Good Reads - Discussion of Books, Literature, Reading, etc.

[Guest LilBambi]

Cool! Hope it's there for you. I know it's in Kindle and Audiobook formats and ah, yes, paperback.

 

http://www.amazon.co.../dp/B007FG9LIE/

 

Just so you know what you are looking for. No hardcover apparently.

 

Oh, yeah, and here's his website: BlakeCrouch.com (just added it to the bottom of the blog posting too).

Edited May 5, 2014 by LilBambi

[abarbarian]

 

It is all that darned Dr's fault then.

[Guest LilBambi]

Another book for the Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction/Fantasy folks:

 

A Darkling Sea by James Cambias - MyPassionIsBooks Blog

[Guest LilBambi]

A great crime thriller mystery by Ira Levin, his first actually! I have seen all the movies based on his books, but this is the first time I have actually read, or in this case, listened to an audiobook version of one of his novels.

 

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin - MyPassionIsBooks Blog

[Webb]

Stieg Larsson wrote three excellent novels called the Millennium series. He planned ten novels but died unexpectedly after three.

 

They are The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest.

 

Wikipedia

Edited June 1, 2014 by Webb

[Guest LilBambi]

I really enjoyed all three of those Dragon Tattoo books - I didn't realize they were called the Millennium series.

 

I read them via ebooks from B&N Nook and Kindle. I got one from one place and the other two from the other due to price variance.

 

Would love to get them in audiobook format too as well as dead tree versions.

Edited June 1, 2014 by LilBambi

[Guest LilBambi]

By May 2010, 27 million copies had been sold worldwide,[10] a number that would grow to more than 46 million over the next five months,[11] and reach 65 million in December 2011.[12] In July 2010 the series made Larsson the first author to sell a million electronic copies of his work on the Amazon Kindle. Sales reached 73 million copies worldwide by the end of 2012, and the books continue to sell well today.[13][14]

 

It is sad that the guy they hired to write the fourth one isn't even using the notes Stieg Larsson left behind with his lady friend. Sounds to me like it won't be the same at all doing it that way.

 

I thought Stieg Larsson must have seen some serious crimes against women in his life to have done the books the way he did as a protest again violence against women.

[Webb]

These are "read by the pool" books for me. In South Florida "by the pool" is pretty much all year.

 

I like the dead tree variety because they are free from my local library and my city government has dumped tons of (my) tax money into libraries.

 

I can't complain too much about my taxes, though, because I can play 9 holes of golf (walking) for $5.50. Red Reef

[Guest LilBambi]

Very nice Webb re: 9 holes for such a good price. Makes it much easier to handle than most courses.

 

I hear ya about the local library! Great resource! I have been known to get my limit on books and audiobooks from the local library as well. They have nice wifi too.

[Webb]

Well worth reading although a bit heavy - not exactly poolside reading.

 

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

 

The Gulag Archipelago - 50 years of Soviet show trials and Siberian prison camps

 

One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich - One day in a Siberian prison camp. There is a video available on YouTube.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqG1uwhTX2o

[Guest LilBambi]

The stuff of nightmares, eh? Think I will pass.

[Webb]

You probably wouldn't like Inside The Third Reich.

 

Inside the Third Reich is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Adolf Hitler's main architect before this period. It is considered to be one of the most detailed descriptions of the inner workings and leadership of Nazi Germany but is controversial because of Speer's lack of discussion of Nazi atrocities and questions regarding his degree of awareness or involvement with them.

[abarbarian]

Well worth reading although a bit heavy - not exactly poolside reading.

 

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

 

The Gulag Archipelago - 50 years of Soviet show trials and Siberian prison camps

 

One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich - One day in a Siberian prison camp.

 

You should give Cancer Ward a go if you managed to survive the othere two books.Here is a nice qutoe from Cancer Ward,

 

"We are so attached to the earth and yet we are incapable of holding on to it"

[Guest LilBambi]

You probably wouldn't like Inside The Third Reich.

 

Inside the Third Reich is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Adolf Hitler's main architect before this period. It is considered to be one of the most detailed descriptions of the inner workings and leadership of Nazi Germany but is controversial because of Speer's lack of discussion of Nazi atrocities and questions regarding his degree of awareness or involvement with them.

 

I have read enough sickening crap of non-fiction about the Third Reich....what would compel me to want to read that one?

[Guest LilBambi]

Ah, OK, might be worth a read. About the author from goodreads:

 

Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office. As "the Nazi who said sorry", he accepted responsibility at the Nuremberg trials and in his memoirs for crimes of the Nazi regime. His level of involvement in the persecution of the Jews and his level of knowledge of the Holocaust remain matters of dispute.

[Capt.Crow]

Just now I'm reading . *The United States of Anger* by Gavin Esler. 1997. Unusual take on political scene in the US.

[abarbarian]

The Hasheesh Eater: being passages from the life of a Pythagorean is an autobiographical book by the American novelist and journalist Fitz Hugh Ludlow in which he describes his altered states of consciousness and philosophical flights of fancy while using a cannabis extract.

 

Cult figure Terence McKenna would describe Ludlow as beginning “a tradition of pharmo-picaresque literature that would find later practitioners in William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson.… Part genius, part madman, Ludlow lies halfway between Captain Ahab and P.T. Barnum, a kind of Mark Twain on hashish. There is a wonderful charm to his free-spirited, pseudoscientific openness as he makes his way into the shifting dunescapes of the world of hashish.” (Wikipedia)

 

http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-hasheesh-eater-1857/

 

I just started the above.

[Capt.Crow]

Anyone read "The Kool Aid Acid Test" Ken Keasey. That and" Down and out in London and Paris "Before I walked from Calais to Gibralter. "Ulyssus" Just bored me to sleep.

 

Brendan Behan 'The Borstal Boy" a really good read. .

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I've tried to start Ulysses two or three times. I think I got all the way to page 50 once.

[ebrke]

I've been reading mysteries lately, nothing heavy. Came across some novels by Joseph Finder in the library--fairly good mystery/thriller type reading, although I definitely felt some were better than others. Unlike you, Eric, I usually read straight through all I can find of a particular author, trying to read by publication date if possible. I'm nothing if not methodical.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I read fav authors works, too. I just don't read them one after another after another. I break them up with other stuff.

[abarbarian]

Anyone read "The Kool Aid Acid Test"

 

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is remembered as an accurate and “essential” book depicting the roots and growth of the hippie movement.

 

Read it in the early 70's and then went on to live the life.

[Capt.Crow]

Just been handed a bunch of Neville Shute novels .. Guess the guy new I was into S.E.P.'s once . Until it got way too expensive..

 

Flew around the top of Mont Blanc once and landed at Mejeve ,for a coffee before heading back to Meyrin.

 

Know yall know I'm a daft Paddy :th_run-around-smiley:

 

 

 

I like playing with these yokes

[ebrke]

Just been handed a bunch of Neville Shute novels .. Guess the guy new I was into S.E.P.'s once . Until it got way too expensive..

Searched to see if your Neville Shute was the same one I had in mind and came across this:

http://boingboing.net/2013/05/01/the-techie-novels-of-nevil-shu.html

Never knew much about him except that he wrote On The Beach. Apparently he wrote a lot more than that.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Just been handed a bunch of Neville Shute novels ..

 

On the Beach (1957) is excellent. You might also like Trustee from the Toolroom (1960).

[Guest LilBambi]

Yes, excellent author!

 

I recently came into some of Tom Clancy's best novels in paperpack and a prior box that contained some wonderful Michael Crichton hard cover novels from Eric that I hope I will be able to read. The hard cover ones should be no problem, but the text on the paper backs is a bit small for my eyes these days, but maybe with a magnifier slider I can read them since I love Tom Clancy books!

 

I am looking at these two ... they are not perfect but better than the others I have seen recently:

 

First Choice:

 

 

Carson® MagniLine 4.5x LED Lighted Magnifier with 10x Spot Lens (MT-25)

 

Second Choice:

 

1 1/2 in. x 9 in., 2 X Power Bar Magnifier (Clear)

 

Know of a better one that is at least 2-4x?

 

 

I think that Jim would be able to read the Tom Clancy books without that help.

[abarbarian]

You may find some good advice here,

 

http://www.allaboutvision.com/buysmart/magnifiers.htm

 

If you are an avid reader, you will find that simple magnifiers are inadequate to help you sustain the concentration needed for an extended time period.

A small, handheld magnifier greatly enlarges a few words or sentences on a page. But reading something like a novel requires an expanded field of view and the ability to scan ahead in order to see and process information quickly

 

http://www.magnifyingglasses.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Hand_Magnifiers_6.html

 

http://www.magnifyingglasses.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Hands_Free_Magnifiers_and_Stands_12.html

 

I bought one of the full page plastic magnifiers for me mum. Yes it did enlarge but it was not uniform and glare was a problem in electric light. Ok for very short periods but not for long term reading.

Over here we can get magifier spectacles very cheaply which are a much better bet, still not perfect for long term reading though.

 

Scanning to a pc screen with the text enlarged is a good way to go. Though it is not curling up on the sofa style and you generally have to crack the book spine to get a decent scan.

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I have an aunt who is a voracious reader, but she is nearly blind and requires the big print books. Sadly, I don't have any of those to give to her.

[Webb]

Go to a "Dollar" store and get some reading glasses. They cost about $1.

 

An optometrist told me they will not degrade your vision.

 

I keep three pairs around the house in various locations because I got tired of guessing where I last put them down.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I keep 1x cheaters all over the place around my house, shop, truck, etc. I have the "over-50" eyes these days, but I've also found that good lighting makes it much better. I don't even need the cheaters if the lighting is sufficient.