kimrey
New Member
What work of his disappointed you?! You can't just "leave it at that." I need to know now.
what do you read?
- Thread starter bonefishjake
- Start date
bradmcnutt
Member
Damn, now I don't know what to do. I'm liking his style so I was going to read some of his other works. Almost all of them got good reviews, but if they are disappointing, I'm going to be kicking myself since you warned me.
A convenient feature of Windows is the ability to do a system restore to a previous date. So if you download something and it craps your machine, you can restore your machine to its state prior to the download and everything is all good. This would be a convenient time to have this feature in my brain.
Fine.
Nothing of his was nearly as good as Walk in the Woods. The Australia book convinced me he was making up a fair amount of the stuff he wrote. Many of the scenes were clearly fabricated. Unfortunately it made me realize that half the stuff in Walk in the Woods was likely untrue as well.
A Short History of Nearly Everything - this is actually another fantastic book. I forgot about this in my OP.
kimrey
New Member
Fair enough. And some will argue that his credibility isn't what it should be to be writing a "science" book, but I found Short History to be compelling enough to make me want to learn more about the subjects he covered.
I don't care if Walk in the Woods is a work of fiction - I'm probably guilty of embellishing myself from time to time.
Agree on both counts, and found myself thinking the same thing after I read Brief History. After my last post I thought about picking it up again and rereading it because it was so interesting. Totally different than Walk, but a fascinating read.
bradmcnutt
Member
Good b/c that's the one I wanted to read next.
ChrisG
Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
In my effort to actually read some books unrelated to teaching, I recently finished Suttree by Cormac McCarthy. This is his fourth novel, the last of his Southern books. It's a big, sprawling thing, populated by a pretty extensive cast of characters.
For those of you who only know McCarthy through The Road and/or No Country For Old Men, this is another sort of beast. Much denser, and containing a far greater quantity of "conventional" profanity (and humor!) than any of his other novels (as opposed to the profane violence and outrageous depravity of books such as Blood Meridian, which is still pretty well represented here).
I could go on and on, but it's Cormac. If you're into his stuff, you'll dig this. If you're interested but haven't read anything yet, I'd say start with All the Pretty Horses or No Country For Old Men.
Next on the summer reading list is David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.
For those of you who only know McCarthy through The Road and/or No Country For Old Men, this is another sort of beast. Much denser, and containing a far greater quantity of "conventional" profanity (and humor!) than any of his other novels (as opposed to the profane violence and outrageous depravity of books such as Blood Meridian, which is still pretty well represented here).
I could go on and on, but it's Cormac. If you're into his stuff, you'll dig this. If you're interested but haven't read anything yet, I'd say start with All the Pretty Horses or No Country For Old Men.
Next on the summer reading list is David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.
case
Member
I just finished 2 books that I thought were really good, both fiction. A Handbook of American Prayer" by Lucius Shepard. It's a story about a convict who develops what he calls "prayerstyle" which is a focused prayer, to no diety in particular, which could be for love, work, happiness, etc. The prayers could be answered in days or weeks and if not the object of the prayer needs work. Upon release, with his "Handbook" published, he is celebrity author with tours, Oprah and Larry King along with the problems that come with it. He runs into a fundamentalist minister who wants to ruin him, the Lord of Loneliness who turns out to the god he's been praying to and a hit man along the way.
Rogue Male by Geoffery Household. It's about an unnamed English big game hunter who goes after the (again unnamed) biggest game of the time, I think it's Hitler but I've read it could be Stalin. He has him in his sight, standing on a balcony his finger on the trigger and he's caught, interegated and escapes. The story follows his run through Europe and into the English countryside with the agents and soldier of fortune on his trail and they run him literally underground. It's a good read... what it interesting for me is that it was written in 1939.
The end.
Rogue Male by Geoffery Household. It's about an unnamed English big game hunter who goes after the (again unnamed) biggest game of the time, I think it's Hitler but I've read it could be Stalin. He has him in his sight, standing on a balcony his finger on the trigger and he's caught, interegated and escapes. The story follows his run through Europe and into the English countryside with the agents and soldier of fortune on his trail and they run him literally underground. It's a good read... what it interesting for me is that it was written in 1939.
The end.
wow, been awhile since i've posted up anything here. with my travel being all but eliminated and with temple run/zombieville/words with friends/angry birds space on the iPhone (and of course mtbnj's brilliant podcast "The Norm"), i haven't been doing a whole lot of reading. this is shameful, particularly with the last few posts being about real stuff (and i must take this time to once again thank professor mr. ChrisG for showing there was more to McCarthy than The Road (which is brilliant)) to write about Hunger Games.
yeah, yeah. it was a pretty good book. i mean, it's not like i learned anything but it was entertaining enough that i plowed through it in about three sittings. i'm not going to spoil the plot (it's about kids fighting to the death, which is always heart warming) or the end (they pretty much all die) so you can read it yourself. or hey, go see the movie. or both.
point is, it's a solid read, and WAY better than the single James Patterson book i ever read (one was PLENTY). i will tell you this. i hated the end. not the end of The Games, but how the author ends this book. it sucks. and even though i understand why it was done, it blows.
even with all that, i would still recco it. now i'm going to dive back into the 600+ page Walt Disney biography to off set all the crap that just filled my head. i'll read the second one. b/c i freaking HAVE TO.
3.5 outta 5 tasty crab flies on this one. the ending ruined it. FU ending.
yeah, yeah. it was a pretty good book. i mean, it's not like i learned anything but it was entertaining enough that i plowed through it in about three sittings. i'm not going to spoil the plot (it's about kids fighting to the death, which is always heart warming) or the end (they pretty much all die) so you can read it yourself. or hey, go see the movie. or both.
point is, it's a solid read, and WAY better than the single James Patterson book i ever read (one was PLENTY). i will tell you this. i hated the end. not the end of The Games, but how the author ends this book. it sucks. and even though i understand why it was done, it blows.
even with all that, i would still recco it. now i'm going to dive back into the 600+ page Walt Disney biography to off set all the crap that just filled my head. i'll read the second one. b/c i freaking HAVE TO.
3.5 outta 5 tasty crab flies on this one. the ending ruined it. FU ending.
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i liked it for sure. it was a good read but like i said, the ending...ugh.
so far just the first. i'm waiting on number two.
Must resist....
Robin
Well-Known Member
I got the 2nd book from the library...got through 1/3 of it...then got busy and had to return the book...hopefully over the summer I'll have more time to finish the series.
So to pick up the Bryson portion of this thread, the last book I read was "Notes from a small island". Good enough- entertaining travelogue stuff.
If you enjoy his style, you'll like it.
Before that the last Bryson I read was "At Home". This one I'd recommend.
A little more in his wheelhouse than A Short History- in it he researches the evolution of the rooms in our homes. It gets you thinking about things you might not consider, and for that, I enjoyed it. That and I do like his style.
Currently I'm reading David Quammen's Natural Acts.
It's a collection of his columns for Outside.
I don't get tired of reading his stuff. I find him more accessible and enjoyable to read than say McPhee or Diamond, but maybe I haven't given them enough of a chance.
Before this, I gave David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries a go, well, you know because it has bicycle in the title. I could only take so much, and that turned out to be about half the book.
If you enjoy his style, you'll like it.
Before that the last Bryson I read was "At Home". This one I'd recommend.
A little more in his wheelhouse than A Short History- in it he researches the evolution of the rooms in our homes. It gets you thinking about things you might not consider, and for that, I enjoyed it. That and I do like his style.
Currently I'm reading David Quammen's Natural Acts.
It's a collection of his columns for Outside.
I don't get tired of reading his stuff. I find him more accessible and enjoyable to read than say McPhee or Diamond, but maybe I haven't given them enough of a chance.
Before this, I gave David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries a go, well, you know because it has bicycle in the title. I could only take so much, and that turned out to be about half the book.
anddd....
...i couldn't. started it last night.
i love Krakauer...read all his books. my favorite was 'under the banner of heaven' which is just insane.
I just finished David Millar's book, Racing Through the Dark. It was excellent and only a few hundered pages, so a quick read.
I am currently reading tyler hamilton's book, The Secret Race. Starting off really well.
I can tell you from reading these books that the doping scene is nothing what you thought. It brings perspective to the whole pro racing scene and pretty much eveyone was a doper during the 90's and how the UCI let (and still does) these riders get away with it.
I am currently reading tyler hamilton's book, The Secret Race. Starting off really well.
I can tell you from reading these books that the doping scene is nothing what you thought. It brings perspective to the whole pro racing scene and pretty much eveyone was a doper during the 90's and how the UCI let (and still does) these riders get away with it.