Topic: My Reading List  (Read 24261 times)

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Offline Bonk

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My Reading List
« on: September 28, 2008, 01:32:01 pm »
I've been reading heaps of stuff lately, what with no TV, phone or internet... It's a good thing.

Here's a sample of the material, I'll update it as I read more and recall the volumes I have read in the last few months. (I need to check my library receipts, they don't keep the records in a database here... some are re-reads others are catching up on Sci-Fi I've neglected and also branching out to other genres referenced in the Sci-Fi material I have been reading). Once I have completed the list I'll tabulate it with comments and ratings.

Fiction:
- Poul Anderson - The Boat of a Million Years
- Poul Anderson - The Avatar
- Piers Anthony - On A Pale Horse
- Piers Anthony - Hasan
- Isaac Asimov - The Edge of Tomorrow
- Isaac Asimov - Nine Tomorrows (series of excellent short stories)
- Ray Bradbury - Martian Chronicles
- Ray Bradbury - From The Dust Returned (Great for Halloween)
- Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine
- Ray Bradbury - Farewell Summer
- Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End
- Arthur C. Clarke - Tales From Planet Earth
- Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage
- Wade Davis - The Serpent and the Rainbow
- Philip K. Dick - Solar Lottery
- Philip K. Dick - Vulcan's Hammer
- Philip K. Dick - The Man In The High Castle
- Philip K. Dick - Simulacra
- Philip K. Dick - A Scanner Darkly (Film: same title)
- Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (Film: Blade Runner)
- Philip K. Dick - We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (Film: Total Recall)
- Philip K. Dick - The Divine Invasion (Dick has written 36 novels, I must read them all)
- Philip K. Dick - The Broken Bubble
- Philip K. Dick - Time Out Of Joint
- Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
- Robert A. Heinlein - I Will Fear No Evil (excellent story, most freaky)
- Robert A. Heinlein - Citizen Of The Galaxy
- Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger In A Strange Land (must re-read this one, been a long time)
- Robert A. Heinlein - For Us, The Living
- Robert A. Heinlein - The Door Into Summer
- Robert A. Heinlein - Methuselah's Children
- Robert A. Heinlein - The Number Of The Beast
- Frank Herbert - The Green Brain
- Cormac McCarthy - All The Pretty Horses
- Cormac McCarthy - The Crossing
- Cormac McCarthy - Cities of the Plain
- Cormac McCarthy - No Country For Old Men
- Larry Niven - Rainbow Mars
- Larry Niven - The Ringworld Throne
- Larry Niven - Ringworld's Children
- The Qur'an
- Spider Robinson - Lifehouse
- Spider Robinson - Callahan's Key
- Spider Robinson - Very Bad Deaths
- The Thousand And One Nights (Arabian Nights - not the children's version)
- Voltaire - Candide (and other stories)

Non-Fiction:
- Cherry Hill - Horsekeeping On A Small Acreage
- Jackie Budd - Seasons Of The Horse
- Ruth Holmes Whitehead - The Old Man Told Us : excerpts from Micmac history, 1500-1950
- Daniel N. Paul - We were not the savages : a Micmac perspective on the collision of European and aboriginal civilizations
- Wade Davis - The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World.
- Handsome Lake - The Code of Handsome Lake

I just finished Candide (and other stories), excellent read - most illuminating. I'm in the midst of Dick's The Man In The High Castle now. I highly reccomend The Divine Invasion - the reviews on the back and inside covers made it sound like a mushy romantic religious story from a man in his dying years - I almost did not read it, but once I started I could not put it down, I read it in a single sitting - incredible author.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2011, 05:08:48 am by Bonk »

Offline Dracho

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2008, 11:13:34 pm »
Right now I'm reading the Project Management Certification material.. and rereading Lord of the Rings.
The worst enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.  - Karl von Clausewitz

Offline toasty0

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2008, 07:41:33 am »
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Offline Bonk

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2008, 08:34:02 am »
I have left out my work reading list, standard operating methods for analysis of veterinary drugs, standard operating procedures, values statements and quality systems manuals (etc. etc. ad nauseum) can be quite dry. This is strictly my recreational reading.

Offline Bonk

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2008, 10:35:36 am »
For anyone having a hard time bearing the trials of life right now, I strongly and heartily recommend Voltaire's "Zadig", "Candide" and "The Way Of The World". Also Crane's "The Red Badge Of Courage". Both have taught me critical lessons I so direly needed right now.

Offline Bonk

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2008, 08:42:17 am »
I just finished Dick's "The Simulacra", a terribly salient text at this time given the synchronous federal elections in North America and the global financial crisis, and nearly as socio-politically prophetic as Clarke's works are technologically, albeit in a somewhat exaggerated fashion.

I wish I could put my own madness to paper as effectively as Dick, perhaps someday I shall.

A copy of Cormac McCarthy's "All The Pretty Horses" I requested just came in, that will keep me busy tonight. It was recommended to me by a most literate uncle of mine. Always take the advice of one's elders. I am also most intrigued by another work of McCarthy's called "No Country for Old Men" a recent work, I think I shall request it next.

Offline toasty0

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2008, 09:04:15 am »
I have left out my work reading list, standard operating methods for analysis of veterinary drugs, standard operating procedures, values statements and quality systems manuals (etc. etc. ad nauseum) can be quite dry. This is strictly my recreational reading.

That is my entertainment reading list.
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Offline Bonk

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2008, 09:12:03 am »
I have left out my work reading list, standard operating methods for analysis of veterinary drugs, standard operating procedures, values statements and quality systems manuals (etc. etc. ad nauseum) can be quite dry. This is strictly my recreational reading.

That is my entertainment reading list.

You sick, sick man...  :laugh:   It scares me that I understand perfectly. ;) Once I get my systems set up again on an uber-Eastlink connection, my recreations will follow a similar path once again.

Offline Capt. Mike

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #8 on: October 04, 2008, 09:26:38 pm »
Let's see..

Luther for the Armchair Theologian

The Rapture Exposed

Class Dis-Mythed

Silent Warrior (story of Carlos Hathcock)

the current Acoustic Guitar magazine

Luthier's Handbook

The Constitution in Exile

and as always..Latin Quips at your Fingertips

Paratae lacrimae insidias, non fletum, indicant...easy tears show treachery, not grief

Mike
Summum ius summa iniuria.

The more law, the less justice.

Cicero, De Officiis, I, 33

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it hasn't, it isn't, it even ain't, and it shouldn't
it couldn't"
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My chops were not as fast...[but] I just leaned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops.  I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes.
 --Les Paul

Offline Bonk

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2008, 12:53:14 pm »
Luthier's Handbook

There's something I could get into, who's the author?

***

Ever get that feeling... it starts somewhere in the spinal column and spreads tingling throughout your body until it reaches the extremities and pervades the entire surface of your skin? It is a somewhat autonomic response, intellectually stimulated but with an emotional texture. There is probably a term for it. It is usually evoked by a particularly powerful and moving piece of music...

Well I just finished reading McCarthy's "All The Pretty Horses", and that book did it to me, in several places. Needless to say I enjoyed the text thoroughly, read it in a single sitting, and recommend it to anyone who has an appreciation of horses or a good old fashioned cowboy story. The style of the dialog was difficult to bear at times, but well worth the read. Excellent character development, very natural. A single sentence that particularly struck me should give you an idea of the quality of writing:

"In the sepia monochrome of a rainy day in that lost village they'd grown old instantly."

McCarthy takes the cliche, and makes it original; uniquely his.

Today, I'm reading Dick's "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?". Started at about 4am and nearly done (doing chores, etc. as intermissions). It brings back visions of Blade Runner in an odd way. The movie had the feel alright...
« Last Edit: October 05, 2008, 01:20:09 pm by Bonk »

Offline FCM_SFHQ_XC

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #10 on: October 05, 2008, 03:14:08 pm »
Today, I'm reading Dick's "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?". Started at about 4am and nearly done (doing chores, etc. as intermissions). It brings back visions of Blade Runner in an odd way. The movie had the feel alright...
I read that book several years ago.. it was really good book I must say :)
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Offline Dracho

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #11 on: October 05, 2008, 09:44:50 pm »
Bonk,

I think you'd like Flannery O'Connor if you've never read her short stories.  Start with "Good Country People". 

Some others that come to mind:

The Deerslayer (1841) James Fenimore Cooper

Two Years Before the Mast (1840) Richard Henry Dana Jr

Great Expectations (1861) Charles Dickens

All Quiet on the Western Front (1928) Erich Maria Remarque

Faust (1808/1832) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Men Against the Sea (1933) Charles Nordhoff & James Hall

The Time Machine (1895) H.G. Wells

In the Reign of Terror (1890) G.A. Henty

Off on a Comet (1878) Jules Verne

Conquest of Mexico (1632) Bernal Diez Del Castillo

The Conquest of Gaul (52 BCE) Julius Ceasar
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Offline Capt. Mike

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #12 on: October 05, 2008, 09:57:31 pm »
It's an amalgom of various contributers...I think I got it from Amazom about 10 years ago..time goes to quick..

I've been reading up on putting a new saddle on my Epi Dove..the original keeps tilting forward, and doesn't seem like a good fit

So I've cut down a new bone saddle, but have too many grandkids romping around to make the time to set it..plus there's the saddle pickup to consider..

Ah well, it'll get done..probably when I install the electrics on my SG project, three layered mahogny, maple and rosewood, maple thruline neck, ebony fretboard...I did buy the inlays from a Taiwanese dude..I'll post when I find my camera

Mike
Summum ius summa iniuria.

The more law, the less justice.

Cicero, De Officiis, I, 33

"It doesn't, and you can't, I won't, and it don't
it hasn't, it isn't, it even ain't, and it shouldn't
it couldn't"
FZ, 1974

My chops were not as fast...[but] I just leaned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops.  I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes.
 --Les Paul

Offline marstone

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2008, 06:52:16 am »
would like to see your work.  Been reading up on that also.

Big fan of old style hand woodwork.

You going to use hide glue or a newer (but not better) one?
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Offline Bonk

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2008, 07:47:37 am »
Dracho,
I have read H.G. Wells' "Time Machine", enjoyed it thoroughly. Most of the other classics you've recommended I have not read, and I'll definitely pick a few.

Ah well, it'll get done..probably when I install the electrics on my SG project, three layered mahogny, maple and rosewood, maple thruline neck, ebony fretboard...I did buy the inlays from a Taiwanese dude..I'll post when I find my camera

Sounds most cool.  8)

I started reading Heinlein's "For Us, The Living" last night (his first novel), about half way through now. Incredible, says many of the things I've always wanted to say. I begin to understand why there is a Heinlein Society.

Offline toasty0

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #15 on: October 06, 2008, 08:13:19 am »
Piers Anthony - On A Pale Horse

I consider this one of PA's best books.

Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End

Read this around my 14th birthday. Still holds up as one of the best pieces of Science Fiction in my  mind.

Robert A. Heinlein - I Will Fear No Evil (excellent story, most freaky)
Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger In A Strange Land (must re-read this one, been a long time)


Though he is was a twisted man (read Farnham's Freehold to know what I'm talking about) he was also a great writer.

If you do like twisted may I suggest Harry Crews. Feast of Snakes and Body are two books that come to mind.

For hard boiled Noir I suggest Raymond Chandler for older fiction, and Michael Connelly for modern day hard boiled Noir { http://www.michaelconnelly.com/ }

You might enjoy this site. My list is no where near complete: http://www.shelfari.com/o1517979283/shelf
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Offline marstone

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #16 on: October 06, 2008, 09:18:22 am »
I will second "On a Pale Horse", and fairly much the whole incarnates of immortality series is good.
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Offline Corbomite

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #17 on: October 06, 2008, 09:47:41 am »
Bonk,

I think you'd like Flannery O'Connor if you've never read her short stories.  Start with "Good Country People". 


Yes! Also try J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories and Raise High the Room Beam Carpenter.

Offline Sirgod

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #18 on: October 07, 2008, 02:14:19 pm »
I've been going down the list lately starting with this one...

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600831.txt

The elephant Tower got me in the mood while waiting for AoE to patch.

Stephen
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Offline Nemesis

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Re: My Reading List
« Reply #19 on: October 07, 2008, 03:22:28 pm »
I've been going down the list lately starting with this one...

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600831.txt

The elephant Tower got me in the mood while waiting for AoE to patch.

Stephen


Thank you Stephen.  As a result of your pointing out the Australian branch of Project Gutenberg I've learned that the different branches don't all have the same books due to varying copyright law and was able to stumble upon an old book I've been wanting the text of.  (Armageddon 2419 A.D. the prototypical "Buck" Rodgers novel in TWO versions).

Edit:  Correction it was one novel in two parts not two versions.
« Last Edit: October 21, 2008, 08:01:41 am by Nemesis »
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