tomas
Trail Wise!
Posts: 1,906
|
Post by tomas on Mar 17, 2017 5:46:34 GMT -8
Currently I'm splitting my reading time between the scifi classic Dune and a historical text Lithuanian Nationalism and the Vilnius Question, 1883–1940.
|
|
|
Post by stealthytomato on Mar 17, 2017 5:55:48 GMT -8
What did you not like about Walkimg Man? I really enjoyed it, but came away with less esteem for Fletcher as a human being. Pretty sad, really. It felt a little list-like at times. The story of Fletcher's life is remarkable but to me it seemed as if the author was more concerned at times with cataloging the multitude of materials and lists. I found it didn't engage me as I was hoping it would.
|
|
GaliWalker
Trail Wise!
Have camera, will use.
Posts: 3,698
Member is Online
|
Post by GaliWalker on Mar 17, 2017 7:02:58 GMT -8
Currently reading The Dark Forest, which is the second book in Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem trilogy. Cixin Liu is a China's most prolific and popular science fiction writer. (The first and final books in the trilogy have been translated into English by Ken Liu and the second by Joel Martinsen.) The first book, The Three Body Problem, was fantastic. Like the best of hard SF books there's an interesting concept to marvel at in seemingly every chapter. The pace is frenetic, and almost every other chapter reads like a poetic set piece. I can't recommend this series enough!
|
|
|
Post by hikerjer on Mar 17, 2017 16:51:50 GMT -8
[tr][td class="content"][article] Frankly I see more similarities with what the Bolsheviks said and did in their rise to power, but in the end it was horrible for both countries. I guess we both realize that the difference between fascist and communist totalitarian states is very little in actually.
|
|
|
Post by dayhiker on Mar 18, 2017 10:55:47 GMT -8
I read this book, it is about the race to secure the PNW for the US and the global fur trapping trade, a bit after Lewis and Clark. They had a play based on it in Portland ( Astoria is named after Jacob Astor) - Part 1. www.peterstarkauthor.com/astoria/Like another book from around 1812 I read it is preceded by a much earlier book, this one by Washington Irving which I just finished. (The other book is about sailors from a ship wreck who are taken hostage for ransom in Africa apparently quite common back then as it is now, though I think that was a different part of Africa and they did not take to the seas to capture folks). I wasn't aware how much people read back then. ===== I am now reading " I contain the Multitudes" by ED Yong. Quite interesting but I do have to put it down as it also has it tedious parts. About Microbes and how we (and other organismes) live and benefit from them and their evolution (and ours).
|
|
|
Post by stealthytomato on Mar 24, 2017 7:57:26 GMT -8
|
|
rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,667
|
Post by rebeccad on Mar 24, 2017 9:55:01 GMT -8
The first book, The Three Body Problem, was fantastic. Like the best of hard SF books there's an interesting concept to marvel at in seemingly every chapter. The pace is frenetic, and almost every other chapter reads like a poetic set piece. Thanks for the tip! I'm looking for some good new SF.
|
|
rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,667
|
Post by rebeccad on Mar 24, 2017 9:56:23 GMT -8
I read this book, it is about the race to secure the PNW for the US and the global fur trapping trade, a bit after Lewis and Clark. They had a play based on it in Portland ( Astoria is named after Jacob Astor) - Part 1. www.peterstarkauthor.com/astoria/I recently read this as well. I thought it was a good book, with some valuable history. I wasn't impressed with the guys who did the operation--they were nothing like the smarts and class act of the Lewis & Clark expedition. But the history was interesting.
|
|
|
Post by dayhiker on Mar 24, 2017 15:40:31 GMT -8
Yes that was my impression
|
|
|
Post by hikingtiger on May 9, 2017 9:27:52 GMT -8
Just finished Rick Bragg's "My Southern Journey." Started "How We Got To Now" by Steven Johnson. It's an interesting story of developments that have shaped modern society. Not really a detailed explanation of how, for example, early refrigeration worked, but rather it discusses the technological advances in light of the social, political, and cultural events that formed the tech advances as well as the changes that came from them.
|
|
whistlepunk
Trail Wise!
I was an award winning honor student once. I have no idea what happened...
Posts: 1,446
|
Post by whistlepunk on May 9, 2017 14:11:14 GMT -8
Bernard Cornwell's 'Archer's Tales' series. Historical fiction set during the Hundred Years War. Follows the exploits and adventures of a longbow archer in the English Army.
Already finished his Saxon Tales series (Norse invasion of England), and Sharpe's series (Napoleonic Wars).
|
|
swiftdream
Trail Wise!
the Great Southwest Unbound
Posts: 544
|
Post by swiftdream on May 9, 2017 16:59:00 GMT -8
Nobody like him and his white hot historical fiction. I intersperse him into my reading list from time to time.
|
|
amaruq
Trail Wise!
Call me Little Spoon
Posts: 1,264
|
Post by amaruq on May 15, 2017 6:24:49 GMT -8
I've been plugging through Homer's Iliad as translated by Rob Fagles. I'm enjoying it much more than I thought I would, enough to get his translations of the Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.
This past weekend I found A Long Way Gone on a charity 'Buck-a-Book' table at our local liquor store. So that's also in the queue.
|
|
rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,667
|
Post by rebeccad on May 15, 2017 21:00:57 GMT -8
Just finished Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel. He walked across the US talking to people and recording many of the conversations, trying to find out both what people's lives are like and what they think--and, frankly, trying to find out who he was (he pretty clearly started with an idea that somehow other people could tell him that). It's a pretty good read, and a different take on long-distance hiking.
|
|
|
Post by trinity on May 18, 2017 5:36:35 GMT -8
I'm reading Tribe, by Sebastian Junger. Very interesting and well-written. It is a book about belonging and meaning, and focuses on combat veterans returning home, and why it is so difficult for them to reintegrate into our society. I think it is a fascinating and an important book.
|
|