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Messages 1 - 596 of total 596 in this topic
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 1, 2011 - 08:41pm PT
The Name of the Wind Patrick Roth fuss
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 1, 2011 - 08:56pm PT
that reminds me, I just read R. Crumb's illustrated, Genesis.
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Aug 1, 2011 - 09:06pm PT
Just finished Killing Dragons by Fergus Fleming. On par with his Barrow's Boys. (It shares some common material too.) Now I gotta give James Ramsey's son, Bill, a call.

Some interesting choices there Donald.
I gave my mom's copy of A Distant Mirror to a young art student, but no way am I giving away my 19th century edition of Le Decameron even if my french still sux (yeah, I know, but it is a french translation my grandma owned).
Likewise I'm hanging onto my dad's first editions of The White Nile and The Fatal Impact as well as Emil Ludwig's The Nile.

Ten years ago I was reading (my paperback edition of) The Fatal Impact by the terrace of the Cliff Lodge when, to drop another name, Liz and Royal Robbins walked by. Liz was curious as to what I was reading and was surprised that it is not a book about climbing. lol



Woody's recommend of The Last Stand Of The Tin Can Sailors was so good that I just started Hornfischer's Ship of Ghosts.
tolman_paul

Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
Aug 1, 2011 - 09:11pm PT
Recently finished Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. My wife and I had been talking to a Nigerian and he'd mentioned the story, and I'd planned on getting a copy. My son had it assigned as his summer reading, so I picked it up and finished it pretty quickly.

I enjoyed the storytelling, insight into life in rural Africa, and the dual theme of how our actions and "modern life" encroaching on traditions can have quite negative effects.
BooDawg

Social climber
Butterfly Town
Aug 1, 2011 - 11:27pm PT
After having it recommended to me over a year ago, I've begun reading it and I'm really enjoying it. I think it's important to understand, on very deep levels, the feminine points of view. This book is like a guidebook, not a topo, to the feminine psyche.


Some reviews:

"Recommended for men who dare to run with women who run with the wolves."

-Sam Keen, author of "Fire in the Belly."

"Through myth, fairy tale, and an extended 'soul conversation,' Estes calls back into life the wild neglected places of the feminine psyche. This is an inspiring and complassionate book."
Vegasclimber

Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
Aug 1, 2011 - 11:41pm PT
Right now I am reading Jared Ogden's Big Wall book....for the third time. Still trying to grasp all the concepts and ideas, and then take them outside.

So far, so good. Hauling will be coming up soon though. Want to get better at frog jugging first.
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Aug 2, 2011 - 12:35am PT
Boo Dawg,
tell us how you feel at the end of the month.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Aug 2, 2011 - 12:39am PT
Somebody, please, kindly inform poor BooDawg that the sensitive metro types
are poorly suffered on ST; bad things have happened to their ropes.
Mtnmun

Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
Aug 2, 2011 - 12:51am PT
Exercise 6 days a week and reduce you chance of getting cancer, heart disease and alzheimer's by 70%.
StahlBro

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Aug 2, 2011 - 12:58am PT
Almanac of the Dead

Leslie Marmon Silko
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 2, 2011 - 01:04am PT
Riley, Gary and I climbed 'climb and punishment' last Thursday. You know that the tv character Columbo, is based on the detective in Crime and Punishment? At one point, as he's leaving he turns around and confronts Raskolnikov with, "you know, just one thing bothers me....."
Salamanizer

Trad climber
The land of Fruits & Nuts!
Aug 2, 2011 - 01:09am PT
Currently pouring through three books. All have some very interesting insights and aspects.





Keith Leaman

Trad climber
Seattle
Aug 2, 2011 - 11:01am PT
"The Ascent of Rum Doodle"
fiction-1956
W.E. Bowman

I'm re-reading this parody of mountaineering expeditions. Info is on Wikipedia. I especially enjoyed the antics of the expeditions cook-Pong. The Guardian includes it in it's list of "1000 novels everyone must read". It was part of our groups' early '60's indoctrination to climbing.
KL
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Aug 2, 2011 - 11:25am PT
Spirit of the Hills by Dan O'Brien. I don't know how it reached my bookcase
but I am pleasantly surprised. Best of all it involves Native Americans,
guns, a stoopid Forest Service district ranger, a classic Park Service LEO who
sees terrorists behind every tree at Mount Rushmore, and wolves!!!! Yes,
campers, this could be the go-to book for every tacohead! Interestingly it
takes place in the 70's so the 'terrorists' are the Native Americans trying to
take back the Black Hills.

I'm also reading Fur, Fortune, and Empire, by Eric Jay Dolin.
Did you know that BITD the Catholic Church permitted the eating of beavers'
tails on Fridays as the beaver lived underwater and

"such meat was viewed as "cold" and apparently unlikely to excite libidinous passions."

More interesting might be that the Indians saw the beaver's tail in the exact
opposite and it

"was usually reserved for the sachem or chief, and was, as a seventeenth-century
English observer of Indians in lower New England noted, "of such masculine
virtue, that if some of our Ladies knew the benefit thereof, they would desire
to have ships sent of purpose, to trade for the tail alone."

I've been thinking of starting a beaver appreciation thread but that could
get out of hand here.
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Aug 2, 2011 - 01:50pm PT
City at the End of Time - Greg Bear

Just finished, Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Aron Ralston

An interesting read, he was kind of an over enthusiastic neophyte when he first started mountaineering (as were a lot of us), but he certainly learned some skills that allowed him to make it through that terrifying situation (somewhat self induced).
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:01pm PT
BITD the Catholic Church permitted the eating of beavers'
and was
unlikely to excite libidinous passions."

Reilly, somebody isn't doing it right.
lol
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:01pm PT
Slightly OT but the Art of War jogged my thinking..

For the chronic reader who finds themselves with no book at odd times;

There are stacks of free books available online, generally of the, 'I should read that someday' category. I try to keep at least one book like that on my phone so that I always have something to read. Besides the Art of War and the Hagakure, I recently downloaded Uncle Tom's Cabin into it. Alice in Wonderland, and the Winnie the Pooh books are in there as well, for comfort reading...
tolman_paul

Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:10pm PT
We put our bookshelf and hence library in storage earlier this summer, and while the monster bookshelf is finally back in place, the shelves are still mostly empty.

Somehow the Huber Brothers book The Wall wasn't put in storage, and I re-read it the other day. It's a decent read, and a reminder to take my kids out climbing more often.
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:10pm PT
I'm reading The Sorrows of an American. It's the best book I've read for quite a while.
karodrinker

Trad climber
San Jose, CA
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:17pm PT
anyone read Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins? my new favorite book, has me eating beets and thinking immortality is possible.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:33pm PT
Ron,
I'm thinking the Pope knew and that's why he started wearing those hats
that look like beavers' tails. Am I onto sumpin'?
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:35pm PT
I'll give you a little white smoke on that one.
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:40pm PT
"Mormon America: The power and the promise"; Ostling

"fair and balanced" as faux-news likes to say. Some fair criticism and some restrained appreciation.

I'm a student of religion, so at least for me it is an interesting read. History, theology, authoritarian control, high standards of piety, explosive growth, all have a chapter.

Personally I still can't quite get my head around how/why so many people can accept such an "unusual" theology (we are all on our way to becoming Gods - or at least the men are). I guess the community warmth and family values kind of brings people in before they analyze whether the theology makes sense or not. The Church's world wide membership is approaching 14 million and going viral as they say. hmmm
David Knopp

Trad climber
CA
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:40pm PT
Tales of the Oprichniki-Vladimir Sorokin

best most f*#ked up novel about modern russia-allegorical, psychedelic, bawdy and nasty.
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Aug 2, 2011 - 02:57pm PT
Gotta love Tom Robbins, Sissy Hankshaw (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) would've brought a whole new technique to piton scar crack climbing.

k-man

Gym climber
SCruz
Aug 2, 2011 - 04:47pm PT
It's a never-ending book called Death of the Republicans Wrong Thread.
Tomcat

Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
Aug 2, 2011 - 06:11pm PT
Jaybro, heh, I know I'll suffer for this but...if you like that sort of thing once in a while, re-read the Piper at the Gates of Dawn from The Wind in the Willows.

Or perhaps you spoke in jest.
Captain...or Skully

climber
or some such
Aug 2, 2011 - 06:14pm PT
I'm from Arkansas. 'Nuff said?
Ricky D

Trad climber
Sierra Westside
Aug 2, 2011 - 06:15pm PT
Given that I spent last week with my young grandchild - I spent way too much with Dr. Seuss.

One fish, two fish - MEH.

Although I have reunited with the joy that is Green Eggs and Ham. Especially fun when being old enough to remember when Jesse Jackson read it live on SNL.
Ricky D

Trad climber
Sierra Westside
Aug 2, 2011 - 08:09pm PT
Pearl Harbor huh?

I recall this looney old WWII Vet from down the block (since deceased) who used to tell us that Pearl Harbor happened because all of those white bread Midwestern boys were so gaga over exotic Asian girls that you could fly a bomber right over them and they wouldn't notice.

Old geezer also swore that the Commies had done the same thing to us in Vietnam using those sweet little Asian honeys to take our eye off the ball.





Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 2, 2011 - 08:13pm PT
It may almost be time to get back to Toad hall, Tomcat...
Spider Savage

Mountain climber
SoCal
Aug 2, 2011 - 08:13pm PT
"One Fish, Two Fish..." -Seuss

That book was my foundation for a life of exploration of life. Great message: Do fun things.
Tomcat

Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
Aug 2, 2011 - 08:21pm PT
" Stoats and Weasels" Not an unreasonable name for a climb.
big ears

Trad climber
?
Aug 2, 2011 - 09:29pm PT
Good Omens

By Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

A rogue Angel, and a rogue Demon team up to prevent the apocalypse because they are both having a hell of a time slacking off on earth, and the final battle between good and evil just seems like too much work. The fun begins when the switch the anti-christ at birth.

This is my second time reading it. Absolutely hilarious.

Also,

Psycho Vertical by Andy Kirkpatrick. Very good climbing book.
'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
Aug 2, 2011 - 10:17pm PT
I enjoyed a glorious rest day here in Kentucky between caving trips.

I read the "whole entar" Downward Bound by Warren Harding, an irreverent and farcical look at his life and climbs, and the Yosemite scene back in the day.

It's great to see a guy who just did what he wanted, and didn't really care what the others thought. He did it his way, and good on him. Perhaps the first real Big Wall Camper and Big Wall Wine Aficionado.

When I grow up, I want to be just like him.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 2, 2011 - 11:42pm PT
I don't know riley, did you mention LOTR? It is said that Treebeard's voice is that of CS Lewis, ( he lectured down the hall from where Tolkien did a lot of writing) that one degree?D
The only dostoyevsky novel I had trouble getting through was the Posessed.. I don't find him, esp in C & P, depressing at all. Have you tried the Idiot? I liked that almost as much as C & P, I've read them each 4or 5 times.
Also try White nights, Notes from the Underground, or if you can find it, Krokodil. They're much shorter. I've been able to read them, and the Overcoat, in Russian. Incredibly nuanced in the native tongue...
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Aug 2, 2011 - 11:44pm PT
The Foundations of the Theory of Probability A. N. Kolmogorov
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Aug 3, 2011 - 03:59am PT
hey there, say, all....


my books... read MY book, :)


http://stores.lulu.com/neebeeshaabookwayreadjakeanddonate


THE JAKE SMITH RANCH SERIES--though that is just the title
of all nine books, lumped together...

the five short story collections are all based on the
first three novels, and in a sense, elaborate, or continue, or just express live situations, etc... with family, buddies, or the folks in their world...

then, there is the small conclusion novel, which can be read before or after the short stories (though it was written before them)...


have fun...
the are:


































different.... :)
about a REAL 'hidden' hero.... and his twin sis... :)

twinship, at its BEST... while going through its worst...
and comeing out with victory...
ex-rodeo folks, they be, from the tip of tex, lyford...
in a montana-ranch, now displayed...

:)
Gunkie

Trad climber
East Coast US
Aug 3, 2011 - 07:46am PT
Just finished F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise". Good book, particularly if you want to get an idea of where some later writers derived their writing styles. Can see exactly where Hemmingway got his cadence and prose from. Done reading, time to surf.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 3, 2011 - 09:42am PT
Um Riley, it was the aristocracy, not the proletariat, that the Bolsheviks ( who were larley made up of proletariat) had a problem with...
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Aug 3, 2011 - 10:56am PT
Just started - Ender in Exile - big fan of Orson Scott Card
Tony Bird

climber
Northridge, CA
Aug 3, 2011 - 12:35pm PT
hell by robert owen butler.

this book updates dante's inferno. just about anybody who was anybody has wound up in hell, including dante himself and his strangely platonic inspiration, beatrice. humphrey bogart is down there too, trying forever to find lauren bacall (instead he finds skinny, anorexic beatrice).

hell involves perpetual suffering, pain, and worst of all, frustration, but by the end of this little romp, it has grown on you, and like the protagonist, a damned television anchorman still devoted to the principles of journalism, you learn to love it.
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Aug 3, 2011 - 08:38pm PT
Bruce
I read the Krakauer book some years back. All I remember (as with most of Jon's stuff) is it seemed more aimed at making money for Jon through sensationalism rather than enlightening people. But the Mormon's do have their "difficult to explain to non-believers" stuff. One thing I got from "Mormon America" is that they are not all blind followers. The Mormons evidently actually do have educated theologians who try their best to articulate explanations of their beliefs, rather than just quoting verses from the book of Mormon from rote memory. But as some of their own leaders have expressed, they are a young church and will need time to perfect their theological apologetics. But in the meantime, there is an awful lot of unquestioned faith in their leaders statements. Too much for comfort for me, and this from someone in a very "authority-centric" tradition.

Re: Banner -IMHO its easy to take cheap shots at anything - particularly religion, harder to maintain realistic balance.
AndyG

climber
San Diego, CA
Aug 3, 2011 - 08:46pm PT
The Broom of the System - David Foster Wallace
Gunkie

Trad climber
East Coast US
Aug 3, 2011 - 10:31pm PT
Gunkie, I'm a Fitzgerald lover myself. Reading him on the East Coast must be a kick.

Yeah, very familiar ground in This Side of Paradise. We live about 40 minutes from Princeton and my older daughter attends summer softball camp at the Lawrenceville School. One issue with the book, when Amory Blaine and gang are bivying on the beach at Asbury Park NJ, Fitzgerald talks about Amory trying to stay up to watch the moon settle into the ocean. Well, being the east coast, the moon rises from the ocean. Oops.
Karen

Trad climber
So Cal urban sprawl Hell
Aug 4, 2011 - 02:07am PT
Just finished, The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Irvin Yalom's Staring at the Sun, Overcoming the Terror of Death. Yalom is an existentialist Psychologist and I enjoy his perspective on life and insight into the human condition.
Right now reading, The Wife by Meg Wolitzer~ into it and enjoying it.

This summer have read one book after another, quite a break from all the studying I had to do during the previous months. A treat now!
ruppell

climber
Aug 4, 2011 - 04:28am PT
How to Climb 5.12 (Eric J. Horst)

Performance ROCK CLIMBING (Dale Goddard and Udo Neumann)

Big Walls (John Long and John Middendorf)

Climbing Your Best: Training to Maximize Your Performance (Heather Reynolds Sagar)

A Falcon Guide: Conditioning for Climbers (Eric J. Horst)

Climbing Anchors (John Long and Bob Gaines)

CLIMBING SELF-RESCUE: Improvising Solutions for Serious Situations (Andy Tyson and Molly Loomis)

Basic Rockcraft (Royal Robbins)

And coming soon

How not to Knot the ends of your rope if rapping on a Gri-Gri(TM)

Just a sample of other stuff to read

As far I go anything written with half a brain who's not me.

Edited for spellng
ruppell

climber
Aug 4, 2011 - 05:42am PT
No replies must of forgotten this is not a climbers forum?

If that's the case

Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre (selected and introduced by WALTER KAUFMANN)

Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

And so on and so forth

Twain (any of his)

Vonoghut (most of his)
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 4, 2011 - 10:22am PT
The Proletariat has nothing to lose but his chains,"- Karl Marx.
-And Fattrad's cool hat to gain!

next book I want to read, "The Posessed"- not the Dostoyevskii novel by the same name, (aka 'The Demons') But a new whimsical/ scholarly book by a young woman who is a russian literary scholar and writs about traveling in russia seeking out various various russian literary roots...
bergbryce

Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Aug 4, 2011 - 10:34am PT
Salt (awesome)
Born to Run
Wings of Steel (no kidding, I snagged a copy)
The Foundation (Isamov, is taking months to finish)
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Aug 4, 2011 - 10:41am PT
Riley,
Here's the proof from Moscow's Revolution Square...

Tattooed 1

Trad climber
Sebastopol, Ca
Aug 4, 2011 - 10:47am PT
A graphic account of the rise and fall of the Comanche Nation. A very good read.
Tim
nature

climber
back in Tuscon Aridzona....
Aug 4, 2011 - 11:05am PT
Way of the Superior Man - David Deida.

It's one reason I'm certain I pass (or am I trying to fail?) the Man Test
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Aug 4, 2011 - 11:09am PT
bergbryce,
is that Salt by Kurlansky?
Interesting book, but Cod is better.
bergbryce

Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Aug 4, 2011 - 11:14am PT
Ron, yes Kurlanski.
I agree. I read Cod last winter and it was better.
I'm now looking for more food history books as both are pretty fascinating.
dlintz

Trad climber
Neebraskee
Aug 4, 2011 - 11:18am PT
A Feast for Crows. Awesome series!
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 4, 2011 - 02:40pm PT
D'oh! I was thinking that, The piper... was the name of one of the narnia books.

So anyway this is the book i wanna read, as soon as Chasbro is done with it;

Thought the covers might interest some.

And a Tibetan Buddhist for Riley;

with Georgisa O'keefe poster in background for general grooviness.
BBA

climber
OF
Aug 26, 2011 - 10:18pm PT
Just finished the Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence. I saw the movie ages ago, and was curious about the book when I ran across it at Powell's in Portland. The book is 10 times better than the film. What is most disturbing are the images of the Arabs, and how it looks like they haven't changed an iota since 1918 - still shooting in the air and acting like wild men. I think they will get a regime in Libya they deserve, and the farther we are away from them, the better.
nature

climber
back in Tuscon Aridzona....
Aug 26, 2011 - 10:34pm PT
Just finished She Comes First. great read :-)
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Aug 26, 2011 - 10:38pm PT
hey there say,

wow, we need someone to say that they finished reading one of my books, ;)
:)
nature

climber
back in Tuscon Aridzona....
Aug 26, 2011 - 10:46pm PT
LOL!

yes we do!
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Aug 26, 2011 - 11:05pm PT


"Probably More Than You Want to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast."
by Milton Love

Milton Love is a very funny guy. Professor at UC Santa Barbara and recognized as one of the foremost experts on fish of the Pacific Coast.

Informative and one of the funniest books I have ever read.
fsck

climber
Dec 29, 2011 - 11:14am PT
100 pgs into this

found my copy of this so it's next
Gary

climber
That Long Black Cloud Is Coming Down
Dec 29, 2011 - 11:28am PT
Just finished the Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence. I saw the movie ages ago, and was curious about the book when I ran across it at Powell's in Portland. The book is 10 times better than the film. What is most disturbing are the images of the Arabs, and how it looks like they haven't changed an iota since 1918 - still shooting in the air and acting like wild men. I think they will get a regime in Libya they deserve, and the farther we are away from them, the better.

And if you substitute "American" for "Turk" it's like reading today's newspaper.
Studly

Trad climber
WA
Dec 29, 2011 - 11:48am PT
Toys, by James Patterson. Best seller, got it in my Christmas stocking. Completely stupid worthless total crap. I guess if Patterson puts his name on it, everyone buys it, because its not because of content. How low have we sunk if this is on the best seller list?
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Dec 29, 2011 - 12:23pm PT
My last read climbing book was Bernadette McDonald's "Freedom climbers". The one before "Freedom climbers" was a spot-rereading of Lynn Hill's "Climbing Free".

I have recently read "Chasing the sun. The epic story of the star that gives us life." Richard Cohen.

I have read Cormac McCarty's "Blood Meridian" two times before and have been spot-rereading it lately.

All four books highly recommended.

The next book will possibly be Umberto Eco's "The Prague cementry".

I have never read "The Da Vinci Code".
bergbryce

Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Dec 29, 2011 - 12:32pm PT
I pick up a Faulkner every year or so to have my mind blown. Right now it's Go Down Moses.
Recently finished a biography of Bradford Washburn, it was good. Got a Kindle recently too, first book on it is Seven Years in Tibet. Yeah, I mostly read the old stuff.
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Dec 30, 2011 - 05:19pm PT
Charles Frazer's Night Woods. He is the guy who wrote Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons.

11/22/63 by King. Give it a chance. What have you got to lose?
enjoimx

Trad climber
Kirkwood, ca
Dec 30, 2011 - 05:23pm PT
Shantaram

It's pretty good so far, only just begun.
Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Dec 30, 2011 - 05:28pm PT
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
The Litigators by John Grisham
Westmorland: The General Who Lost Vietnam
11/22/63 by Stephen King
DS66

Mountain climber
Dislocated
Dec 30, 2011 - 06:01pm PT
Just picked up:
BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN, BY STEVE HOUSE

and

NORTH BY NORTHWESTERN about Sig Hansen's Family (deadliest catch)

How is the new King book about Kennedy? Anybody finish it yet?

Thanks
Dan
Gal

Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
Dec 30, 2011 - 06:20pm PT
"Blink"

and, "The Hunger Games"

Getting some good ideas from this thread and going to head to the used bookstore soon.

Good one Sully, fun with fiction indeed :-)

-and eKat I really like the cover design of the book you're reading!
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Dec 30, 2011 - 06:43pm PT
hey there say, all.... read my books.... read my books... read my books...

READ my books... read MY books... read my BOOKS...

YEP, no matter how i print it, i hope i catch a 'reader', :))



http://neebeeshaabookway.com/id31.html


http://neebee-dreamcatchers.tripod.com/id31.html



then, when i am a famous author, you can say:
"you knew me back when"


book ten, is in the works... :)
Double D

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 06:48pm PT
While not a climbing book, I just finished Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, an incredible non-fiction account of a Hurricane Katrina survivor. It's quite timely regarding our country's recent abandonment of our constitutional right to a trial.

Also in the middle of Born to Run, a hidden tribe of super athlete's... very interesting to anyone who's ever trained in the mountains.

Read On!
bergbryce

Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Dec 30, 2011 - 06:59pm PT
Born to Run
Fantasic read. Looks not only at the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico, but other facets of running including the cycles and types of injuries modern day runners experience, the history of Nike and the marketing behind selling running shoes and equipment (it's all BS). It's safe to say this book was quasi-responsible for the barefoot running trend of late. It's a fun read even for non-hardcore runners (like me). Recommended.
Zander

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 07:03pm PT
I received 1Q85 for Christmas but haven't started it. Looking forward to it.

I'm about halfway through Independence Day by Richard Ford. I'm enjoying it. A serious endeavor though.

I'm also halfway through the second book of a romp that starts with 1632 by Eric Flint. My bro from Seattle always sends me the start of a series for Christmas and this is it for '11. It's not great literature but it is a lot of fun. The premise is that a town of coal miners gets send back in time to Germany in 1632 into the middle of the Thirty Years War. Check it out.

Zander
dirtbag

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 09:11pm PT
Just finished "Angle of Repose" by Wallace Stegner and am now reading "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave."

dirtbag

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 09:14pm PT
Donald, I read the "Hidden Life of Dogs" several years ago.

It had its moments, but I found the notion that a few of her neighbor dogs were "married" a bit much.
Gene

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 09:23pm PT
I'm browsing Roper's 1964 Climbers Guide to Yosemite. Thanks Harrison.

g
dirtbag

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 09:42pm PT
Okay, I'll do that! I was also planning to read "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian"
dirtbag

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 10:07pm PT
Oh no, ANYTHING but THAT!!! ;-)
SCseagoat

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
Dec 30, 2011 - 10:15pm PT

Just finished "Angle of Repose" by Wallace Stegner

My all time favorite book. You'll also like Big Rock Candy Mountain by Stegner.

Animals lovers.... How many of you have read "The Art of Racing In The Rain".
Forget the Kleenex box...break out the jumbo roll of paper towels.

Just finished __"Sarah's Key". Another tear jerker.


Susan
fosburg

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 10:30pm PT
DS66, I read 11/22/63 last week, it's a piece of shiite. Writing valid historical fiction might be a pretty high calling.
Curious about that new Murakami someone mentioned upthread, that guy is a trip.
I'm reading Arthur & George by Julian Barnes right now.
DS66

Mountain climber
Dislocated
Dec 30, 2011 - 10:36pm PT
fosburg, thanks. As I expected, 3/4 of the way through THe Dome by King. Not like he used to be I don't think. Understandable after 75 books or so.
SCseagoat

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
Dec 30, 2011 - 10:38pm PT
@Sully....don't you just hate when you go on endless backward mapping? At least yours sounds fun. In grad school ( way before Internet) I used to get hung up on back tracking through citations and references on this endless backward chain....like it was a surprise. ... The writer had usually bastardized the original authors' intent. Like a game of telephone at a birthday party.

Looking forward to January...bunch of my favorite authors have new books coming out.

Susan
DS66

Mountain climber
Dislocated
Dec 30, 2011 - 10:59pm PT
Anyone read Legends of the Fall? Any good?
Gal

Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
Dec 30, 2011 - 11:14pm PT
I loved "art of racing in the rain"!!!!
laughingman

Mountain climber
Seattle WA
Dec 30, 2011 - 11:24pm PT
Wild swan by Jung Chang...

and

Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong

note: Cao Cao is super cool.
fosburg

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 11:33pm PT
Hey laughingman , ever read 9 Stories by J. D. Salinger?
Gene

climber
Dec 30, 2011 - 11:36pm PT
laughingman,

What do you think of Wild Swans? I had a difficult time accepting Jung's potrayal as even close to the truth.

g
Largo

Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
Dec 30, 2011 - 11:58pm PT
The Stephen Mitchell translation or Ranier Maria Rilke's Selected Poetry
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Dec 31, 2011 - 09:45am PT
"Tillich: A Guide for the Perplexed" O'Neil (about the thought of Paul Tillich, 20th century protestant theologian proposing Christianity without the myths)

and on my I-Pod for by bicycle workouts, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" - makes me sick of my race (or of the human race).

and
"The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the future of Religion" Sam Harris: he's one of the neo-atheists who are on a campaign to erase religion in all its forms from the face of the earth. Not what I expected but interesting all the same. Did you know that all evil is the result of religion? Its true, and Sam will tell you so, over and over again.
BBA

climber
OF
Dec 31, 2011 - 10:30am PT
Gary - You could be right about us being the Turks of today. I just finished The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, an interesting case history. It seems we have our own empire today run by old, crazy, ugly surrogates all over the place left over from the cold war to whom money is given which is used for military control. Maybe it's crumbling? It is a different model than the British had, but it appears to work for our moneyed classes. The sad conclusion (my deduction, it isn't mentioned in the book) is that Osama may have had a point in wanting to attack us because our troops are stationed in their lands. No one wants a foreign presence running their lives whether directly or through surrogates.
Wade Icey

Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
Dec 31, 2011 - 10:35am PT
1Q84
fosburg

climber
Dec 31, 2011 - 02:45pm PT
How are you liking Murakami's new one Wade?
buckie

Trad climber
Oregon
Dec 31, 2011 - 06:39pm PT
Freinds of the Abyss, by Scott Schmidt. Look it up, I won't ruin the ending but I think you can figure it out.
Wade Icey

Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
Dec 31, 2011 - 06:47pm PT
Kevin- it's Murakami supersized. read it 3/4's of the way through then put it down for awhile before finishing. There's some particularly brilliant structural stuff I won't spoil by discussing. If you want it email me or facebook an address and I'll send it. Happy New Year to you and yours.
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Dec 31, 2011 - 07:46pm PT
The Road by McCarthy. He just gave Oprah his first interview. He says he wrote it in a few weeks and that it was like taking dictation. It was dedicated to his eight year old boy and written as a love story for him.

I have not read it for a long time but I have read it twice. I am going to have to do it again now. It is that good.

http://www.oprah.com/oprahbookclub/Cormac-McCarthy-Comments-on-Passages-from-The-Road

Edit: looks like the interview was from 07
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
Feb 2, 2012 - 07:25pm PT
The Founders' Key, by Larry P. Arnn

http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Key-Connection-Declaration-Constitution/dp/1595554726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328228652&sr=8-1

Just started it. It's awesome.
SCseagoat

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
Feb 2, 2012 - 07:32pm PT
Elizabeth George, believing the Lie, I really like British mysteries. Although an American she writes wonderful Brit mysteries.


Susan
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Feb 2, 2012 - 07:34pm PT
At the end of "Just Kids". (Audiobook...per my usual. Read by Patti Smith.)

It's been completely fascinating.

Before that it was "A Sense of an Ending" which was the best I'd read or listened to in a long time.
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Feb 2, 2012 - 08:40pm PT
last month:
Comeback 2.0- Lance Armstrong (very short)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret- Brian Selznick (short)
The Big Year-Mark Obmascik
most of 100 Favorite North American Climbs- Fred Beckey
most of Yosemite Big Walls- Chris McNamara, Chris Van Leuven
The Ox Bow Incident-Walter Van Tilberg Clark

started Moby Dick- Herman Melville ( rereading it,I'm savoring it, a little at a time)
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Feb 2, 2012 - 10:19pm PT
hey there, say, all...

the jake smith ranch seriies, by...

me, ;))

neebeeshaabookway, :)
twinship, at its best, :)
...annnnnddddd so much more!
fosburg

climber
Feb 2, 2012 - 10:57pm PT
The Thin Red Line and The Pale King, both really good.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:00pm PT
Chi Running, Danny Dreyer
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:01pm PT
Vultures Picnic by Greg Palast
WBraun

climber
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:03pm PT
Everyone reads books for knowledge.

Why then is the world more fuked up then ever ......

Just WTF is the world reading ????????????
Leggs

Sport climber
Home Sweet Home, Tucson AZ
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:05pm PT
"The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:07pm PT
Everyone reads books for knowledge.

Why then is the world more fuked up then ever ......

Just WTF is the world reading ????????????


See my above post, old man....you just may agree.


stevep

Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:11pm PT
The Things They Carried. Haven't taught it in a few years. What other book covers the Vietnam War better? I want to read Tobias Wolf's book about his V. War experiences too since I heard him speak last month and his writing resembles T. O'Brien's.

The Things They Carried is great. Recently read Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, which comes pretty close.
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:18pm PT
Ameritopia, Mark Levin.

Succinct.

A few thousand years of political philosophy easily digested.

bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:26pm PT
Here is the begininning of The Fathers' Key...the opening is a quote from John Adams to his wife in a correspondance;

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeding generations as the great anniversirrary festival. It ought to be commemerated as the day of deliverance. By solemnn acts of God almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pom and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever more,,,,"

Awesome
blahblah

Gym climber
Boulder
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:44pm PT
Not reading anything super noteworthy but I'll put in a plug for Kindle--just got an e-ink one and am reading more than in years.
(Finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, now on The God Delusion).

IV

climber
tahoe
Feb 2, 2012 - 11:48pm PT
the cerro torre thread
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Feb 3, 2012 - 07:11pm PT
Some time in the 90's I picked up a copy in paperback for a re-read. I'd read the first English edition checked out from the library as a novice in 1970.


Not the same book.

There was some extensive PC editing in the later edition.

The bad part is that the later edition does not give the insight into the 30's political milieu that the first does.
Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member
Feb 3, 2012 - 07:50pm PT
Just finished Where Good Ideas Come From which is awesome

Here are my favorite books of 2011

White Spider is probably my favorite mountaineering book of all time. I need to re-read. Good tip.
Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member
Feb 3, 2012 - 08:15pm PT
Yeah, I have a special place in my heart for people that drop out from Princeton...
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
Feb 3, 2012 - 08:33pm PT
It astounds me the crap people waste their time with. I do realize you'd have the same opinions of my 'literary' choices.

I'm not really surprised, hanging out on a site filled with, largely, liberal people. But it really fascinates me that you guys dwell on some inane sh#t that you really feel is worthy.

Maybe it's just because you all are avid readers and have run out of quality stuff and have resorted to quasi-okay stuff. I don't read regularly because I'm pretty busy, so I choose my selections carefully. I even have some sh#t I bought but haven't gotten to.

I guess I like more of the classics and historical texts. I'm not trying to project superiority, just focus on the really good stuff.

Hemimngway and Steinbeck are really good IMO. Huxley, Heinlein, and Asimov too.

Maybe I should STFU and leave this thread to real literary conisseurs. I ain't one...hehe

EDIT: Oh! As a big fan of Michael Savage, I did read his first novel, "Abuse of Power". Excellent read if you're into Tom Clancy type stuff. Very good read. NY Times best-seller, whatever that means.
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Feb 3, 2012 - 10:56pm PT
I'm knott, cuz I'm on the taco stand. But when I'm off, I'm reading
Conquistadors of the Useless by Lionel Terray.
An AWESOME read!!!!
Vosser

Trad climber
reno, NV
Feb 3, 2012 - 10:59pm PT
Clifford the big red dog has my attention right now. its a classic.
Tobia

Social climber
GA
Feb 4, 2012 - 08:16am PT
There Was A River (Essays on the Southwest) Bruce Berger (Someone mentioned it on the forum but I don't see it on this thread) A good read!

The Worst Hard Time Timothy Egan

The HelpKathryn Stockett

Behind Sad Eyes Marc Shpiro

The Last Season Eric Blehm

The Rising Sun John Tolland

Hop On Pop Dr. Seuss
Park Rat

Social climber
CA, UT,CT,FL
Feb 4, 2012 - 09:14am PT

I have just finished Into the Silence, by Wade Davis.

The book is long and sometimes ponderous, however I found descriptions of the climbers and the time which they lived to be revealing. His treatment of George Mallory is not always sympathetic, but if it's true it explains much of the reasons behind the 1924 disaster.

You may want to skip some of the book,as they spend much of the time describing world war 1, the last chapters give a very detailed account of the 1924 expedition.

You come away from this book feeling that you know as much as anyone could about what may have caused the deaths of Irvine and Mallory.

The book concludes with the finding of George Mallory's body.

While it is a long sometimes slow book, I would recommend it to anyone who is a serious fan of Mount Everest climbing history.





Gal

Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
Feb 4, 2012 - 12:17pm PT
The dry grass of august.
Tomcat

Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
Feb 4, 2012 - 12:25pm PT
I love those Follett's Lolli. Reading Fall of Giants right now and loving it too. Do you ever read Henning Mankell, the Swedish author of the Kurt Wallander series? They are my favorite crime/mysteries, set in Ystad.
Brandon-

climber
The Granite State.
Feb 4, 2012 - 12:27pm PT
I have a confession, I just finished re-reading C.S Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series. I first read them as a child and loved them.

Now, as an adult I find them to be engaging stories. However, as the series progresses there seems to be an ever growing sense of Christianity, which never registered on me as a kid.

Lots'a god in those books.

As a recommendation I'll offer up Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. It's a history of water use in the western states.

Edit; I read Pillars of the Earth in my teens. That type of story is my favorite when compared to Folletts spy novels.
Tomcat

Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
Feb 4, 2012 - 12:47pm PT
I've read all the Wallander's Lolli, are there other Mankell's you'd recommend?
Bruce Morris

Social climber
Belmont, California
Feb 4, 2012 - 02:22pm PT
I'm just getting into:

Fatal Crossroad: The Untold Story of the Malmedy Massacre at the Battle of the Bulge

by Danny S. Parker
(Da Capo Press: Cambridge, MA, 2012)

Finally solves the long-standing mystery of the murder of nearly a 100 American POWs by the Waffen SS at a crossroads outside Malmedy in Belgium on the German border.

The rot begins at the top! Yes, indeed, there were secret orders instructing the SS to terrorize civilians and murder POWs during their advance into Belgium in December 1944. Of course, those orders have not survived, but there are German vets who saw them. So, despite the fact that no one was ever convicted of the massacre during a trial after the war in 1947, a war crime did take place that was condoned by the highest level of the Nazi regime. Parker even has maps showing where the individual tanks and SPWs were parked and who the drivers and occupants were. Extensive interviews with Waffen SS vets too. A real historical landmark.
Truthdweller

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Feb 4, 2012 - 05:03pm PT
The Bible, KJV
Gary

climber
That Long Black Cloud Is Coming Down
Feb 4, 2012 - 05:38pm PT
The Last stand of the Tin Can Sailors. Excellent stuff. The story of the pilot who emptied his .38 at the Yamato was too cool for words.
Leggs

Sport climber
Home Sweet Home, Tucson AZ
Feb 5, 2012 - 03:04pm PT
Leggs, Isn't R. Chandler amazing? Femme fatale, hardboiled detective, LA at night.
Sully, YES! I can't get enough... Chandler takes his readers right to the era in which he writes about.... Makes me want to meet my own P. Marlowe. ;)

Peace, Leggs
SCseagoat

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
Feb 5, 2012 - 03:20pm PT
"Sarah's Key". Very moving. I enjoy fiction that combine contemporary events with historical events.

Any recommendations gladly received.


Susan
Inner City

Trad climber
East Bay
Feb 5, 2012 - 03:33pm PT
"Passing Strange"...A biography of the multi-faceted climber, author and east coast enigma Clarence King
Niels

climber
Denmark, formerly Sacramento
Feb 7, 2012 - 04:17pm PT
I'm reading Thin Ice by Mark Bowen. The story centers on Lonnie Thompson, a scientist who takes ice core samples from high-altitude peaks in the tropics (e.g., Peru) to study the history of climate change. He was profiled in one of the climbing mags a while back. The author is a climber and physicist and does a great job of explaining the science. If you are interested in mountaineering, climate change, and science in general, it's a great read.
~kief~

Trad climber
nor-cal
Feb 7, 2012 - 04:28pm PT
tornado

climber
lawrence kansas
Feb 7, 2012 - 04:37pm PT
"Shadow Country" Peter Matthiessen
graniteclimber

Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
Feb 7, 2012 - 04:58pm PT
dougs510

Social climber
down south
Feb 7, 2012 - 06:55pm PT
We Were Soldiers once... And young
nutjob

Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
Feb 7, 2012 - 07:08pm PT
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (Weatherford)
The Red Pony (Steinbeck)
Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
Beginning PHP 5.3 (Doyle)

I like to juggle a few in parallel... one for the torlet, one for the bedside, one for the couch, one for when I'm not in the moods for the others.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Feb 7, 2012 - 07:19pm PT
I recently read Into the Silence. It's very detailed, but I don't know that it adds an awful lot to the historiograpy of Mallory, Irvine and Everest. Still, well worth a read.
cintune

climber
Midvale School for the Gifted
Feb 28, 2012 - 07:31pm PT
A Century of Sand Dredging in the Bristol Channel: Volume Two by Peter Gosson (Amberley). A book that documents the sand trade from its inception in 1912 to the present day, focusing on the Welsh coast.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/diagram-prize-shortlist-revealed.html
scuffy b

climber
heading slowly NNW
Feb 28, 2012 - 07:32pm PT
The God of Small Things
The Playful Brain
the Fet

climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
Feb 28, 2012 - 07:39pm PT
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
Yvon Chouinard (Author)

Good read.

I wonder if it's true that Patagonia basically created fleece sweaters and synthetic underwear?
Roughster

Sport climber
Vacaville, CA
Feb 28, 2012 - 08:20pm PT
A Dance with Dragons - George RR Martin. So far it is awesome! Note: It is the 5th book in a series.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 29, 2012 - 01:14am PT
Trying to put off finishing Whatever You Do, Don't Run by Peter Allison.
He was a snot-nosed 19 year old Aussie who went to Africa to pursue a career
as a safari guide. The guy has serious writing chops and the seemingly
innate Aussie penchant for yarn spinning, not that I doubt any of his.
Absolutely superb!
NigelSSI

Trad climber
B.C.
Feb 29, 2012 - 04:56am PT
Reading a collection of El Borak stories by Robert E Howard.
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Feb 29, 2012 - 09:05am PT

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

About Abraham Lincoln's cabinet of competitors. Excellent read!
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Feb 29, 2012 - 12:18pm PT
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

She's VERY Good.
Gal

Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
Feb 29, 2012 - 12:52pm PT
Finished Steve Jobs biography.
Now reading -148degrees.
Karen

Trad climber
So Cal urban sprawl Hell
Feb 29, 2012 - 12:56pm PT
Finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, enjoyed the read.

Just beginning Zorro, by Isabell Allende, not liking it so far will read about 100 pages and if I still dislike, will stop.

Anyone read, We Need To Talk About Kevin? Lionel Shriver is one amazing author.
Gary

climber
That Long Black Cloud Is Coming Down
Feb 29, 2012 - 01:36pm PT
Started East of Eden. So far, so good.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Mar 30, 2012 - 04:06am PT
Cutting for Stone. Abraham Verghese
Norwegian

Trad climber
Placerville, California
Mar 30, 2012 - 08:43am PT
David Copperfield, Dickens
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Mar 30, 2012 - 09:19am PT
My daughter and I are on a Roald Dahl kick. Started out with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, BFG, James and the Giant Peach and now Matilda.
phillip mike revis

climber
snowbird, ut
Mar 30, 2012 - 09:30am PT
in hand Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins
on deck The Killer Inside me by Jim Thompson
Gary

climber
"My god - it's full of stars!"
Mar 30, 2012 - 09:38am PT
The Octopus by Frank Norris. It's free for the Kindle.
Urizen

Ice climber
Berkeley, CA
Jun 24, 2012 - 07:59pm PT
Just finished Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. Pretty witty.

Now I'm into Robert Hughes's The Shock of the New. Same.

Seventh in line at the public library for The Passage of Power. Hope Caro lives to finish the final volume.

Sully, if you can find it see Laurence Olivier's film of The Three Sisters. (1970). Alan Bates, as usual, gives a performance to make you believe that no one gave a moment's thought to the character until he came along.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
merced, california
Jun 24, 2012 - 08:02pm PT
Gervasutti's Climbs dallo stesso paragon.

Forward by Lucien Devies (struck with a real case of admiration/inspiration).


NOTE TO Phillip Revis:

The book Cogan's Trade, also by Higgins and part of a trilogy with The Friends of Eddie Coyle, has been made into a movie called Killing Them Softly. It stars Brangelina (Part I) and will be out later this year.
See imdb.com.

The last climbing-oriented novel that I read was in March, Looking for Mo, by Daniel Duane.
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Jun 24, 2012 - 08:03pm PT
"Does God Exist", by Hans Kung (liberal, sometimes banned Catholic theologian). Long, detailed intellectual history of Christian thought. Haven't finished it yet but great so far - if you are into that sort of thing. Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Pascal.... they all got their place.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
merced, california
Jun 24, 2012 - 08:27pm PT
"Well isn't that special?"---Church Lady

rockermike's choice is by the author of the last online article I looked at. When I was seeking the word "prophet" I came across this about Muhammed, Allah's prophet. Kung is "rock" solid.
http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/archives/2005/hans-kung-on-is-muhammad-a-prophet/

edit: This is what I'm doing the rest of the evening. I am going through this whole thread and checking the Wik for the titles and seek out the reviews/synopses of each one I haven't read. Goal!!!
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Jun 24, 2012 - 09:12pm PT
Just finished "The Memory of Running". It had its weeknesses, but I'm a sucker for the regular guy on a big endurance journey. Think Forrest Gump during his running phase as the sane brother in "I Know This Much Is True."
Edge

Trad climber
New Durham, NH
Jun 24, 2012 - 09:36pm PT
Currently finishing up "Toltec Dreaming" by Ken Eagle Feather, a disciple of don Juan Matus of Castenada fame. It delves into dreaming body experiences and "dreaming while awake," among other things.

Two weeks ago, when I was half way through the book, I woke up one morning with a crystal clear vision about a new route to the left of one I had established last fall. That weekend I rapped over the face, and hidden by 3" diameter lichen were three pristine routes, each containing great movement and hidden holds. Although none are terribly hard, they filled in a previously unexplored 110' high section of cliff.

"A Toltec Dream" 5.7; "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" 5.9; and the last one fell today at NH 5.9+, "Sweat Lodge" named for the 85 degree temps and high humidity.
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Jun 24, 2012 - 10:54pm PT


Full Body Burden by Kristen Iverson.

About Rocky Flats, where nuclear triggers were made of plutonium
just outside of Arvada, and Denver, CO, polluting us all with
PU, having a half life of 24,000 years. . .
Mark Rodell

Trad climber
Bangkok
Jul 2, 2012 - 07:39pm PT
Too rushed to check all the above posts but I cracked The Dharma Bums yesterday. One of my students (Thai) asked about the Beats, said his Dad mentioned them, wanted to know if he could read a beat book for the novel component of a lit. class I teach. Sure, I said "I'll read it along with you, if you're Dad has Dharma Bums." The student thinks it odd that an American, Kerouac, would write about dharma. I said, "You'd be surprised what goes down on Turtle Island." My copy is a paperback from 1959, fifty cents from Signet.
Brandon-

climber
The Granite State.
Jul 2, 2012 - 07:46pm PT
American Gods by Neil Gaiman is an outstanding novel.

I've been on a novel kick lately. For years I was reading only nonfiction. I've rediscovered the fun of a good novel.

I just bought one of Kings Gunslinger books, but haven't started it yet.
rectorsquid

climber
Lake Tahoe
Jul 2, 2012 - 07:50pm PT
The last book I read was Hamlet. That was interesting and not at all like other things I've read in the past.

I might try reading another 'spear play one day when I get up the courage.

Dave
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Jul 2, 2012 - 08:07pm PT
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
Incredible novel about the persecution of the jewish people and the false idea that that the majority of the Germans were in on it together.
DanaB

climber
CT
Jul 2, 2012 - 09:47pm PT
I'm reading "The Best of Supertopo."
Try it.
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Jul 2, 2012 - 10:24pm PT

Making A Real Killing Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West

by Len Akland
S.Leeper

Social climber
somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'
Jul 2, 2012 - 11:06pm PT
Steven Ambrose D dAY
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jul 2, 2012 - 11:09pm PT
Anathem -Stephenson
&
Steve Jobs -Isaacson

switching between them as mood swings
zBrown

Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
Jul 2, 2012 - 11:09pm PT
The Great 1977 Airplane Crash meets the Yosemite-Modesto Pentangle


by Rick Schloss (pre-release version)
Shack

Big Wall climber
Reno NV
Jul 2, 2012 - 11:26pm PT

I read this a couple weeks ago....

It is by far the most amazing story of courage and survival that I have ever read. Absolutely mind blowing what Marcus Luttrell endured.

Here's the synopsis...
"On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive.

This is the story of fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing, and the desperate battle in the mountains that led, ultimately, to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. But it is also, more than anything, the story of his teammates, who fought ferociously beside him until he was the last one left-blasted unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing. Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe, who risked everything to protect him from the encircling Taliban killers.

A six-foot-five-inch Texan, Leading Petty Officer Luttrell takes us, blow-by-blow, through the brutal training of America's warrior elite and the relentless rites of passage required by the Navy SEALs. He transports us to a monstrous battle fought in the desolate peaks of Afghanistan, where the beleaguered American team plummeted headlong a thousand feet down a mountain as they fought back through flying shale and rocks. In this rich , moving chronicle of courage, honor, and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers one of the most powerful narratives ever written about modern warfare-and a tribute to his teammates, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country."
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jul 2, 2012 - 11:51pm PT
Wild Ducks Flying Backwards by Tom Robbins
S.Leeper

Social climber
somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'
Jul 3, 2012 - 01:06am PT
Shack, that sounds like a real page turner!
Shack

Big Wall climber
Reno NV
Jul 3, 2012 - 01:18am PT
S.Leeper...It is. I read it in 2 days. I could not put it down.

The synopsis doesn't even begin to do the full story justice. It was basically 4 Seals against about 150 Taliban.

Largo

Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
Jul 3, 2012 - 01:19am PT
Shack

Big Wall climber
Reno NV
Jul 3, 2012 - 01:40am PT
Here's just one small excerpt from "Lone Survivor"...


And he groped in his pocket for his mobile phone, the one we had dared not use because it would give away our position..and then Leutenant Murphy walked out into the open ground. He walked until he was more or less in the center, gunfire all around him, and he sat on a small rock and began punching in the numbers to HQ.
I could hear him talking. "My men are taking heavy fire...we're getting picked apart. My guys are dying out here...we need help."
And right then Mikey took a bullet straight in the back. I saw the blood spurt from his chest. He slumped forward, dropping his phone and his rifle. but then he braced himself, grabbed them both, sat upright again, and once more put the phone to his ear.
I heard him speak again. "Roger that, sir. Thank you" Then he stood up again and staggered out to our bad position, the one guarding out left, and Mikey just started fighting again, firing at the enemy.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
merced, california
Jul 3, 2012 - 01:49am PT
"The Long Walk" by S. Rawicz. Looks like my third read.

Just finished with "Gervasutti's Climbs."
Stephanie Bergner

Trad climber
Planet Send
Jul 3, 2012 - 01:53am PT
"The Lacuna," by Barbara Kingsolver in between hundreds of MBE multiple choice questions...
Jennie

Trad climber
Elk Creek, Idaho
Jul 3, 2012 - 11:28am PT
Uh-oh...good guy SteveW might be turning into an anti-nuke. I was loaned out to Rocky Flats in the last days of the decon and demolition a decade ago...not many structures left now. (above ground)

Interesting history, there...


Doing my annual reading of Look Homeward, Angel and struck with wonder at finding The Godfather quite absorbing. Oh, those murderous Irish ! :-)
Elcapinyoazz

Social climber
Joshua Tree
Jul 3, 2012 - 11:46am PT
Hedge Fund Market Wizards - Schwager
Hiroshige: Prints and Drawings - Forrer
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Fred Beckey's 100 Favorite North American Climbs


The stack waxes and wanes, but there is always a stack in progress.
Brandon-

climber
The Granite State.
Jul 3, 2012 - 04:04pm PT
Hey Toad, have you read Tortilla Curtian by Boyle? Another one worth delving into.
zBrown

Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
Jul 3, 2012 - 04:07pm PT
The Bounty Trilogy - this is a reread and it's gonna take a while.
bit'er ol' guy

climber
the past
Jul 3, 2012 - 04:10pm PT
I'm reading something old, high-brow

and in another language

that helps me feel superior.

Jennie

Trad climber
Elk Creek, Idaho
Jul 3, 2012 - 10:49pm PT
Hey Jennie, did you know Mister E's relative wrote Look Homeward A.? Pretty impressive, this ST bunch.



Yes, I remember Mister E posting of Thomas Wolfe being a kinsperson, Sully…and I agree 100% apropos our impressive ST bunch.

I’ve been a Thomas Wolfe aficionado since my teens, grasping every TW novel, anthology and biography I could lay my hands on. (…even reading history of the“Pennsyvania Dutch”.)

Look Homeward, Angel is his brightest gem. Wish I could write like that…

Raintree County by Ross Lockridge is in similar sub-genre and nearly as captivating. Although the war narration and foot racing chronicles become a mite tedious.


Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Jul 3, 2012 - 11:45pm PT
The stack waxes and wanes, but there is always a stack in progress.

Ain't that the truth. And they aren't pancakes, either.

Has anyone read the new translation of Kristin Lavransdatter? Sort of historical chick-lit, but well written. Won the Nobel Prize. The author was some sort of distant cousin.
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Jul 4, 2012 - 12:09am PT
The Chaperone
Zander

climber
Jul 4, 2012 - 10:25am PT
Independence Day by Richard Ford

Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind by Colin Renfrew

Pillar Mountain by Max Brand
Captain...or Skully

climber
Jul 30, 2012 - 09:29pm PT
A Kindle is NOT a book.
Eff Kindles. How much Coal burned while you were reading?
Huh?
Real Books are amazing. Unplug. At least some of the goddam time, eh?
It'll do you good.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jul 30, 2012 - 11:47pm PT
Yeah, but keep an un read book on your phone at all times!

Death at La Fenice - Donna Leon
-in a fancy paperback edition. from a used bookstore. That my mom read first....
rottingjohnny

Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
Jul 30, 2012 - 11:49pm PT
Rowells Vertical World of Yosemite....Good bed time stories...Beaver appreciation thread..2 thumbs up...
Captain...or Skully

climber
Jul 30, 2012 - 11:55pm PT
I gotta phone(at) home. If I put a book on it, it gets hard to find.
Old school.
Books n shelves n sh#t. It lasts. Hard to take on the Bart, though.

zBrown

Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
Jul 31, 2012 - 01:27am PT
Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull. Der Memoiren, erster Teil

Thomas Mann couldn't finish it, but I did.

ninjakait

Trad climber
a place where friction routes have velcro
Jul 31, 2012 - 03:01am PT
The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov. Quite possibly one of the finest works in science fiction.
ninjakait

Trad climber
a place where friction routes have velcro
Jul 31, 2012 - 03:44am PT
Thanks, will check out, he was an odd duck for sure.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jul 31, 2012 - 01:27pm PT
The foundation series is fascinating. Over the years I read the trilogy in order, then the additions as I came across them. Maybe a decade later I read them in order.then the the third party spinoffs and the various extra robot books. Once I tried to read them in order of publication.

Spoiler alert, procede (or don't) with caution if you haven't read Foundation's End.( I think that's the name of the last one....)
I found it fascinating how an avowed atheist made a universe that could be looked at with a religious perspective esp the later books with the Gaia stuff and referring to robots as eternals and even "angels."

Was this Asimov explaining how beliefs in religion might form to explain linear yet infinitely complex histories and events. I loved how he wrote in various peoe's ignorance ofthe past and how they made up traditions and myth to fill in the holes.

And through it all r Daneel has the most complete 'godlike' knowledge of the history and continuity of the human race while being aware that there are gaps in his own knowledge.
Gary

climber
"My god - it's full of stars!"
Jul 31, 2012 - 01:31pm PT
Donald Thompson, the best Italian restaurant in Huntington Beach was started by a fellow named Lino who was on the Andrea Doria. He made a great pizza.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jul 31, 2012 - 01:34pm PT
Off topic and old news to Sully I'm sure... I find it sort of morbidly fascinating that Asimov died of Aids acquired from a blood transfusion, in the days before they checked for that. I imagine he was blindsided. Though he was in his eighties, he was still profic. I gotta wonder what else he might have had to say about the foundation/empire/robot universe..
nutjob

Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
Jul 31, 2012 - 01:39pm PT
I was deep into fantasy and science fiction books in junior high and high school, then somehow drifted away from it. I would like to go back and re-read the Foundation series in order. I think I read 2 or 3 of them, never read any of the Robot ones. I never finished the later books in the Dune series either. I bet I would get more out of both series now than I did at the time. Or at least something different.


Right now I'm 48 pages into "The Enchantress of Florence," a work of fiction by Salman Rushdie. Interesting so far, more of a joy for the writing and side stories and descriptions and musings, rather than the main plot which has yet to be developed. I think the main plot will be about the collision of cultures between early-renaissance Europe and the Mughul empire at peak influence. The prose is a little dense, but not as challenging as Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose." I had to work to enjoy that book, this one is more relaxing but many notches above say Tom Clancy spy novels.

It is interesting for me because the names and places draw upon scattered bits of history I've accumulated through travels in Italy and India and other reading.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jul 31, 2012 - 03:04pm PT
I generally like Rushdie a lot though I haven't read that one.
Last year Marty(r) and I drove from the BA to Inian creek and had the Satanic Verses on mp-3 it had been at least fifteen years since I read it, but I 'm convinced that it's a deeper experience to hear aloud, than read! Like poetry. The language is exquisite! There was so much nuance and humor, much more than I remember from the first time...

I never got farther than the first Dune either. it really would be interesting g to see what's there now and whether it seemed different now...
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Aug 1, 2012 - 04:23pm PT
Editions Guerin

Les Fous Du Verdon
[Click to View YouTube Video]

Ma Vie ŕ la Verticale
[Click to View YouTube Video]

Le Petit Apiniste
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Aug 1, 2012 - 10:04pm PT
Just finished a re-read, Autobiography of Malcom X. Now reading Stephen Ambrose's book on Eisenhower.
Stevenson

Boulder climber
Los Angeles
Aug 1, 2012 - 11:19pm PT
Being and Time-Martin Heidegger
Stevenson

Boulder climber
Los Angeles
Aug 2, 2012 - 12:29am PT
Sartre, being a Frenchman, was a Cartesian philosopher (the tradition that Heidegger set out to critique). Remember Dasein doesn't translate to "I". Nausea will forever be a classic within the genre of existentialist literature, but even Heidegger thought Being and Nothingness was a terrible text.
Shack

Big Wall climber
Reno NV
Sep 10, 2012 - 02:10am PT
I just finished "No Easy Day" by Mark Owen (not his real name)

It's the story of Operation Neptune's Spear (the mission to kill Bin Laden).
It is the first person account of the planning, training and execution of the raid on Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan as told by one of the DEVGRU team leaders of the raid and the second guy into Bin Laden's room.
He was also on the helo that crashed.

It is a great read and clears up some of the questions and misinformation about the operation.
I highly recommend it.
Chief

climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
Sep 10, 2012 - 09:23pm PT
With the Old Breed, E.B. Sledge (for the fifth time)

Eugene (Sledgehammer) Sledge's spare and unflinching account of his shattering experience with The Marines K/3/5 on Peleliu and Okinawa.
Required reading.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Sep 10, 2012 - 09:41pm PT
What I want to read, but don't want to pay for

Can you request them from the public library, even if you have to wait for a bit?
nutjob

Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
Sep 10, 2012 - 09:52pm PT
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. Off to an interesting start :)
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Sep 10, 2012 - 10:01pm PT
Just polishing off Gervasutti's Climbs and it was so satisfying I forced myself to read a chapter at a time space widely apart. His writing is so damned good, and the stories are so historical. Shame about the ending, though.

Sledge's book: Top five unsung battles of the War, top one, even. Read it twice, recommended it many times. With the Old Breed is the real goods...
briham89

Big Wall climber
los gatos. ca
Sep 11, 2012 - 03:56pm PT
Got to meet a hero, and get his new book fresh off the presses :)
I almost read the thing in one sitting, but had to go to work instead! It's awesome so far.

Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Sep 11, 2012 - 04:38pm PT
Inside Scientology

It's pretty shocking.
briham89

Big Wall climber
los gatos. ca
Sep 11, 2012 - 07:32pm PT
Thanks Donald. It was very cool to say the least
jmes

climber
CA
Sep 11, 2012 - 09:07pm PT
Margaret Atwood - the Handmaid's Tale. Pretty relevant for the coming months.
domngo

climber
Canada
Sep 11, 2012 - 11:23pm PT
finished Paul Pritchard's Deep Play about 2 weeks ago, and just finished Totem Pole. Both Great reads and highly recommended.
Karen

Trad climber
So Cal urban sprawl Hell
Sep 11, 2012 - 11:50pm PT
HHhH Laurent Binet's novel goes inside the assassination of the SS general Reinhard Heydrich.

also finished, Into that Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder. a study of Franz Stangl, the commandant of Treblinka.

Treblinka, you think Auschwitz was bad, whew, Treblinka was pure horror!

pud

climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
Sep 11, 2012 - 11:54pm PT
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Sep 12, 2012 - 12:23am PT
I finally got a hold of a copy of "Let My People Go Surfing" I loved it.
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Sep 12, 2012 - 12:28am PT
I just powered through the Tyler Hamilton tell all,"The Secret Race." I got it on my b.day last Thurs. I could not put it down.
Then finished "The Book Thief." It was a long one but very good.

Just started a book today about Captain Cook, can't think of the title, it's out in the car. It's very good.


Hey zbrown, by the Bounty trilogy you mean "Mutiny on the Bounty," "Men Against the Sea," and "Pitcairns's Island?" 3 of my faves, mega, mega classics.
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Sep 12, 2012 - 12:58am PT
God, a Biography. Miles.
Fascinating. The author analyzes the 'God' of the Jewish scripture not theologically, nor historically, but as a character in a work of literature, highlighting the sometimes radical changes in his personality across the various books of the Old Testament.
Delhi Dog

climber
Good Question...
Sep 12, 2012 - 01:10am PT
Just finished this one. Was a real eye opener regarding the timber industry especially in NA and specifically British Columbia. I'd certainly recommend it.

cheers
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Sep 12, 2012 - 01:31am PT
Bri,

Repeat very, very cool.

He'll treasure this photo if you send him one to thank him for all of us here for writing the book, if you would. Just a suggestion.

Bri

Edit: Thanks to Shack for bumping this thread. Time alone with a book is a precious thing, sharing what you read with others is neighborly, and using what you've read to improve your life and those of your neighbors is the highest good. Look it up in the bible.
briham89

Big Wall climber
los gatos. ca
Sep 12, 2012 - 01:38am PT
^good idea mouse; I'll get on that. Just finished the book, and it was great. Lots of climbing in this one. I am not the fasted reader out there and I read the book in a day! I couldn't put it down.
zBrown

Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
Sep 12, 2012 - 01:41pm PT
Hey zbrown, by the Bounty trilogy you mean "Mutiny on the Bounty," "Men Against the Sea," and "Pitcairns's Island?" 3 of my faves, mega, mega classics.

Thats it. I first read them in elementary school, my first big read. Had to ask my father what "tenacious" meant. Seems like I acquired the trait somehow.

The British are frequently criticized by other nations for their dislike of change, and indeed we love England for those aspects of nature and life which change the least. Here in the West Country, where I was born, men are slow of speech, tenacious of opinion,

Kind of amazing that you can now read the entire trilogy on-line.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800401h.html
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Sep 20, 2012 - 11:16pm PT
zB, yes mega classics. I finished the Cook Book "Blue Latitudes." By Yony Horwitz, "Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before."

By the way, Captain Bligh of the Mutiny trilogy was an officer with Cook on his first voyage. Also, Bligh had 2 subsequent mutinys in later life after his issues with Mr. Christian and winning the trial.

Now I'm reading the story of Major John Wesley Powell's second voyage down the Colorado River by Frederick Dellenbaugh (("Canyon Voyage?") yes, it is in the car). It is most excellant. There are no mutinys involved. Powell was a great leader, he had a sense of humor and liked to sing.
splitter

Trad climber
Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
Sep 21, 2012 - 01:50am PT
I just picked up a couple books that are kinda old news, but I finally got around to them. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo & The Men Who Stare At Goats. So far, the TGWTDT is extremely boring. I cud give a sh#t about Swiss baking, etc.! I am around 50+ pages nto it and can remember little. I pick it up and struggle through a chapter and put it down and leave it their for a few days. Everyone I talk to says its great. Maybe I'm wierd. I have ben thinking about watching the movie first. The very beggining did pique my curriosity with the pressd and mounted flower every year. But that kind of disapeared into a fog of business coruption, etc.! Guess i will continue to slog on through it, but it was not what i was hoping for. I haven't started MWSAG yet. I prefer nonfiction/history/autobiographies, etc. or classic/american lit.! Maybe i will check what people have been reading here a little closer!
LuckyPink

climber
the last bivy
Sep 21, 2012 - 03:00am PT
maybe someone here knows of Jon Turk? climber and adventurer/scientist from Colorado. I am reading his "The Raven's Gift" about his travel in Siberia and his experience there with an elderly female shaman healer.

I also started Paul Coelho's "Aleph" also about a mystical healing while on the Trans Siberian Railroad. I had no idea I had picked up two books on the same theme describing the same area. Maybe this bodes well for my own next adventure as I've been lazily considering the Kamchatka Peninsula via Alaska as a next destination. crazy.

I am finishing "My Life as an Indian" which is great and found here upthread or on the other book thread recommended by someone here. True ish account of white guy who bridged the racial and cultural gap at the turn of the century.

yeah I read Girl with the dragon tattoo and it took quite a few pages until it became engaging as a who dunnit. I couldn't actually get into the characters although my brother read it and found the characterizations fascinating. There is a great revenge scene that is just delightful in a twisted sort of way.

I have enjoyed this thread immensely and found many recommendations that stimulated my reading. Thanks everyone.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Sep 21, 2012 - 03:06am PT
Italic Text
Vegasclimber

Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
Sep 21, 2012 - 03:33am PT
The complete version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's froody.
Mr Roy

climber
Seattle
Sep 21, 2012 - 04:06pm PT
"A Log from the Sea of Cortez" by John Steinbeck

And thanks Deli Dog, been looking for a book about that.
tornado

climber
lawrence kansas
Sep 21, 2012 - 04:37pm PT
Ronnie Wood's autobiography
Lot's of surprises. This guy has done it all and hung out with a truly odd array of famous folks.
fsck

climber
Sep 21, 2012 - 05:46pm PT
i thought Cell was hilarious. i just read it as a sort of a dark, extended rant against technology. The Stand it ain't but i got a few chuckles out of it.


anyone here read Cloud Atlas by david mitchell? i'm halfway thru it and interested to see how he ties all the stories together.
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
Sep 21, 2012 - 09:57pm PT
Autobiography of Christopher Carson AKA Kit Carson.
It is short and to the point and he is the king of the understatement. Amazing read.

Memoirs Of My Life by John Charles Fremont.
The first edition with all the maps, very cool piece of history, worth it for the maps alone.
FRUMY

Trad climber
SHERMAN OAKS,CA
Sep 30, 2012 - 11:04am PT
"SKELETONS NON THE ZAHARA"

By Dean King
dirt claud

Social climber
san diego,ca
Oct 15, 2012 - 11:57am PT
First Ascent by Stephen Venables. Great stories in this book.
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Oct 15, 2012 - 12:15pm PT
Just finished Telegraph by Michael Chabon. Lots of fun name checking of the places in my neighborhood. It had its ups and downs otherwise.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Oct 15, 2012 - 12:15pm PT
In one Person. John Irving
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Oct 15, 2012 - 12:40pm PT
Redemption Ark - Alastair Reynolds, for those of you that like hardcore sci-fi.
phylp

Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
Oct 15, 2012 - 09:11pm PT
Jay, how did you like the new Irving? i typically love his stuff but for whatever reason the stuff I've read about the themes in the book don't seem that appealing to me.

I'm reading the whole Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo. I'm on the third in the series, and enjoying it.
little Z

Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
Oct 15, 2012 - 09:36pm PT
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne.

Not too far into it yet, but looks like it will be good. Batrock, you should read this after you're done with the Kit Carson book. Sounds like it may be the same story from two different persepctives, at least in part. I always like doing that with history themes. Think I´ll try to find your book when I'm done with this one.
Bill Mc Kirgan

Trad climber
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Oct 15, 2012 - 09:38pm PT
'The Big Drop'

Surfing stories edited by John Long









gonzo chemist

climber
Fort Collins, CO
Oct 15, 2012 - 11:20pm PT
'Last Night in Twisted River' by John Irving. Just started this morning. Haven't read any Irving in a while....

Guangzhou

Trad climber
Asia, Indonesia, East Java
Oct 16, 2012 - 12:24am PT
Spoon River Anthology: Headstone Epitaphs: of a small town names Spoon River. (Almost poems) Sporadic reading.

best Travel Essays of 2000: Bed time reading. Short essays that I can read one at a time before I kill the lights.

Started Early, Took My Dog. Kate Atkinson. I live overseas, so what ever book I find in English or french, I pick up and read the first couple chapters. If I like it, I continue, if not, I move on. (To many books to read to bother with those I don't enjoy.

Just Reread Climbing History of North America.

Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Oct 18, 2012 - 11:17am PT
Hi, Sully. Some people are gaga for Chabon's style. It's a little self-indulgent to me, like one day he wakes up and he's writing in hard-boiled crime voice, and the next he's Kerouac.

The first thing of his that I read was The Mysteries of Pittsburgh just after college when I'd moved here from Pittsburgh. It was hard to tell if it was good or not because I loved reading about college kids in my college town too much to care. Telegraph Ave. is my hoody hood these days, so my enjoyment of the book was highly biased.

I don't think I got 50 pages into Kavalier and Clay though. I just couldn't make myself care enough about comics, golems, or the characters he was presenting to keep engaging. Similarly, in Telegraph Ave. the author shows off for pages and pages with jazz, comics, and movie trivia that would kill me if it wasn't in another context that interested me. I didn't think I could go for a whole novel centered around baseball either, so I haven't tried the Art of Fielding.
hossjulia

Social climber
Eastside (of the Tetons)
Oct 18, 2012 - 12:24pm PT
I picked up 2 classics at the thrift store for a buck each; Ulysses by James Joyce and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

Thumbed through Ulysses and found it almost unreadable. Did I really see a sentence that was 10 pages long? I'll tackle it sometime this winter though.

Robinson Crusoe, while a little difficult to read since it was written in 1720, is an awesome book! The way the character explores his own character, and changes his patterns of thinking to be consciously happy with his lot seems to be the point of the book, intermingled with exciting adventure and immature observations of natural history. Wonderful!



Last year on this thread Woman Who Runs With Wolves was recommended by BooDawg. I had a copy for 5 years and could never get off the ground with it. I have a really hard time understanding what an 'archetype' is, or why I should try to compare myself to one. I found it a very obtuse book that did not make me feel good about being a woman. And I know I'm a wild one. Modern society is very hard for me and my instincts can be killer lethal, especially to myself!
Thoughts? I tried very hard to get through this book and understand it. It is the ONLY book thus far in my life I have failed at.
Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Oct 18, 2012 - 10:36pm PT
The Fifties by D. Halbersham (as suggested by Guido), Rats by Richard Sullivan. Prior to those two books Eisenhower by Stephen Ambrose.

Rats is an interesting read, about one man's study of rats in some alleys in NYC. Interesting history of warriors in the battle of man vs rat, rat migration throughout the world, the plague and other interesting history.

I came here to look for something to read next. Kit Carson, maybe.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Oct 18, 2012 - 10:54pm PT
Batrock, how's that Fremont do in the end? Pretty well, one-time presidential hopeful and all. There's hope for Mitt, after all.

And I liked the personality of Kit Carson, short and to the point.

I just got nailed for library fines today, but I got even.

Got a copy of Dog Walks Man/John Zeaman and one of Madonna anno domini/verse by Joshua Clover, which is the name of my old bitch German Shorthair, the wanderer. Bought them at the Friends of the Library used book store for one buck each, HC. Delighted!

"Lastly, who was I to broadcast all these regrets about wildness lost? I certainly wasn't wild. Not only was I ill-suited to survive in the wilderness. I wasn't even wild in the social sense. Not since we moved out of the loft in the city. Like Pete, I had heeded the call of the mild."--ch. 10, "Call of the Wild"/Dog Walks Man.
telemon01

Trad climber
Montana
Oct 21, 2012 - 08:20pm PT

Just finished "Revelations" by Jerry Moffatt. Chapter 4- American Dreamer was great.

I thought it was super cool that he credited Mark Hudon as his inspiration for the first onsight lead of The Phoenix.

Great stories of the Gunks, Eldorado Canyon, Yosemite, Joshua Tree back in the eighties.
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Oct 24, 2012 - 10:33am PT
Thanks for the tip!

Current listen = Mountains Beyond Mountains
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Oct 24, 2012 - 11:57am PT
Just Ride - Grant Petersen
It's about bike riding from an "unracer" perspective. I'd like to write a climbing book along the same lines...

Speaking of living authors, sully, I just finished the new John Irving book, "In one Person" I think you'd find it interesting.

I'll try to Catch Fresh air today.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Oct 24, 2012 - 09:45pm PT
I'd go see Wolfe in a second if I had the chance! Missed the interview though, distracted by a storm over Arches

Edit just listened to it on the web. Well there's another book'i'll have to read.
Fascinating interview. Interestingly enough I was thinking about the concept of "the cop stare" today, having encountered it at a coffee shop this morning.
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Oct 24, 2012 - 11:55pm PT
So how was the interview?

I thought In One Person was trashy in the bad way, but not as bad as the tattoo book. I used to love JI, but the last two will definitely slow my pace to pick up his next offering.
johnkelley

climber
Anchorage Alaska
Oct 25, 2012 - 12:07am PT
Check out A Single Wave by Web Chiles. Crazy stuff!
robfritz

Trad climber
Pollock Pines, CA
Oct 25, 2012 - 03:12am PT
Currently reading:
The Rock Warriors Way-Arno Ilgner
A pretty good read so far but it's a lot of info and hard to get into.

The Bible- God's inspired word
Easily the best book on the market today, although a little long
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Oct 25, 2012 - 11:16am PT
Trashy? Really? I don't see that. Maybe too much effort to be topical or something. Def more fourth hand than Hotel New Hampshire. I havn't read the tatoo book, couldn't get through son of the circus, though.

The interview was good. Wolfe always more natural and self- deprecating than I expect, pro ably based on the way he dresses and presents himself, which he poked fun at in the interview.
MH2

climber
Oct 25, 2012 - 07:24pm PT
several

Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin, Nicholas Ostler

An Introduction to Morse Theory, Yukio Matsumoto

A Place So Foreign and 8 More, Cory Doctorow

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Eric Newby

Spy Hook, Len Deighton



jogill

climber
Colorado
Oct 25, 2012 - 07:57pm PT
They Kill Puppies Don't They? by Christopher Buckley. There is a priceless takeoff of Ann Coulter (who I adore!)

;>)
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Oct 25, 2012 - 08:15pm PT
Jaybro: Irving's fascination with eroticizing molestation just killed both for me. I felt kind of scuzzy for even finishing Until I Find You.

The new Wolfe book has been downloaded to my phone, and hopefully will thrill me for a week of commutes and a fine weekend in the Park. :-)
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Oct 25, 2012 - 09:03pm PT
I see what you mean,though I didn't read it that way. I had to think a bit to place the part you mean.
I get your point, glad you clarified.

Though it brings up other questions....
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Oct 26, 2012 - 03:53pm PT
Good title, With a Finger in My I.

I read Club Dumas and that got me hooked on Perez-Reverte. The Seville Communion's considered his best. They're almost all good. This is the second time around on Fencing Master.

And neebee has sent me a copy of her book Steppingstones Through Jake's Ranch Vol IV.

Thanks, neebee, I'll get rolling on it after Oakdale. :O)
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Nov 6, 2012 - 12:57am PT
Just finished Darwin's Ghosts. And would reccomend it. Kind of a Stephen key Gould type of thing, and a cautionary tale about reading those you aknowledge!

On to "Chi marathons"
Wayno

Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
Nov 6, 2012 - 02:07am PT
Joe Fitschen's "Going Up". And diggin' it.
Ken M

Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
Nov 6, 2012 - 02:09am PT
Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw
Fascinating.

Just finished his Blink, which should not be missed.
Wayno

Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
Nov 6, 2012 - 02:17am PT
"Blink" was cool.
the kid

Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
Nov 6, 2012 - 09:23am PT
Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young..
super super super.. good.
T2

climber
Cardiff by the sea
Nov 6, 2012 - 09:28am PT
Just finished "No Easy Day"

The first hand account of the mission that smoked Bin Ladin

paul roehl

Boulder climber
california
Nov 6, 2012 - 12:42pm PT
"Glittering Images" by Camille Paglia... grating but interesting look at art. Highly recommended for the introduction alone. Find it difficult to accept the idea that George Lucas is the greatest living artist though!
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Nov 6, 2012 - 01:22pm PT
Mountains Beyond Mountains wasn't high lit, but it sure did make me feel lazy and like I should be doing more to make the world a better place. I'm very glad that I listened.

I'm not to the new Tom Wolfe book now. It's great fun. Basically, it's the Bonfire of the Vanities set in Miami in 2012, but I don't mind.
little Z

Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
Nov 8, 2012 - 11:24am PT
Issac's Storm, by Erik Larson. About the 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston TX and killed over 6k people - still the deadliest storm in US history. Apropos, although I picked it up at a book swap last month before Sandy was in the news.

Finished the Empire of the Summer Moon and liked it a lot. Started looking up places mentioned in the book on Google to see photos and saw there is a climbing area in SW Oklahoma in the Wichita Mnts near Ft. Sill where Quanah and his Comanches settled on the reservation. Also the Palo Duro canyon looks cool.

In between these books I had a quick read of Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. I had bought if for my son to read. It was only the 2nd time I'd read it. That was because I have such good memories of the first time. That was back in High School in the early 70s when I went on a weekend trip up to Old Rag in the Virginia Blue Ridge with the idea of climbing. It never stopped raining. So my partner and I wound up bivied in some cave and just read the whole time while downing pop tarts and hot chocolate.

Ever climber must have some book that brings back memories of long bivies in bad weather, or of some great climb in their lives. What's yours?
mrtropy

Trad climber
Nor Cal
Nov 8, 2012 - 11:37am PT
"To Lhasa in Disguise" by William McGovern

Fun read about an early travler.
HuecoRat

Trad climber
NJ
Nov 8, 2012 - 12:12pm PT
Just re-read Traverse of the Gods by Bob Langley. It is the best mountain fiction book I've ever read.

Now reading Indian Fights and Fighters by Cyrus Brady. It's a history of the plains indian wars written in 1904. Pretty interesting.
KabalaArch

Trad climber
Starlite, California
Nov 8, 2012 - 01:00pm PT
To speak to little Z, Jon Krakauer's Eiger Dreams is a light hearted anthology of climbing yarns which is so broad in its scope of climbing areas that I'm sure it would resonate with most S Topians...although for some reasons the current edition is lacking the “Is Yosemite Going to the Dogs?” chapter.

And, to take a tip from his “On Being Tentbound,” Marcel Proust does offer more ounce of weight to hour of entertainment, Swann's Way, from his A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time) is probably the most accessible – although one may chose to bring along all 5 volumes if contemplating a visit to Patagonia or the Alaska Range. Of course, one does not read Proust; one re-reads Proust.

Right know I'm re-reading Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, which feels so appropriate to our current economic state. “Who is John Galt?” Our heroine eventually finds out, when she is forced to make an emergency landing in her private airplane through the mists of a remote and uncharted valley high in the Rockies. There, she meets all of the various and very prominent industrialists; scientists; inventors; financiers; philosophers and thinkers, who have mysteriously disappeared, one by one, from our country and its corrupt efforts at nationalization across all sectors to delay its economic depressions descent into complete financial collapse. And it is here, in this valley (which is rendered undetectable by the artificial mist which is sort of like a 1-way mirror) that our country's best minds have reestablished themselves in a small and self contained utopia, its internal economy based on the gold standard.

This kind of idealism I find very appealing in this day and age. It also strikes very close to home, as it closely parallels what we were to find here in the very small world of the Owens Valley, with its diverse populace which ranges from ranchers and packers; Pulitzer Prize authors; Cal Tech astrophysicists; artists; Olympic medalist athletes; Everest summiteers...and a thriving community of some damn good rockclimbers to match the world-class terrain.

And, as if by a strange coincidence, when we finally decided to make the Owens our new home, we were flown in by private plane. After dropping through a veil of clouds, spanning from the crest of the Sierra to the top of the Whites, the Valley floor was laid out before us, like some delicately tinted cartographer's artwork.
MH2

climber
Nov 8, 2012 - 03:43pm PT
All 5 volumes? I thought Proust lost more time than that.

Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Nov 11, 2012 - 06:35am PT
Neptune's Inferno by James D. Hornfischer, recommended up thread by Piton Ron; I recently read Last of The Tin Can Soldiers by the same author.

Neptune's Inferno won't let you go; from the opening pages. I don't relish the thought of having been a sailor in the Battle of Guadalcanal. I finished it 2 days prior to the 70th Anniversary of the U.S. Navy's first successful night action against the Japanese fleet trying to resupply the troops on Guadalcanal (Nov 12-13th 1942). A masterful account of the sacrifices made by the young sailors and older officers of the U.S. Navy.

Two of the most remarkable tales told are the strange ways in which the U.S. Navy would substitute inexperienced commanders of night and/or surface battles for those who had recently gained hard won experience in this brutal type of warfare right before expected clashes with the superior Japanese.

The other is the story of Eugene Tarrant, a steward, aboard the U.S.S. Atlanta. Treated with disdain due to his race, in normal times, he performs many acts of heroism that saved plenty of lives during or after the battle; only to return to status of a second class citizen later. Makes you scratch your head.

Just started Flying Through Midnight by J. Halliday as recommended on the taco by someone.

For all the discussion of OT threads on the taco, this thread and the What Song thread provide peaceful proof that some OT threads bring out the best sides of tacoians as compared to some other threads that do the opposite.
phylp

Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
Nov 11, 2012 - 12:37pm PT
I just started "Lionel Asbo", the new one from Martin Amis. We'll see how it goes. I'm a bit ambivalent about Martin. There can be a little too much seamy underbelly of life stuff in his books for my delicate sensibilities.

Edit: Stopped reading it. He's a good writer but it's just not for me.
Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Nov 13, 2012 - 08:23pm PT
Just finished Flying Through Midnight by John Halliday, recommended by Reilly on another thread.

Once I got into it; I couldn't put it down. More than a history lesson.
Took me away from my minuscule self for a day or so.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Nov 20, 2012 - 03:16am PT
So He's not a She in this one--meh! Not a problem.
nutjob

Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
Nov 20, 2012 - 03:57am PT
Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"


Sparse. Lean. Profound.

A few curves on canvas can paint a rich picture. If the artist is good. So it is with words. Clarity of thought, of vision, to evoke a reaction. And nothing more. Life, grief, longing, loss, love. All are on the table. Nothing is lost for want of words.
Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Nov 20, 2012 - 02:31pm PT
Issac's Storm, by Erik Larson is a good read. I have that one on my shelf also. PM me if you want it, I'll send it out.
phylp

Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
Nov 20, 2012 - 08:46pm PT
Road trip listening: Henning Mankell's "The Troubled Man" with the great character of police detective Kurt Wallender. To J Tree and back from the Bay area, 18 hours of driving, we got through 10 cds - 4 more to go!!
tom Carter

Social climber
Nov 21, 2012 - 12:46am PT
Bernd Heinrich "Life Everlasting" (not religious).

If you have not picked up something by him - do.
Borut

climber
french, spider, cheater
Dec 1, 2012 - 04:22am PT
more of http://www.stevehouse.net/SteveHouse.net/My_Book.html
Borut

climber
french, spider, cheater
Dec 1, 2012 - 05:18am PT
check the "Speaking" Tab
Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Dec 3, 2012 - 06:17pm PT
Good read; whether you have any interest in the Klamath or not.
Chief

climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
Dec 4, 2012 - 02:11am PT
Dispatches by Michael Herr, for the 7th or 8th time.
First published in 68 and considered at the time one of the finest pieces on the Vietnam experience.
It's evident that Coppola and Stone lifted entire scenes intact out of this book for Apocalypse Now and Platoon.
Herr's writing style seems to break all the rules and capture the sociopolitical paradigm of an era.
This work belongs with other Vietnam war must reads such as:
Vietnam (Stanley Karnow)
A Bright and Shining Lie (Neil Sheehan)
Chickenhawk (Rober Mason)
About Face (Dave Hackworth)
We Were Soldiers Once and Young (Moore and Galloway)
Dingus McGee

Social climber
Laramie
Dec 4, 2012 - 08:53am PT
Just received an amazon copy of Flight Behavior the latest Kingsolver novel.
tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
Dec 4, 2012 - 11:17am PT
THE CAT FROM HUY
John Lawrence. non fiction.
nutjob

Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
Feb 6, 2013 - 12:24am PT
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/521

Collected Short Stories of Saki: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71189.The_Collected_Short_Stories_of_Saki




These are both excellent. I'm most amazed that Robinson Crusoe is so readable from the year 1719. You don't have to be a "classics" major to enjoy it.
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Feb 6, 2013 - 12:48am PT
Just finished "The New Jim Crow" or why there are 2.3 million mostly black men in prison in the USA. Important book.

Now I'm back on "Theology for the Third Millenium" by Hans Kung. Progressive (some might say heretical I suppose) catholic and highly interllectual theology. Loving it. For me it hits the sweet spot where the intellect and faith converge.
paul roehl

Boulder climber
california
Mar 22, 2013 - 06:00pm PT
Julian by Gore Vidal. Early Christianity and its politics. Fascinating
Fletcher

Trad climber
The great state of advaita
Mar 22, 2013 - 07:36pm PT
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Just finished watching Showtimes's The Tudors and found this book via a Twitter connection. Very good so far. The court of Henry the VIII via the eyes of Thomas Cromwell.

Henry was one heck of a horndog!

Eric
mooser

Trad climber
seattle
Mar 22, 2013 - 08:15pm PT
Just finished "Old Man's War," by John Scalzi. Great stuff! Not much of a sci-fi guy, but my son is, and he insisted I read it. Dang it...now I have to continue with the series.

The top of the back cover reads something like: "John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday: he visited his wife's grave, and he joined the army."
SCseagoat

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
Mar 22, 2013 - 08:17pm PT
A fascinating book about Henrietta Lacks whose cells were the foundation of cell cultivation in clinical research for all types of diseases. They were harvested unbeknownst to her and her family. There are all types of connections to segregation and medical services in the early 50s. Really astounding book!


Susan
Fletcher

Trad climber
The great state of advaita
Mar 22, 2013 - 11:51pm PT
Hi Susan,

There is a well done (as usual) RadioLab podcast on Henrietta Lacks:

http://www.radiolab.org/2010/may/17/

Eric
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Mar 22, 2013 - 11:52pm PT
Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher. Highly worthy.

(book that inspired Robert Redford's character Jeremiah Johnson)
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Apr 12, 2013 - 07:40pm PT
The summit was a corniced crest of ice, and the precipices on the far side which plunged vertically down beneath us, were terrifying, unfathomable. There could be few mountains in the world like this. Clouds floated halfway down, concealing the gentle, fertile valley of Pakhara, 23,000 feet below. Above us there was nothing!

My wife gave me a first edition Annapurna by Maurice Herzog for Christmas. I had never read it before.

You also should check out Benediction by Hent Haruf. It is his new novel that takes place in his fictional, eastern Colorado town of Holt that his previous work was set in. Its a story of a character known simply as "Dad" who finds out he will die of cancer. Incredible dialog with fantastic character development

Gal

Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
Apr 24, 2013 - 08:46pm PT
Interesting you brought up David Sedaris, as I just read "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and I LOVED IT!

Also, check this out, on NPR today (a very good listen):

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/24/178656338/lets-explore-david-sedaris-on-his-public-private-life
Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Apr 24, 2013 - 09:30pm PT
last couple of books:

Coldest Winter by David Halberstam

Carnage and Culture by Victor Davis Hanson.

and now reading The Best and The Brightest by Halberstam.

(Halberstam could describe a mothball for seventy-five pages and I believe I would find it interesting.)
nutjob

Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
Apr 24, 2013 - 09:51pm PT
"The Red and The Black" -- Stendhal

"A Brief History of Time" -- Stephen Hawking
Captain...or Skully

climber
Apr 25, 2013 - 12:09am PT
The Pleasure Of My Company~Steve Martin
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Apr 25, 2013 - 12:14am PT
The Compleat Conductor by Gunther Schuller. He says everybody is doing it wrong, but him. Not sure I'll finish this one.

Lolita sure was a hoot, though.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Apr 25, 2013 - 01:48am PT
Art & Otherness Thomas McEvilley
Delhi Dog

climber
Good Question...
Apr 25, 2013 - 01:54am PT
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist- by Stephen Batchelor

Really enjoying it.
hossjulia

climber
May 11, 2013 - 03:55pm PT
"In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson about Australia.

This guy is funny and wrote this travel book from a slightly different slant.

Fun read.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
May 11, 2013 - 04:21pm PT

Shooting the Boh by Tracy Johnston

cf. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/911876.Shooting_the_Boh

tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
May 11, 2013 - 04:25pm PT
Death of the Liberal Class
Chris Hedges
FRUMY

Trad climber
SHERMAN OAKS,CA
May 11, 2013 - 04:42pm PT
THE JOURNEY OF CRAZY HORSE

A Lakota history
Srbphoto

climber
Kennewick wa
May 11, 2013 - 04:52pm PT
Streets of Laredo - Larry McMurtry
Leggs

Sport climber
Is this a trick question?
May 11, 2013 - 05:12pm PT
Just finished "The Little Sister" by Raymond Chandler (I'm nutty about Raymond Chandler)

Just started "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan ... LOVE IT, and I'm only on page 10!

And... I just picked up a copy of "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" by David Sedaris, which sits on my bedside table, ready for pages to be dog-eared.


~peace
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
May 11, 2013 - 07:44pm PT
Night Driving
&
The autistic Mind by Temple Grandin, I read her bio and saw the movie, but this was one is more of a journey into her mind as a scientist, with fascinating, unique insights from her unusual mind and and related insights.

Have to read the owl book, I liked Naked & Me talk pretty, a lot.

Good luck with infinite jest, Walleye! So far, the jest has been own me!!

Read Strong Motion, recently.. Is it just me or to Frantzen's other novels not work as well as the adjustments?
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
May 11, 2013 - 07:51pm PT
I have ADHD so it ain't just one.

Jededia Smith - the OG hardman
Wild Bill Donovan - the guy who started the OSS/CIA
Kaufman's Advanced Birding - hey, I'm a birdbrain, what can I say?
Birder's Guide to Michigan - like I'm gonna go there unprepared?
All This and Robins too - bird guide to Wisconsin. Like I'm just going to Michigan?
Collapse;How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail - probably too late for us.
Carolyn C

Trad climber
the long, long trailer
May 11, 2013 - 09:01pm PT
Infinite Jest - tried twice but I'm not ready for it yet.

Reading A Good Day to Die by Jim Harrison - love his writing.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
May 11, 2013 - 10:46pm PT
The shirt is genius! I stole the image and am sending it, as I speak, to my brother would did actually finish that one.
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
May 11, 2013 - 11:30pm PT
Just finished Everest: The West Ridge by Thomas Hornbein, which I loved. Now halfway through Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.....kinda slow so far. lynnie
Gal

Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
May 22, 2013 - 04:06pm PT
haha, I read " a heartbreaking work of staggering genius"... at first I thought it was the best thing ever, then i just thought it wasn't... but he wrote "what is the what" and that was THE WHAT.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
May 28, 2013 - 05:46pm PT
The Adventurist by Robert Young Pelton

cf. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/103916.The_Adventurist



I love that shirt e-Kat! : )
Norwegian

Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
Jun 10, 2013 - 07:23pm PT
lost horizon, james hilton.
hunter4884

Trad climber
Jun 10, 2013 - 09:26pm PT
HOBBIT


For the ninth time. haha;)


(im a tolkein geek)
10b4me

Social climber
Jun 10, 2013 - 09:29pm PT
A Most Wanted Man
 John Le Carre'
covelocos

Trad climber
Nor Cal
Jun 10, 2013 - 09:29pm PT
'Out there in the woods' Written by Stephen Sparks and the Mendocino Co. Sheriff, Tom Allman. Tells the 2011 tale of the epic 36 day manhunt for Aaron Bassler, accused of the shooting murder of Forester Matt Coleman and former mayor and then city councilman Jere Melo. A good read.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Jun 11, 2013 - 12:26am PT
American Prometheus Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

d-know

Trad climber
electric lady land
Jun 11, 2013 - 12:33am PT
The first third.

Neal Cassady.
ThomasKeefer

Trad climber
San Diego
Jun 11, 2013 - 12:35am PT
"Getting Stoned with Savages"
Mark Sensenbach

climber
CA
Jun 11, 2013 - 12:35am PT
"in cold blood' by Truman Capote
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Jun 11, 2013 - 12:39am PT
Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics
Ross Douthat

The guy is evidently in a supporter of the neo-orthodox point of view and as such blind to the weaknesses of his home team, but otherwise well worth a read if you want to think about the direction of religion in the United States.
Chief

climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
Jun 11, 2013 - 12:53am PT
Most of the way through, Into the Silence; "The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest"
Wade Davis, Vintage Canada

The opening chapters on the carnage and horrors of WW1's trench warfare set a disturbing backdrop for the British exploration of Mt. Everest.
A compelling read so far.
Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Jun 11, 2013 - 10:29am PT
Recent completions:
The Coldest Winter & The Best And The Brightest by David Halberstam


Now reading:
Creek Paths and Federal Roads by Angela Pulley Hudson
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Jun 11, 2013 - 10:49am PT
Navigator - Stephen Baxter, the 3rd book in the Time Tapestry series.
McCfly

climber
Jun 11, 2013 - 11:06am PT
Full Catastrophe Living: Jon Kabot-Zinn,

Untethered Soul: Michael Singer
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jun 11, 2013 - 02:08pm PT
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. Excellent so far.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jun 20, 2013 - 10:44am PT
Steph Davis's Learning to Fly. I just reviewed it here.

Impressive book. Very brave woman.

Now I'm into Beyond the 100th Meridian, by Wallace Stegner.
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Jun 20, 2013 - 11:03am PT
Three Gymnopedie by Erik Satie. Reading notes is hard.
mrtropy

Trad climber
Nor Cal
Jun 20, 2013 - 11:52am PT
The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks
Kalimon

Social climber
Ridgway, CO
Jun 20, 2013 - 11:56am PT
"Roughing It" by Mark Twain . . . a delightful look at Westward expansion in the American frontier.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jun 20, 2013 - 02:21pm PT

Into Africa: The Epic Adventures Of Stanley And Livingstone by Martin Dugard


cf. http://books.google.com/books/about/Into_Africa.html?id=X5xM29LaRZQC



Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jun 20, 2013 - 03:07pm PT
The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks

I really enjoyed The Wasp Factory.

If you like Banks, you might try Espedair Street, which isn't quite so bleak, and of course, his SciFi as Iain M. Banks is absolutely phenomenal. I recommend everything from "The Culture."
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jun 20, 2013 - 03:23pm PT
Trond Berg Eriksen: Sřren Kierkegaard Den Fromme Spotteren (The Humble Mocker).
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Jun 20, 2013 - 03:39pm PT
CRO-MAGNON; How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans
hooth

Boulder climber
Sconnie
Jun 20, 2013 - 05:38pm PT
had enough time to steal away from my Hollywood desk job at lunch to crank off a LONG ON ADVENTURE short story. always inspiring.

Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 1, 2013 - 10:08am PT
Knocked out a good pulpy sci-fi last week: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan.

Phillip K. Dick meets Raymond Chandler.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jul 1, 2013 - 10:19am PT
Now I'm into Beyond the 100th Meridian, by Wallace Stegner.


great book!
Gene

climber
Jul 1, 2013 - 10:30am PT
The War Below by James M. Scott.

Great book about the Silversides, Drum, and Tang in WWII. I'm biased since Dad provided much of the source material for the Silversides' part of the book.

A picture from the book of the Old Man as a Young Man sailing into harm's way.

g
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 1, 2013 - 10:56am PT
Now I'm into Beyond the 100th Meridian, by Wallace Stegner.


great book!

I'm enjoying it, Roxy. J.W. Powell was a serious bad-ass, and it's a fascinating portrait of the West in the late 1860s, `70s, and 1880s.

I've also just posted my review of Frozen in Time, another World War II rescue story from Lost in Shangri-La author Mitchell Zuckoff.


Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jul 1, 2013 - 01:32pm PT
Another nice review Greg.

I started reading Davis' 'Learning to Fly', it arrived in the mail this weekend. Nice to come home to a new book.

Powell was a badass indeed.
McCfly

climber
Jul 1, 2013 - 01:56pm PT
The Four Foundations Of Mindfulness

By: Bhante Gunaratana
nutjob

Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
Jul 1, 2013 - 02:05pm PT
This caught my eye in a library sale. Exploring it a few pages at a time:


I started to say "savouring" it a few pages at a time, but that doesn't quite fit. Savour implies a sort of basic pleasure, and I can't say this book is always pleasurable. Insightful. Compelling. But not always pleasurable. It just feels real and honest, and gives me access to a set of experiences that divine grace spared me from directly acquiring.

There is an especially poignant and insightful story about his experience before shipping off to Viet Nam, a crisis of conscience while standing at a fork in the road of life. He sums up:
"I was a coward. I went to the war."
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 2, 2013 - 11:29am PT
Nutjub, that's one of the great modern American books.

I'm going to out myself as the outrageous tool & dork that I am, but last night I just finished my 400th book since I began writing Enduring Patagonia in January of 2000. I know this because I've been keeping a list. Forgive me, but here's the damn list.

I wish it were longer. ;-)

[And thanks, Roxy. Hope you enjoy Learning to Fly!]
stevep

Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
Jul 2, 2013 - 01:21pm PT
Nutjub, that's one of the great modern American books.

I'm going to out myself as the outrageous tool & dork that I am, but last night I just finished my 400th book since I began writing Enduring Patagonia in January of 2000. I know this because I've been keeping a list. Forgive me, but here's the damn list.

I wish it were longer. ;-)

Welcome to dorkland Greg. I keep the same sort of list of books I've read (as did my Dad before me). And I think my list since 2000 is longer than yours, so I'm an even bigger nerd. Though we have a fair amount of duplicates.

On the Vietnam front, the one book I've found comparable to Things They Carried is Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes.
And agree with you on Altered Carbon. If you like that, try to track down the Carlucci books by Richard Paul Russo.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 2, 2013 - 01:31pm PT
Welcome to dorkland Greg. I keep the same sort of list of books I've read (as did my Dad before me). And I think my list since 2000 is longer than yours, so I'm an even bigger nerd. Though we have a fair amount of duplicates.

Writing those two cost me SO MANY books... maybe I'd compete better if I hadn't sumped so much reading time into them. :-)

In Sci-Fi, I can't recommend Iain M. Banks strongly enough. His Culture novels. Start with Consider Phlebas and move on from there. His ship names alone make the books worth reading.
stevep

Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
Jul 2, 2013 - 01:42pm PT
Several of Banks books were already on my Amazon wish list. Maybe I'll have to bump them a little higher.
And China's Wings is sitting on my book shelf in the To Be Read stack, so it will count for me, where it counted against you :-)
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Jul 2, 2013 - 01:44pm PT
The problem with keeping a real list is you miss the opportunity to reread a book you already read because you see it on your list.

How many times have you begun a book and realized you had already read it? Numerous times for me and the funny part is how new it is the second time around. Amazing what we retain and what we forget.

Then again, what is really weird is to buy back one of your own books at an used bookstore!
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 2, 2013 - 02:15pm PT
True story: A friend of mine recently bought a used copy of Enduring Patagonia from Amazon, and tucked inside the book was a very risque note from girlfriend to boyfriend describing in exquisite and superb detail what she was going to do to him when he got back from the long expedition on which he was about to embark. Apparently the book was a gift to help him while away stormy days.

No names were included, but it suddenly occurs to me that the author or recipient of that note could be among us here on Supertopo...

If you're the author and you've ditched the guy, PM me... :-)

Addendum: if she were a better friend, she'd have bought the eBook.

Hope you enjoy China's Wings, Stevep. God knows I need readers.
nutjob

Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
Jul 2, 2013 - 03:59pm PT
GC, I thought stuff like that only happened in male-written porn fantasies.

Sully, yeah that Marianne Bell story stuck with me. I can't say I was horrified by it, or totally creeped out, but it definitely left a disquieting feeling, and I was pondering it for a while afterward. How many people have morality dictated by fear and lack of opportunity vs. some inner notion of what they really think is right?
little Z

Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
Jul 2, 2013 - 06:04pm PT
Guido,

in memory of the 150th anniversary, just plucked "Lincoln at Gettysburg" off the shelf, a book I inherited from my Dad. It'll be a reread. Last read was maybe 10 years ago.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 3, 2013 - 12:13am PT
I'm sorry, Nutjob...
LuckyPink

climber
the last bivy
Jul 3, 2013 - 12:59am PT
a friend recommended to me "House of Rain" by Greg Childs and I'm damn glad he did , I can't put it down. A narrative on the Anasazi of the southwest, he describes the current research and investigation of the vanished neolithic civilization. Fascinating, to say the least, in a ooncrete "go there, see for yourself" kind of way.

http://www.houseofrain.com/bookdetail.cfm?id=1183863026528

Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 3, 2013 - 12:25pm PT
At my son's insistence, I read Max Brooks' World War Z yesterday evening and last night.

A guilty pleasure, but a good one.

Ryan has been running around the house singing the following:

"It's a zooombieee apocalypse...
it's a zooombieee apocalypse...
it's a zooombieee apocalypse....
it's World War Z!!!!"

There are associated hand movements, but they're indescribable. And indescribably hilarious. He's 12.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Jul 4, 2013 - 10:45pm PT
I've been reading Thomas McEvilley's Art & Discontent; Theory at the Milleninium and found this interesting bit in one of the essays:

"In antiquity, people did not read silently to themselves, but aloud to one another. Cicero had a reader who followed him around all day with the book in hand; at any idle moment--in the street, in the bath, at table--he would recommence the reading. Those who were not, like Cicero, professional readers and writers, read aloud to one another or to themselves. Literature did not yet seem separate from the voice, from the body, from the living breath (spirit); it did not yet seem a silent world of abstraction into which one might wander away from the world of sense and relationship. The first person on record as having read silently to himself is Augustine of Hippo's teacher Saint Ambrose. Here is Augustine's description of it: 'When he read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart explored the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still... Often, when we came to see him, we found him reading like this in silence... We would sit there quietly, for no one have the heart to disturb him when he was so engrossed... After a time we went away..." So Ambrose sat silent with his book, lacking apparent speech or locomotion..." [Saint Augustine, Confessions]

Interesting thought that "Books on Tape" is a regression to the past...
DesertRatExpeditions

Trad climber
Flagstaff, Arizona
Jul 4, 2013 - 11:25pm PT
Doctor on Everest...
weezy

climber
Jul 5, 2013 - 12:42am PT
cat's cradle
couchmaster

climber
pdx
Jul 5, 2013 - 09:43am PT
Mila 18. Great read by Leon Uris. The near ending of which, looked like this.

mcreel

climber
Barcelona
Jul 5, 2013 - 02:08pm PT
I just finished 'Instructions for a Heatwave' by Maggie O'Farrell. I came upon it by chance, and it's great. I haven't enjoyed a novel so much for a while, now. So I kept on going, and started another one by her 'After You'd Gone' which seems to be really good, too.
Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member
Jul 5, 2013 - 02:13pm PT
Just "read" Dune on Audiobook. Highly recommended as the get some top notch voice actors.
LuckyPink

climber
the last bivy
Jul 5, 2013 - 02:25pm PT
McEvilly also wrote a comparative of early Greek and Indian philosophies containing a discussion of post modernism in the context of these ancient cultural influences.
MisterE

Social climber
Jul 5, 2013 - 03:36pm PT
Mostly through "Reave the Just and other Tales" by Stephen R. Donaldson - really good stories!
FRUMY

Trad climber
SHERMAN OAKS,CA
Jul 5, 2013 - 07:36pm PT
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 9, 2013 - 12:09pm PT
Frummy, I also enjoyed Toll's Pacific Crucible, although I didn't think it was as original as Six Frigates.

I also just fished out some worthwhile but more obscure books to recommend from the list of 400 I posted last week.
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Jul 9, 2013 - 02:52pm PT
"War"
Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm etc)
The book that goes along with the film Restrepo. (I haven't seen the film)
He gives a straightforward, no terror or gore spared, description of a top level Airborne team in the very nasty Korangal Valley, Kunar province in Afghanistan over several visits in their 18 month tour.
A lot of good insights into modern infantry warfare. All the high tech weaponry and intelligence available doesn't spare the grunts from facing the enemy at close range, once at VERY close range. Portraits of the men involved, you almost get to know these guys and for some, what they've been through before they signed up.
Truth can be more disturbing than fiction.
Brandon-

climber
The Granite State.
Jul 18, 2013 - 12:53pm PT
Why hasn't anyone made a movie of TC Boyles Water Music?

I'm re-re-rereading it, and this time around it occurred to me that this book would make a great movie. Funny, adventurous, it's a great book.

I've read almost all of Boyles books, but this one seems to lend itself to a screenplay. I'm sure I'd be disappointed with the results, as books are always more vibrant, but it would be cool nonetheless.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jul 19, 2013 - 03:29pm PT
Jean-Claude Izzo - A Sun For The Dying


La Republica (Italy): "Jean-Claude Izzo knew how to recount stories of intense love found and lost, of the sea and the sun and their smell - above all the blue Mediterranean of Marseille - of the lives of forsaken tramps who wander the streets begging "please, can you spare me a little light""

The New Yorker: "What makes Izzo's work haunting is his extraordinary ability to convey the tastes and smells of Marseille, and the way memory and obligation dog every step Rico takes"
nutjob

Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
Jul 19, 2013 - 03:34pm PT
I just stuck "The Good, The Great, The Awesome" (by mister Croft) in my bathroom. I've noticed that my climbing dreams have shriveled a bit with other life preoccupations. Time to rekindle the climbing stoke and plan for a future epic!
Captain...or Skully

climber
Jul 19, 2013 - 04:49pm PT
Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls.
I recommend it highly. I got it on the clearance table at the Library for 50 cents.
Srbphoto

climber
Kennewick wa
Jul 20, 2013 - 09:19pm PT
Just finished Running with the Kenyans. Interesting read about some of the reasons they dominate distance running.
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Jul 21, 2013 - 12:34am PT
I've got 4 going at once right now, most ever.

High Latitudes- Farley Mowat

Australia's Kakadu Man Bill Neidjie- Big Bill Neidjie, Stephen Davis, Allan Fox

Warriors, Rising Storm- Erin Hunter

Field Guide to Advanced Birding- Ken Kaufman



I trade off by mood.
ninjakait

Trad climber
a place where friction routes have velcro
Jul 21, 2013 - 06:41pm PT

"Monsters of the Apocalypse" by Jordan Rawlins


and "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins
David Knopp

Trad climber
CA
Jul 22, 2013 - 10:32am PT
"I dreamed I was a Very Clean Tramp"
by Richard Hell (0f Television, heartbreakers, Voidoids fame)
best book on becoming an artist, a punk artist, communicating those feelings of making art and seeing it finally be realized.
And then the inevitable down turn with junk.
If you've read Patti Smith's Memoir, "just kids" this overlaps a bunch-but is much more nuanced and honest.
TheTye

Trad climber
Sacramento CA
Jul 27, 2013 - 02:17am PT
I'm 3/4 of the way through Going Clear, the in-depth look at Scientology... LRH and the Corp of Scientology are insane and have done some of the craziest sh#t in modern history... great book
bergbryce

Mountain climber
California
Jul 27, 2013 - 03:15am PT
First book I've read that wasn't school related in over a year.... Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun. I first read this in seventh grade because I saw the Metallica video for the song One. I was like what is that weird movie in the video? It was from the film adaptation of the book.

Great anti-war novel and also has a sprinkling of early 20th century Americana. Hard to believe it was written in 1938.
Mark Rodell

Trad climber
Bangkok
Jul 27, 2013 - 04:15am PT
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The War on Drugs figures.
Michelle Alexander.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Jul 27, 2013 - 10:28am PT
Thanks David I read just kids this spring and will def be picking up the Richard Hell book, I always liked his unique spoken / sung sensibilities
Guangzhou

Trad climber
Asia, Indonesia, East Java
Jul 30, 2013 - 03:11am PT
I am ashamed to say, I had not read "Travels With Charley." Well, I just finished it. Excellent and fun read.



Kenygl

Trad climber
Salt Lake City
Jul 31, 2013 - 11:31am PT
Bad Monkey-awesome
Paul Martzen

Trad climber
Fresno
Jul 31, 2013 - 12:06pm PT
Just finished, "Defying Hitler" by Sebastian Haffner. It is a personal memoir of growing up in Germany from a little before World War 1 till about 1934. He describes experiences like the excitement of getting daily war updates and how wonderful it was that the Germans were steadily winning the war. The strange mental and emotional confusion and social collapse when the war was not won. There was a period when inflation was so high that only quick thinking teenagers and children could respond fast enough and irresponsibly enough to make any profit. Children were rich, while parents were paupers.

When the Nazis gain power, he is continually amazed at how brazen and cruel they are and how no one stands up to them. He speculates on aspects of German character that might explain this.

The book describes aspects of that time that I was completely unaware of, so I found it fascinating. It is well written and very easy reading. The book was unfinished, so unfortunately does not describe his last 4 years in Germany from 1934 to 1938. An afterward by the authors son tries to fill this in a little bit.

A common activity of the Nazis was to march around with flags and music. They loved dramatic and patriotic marching music. As the flags passed, all people on the street had to salute, "Heil Hitler" with arms outstretched. If some unfortunate did not salute, the marchers beat them up. The author, not wanting to salute, would always flee and hide when he heard the marching music approach. Anyone who did not want to get beat up had to hide. Near the end of the book, he wants to take his law exams, but the Nazis announce that all law exam candidates must report for "Ideological Training". The main training consists of marching around in Nazi uniforms, singing songs and beating up anybody who does not salute as they pass.

Delhi Dog

climber
Good Question...
Jul 31, 2013 - 12:23pm PT
Just finished Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe
which was really good. Quite amazing story actually.

And I'm a good chunk into 1491 which I hadn't read yet. I'd highly recommend both of these books.

cheers
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Jul 31, 2013 - 12:46pm PT
The History, Herodotus

450 BC +/_

So far a lot more entertaining read than Thucydides.
Elcapinyoazz

Social climber
Joshua Tree
Jul 31, 2013 - 01:24pm PT
PIKHAL - Phenethylamines I have known and loved, by Alexander Shulgin

The experiences of a world-renowned chemist-explorer (and his soon to be, and then wife)as he synthesizes and experiements with various mind-altering compounds (typically experiementing on himself first, then among a group of his psychedelic explorer friends).

Based on the actual experiences of Mr. & Mrs. Shulgin, but written in a slightly fictionalized format (to protect some of the players I'd guess). A fascinating blend of chemistry/science and exploring the psychedlic frontier.

Not the best flowing prose in this one, but entertaining nonetheless, and nicely broken into chapters by compound, so it reads almost like a collection of short stories.
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Jul 31, 2013 - 02:00pm PT

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jul 31, 2013 - 02:06pm PT
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko


Nice plug on NPR here http://www.npr.org/2013/05/12/183315460/chasing-a-dream-speeding-down-the-emerald-mile

Second chapter in and so far so GNAR!!!!


mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Jul 31, 2013 - 02:36pm PT
The Ghosts of Glen Canyon by C. Gregory Crampton. The human history of the land under Lake Powell.

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick. 204-pg. revenge novel about the 1900 Nome gold rush, spanning the years to 1910, when the action takes place--a lot of flashbacks. Pistols mainly have one intended use: killing people.

The California Deserts by Edmund C. Jaeger. Stanford Press, 1938. A reprint from 1948, it is as old as I. The idea of earth's plated structure is begging to be revealed to this writer, who seems never to have heard of it. It still has much to learn ya in other respects.

Yep, I try to keep three or four books going at a time. Not so much now I spend more time in Taco City.
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Jul 31, 2013 - 02:56pm PT
Just finished Way of the Pilgrim by Gordon R. Dickson and Blindsight by Peter Watts. I am starting the Rifters trilogy because I liked Blindsight so much.
ontheedgeandscaredtodeath

Social climber
SLO, Ca
Jul 31, 2013 - 03:00pm PT
I'm reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Crouch recommended it in a thread or on his website.

Really good so far. Kind of a combo of Madame Bovary and All Quiet on the Western Front but written by a modern author. It definitely has steamier sex scenes than those old classics!
couchmaster

climber
pdx
Jul 31, 2013 - 03:04pm PT
Patrick McManus, and thanks for the heads up on his humor. Good stuff.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jul 31, 2013 - 05:41pm PT
I'll give a shout to Dehli with Over the Edge of the World, about the Magellan circumnavigation. I really enjoyed that one, too.

We just don't have courage like that anymore.

Glad you're enjoying Birdsong, OTE&STD.

On the subject of Birdsong's steamy sex scenes, one thing I learned while researching China's Wings is that people in WWII--both men and women--were every bit as interested in getting laid as people are today. I'm sure that was equally true in the Great War and every other war and period in history before that, too.

Pretty refreshing discovery, actually.
dirt claud

Social climber
san diego,ca
Jul 31, 2013 - 06:02pm PT
Really great book that gives you insight into what Europe/Germany were like prior to the outbreak of WW2. I have PDF copy if anyone is interested in getting one. I think I can e-mail it, if anyone here is into WW2 history and wants one? I got this for free from a site so I assume it can be distributed. Perhaps I'm mistaken, not sure.
MisterE

climber
Jul 31, 2013 - 08:59pm PT
Reading my first Michener book: "Mexico"

I like how it jumps around a bit - the wife tells me this book is pretty non-linear for JAM.

Check this reading promotional world record:

[Click to View YouTube Video]
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Aug 1, 2013 - 10:51am PT
That book domino is fantastic!

And Dirt Claud, I'm interested in that Shirer PDF, but I'm worried that title might not be in the public domain yet... Has that site "cleared title?"
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 3, 2013 - 10:32pm PT
The Forever war, Haldeman

Okay not reading per se,
But day before yesterday back in California ( seems like a lifetime ago...) I happened into Swann books, Fattrad's girlfriends used book store, @ 1831 Locust, walnut creek.
There was Jeff red roper guide in hand pouring over classic lore!
He gave me the tour

Pretty darn cool store, and well worth checking out. Some classic hardback climbing books and guides, lots of general fiction and nonfiction, signed Steinbeck etc. Jaybro sez, "Check it out!"
Edit:
Partial list of signed books;
Signed: Hillary, Bonnington, Jamling Norgay, Faulkner, steinbeck, emerson,etc
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Aug 3, 2013 - 10:50pm PT
I picked up my copy of Herodotus in paperback at a little used book store in down town Covina for eight bucks.

on the top shelf behind the counter he had a complete multi-volume collection of John Muir.


Asking price was $750




Brandon-

climber
The Granite State.
Aug 3, 2013 - 11:14pm PT
I've been reading way too much.

Water Music, T.C Boyle

Villa Incognito, Tom Robbins

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson

Fluke, Christopher Moore

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

The Girl Who Played With Fire, Steig Larsson

Tortilla Curtain, T.C Boyle

Mark Sensenbach

climber
CA
Aug 3, 2013 - 11:18pm PT
Andy Kirkpatrick - 'Cold Wars'
really good but im reading it kinda spotty couse it is summer :))
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Aug 4, 2013 - 12:54pm PT
The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light by Paul Bogard.
wicoxfreedom

Sport climber
Anoka, MN
Aug 5, 2013 - 12:27pm PT
The Art of Coursesetting by Louis Anderson

Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Aug 5, 2013 - 12:34pm PT
The Zen of Recovery, by Mel Ash.
weezy

climber
Aug 5, 2013 - 02:09pm PT
^^^hahahahahaha!

you got farther than i did with Infinite Jest, sullly. i'd heard all the great things about it and went to the library, pulled it off the shelf, saw it's girth and the amount of footnotes and put it right back. just couldn't commit to a grade VII book at the time.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Aug 7, 2013 - 03:12pm PT
just couldn't commit to a grade VII book at the time.


hahaha, my same thoughts when I saw that tome on the shelf.


edit: anybody know when Robbins Vol. IV comes out?
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Aug 16, 2013 - 11:15am PT
"Sir, I just can't get over all these Goddamned stars."

My review of Paul Bogard's The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light.

Tobia

Social climber
Denial
Aug 16, 2013 - 12:00pm PT
↑I can't see a tenth of the stars i used to could see 23 years ago, thanks to artificial light. the glow of the nearby city has dampened my view.

The First World War by John Keegan.
Elcapinyoazz

Social climber
Joshua Tree
Aug 16, 2013 - 12:39pm PT
For the Infinite Jest aspirants...just hang in there. It was a grind for me for the first ~200-300p. Then I was fully hooked. And you really do have to read the footnotes for the full experience, some of which go on for dozens of pages each. Kind of annoying with the flipping back and forth since there are hundreds of them and they aren't in the footer but in an appendix. It doesn't help that some are integral to the story where some are literally one-line of non-critical info like giving the pharma name for a street drug.

There's a lot of self-indulgent wankery, and while DFW was clearly a towering intellect, very insightful and wickedly funny, the book could have used a more forceful editor. There's just too much droning on and on at times in ways that add nothing.

Gotta split so I can get back to my current read: Fluid Mechanics, 4th ed McGraw-Hill. Yeah, page turner this one. Haven't had fluids, hydrology, or environmental hydraulics classes for almost 20 years, time to refresh a bit.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Aug 16, 2013 - 01:18pm PT
Infinite Jest seemed like an awfully big damn joke on the reader. I laid it down shortly after the first few pages, I think. A better doorstop than a read.

Brandon, next to reading too much and posting too much, we should be able to say climbing too much. That would be the most satisfying overdose possible. Good list, at any rate.

Thanks for the photo of a PRIVATELY-OWNED used book shop, Jaybro. I'll be dropping into Swan's one of these days, I hope with some coin in my pocket.

I'm just embarking on this old soldier by the man who began the Yosemite Museum and did much more than that for the NPS during a long career.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Aug 16, 2013 - 01:20pm PT
Evil,

by Roy Baumeister.

It's one of the best, and I've read many.
dirt claud

Social climber
san diego,ca
Aug 16, 2013 - 01:46pm PT
Welcome to the world of James M. Mister E. He is one of my favorites.
Will send you PM with info about PDFs of Shirer book Gregory C. It is a very interesting book.
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Aug 16, 2013 - 03:38pm PT
October 1964 by David Halberstam.

The 1964 World Series is one of my earliest baseball memories. Halberstam examines the season's and player's of each team and the times that were.

Nice chapters on Mantle and Maris. Also a good chapter on Bob Gibson, and his brother Josh's influence. Race was becoming an issue in America, big time, and one of the Cardinal's strength was the cohesiveness of the team. The Yankees were the last team to integrate, and it cost them.

Lots of respect for Bill White.
hossjulia

climber
Aug 17, 2013 - 02:58pm PT
So I was looking for something to read at the local library and did a search for climbing fiction. I enjoyed Jeff Longs book and was looking for something similar.

Not much came up; a teen book about a 16 year old runaway who gets involved with another runaway who happens to be a climber. They do the road trip thing, one step ahead of the cops. Did not check that one out, but it sounded interesting.

I did check out The Last Mountain by Rick Craig, 2011. Fun read. Started out a little confused between first person and third person narrative, but that straightened itself out. So did the plot which is a twisty murder mystery set in the Tetons. Highly recommend for those who like murder mysteries with some pointed political commentary thrown in for good measure. 911 Conspiracy theorist (I guess I fall into that camp) and anyone who knows Jackson at all, will get a kick out this book.

The other book that came up was our own Largo’s Rock Junction, essays of fiction and non-fiction. Most I had read before in Gorilla Monsoon. Which begs a question, why a second book with the same, or much the same, stories? My favorite essay so far is First Time. Although I’m not done with Last Place on No Map yet. All are super fun stories. But I thought Candles for Ulak ended differently than in GM. I might look that up when I take it back to the library.

In my searches I also came across Rick Ridgeways The Big Open, about Galen Rowell’s last expedition across Tibet’s Chang Tang in search of the calving grounds of the endangered chiru, or Tibetan antelope.
Many of you are familiar with this journey on foot pulling rickshaws, which includes Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker and Ridgeway himself.
Ridgeway flushed this tale out beautifully with oh so human recollections of past expeditions, friends no longer with us and the quest to help keep one more species endangered by human greed alive. Combined with the sheer will power, stamina and conviction it took to be the only humans out in The Chang Tang (think a grass covered Great Basin at 18k) for 30 days with no support makes this a worthy read.

I’m looking forward to Doug Robinson’s forthcoming book, Alchemy of Motion. (I think that’s the title)



rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Aug 17, 2013 - 05:54pm PT
Morton Adler´s (20th century philosopher) Truth in Religion.
I don´t agree with him exactly, but he does a wondeful job of breaking down the arguments for rationality vs ¨revealed truth¨type of logic. I am still working on it, but loving it. And for a professional philosopher he is amazingly readable.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Aug 18, 2013 - 03:36pm PT
daring greatly
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Aug 19, 2013 - 09:10pm PT
Here're a few words about Shattered Sword, the best battle narrative I've ever read.
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Aug 25, 2013 - 05:33pm PT
The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman is a novel about a little boy and the mysterious girl Lettie that he meets at a near by farm house, at the end of the lane of his childhood home. It is a great read. One of the best books I have read all summer.
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Aug 25, 2013 - 06:03pm PT
http://gregcrouch.com/2013/shattered-sword-review

I'll have to put that one on the reading list!

One error though, Best was armed only with one 500 lb bomb and two 100 lb incendiaries. He hit the middle of the meatball with the 500lb'er and the two incendiaries hit about midships. They evidently burned through four decks to the torpedo magazines.

All of the first wave of Dauntlesses from Enterprise had the reduced bomb loading due to the extreme range of the attack.

Best probably was armed with a 1000lb'er for his strike and hit on the Hyriu later.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Aug 25, 2013 - 06:54pm PT
The Wise Man's Fear- Patrick Rothfuss
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Aug 25, 2013 - 08:38pm PT
Climbing the Mountain: The Scientific Biography of Julian Schwinger
Jagdish Mehra, Kimball A. Milton
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Aug 26, 2013 - 12:28am PT
You should definitely get it on the list, TGT, it's a great book. What's your source for Best's bomb load, because quoting Shattered Sword, p242, "His [Best's] 1,000-lb payload sliced through the flight deck and exploded in the upper hangar..."

Has the Midway Roundtable published an errata on that subject?

Rereading the chapter, it seems like there was a mix of bombloads on the various Dauntlesses... 500 and 100 pounders on some aircraft, 1,000 pounders on others...
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Aug 26, 2013 - 12:30am PT
And right now, I'm reading Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which is fascinating. Recommended to me by astronomer and climber and fellow former CIC of the Cadet Mountaineering Club Scott Ransom...
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Sep 9, 2013 - 02:10pm PT
Just finished 'The Yiddish policeman's union' -Michael Chabon
An alternate premise book where Israel failed and 'Zion' was formed around Sitka Alaska.but not for long. In a month it goes to Alaskan/native american Sovereignty. In this setting a hard boiled alcoholic police detective whose boss is his ex wife has to solve an execution murder of a junkie chessmaster who might be the next messiah.
Raymond chandler goes jewish DaVinci code via post cyberpunk Gibson....
ontheedgeandscaredtodeath

Social climber
SLO, Ca
Sep 9, 2013 - 02:30pm PT
I like Chabon's books.

I just finished All Quiet On The Western Front and am starting The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis.

I'd never heard of Shacochis but the book gets some solid reviews so I'll give him a go.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Sep 9, 2013 - 03:07pm PT
Pierre Hadot: The Inner Citadel. The Meditations Of Marcus Aurelius.
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Sep 9, 2013 - 03:19pm PT
What's your source for Best's bomb load,

Best himself.

Just out of coincidence a couple of days before your post I'd seen a fairly old documentary on Midway with some interviews of Best interspersed throughout.

The gist of his statement was that when they left the briefing room and got to the flight deck they were a bit irritated when they saw their planes only loaded with only one 500lb bomb and two 100lb incendiaries.

In a later snipet he tells of hitting the carrier "right in the meatball insignia on the forward flight deck" and the two incendiaries hitting amidships.

I believe there was a footnote on the trailer that he died shortly after production.

Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Sep 9, 2013 - 03:23pm PT

Currently enjoying the Watchmen. Cold War and comics....

Nice break from 'my normal reading list'.

cf. http://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/1401222668

Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Sep 9, 2013 - 03:27pm PT
TGT, I think you're going to have to read Shattered Sword, because they make a huge case for Akagi being hit by only one bomb, despite what has appeared in American sources (most of which claim many hits).

Although I can't account for the documentary, that sounds pretty convincing.

But I bet they have. You should check out "the Midway Roundtable" if you haven't already.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Sep 9, 2013 - 03:28pm PT
Also, just finished Sebastian Junger's War, which I found pretty riveting.

Kept me awake into the wee hours Sunday morning.
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
Sep 9, 2013 - 04:26pm PT
Best's claim in the interview was that he was the only one that hit the Akagi and he thought that what sunk it was not the 500lb bomb, but the incendiaries burned thru the decks into the torpedo magazine.

That only makes sense if they were a thermite (magnesium)type incendiary. The only one I can find are the M50A1 that were dropped as a 100lb cluster They were introduced in the spring of 42. Doolittle did use them for his raid but they were specially packaged. So it's an open question if they were even available in the theater.

The earlier 100 lb incendiary was a thin cased repurposed chemical warfare early version in napalm or WP and wouldn't have been effective at all on a carrier except against exposed planes and personnel on the deck.
tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
Sep 9, 2013 - 07:21pm PT
Brave Men. Ernie Pyle
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Sep 9, 2013 - 07:26pm PT
hey there say, all...

remember to try out my novels and short stories that are based on them...


:)


jake smith ranch series...

just do a search, with neebeehsaaookway, or the jake smith ranch series and it should show up...

am soon going to get the isbn numbers so you won't have to order online from
lulu.com... should be able to order from bookstores then...
MisterE

climber
Sep 9, 2013 - 07:27pm PT
A little light reading:


I found it rather pedestrian, so I am switching off occasionally with another breezy jaunt:

Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Sep 23, 2013 - 10:30am PT
Double Indemnity
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Sep 23, 2013 - 12:44pm PT
Love King or hate him you must admit that you are curious what has become of little Danny Torrance over the last 35 years. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. The sequel to the Shining.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Sep 23, 2013 - 02:03pm PT
A little sci-fi deviation: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained by Peter Hamilton.

Loving them.

Recommended to my son and me by our own Tom Lambert.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Sep 23, 2013 - 03:09pm PT
Ten of the Traveling Band books.

In Mr. Whipple's famous critical article about Kerouac, he described his world as 'anything but charming.'

But there is a charm about the road, starting with Charley and his travels with Steinbedeck, which didn't make the list, but then here it be, golly gee.

Cannery Row
and Sweet Thursday
and Of Mice and Men by Steinbedeck
On the Road by T.P. “Jack” Kerouac
Joe Hill by Wallace Stegner
The Adventures of Hucklebery Finn by Mark Twain
[“All American literature comes out of Huckleberry Finn.“--Hemingway]
The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews
The Incredible Journey by Sheila Bumford
The Longest Walk by Slawomir Rawicz
The Journeyer by Gary Jennings
The Fool's Progress by Edward Abbey
Elcapinyoazz

Social climber
Joshua Tree
Sep 23, 2013 - 03:44pm PT
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Read that a couple years ago. Had never heard of it, nor read any Updike before that. Surprised it would make that list as it doesn't seem to be widely known. All the others I've at least heard of, if not read.

What happened to your list though? Lots of missing numbers. I've read about 2/3 of those.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Sep 23, 2013 - 07:08pm PT
Sully, you mean those are the books that librarians are most asked to jerk
from the shelves? The Great Gatsby, are you kidding me? Yawn...

Now, I can see that it would be hard to keep The Satanic Verses on
the shelves in Teheran, Amsterdam, or Detroit, but here?
StahlBro

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Sep 23, 2013 - 07:16pm PT
Just finished this one. Pretty interesting if you like Bodie and the East side of the Sierra

dirt claud

Social climber
san diego,ca
Sep 24, 2013 - 10:11am PT
That looks like a good one Stahlbro. Will have to buy that one on Ebay today, thanks.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Sep 24, 2013 - 10:18am PT
DC, if that excites u check out Death Valley to Yosemite: Frontier mining Camps & Ghost Towns - well written and focuses more on the people - some amazing stories. We're sooo weak!
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Sep 24, 2013 - 12:09pm PT
Sully, I wasn't yawning in reference to the book's merits but rather at
the notion that it is 'controversial'. I guess it was in 1925. ;-)
dirt claud

Social climber
san diego,ca
Sep 24, 2013 - 12:43pm PT
Awesome, thanks Reilly. Got three great books on order now, can't wait till they get here :)

Who's read this one? just ordered this one as well.
Chief

climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
Sep 24, 2013 - 04:54pm PT
Helmet for My Pillow
(From Parris Island to the Pacific)
Robert (Lucky) Leckie

For the 4th or 5th time.
NutAgain!

Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
Sep 24, 2013 - 05:54pm PT
A Course in Miracles! Total flashback to high school, my mom's post-alcoholic post-druggie AA and NA card toting get-it-together phase, complete with positive phrases and mantras on top of every doorway. For many years I rejected new-agey spiritual stuff because it was wrapped up in my unresolved mother issues. At the time I wished I could just hate her for the ways in which she screwed me up and mistakes she made as a mother. Her efforts to improve her life was like taking away the tangible object toward which I could target my resentment, but leaving the rats' nest of unresolved crap still stuck in me and needing an outlet. With several decades of reflection, I'm glad to have that rather than an incorrigible belligerent drunk/druggie parent who never changed. I had the example of a person changing, making efforts to improve, and that was a lesson I deeply internalized and it ultimately helped me resolve a lot of crap. Of course, it would still have been nicer to not have the crap to get rid of in the first place.


Oh wait, this was the book thread...

I'm reading "A World Without End" by Ken Follett. I read Pillars of the Earth a few years ago, took a while to start on this one but it's tough to put down. Epic saga, historically insightful, but a few minor plot defects where characters do uncharacteristic things to help move the plot along. Overall a very enjoyable book though.

I actively seek out anything written by Ken Follett.
David Knopp

Trad climber
CA
Sep 24, 2013 - 06:15pm PT
Just finished Billionaire's Apprentice by Anita Raghavan-great story of the rise of S. E. Asians at the highest levels of finance and how they too can be greedy bastards.
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Sep 24, 2013 - 10:48pm PT
I've got 3 (maybe more) going.


"Songbird Journeys" Miyoko Chu Science behind bird migration.

"The Autistic Brain" Temple Grandin Science and history behind autistic brain research by our most famous Autistic American.


"Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona" by Ken Kaufman and the SE AZ Audubon group.
Planning several SE AZ birding trips in the next year.





I need something light and easily entertaining. I've got mucho reading time in the next 2 weeks.
Ward Trotter

Trad climber
Sep 25, 2013 - 03:54am PT
Rereading Into the Wild by Krakauer. First read it in the late 90s.

I got curious and googled for updates and found this New Yorker article by Krakauer posted earlier this month:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/09/how-chris-mccandless-died.html

It appears that it was not a case of simple starvation. It is highly probable that McCandless was poisoned by a neurotoxin ( ODAP) in the wild potato seeds he was consuming.
This neurotoxin results in a condition termed Lathyrism which is a type of progressive paralysis of the lower extremities. This condition rendered McCandless too weak and immobilized to either effectively food gather or walk out.
Dr.Sprock

Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
Sep 25, 2013 - 04:53am PT
Big Sur by Kerouac, audio book,

if you feeling down due to booze, this is the book for you, an inside look at the neurosis and pain caused by the deadly juice,
Delhi Dog

climber
Good Question...
Sep 25, 2013 - 06:45am PT
Some great suggestions as always, thanks folks.

"I actively seek out anything written by Ken Follett."

I agree. In the epic novel genre Follett is quite the story teller as are James Clavell and Wilbur Smith. Look them up if you haven't. And, fairly easy reading too.
I enjoy the connections they create from story to story. I wasn't sure how he'd do it but even King Rat and Shogun have a connection though subtle compared to others of Clavell's.

When I travel I like to read about the places I visit (before, during, and after). I have an upcoming Morocco trip planned as well as Laos...anyone have suggested readings for either of those two places?

cheers
Delhi Dog

climber
Good Question...
Sep 25, 2013 - 06:51am PT
Almost forgot.
I'm reading this. Just started so no opinion yet but Sickles was quite the controversial figure BITD.

American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles by Thomas Keneally

Leggs

Sport climber
Tucson, AZ
Sep 25, 2013 - 09:43am PT
Reading The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison




Sullly, that's some pretty hefty reading!
Leggs

Sport climber
Tucson, AZ
Sep 25, 2013 - 09:53am PT
Sullly, she is such a great writer! She is quite lyrical, it's mesmerizing.

:)
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Sep 25, 2013 - 02:29pm PT

Command and Control by Eric Schlosser.

All about atom and hydrogen bombs and why we don't need them . . .
Bluelens

climber
Pasadena, CA
Oct 1, 2013 - 01:43am PT
Untold: The Stories Behind the Photos by Steve McCurry. Nat Geo photographer, traveler, storyteller.
Bluelens

climber
Pasadena, CA
Oct 1, 2013 - 01:47am PT
Dr.Sprock

Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
Oct 1, 2013 - 01:50am PT
And the Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks,


more Beat stuff from Burroughs and Kerouac, audio of course,

tried Tale of Two Cities but got bored,
pud

climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
Oct 18, 2013 - 11:11pm PT
Currently Stephen King's The Shining.

Can't seem to put it down !


Edit:
A recent re-read I highly recommend:
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Oct 19, 2013 - 12:09am PT
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte. A really good mystery which
is poetically written. The movie "Uncovered" was based on it.
pud

climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
Oct 19, 2013 - 12:23am PT
Love King or hate him you must admit that you are curious what has become of little Danny Torrance over the last 35 years. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. The sequel to the Shining.

This is the reason I picked up my current read. Doctor Sleep is on it's way.(25% off on ebay)
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Oct 19, 2013 - 12:27am PT
"Spillover" by David Quammen.....great read.
MisterE

climber
Oct 19, 2013 - 01:00am PT
The Alchemy of Action by Doug Robinson.

Very interesting physiology and chemistry, with stories that keep you reading.

Thanks for the book, DR - great top see you at Facelift!
Mark Rodell

Trad climber
Bangkok
Oct 19, 2013 - 01:13am PT
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh a Vietnamese writer, a veteran.
MisterE

climber
Oct 27, 2013 - 11:06am PT
Can't wait to sink my teeth into this one:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FI9JE00/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00FI9JE00&linkCode=as2&tag=0atorgmarkdes-20

Who knew there was even a "dinosaur erotica" genre?
The Larry

climber
Moab, UT
Oct 27, 2013 - 11:11am PT
Good read.

justthemaid

climber
Jim Henson's Basement
Oct 27, 2013 - 11:13am PT
As someone pointed out.. it really should be "Ptaken by the Pterodactyl"^^^

@Khanom.. yeah that's one of those books your really have to meditate and set yourself in the right frame of mind for. It's an involved read. 1st book's the best.

pud

climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
Oct 27, 2013 - 10:31pm PT
Stephen King's style has developed into an incredible sense of the reader.
This book is a masterpiece.

mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Nov 2, 2013 - 04:44pm PT
No man alive will come to you
With another tale to tell

"This book's on fire
Rollin' down the road"

Best notify my next of kin
This one did not explode

Gut I enjoyed it.
MisterE

climber
Nov 2, 2013 - 10:52pm PT
Yay! New Stephen King! On the list.

I did a search?

for Dinosaur Erotica...because I thought: "No way!"

There is way...it looks just awful:

ENTER AT YOU OWN RISK

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/10-real-book-covers-from-dinosaur-on-human-sex-novels/

Thanks, "The Oatmeal", thanks a lot.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Potemkin Village
Nov 16, 2013 - 12:54pm PT
"Religion for Atheists" by de Botton.
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Nov 16, 2013 - 01:06pm PT
Just finished reading "Just Kids", Patti Smith's autobiographical book about her relationship with Robert Maplethorpe. It kind of helps me understand what my son is going through trying to make it as an artist in New York.
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Nov 16, 2013 - 01:20pm PT
I liked "Just Kids"

I just finished Jumpa Lahiri's new book, The Lowland. I liked, but didn't love The Namesake. This one was amazing. She painted the most tragic and subtle characters. Highly recommend it.

Now I'm onto Wally Lamb's We Are Water. Not too impressed yet, but holding out hope.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Nov 16, 2013 - 02:52pm PT
Just finished "Spillover" by David Quammen.....riveting and relevant.
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
Nov 16, 2013 - 03:36pm PT
Finished off http://www.amazon.com/The-Liberty-Amendments-Restoring-American/dp/1451606273/ref=sr_1_1/190-9804630-3152444?ie=UTF8&qid=1384634087&sr=8-1&keywords=the+liberty+amendments

The Liberty Amendments. Liberals and Conservatives should read it.

Next book is the Duck Dynasty book about building a business with family and good values.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Nov 16, 2013 - 05:39pm PT
Have recently read The Mountain by Viesturs and Roberts, Six Frigates by Ian Toll, Vanished by Wil S. Hylton, and Past All Dishonor by James Cain.

All pretty good, although I think I enjoyed Six Frigates the most.

I reviewed The Mountain for the WSJ a few weeks ago, I think you can link to the article by clicking the top link in this google search. (If I link directly, it gets caught by their paywall.)
Rick A

climber
Boulder, Colorado
Nov 17, 2013 - 12:44pm PT
Working through the Truman biography by David McCullough, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Amazing to consider the momentous issues where the buck stopped at the desk of this reluctant president: dropping the bomb, the Potsdam conference with Stalin and Churchill, the Marshall Plan, massive labor strikes post war, the birth of the civil rights movement, the creation of Israel, the Berlin airlift, and the very real possibility of another European war with the Soviet Union.

Greg, enjoyed your review in the WSJ and I have also read Six Frigates. I became interested in the War of 1812 ship to ship engagements between the American and British navies through the magnificent Patrick Obrian novels, Master and Commander and the others. Six Frigates was a nice, non-fiction supplement to them.

Sully, your ambitious reading list is inspiring. But I'm leaning toward sampling some dinosoar erotica after I finish Truman.:)
Largo

Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
Nov 17, 2013 - 04:03pm PT
Rope Burns (boxing - the source material for Million Dollar Baby). Great read.

JL
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Nov 17, 2013 - 07:35pm PT
Pete Aguereberry, Death Valley Prospector, George Pipkin

We are so weak.
FRUMY

Trad climber
Bishop,CA
Nov 17, 2013 - 08:12pm PT
COMMANDER -Stephen Taylon
LuckyPink

climber
the last bivy
Nov 17, 2013 - 09:05pm PT
this is a great thread. The last few books I've read have been suggested here. I keep looking back here every time I'm ready for new read. Right now finishing up "The Wave" as suggested up thread. Thanks everybody.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Nov 17, 2013 - 09:05pm PT

The Outpost.

Combat Outpost Keating, Nuristan Afghanistan. Excellent!
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Nov 22, 2013 - 09:04am PT
Planet Largo.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Nov 26, 2013 - 07:52am PT
Yer just a pinkneck if you have read the sequel.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Nov 27, 2013 - 03:16pm PT
Blood, Iron and Gold
Fascinating, excellent read.
adam d

climber
CA
Nov 27, 2013 - 03:50pm PT
FRUMY

Trad climber
Bishop,CA
Nov 27, 2013 - 06:06pm PT
A Short History of Nearly Everything
David Knopp

Trad climber
CA
Nov 27, 2013 - 10:26pm PT
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood

first of a trilogy-subtle amazing book about an end of the world.
Russ Walling

Social climber
from Poofters Froth, Wyoming
Nov 27, 2013 - 10:46pm PT
The Encyclopedia of Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories

How to land an A330 Airbus

Next up: Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Nov 30, 2013 - 10:31am PT
Vanished, by Wil S. Hylton, which I reviewed for the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Good book.

I can't link you directly to the review, you'll catch the WSJ paywall if I do, but I think I can link you to a google search, and by clicking the top link you'll get past the paywall to the full text of the review.

Here's the search that should do it.

And yes, I'm a bit miffed that they spelled my name wrong. Also, Ghoulwe gets a tip of the hat for some hilarious fact checking on this one.
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Nov 30, 2013 - 06:31pm PT
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The story takes place in Alaska in 1920. Its a novel about a couple homesteading and discover a mysterious little girl who calls herself Faina. She is mysterious and appears after the couple create a little snow girl that they decorate with mittens and a scarf. She is a child of the woods and was inspired by a classic Russian fairy tale of a snow maiden.

I am half done with it and I find it hard to put down.


enjoimx

Trad climber
SLO
Nov 30, 2013 - 07:15pm PT
Russ Walling...I read Storming Heaven, it was good. I would also recommend "Breaking Open the Head" by Daniel Pinchbeck, along that same topic.
dirt claud

Social climber
san diego,ca
Dec 9, 2013 - 03:27pm PT
Thanks to Stahlbro for recommending "Gunfighters and Outlaws"
Really great book on the local history of Bodie and Aurora mining towns.
I highly recommend you read this before you visit Bodie if you are planning on going, it will make the experience much better. I have been to Bodie, but want to go back now that I have read the book and put names, faces and/or stories to the past residents who lived there.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Dec 9, 2013 - 03:29pm PT
Sully, I've seen five of the Pittsburgh Cycle at the Mark Taper Theatre.
Every one was a gem. He is surely one of the top ten all-time greats.


Claud, I'm reading Pete Aguereberry, Death Valley Prospector. Add it
to yer list, mon ami (Pete was French Basque).
dirt claud

Social climber
san diego,ca
Dec 9, 2013 - 03:52pm PT
Cool, thanks Reilly, will do. I'm reading the other one you recommended about mining towns.
crunch

Social climber
CO
Dec 9, 2013 - 04:08pm PT
Elmer Gantry, by Sinclair Lewis.

A bit slow and long, written in 1926, but a fascinating, vivid character study. Brings to life the culture and people of the Midwest in the early 1900s.
Bruce Morris

Social climber
Belmont, California
Dec 9, 2013 - 04:17pm PT
The End of Faith by Sam Harris. Subtitled: "Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason":

http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Faith-Religion-Terror/dp/0393327655

Hey, why not a new ecumenical movement to deconstruct Islamic, Christian and Jewish fundamentalism and literal interpretation of religious texts?

An idea whose time has come as Christian and Muslim mobs kill each other on the streets in Africa. Another "100 Years War" in the making, this time with WMDs?

So much for the Victorian compromise and the myth of progress.

"Interestingly, Harris is not just focused on debunking religious faith, though he makes his compelling arguments with verve and intellectual clarity. The End of Faith is also a bit of a philosophical Swiss Army knife. Once he has presented his arguments on why, in an age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, belief is now a hazard of great proportions, he focuses on proposing alternate approaches to the mysteries of life." - Amazon review
FRUMY

Trad climber
Bishop,CA
Dec 9, 2013 - 04:21pm PT
1491
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Dec 9, 2013 - 05:06pm PT
The Maestro Myth by Norman Lebrecht.
NutAgain!

Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
Dec 9, 2013 - 05:49pm PT
ENTER AT YOU OWN RISK

I'll admit I was curious how the genres could collide. No more. If someone asks me to make an expression of disbelief, I know how to do it now, because that was stuck on my face for the entire time reading that webpage. I don't know if it's worse someone dedicated enough time to make books like this, or that there is potentially a market that inspired their creation.

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber
Douglas, WY
Dec 9, 2013 - 10:39pm PT
I'm currently reading a publisher's proof copy of The Pagan Lord, the 7th volume in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales series; excellent novels of the Alfred the Great era in British History. I'm an Amazon Vine reviewer; they send me free books to read and comment upon.
Truthdweller

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Dec 9, 2013 - 10:44pm PT
The KJV Bible
Brokedownclimber

Trad climber
Douglas, WY
Dec 10, 2013 - 02:46pm PT
Sullly-

I've been doing this for a while; it's by invitation after one reaches >100 book reviews written, and enough positive "votes." It's not only books, but included stuff like vitamins, electronics, coffee, etc.

Rodger

P.S. I read pretty fast; normally a book a day for me.
Byran

climber
Yosemite
Dec 30, 2013 - 11:23pm PT
Just finished The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins. I give it 4/5 Supertaco stars. It's an introduction to evolution, how it works, and the evidence it leaves behind. It briefly covers several fields of study - from radiometric dating and plate tectonics to genetics, embryology, and zoology. And each step of the way he pauses to pick apart the claims and arguments made by creationists. Dawkins has a great enthusiasm for his work and he writes with clarity and expertise. This is the second book of his that I've read with several more on my "to read" list.

Just started The Last Gasp: Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber by Scott Christianson. A couple chapters in, I've learned about rise of the Eugenics movement at the turn of the century and the development of poisonous gases during the first World War. Pretty good so far.
Eclipze

Trad climber
Morris Plains / Givat Haim Ichud Israel
Dec 31, 2013 - 01:26am PT
Reading Richard Marcinkos books again always an enjoyable read. Was gonna start reading a sport Climbing book but just haven't had to take to really take on a serious book.
Gal

Trad climber
going big air to fakie
Dec 31, 2013 - 01:44am PT
I read "the language of flowers" quick entertaining read
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Dec 31, 2013 - 09:44am PT
Retreading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
And taking firsts on Playback, Raymond chandler & Three to get ready-Janet evanich

Last week was zero history ( Gibson), The glass Key,- Dashiel Hammet

& the Autistic Brain by a Temple Grandin
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Dec 31, 2013 - 10:50am PT
An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson. A very well researched and written account of the invasion of North Africa. We sure f*#ked up a lot, but managed to figure out how to fight eventually.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jan 4, 2014 - 02:39pm PT
Dead Mountain, by Donnie Eichar.

My review of it, "Siberian Death Trip," is in today's Wall Street Journal, bottom of page C8.

(I've got to link you through a google search in the hopes of avoiding the WSJ paywall. If you get caught by the paywall, doing your own search should circumvent it.)

There are two major threads of interest to climbers in the book, which I enjoyed:

The totalitarian control of the Soviet Union, which even reached down into local adventure clubs. Could you imagine having to deal with such bureaucracy in order to get your various adventure certifications? Reminds me of what caused the Vulgarian revolt in the Gunks, only much, much worse.

And Eichar's conclusion about what caused the deaths--"infrasound," induced by "tornadic vortices" caused by strong wind whipping around the sides of the mountain. Which description sounded a lot like "the Patagonian Organs" to me, and although those aural effects are pretty darn scary, I find it hard to imagine that it drove the 9 dead Russians simultaneously out of their minds.
paganmonkeyboy

climber
mars...it's near nevada...
Jan 4, 2014 - 04:09pm PT
I am alternating between midget-on-horse porn and the King James Bible at the moment...they compliment each other quite nicely...
pud

climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
Jan 4, 2014 - 04:42pm PT
hairyapeman

Trad climber
Fres-yes
Jan 4, 2014 - 04:44pm PT

The second book in the Common wealth Saga (Sci-Fi). An awesome read!
crunch

Social climber
CO
Jan 4, 2014 - 05:18pm PT
There are two major threads of interest to climbers in the book, which I enjoyed:

The totalitarian control of the Soviet Union, which even reached down into local adventure clubs. Could you imagine having to deal with such bureaucracy in order to get your various adventure certifications? Reminds me of what caused the Vulgarian revolt in the Gunks, only much, much worse.

Hey Gregory Crouch, that sounds like the premise behind Bernadette McDonald's Freedom Climbers for the climbers in Poland, while under Soviet control.

She suggests that,

one, the most ruthless, organized and determined mountaineers dealt best with the bureaucracy, thereby self-selecting Himalayan climbers who were well suited to thriving in hideously adverse conditions;

and two, the bureaucracy itself, once it realized it had a world-class, elite group of climbers, saw them as an asset/propaganda tool. It quietly encouraged, supported and helped them. This became a delicate balancing act of a relationship with mutual distrust, even hatred, but also mutual need.

Cool read.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jan 4, 2014 - 05:29pm PT
Crunch, I think that's right for the elites, but for every handful of them, there were boatloads of people like most of us, who weren't. I bet it sucked to be told what you could and couldn't do and be told how to do it for the vast majority of "weekenders."

Although I'm equally sure that those weekenders drew a lot of solace from outdoor adventure amidst the regulation, too.

Or maybe they were so used to the subjugation that it was accepted as normal?

I found those threads to be pretty interesting in Dead Mountain.
this just in

climber
north fork
Jan 25, 2014 - 11:15am PT
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jan 25, 2014 - 11:23am PT
I just finished Brendan Leonard's The New American Road Trip Mix Tape and feel it's worth suggesting. Especially to the BBST readers here.

cf. http://semi-rad.com/2013/12/the-new-american-road-trip-mixtape-available-now/


Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Feb 1, 2014 - 05:45pm PT
A Life of Phillip K Dick. Yesterday I worked through the collected Crumb Volume II


A genius, that Turgenev - Diary of a Superflous Man - how post existential is that?
Diary of a madman, might be more applicable to climbers - Google Gogol - okay so I had to set that up to use that phrase, but, I, like it!

And while we're talking the Russians.. Sorta...what about
Chekhov? and through him, the various medical school graduates who became novelists? Seems like a weighty path, to me, having been married to a physician. Chekhov, Michael Crichton and robin cook were actual md's who had a 'literary' second career take off on them but Somerset Maugham, Gertrude Stein, and whomever I am forgetting, studied medicine, and then went in another direction, which I find fascinating! Then of course, there are Oliver Sacks, sr Close, et al who found the material of their practice, to be the muse for their words....
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Feb 1, 2014 - 06:02pm PT
I know exactly what you mean! Have you read Krokodil? It's even more magical realism- rich than The Nose! One of the reasons I law tied to learn Russian was to read the Nose, and the Overcoat, in the original language.

I think that some of that romance and magical realism carried over into the Soviet realism as seen in the revolutionary Posters. The imagery and iconography, of some of those images coupled with the the aphorisms, is amazing, "the hard workers are behind us, in this is our strength,". Forgive or correct me, Alexey & Vitalliy, I think it goes like, Трудяшихся за нас, в етом, наша Сила!
Urizen

Ice climber
Berkeley, CA
Feb 1, 2014 - 08:03pm PT
Made a good haul at the library yesterday. Cold weather today, so I spent most of it in bed finishing Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Next: Stephen Spender's World within World, and Robert Pinsky's anthology Singing Class.
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Feb 3, 2014 - 12:31pm PT
God: A Biography. Jack Miles
An incedibly intellegent - we can say - post modern look at the Jewish idea of god.
pud

climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
Feb 3, 2014 - 12:58pm PT
"American Sniper" by the late Chris Kyle.




Interesting look into the military's ability to locate and exploit a young man's angst and aggression.

At least that's what I am taking from it.
blahblah

Gym climber
Boulder
Feb 3, 2014 - 01:16pm PT
How about recommendations for out-of-copyright or otherwise free Kindle books?
Anything from the stuff we read (or were supposed to read) in high school to stuff most of us have never heard of.
I'll start (with one of the high school variety): Call of the Wild, by Jack London. Pretty good, but didn't necessarily make me want to read more London--kind of been there/done that.
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Feb 3, 2014 - 01:23pm PT
The Flamethrowers - Rachel Kushner

Sort of Tom Robbins meets an easier to read Pynchon. All the protagonist is missing is big thumbs.
Killer K

Boulder climber
Sacramento, CA
Feb 3, 2014 - 03:15pm PT
Just finished the illustrated man again so cool how many of the stories dont seem so far fetched today as they did when they were written. Bradbury was a genius.
Ward Trotter

Trad climber
Feb 3, 2014 - 03:18pm PT

Exhaustive and fairly well-written account of the period, the science, the history, the human accounts, surrounding the world's most destructive and awesome volcanic eruption of modern times.
A good read only if you can appreciate the minutiae of context within which such episodic events transpire.

Such books come and go as a matter of course, largely under the radar. However, if there is ever an eruption on the scale of the1883 Krakatoa event anytime soon, anywhere on the globe---this book, and books like it ,will instantly receive huge and well-deserved attention as a sort of general reference manual for these apocalyptic , world-changing cataclysms and the tragic aftermaths.
looking sketchy there...

Social climber
Lassitude 33
Feb 3, 2014 - 03:52pm PT
Winchester's Kratatoa book is excellent as are some of the others he has written, including: The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World.

Currently am reading the excellent Lawrence In Arabia, by Scott Anderson

pud

climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
Feb 6, 2014 - 03:04pm PT
stevep

Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
Feb 6, 2014 - 03:41pm PT
The Abominable by Dan Simmons.

Sort of historical horror mystery, similar to his novel the Terror, about the Franklin Expedition that disappeared in northern Canada. I liked that, and this one is good so far. Simmons is a good writer and does a lot of historical research to give context to his fictional narrative.

More importantly, this ties into climbing, as it centers around an expedition to Mt. Everest shortly after Mallory and Irvine.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Feb 6, 2014 - 03:45pm PT

Thinking, fast and slow...Second time... spot-reading and marking...slow reading...
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Mar 6, 2014 - 11:45am PT
Have read two I'd strongly recommend this week:

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, a tragic novel about three soldiers unraveling during the Iraq War. Beautifully written and moving.

Peter Stark's Astoria, about John Jacob Astor's unsuccessful attempt to found a fur trading outpost at the mouth of the Columbia River, 1810-1812. Astor's plan was sound, but things went horribly wrong. Stark does a great job taking us along and giving us a view of North America before it was "civilized.

I'll also kick down my enthusiasm for Simon Winchester. I've read a bunch of his books, and have enjoyed them all: The Professor and the Madman, The Map that Changed the World, Krakatoa, The Man Who Loved China, The River at the Center of the World, The Crack at the Edge of the World.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Mar 6, 2014 - 11:50am PT
The Man in the High Castle Phillip K Dick
Elcapinyoazz

Social climber
Joshua Tree
Mar 6, 2014 - 12:16pm PT
A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn

The Upanishads, Eknath Easwaran translation

Trad Climbers' Bible, Croft/Long

Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved, Shulgin


The first two should be must-reads for any stupid american.

Trad bible I'm only about 20 pages into. Has great pics and good tales, but so far my biggest impression is that it needs a serious re-editing. Cringeworthy, overwrought prose and sporting ridiculous slang that was "in" for about 3 minutes in the 90s ("gettin' jiggy" etc), poor word choice (using the noun drill, as in a synonym for exercise, in a sentence about trad climbing within a paragraph that is trying to differentiate it from sport climbing). I had a hard time getting past those things. I expect it will improve when I get into the meat of it and past the introductory philosophical pondering.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 6, 2014 - 12:30pm PT
I rarely read only one book.

The Desert Fox by David Irving. Despite turning into a Holocaust denier
Irving's bio seems totally free of his late looniness and is very impartial
to the point that Rommel comes under fire for his enfatuation with Der Fuhrer.

The War for all the Oceans by Roy and Lesley Adkins. The Napoleonic Wars
were won on the high seas. Waterloo was a mopping up operation.

The Russian Mind by Ronald Hingley. What with the current insanity I've
dragged out this seminal work from my university days by the Emeritus Fellow at Oxford.
You do know that Nihilism was and is a Russian creation?

ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Mar 6, 2014 - 12:33pm PT
Telex From Cuba - Rachel Kushner
The Glowering Sailor

climber
Mt. Humphreys
Mar 6, 2014 - 12:53pm PT
Have read two I'd strongly recommend this week:

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, a tragic novel about three soldiers unraveling during the Iraq War. Beautifully written and moving.

Thanks for reminding me about this. I bought it not long after it came out and haven't gotten to it yet.

Elcapinyoazz, them's fightin' words 'round here, wut wif the paranoiacs, wingnuts, and various other trailer park critters who call this place home.

Good reading the both of yiz.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Mar 6, 2014 - 01:17pm PT
just finished Hawkeye: my life as a weapon (Marvel comics) not sure if there are any comic fans out there....bygones if not.

now reading Ed Abbey's "Down the River"...prolly already read by most. As it should be.

Abbey quoted Thoreau in the first essay of that book, a line that has stuck with me today - "Goodness is the only investment that will never fail"
David Knopp

Trad climber
CA
Mar 7, 2014 - 12:47am PT
Good Lord Bird
by James Macbride

Funniest book about slavery and John Brown, more metaphors than you can stand, ultimately moving as well. My top recommended book this year. So far that is!
Lacey

Social climber
Nevada
Mar 7, 2014 - 01:04am PT
WILD
by Cheryl Strayed
Byran

climber
San Jose, CA
Mar 7, 2014 - 02:17am PT
just finished Hawkeye: my life as a weapon (Marvel comics) not sure if there are any comic fans out there....bygones if not.

Yeah I've never read Hawkeye before but picked up the new series because of all the acclaim it's been getting. Smart writing by Matt Fraction and incredible art by David Aja. Definitely one of the best comics of 2013, right up there with Saga.

Anyways, I made it one of my new years resolutions to read 2 books a month in 2014.

In Jan I read "The Last Gasp" by Scott Christianson which is a history of the American gas chamber and also includes some chapters about the invention of lethal gas in WW1 and use by the Nazis in WW2. And also read "Anticipations" by HG Wells, which is available for free
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19229

Now for Feb I've finished "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris which was pretty interesting and well argued. It was written in the post 9/11 atmosphere and so now some of the anti-terrorism rhetoric feels a bit dated, but it's still worth a read. And I also just got done with HG Wells' follow-up to Anticipations which is Mankind in the Making, also available online
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7058

For March I'm currently reading "Escape from Camp 14" by Blaine Harden which recounts the true story of Shin Dong-hyuk's life and escape from a North Korean labor camp. Also started Origin of Species by Darwin, which is slightly laborious but I think prove worthwhile.
Mark Sensenbach

climber
CA
Mar 7, 2014 - 05:31am PT
steveA

Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
Mar 7, 2014 - 07:26am PT
A wonderful read. An incredible piece of work.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Mar 7, 2014 - 01:52pm PT
I got inspired to write up a review of Peter Stark's Astoria, which I thought was pretty excellent.

My review of Peter Stark's Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire.

There are a few references to climbing in the book, which makes me think that Stark is probably a climber. Does anybody know if he lurks here among us?
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Mar 9, 2014 - 03:59pm PT
Finshed Victory Season: The End of World War Ii and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age by Robert Weintraub yesterday.

It's the story of the 1946 baseball season, with the real major leaguers just returned from overseas, and apart from a few "fingers on the chalkboard" factual errors pertaining to WWII events, it's pretty good. (Weintraub's primarily a sportswriter, so I'm prepared to forgive him.)

Jackie Robinson breaking the AAA color line with the Montreal Royals; the Dodgers/Cardinals dead heat and three-game playfoff for the NL pennant; the Cardinals/Red Sox world series that the Sox lost in 7, beginning decades of heartbreak. Good stuff.

Is it opening day yet?
Ward Trotter

Trad climber
Mar 9, 2014 - 06:35pm PT
There's been a plethora of books on psychopaths/sociopaths in recent years. Most of these books try to address a perceived need out there by ordinary individuals to identify these types of personality disorders in their families or in the workplace.
This book is a sort of inexpensive manual that helps to achieve those aims in a brief and uncomplicated way as a type of field guide to the identification of these destructive personalities.

Elcapinyoazz

Social climber
Joshua Tree
Mar 9, 2014 - 10:56pm PT
^^^

The subtitle on that is AWESOME! "How do you keep these crazy MFs out of your life"

Is that for real? Guess I'm off to amazon to see.
pud

climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
Mar 11, 2014 - 06:05pm PT
I really enjoyed my first Moore novel "A Dirty Job" so I thought I'd look into his older works. Total escapism when you just want a time out.
I'm digging it.


It's impossible to describe a Christopher Moore novel. The word indescribable was especially coined so that it could be used to describe Christopher Moore novels. Suffice it to say that the novel is extremely sick, extremely funny and extremely extreme. I loved it.

-Alan Robson
StahlBro

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Mar 11, 2014 - 06:56pm PT
Reading this again. "Here and now..."

Mark Rodell

Trad climber
Bangkok
Mar 12, 2014 - 10:54pm PT
My novel, A Stance of Wonder, is almost two years old. I reread it last week and it almost felt like someone else wrote it.
Modesto Mutant

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
Mar 13, 2014 - 01:28am PT
Re-Reading A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) for the first time since senior year of HS (1973). I didn't realize this until I started reading the book again, but Burgess original UK/Euro version had 21 chapters. The USA version and the Kubrick film only included the first 20, not the full book. The last chapter was quite a departure and changed the story line.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Mar 13, 2014 - 08:06am PT
Hello, the Mutant from Modesto!http://blindflaneur.com/2011/11/24/one-reader-is-a-miracle/
Bluelens

climber
Pasadena, CA
Mar 15, 2014 - 09:33pm PT
Intense, inspiring story of researchers who left Merck in disillusionment to make new drugs for diseases with no cure, like hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis. You need basic biology/DNA/chemistry literacy to understand what the researchers do at their new company. Its a page turner with smart, eccentric, live-on-the-edge characters.

Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Mar 18, 2014 - 07:51pm PT
Today's bit of prescient irony; lately I've been rereading the Novels of William Gibson. I recently finished Virtual Light, so it was time for Idoru. I didnt seem to have a copy around, and neither did my local public library, or thrift store. Eventually I broke down and bought an electronic copy to read in iBooks. So, the first William Gibson book a bought a virtual copy of is the one about a media star who turns out to be a web construct!

His work is amazingly predictive, did he in 1996, anticipate this particular work being bought and read electronically? Not on a phone certainly, all those guys missed the coming of the smartphone
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Mar 18, 2014 - 08:12pm PT
The $100 Startup.
Brandon-

climber
The Granite State.
Mar 20, 2014 - 05:58pm PT
Pud, I'd recommend 'Fluke' by CM as well. He writes great books for whenever I'm desiring something light.
duck on a bike

climber
Mar 22, 2014 - 05:56pm PT
Blood Will Out by Walter Kirn. "Page turner" for sure. WOW!!!

D...

Picked up on it from fresh air interview. Non-fiction. I'm on chapter 12.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Mar 23, 2014 - 11:40am PT
Read some trashy potboilers lately, not worth posting about, but now I'm into Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain, which is absolutely classic.

Best novel I've read since Angle of Repose.
telemon01

Trad climber
Montana
Mar 26, 2014 - 08:58am PT

Just started Pat Ament's Stories Of A Young Climber

great candid descriptions of the early years in Boulder with Kor and others

well done Oliver!
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Mar 26, 2014 - 11:22am PT
Right now I'm reading Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Boy, House of Cards got nuthin on those early Pilgrims and the local tribes! The amount of back-stabbing, intriguing between Pilgrim and tribe, tribe and tribe, Puritan (in Mass. bay, now Boston) and tribe, makes one think that this nation was founded on corrupt politics from the get-go. It reads kind of like a textbook, and has about 100 pages of references and appendix, but I'm certainly getting my money's worth since I picked this up in the $1 rack at a used book store the other day.

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 26, 2014 - 12:19pm PT
ydpl8s, yes, I read about those holier-than-thous in Fur, Fortune, and Empire,
a history of the fur trade. Those Puritans were worse than the Westboro gang!
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Mar 26, 2014 - 12:27pm PT
Yeah Reilly, when the native tribes would go to war with each other it was all about courage, skill and ego, usually no more than a handful on each side lost their lives.

They were totally disgusted when the Europeans fought with a scorched earth policy of killing every person in a village (women and children) and then burning the homes, people and animals to ash.....toting their bibles for inspiration.
weezy

climber
Mar 26, 2014 - 12:34pm PT
few pages into John Dies At The End. I love it so far. Definitely my kind of humor.

gonna finish Snow Crash after it.
Rick A

climber
Boulder, Colorado
Mar 27, 2014 - 11:35am PT
Just read “Welcome to Paradise, Now Go To hell” by Chaz Smith. The book is a window on professional surfing at its most famous stop on the world tour, Pipeline. Smith does gonzo journalism very well, reminiscent of vintage Hunter Thompson, combined with Johnny Long’s talent for putting the risk sport reader right in the mouth of the lion.

It is fear and loathing on the North Shore, but the fear is not imaginary bats ginned up by a bad drug trip, but the very real risk of being strangled or beaten for failing to show the full measure of respect to the locals.

Pipeline is one of the world's best waves and it is ruled by the world’s worst localism. This has been described occasionally in Outside and elsewhere, but it is usually kept invisible to non-surfers by a code of silence that rivals the mafia’s. Smith lays the whole ugly scene bare and the contrast between the Aloha image and the nasty reality makes for a good read.

At first you are outraged that this sort of lawlessness exists in this day and age, but when Smith explains the context--localism as a form of resistance to Hawaii’s history of brutal colonialism--you feel, almost against your will, some empathy for the violent characters that apparently control Pipeline.

Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Apr 4, 2014 - 11:23pm PT
The electronic version of All tomorrow's Parties,by William Gibson. I find I actually like reading books on iPads. It's a larger format than the paperbacks I generally frequent.
portent

Social climber
your mom's house
Apr 17, 2014 - 08:30pm PT
weezy and jaybro- read Diamond Age (a young ladies illustrated primer) if you haven't, one of my favorites.

Michelle

Social climber
1187 Hunterwasser
Apr 17, 2014 - 08:37pm PT
sully, really? Boooo...
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Apr 18, 2014 - 12:04am PT
Sully, GGM said he didn't think he had much of an imagination. BwaHaHaHaHa!
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Apr 18, 2014 - 01:17am PT
Tell that to the drowned man with the enormous wings...

Thanks Portent, read it a while back, fascinating!
portent

Social climber
your mom's house
Apr 18, 2014 - 02:45am PT
Also, since you are Gibson fans... Check out Richard K Morgan The Takeshi Kovacs Novels and Market Forces.

Good stuff. The 1st Kovacs novel is very detective Noir... :) :)

ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Apr 18, 2014 - 12:21pm PT
The Spinoza Problem
I'm reading this fascinating book now. Historical fiction of 2 different men, one Spinoza, a great 17th century thinker, and secondly Alfred Rosenberg, who was one of Hitler's architects of the Jewish solution. Rosenberg is torn by the fact that Spinoza is held aloft by Goethe and other "Aryan" authors Rosenberg holds in esteem. But, Spinoza is "blood Jew" and Rosenberg can't quite get his head around that. Hence, The Spinoza Problem

Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
May 19, 2014 - 12:39am PT
Just finished David McCullough's The Great Bridge, about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, which I enjoyed.

Currently a hundred pages into Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts, which looks to be a great book.

And I second Portent's reccy of the Richard Morgan sci fi books.
Ward Trotter

Trad climber
May 19, 2014 - 02:24am PT

For anyone interested in some of the profound changes stemming from many of the resulting economics and cultural effects of the digital network age ,and the possible humanist solutions to a few probably very difficult and problematic outcomes in our collective future.
kaholatingtong

Trad climber
Nevada City
May 19, 2014 - 02:58am PT
Finally finishing The Sirens of Titan ( a classic Vonnegut ). I had picked it up and read the first few pages several times over the years but for whatever reason never finished it. So glad I finally did. That dudes prose has a certain swagger, and is quite enjoyable to digest, for me.
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
May 19, 2014 - 02:30pm PT
Seven Years In Tibet
For the second time. Fascinating and somewhat sad look into the past.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
May 20, 2014 - 10:03am PT
Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen.

I reviewed it here.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Jun 18, 2014 - 04:32am PT
A book of the apocalypse known as "The Crunch."Author's introductory note: Unlike most novel sequels, the story-line of Survivors is contemporaneous with the events described in my previously published novel, Patriots. thus there is no need to read it first (or subsequently), but you'll likely find it entertaining.
Deo Volente, another contemporaneous novel in this series will be published next year. check my blog, www.SurvivalBlog.com, for updates.

Also, I have been checking out this study guide which belonged to my mother, and have her five different bibles here to look at as well. The nice thing about this study guide is that Mom filled in the answers and it is "a caution" to read some of her comments!
Bushman

Social climber
Elk Grove, CA
Jun 18, 2014 - 05:02am PT
Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
Predicts the possibilities and developments of future Star Trek type technologies based upon known science and research being done by today's scientists. Force fields, light speed travel, wormholes, transporters, telepathy, telekinesis, time travel, and more.
Another book by this author I found interesting was Physics of the Future.
Also Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos.
sandstone conglomerate

climber
sharon conglomerate central
Jun 18, 2014 - 07:34am PT
1491, by Charles C. Mann. Smallpox is a hell of a thing.
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Jun 18, 2014 - 08:46am PT
Just finished The Northland Trilogy by Stephen Baxter.
Just starting Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds.
lars johansen

Trad climber
West Marin, CA
Jun 18, 2014 - 09:00am PT
Savage Harvest
by
Carl Hoffman

A tale of the search for clues regarding the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in New Guinea 1961. He was presumed to be eaten by cannibals.

lars
Jay Wood

Trad climber
Land of God-less fools
Jun 18, 2014 - 09:31am PT
The current mix. This was the fourth Michael Gruber novel- excellent.

crunch

Social climber
CO
Jun 18, 2014 - 11:29am PT
Recently finished "Harvest of Rage" by local Boulderite Joel Dyer (who was a climbing photographer, back in the day, now runs the Boulder Weekly newspaper). Excellent book.

Explores the roots of the US militia movement. The great impetus was the farm crisis of the 1980s. Amongst all the other things that were going on at the time, I was never aware of the trauma and hurt that ensued from this sad story, when thousands of farmers were foreclosed on, forced into poverty. The actions of the federal government were woefully tone-deaf; too little, too late. Was easy for some folks to twist the whole episode into some kind of conspiracy theory which centered around the US government being taken over by others. Which, if accepted as truth allows (requires?) real patriots to actually fight against their own government.

In-depth interview with militia members attempt to understand where they come from, what drives them. There is sympathy for the people caught up in this, none for the crazy ideas they have. Dyer explains how some of the main conspiracy theories work and how, if looked at with any skepticism, they contradict each other and fall apart. He contends that the main blame for the severity of the farm crisis (and ongoing pressures on small farmers and ranchers) comes not from the government but from the the greed of the half-dozen huge corporations like Cargill, Archer-Midland, etc, who run, cartel-like, the modern US farming industry.

A bit dated, written after the Oklahoma City bombing but pre 2000 and the end-of-the-millennium fears. But as relevant today as 20 years ago.

I learned a lot. Should be essential reading for anyone wanting to understand more about Cliven Bundy and his supporters.
dee ee

Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
Jun 18, 2014 - 01:52pm PT
I just finished a biography of Jim Thorpe, "America's greatest athlete," (not the books title).

Very interesting, not all happy times though. Still tough to be an American Indian in the early 20th century.


I just started "The Monuments Men." It's about the small posse of Americans and Brits saving art of all types at the end of WWII. Saw the movie of the same name a few weeks ago.
Dickbob

climber
Westminster Colorado
Jun 18, 2014 - 06:34pm PT
Just finished Stephen Kings Mr. Mercedes. Give it a chance. The characters are palpable. King is the master of character development, dialogue and syntax.

A psycho serial killer steals a Mercedes and plows into a group of desperate people lined up for a job fare killing eight and injuring many. That is how it opens. It is vague in classic King style then it flips back can forth for awhile between the retired detective who never captured him and Mr Mercedes who taunts the old school dude on the internet via an invitation chat room. The detective has a best and only friend who is an African American senior who takes care of his lawn and is computer literate and is key to helps pull the whole thing off. Enter the daughter of the woman who owns the Mercedes. Detective falls in love. Gets a renewed psych and goes after the Mercedes killer without letting his pre retirement partner know. It’s all cool until the sh!t hits the fan when Ret Detective ignores the internet taunts and the Mercedes Killer feels he is closing in. Fricken Classic King for sure.

King. Love him or hate him… he can tell a story.

http://stephenking.com/images/books/mr_mercedes/mr_mecedes_full.jpg


bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
Jun 18, 2014 - 07:13pm PT
Maybe you people are obscure literary aficionados I would gather. Do you really think you people think you're smarter with listing these books?

For fiction I dig old-school sci-fi. Bradbury, Heinlein, and Asimov. Also Hemingway and Steinbeck. I guess I'm a classicist.

Non-fiction i read now is conservative Constitutionalism.
stevep

Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
Jun 18, 2014 - 07:38pm PT
Mr. Mercedes is on my bookshelf waiting.

Sandstone, if you're interested in scary smallpox non-fiction, try The Demon in the Freezer.

Bluey, any kind of reading is good. I try to mix it up. Currently it's Cubed (a history of the workplace) and Judas Unchained by Peter Hamilton, which is a big space opera along the lines of the Foundation Trilogy. Thanks to Greg Crouch for that recommendation.
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
Jun 18, 2014 - 07:59pm PT
Yer right, SteveP. I just find some of the modern classics to be contrived.

It's all good though. Literature is an art, and people will always have different tastes. i get all that.

EDIT:
Bluey, damn straight I'm a book snob. I did my senior thesis on Hemingway and Sartre in college. Neener neener.

I know ALL about you, Sully. You're a huge fan of Hemingway, if I remember correctly. But I also like your ability to be rational and use reason.

EDIT: If I recall, you thought Hemingway to be quite the misogynist. I thought different. He was macho, from a different era.

Whether you like that now or not, is a different issue from Hem., it was a different time.
drljefe

climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
Jun 18, 2014 - 08:39pm PT
Rick A recommended it earlier,
Welcome To Paradise, Now Go Home by Chas Smith.
A fun and funny read about localism on the North Shore of Oahu.
Reading it aloud, only on weekends, with Leggs.
Otherwise I'd probably finish it off in a day. Good stuff!
Ward Trotter

Trad climber
Jun 18, 2014 - 09:32pm PT
Sartre

That explains a lot..

All we need is yet another Simone de Beauvoir around here.
jbaker

Trad climber
Redwood City, CA
Jun 18, 2014 - 09:45pm PT
Just finished "Blood Will Out" by Walter Kirn. Very interesting, if a bit unsatisfying at the end.

Michael Lewis' "Flash Boys" was excellent.

I'm working on Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow." Depressing as hell, but required reading. It is hard to read more than a chapter at a time. It will ring true to anyone who has spent time around the American criminal justice system.

I'm been dipping back into Kevin Starr's "America and the California Dream." Some of it hasn't aged well, but there is a lot of truth in the book.
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Jun 19, 2014 - 07:58am PT
Hope you're enjoying Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained, Stevep! True credit for the reccy comes from our own Tom Lambert. He's the guy who turned my son and I onto that duet.

I reviewed Andy Hall's Denali's Howl for The WSJ this past weekend. Good book about the 1967 Wilcox Expedition disaster on Denali.

Here's the review, linked through a google search, which I think allows us to get past their paywall.
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Jun 19, 2014 - 10:15am PT
Chris Hedges; 'I Don't Believe in Atheists'.

Hedges takes on both the neo-darwinian militant atheist movement (Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris et al) and fundamentalist as the same time (though he gives the fundamentalists a bit of a pass due to economic pressures). His basic line is the new atheists don't understand sh#t about religion and only take cheap shots at some simplistic caricature of religion, using mostly radical Islamists or medieval Catholics as a stand in for any and all religion. Meanwhile the atheists, out of unbridled pride, call for mass murder of Muslims (Harris in particular). Overall I agree with Hedges analysis, but it gets a bit strident after a while. 4 out of 5 starts.
Ward Trotter

Trad climber
Jun 19, 2014 - 12:09pm PT
Yes, Ward , look into Hemingway's Nick Adams stories to find an existential bonanza. Same with The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

An " existential bonanza" ? You know I've never considered Hemingway as an existential philosopher in the guise of a writer. My summation of Hemingway was that he somehow managed one brilliant thing in his career: he transferred what was essentially a journalistic style of writing over to the format of a narrative novel. And then for the next thirty years he drank himself into a stupor , only emerging long enough to write The Old Man And The Sea before sticking a shotgun in his mouth.

Still, he was a great writer when compared to the likes of Sartre---who was way, way overblown as both a philosopher and a writer. Better known and celebrated today as preeminent Benzedrine fanatic.

Of all the putatively "existential" writers during that period Albert Camus was perhaps the only one really worth a damn.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

I grew up in the sea and poverty was sumptuous, then I lost the sea and found all luxuries grey and poverty unbearable. Since then, I have been waiting. I wait for the homebound ships, the house of the waters, the limpidity of day. I wait patiently, am polite with all my strength. Men see me walk by in fine and learned streets. I admire landscapes, applaud like everyone else, shake hands, but it is not me speaking. Men praise me, I dream a little, they insult me, I scarcely show surprise. Then I forget, and smile at the man who insulted me, or am too courteous in greeting the person I love. What can I do if all I can remember is one image? Finally they call upon me to tell them who I am, ‘Nothing yet, nothing yet…’
Chief

climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
Jun 19, 2014 - 01:59pm PT
Back and forth between "Marine" The Life of Chesty Puller and "Zen Guitar".
Is that eclectic, disparate or just weird?
Ward Trotter

Trad climber
Jun 19, 2014 - 03:58pm PT
But seeing No Exit was one of them.

My own similar bonding experience with my dad consisted of the odd episode or two of Gunsmoke or perhaps Green Acres when I got to secondhand inhale a full pack of his Winstons.

BTW I've somehow earned a life-long appreciation of Festus Hagen and that talking pig "Arnold" not to mention knowing the Green Acres theme song by heart:


Green acres is the place to be.
Farm livin' is the life for me.
Land spreadin' out so far and wide.
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
New York is where I'd rather stay.
I get allergic smelling hay.
I just adore a penthouse view.
Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue.
. .The chores.
. .The stores.
. .Fresh air.
. .Times Square.
You are my wife.
Good bye, city life.
Green Acres we are there.


Anyway, just by looking at him you'd never know he could talk:

I once read No Exit ,Nausea ,and struggled part way through Being and Nothingness---the worlds least engaging work of philosophy, and the hastily-scribbled product of at least two pounds of Benzedrine .
bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
Jun 19, 2014 - 04:17pm PT
I don't read too much fiction but I did read, "The Tenth", a few weeks ago.

Very good read, IMO.


And the author was very kind when I chatted with her.
MisterE

climber
Jun 25, 2014 - 07:53am PT
micronut

Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
Jun 25, 2014 - 09:02am PT
I just finished The Maze Runner. I have a sixteen year old daughter and I like reading her teeny bopper novels with her. It reads like it was written by a tenth grader, but man it sure is fun. A fun plot and will make for a very fun movie this summer.




Last summer I was dragged kicking and screaming into these......

And loved every minute of them.


I'm usually into heavy stuff. Just finishing Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond and thoroughly lost myself in Cormack McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I'm in the middle of studying 2nd Timothy in The Bible and A History of The World by Andrew Marr. But right now I can't put down the second of The Maze Runner series, The Scorch Trials.
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