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nutjob
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 8, 2010 - 01:20am PT
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Post up yours....
I've got a bunch I picked up over the years from yard sales, thrift stores, library discards, a few as gifts, etc. It's not that I'm lazy (which may or may not be true depending on your perspective), but I like to have future reading to look forward to. Sometimes it takes years before I get there, but I generally get there. I read 800 pages of Atlas Shrugged before putting it down at "the speech" and picked it up a few years later and had to start over because I forgot the plot details (but I remembered the underlying philosophies). It took me about 3 years to get past the first 5 pages of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. I went so far as to use a notecard as a bookmark, and whenever I hit a word I didn't know, I looked it up in a fat dictionary and wrote it down on the notecard. Still took me a few years to get into it, but I'll never lose the opportunity to use "eleemosinary" in a sentence now. (Note to Supertopo staff: update your dictionary because it gives me the red quigglies for that one). Anyways, it just gives me pleasure to look at my bookshelf and say "oh yes my pretty, I'll get to you one day."
So here are some fav's from my list:
 Paradise Lost and Other Poems (John Milton)
The Iliad (Homer)
Beginnings of Modern Science (Boynton)
War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau
Letters from Hawaii (Mark Twain)
Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science (Peitgen, Jurgens, & Saupe)
A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking)
David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)
Chess Praxis (Nimzowitsch) - I need a chessboard to read this, can't do it in my head
The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli) - I've read 25% a few times, haven't finished yet
Inferno (Dante) - I don't have the whole Divine Comedy but will get there some day
In the mean time, I keep picking up my guilty pleasures of old Tom Clancy warmonger books, and now getting into the prolific adventure novelist Wilbur Smith. At some point I pushed myself a bit to read books I wasn't really committed to, sort of like taking medicine, but now I just wait til the urge strikes me or the need to procrastinate is large.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Then there is the flip side: What about the books (some of which are pure trash) that you've read over and over again while all those literary masterpieces sit unread?
Talk about guilty pleasures.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
climber
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A voyage for madmen, Peter Nichols (sailing non-fiction) I haven't read books for many years.
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pocoloco1
Social climber
The Chihuahua Desert
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critique of pure reason-kant
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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As an arctic exploration buff I've recently come into possession of a first edition of
The United States Grinnell Expedition-In Search of Sir John Franklin by Elisha Kane, MD, USN 1857
The binding is a little worn and there is some light mold on the backs and borders
of some of the plates although the plates look pristine. It has many plates of stunning quality.
I am afraid to open it flat enough to read it. I should probably just buy the
paperback version to read and use mine to look at the plates.
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Disaster Master
Social climber
Born in So-Cal, left my soul in far Nor-Cal.
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JimThornburgs new climbing pic book, got itfrom him tonight!
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Acer
Big Wall climber
AZ
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Harry Potter - All
Lord of the Rings - All
I am safe now that the movies came out. ;)
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Fletcher
Trad climber
from the place of breath
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Too many to count... but I have three small kids as an excuse! Actually, I buy books and know that when their time is right for me to read them, I will. Maybe in a day, maybe in years. But their time usually does come.
Shite! This includes a few Tami books....!!!!! No need to be sent, I will go to the car right now! har har.
Eric
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Alan Greenspan's book
Poco, get the cliff notes. Way better read.
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Fletcher
Trad climber
from the place of breath
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I have read the Lord of the Rings Books as well as the Hobbit. The movies are well done, but the books are another experience altogether. Worth revisiting. My daughter has read the LoTR books several times and in her geekier moments could speak some Elvish.... but those days are past now!
Harry Potter... read the first one when same daughter insisted when she was about 10 or so (she also compelled me to read Tolkien). I am saving the other Harry Potter's to read them along with the three younger kids as they grow up and the books become age appropriate.
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Fletcher
Trad climber
from the place of breath
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Herodotus is awesome. He tells some odd tales, very strange and interesting stuff. I would have liked to try his Scotch. I'm guilty of only reading excerpts of him back when I was Classics major in college.
Eric
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Bad Acronym
climber
Little Death Hollow
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Whatever that last 1000-page Thomas Pynchon book was. I remember reading "Gravity's Rainbow" in my twenties, and realizing after 5 weeks that it was just a 800-something-page dick joke. On me.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
SoCal
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1001 Nights and a Night, Sir Richard Burton Translation
Old Testament, NIV, DONE (excellent if viewed as Sci-Fi)
New Testament, NIV
Koran (need a better copy with larger type)
Book of the Mormon
I'm just too busy reading Action Sci-Fi & Cowboy novels
Harry Potter was very GUD. The movies are only so-so.
Lord of the Rings, The movies are good, the books are only so-so.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Also defeated by Gravity's Rainbow at about age 25. I remember thinking reading it was harder than reading a James Joyce novel. Which leads to my other remembered literary defeat: Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
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nutjob
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2010 - 11:23am PT
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Ooh, full-on literary defeats... I didn't properly consider that:
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky). I started about 16 years ago, didn't get into it, and lost track of the book.
Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky). I read the first half a year ago and really enjoyed it, but it was overdue to the library, and I didn't check it out again. Now I'll have to start over again some day when I think of it. Would be easier if I kept a copy around. We have Anna Karenina in the house, but it's in Italian and I'm not going to be ready for that in the next decade.
Russians 2, Nutjob 0. I'll catch up some day.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Obama's War Woodward
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant
Tasting Freedom Biddle and Dubin
Yellow Dirt Pasternak
Hiroshima in America Lifton and Mitchell and. . .
Climbing Tales of Terror, by Tami (get back in the car) Knight!!!!
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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By Motor to the Golden Gate by Emily Post
About here trip across the United States by automobile in 1915 with her son.
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em kn0t
Trad climber
isle of wyde
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How to Climb 5.12 by Eric Horst.
I'm saving that one for my dotage...
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Mike Friedrichs
Sport climber
City of Salt
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Naked Lunch. Tried three times and bailed.
Spider, really, Lord of the Rings is only so-so?
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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I inherited hundreds of books plus I keep buying more.
I'll never catch up, but thats all part of loving books.
It is a shame so many libraries are hurting.
One of the hidden downsides of the internet.
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Fletcher
Trad climber
from the place of breath
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The potty! I should have thought of that... such a moron am I. :-)
Speaking of Russians: Years ago, I actually did plow through (and it was like plowing your own road across Siberia) Solhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. I think the drudgery and massiveness of the book was supposed to be a literary device that gave you a feel for the Gulag system.
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is much shorter, more engaging and a great read. It accomplishes some of what he wanted to do in the Gulag A in a much better manner.
Thanks DMT for saving me from Atlas Shrugged. I've always felt I should check it out to see what all the fuss is about, but it sounds like Wikipedia will suffice. Instead, I can spend that time drinking quality cheap wine and reading Tami's stuff in the potty (maybe not at the same time). Much better use of time. har har.
Eric
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
SoCal
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"Defeated by" books:
Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, I may yet give it a go.
Voyage of the Beagle is Awesome
Story of Civilization by Will Durant, Good stuff, but undone
Tibetan Book of the Dead, read the whole thing but can't remember what it said (at age 18).
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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I have a thing for old books and especially old books on history of the Western US. This is one that has been collecting dust on the shelf a while. It has some great fold out maps and tons of etchings of Fremont's explorations.
Fremont was also the first Republican Presidential candidate and also penned an emancipation proclamation during the Civil War for his Western area of command, this act pushed Lincoln to do the same later.
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bergbryce
Mountain climber
Oakland
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hmmm, let me find something really deep.... ;-)
Ecotopia or any other dystopian 70s book. Man people were down on the future then. GD Ehrlich.
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scuffy b
climber
Three feet higher
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Ophiolites, Arcs and Batholiths.
It'll be a while until I get around to this.
Meanwhile, it's in a box for Dingus. He can have first shot, if he doesn't
have it yet.
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Mark Rodell
Trad climber
Bangkok
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The Recognitions by William Gadis. Two stabs and well past seven hundred pages both times.It is one you cannot put down for long because you loose the feel - the glue that holds it together.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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I've read about 2/3rds on nutjob's list. Classics. Got to get to those Russians. They are awesome.
Mine are:
The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann. That's become an albatross.
The Red and the Black, by Stendhal.
Greg Mortenson's second book.
Working my way through Cadillac Desert. A great read about water and the West.
City of Quartz, by Mike Davis.
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. Read a ton of Dickens, like him but keep getting pulled in different directions.
I know there are a ton I'm forgetting but those are the ones that jump to mind.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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"Mathematicians under the Nazis", Princeton Press, by S. Segal
This book has been called "magisterial" and I was overwhelmed by the number of facts and anecdotes and the density of the presentation (and the small compacted type). Segal was not only a member of the math dept at his university, but a fellow in the history department as well, and his book is a disciplined piece of academic historical research, and as such may be more attractive to a fellow historian. He juggles two themes: one anecdotal and the other philosophical, and the odd interplay was enough to convince me to return it to the library having read only bits and pieces. On the other hand, maybe I'm just too old and tired to care!
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Got a few new guidebooks that need to be cataloged and placed in the library...
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MisterE
Social climber
Bouncy Tiggerville
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I got "The Bounty Trilogy" sitting on my bedside table. It's looking pretty thick!
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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MisterE
The Bounty Trilogy is on my top 10 list of favorite reads. You should also put
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana on your list.
Another I have to recommend is Up and Down California by Brewer. Oh and Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada by Clearance King, I could go on and on.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Far From The Madding Crowd by Hardy
Gentlemen Of The Road by Chabon
Brothers K by Dostoyevsky. I've started this a few times. I'll get it this year. Sort of a promise to myself.
Snow Crash by Stephenson...A plum waiting to be picked.
The Structure Of Evolutionary Theory by Gould. This is kind of cool. Someone found out I was waiting to find this used and they sent it to me anonymously. How great is that!
Ladder Of The Years by Tyler
The Polish Officers by Furst
Actually I have a lot more waiting to be read including the second book in Neebee's Jake series.
Life is good when you have a lot of books to get to.
I read Vinland by Pychon recently, now I want to read Gravity’s Rainbow. The comparison to James is apt. It takes a lot of concentration to read Pychon. I started The Crying Of Lot 49 about 20 years ago. Couldn’t do it then. I’m ready for another go though.
Read on!
Zander
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there zander.... say, i was just stepping in to suggest someone buy my series, for a nice SHELF presentiona, if the reckon to
"aquire books, for reading later" :))
and you slid in to base, just a few days? hours? before me, as to mention
"a neebee book" :)
here you go folks, some very neat, special and definately different books for your "later collectoin"
say, NICE books in all... will look VERY NICE on your ol' shelf!
and... the short stories (five vols) actually
CAN be read, "stand alone" though you will miss choice "gems thoughts"
however... but they still have some special magic... :)
http://stores.lulu.com/neebeeshaabookwayreadjakeanddonate
:)
they are shiney black, and have a nice green name on the side:
...that being the book title... and: ...by neebeeshaabookway...
:)
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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A climbers guide to Iowa.
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craig mo
Trad climber
L.A. Ca.
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Decision Points
i started this in the can
found i was out of paper
maybe its out on tape
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Finnegan's Wake--don't seem to have the mental acuity for it anymore and Swann's Way by Proust....I simply can't stomach Proust...what a wimp. Supposedly if you can read Proust you are soooooo soooo sophisticated and intellectually coolcool. Guess I'll never make the grade there.
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nutjob
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 9, 2010 - 01:05pm PT
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I remember seeing a diagram a Proust sentence, with 950+ words in it. Pretty funny! Who has enough stack memory in their brain to be able to push and pop that?
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Proust is OK, but maybe start with Swann's Way, and if you can deal with that then you can dive into the other volumes.
I feel like I should read Finnegan's Wake since I was such an avid admirer of Joyce as a English major. It's really more of a word puzzle though than what one might traditionally consider a novel. Plus there's so much more immediate gratification in Portrait of the Artist...
Ars longa, vita brevis.
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Fletcher
Trad climber
from the place of breath
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Lots of good suggestions here to add to the acquired but unread pile!
Eric
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Fletcher
Trad climber
from the place of breath
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I am about 2/3 of the way through Greg Mortensen's second book, Stones into Schools. I've been read it for g-d knows how long, a page or two at a time at lunch usually. This is what can happen when you start having a bunch of kids! I started reading it as part of a ST book club round that never seemed to get off the ground. It's good and moving in parts. I think it helps to have read Three Cups of Tea first.
Cadillac Desert is a great book. For perspective, don't skip over Riesner's epilogue. It balances out some of the things he wrote earlier and shows how his perspective evolved. As a companion, check out my namesake Colin Fletcher's "River". Another story of a great journey.
Eric
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MisterE
Social climber
Bouncy Tiggerville
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Dec 19, 2010 - 10:41pm PT
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OK, getting through The Bounty Trilogy
Just got House Atreides, hoping it is going to be an excellent prequel. Loved the Dune stuff, but never read this one...
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Dec 19, 2010 - 10:49pm PT
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Craig mo. . .I hope it was a library copy, and you didn't
pay for it. . .
maybe I should get 'Steal This Book!'
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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Dec 19, 2010 - 10:58pm PT
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The Bible it's a little dry......
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Dec 19, 2010 - 11:44pm PT
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Probably More Than You Want To Know About Pacific Coast Fish-Milton Love UCSB
Winning Friends Through Intimidation-Milton Love
Mississippi Chain Gang Diet-Milton Love
The Day My Winnebago Broke Down in Winnamucca-Guido
Adell Davis You Are Feeding Me a Baloney Sandwich-Guido
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krahmes
Social climber
Stumptown
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Dec 20, 2010 - 12:18am PT
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Hegel, G.W.F., The Phenomenology of Mind: 200 pages in and I have no idea what he’s talking about. Only 600 pages to go.
Chalfant, W.A., The Story of Inyo: I should have finished this years ago.
Guterson, D., The Other: He’s a bit of a one trick pony.
Foucault, M., The Order of Things, An Archaeology of the Human Sciences: He’s a bit of French poser philosopher, No?
Dick, P.K., The Transmigration of Timothy Archer: Hey I forgot I had this in the queue.
Smith, A., The Wealth of Nations: Don’t hold your breath.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Picked this up in Bishop for a buck fiddy today.
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nutjob
Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 6, 2013 - 12:18am PT
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Great bump! I just spent a few minutes swimming in a sea of sweet possibility. Thanks!
I've read tons of books since the first posting, but haven't knocked any off this list yet. But I smile knowing they are waiting for me :)
My list has actually grown a lot from high quality library book sales. Will post up more titles another time.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane
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Fletcher
Trad climber
The great state of advaita
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Thanks for the bump, Nutjob! I enjoyed revisiting this thread.
I don't think I mentioned a book on your list that I've read a few times, The Iliad. The Odyssey too. Also read parts of both in the original Greek way back in the day.
"The rosy fingers of dawn...."
They are not technically books, but I have a shitload of Alpinists that I've not even cracked. Saving those for my dotage. The only exception is I did crack open the second Eiger issue to read Tami's Donini-esque work of art.
Sorry Tami, that was just too beautiful for the potty! Ha ha!
Eric
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MisterE
Social climber
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This one sat on the shelf for years before I could digest it in it's entirety:
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Green Mars & Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
I've read the first book Red Mars....The book is good but heavy on the psyche and very involved as far as sci-fi goes. It's one of those slow-moving stories rich in detail that you realize is really good only after you suffer and plod through the entire thing. After finishing the first book I was sort of mentally spent. I just couldn't muster up the right frame of mind to delve into the sequels so they have sat on the shelf for years. A couple of years ago I re-read Red Mars again to refresh my memory and make an attempt to finish the series... Again,I haven't cracked a sequel.
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