What book are you reading?

Tim-Gabz

Tim-Gabz

Joined
Nov 24, 2003
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I am currently re reading a book called Rainbow's End.

It is a autobiography of the Author's early years growing up on a Rhodesian Farm during the last days of the war and early days of Independance. It shows many beliefs being shattered and the horrors that occured. Of abuse and priviledge and coming to terms with a new way of life. The idylic life of a child in the last days of colonialism.



The replacing of one fiction with another.



It was like picking a scab off a sore and rewalking the steps of my own childhood, the good and the bad. The deaths of people you knew from the conflict and more from the drinking to drown the horrors and then driving. The patronising of Blacks turning to distrust, degredation and open abuse. The pass books (blacks only).The mud tasting chocolates and the importance of smarties. The every day acceptance of ambush, the cold shock of shooting down of airliners. FNs in the classrooms. The snakes.

The forgetting of the nasty side of things and remembering only the good.
 
That was a bad time. A happier series of books is the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Set in Botswana, these books paint a wonderful picture of rural life there.
 
"American Shaolin" by Matthew Polly.....the story of a Princeton dropout who goes to China to study Kungfu with the monks of the Shaolin Temple.
 
I've got 3 I'm working on right now.


In American Fields and Forests

A compilation of early 19th and 20th century nature writings. Features Thoreau, John Burroughs, John Muir and others writing about different aspects of the outdoors.


Cathedral, Forge and Water Wheel.

A nice overview of medieval technology.


For The New Intellectual

Compilation of writings by Ayn Rand. Currently reading the John Galt speech from Atlas Shrugged.
 
Just finished Up In Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard. Now I'm dabbling in short story compilations by T.C. Boyle and H.P. Lovecraft.
 
The Blue Nile (finished) and The White Nile, by Alan Moorehead.
Histories of the exploration and politics of the Nile.
 
mycroftt said:
Just finished Up In Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard. Now I'm dabbling in short story compilations by T.C. Boyle and H.P. Lovecraft.
Click to expand...

Does your Lovecraft include 'The Picture in the House'? That is my favorite.

I'm reading a bit of fluff called 'The Moonshine Mule', which is non-fiction by this fellow that walked from Mexico to Manhattan in the steps of an ancestor. It is poorly written, unexciting and I find the author to be a pompous liberal boor. Yet I'm still reading it....
 
The Conquering Sword of Conan. A collection of Robert Howard Conan stories. I've got the entire collection of Conan books, I'd like to check out some of Robert Howard's Soloman Kane stories.
 
I just finished up a western called Death Of An Eagle by Kirby Jonas. One of the best westerns I have ever read.

Now I am working on World War Z by Max Brooks. :D
 
Characteristic of me, I'm reading history. But, uncharacteristic of me, it's almost military history. It's called Flags of our Fathers by James Bradley. The author is (or was when he wrote this book) an amateur. This was his first book. And yet it became a #1 Best Seller. He has since gone on to become a good author. But, this was his first and the edges are a bit rough. However, I think that adds to the experience of reading it. The unpolished style is well-suited to the subject matter.

The author's father is the man who stands roughly in the center of the famous picture of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. His father never talked much about it and deflected the topic whenever it came up. There wasn't even a copy of the picture in the house. When his father finally passed on, the family found a box in the closet in his office. In that box, they found his Navy Cross (an honor just below the Medal of Honor). They never knew he'd been awarded that; he never said a word about it. Mr. Bradley then went on a multi-year, multi-continent, personal mission to learn about his father and about the other men in that famous picture. This book is the result of that search. He recalls the historic battle that culminated in the raising of that flag, an amazing and inspirational story, and gives biographies of all of the men in that picture.
 
Just finished Scott Smith's The Ruins and started Michael Chabons The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Next might be Bill Bufords Heat (about working in Mario Batali'skitchen) or Richard Morgans latest Thirteen. I rarely read fiction back-to-back, but it is summertime!
 
Ancient Armour & Weapons, by John Hewitt. The book has great woodcut illustrations, and in depth historical references. Great read so far.
 
Hard Rain by Barry Eisler. I recommend this author to anyone who likes Daniel Silva or Lee Child. Great series.
 
"Dies The Fire" by SM Stirling. It's an apocalyptical novel, where a sudden change in the laws of physics renders modern technology useless. No electricity, electronics, gasoline, or explosives. Lots of swords and other pointy things!
 
I read Ruark many years ago; you're right, great stuff.

Big sci-fi fan here; just finished The Atrocity Archive by Charles Stross. Relatively new lad, think Len Deighton spy novel buts up against Lovecraft through William Gibson....Fun stuff.

Also reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. A great fantasy piece set in in an early-1800s England that's not quite the one we know....
 
currently, "terror at beslan", by john gidduck.

almost done, next is chuck palahniuk's new book. then "on killing" by grossman.
 
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