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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

sk1wbw

sk1wbw

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May 28, 2011
3,483
1,010
Williamsburg, Virginia
Got the trial book but it seems good enough to purchase.

img3468496920e3011f2.jpg
 
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macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,199
47,583
In a coffee shop.
JamesMike said:
Reading military historian John Keegan's 'The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme'
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I'm curious to know why - or, using what criteria - he picked those three battles in particular.

For, although I am very interested in military history, - and these were each important battles - it does seem to have been inspired by a sort of 'English centric' (or British centric) view of things.
 
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JamesMike

JamesMike

macrumors 603
Nov 3, 2014
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"His reassessment of the three battles are representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants, whether they are facing the arrow cloud at the battle of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme."
 
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macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,199
47,583
In a coffee shop.
JamesMike said:
"His reassessment of the three battles are representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants, whether they are facing the arrow cloud at the battle of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme."
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

However, I think it interesting to focus on specific battles (though hugely important) where England (later Britain) won (if, on occasion, barely, or, at enormous cost), rather than the plethora of battles against the same opponents in protracted wars (feudal France with their aristocratic heavy cavalry in the case of Agincourt and Napoleonic France with its disturbing and unsettling ideologies in the case of Waterloo, and Imperial Germany at the Somme) in accounts which discount the role played by allies.

I enjoy reading about this stuff, but I have read (and studied) too much English (and British) history, not to be aware of the slightly skewed perspective - and startling gaps - that one can find if one confines oneself to such sources.

Nevertheless, I will read your conclusions and views on this book with considerable interest.
 
ThisBougieLife

ThisBougieLife

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Jan 21, 2016
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Northern California
Reading The Crying of Lot 49. I've been meaning to read Pynchon for a while, but the last time I tried to read this book, it became hard to follow midway through and I never finished it. Now I seem to "get it" much more and I'm almost half-way done. I am looking forward to reading more of Pynchon now.
 
AppleDApp

AppleDApp

macrumors 68020
Jun 21, 2011
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Any tips on getting back into reading? I haven't read in a while and have the week off. I would like to spend it away from my computer.
 
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macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,199
47,583
In a coffee shop.
AppleDApp said:
Any tips on getting back into reading? I haven't read in a while and have the week off. I would like to spend it away from my computer.
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What do you like to read about?

That is where you would start: Do you like fact, - such as history or science - or fiction? Do you like analytical books, or something relaxing?

If fiction, what do you like? Serious fiction, fantasy, escapist stuff, or other areas?
 
AppleDApp

AppleDApp

macrumors 68020
Jun 21, 2011
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I mainly read english fiction books. Here is a list of the books I read over the last year to give you an Idea. The big thing is I had a list of books I really wanted to read and a goal of reading a book a month I have since lost motivation and read the better part of the books on my list.

Emergency by Neil Strauss

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins
The 4 Chef The Simple Path to cooking like a pro, learning anything and living the good life

Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman

“HOW TO DISAPPEAR Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave Fake Trails, and Vanish without a Trace

Frank M. Ahearn and Eileen C. Horan”

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

The Clock of the Long Now Stewart Brand

The 100$ startup by Chris Guillebeau

Meditations Marcus Aurelius
 
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macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,199
47,583
In a coffee shop.
With the exception of Marcus Aurelius, I have not read any of them, but your list suggests that you have an abiding fascination with the history and application of technology and business.

Find a writer or critic you respect in that field, and see what recommendations they would have. My passion - or, one of my passions - is history, and if I find a writer whose work I like, to rate, I will check who they in turn recommend in a particular field.
 
bradl

bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,952
17,447
This, and playing the classic game of Paperboy.


henry-and-the-paper-route-cover-image.jpg



Happy 100th Birthday, Beverly Cleary!

http://www.npr.org/2016/04/11/47355...ing-100-but-she-has-always-thought-like-a-kid

Beverly Cleary Is Turning 100, But She Has Always Thought Like A Kid
April 11, 201611:48 AM ET
by Melissa Jaeger-Miller

Beverly Cleary has sold 85 million copies of 41 books and — if those numbers weren't impressive enough — she turns 100 on Tuesday. Though the world was a very different place when Cleary was a child, she has always maintained that kids pretty much stay the same — which explains the ongoing popularity of her beloved characters, like Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins and Ralph S. Mouse.

Cleary was in her early 30s and working part time in a bookstore when she sat down at a typewriter to see if just maybe she could write a book for kids. She had worked as a librarian before World War II, and she wished she'd had books for young readers about children living everyday lives.

"I think children want to read about normal, everyday kids," she told NPR in 1999. "That's what I wanted to read about when I was growing up. I wanted to read about the sort of boys and girls that I knew in my neighborhood and in my school. ... I think children like to find themselves in books."

Her first book, Henry Huggins, came out in 1950. Henry had a friend named Beezus, and Beezus had a mischievous but lovable little sister named Ramona. Over the next five decades, Cleary took Ramona all the way from nursery school to the fourth grade. Cleary says when she was writing Ramona, she took inspiration from a little girl who lived in the house behind her as a child.

"She had been sent to the neighborhood store for a pound of butter," Cleary told NPR in 2010. "In those days, it was all in one piece, not in cubes. And she had opened the butter and was eating it."

Cleary spent her earliest years on a farm in Oregon before moving to the big city of Portland during the Depression. Her daughter says that her mom jokes that she's as surprised as anyone she's made it to 100 — but she has almost no health complaints besides a bit of arthritis. Cleary's daughter credits, in part, genetics.

"My ancestors crossed the plains in covered wagons ..." says Marianne Cleary. "And so my mother is from Pioneer stock. ... She's very disciplined. When she would write every morning, she would sit down after breakfast, my brother and I would go to school, and she'd write, till noon or so. She never waited for inspiration, she just got to it."

It worked. Her books have hooked generations of children, including a young Jeff Kinney, who grew up to become the author of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series.

"I must have been about 8 or 9 years old when I first read Beverly Cleary," Kinney recalls. "The book that really grabbed me was Ramona Quimby, Age 8. She looked feral. I needed to get to know this character."

Kinney has 165 million books in print, and he knows a thing or two about writing for children.

"Most kids have parents, teachers, bullies — we all experience these things," he says. "And Beverly Cleary tapped into that. Her work is still as relevant today as when it first came out."

Cleary has said that she's always thought like a kid — and she has very clear memories of her own childhood. "I'm just lucky," she told NPR in 2006. "I do have very clear memories of childhood. I find that many people don't, but I'm just very fortunate that I have that kind of memory."

Now, generations of children have been fortunate enough to enjoy her stories of Klickitat Street. So thanks, Beverly Cleary. And happy birthday.

For more, visit Discovering Beverly Cleary from OPB.
Click to expand...

BL.
 
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fitshaced

fitshaced

macrumors 68000
Jul 2, 2011
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Just finished 11.22.63 and think it will be my last Stephen King book.

Great concept
Good writing
Unnecessarily long
Not a funny joke insight - some writers really struggle with this, not from lack of trying

Also, could anyone recommend a quality time travel book? King made me feel bad about wanting to time travel. I want to feel good about it.

Edit: I went with this.
348.jpg


I figure Back to the Future II was my favourite of that trilogy so I guess I prefer going forward than back.
 
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