Books

[Rick Hobbs]

Great list here. Turns out I've read a few of them myself.
Bill Bryson's "A Walk In The Wood" was indeed pretty funny. The author sets out to hike the Appalachian Trail but unlike other outdoor adventure tales where the protagonist struggles and perseveres against hardship and fatigue to reach the stated goal, the author and his partner end up quitting. But not quite- they do go on to tackle sections of the trail and along the way find a good story to tell. Another entertaining work by Bryson is "The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid", which chronicles his childhood, telling in the process a story of an America which a lot of us remember but may be forever lost.
Krakauer's "Into The Wild" was a soul-searing tale of a young man who refused to live in the "materialistic" world and set off on a Thoreuvian odyssey back and forth across America, finally meeting his death in Alaska. I rememer a time when I had a bit of "Alexander Supertramp" in me, and wanted to just cut all ties and go- somewhere, anywhere. I like just about anything by Jon Krakauer. I've also read "Into Thin Air" and "Eiger Dreams", and recommend both.
I grew up reading a lot of science fiction, and my favorites were written by the "Golden Age" authors: Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, etc. Our local librarian turned me on to Heinlein's "juvenile" series when I was around ten years old or so. Most of them are outdated from a science and technology viewpoint but still hold up well story-wise. Of Heinliens "adult" novels (as in mature, not pornographic), my favorites are "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" and "Starship Troopers". Don't waste your time with the movie that came out a few years back. It's a deliberate farce and totally misses the point of what Heinlein was trying to tell us through the teachers of "History and Moral Philosophy".
I just got through reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", and what a project it was. It took me over two weeks of my spare time to saw my way through it, but it may just be the most important book I've ever read. It could be the most important book anyone could ever read. My only previous experience with Ayn Rand was "Anthem" which was a high-school reading assignment. A much quicker read. "Atlas Shrugged" is what you might get if you took all the works of modern conservative authors and boiled them into one. Although it was published in 1957, the parallels between the events in the book and modern times are obvious for all to see. A more powerful repudiation of socialism I have yet to encounter.
On a less political note, I've yet to respond to whoever mentioned the Shackleton story. I have his own version of the story, "South". Like the man said, once you know what those men went through, our local winters pale in comparison. It's a story of amazing courage against nearly impossible odds, with the most extreme conditions Nature can produce as a constant backdrop. Even in this day and age, there are all too few of us who could accomplish what Shackleton did- saving all of his men- with the equipment on hand, under unimaginably difficult circumstances.
Nice to write about something other than disc golf for a change-lately it's been just too damn hot to go out and throw.
RH

[Keith Morin]

The Sparrow.... a movie?

Brad pitt as Emilio Sandoz?

hmmm..


http://bradpitt-information.com/the-sparrow

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2006/03/03 ... row-movie/

[Dave Jackson]

Try : "Trout Fishing in America" by Richard Brautigan (sp?)
"The Anatomy of a Golf Course" by Tom Doak.
"Life's Little Instruction Book" by...?

All quick reads.

[Stephen Ditter]

Good call on Brautigan, love all his work.

-mange

[Jason Southwick]

I read the Steg Larson trilogy over vacation: The Girl Who With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. The fact that all three were published posthumously -- along with some flaws -- magnifies the impression that they could have used more editing. Too many characters never were developed, and a couple subplots that seemed like they would tie in to the big conspiracy wound up connecting to very little. Still, couldn't put 'em down, and yes they're way up there on every best seller list. But no, they don't rise to the level of Patricia Cornwell's concise writing. Didn't matter. Perfect vacation reading.

These were my very first ebooks, and I'm hooked. It's actually easier to read an ebook than a regular book. Combine that with not having to cut down trees and grind them into pulp to make paper and truck the books all over the place -- to name just a few of the physical resources and processes required to produce a book -- and the whole notion of carrying around a little computer tablet that you can order books on and read them instantly starts to seem like a winner.

The stranglehold on your credit card combined with easy push-button spending is scary, but so is cash in your wallet during happy hour.

Course, you do have to keep the battery charged, and the e-readers themselves require their own production processes. Nevertheless, add me to the e-reader converts.

But which e-reader? Kelley read the same three books on her Kindle, and I used her IPad. They're basically the same thing with huge differences. The IPad is maybe twice as big, has a much shorter battery life, and is tough to read in the sunlight cause of glare. The Kindle screen has zero glare in direct sun, but you can't read it in the dark because it has no back-lighting like the IPad screen. The Kindle has to be held upright, and you use buttons to turn the page. The IPad's text re-orients itself to upright as you flip it around, and its screen is a touch screen. So the reading experience on the IPad is much cooler in a geeky sense.

There you have it. What a strange feeling, this thinking about deleting a post because it's too boring. Oh well.