What books are you currently reading? Part 2

[Sir Sebastian]

I received the books I ordered from Amazon.de (in addition to the Kim Possible Season 1 boxed set) today, Matthew Reilly's Ice Station and Scarecrow. Just started on Ice Station. This guy doesn't do small...

[jeriddian]

We're reading The Scarlet Letter in English now. Not too sure how I feel about it yet.

That can be a tough read, AIC. If you get the right teacher though, that can be a good book to study with a lot of interesting facts about it, but Hawthorne can be a difficult read, as can any of the nineteenth century authors, but when you understand the symbolism he's going for and how he uses words to do it, it's pretty neat, or at least I thought so.

Unfortunately my English teacher is not one I would choose for any of the books we read. She just isn't quite all there, in terms of her philosophy of books really. I don't know how to describe it however.

That's a real shame, AIC. The quality of the teacher is what makes or breaks an English class, I think.:ohwell:

I received the books I ordered from Amazon.de (in addition to the Kim Possible Season 1 boxed set) today, Matthew Reilly's Ice Station and Scarecrow. Just started on Ice Station. This guy doesn't do small...

You already received your box set? Dang! I don't expect mine to arrive for another two or three weeks.:mad:

[Sir Sebastian]

You already received your box set? Dang! I don't expect mine to arrive for another two or three weeks.:mad:

No, I just got the books. The boxed set doesn't ship for about a week or so. Sorry if I was unclear.

[kyojikasshu]

Stephen Colbert "I am American, and So Can You"

My dad actually got that for his birthday, but I've started going through it.

Keith Olbermann.... .....personally, I think the man is the epitomy of yellow journalism, and William Randolph Hearst would be right proud of him. He ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on rail as far as I'm concerned.:mad:

He used to be one of my favorite anchors on SportsCenter back in the day... but he's never been the same to me since then.

[TransWarpDrive]

Keith Olbermann.... .....personally, I think the man is the epitomy of yellow journalism, and William Randolph Hearst would be right proud of him. He ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on rail as far as I'm concerned.:mad:
I disagree. He's only doing what the conservative talk-show hosts are doing, but from the opposite viewpoint. Besides, I like him - IMHO, we need someone like Mr. Olbermann to counter folks like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O' Reilly, or George W. Bush.

Getting back on-topic:
I'm currently reading another Star Wars book - "Darth Bane: Rule of Two" by Drew Karpyshyn. It's the sequel to his previous book, "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction," which I just finished. They're pretty good, too.

[jeriddian]

Keith Olbermann.... .....personally, I think the man is the epitomy of yellow journalism, and William Randolph Hearst would be right proud of him. He ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on rail as far as I'm concerned.:mad:
I disagree. He's only doing what the conservative talk-show hosts are doing, but from the opposite viewpoint. Besides, I like him - IMHO, we need someone like Mr. Olbermann to counter folks like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O' Reilly, or George W. Bush.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. While I agree that Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reiily [Limbaugh significantly more than O'Reilly] do tend to go overboard to some degree, Olbermann goes way past that and just plain makes it up as he goes along from what I can see, IMHO. I truly find the man despicable.:thumbdown:

Getting back on-topic:
I'm currently reading another Star Wars book - "Darth Bane: Rule of Two" by Drew Karpyshyn. It's the sequel to his previous book, "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction," which I just finished. They're pretty good, too.

Those look very interesting. I think I will see about reading them also. I've been reading the Legacy of the Force series which is a nine book series involving the Solo and Skywalker families, mostly their children. Very gut wrenching. Just finished the eighth novel. Only one left to go. The nine books were written by three well known Star Wars contributing authors. It's got to be serious when a major character gets killed off by a family member who's turned into a Sith Lord.

[Sir Sebastian]

Getting back on-topic:
I'm currently reading another Star Wars book - "Darth Bane: Rule of Two" by Drew Karpyshyn. It's the sequel to his previous book, "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction," which I just finished. They're pretty good, too.

Those look very interesting. I think I will see about reading them also. I've been reading the Legacy of the Force series which is a nine book series involving the Solo and Skywalker families, mostly their children. Very gut wrenching. Just finished the eighth novel. Only one left to go. The nine books were written by three well known Star Wars contributing authors. It's got to be serious when a major character gets killed off by a family member who's turned into a Sith Lord.

The only Star Wars books I've read is the very good Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. I'll try to get my hands on The Hand of Thrawn duology at some point.

Btw, who made Huckabee, Conan or Colbert? :D

[Fireand'chutes77]

Btw, who made Huckabee, Conan or Colbert? :D
John Stewart! :D

[jeriddian]

The only Star Wars books I've read is the very good Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. I'll try to get my hands on The Hand of Thrawn duology at some point. :D

Yes!:D That was also a very excellent trilogy that Zahn wrote. I enjoyed tremendously. However, I think you'll enjoy legacy of the force even better. Of course, you'll have to catch up on everything that's happened since Thrawn was on the scene. (about thirty years of Star Wars Universe time).

[kyojikasshu]

The only Star Wars books I've read is the very good Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. I'll try to get my hands on The Hand of Thrawn duology at some point.


I haven't read any Star Wars books in a while, but the Thrawn Trilogy is in my collection.

My sister (a far bigger Star Wars dork than me) loved the books... right up until Delta Source was revealed. She was not happy with that particular revelation at all. But, other than that, she loved those books.

[Ran Hakubi]

Ah, franchised books. The ultimate Fanfiction.

[NinjaNaco]

Haven't read the Star Wars books for a while now. Though I did re-read Starfighters of Adumar and read the first Rogue Squadron book not that long ago.

Currently reading End of the Beginning by Harry Turtledove, and have started reading With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz (inadvertantly found a 1904ish copy in google's book section)...

[TransWarpDrive]

I finished reading that second Darth Bane book yesterday, and let me tell you, it was as well-done as the first! It takes a little getting used to reading a story written from the "bad guy's" point of view. Darth Bane makes Vader look like a Cub Scout by comparison - that's how nasty and sociopathic the early Sith Lords were.
I decided to take a break from "Star Wars" for a while, and am rereading an old favorite: "Winter Hawk," by Craig Thomas. In this book, Major Mitchell Gant, the hero of Thomas's books, "Firefox" and "Firefox Down," has to fly into the Soviet Union in a captured Russian helicopter to retrieve a spy who has information about a new space-based weapon system the Soviets are about to deploy. This book features three exciting aerial chase scenes, which especially appeals to me, since I'm a licensed pilot myself (and a helicopter fan since early childhood). :thumbup:

[Fireand'chutes77]

....and am rereading an old favorite: "Winter Hawk," by Craig Thomas. In this book, Major Mitchell Gant, the hero of Thomas's books, "Firefox" and "Firefox Down," has to fly into the Soviet Union in a captured Russian helicopter to retrieve a spy who has information about a new space-based weapon system the Soviets are about to deploy. This book features three exciting aerial chase scenes, which especially appeals to me, since I'm a licensed pilot myself (and a helicopter fan since early childhood). :thumbup:
The name "Firefox" rings a bell. That's the airplane where the pilots have to think in Russian, right?

[TransWarpDrive]

....and am rereading an old favorite: "Winter Hawk," by Craig Thomas. In this book, Major Mitchell Gant, the hero of Thomas's books, "Firefox" and "Firefox Down," has to fly into the Soviet Union in a captured Russian helicopter to retrieve a spy who has information about a new space-based weapon system the Soviets are about to deploy. This book features three exciting aerial chase scenes, which especially appeals to me, since I'm a licensed pilot myself (and a helicopter fan since early childhood). :thumbup:
The name "Firefox" rings a bell. That's the airplane where the pilots have to think in Russian, right?
Exactly! Have you read the book, or seen the film starring Clint Eastwood?

[Fireand'chutes77]

....and am rereading an old favorite: "Winter Hawk," by Craig Thomas. In this book, Major Mitchell Gant, the hero of Thomas's books, "Firefox" and "Firefox Down," has to fly into the Soviet Union in a captured Russian helicopter to retrieve a spy who has information about a new space-based weapon system the Soviets are about to deploy. This book features three exciting aerial chase scenes, which especially appeals to me, since I'm a licensed pilot myself (and a helicopter fan since early childhood). :thumbup:
The name "Firefox" rings a bell. That's the airplane where the pilots have to think in Russian, right?
Exactly! Have you read the book, or seen the film starring Clint Eastwood?
No, I stumbled across it on Wikipedia while researching for OLS. :blush:

You've perked my interest in reading it, though. Maybe sometime this summer.... (:dubiety:)

[TransWarpDrive]

....and am rereading an old favorite: "Winter Hawk," by Craig Thomas. In this book, Major Mitchell Gant, the hero of Thomas's books, "Firefox" and "Firefox Down," has to fly into the Soviet Union in a captured Russian helicopter to retrieve a spy who has information about a new space-based weapon system the Soviets are about to deploy. This book features three exciting aerial chase scenes, which especially appeals to me, since I'm a licensed pilot myself (and a helicopter fan since early childhood). :thumbup:
The name "Firefox" rings a bell. That's the airplane where the pilots have to think in Russian, right?
Exactly! Have you read the book, or seen the film starring Clint Eastwood?
No, I stumbled across it on Wikipedia while researching for OLS. :blush:

You've perked my interest in reading it, though. Maybe sometime this summer.... (:dubiety:)
Good for you! I highly recommend all three books: "Firefox," "Firefox Down," and "Winter Hawk." I believe they're all still in print in paperback. You should be able to find them at your local bookstore (or library, if you don't want to buy them).

[GoTeamGirl]

Julius Caesar is coming along. Caesar died already, so now we're in the aftermath part. I'm still trying to figure out who exactly is the tragic hero in this book. I don't think it's Caesar, since his downfall was quick rather than prolonged and painful...plus he died in the beginning!

[TransWarpDrive]

Julius Caesar is coming along. Caesar died already, so now we're in the aftermath part. I'm still trying to figure out who exactly is the tragic hero in this book. I don't think it's Caesar, since his downfall was quick rather than prolonged and painful...plus he died in the beginning!
That's the play by Shakespeare, right?
I remember studying that in high school myself all those many years ago...
Yesterday I bought two books by Mark Twain: "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," and "The Innocents Abroad." I think I'll start reading "Connecticut Yankee" once I finish "Winter Hawk."

[Fireand'chutes77]

I've gotten another "independant reading" assignment from English. This time, the only limits are "American author, American book." I'd been hoping to read "Firefox" by Craig Thomas, but I found out he's British.

So I turned to the "spokesperson" of the genre Thomas kicked off - Tom Clancy.

I'm trying to figure out what my very first Clancy book will be. "Red October" is well known and his first book, so it might be good to start there. "Red Storm Rising" looks pretty cool too, though.

Suggestions?

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

Executive Orders! Ether that or Dept of Honor.

[jeriddian]

I've gotten another "independant reading" assignment from English. This time, the only limits are "American author, American book." I'd been hoping to read "Firefox" by Craig Thomas, but I found out he's British.

So I turned to the "spokesperson" of the genre Thomas kicked off - Tom Clancy.

I'm trying to figure out what my very first Clancy book will be. "Red October" is well known and his first book, so it might be good to start there. "Red Storm Rising" looks pretty cool too, though.

Suggestions?

"Red Storm Rising", I think, is the first of his Jack Ryan series. "Red Rabbit" also predates "Hunt for Red October.".......

He sure likes to use the color 'red' a lot in his titles, doesn't he?:P:laugh:

[Ran Hakubi]

I've gotten another "independant reading" assignment from English. This time, the only limits are "American author, American book." I'd been hoping to read "Firefox" by Craig Thomas, but I found out he's British.

So I turned to the "spokesperson" of the genre Thomas kicked off - Tom Clancy.

I'm trying to figure out what my very first Clancy book will be. "Red October" is well known and his first book, so it might be good to start there. "Red Storm Rising" looks pretty cool too, though.

Suggestions?

Rainbow Six is pretty good. I have yet to finish it, but what I have read isn't to bad. Good amount of action.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I've gotten another "independant reading" assignment from English. This time, the only limits are "American author, American book." I'd been hoping to read "Firefox" by Craig Thomas, but I found out he's British.

So I turned to the "spokesperson" of the genre Thomas kicked off - Tom Clancy.

I'm trying to figure out what my very first Clancy book will be. "Red October" is well known and his first book, so it might be good to start there. "Red Storm Rising" looks pretty cool too, though.

Suggestions?

"Red Storm Rising", I think, is the first of his Jack Ryan series.
I don't think so, if Wikipedia is correct.
...[RSR] is one of two novels that has no association with Clancy's others, as it does not fall in the Ryanverse.

"Red Rabbit" also predates "Hunt for Red October.".......
In chronology, yes. I think it was published a lot later than THfRO, though.

He sure likes to use the color 'red' a lot in his titles, doesn't he?:P:laugh:
Yeah. :laugh:

I gave that book title a slight shout-out in "OLS."

“...Hmph….So he can be warmer than an icicle,” said Simms, glancing toward the flapping swing door. “There must have been something about you he liked…. Reminded me a bit of House, if you ask me,” he finished with a grumble.

“…You just don’t like him ‘cause he’s British,” retorted Dr. Director, nettled.

Kim sensed a red storm rising and quickly headed it off. “.....So, uh, guys…. How did you find out I was in trouble in the first place?”

[campy]

I'm reading The Art Thief by Noah Charney. I'm totally lost so far; it's very confusing. :hmm:

[TransWarpDrive]

I've gotten another "independant reading" assignment from English. This time, the only limits are "American author, American book." I'd been hoping to read "Firefox" by Craig Thomas, but I found out he's British.

So I turned to the "spokesperson" of the genre Thomas kicked off - Tom Clancy.

I'm trying to figure out what my very first Clancy book will be. "Red October" is well known and his first book, so it might be good to start there. "Red Storm Rising" looks pretty cool too, though.

Suggestions?

I've got Clancy's "Hunt for Red October," "The Cardinal of the Kremlin," "Red Storm Rising," "Without Remorse," and "The Bear and the Dragon." I've also got his non-fiction "Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship." I've read "Submarine," and all the fiction books except "Without Remorse." I'll get around to that one eventually. I highly recommend "October," "Cardinal," and "Bear" - each one's a good read; and "Cardinal" features characters mentioned in passing in "Red October." And "Bear" starts with a bang - literally - and builds to a terrific climax that'll have you on the edge of your seat. It's that good.
"Submarine" is an excellent look at the submarines currently used by the U.S. Navy. In fact, I think there's a revised and updated edition of that book currently available. Check with your local bookseller.

[campy]

I'm reading The Prince of Beverly Hills by Stuart Woods. I found a sequel in the library today, and the characters didn't seem familiar even though I've read most all the author's stuff. So I borrowed this and also the sequel.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I've certainly gotten a load to keep me reading for a while.

Searching for an opinion between "Red Storm Rising" and "Red October," I called my Scoutmaster, who graduated from West Point in '84 and served as an M1A1 commander. I knew he had all of Clive Cussler's books, and I wondered if he had any Clancy's work. He did.

When I drove over to pick it up, I got a surprise. In addition to "RO" and "RSR," he also loaned me "Firefox" by Craig Thomas and "America" (after the titular boomer sub) by Stephen Coonts.

I'm going to read "Red October" first, since that's for school, but I'll have enough explosions and intrigue to keep my knuckles white for weeks. :laugh:

[Twila Starla]

Recently started reading Peter and The Starcatchers, a prequel to Peter Pan. So far (200 and somethin' pages in), it's very good, they've introduced characters well, and are setting the stage for the original story quite nicely! :biggergrin:

[TransWarpDrive]

I've certainly gotten a load to keep me reading for a while.

Searching for an opinion between "Red Storm Rising" and "Red October," I called my Scoutmaster, who graduated from West Point in '84 and served as an M1A1 commander. I knew he had all of Clive Cussler's books, and I wondered if he had any Clancy's work. He did.

When I drove over to pick it up, I got a surprise. In addition to "RO" and "RSR," he also loaned me "Firefox" by Craig Thomas and "America" (after the titular boomer sub) by Stephen Coonts.

I'm going to read "Red October" first, since that's for school, but I'll have enough explosions and intrigue to keep my knuckles white for weeks. :laugh:

'Chutes, I guarantee you'll like "Red October." If you've seen the movie, the first thing you'll notice about the novel is how much they trimmed out to make the film. Whole subplots involving spies, naval doctors and government officials - American and Soviet - which you don't see in the movie. But it's still a real "page-turner" of a book; you'll be hooked once you start reading it.
As for "Firefox," well, you'll like it too. Excellent adventure novel! See if you can't find copies of "Firefox Down" and "Winter Hawk" once you finish this book. The three novels comprise a kind of trilogy about Major Mitchell Gant, U.S. Air Force, and his covert adventures in the Soviet Union. I can't recommend these books enough.
Enjoy! :)

[Fireand'chutes77]

Well, I've finished hunting for Red October.

*Starts breathing again*

Wow, that was cool! :D ASW, A-10 flybys, two torps elevation-zero, sub rammings, a bunch of stuff happening all at once.... :thumbup: :thumbup: I'll have to see how my style compares.

I was sure Ramius was going to get it, along with Jonesy and his Soviet counterpart. Captains who defect always seem to die dramatically a few hundred feet from freedom, and when Jonesy started talking about career aspirations and family plans, I thought, Oh, god, they are so hosed! Thankfully, the book didn't fall into that predictable trap (nearly gave me a heart attack in the process, though :P).

My only criticism is that Clancy played his hand too early with Ramius. He set the captain up too early as "the good guy" and the one we're supposed to root for. He (Clancy) should have let us wonder, what in the heck is he up to?! before springing Ramius's true intentions with the murder of the political officer. Considering this was his first book, though, I'm more than willing to give him leeway.

Two other thoughts: Ryan was working on a book (ironic, no?) on a computer near the beginning of the novel. I have a feeling my mental image of the word "computer" is different from the 1984 audience's! :laugh: Only three words of his computer description displaced it from the dual-core-with-LCD-screen I am typing on now: six. floppy. disks. :laugh:

It also seemed odd that one of the tech people had to wait for a time-slot to use the Pentagon's supercomputers. However, with a little thinking, it does make sense. A bunch of modern PCs farmed together could easily hand a 1984 computer its butt along with a get-well-soon card. However, if you've got a really gonzo program to run, you still might need a supercomputer, and there's only one supercomputer and a bunch of requests.

[TransWarpDrive]

Well, I've finished hunting for Red October.

*Starts breathing again*

Wow, that was cool! :D ASW, A-10 flybys, two torps elevation-zero, sub rammings, a bunch of stuff happening all at once.... :thumbup: :thumbup: I'll have to see how my style compares.

I was sure Ramius was going to get it, along with Jonesy and his Soviet counterpart. Captains who defect always seem to die dramatically a few hundred feet from freedom, and when Jonesy started talking about career aspirations and family plans, I thought, Oh, god, they are so hosed! Thankfully, the book didn't fall into that predictable trap (nearly gave me a heart attack in the process, though :P).

My only criticism is that Clancy played his hand too early with Ramius. He set the captain up too early as "the good guy" and the one we're supposed to root for. He (Clancy) should have let us wonder, what in the heck is he up to?! before springing Ramius's true intentions with the murder of the political officer. Considering this was his first book, though, I'm more than willing to give him leeway.

I disagree with your comments about Ramius, but that may be due to my having seen the film before reading the book. The passages about Ramius' background served, of course, to establish his motivation for defecting to the West and bringing the sub with him. Putting them in early on was intended to build the reader's sympathy for his character. Those passages also gave further insight into the workings of the Soviet political system, particularly how one advanced in it by joining the Communist party, and by simply quoting Lenin and Marx enough times. Hard work, initiative, and original thinking had no place in the Soviet system; and Ramius was astute enough to recognize this early on and use it to his advantage when it came time to steal the sub.

[jeriddian]

Two other thoughts: Ryan was working on a book (ironic, no?) on a computer near the beginning of the novel. I have a feeling my mental image of the word "computer" is different from the 1984 audience's! :laugh: Only three words of his computer description displaced it from the dual-core-with-LCD-screen I am typing on now: six. floppy. disks. :laugh:

That would be about right, 'chutes. I was typing away on my old Kaypro 4 at that time. No hard drive. 720 Kb 5.25" floppy disks. About all I could really do with is Word Processing. But even then it was such a miracle when you compared it to a typewriter (You probably heard about those ancient contraptions. They went out with the Roman chariot I think......or somewheres around then....)....:P:laugh:

EDIT: At this time I am busy poring over the manual to my Symphonic Gold Virtual Instrument for my DAW. This is something I really wish I had as a teenager when I was really into music comp and orchestration. I just hope the computer can handle the full extent of what I am trying to do....

[campy]

A-10 flybys? Ho hum. :laugh: I get those at my house several times every summer. I live not too far from a Mass. Air National Guard base. I hear they're transitioning over to F-15s soon, though.

There's also an AF Reserve base even closer where they fly C-5 Galaxys.

[Fireand'chutes77]

A-10 flybys? Ho hum. :laugh: I get those at my house several times every summer. I live not too far from a Mass. Air National Guard base. I hear they're transitioning over to F-15s soon, though.

There's also an AF Reserve base even closer where they fly C-5 Galaxys.
Wouldn't that be F-22s? I thought the F-15s were getting pretty old.

Must be noisy to live out there. :confused:

[campy]

A-10 flybys? Ho hum. :laugh: I get those at my house several times every summer. I live not too far from a Mass. Air National Guard base. I hear they're transitioning over to F-15s soon, though.

There's also an AF Reserve base even closer where they fly C-5 Galaxys.
Wouldn't that be F-22s? I thought the F-15s were getting pretty old.

Must be noisy to live out there. :confused:I'm pretty sure it's F-15s. This is the National Guard, remember.

Luckily, I'm not that close to the bases. The C-5s are about 3 towns to the north of me, and the A-10s are about 4 towns to the west. The noise isn't bad at all.

Back to the topic: Now I'm reading Beverly Hills Dead by Stuart Woods. The sequel to Prince of Beverly Hills, it's about a movie executive in the 1940s dealing with the Red Scare among other things.

[TransWarpDrive]

A-10 flybys? Ho hum. :laugh: I get those at my house several times every summer. I live not too far from a Mass. Air National Guard base. I hear they're transitioning over to F-15s soon, though.

There's also an AF Reserve base even closer where they fly C-5 Galaxys.
Wouldn't that be F-22s? I thought the F-15s were getting pretty old.

Must be noisy to live out there. :confused:
I'm pretty sure it's F-15s. This is the National Guard, remember.


The National Guard is getting the F-15s now because the Air Force is retiring those planes, and replacing them with the F-22s. Thus, the National Guard gets the Air Force's "hand-me-downs" to use, while the USAF gets the shiny new toys to play with. IIRC, the last F-4 Phantom II to be used by the U.S. military was retired from service in 1989 - probably from a National Guard unit.

[GoTeamGirl]

In the past week I finished "All Quiet on the Western Front" and in class, "Julius Caesar". Now I'm reading "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak. It's an interesting book.

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

A-10 flybys? Ho hum. :laugh: I get those at my house several times every summer. I live not too far from a Mass. Air National Guard base. I hear they're transitioning over to F-15s soon, though.

There's also an AF Reserve base even closer where they fly C-5 Galaxys.
Wouldn't that be F-22s? I thought the F-15s were getting pretty old.

Must be noisy to live out there. :confused:
I'm pretty sure it's F-15s. This is the National Guard, remember.


The National Guard is getting the F-15s now because the Air Force is retiring those planes, and replacing them with the F-22s. Thus, the National Guard gets the Air Force's "hand-me-downs" to use, while the USAF gets the shiny new toys to play with. IIRC, the last F-4 Phantom II to be used by the U.S. military was retired from service in 1989 - probably from a National Guard unit.
:blink: Wait, they're replacing a tank buster with an interceptor? How does that work? :hmm::blink: On another note, the Air National Guard base up here seems to have nothing but F-16s, I remember seeing a flight of A-10s fly over the shipyard once, but to the best of my knowledge that was the last time I ever saw a Thunderbolt II outside of Oshkosh. Weird.

[jeriddian]

A-10 flybys? Ho hum. :laugh: I get those at my house several times every summer. I live not too far from a Mass. Air National Guard base. I hear they're transitioning over to F-15s soon, though.

There's also an AF Reserve base even closer where they fly C-5 Galaxys.
Wouldn't that be F-22s? I thought the F-15s were getting pretty old.

Must be noisy to live out there. :confused:
I'm pretty sure it's F-15s. This is the National Guard, remember.


The National Guard is getting the F-15s now because the Air Force is retiring those planes, and replacing them with the F-22s. Thus, the National Guard gets the Air Force's "hand-me-downs" to use, while the USAF gets the shiny new toys to play with. IIRC, the last F-4 Phantom II to be used by the U.S. military was retired from service in 1989 - probably from a National Guard unit.
:blink: Wait, they're replacing a tank buster with an interceptor? How does that work? :hmm::blink: On another note, the Air National Guard base up here seems to have nothing but F-16s, I remember seeing a flight of A-10s fly over the shipyard once, but to the best of my knowledge that was the last time I ever saw a Thunderbolt II outside of Oshkosh. Weird.

I think they'll keep the warthogs around for quite a while. They're too specialized in their purpose. It's just the general purpose fighters that will be replaced I would think.

[lunchmeat]

A War Of Frontier And Empire about the Phillipine insurrection of 1899 - 1902.

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

A-10 flybys? Ho hum. :laugh: I get those at my house several times every summer. I live not too far from a Mass. Air National Guard base. I hear they're transitioning over to F-15s soon, though.

There's also an AF Reserve base even closer where they fly C-5 Galaxys.
Wouldn't that be F-22s? I thought the F-15s were getting pretty old.

Must be noisy to live out there. :confused:
I'm pretty sure it's F-15s. This is the National Guard, remember.


The National Guard is getting the F-15s now because the Air Force is retiring those planes, and replacing them with the F-22s. Thus, the National Guard gets the Air Force's "hand-me-downs" to use, while the USAF gets the shiny new toys to play with. IIRC, the last F-4 Phantom II to be used by the U.S. military was retired from service in 1989 - probably from a National Guard unit.
:blink: Wait, they're replacing a tank buster with an interceptor? How does that work? :hmm::blink: On another note, the Air National Guard base up here seems to have nothing but F-16s, I remember seeing a flight of A-10s fly over the shipyard once, but to the best of my knowledge that was the last time I ever saw a Thunderbolt II outside of Oshkosh. Weird.

I think they'll keep the warthogs around for quite a while. They're too specialized in their purpose. It's just the general purpose fighters that will be replaced I would think.
I'd think so too, but you never know, especially since the A-10's supposed to be retired in 2025. Kinda makes you wonder what the next-gen flying tank will look like, or if we're just going to be caught with our pants down . . . Again. :ohwell::rolleyes:

[campy]

Now reading The Death Trust by David Rollins. It's about an Air Force major investigating the murder of a top general.

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm rereading an old favorite: "The Crystal Cave" by Mary Stewart. It's a novel about Merlin, King Arthur's magician, and tells about his early life from the time he was six years old until the night he helps King Uther sneak into the fortress at Tintagel for a tryst with Ygraine, the Duchess of Cornwall, so that Arthur will be conceived. It's a good book, combining elements of fantasy, political intrigue, and interpersonal drama in a very plausible look at life in 5th-century Britain. And yes, she incorporated bits of Arthurian legend into the novel. I highly recommend this book and its sequels - "The Hollow Hills" and "The Last Enchantment." :alumnus:

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

1635: The Ram Rebellion by Erick Flint and Virginia DeMarce. I got for Christmas, and am only now starting to really dig into it. It's an interesting book, because not only does it contain original fiction by the authors, but it also contains fan-fiction written for the Grantville Gazette electronic magazine, and it all come together to form one overarching storyline over the course of the novel :alumnus::cool:. Now why can't Disney do something like this? Don't they know a cash cow when they see one?

.

.

.

Oh yeah, CRUSE YOU HANNA MONTANA! CURSE YOU!!!

[TransWarpDrive]

. Now why can't Disney do something like this? Don't they know a cash cow when they see one?

Oh yeah, CRUSE YOU HANNA MONTANA! CURSE YOU!!!
:laugh: Are you "cruising" Hannah Montana, or "cursing" her? Make up your mind, now... :P
Besides, why are you cursing that show, anyway? It's the current "hot ticket," and they're only trying to make money before interest dies down. I mean, hey - that's show biz...

[jeriddian]

1635: The Ram Rebellion by Erick Flint and Virginia DeMarce. I got for Christmas, and am only now starting to really dig into it. It's an interesting book, because not only does it contain original fiction by the authors, but it also contains fan-fiction written for the Grantville Gazette electronic magazine, and it all come together to form one overarching storyline over the course of the novel :alumnus::cool:. Now why can't Disney do something like this? Don't they know a cash cow when they see one?

The simple answer is that officially supporting fan-fiction is a legal nightmare, when it comes to Disney. The Erik Flint/ Virginia DeMarce book is one thing. But Disney is another because it is also a TV network. Officially acknowledging such work would actually completely preclude KP from ever being shown again on DC, as the lawsuits for theft of intellectual property by the fan fic writers would come crawling out of the wood work.

[TransWarpDrive]

1635: The Ram Rebellion by Erick Flint and Virginia DeMarce. I got for Christmas, and am only now starting to really dig into it. It's an interesting book, because not only does it contain original fiction by the authors, but it also contains fan-fiction written for the Grantville Gazette electronic magazine, and it all come together to form one overarching storyline over the course of the novel :alumnus::cool:. Now why can't Disney do something like this? Don't they know a cash cow when they see one?

The simple answer is that officially supporting fan-fiction is a legal nightmare, when it comes to Disney. The Erik Flint/ Virginia DeMarce book is one thing. But Disney is another because it is also a TV network. Officially acknowledging such work would actually completely preclude KP from ever being shown again on DC, as the lawsuits for theft of intellectual property by the fan fic writers would come crawling out of the wood work.

Yes, plagiarism suits can get ugly. I remember some guy even sued George Lucas because he claimed Lucas stole his script, and used it to make "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Another person actually sued J.K. Rowling over the "Harry Potter" books. This other person had written a children's book about a character named "Larry Potter," and accused Ms. Rowling of stealing the name for her books. A judge eventually dismissed that suit, though.

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

1635: The Ram Rebellion by Erick Flint and Virginia DeMarce. I got for Christmas, and am only now starting to really dig into it. It's an interesting book, because not only does it contain original fiction by the authors, but it also contains fan-fiction written for the Grantville Gazette electronic magazine, and it all come together to form one overarching storyline over the course of the novel :alumnus::cool:. Now why can't Disney do something like this? Don't they know a cash cow when they see one?

The simple answer is that officially supporting fan-fiction is a legal nightmare, when it comes to Disney. The Erik Flint/ Virginia DeMarce book is one thing. But Disney is another because it is also a TV network. Officially acknowledging such work would actually completely preclude KP from ever being shown again on DC, as the lawsuits for theft of intellectual property by the fan fic writers would come crawling out of the wood work.

Yes, plagiarism suits can get ugly. I remember some guy even sued George Lucas because he claimed Lucas stole his script, and used it to make "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Another person actually sued J.K. Rowling over the "Harry Potter" books. This other person had written a children's book about a character named "Larry Potter," and accused Ms. Rowling of stealing the name for her books. A judge eventually dismissed that suit, though.
You know, they could just acknowledge the original author and pay the appropriate royalties . . . [Holding for uproarious laughter] . . . Besides, do you really want KP to come back as a cartoon? Logistically speaking I mean.


On another note: This is my 117th post, you know what that means! :biggergrin:
That's right! Appropriate pics! Release the fanboys! (You've been warned - I.E. you might want to skip over this)

http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs24/f/2008/006/7/a/Master_Chief_by_EspenG.jpg


Yes, I do totally geek out at the number 117. :biggergrin: Do I care? Nope. :biggergrin::biggergrin::P Whahoo, 117! (Note: Will edit if need be)

[Ran Hakubi]

http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs24/f/2008/006/7/a/Master_Chief_by_EspenG.jpg


"C'mon! I'll take you all out! Try and stop me! DEATH TO ALL MOSQUITOES!"

Sorry Cody...I couldn't help myself. That shot of the Chief just begged for it

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs24/f/2008/006/7/a/Master_Chief_by_EspenG.jpg


"C'mon! I'll take you all out! Try and stop me! DEATH TO ALL MOSQUITOES!"

Sorry Cody...I couldn't help myself. That shot of the Chief just begged for it
No need to apologize Ran, I've had many an encounter like that with Drones myself :laugh:. Damn bugs, just won't stand still. :angry:

[campy]

I'm reading The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry. International intrigue, biowarfare, and a search for Alexander the Great's lost tomb. Okay so far.

[NinjaNaco]

Not exactly a book, but not that long ago today I read this little time travel story (http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html?1), which I'd recommend to everybody.

It's quite short, and I liked it. :)

[TransWarpDrive]

http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs24/f/2008/006/7/a/Master_Chief_by_EspenG.jpg


"C'mon! I'll take you all out! Try and stop me! DEATH TO ALL MOSQUITOES!"

Sorry Cody...I couldn't help myself. That shot of the Chief just begged for it
Funny; that's what I felt like doing to my folder/inserters today at work - lousy buggers just wouldn't work right... :angry:

[Sir Sebastian]

What am I reading? The Fannies, of course. :D

[canuck31003]

The other day I finished reading Captain's Fury by Jim Butcher. It's part of a series I enjoy and make a point to read but not something I'd buy.

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and I still, almost half-way through, do not know what to think of the book.

[TransWarpDrive]

Not exactly a book, but not that long ago today I read this little time travel story (http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html?1), which I'd recommend to everybody.

It's quite short, and I liked it. :)
:laugh:
Clever short story, NN! :biggergrin:
Right now, I'm rereading an old favorite: "Small Wonder: The Amazing Story of the Volkswagen Beetle" by Walter Henry Nelson. I'm putting together a one-page fact sheet on the VW's creator, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, and this book is my primary source of info.

[GoTeamGirl]

For English I've been reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, and I'm nearly done. This book is so dramatic with a lot of twists and turns. Almost like a soap opera....

[TransWarpDrive]

For English I've been reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, and I'm nearly done. This book is so dramatic with a lot of twists and turns. Almost like a soap opera....
Is it the abridged or unabridged edition? I bought a copy of the unabridged edition some years back and started to read it, but I got bogged down because Dumas went off on these wordy tangents in some chapters which seemed to me to have little or nothing to do with the main story (it seems writers got paid by the word back then, which explains why some of the novels written in the 19th Century were so blasted long...:ohwell:). I put it aside, and haven't gotten back to it since. And that was in 1993, IIRC. :huh:

[campy]

I'm watching the 1940 Rodgers & Hart musical Too Many Girls on TCM.

IMDB says Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz first met on the set of this film.

EDIT:Hmm, I meant for this to go in "What are you watching" ...

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm watching the 1940 Rodgers & Hart musical Too Many Girls on TCM.
Sounds a bit like the MHS cheerleading squad. ;) :harhar:

[campy]

I'm reading The Thief of Time by John Boyne. It's a novel about a man who for unknown reasons apparently stopped aging at about age 50 and is now 256 years old.

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

Against the World (http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2395617/1/Against_the_World) by StarvingLunatic on Fictionpress.com. Not a book in the corporeal sense, but still a fine read, and a great piece of original fiction. :thumbup: :)

[campy]

I'm reading The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø. A story of neo-Nazis and conspiracies reaching the Highest Levels, it was voted the "Best Norwegian Crime Novel Ever Written" in 2004.

[GoTeamGirl]

For English I've been reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, and I'm nearly done. This book is so dramatic with a lot of twists and turns. Almost like a soap opera....
Is it the abridged or unabridged edition? I bought a copy of the unabridged edition some years back and started to read it, but I got bogged down because Dumas went off on these wordy tangents in some chapters which seemed to me to have little or nothing to do with the main story (it seems writers got paid by the word back then, which explains why some of the novels written in the 19th Century were so blasted long...:ohwell:). I put it aside, and haven't gotten back to it since. And that was in 1993, IIRC. :huh:

Abridged. I guess my school thought the unabridged was way too lengthy or something (although one girl has the unabridged and is trying that...it looks huge!). I actually finished it and it was a really good book. I'd recommend giving the abridged version a try. :)

[TransWarpDrive]

For English I've been reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, and I'm nearly done. This book is so dramatic with a lot of twists and turns. Almost like a soap opera....
Is it the abridged or unabridged edition? I bought a copy of the unabridged edition some years back and started to read it, but I got bogged down because Dumas went off on these wordy tangents in some chapters which seemed to me to have little or nothing to do with the main story (it seems writers got paid by the word back then, which explains why some of the novels written in the 19th Century were so blasted long...:ohwell:). I put it aside, and haven't gotten back to it since. And that was in 1993, IIRC. :huh:

Abridged. I guess my school thought the unabridged was way too lengthy or something (although one girl has the unabridged and is trying that...it looks huge!). I actually finished it and it was a really good book. I'd recommend giving the abridged version a try. :)

Thanks, GTG. I'll see if I can locate a copy, and give it a try. Like I said before, some of those old classics are waaay too long.

[GoTeamGirl]

For English I've been reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, and I'm nearly done. This book is so dramatic with a lot of twists and turns. Almost like a soap opera....
Is it the abridged or unabridged edition? I bought a copy of the unabridged edition some years back and started to read it, but I got bogged down because Dumas went off on these wordy tangents in some chapters which seemed to me to have little or nothing to do with the main story (it seems writers got paid by the word back then, which explains why some of the novels written in the 19th Century were so blasted long...:ohwell:). I put it aside, and haven't gotten back to it since. And that was in 1993, IIRC. :huh:

Abridged. I guess my school thought the unabridged was way too lengthy or something (although one girl has the unabridged and is trying that...it looks huge!). I actually finished it and it was a really good book. I'd recommend giving the abridged version a try. :)

Thanks, GTG. I'll see if I can locate a copy, and give it a try. Like I said before, some of those old classics are waaay too long.

I agree. Usually I'll try to read the unabridged version, and didn't even notice this was abridged until later, but I didn't mind it. The kid behind me got really upset though-he said he didn't want to read a book unless it was the whole book. He said this to himself, though, and the teacher didn't hear...

Now I'm reading Into the Wild. It's really good so far. I can't believe someone could give up everything to live a nomadic life of practically nothing, but that's amazing.

[lunchmeat]

A Terrible Glory about the Battle of the Little Big Horn, pretty well done. While there probably isn't enough time this year, hopefully next summer I'll be able to get out there.

[campy]

Currently reading The Caddie Who Played With Hickory by John Coyne.

No appearance by Duff Killigan in the novel as yet. ;)

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

Just finished up Against the World and left a review and added it to my alerts, now I'm reading Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy. I have to read it since I'm making a fusion with Executive Orders, and I want to get some things down, but that doesn't mean I can't have fun with it. :biggergrin: Though, sometimes the book will switch to present tense, and then it just reads like a lecture. :thumbdown:

[campy]

I'm starting to read Troubled Waters, the 14th and latest in the series of novels by Dewey Lambdin chronicling the adventures of Capt. Alan Lewrie of His Majesty's Navy.

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm back on a space-exploration kick, and so I'm rereading "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin. When I get done with that, I'll read a new book I bought, "Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions," by David M. Harland. It goes into detail about the last three moon missions - Apollos 15, 16, and 17 - as they used the Lunar Rovers to explore the moon's highlands. I've read Harland's book on Apollo 11, "First Men on the Moon," and it was pretty good, so I'm looking forward to reading this new one. :thumbup:

[GoTeamGirl]

I just finished "Into the Wild"-very good book. I can identify with Chris McCandless in some ways. Now I want to either read "1984" or "Teacher Man", and a third book which I don't actually have but is a new one from one of my favorite authors. I'll have to choose soon, though. By Monday.

[lunchmeat]

Rereading Adm. Byrd's Alone, a friend once mentioned that he could really see me doing something like this. He did have a pretty good point.

[GoTeamGirl]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.

[TransWarpDrive]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.
It's an interesting book, and a little scary (I found it rather depressing, myself). Just remember that when George Orwell wrote it, he intended for it to be a parable about Stalinist Russia - in fact, the title, "1984," is actually an anagram for the year 1948. Another book, "Animal Farm," is also a parable about the Soviet Union and how the Russians dominated Eastern Europe while claiming that under Communism, everyone was equal (yeah, right; heard that line before...:thumbdown:).
These two books are good examples of political satire at its best - and how satire isn't always funny.

[campy]

I borrowed Santa Fe Dead by Stuart Woods from the library this morning, started it this afternoon, and now I'm about 25 pages from the end. Plot's a little contrived, but it's a good read.

[GoTeamGirl]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.
It's an interesting book, and a little scary (I found it rather depressing, myself). Just remember that when George Orwell wrote it, he intended for it to be a parable about Stalinist Russia - in fact, the title, "1984," is actually an anagram for the year 1948. Another book, "Animal Farm," is also a parable about the Soviet Union and how the Russians dominated Eastern Europe while claiming that under Communism, everyone was equal (yeah, right; heard that line before...:thumbdown:).
These two books are good examples of political satire at its best - and how satire isn't always funny.

Good thing we just learned about the Soviet Union, then. Actually, I had a feeling when I began it that the book might be referring to communism (I didn't know it was referring to an actual place, though). It's really interesting but scary at the same time. I can not imagine living like that-and I'm not even that far into the book! I can see how it's like communism was in the Soviet Union though. People always watching you, ready to pounce if you do or say something they don't like... :blink:

[campy]

I'm reading The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan by John Coyne. I read another by this author last week and enjoyed it, so I figured this would be good too. So far it is. :thumbup:

[TransWarpDrive]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.
It's an interesting book, and a little scary (I found it rather depressing, myself). Just remember that when George Orwell wrote it, he intended for it to be a parable about Stalinist Russia - in fact, the title, "1984," is actually an anagram for the year 1948. Another book, "Animal Farm," is also a parable about the Soviet Union and how the Russians dominated Eastern Europe while claiming that under Communism, everyone was equal (yeah, right; heard that line before...:thumbdown:).
These two books are good examples of political satire at its best - and how satire isn't always funny.

Good thing we just learned about the Soviet Union, then. Actually, I had a feeling when I began it that the book might be referring to communism (I didn't know it was referring to an actual place, though). It's really interesting but scary at the same time. I can not imagine living like that-and I'm not even that far into the book! I can see how it's like communism was in the Soviet Union though. People always watching you, ready to pounce if you do or say something they don't like... :blink:

Yes, it's creepy all right. Funny thing is, I didn't realize it was about Stalinist Russia until years later, when it was pointed out to me in a magazine article I read. At the time I read it (as a freaked-out high school freshman), it seemed like a frightening vision of a possible future for humankind (remember, this was right before the Watergate scandal ousted President Nixon and brought our government under increased public scrutiny).

[Fireand'chutes77]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.
It's an interesting book, and a little scary (I found it rather depressing, myself). Just remember that when George Orwell wrote it, he intended for it to be a parable about Stalinist Russia - in fact, the title, "1984," is actually an anagram for the year 1948. Another book, "Animal Farm," is also a parable about the Soviet Union and how the Russians dominated Eastern Europe while claiming that under Communism, everyone was equal (yeah, right; heard that line before...:thumbdown:).
These two books are good examples of political satire at its best - and how satire isn't always funny.

Good thing we just learned about the Soviet Union, then. Actually, I had a feeling when I began it that the book might be referring to communism (I didn't know it was referring to an actual place, though). It's really interesting but scary at the same time. I can not imagine living like that-and I'm not even that far into the book! I can see how it's like communism was in the Soviet Union though. People always watching you, ready to pounce if you do or say something they don't like... :blink:

Yes, it's creepy all right. At the time I read it (as a freaked-out high school freshman), it seemed like a frightening vision of a possible future for humankind....
By some accounts, that future has already arrived... and people have just gone, "Meh..."

[jeriddian]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.
It's an interesting book, and a little scary (I found it rather depressing, myself). Just remember that when George Orwell wrote it, he intended for it to be a parable about Stalinist Russia - in fact, the title, "1984," is actually an anagram for the year 1948. Another book, "Animal Farm," is also a parable about the Soviet Union and how the Russians dominated Eastern Europe while claiming that under Communism, everyone was equal (yeah, right; heard that line before...:thumbdown:).
These two books are good examples of political satire at its best - and how satire isn't always funny.

Good thing we just learned about the Soviet Union, then. Actually, I had a feeling when I began it that the book might be referring to communism (I didn't know it was referring to an actual place, though). It's really interesting but scary at the same time. I can not imagine living like that-and I'm not even that far into the book! I can see how it's like communism was in the Soviet Union though. People always watching you, ready to pounce if you do or say something they don't like... :blink:

Yes, it's creepy all right. At the time I read it (as a freaked-out high school freshman), it seemed like a frightening vision of a possible future for humankind....
By some accounts, that future has already arrived... and people have just gone, "Meh..."

1984 and Animal Farm were both great books. I enjoyed reading them. They gave me a lot to think about. Regarding the Communism ideology, I remember being in school in 1968 and they were teaching us about communism. There was this statistic at the time that Communism, ever since 1917 when Russia became the USSR, that communism had gained forty square miles of territory a day. The projection was that if it continued at that rate, the whole world would become communist by.......1984. I had always wondered back then if the book's title referenced that statistic, but I don't really think it did. Of course now, it's moot.:rolleyes:

[GoTeamGirl]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.
It's an interesting book, and a little scary (I found it rather depressing, myself). Just remember that when George Orwell wrote it, he intended for it to be a parable about Stalinist Russia - in fact, the title, "1984," is actually an anagram for the year 1948. Another book, "Animal Farm," is also a parable about the Soviet Union and how the Russians dominated Eastern Europe while claiming that under Communism, everyone was equal (yeah, right; heard that line before...:thumbdown:).
These two books are good examples of political satire at its best - and how satire isn't always funny.

Good thing we just learned about the Soviet Union, then. Actually, I had a feeling when I began it that the book might be referring to communism (I didn't know it was referring to an actual place, though). It's really interesting but scary at the same time. I can not imagine living like that-and I'm not even that far into the book! I can see how it's like communism was in the Soviet Union though. People always watching you, ready to pounce if you do or say something they don't like... :blink:

Yes, it's creepy all right. At the time I read it (as a freaked-out high school freshman), it seemed like a frightening vision of a possible future for humankind....
By some accounts, that future has already arrived... and people have just gone, "Meh..."

1984 and Animal Farm were both great books. I enjoyed reading them. They gave me a lot to think about. Regarding the Communism ideology, I remember being in school in 1968 and they were teaching us about communism. There was this statistic at the time that Communism, ever since 1917 when Russia became the USSR, that communism had gained forty square miles of territory a day. The projection was that if it continued at that rate, the whole world would become communist by.......1984. I had always wondered back then if the book's title referenced that statistic, but I don't really think it did. Of course now, it's moot.:rolleyes:

It does make you think so much! I might have to get "Animal Farm" when I'm done with this book. It's really good, though still disturbing.

Actually, it reminds me of something we read in Global class about Chinese scientists during Mao Zedong's reign. They were trying to figure out a way to get tomatoes to grow better, and did it using things Mao taught even if they had little relevance. They then attributed their success to Mao. It was like they couldn't think for themselves.

[Fireand'chutes77]

They were trying to figure out a way to get tomatoes to grow better, and did it using things Mao taught even if they had little relevance. They then attributed their success to Mao. It was like they couldn't think for themselves.
Yeesh, that's messed up. (From our Westernized perspective, at least.) Mass coordination and unification definitely has its merits, but in wartime and in peace, individualism eventually wins out. The ability to entrust responsibility and autonomy allows people to react much faster to a sitch than one big mindless body - we proved that in the Pacific against the Japanese, and in economics against the Ruskies.

That sort of inability-to-think-individually would've been a great boon to us if it'd ever come to conventional blows - the Russians had a habit of using a single command tank in an armored group, with all the communication antennas sticking out the back, while the minion tanks carried only the minimum of radio gear. Once our tankers identified and popped off the command tank, the formation would likely fall apart. (For this reason, we put a full antennae array on all our battle tanks.)

[TransWarpDrive]

They were trying to figure out a way to get tomatoes to grow better, and did it using things Mao taught even if they had little relevance. They then attributed their success to Mao. It was like they couldn't think for themselves.
Yeesh, that's messed up. (From our Westernized perspective, at least.) Mass coordination and unification definitely has its merits, but in wartime and in peace, individualism eventually wins out. The ability to entrust responsibility and autonomy allows people to react much faster to a sitch than one big mindless body - we proved that in the Pacific against the Japanese, and in economics against the Ruskies.

That sort of inability-to-think-individually would've been a great boon to us if it'd ever come to conventional blows - the Russians had a habit of using a single command tank in an armored group, with all the communication antennas sticking out the back, while the minion tanks carried only the minimum of radio gear. Once our tankers identified and popped off the command tank, the formation would likely fall apart. (For this reason, we put a full antennae array on all our battle tanks.)

Yeah, centralized control, where everything's run by one main authority, has been the downfall of dictatorships throughout history. Look at Hitler's regime in Germany; or the way the Soviet government tried to run every single part of their country's infrastructure. Commerce; industry; farming; the military - it just got all tangled up in a big, bureaucratic mess and no one got paid on a regular basis, except for the government's leaders and the military, scientific, and athletic elite.

[GoTeamGirl]

And then people had no incentive to work and started rebelling....It doesn't really work out.

Still reading through the book. It's starting to get...suspenseful because what Winston is doing shouldn't be done, and he's likely to get killed. And the whole thing sounds so hopeless-that the people can't do anything.

[campy]

I'm reading A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer. It's about a man who's been falsely convicted of murder. Apparently, he's going to get out and take revenge on the people who testified against him.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm reading A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer. It's about a man who's been falsely convicted of murder. Apparently, he's going to get out and take revenge on the people who testified against him.
Sounds a lot like The Count of Monte Cristo. :D

[TransWarpDrive]

And then people had no incentive to work and started rebelling....It doesn't really work out.

Still reading through the book. It's starting to get...suspenseful because what Winston is doing shouldn't be done, and he's likely to get killed. And the whole thing sounds so hopeless-that the people can't do anything.
I think that was the idea of 1984 - to convey that impression of a monolithic, oppressive dictatorship whose aim was to crush the individual under the heels of the State. That was how Orwell saw Stalinist Russia.

[campy]

I'm reading The First Patient by Michael Palmer. Who is poisoning the President of the US? And how are they doing it? One country doctor intends to find out.

[lunchmeat]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.


You want another cheery book to read try Tuchman's Guns Of August or Solzenyetsen (spelling is problematic, the Cyrillic "Ya" and "Yui" get rendered in odd ways in translation) A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovitch. The last one is considerably shorter.

[TransWarpDrive]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.


You want another cheery book to read try Tuchman's Guns Of August or Solzenyetsen (spelling is problematic, the Cyrillic "Ya" and "Yui" get rendered in odd ways in translation) A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovitch. The last one is considerably shorter.
I reread "One Day..." back in January of this year...
As I mentioned in the "How Was Your Day?" thread, I just finished reading Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," about a prisoner in one of Stalin's Siberian forced-labor camps in the early 1950's.
I don't know why, but I always read that book in winter when it gets really cold out. I guess when the temperature goes below zero, I feel more sympathy for the characters in that book. Those poor guys had to live and work in bitter cold - far worse than what I'm enduring now - on a daily basis during the winter. And being political prisoners, they were treated brutally as well.

It's a compelling book, full of vivid descriptions of life in the Soviet Gulag prison system. Considering how slim a volume it is, it does a better job of depicting the characters and their world than most books twice its size. I highly recommend it.

[jeriddian]

I just finished the "Legacy of the Force" series, a nine book, three author saga in the Star wars world about forty years after ROTJ. It's a fine series with developments you would not expect to happen in the Star Wars world. If you are a Star Wars fan, (and have kept up with the post ROTJ books), I highly recommend the entire series. The nine books are as follows:

Betrayal by Aaron Allston
Bloodlines by Karen Traviss
Tempest by Troy Denning
Exile by Aaron Allston
Sacrifice by Karen Traviss
Inferno by Troy Denning
Fury by Aaron Allston
Revelation by Karen Traviss
Invincible by Troy Denning

[TheGreenMagic]

Actually, I'm currently reading through Invincible for the second time. Definitely a good read, but there's a certain amount of sadness in seeing how things ended for Jaina and Jacen Solo.

I grew up reading a vast majority of the Star Wars novels published over the years (starting with Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy of books), and in turn I grew up reading about the Solo twins. Heck, back in the day I was reading the Young Jedi Knights series thanks to the school's library. Then things moved on and I was reading the New Jedi Order series all throughout high school, seeing those same two characters grow up into true Jedi Knights. And now... one was the Sword of the Jedi, the other a Sith Lord, both led to fight one and another to decide the fate of the Star Wars galaxy.

Those quotes at the beginning of each chapter (all from the Young Jedi Knights series if I remember correctly) were a nice touch, since I imagine they did play a part in making me look back on the older books in comparison to where the characters are now.

I was worried throughout the series that Luke was going to be the one to save the day again. I mean, hey, Luke's one of my favorite characters in the series (I might be one of the few who preferred Luke as a character instead of Han Solo when it came to the films), but it was nice to see one of the younger generation step up at last. And since Jaina Solo is one of my favorite characters created in the novels, they're couldn't have been a better choice. And at least they did come up with a good reason as for why Luke wouldn't save the day. He could have, but it would only create more problems, since the death of his wife would have left him going into his fight with Caedus while succumbing to a "You know what I hate?" mentality. And as we all know, there's never a good thing in the Star Wars universe. Anger leads to hate, hate leads to.. well, you know. A Dark Side Luke would be a bad, bad thing for the galaxy.

... Okay, so I'm rambling here. Shutting up now. Simply put, Invincible was quite the worthy read in my estimates.

[jeriddian]

I read the last book through twice also, TGM, and like you, I kept up with the books, starting with "Truce at Bakura". Another thing I found interesting was the semi-rehabilitation of Boba Fett into a quasi-good guy. Definitely a complicated character, and despite the fact he would just as soon do without all Jedi and Sith, period. I have a feeling that he will be forced to work with them (or for them) again.

The ending has left me with lots of questions. Not to sound shippy, I can definitely see Jaina and Jagged Fel getting together. The one thing I see getting in the way of that would be the fact she's the Sword of the Jedi now, and her life will be one of turmoil. So the settling down thing may not happen as a result, though if she opted in that direction, it would be with Jag, and Han and Leia may get some more grandkids out of the deal. But her being the sword may prevent that. On the other hand, we still have Sith out there. Now that we no longer have those Sith dedicated to the "There are only two" priniciple, which I believe was created by Darth Bane in the Old Republic era, There is still that conclave of Sith out there that Lumiya and Alema Rar eventually met. They are still out there. I wonder how they would handle the Jedi finding out about them.

Anyway, those are some of my musings as well.....:rolleyes:

[lunchmeat]

Starting Mahan's Influence Of Seapower Upon History, just finishing The Omnivore's Dilema.

I'd forgotten that Rufus'VA was one of the first to get killed in this one.

[campy]

I've just started reading Afterburn by Colin Harrison. The main character is an Air Force pilot who's just been captured by the Vietcong. This is for background, later the story's going to shift to his life in Corporate America.

[GoTeamGirl]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.


You want another cheery book to read try Tuchman's Guns Of August or Solzenyetsen (spelling is problematic, the Cyrillic "Ya" and "Yui" get rendered in odd ways in translation) A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovitch. The last one is considerably shorter.

I read a part of A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch because it was assigned earlier in the year for Global class. I didn't care for it that much, because the writing style was confusing. It might be assigned in full for English, though.

I finished "1984" and the ending is even more disturbing then the beginning because...he was so close!...and then they got him! And that the Party could do that is such a scary thought.

Now I'm going to read a book called "Lock and Key" by Sarah Dessen. I don't know if it's a happy book, but even if it isn't it will probably be cheerier than "1984", and less scary.

[Molloy]

Just finished reading a book written by an old friend.

Swish: My Quest to Become The Gayest Person Ever.

Very good. Not nearly as insouciant as the title suggests. Every chapter begins with a light-hearted look at a so-called stereotypical gay topic or activity. However, as he gets deeper into the subject matter, it inevitably leads him and the reader to something unexpected, deeper and, especially in the last half of the book, profound.

[TransWarpDrive]

I've officially decided on "1984", and hopefully it's good. I'll start it tomorrow when I get to school.


You want another cheery book to read try Tuchman's Guns Of August or Solzenyetsen (spelling is problematic, the Cyrillic "Ya" and "Yui" get rendered in odd ways in translation) A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovitch. The last one is considerably shorter.

I read a part of A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch because it was assigned earlier in the year for Global class. I didn't care for it that much, because the writing style was confusing. It might be assigned in full for English, though.

I finished "1984" and the ending is even more disturbing then the beginning because...he was so close!...and then they got him! And that the Party could do that is such a scary thought.

Now I'm going to read a book called "Lock and Key" by Sarah Dessen. I don't know if it's a happy book, but even if it isn't it will probably be cheerier than "1984", and less scary.
Your comment reminds me of the time I first read Thomas Harris' books, The Silence of the Lambs, and Red Dragon. Both dealt with serial killers, and each tome was very effective at putting the reader inside the mind of its villain. I found them so disturbing that, upon finishing each novel, I immediately picked up a book by some other author, in an attempt to "rinse my mind out," so to speak. For instance, after finishing Dragon, I remember saying to myself, "Yuck! I'm going to read about some normal people for a while!" And I reached for my copy of Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October.
Believe me - anybody seems normal compared to the sociopaths in Mr. Harris' books... :unsure: :errr:

[Molloy]

Last night I began Sir Salman Rushdie's latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence.

I hope it isn't quite as dark as his last novel, Shalimar the Clown, although that was very good.

[TransWarpDrive]

I just finished reading the Iron Man movie novelization by Peter David. It's pretty good - Mr. David's one of the better "novelizers" out there, since he does a fine job of "fleshing out" the script when he turns it into a book. This book was obviously rushed into print, though; I found several typographical errors while reading it. The proofreaders need to pay closer attention in a sitch like this.

[kyojikasshu]

I just finished reading the Iron Man movie novelization by Peter David. It's pretty good - Mr. David's one of the better "novelizers" out there, since he does a fine job of "fleshing out" the script when he turns it into a book. This book was obviously rushed into print, though; I found several typographical errors while reading it. The proofreaders need to pay closer attention in a sitch like this.

That's disappoiting, that there'd be typos like that... but, yeah, Peter David's got the experience in science fiction and comics, so he seems the logical choice. And it makes even more sense that he's written the Incredible Hulk novelization... I can only hope the editors were a bit more thorough this time.

[TransWarpDrive]

I just finished reading the Iron Man movie novelization by Peter David. It's pretty good - Mr. David's one of the better "novelizers" out there, since he does a fine job of "fleshing out" the script when he turns it into a book. This book was obviously rushed into print, though; I found several typographical errors while reading it. The proofreaders need to pay closer attention in a sitch like this.

That's disappoiting, that there'd be typos like that... but, yeah, Peter David's got the experience in science fiction and comics, so he seems the logical choice. And it makes even more sense that he's written the Incredible Hulk novelization... I can only hope the editors were a bit more thorough this time.

Well, it wasn't too bad. There was only a handful of typos when you come right down to it. The book was so well-written that I considered them to be a very minor annoyance. So go ahead and buy the "Iron Man" book - but don't read it until you see the film (spoilers, y'know...)! I made that mistake back in '79 when I bought, and read, the novelization of the first "Star Trek" movie before it hit the theaters. So I knew what all was going to happen the first time I saw the film.
I learned from that goof, though; when I bought the novelization of "Star Trek II" before the film came out, I stuffed it in a small paper bag and hid it in one of my dresser drawers under my clothes until after I'd seen the movie. :P

[TheGreenMagic]

PAD does seem to be the go-to-guy when it comes to the novelizations of Marvel's films. The only ones I don't remember him having a hand in were the books based on the X-Men films. I've yet to check out the Iron Man book, but considering the quality of the other ones (Spider-Man 3's novel just plain rocks)... Yes, yes I do have to get to a bookstore in the near future. For that and for that Metal Gear Solid novel I keep hearing about lately.

[lunchmeat]

Cowboy Culture, it follows the cattle industry from the 1500s to the present day, focusing on the life, technology and methods of the actual cowhands. It traces things like the evolution of handling cattle from the early Spanish technique of hamstringing cattle with a knife rigged to a pole through the various rope techniques to the use of helicopters for herding. Pretty intersting, especially since I've been slightly involved with this stuff.

Next up is Joshua Slocum and Sailing Alone Around The World.

[TransWarpDrive]

I just finished reading And You Know You Should Be Glad by former Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene. It tells about how Greene's best friend Jack suddenly took ill with an incurable cancer; and how Greene and his other close friends - Allen, Chuck, and Dan - banded together to help Jack through the last months of his life. It's a very moving story; I found myself thinking about my father's last months while he battled his cancer nineteen years ago.

[GoTeamGirl]

Just finished Lock and Key which was good, but predictable. I also got myself into a competition between friends to see who can read the most pages over the summer starting at the end of this month. I can't wait! Especially since my required reading for history class alone encompasses a lot of stuff (two books and 3 chapters of our textbook).

[TransWarpDrive]

I just started reading Exploring the Moon; The Apollo Expeditions, Vol. 2 by David M. Harland. I've read his book on Apollo 11, The First Men on the Moon, so I know he's a good author who reveals facts that other space books I've read didn't cover. It starts out with a brief history of lunar exploration - the unmanned probes first; then the early Apollo landings - 11, 12, 14 - before going into detail about the last three missions. These are referred to as the "J" missions, which included use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle, a battery-operated car which allowed the astronauts to travel quite some distance away from their lunar modules as they explored the moon and sampled its geological treasures. Right now I'm still reading about the results of Apollo 11's rock sampling.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm about 3 chapters into one of my summer reading books, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," by Safran Foer. It's about a 9-year-old, Oskar, who lost his dad on 9/11. Understandably, he was a bit wobbled by the whole thing, and the book's about him trying to wedge the shattered pieces of his life back together as best he can.

The style of the book is unusual - it's nearly stream-of-consciousness, written and narrated in the run-on babble and bluntness of a 9-year-old. It's been considered a "new media" book (he was 27-ish when he wrote it), since it tossed the standard "prose" style, and throws pictures in nilly-willy.

Oskar himself reminds me stunningly of myself. He's babbling and curious, very inventive, creative, and an "image thinker," and he has a very large vocabulary for a 9-year-old. The exacting little statistics he throws out sound precisely as if he - almost mirroring myself - had read an article on Wikipedia and internalized the information.

[lunchmeat]

The River War by Winston Churchill. It's a history of the Sudanese campaign in the 1890s. If you saw the movie Khartoum the Gordon incident is what set the whole thing off. Churchill was a lieutenant in the 21st/23rd Lancers during the climactic battle at Omdurman.

[canuck31003]

I don't think of it as really "reading", but a few comic strips I follow are Baby Blues, Foxtrot, Sherman's Lagoon, Dilbert, and Doonsbury. I also like Blondie, mostly for nostalgia.

Speaking of comics, I think the online comic VG-cats (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=190) is often extremely funny. It's a comic that parodies video games, comics, cartoons/anime et cetera.

The most recent thing I read (re-read, actually) was King Lear.

Edit. VG cats occasionally has mild profanity, though not in the comic linked above.

[campy]

I'm reading The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross. Very well-written thriller about a financier who fakes his own death and the family he leaves behind. Thumbs up. :thumbup:

[Fireand'chutes77]

I recently finished up "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" for school, followed by The Bard's "King Henry IV, Part I," also for school.

"ELaIC" was at once crushing and uplifting; it was one of the few books in a while that've made me tear up. It's one of those books you hate for being a novel because it feels so true. Oscar reminded me somuch of myself it was almost painful, and 9/11 was such a hugely formative event in my life (much like JFK would be to y'all's) that the book had much more of an impact on me than, IMHO, a 60-year-old.

The book is a technical challenge (the spacing of dialogue is weird, it's written almost stream-of-consciousness-style in the speech patterns of a smart 10-year-old, and the timeline of the book is broken up), but I'd highly recommend it.


I'm currently on "Atonement" by Ian McEwan. It fits very well with a quote from "Truth Hurts:"
Ron: .....I almost dislocated my jaw from yawning!
Barkin: Stoppable! Explain yourself.
Ron: This book is snobby, pompous, overwritten, and.... and.... the cover picture was in black and white!
Except for a spirited boinking scene, the first part was a overwritten yawner.... I don't like romances that much. I've just gotten into Part 2, though, and it's (finally!) picked up - they've finally gotten into WWII, and the narrative has shifted focus to a trio of British soldiers making their way to Dunkirk. Much more my style.....

[lunchmeat]

Kevin f Kline Artillery Of The Napoleonic Wars 1792 - 1815 yes, I really am that geeky.

[campy]

Just started reading The Fourth Estate by Jeffrey Archer. It's holding my interest so far.

[AinoMinako]

I recently finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It's become one of my favorite books; I thought it was amazing, and I highly recommend it.

It was one of my summer reading books. One of the advantages of being a senior is you get to take the best classes, and I am particularly excited about this one, Banned and Challenged Literature. :D

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm currently reading Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions (Second Edition) by David M. Harland. I started reading this a while back, but set it aside for a while. Now, I'm finishing it up because next Sunday, July 20, is the 39th anniversary of Apollo 11's moon landing. I'm diving into my space books to "get into the mood" for my annual celebration, which includes a visit to the Henry Crown Space Center at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Looking forward to it....:)

[campy]

Final Theory by Mark Alpert. Einstein's Unified Field Theory may hold the key to the ultimate weapon, and everybody's after the guy who has the vital number sequence in his head.

EDIT: Finished it. It was pretty good. Would have been better if they'd cut back on some of the heavy-handed politics. References to stupid, evil Republicans clumsily shoehorned in all over the book. The corrupt FBI agent listens to [gasp!]Rush Limbaugh while transporting the captured hero. The SecDef doesn't know anything unless he sees it on [shriek!]Fox News! When they assembled at a facility near Chicago for the big climax, I was half expecting a charismatic, part African American senator to step in and save the day.

[TransWarpDrive]

Final Theory by Mark Alpert. Einstein's Unified Field Theory may hold the key to the ultimate weapon, and everybody's after the guy who has the vital number sequence in his head.

EDIT: Finished it. It was pretty good. Would have been better if they'd cut back on some of the heavy-handed politics. References to stupid, evil Republicans clumsily shoehorned in all over the book. The corrupt FBI agent listens to [gasp!]Rush Limbaugh while transporting the captured hero. The SecDef doesn't know anything unless he sees it on [shriek!]Fox News! When they assembled at a facility near Chicago for the big climax, I was half expecting a charismatic, part African American senator to step in and save the day.

I read a book like that once: Nimitz Class by Patrick Robinson. He tended to get rather heavy-handed with his politics, too; but from the conservative side. I felt his comments were out of place in the novel, which, BTW, I thought was also rather poorly-written. :thumbdown: Needless to say, I haven't read any of his other books; in fact, I even got rid of my copy of Nimitz Class. I think I donated it to our local library - I don't keep books I don't like.

[lunchmeat]

A biography of Admiral Nelson, good stuff.

[campy]

I've just started reading The Eleventh Commandment by Jeffrey Archer. It seems pretty good at this early stage.

[lunchmeat]

Star Wars, episode VII, Dark Helmet is watching the tape of the movie to find out where Dark Starr has gone.....

[TransWarpDrive]

Star Wars, episode VII, Dark Helmet is watching the tape of the movie to find out where Dark Starr has gone.....
:laugh: Isn't that from "Spaceballs?" And shouldn't this be in either "What Are You Currently Watching?" or "Any Good Movies/DVDs?"
- Unless they wrote a "Spaceballs" novelization I didn't know about... :P

[lunchmeat]

Hit the wrong button when I posted this, but yes, it's from the most important and best of the Star Wars movies.

[TransWarpDrive]

Hit the wrong button when I posted this, but yes, it's from the most important and best of the Star Wars movies.
I take it you don't think much of George Lucas's epic space fantasy, huh?
I mean, sure, Mr. Lucas isn't the best scriptwriter in the business, but there's something about "Star Wars" that caught the public's attention; otherwise it wouldn't have become the worldwide phenomenon it has over the past 30+ years.

[campy]

I'm reading an amusing and very strange novel, Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips. Artemis, Ares and the other Greek gods from Mt. Olympus are alive and living in a London townhouse.

[lunchmeat]

Hit the wrong button when I posted this, but yes, it's from the most important and best of the Star Wars movies.
I take it you don't think much of George Lucas's epic space fantasy, huh?
I mean, sure, Mr. Lucas isn't the best scriptwriter in the business, but there's something about "Star Wars" that caught the public's attention; otherwise it wouldn't have become the worldwide phenomenon it has over the past 30+ years.

They're OK, the first couple (or last couple or whatever they are) were fun, after that they seemed just to be advertisements for toys.
The movies were basically rehashes of the old Staurday movie serials I used to watch when I was a kid. I don't find them to be the religious experience that some people seem to.

[Molloy]

I am currently taking a second shot at Thomas Pynchon's latest (and longest) novel. I've read all of his previous ones (and mined them all for plot points in "Until the End of the World"--my KP/Gravity's Rainbow crossover fic).

I started reading the novel for the first time back when it was published Christmas before last. I got as far as the beginning of the second section where the Chums of Chance flew through the middle of the earth before getting sidetracked and putting the book down so I could focus on my KP writing endeavors.

Instead of picking back up where I left off, I've decided to begin back at the beginning (you always catch something extra when reading Pynch the second time through anyway).

I solemnly promise to keep reading until the end (all the way to page 1085)--although I may take some days off to read the latest adventures of my favorite manga heroine when they are published :) .

[campy]

I'm reading Cold Plague by Daniel Kalla. Something about special water from an Antarctic lake marketed as a panacea that may in fact be a killer. This medical "thriller" hasn't delivered much in the first 100 pages.

[GoTeamGirl]

Thomas Jefferson: Author of America as summer reading for history class. I can't get into it, but at least it's short. And it does have an opinion about his life...

[lunchmeat]

No Substitute For Victory, about Horatio Nelson and Jack Aubrey's Navy relating historical events to the O'brien books.

[TransWarpDrive]

No Substitute For Victory, about Horatio Nelson and Jack Aubrey's Navy relating historical events to the O'brien books.
Here's another good reference book on the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars: The Illustrated Guide to Nelson's Navy by Nicholas Blake and Richard Lawrence, published by Stackpole Books. ISBN # 0-8117-3275-4. $24.95 US (higher in Canada). I bought my copy at Border's this past year; it's a wonderful tome that gives the reader a comprehensive view of the Royal Navy back then. This quote from the book's back cover describes it best, I think: This Companion brings every aspect of the navy vividly to life. The workings of the Admiralty; the design and building of ships; food, drink, entertainment, discipline, medicine, fighting tactics, gunnery, seamanship, and shiphandling - all this and much more is described and explained.
Whether searching for a recipe for "spotted dog," or looking for the way to reef the main topsail, it is all here.
I've found it a valuable companion to my Hornblower books, since it goes into such great detail. I highly recommend this book. :thumbup:

[campy]

About halfway through Road to Nowhere by Paul Robertson. A road project in a sleepy North Carolina county stirs up plenty o' trouble. Lots of interesting characters. It's worth checking out.

[NinjaNaco]

I'm currently reading With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz (in English translation, of course ... not that iffy one I referred to earlier (which was written back in 190-something, but the more modern one buy W.S. Kuniczak.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm re-reading "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (reviewed above), a story about one kid's experiences after his dad was killed on 9/11 in the South Tower.

10-year-old Oscar's struggle with the shattered pieces of his life, and his desperate, almost-heartbreaking attempt to make some sense of it all, find some closeure, and put the pieces back together again, brought to my mind a stanza from Papa Roach's song "Scars" (particularly near the end of the book:

I tear my heart open,
I sew myself shut.
My weakness is that I care too much!
And our scars remind us,
that the past is real!
I tear my heart open
Just to feel!


----------------------------------

During my VASTS experience (I'll explain more on that later), I picked up a book on Alen Shepard, America's first spaceman, from the NASA-Langley gift shop. The book is titled "Light this Candle!" by Neal Thompson. I'm really enjoying it, and I think my dad will too, since he grew up in the time of the "Mercury Seven."

TWD, I'd recommend you check this book out. :)

[TransWarpDrive]

During my VASTS experience (I'll explain more on that later), I picked up a book on Alen Shepard, America's first spaceman, from the NASA-Langley gift shop. The book is titled "Light this Candle!" by Neal Thompson. I'm really enjoying it, and I think my dad will too, since he grew up in the time of the "Mercery Seven."

TWD, I'd recommend you check this book out. :)

Thanks, 'chutes, but I think I already have this book - problem is, I can't find my copy right now. I've got books in boxes in our spare bedroom, as well as in my closet. I think my copy of that Shepard book's buried in one of those - another compelling reason to move back out on my own; I'd be able to put all my books on bookshelves, finally...:ohwell:
P.S. Check your spelling of the word "Mercury."

[Molloy]

Yay!

Within a week I have already made it past the point where I stopped readng last time!

One hundred and thirty-five pages might not sound like much, but Pynchon packs a lot into a single page. No kidding, you'll feel like you have witnessed the intricate richness of a character's entire life, and then you'll blink and remember that you were only introduced to the character two pages ago.

I missed a great deal the first time through. The book is generating lots of interesting ideas to add to "Until the End of the World"--including a way for Kim and Ron to take a short-cut to southern Africa via the North Pole. :hmm:

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm reading Final Patrol: True Stories of World War II Submarines by Don Keith. It's about seventeen submarines from WWII that are now on display and open to the public (including the U-505 at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry), and it describes the roles they played in fighting the war at sea. It's interesting, but I suspect it was written for younger readers; it's a quick read and doesn't go into any real detail on the exploits of each sub. Still, I've learned more about WWII subs from reading this book; so I consider its price money well spent. I bought it at the gift shop outside the U-505 exhibit at the museum last month when I went there for my annual July 20 Apollo 11 visit.

[campy]

Just started reading The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow. It's the story of a California surfer-slash-PI looking into a case from his days as a cop: the murder of a young girl.

[GoTeamGirl]

Thank goodness! I finished the Thomas Jefferson book and now am moving on to the second summer reading book for history:

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano. I heard it's interesting, and it has to be more interesting than the previous book.

[campy]

Now I am reading Shining City, a novel by Seth Greenland. ("... the icy one.")

A down-on-his-luck LA man inherits his late brother's dry cleaning shop. Then he discovers that all his employees are women. And they don't actually do any dry cleaning. :hmm:

[Fireand'chutes77]

Then he discovers that all his employees are women. And they don't actually do any dry cleaning. :hmm:
So are they really "but-then-I'd-have-to-kill-ya" Black Ops with covers as dry-cleaning employees? ;) :P

[TransWarpDrive]

I put aside my submarine books for a while to reread a book titled Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske. It's a fairly balanced biography of Elvis, one that neither canonizes nor vilifies the man. It's based on documents only recently made public and lots of interviews with Elvis's closest friends, who have finally broken their silence about their years with him. It also tells what really happened the day Elvis died, and includes details about his autopsy never before released.
I find that the book is very objective in its depiction of Elvis, pointing out his virtues and vices equally but without passing judgment on the man. Elvis was more complex than I imagined him to be, and this book gives the details of that complexity.
(I'm rereading it because this coming Saturday marks the 31st anniversary of his death.)

[GoTeamGirl]

I've finished The Interesting Narrative and am now in the process of reading the first three chapters of my US History textbook, which I hope to be done with tomorrow. It's funny that the paper with all of these summer assignments ends with "Rest up! We have work to do come September." If all these books are the "rest" part, I don't want to know what is coming in September...

[campy]

Then he discovers that all his employees are women. And they don't actually do any dry cleaning. :hmm:
So are they really "but-then-I'd-have-to-kill-ya" Black Ops with covers as dry-cleaning employees? ;) :PWhen you hear hoofbeats, 'chutes, it's usually better to think horses, not zebras. :D

[lunchmeat]

Ran across this one, it's a pretty interesting read, especially some of the associated articles:

http://www.secrethistoryofstarwars.com/index.html

[campy]

I've moved on to Never Surrender by Michael Dobbs. It's a fictionalized account of Winston Churchill's life and career.

[GoTeamGirl]

Finished the history text-book chapters. Now for my English summer reading I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I heard from a few classmates who read it already that it was 450 pages of torture. I really hope they're wrong, but I have a feeling they're not.

[jeriddian]

Finished the history text-book chapters. Now for my English summer reading I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I heard from a few classmates who read it already that it was 450 pages of torture. I really hope they're wrong, but I have a feeling they're not.

It depends on how you approach the book. Yeah, it's a tough read. it will require a lot of deep thought.

[lunchmeat]

Finished the history text-book chapters. Now for my English summer reading I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I heard from a few classmates who read it already that it was 450 pages of torture. I really hope they're wrong, but I have a feeling they're not.
I've long enjoyed Steinbeck, I can see how the mentally indolent (most of my own high school classmates) would find it to be torture.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I didn't think it was that bad, but then, I like to read a lot, so it's less of a struggle for me to get through a book.

[campy]

Now reading California Fire and Life by Don Winslow. Possibly for the second time; parts of it seem really familiar to me. It's about an insurance adjuster investigating a fatal fire.

[GoTeamGirl]

I didn't think it was that bad, but then, I like to read a lot, so it's less of a struggle for me to get through a book.

The reason I'm afraid of this book being so bad as everyone says, is because the people who have said it was bad all like to read.

I've read about 40 pages in, and it isn't too bad. It's not the best book I've ever read, either, but it does keep my attention. It would be better if I didn't have to annotate the book so much. That really slows me down.

[NinjaNaco]

Finished With Fire and Sword last week. It's a good read, even though it's pretty big (though only one volume; the sequel, The Deluge, is [i]two big volumes of roughly equal size.) Nevertheless, I managed to finish it in a relatively short time. (Some weeks, I believe.) Having read some of the turn-of-the-20th-century translation (Well, a translation of a translation (instead of referring to the original Polish, the translator worked from a Russian copy), to be more precise) by Jeremiah Curtain that is somewhere on Google (now it the public domain since the copyright expired), there were definite differences; for one in the J. Curtain redaction, there was a part where Skshretuski (sp) and Bohun get into a fight over Helen (apparently, this scene is from the original serial in which the story first appeared, and not in the final novel. I was disappointed, though, that there was no final confrontation between Skshretuski and Bohun at the climactic battle of Zbarajh. The book deals with the 1647-49 Cossack Uprising against Poland (The Deluge deals with the 1655 Swedish invasion of Poland, and the third book deals with the 1672/4 (forgot which) Turkish siege of the Polish fortress of Kamieniec. While recurring characters appear in all three novels, each novel has a different protagonist, and can be read as a standalone.)

Sienkiewicz said that he wrote The Trilogy to "uplift the hearts" of the Polish people, and thus there is definitely something of a Polish/Catholic bias, but Sienkiewicz does criticize the Polish nobility of the novels' time, and most definitively did his research. (He didn't win the Nobel Prize for Literature (back when it meant something.) I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the "Golden-Age" of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and/or anyone who likes a good story. (Though, unless you know Polish, I'd recommend the translation by Wusniak (sp- ack! the spelling of these names is so hard to remember), as it's the best one out there.)

[jeriddian]

Finished With Fire and Sword last week. It's a good read, even though it's pretty big (though only one volume; the sequel, The Deluge, is two big volumes of roughly equal size.) Nevertheless, I managed to finish it in a relatively short time. (Some weeks, I believe.) Having read some of the turn-of-the-20th-century translation (Well, a translation of a translation (instead of referring to the original Polish, the translator worked from a Russian copy), to be more precise) by Jeremiah Curtain that is somewhere on Google (now it the public domain since the copyright expired), there were definite differences; for one in the J. Curtain redaction, there was a part where Skshretuski (sp) and Bohun get into a fight over Helen (apparently, this scene is from the original serial in which the story first appeared, and not in the final novel. I was disappointed, though, that there was no final confrontation between Skshretuski and Bohun at the climactic battle of Zbarajh. The book deals with the 1647-49 Cossack Uprising against Poland (The Deluge deals with the 1655 Swedish invasion of Poland, and the third book deals with the 1672/4 (forgot which) Turkish siege of the Polish fortress of Kamieniec. While recurring characters appear in all three novels, each novel has a different protagonist, and can be read as a standalone.)

Sienkiewicz said that he wrote [I]The Trilogy to "uplift the hearts" of the Polish people, and thus there is definitely something of a Polish/Catholic bias, but Sienkiewicz does criticize the Polish nobility of the novels' time, and most definitively did his research. (He didn't win the Nobel Prize for Literature (back when it meant something.) I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the "Golden-Age" of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and/or anyone who likes a good story. (Though, unless you know Polish, I'd recommend the translation by Wusniak (sp- ack! the spelling of these names is so hard to remember), as it's the best one out there.)

Isn't that the time and period when Taras Bulba was around?

[Fireand'chutes77]

Isn't that the time and period when Taras Bulba was around?
They had Darkwing Duck back then? :huh: :P

[campy]

Isn't that the time and period when Taras Bulba was around?I didn't even know Tara had a Bulba.

Errr ... what is a Bulba? :innocent:

[jeriddian]

Isn't that the time and period when Taras Bulba was around?I didn't even know Tara had a Bulba.

Errr ... what is a Bulba? :innocent:

Taras Bulba was a cossack leader of the 16th or 17th century who was involved in the invasion of Poland. His story was famous in that his son apparently had a relationship and fell in love with a Polish princess and betrayed his father's army for her. Taras Bulba ended up catpturing his own son and executed him for his treason. It was written up in a novel and also brought to the big screen in a movie in the 1950's by the name "Taras Bulba", starring Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis. But he actually existed, I' believe.

[campy]

Taras Bulba was a cossack leaderIt was a joke. Taras ... Tara apostrophe s ... kinda similar ... oh well, they can't all be funny. :blush:

Now reading another Don Winslow novel, The Power of the Dog. The guy is quite the storyteller.

[GoTeamGirl]

Still on Grapes of Wrath. I just realized that the book assigned for the other English classes, Of Mice and Men, was written by the same author, and none of us realized it. That's funny.

Also, taking a bit of a break between reading sessions, I've been reading The Horse and His Boy of the Narnia series to my younger sister, who likes to be read to more than to read. This summer I've already read her Voyage of the Dawn Treader (my favorite) and The Magician's Nephew. Reading to her has been an interesting thing to do over the summer. Last summer I read her Order of the Phoenix of Harry Potter. That one took all summer and two winter vacations to finish!

[NinjaNaco]

Isn't that the time and period when Taras Bulba was around?I didn't even know Tara had a Bulba.

Errr ... what is a Bulba? :innocent:

Taras Bulba was a cossack leader of the 16th or 17th century who was involved in the invasion of Poland. His story was famous in that his son apparently had a relationship and fell in love with a Polish princess and betrayed his father's army for her. Taras Bulba ended up catpturing his own son and executed him for his treason. It was written up in a novel and also brought to the big screen in a movie in the 1950's by the name "Taras Bulba", starring Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis. But he actually existed, I' believe.
Not sure if Taras was an actual historical figure ... a search on Wikipedia on "Taras Bulba" revealed articles on Gogol's novel (and movies, characters etc. based on it), but no historical figures. Though the Polish-Cossack conflict the story is about is, of course, historical.

[jeriddian]

Taras Bulba was a cossack leaderIt was a joke. Taras ... Tara apostrophe s ... kinda similar ... oh well, they can't all be funny. :blush:

Now reading another Don Winslow novel, The Power of the Dog. The guy is quite the storyteller.

Ohhh..........:ohmy::o.......sorry, didn't quite catch that................:rolleyes:

[GoTeamGirl]

I finished The Grapes of Wrath in a rather interesting marathon of reading. I might have liked it better if I didn't have to take notes and analyze Tom's character. (This whole 'annotating books' thing is becoming a habit--I've found myself doing it in books I read for fun!) I just wish I knew what happened to Tom. Otherwise the book was good. Not as good as some of the ones I've read over the year for school, but good.

Then I read five essays by George Orwell for the last part of the summer assignment: "Such, Such Were the Joys", "Shooting An Elephant", "Politics and the English Language", "Boys' Weeklies", and "Why I Write". All were interesting except perhaps "Boys' Weeklies". "Shooting An Elephant" was actually my history teacher last year suggested we do for extra credit when we did the age of imperialism. I never did it, but now I understand why it fits. It was very good. "Why I Write" reminded me a bit of myself in the beginning. And "Such, Such Were the Joys" was very enjoyable, and also a very long essay. They've all come out of a book of essays from him, which I may or may not finish. I probably will decided tomorrow. It's been a long while since I've read for leisure.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm reading a .pdf on surviving very long falls (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1730592&blobtype=pdf) (in excess of 100 feet :surprised:) that was written in 1942; apparently, the guy who wrote it, Hugh De Haven, was instrumental in the development of the seatbelt.

The falls described are things that make you go :scared:and clap a hand over your mouth - people slamming into flowerbeds, onto cars from 108 feet up, through roofs, jackknifing on fences, onto air conditioning units - things that make you think the next words will be "...and they died instantly". Amazingly, only one (out of 7) died (24 hours later), and only two lost consciousness after the fall - the rest were talking, walking, and had relatively minor injuries.

The study found that their saving factors had all been "crumple zones" of some kind - fences, sand, tilled earth in a flowerbed, collapsing AC units.... you could see how somebody could visualize the concept of a seatbelt with this data.

Personally, not being a doctor, I'm stunned by just how much punishment our bodies can take. They're falling out windows, falling a 130 feet, smashing into car-roofs, getting all sorts of broken bones..... and they have uneventful recoveries!

So, I guess this means that the skateboarding falls and other things I see on TV and gasp over aren't as horrific as they look, that KP and others might actually be able to survive some of the falls they go through, and that flinging sand or bolts or a hammer into water right before impact after you fell off a bridge might do something (yay for Mythbusters! :D). Where you'd actually be able to get a hammer or bolts or sand as you fell, of course....

This also means, given the crumple distance you'd get from the entire rear half of an airliner, a scene I'm kicking around for a fanfic isn't quite as wildly implausible as I'd thought.... ;)

(By the way, would the rear 1/2 of a 737 or 757 fall in a circular-ish, leaf-like pattern, due to lift from the tailfins, or fall aftward on a ballistic trajectory, due to the weight of the tailfins?

EDIT: Or would an MD-80/90 have a better "chance" of survival? The engines in the back might cause the that section to "tip" downward and fall faster, and the fuselage half would to have more momentum upon impact, but the engines themselves might absorb some of the shock of impact and sacrifice themselves as "crush zones"....)

[lunchmeat]

Probably tail first. The last time I saw an aircraft fall the way the one in Lost did what was left of the fueselage was about a foot thick, including the contents.

We had a fellow speak at survival school who had survived an ejection in a thunder storm, the cells kept carrying him up into the cloud for close to an hour. He was beat up pretty badly and had a lot of trouble getting a ride to help. People just weren't inclined to pick up someone covered in blood and carrying a machete (he's had to bushwack through a swamp and forgotten he was holding the thing). Happened down in the Carolinas if I remember correctly.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Probably tail first. The last time I saw an aircraft fall the way the one in Lost did what was left of the fueselage was about a foot thick, including the contents.
I haven't seen much of Lost - how did Oceanic 815 break apart?

EDIT: Wait! Found it! (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lostpedia.com/images/thumb/3/3c/Oceanic_815_from_Otherville_01.jpg/250px-Oceanic_815_from_Otherville_01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/The_crash&h=220&w=250&sz=8&hl=en&start=3&usg=__DjrWhEGCS2RJS2cg4YAbQI0H__A=&tbnid=b5JGO9wyYt2WRM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbreakup%2Bsequence%2Bof%2BOceanic%2B8 15%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG) :D (I still don't know if the physics are screwy, though)

I also found a video (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p155/cencio4/Oceanic%2520815/Oceanic815WallisIsland.jpg&imgrefurl=http://cencio4.wordpress.com/works/oceanic-815-crash-location/&h=557&w=854&sz=54&hl=en&start=3&usg=__pQjmVBWCEft_8UjqNIRCzwIaSEQ=&tbnid=fMRq-jPD6QLN_M:&tbnh=95&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcrash%2Bof%2BOceanic%2B815%26gbv%3D2% 26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG) that compiles the crash footage together. (Major structural problems begin at 6:00; the plane breaks apart completely 8:30. Somehow, I doubt people would have that much time of consciousness once the breathing masks deployed, unless the leak was really slow or the plane had entered thicker air as the masks dropped.)

[lunchmeat]

Seperated right behind the wing root, in a real crash there wouldn't have been any survivors in such a scenario (it's the classic annoying kid at the airshow thing: 'what would you do if the wing came off?' 'I'd die....'). Extrapolating the altitude from the apparent size of the plane would indicate that they were at least at 1000', assuming that the tailplanes and wings acted as sort of a rotochute and using a fall accleration of 16 ft/ sec2 still gives us a terminal impact velocity of about 350 mph (563 kph), which would definitely leave a mark.

[TransWarpDrive]

I saw a video someone shot of an airliner crashing into the ocean. As it descended toward the sea, the plane banked to the left until its wingtip contacted the surface of the water, at which point the aircraft cartwheeled, breaking up within seconds.
Not a pretty sight, let me tell you.... :unsure:

[lunchmeat]

I believe that was the Singapore Air plane that was hijacked, then recovered by the passengers, who attmepted to ditch it off Bali. That's pretty much what always happens when one digs a wing in at low altitude.

[TransWarpDrive]

Getting back on-topic:
I just finished reading two Star Trek: The Next Generation novels, one after the other. The first one was titled "Resistance" by J. M. Dillard (Pocket Books, $7.99 US. ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-9955-2 ISBN-10: 0-7434-9955-7). The second one was "Before Dishonor" by Peter David (Pocket, $7.99. ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-2742-8 ISBN-10: 1-4165-2742-7). Both books have Capt. Picard and the crew of the Enterprise dealing with the Borg once again. Read "Resistance" first, then "Before Dishonor" - "Before Dishonor's" kind of a sequel to the first book. I couldn't put them down once I got started; the books have that much action and suspense in them. There's also a dash of humor in "Before Dishonor," but I won't say any more than that. You'll find it - and laugh out loud the way I did - when you come across those passages hidden amongst the drama. Admiral Janeway and Seven Of Nine figure prominently in these books, too.
I highly recommend them (you can find them in your local Borders or other bookseller now). :thumbup:

[GoTeamGirl]

First order of leisurely reading: I'm in the middle of Naked by David Sedaris, and it's pretty funny. And it feels so good to not hurry through a book...although interestingly enough, in one of his essays he mentioned that a friend read The Grapes of Wrath and took him to go fruit picking in California. Freaky. That book is going to haunt me...

[campy]

Just started in on The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow. The first chapter introduces us to the title character really well.

[TransWarpDrive]

Just started reading The Aviation Careers of Igor Sikorsky by Dorothy Cochrane, Von Hardesty and Russell Lee. It's an 8 1/2" x 11" paperback, published in 1989 as a tie-in to an exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum that year, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Sikorsky's birth and the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the VS-300, the first practical helicopter (which Sikorsky developed). It has photos, diagrams and illustrations of the many aircraft Prof. Sikorsky designed and built, including the VS-300 and the Grand, the world's first four-engine airplane, which first flew on May 26, 1913. :alumnus: This book is an excellent companion to that biography of Sikorsky by Frank J. DeLear that I already have. :thumbup:

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

Eh, would you believe I'm still reading the same things I said I was reading this spring? :o I did however read Republic Commando: True Colors, it was amazing and definitely left me wanting more in the form of it's sequel Order 66. :happy:

[campy]

I've just started in on More Than It Hurts You by Darin Strauss. It's a novel about a family and a doctor caught up in a case of suspected Munchausen syndrome by proxy — a mother may have deliberately harmed her eight-month-old son for attention.

[jeriddian]

I've just started in on More Than It Hurts You by Darin Strauss. It's a novel about a family and a doctor caught up in a case of suspected Munchausen syndrome by proxy — a mother may have deliberately harmed her eight-month-old son for attention.

Yes, it's a real syndrome, though thankfully quite rare. The disorder is named for Baron Munchausen who lived in the eighteenth century in Germany and was famous for his fantastical stories which he spun out as real adventures.

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I actually read it last year for my English summer assignment, but I rushed through it and had to return the book to the library. It was good, so I decided to by it and read it again for leisure, since books not read for school always seem better (it's more relaxed that way). So far it is going better, and I am getting more out of it.

[campy]

I'm reading The Heir by Paul Robertson. It's a novel about a man who suddenly inherits his father's billion-dollar business empire at the age of 28. I find it far-fetched in that the father didn't groom him for the position at all; the guy was just living on a trust fund until he inherited.

[GoTeamGirl]

Now I'm reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It was interesting up until this last chapter, which spent a lot of time describing very extravagant things that are a pain to read.

[campy]

Now reading A Long Walk Up the Water Slide, an early novel by Don Winslow, several of whose books I've read this summer. It's early, but so far I like his later stuff much better.

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm reading a book titled Marvel Visionaries: John Buscema, a collection of some of the best Marvel comic stories drawn by Mr. Buscema while working for them. In fact, his career started back in the late 1940's when Marvel was known as Timely Comics. His first published piece was a short detective tale called, "Crime: Kidnapping! Victim: Abraham Lincoln!" about a group of thugs who plotted to steal President Lincoln's corpse and hold it for ransom. Buscema worked for Marvel until Jan. 10, 2002, when he died of cancer. He was inking a story even then. Buscema penciled the "Silver Surfer" comic book when it debuted in 1968; he also did the artwork on "Fantastic Four" from 1971 to 1975 (which was the period when I was heavily into reading the F.F. on a monthly basis). IMHO, he was one of the best pencillers ever to draw comics. I was saddened to learn of his passing.

[GoTeamGirl]

This week I read Peace Breaks Out by John Knowles. It wasn't as good as A Separate Peace and the stories of all the boys seemed disconnected. The ending was slightly disturbing. It was good, just not as good.

Now I'm reading (and nearly done with) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, which I already know the ending of since most of my class (as in, juniors, not my English class) had to do summer work on it, and they told me. I also heard it was good.

[campy]

About halfway through Captiva by Randy Wayne White. It's been pretty slow getting to the point so far. I hope the pace picks up soon.

[GoTeamGirl]

Now I'm reading On Writing by Stephen King, but I'm only four pages in. Homework has taken over, but I'll get to the book again.

[lunchmeat]

Shock Ana;ysis and Design, great plot, but the characterisations are shallow (it's an engineering text book).

[TransWarpDrive]

Shock Analysis and Design, great plot, but the characterisations are shallow (it's an engineering text book).
:laugh: Okay then; I won't spoil it for you by revealing how the book ends...:P :laugh:

[campy]

Shock Analysis and Design, great plot, but the characterisations are shallow (it's an engineering text book).
:laugh: Okay then; I won't spoil it for you by revealing how the book ends...:P :laugh:I almost picked that one up, but I decided to wait for the movie. ;)

[TransWarpDrive]

Shock Analysis and Design, great plot, but the characterisations are shallow (it's an engineering text book).
:laugh: Okay then; I won't spoil it for you by revealing how the book ends...:P :laugh:I almost picked that one up, but I decided to wait for the movie. ;)
You know, of course, that they'll delete certain scenes when they turn it into a screenplay... :P
:laugh::laugh:

[campy]

A TV news reporter is on the trail of a possible serial killer who picks victims by their first name in Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer. And the mayor is a suspect. :blink:

[lunchmeat]

Shock Analysis and Design, great plot, but the characterisations are shallow (it's an engineering text book).
:laugh: Okay then; I won't spoil it for you by revealing how the book ends...:P :laugh:I almost picked that one up, but I decided to wait for the movie. ;)
You know, of course, that they'll delete certain scenes when they turn it into a screenplay... :P
:laugh::laugh:


I heard that it was going to be a miniseries....

[campy]

Finished Stalking Susan. The killer's identity was so obvious.

Now I'm working on The Fifth Floor by Michael Harvey. A PI in Chicago connects a murder to the Great Fire of 1871 and corruption in the mayor's office.

[TransWarpDrive]

Shock Analysis and Design, great plot, but the characterisations are shallow (it's an engineering text book).
:laugh: Okay then; I won't spoil it for you by revealing how the book ends...:P :laugh:I almost picked that one up, but I decided to wait for the movie. ;)
You know, of course, that they'll delete certain scenes when they turn it into a screenplay... :P
:laugh::laugh:


I heard that it was going to be a miniseries....

It'll eventually be released in a 6-DVD boxed set... :P

[campy]

On to The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst. French & German intelligence agents spin out their webs of deceit in 1937.

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

I don't know if this counts, but I just finished reading the latest chapter (http://www.furryconflict.com/storyline/ep2/Ep2Chapter6.php) (finally!) of TFC: Episode II: The Shadows Fall (http://www.furryconflict.com/storyline/ep2_toc.html), and man-o-man that was intense! :D This story now officially has some of the best spacial combat I've ever seen - err, read. I mean, actual 3D combat! Who'd a thunk it? Ah, but this chapter does not bode well for our heroes, they've lost one of their biggest outposts and have been forced to fall back, all while their enemies swarm through their territory in an unrelenting blitzkrieg. And you know what? I want more, goramn it! This is good, I mean, really good! :happy:

[campy]

Yesterday I started in on North of Havana by Randy Wayne White. I should try to find the earliest novels in the series to see if there's more background on White's protagonist, Doc Ford. The character is a (sort-of) former intelligence operative and marine biologist living on Sanibel Island in Florida. I feel like I'm coming into the middle of something here, having started the series with the most recent and going back to the fourth or thereabouts.

[lunchmeat]

Yesterday I started in on North of Havana by Randy Wayne White. I should try to find the earliest novels in the series to see if there's more background on White's protagonist, Doc Ford. The character is a (sort-of) former intelligence operative and marine biologist living on Sanibel Island in Florida. I feel like I'm coming into the middle of something here, having started the series with the most recent and going back to the fourth or thereabouts.

Cool, didn't know he had a new one out, have to hit the bookstore this weekend. It's going to be too wet to paint the boat.

[campy]

Yesterday I started in on North of Havana by Randy Wayne White. I should try to find the earliest novels in the series to see if there's more background on White's protagonist, Doc Ford. The character is a (sort-of) former intelligence operative and marine biologist living on Sanibel Island in Florida. I feel like I'm coming into the middle of something here, having started the series with the most recent and going back to the fourth or thereabouts.

Cool, didn't know he had a new one out, have to hit the bookstore this weekend. It's going to be too wet to paint the boat.The title of the first one I read, which I believe is the newest, is Black Widow.

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm almost done with Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. It's a pretty cool fantasy book about four guys and a war going on in their country, and how they all have something to do with it and each other. And there are dragons. Not live ones, but mechanical ones. It's actually the first book I've read that features dragons (although I know there are plenty out there).

[campy]

An oddball crew pilots a jet with an even odder group of passengers (including a potbellied pig) across the Atlantic in Skid by Rene Gutteridge.

[lunchmeat]

Sailboat Maintenance, needed to brush up on some things.

[Fireand'chutes77]

The "Emergency Preparation" merit badge book; I'm going to make a road kit for my (pending) new car.

[GoTeamGirl]

Just finished Havemercy, and it was wonderful. I actually was sad it was done, but then again, it couldn't have gone on either. Good conclusion.

Tomorrow I'll start reading The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for school....

With apologies to NinjaNaco, ooof, Catholics are real downers. :dubiety: :P :laugh:

[campy]

Just started in on Tiny Little Troubles by Marc Lecard, a dark comedy about a nanotech scientist who gets involved with an eccentric thug. Hilarity ensues. :rolleyes:

[lunchmeat]

Erskine Childers The Riddle Of The Sands, one of the very first spy novels.

[TransWarpDrive]

Carrying The Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys by Michael Collins. He flew in Gemini 10, and on Apollo 11. Mr. Collins was the command module pilot who stayed in lunar orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon.

[campy]

Starting in on The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey. It's about your basic, average ex-cop-turned-PI taking on one of those seemingly simple cases that just grows more and more complicated ...

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

I just finished up reading Order 66 a few days ago, and I have to say that it was both a shocker and a heart-breaker. How so? That depends, who here has read the book? :huh:

[lunchmeat]

Nicholas Monserratt, Three Corvettes, a quasi-autobiographical treatment of his service in the Battle of the Atlantic.

[jeriddian]

Brisingr, the third novel in the Christopher Paolini Series.

[campy]

Started another in the "Doc Ford" series from Randy Wayne White today. This one is a tale of murders old and new: The Ten Thousand Islands.

[TransWarpDrive]

Conversations With Kennedy by Benjamin C. Bradlee. Bradlee and Kennedy became friends in 1958 when they were neighbors in Washington, D.C. Their friendship lasted until JFK's death. This book was written from notes Bradlee kept, with Kennedy's knowledge, about their conversations during Kennedy's presidency. Bradlee didn't publish them, though, until 12 years after JFK died. And yes, this is the same Ben Bradlee who went on to become executive editor of the Washington Post when Woodward and Bernstein broke the story of the Watergate break-in back in 1972, right after Nixon was re-elected. :alumnus:

[campy]

I've started on At First Sight by Stephen J. Cannell. It's a novel about a man who becomes obsessed with a woman he meets at a resort hotel.

[GoTeamGirl]

I finished The Illustrated Man and thought it was interesting. I didn't like some of the stories, while others I found made me think, which is good. The 'Epilogue' was sort of creepy, and also a bit out of place, since mention of the Illustrated Man hadn't occurred for about 200 pages.

Now I'm reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, another collection of short stories. These, I think, are more fantasy than science-fiction.

[campy]

I'm now reading Shark River by Randy Wayne White. Does Doc Ford have a sister he never knew about? :huh:

[TransWarpDrive]

While rearranging my closet today, I found two books on JFK that I'd forgotten I had: "Let Every Nation Know: John F. Kennedy in His Own Words" by Robert Dallek and Terry Goldway; and "A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House" by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. The first one, "Let Every Nation Know...", is about Pres. Kennedy's major speeches, and contains a bonus audio CD with excerpts from those speeches that one can play while reading each chapter of the book.
I think I'll read "A Thousand Days" after I finish "Conversations With Kennedy."

[campy]

Frames by Loren D. Estleman. It's a novel about a film archivist who buys an old theater and uncovers a priceless bit of Tinsel Town history — and a murder.

[AdellaRoseArielVanessa]

Gonna start readin' 'Salem's Lot' all over again. xP Awesome book.

[campy]

I'm starting on another Doc Ford novel by Randy Wayne White: Twelve Mile Limit.

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm reading that book about President Kennedy, "A Thousand Days," By Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
I don't know why I'm thinking so much about JFK again; perhaps it's due to the current Presidential race. Anyway, this is a fascinating book, written from an insider's point of view about Kennedy's campaign and then his Presidency. Schlesinger first served as an assistant to JFK during the campaign; then was appointed as a special assistant to the president, mainly on Latin American affairs. :alumnus:

[campy]

Brought 2 Doc Ford novels by Randy Wayne White on vacation with me. I started Everglades in the car on the way to NJ. Doc takes on a cult leader.

[Molloy]

I divide my reading of fiction and non-fiction between work and home.

On my lunch and during breaks, I continue to read Thomas Pynchon’s latest mammoth volume, Against the Day. At the moment, I am on page 494—roughly 45% of the way through the novel! Strange and stranger happenings.

As for home, I just finished Richard Reeve’s book concerning President Reagan, The Triumph of the Imagination, and I’ve just begun his book on President Kennedy, Profile of Power.

[lunchmeat]

Switching back and forth between Rampant Raider, a memoir of flying A4s with VA-212 over Vietnam and Ben Bova's Return To Mars. Both are pretty good so far.

[GoTeamGirl]

I finished the Neil Gaiman book of short stories, and I'm happy to say that I really like him as an author.

For school, I'm reading The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn.

Not for school, but set in the same time frame, I'm reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

[TransWarpDrive]

I set aside the Kennedy book for awhile and am rereading Winter Hawk by Craig Thomas. As much as I like JFK and want to learn more about him, I figured I needed to take a break from history and lose myself in a fictional adventure for a while.

[GoTeamGirl]

Now I'm also reading C.S. Lewis' Letters to Children. The letters are very nice.

[campy]

I started reading Dead of Night by Randy Wayne White. It's another in his Doc Ford series.

[lunchmeat]

Trudeau Southern Storm: Sherman's March To The Sea

[jeriddian]

The Study of Orchestration by Samuel Adler. I'm reviewing a basic textbook on the subject for my composing. It's reminding me of a lot of stuff I had forgotten. After all, it's been forty years........:blink:............since I read this stuff as a teenager.........

[Fireand'chutes77]

Currently reading, after discovery on TV Tropes:

"Master Race (http://es.geocities.com/thegweb/berniekrigstein1.html)," a graphic-novel short about the Holocaust. (The term "comic strip" doesn't fit. At all.) [Click on the panel itself to advance to the next page.]

It's Anvilicious (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Anvilicious), yes, but sometimes it needs to be (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped).

"Judgment Day (http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/5675959.html)" is pretty good, too, even though the allegory has all the subtlety of, well, an anvil.
The Comics Code Authority went absolutely ballistic over it.... But not for the reasons you'd expect...

[TransWarpDrive]

Currently reading, after discovery on TV Tropes:

"Master Race (http://es.geocities.com/thegweb/berniekrigstein1.html)," a graphic-novel short about the Holocaust. (The term "comic strip" doesn't fit. At all.) [Click on the panel itself to advance to the next page.]

It's Anvilicious (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Anvilicious), yes, but sometimes it needs to be (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped).

"Judgment Day (http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/5675959.html)" is pretty good, too, even though the allegory has all the subtly* of, well, an anvil.
The Comics Code Authority went absolutely ballistic over it.... But not for the reasons you'd expect...

I was just reading about that last story in a book I have on comic-book publishers and their fight against censorship in the 20th Century. This particular strip was the brainchild of William C. Gaines, who later went on to found "Mad" magazine. The administrator of the Comics Code Authority - the organization Gaines himself was instrumental in founding to set content standards and guidelines for comics publishers - told Gaines himself that this story was rejected simply because of how the character was drawn in its last panel! That rejection so enraged Gaines that he started "Mad" as a way to satirize contemporary society and all its hypocrisy - such as the arbitrary ruling on this very comic book story. :alumnus:
Anyway, thanks for posting that link, 'chutes. Since reading that book I have, I've been wanting to track that comic story down so I could read it for myself. You've saved me a lot of research. :thumbup:

*BTW, this word is spelled "subtlety." Just thought you'd like to know.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Anyway, thanks for posting that link, 'chutes. Since reading that book I have, I've been wanting to track that comic story down so I could read it for myself. You've saved me a lot of research. :thumbup:
*Bows* No problem. :)

*BTW, this word is spelled "subtlety." Just thought you'd like to know.
Oops, spellcheck's fault. :thumbdown:

[TransWarpDrive]

Anyway, thanks for posting that link, 'chutes. Since reading that book I have, I've been wanting to track that comic story down so I could read it for myself. You've saved me a lot of research. :thumbup:
*Bows* No problem. :)

*BTW, this word is spelled "subtlety." Just thought you'd like to know.
Oops, spellcheck's fault. :thumbdown:
I never trust spellcheck, myself. It always seems to miss a word or two here and there. That's when I reach for the dictionary...

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm reading The Graveyard Book by Niel Gaiman. It's a book for younger readers (sort of-I guess just below teenagers) but it's very interesting and cute. And long. But good.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Currently reading a series of Newsweek articles about the two campaigns. Obama's was chapter 1, McCain is chapter 2.

McCain: Back from the Brink (http://www.newsweek.com/id/167639/page/1)

I voted for Obama, but reading about this side of McCain is really, really cool. :D As with Obama, something about the man is just awe-inspiring. I'm laughing, I'm smiling - if McCain had shown this side of him during the general election, instead of letting his Republican smear wonks take the reigns, there's a very good chance he could have won. If Hillary had gotten the Democratic nomination, I would have certainly jumped ship to McCain.

[TransWarpDrive]

Currently reading a series of Newsweek articles about the two campaigns. Obama's was chapter 1, McCain is chapter 2.

McCain: Back from the Brink (http://www.newsweek.com/id/167639/page/1)

I voted for Obama, but reading about this side of McCain is really, really cool. :D As with Obama, something about the man is just awe-inspiring. I'm laughing, I'm smiling - if McCain had shown this side of him during the general election, instead of letting his Republican smear wonks take the reigns,* there's a very good chance he could have won. If Hillary had gotten the Democratic nomination, I would have certainly jumped ship to McCain.

*In this phrase, you misspelled "reins." The word you have here, "reigns," is the verb for a monarch ruling his/her country.
Just thought I'd point that out....

[GoTeamGirl]

Having finished The Graveyard Book, which was a nice read, I'm now reading Neverwhere by the same author (Neil Gaiman). So far, this book is pretty interesting. It's better than some of the stuff I'm going to end up reading for school...and the best part is that it doesn't have to be annotated!

I've also finished The Scarlet Letter for school, and it was pretty good. Not the best book I've read for school (or ever), but I did like some of the characters. Dimmesdale and Pearl were my favourites. My English teacher doesn't seem to like Dimmesdale much, but oh, well.

[TransWarpDrive]

I've also finished The Scarlet Letter for school, and it was pretty good. Not the best book I've read for school (or ever), but I did like some of the characters. Dimmesdale and Pearl were my favourites. My English teacher doesn't seem to like Dimmesdale much, but oh, well.

I had to study that book in high school English class, too. And I agree that it's not the best thing to read. In fact, I found it downright depressing due to the themes of guilt, shame, and social stigma running through its pages. Not to mention the fact that my English teacher, Miss Evjen, was a humorless old crone who enjoyed dissecting every little facet of the novel for us to examine and discuss. Bleah...:sick::thumbdown:

[jeriddian]

Having finished The Graveyard Book, which was a nice read, I'm now reading Neverwhere by the same author (Neil Gaiman). So far, this book is pretty interesting. It's better than some of the stuff I'm going to end up reading for school...and the best part is that it doesn't have to be annotated!

I've also finished The Scarlet Letter for school, and it was pretty good. Not the best book I've read for school (or ever), but I did like some of the characters. Dimmesdale and Pearl were my favourites. My English teacher doesn't seem to like Dimmesdale much, but oh, well.

Dimmesdale was a bit too much the hippocrit for my tastes, but then one also has to look at the book in terms of the mores of society at the time it was written. The fact that his "sin" was eating away at him and caused his death at the end after he publicly confessed it did exonerate him finally. It is a difficult book to read. But then picking apart a book like your old English teacher did was a favorite pasttime of the nineteenth century I believe. (There wasn't that much other type of entertainment around then), and this one seemed to be a favorite, I would think.

[TransWarpDrive]

Having finished The Graveyard Book, which was a nice read, I'm now reading Neverwhere by the same author (Neil Gaiman). So far, this book is pretty interesting. It's better than some of the stuff I'm going to end up reading for school...and the best part is that it doesn't have to be annotated!

I've also finished The Scarlet Letter for school, and it was pretty good. Not the best book I've read for school (or ever), but I did like some of the characters. Dimmesdale and Pearl were my favourites. My English teacher doesn't seem to like Dimmesdale much, but oh, well.

Dimmesdale was a bit too much the hippocrit for my tastes, but then one also has to look at the book in terms of the mores of society at the time it was written. The fact that his "sin" was eating away at him and caused his death at the end after he publicly confessed it did exonerate him finally. It is a difficult book to read. But then picking apart a book like your old English teacher did was a favorite pasttime of the nineteenth century I believe. (There wasn't that much other type of entertainment around then), and this one seemed to be a favorite, I would think.

:laugh: The problem is, I went to high school in the Twentieth century...

[jeriddian]

Having finished The Graveyard Book, which was a nice read, I'm now reading Neverwhere by the same author (Neil Gaiman). So far, this book is pretty interesting. It's better than some of the stuff I'm going to end up reading for school...and the best part is that it doesn't have to be annotated!

I've also finished The Scarlet Letter for school, and it was pretty good. Not the best book I've read for school (or ever), but I did like some of the characters. Dimmesdale and Pearl were my favourites. My English teacher doesn't seem to like Dimmesdale much, but oh, well.

Dimmesdale was a bit too much the hippocrit for my tastes, but then one also has to look at the book in terms of the mores of society at the time it was written. The fact that his "sin" was eating away at him and caused his death at the end after he publicly confessed it did exonerate him finally. It is a difficult book to read. But then picking apart a book like your old English teacher did was a favorite pasttime of the nineteenth century I believe. (There wasn't that much other type of entertainment around then), and this one seemed to be a favorite, I would think.

:laugh: The problem is, I went to high school in the Twentieth century...

For you and me both!..........:P:rolleyes:

[campy]

Now working on The Answer Is Always Yes by Monica Ferrell. A high school misfit strives to reinvent himself in college, with dire consequences.

[TransWarpDrive]

Having finished The Graveyard Book, which was a nice read, I'm now reading Neverwhere by the same author (Neil Gaiman). So far, this book is pretty interesting. It's better than some of the stuff I'm going to end up reading for school...and the best part is that it doesn't have to be annotated!

I've also finished The Scarlet Letter for school, and it was pretty good. Not the best book I've read for school (or ever), but I did like some of the characters. Dimmesdale and Pearl were my favourites. My English teacher doesn't seem to like Dimmesdale much, but oh, well.

Dimmesdale was a bit too much the hippocrit for my tastes, but then one also has to look at the book in terms of the mores of society at the time it was written. The fact that his "sin" was eating away at him and caused his death at the end after he publicly confessed it did exonerate him finally. It is a difficult book to read. But then picking apart a book like your old English teacher did was a favorite pasttime of the nineteenth century I believe. (There wasn't that much other type of entertainment around then), and this one seemed to be a favorite, I would think.

:laugh: The problem is, I went to high school in the Twentieth century...

For you and me both!..........:P:rolleyes:

I take it you had an ancient crone of an English teacher, too?
- I mean, where did they find all those old hags? :errr:
:laugh::laugh:

[lunchmeat]

....I take it you had an ancient crone of an English teacher, too?
- I mean, where did they find all those old hags? :errr:
:laugh::laugh:

I'm convinced that they, like gunnery sergeants, are cloned on a secret farm somewhere.

[jeriddian]

Having finished The Graveyard Book, which was a nice read, I'm now reading Neverwhere by the same author (Neil Gaiman). So far, this book is pretty interesting. It's better than some of the stuff I'm going to end up reading for school...and the best part is that it doesn't have to be annotated!

I've also finished The Scarlet Letter for school, and it was pretty good. Not the best book I've read for school (or ever), but I did like some of the characters. Dimmesdale and Pearl were my favourites. My English teacher doesn't seem to like Dimmesdale much, but oh, well.

Dimmesdale was a bit too much the hippocrit for my tastes, but then one also has to look at the book in terms of the mores of society at the time it was written. The fact that his "sin" was eating away at him and caused his death at the end after he publicly confessed it did exonerate him finally. It is a difficult book to read. But then picking apart a book like your old English teacher did was a favorite pasttime of the nineteenth century I believe. (There wasn't that much other type of entertainment around then), and this one seemed to be a favorite, I would think.

:laugh: The problem is, I went to high school in the Twentieth century...

For you and me both!..........:P:rolleyes:

I take it you had an ancient crone of an English teacher, too?
- I mean, where did they find all those old hags? :errr:
:laugh::laugh:

Well, she wasn't an old hag actually, just middle-aged, but she sure did drag out all the nit-picky things about the book, that's for sure.... that was the only class I made a "C" in during high school (as I remember). Sure did mess up my class average.:mad:

[campy]

Now reading Fickle by Peter Manus. It's a novel about a woman who witnesses a suicide in the subway, told entirely in the form of entries and responses on her weblog.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Currently reading "Becket" for school. Not the best, but it's at least more modern than some plays.

[campy]

Currently reading "Becket" for school. Not the best, but it's at least more modern than some plays.There's a play about the Quantum Leap guy? :laugh: No wait, he spelled it with two t's.

EDIT: Doesn't look like the autolock on 500 posts feature is working here.