniel Judson.  Just started it the other day after FINALLY finishing S. Kings "Under the Dome". 

Old Folky
'74 Martin D35S
Larrivee SD 50 TSB
Unplayed Vega and Harmony banjos

"Don't shoot,  I'm the guitar man"   by Buzzy Martin

True account of his experiences teaching guitar to San Quentin inmates. 

Just finished Faye Kellerman's Hangman and one about Viet Nam called Matterhorn.
Also just read the Tony Rice Bio Still Inside.  I go through books like some people go through potato chips.

LJ

The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe .  My daughter's studying the tales in her high school english class and I thought my 14 year old son might enjoy reading them too.  I certainly did "back in the day".
Gary - RS-4 (for sale), Bourgeois VOM


Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon.  A great book on traveling the backroads of America.  Not as good as Travels with Charley, but it's up there. 

Just got my copy of "Life" by Keith Richards. Only 60 pages in but a fun read so far. Opening story cracked me up! 
Larrivee L03-R
Larrivee OM-09 12 Fret
Larrivee D02
Martin HD-28V
Martin D12X1
Fender Blacktop

  I am still enjoying "Cold Mountain", but I found a short book named "Iron Scouts of the Confederacy" by Lee McGiffin.
  This is a true story of two young men who's father had died in the civil war as well as their mother at an earlier time. Anyway it is a very good little book with a lot of humanity portrayed on both sides of the war as well as humor and sadness. I finished it a few days ago.

   I'll get back to Cold Mountain now.

To Tame a Land - Louis L'Amour

Western fiction, or "Frontier Stories," as L'Amour called them, don't get much better than this one. 

Alphabet of Grace by Frederick Buechner

Quote from: prsphantom on October 29, 2010, 05:01:21 PM
Alphabet of Grace by Frederick Buechner
Love Buechner. That is a good book.
Chris
Larrivee's '07  L-09 (40th Commemorative); '09 00-03 S.E; '08 P-09
Eastman '07 AC 650-12 Jumbo (NAMM)
Martin   '11 D Mahogany (FSC Golden Era type)
Voyage-Air '10 VAOM-06
-the nylon string-
Goya (Levin) '58 G-30
-dulcimer-
'11 McSpadden

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