What are you reading?

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bking14ers
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by bking14ers »

douglas wrote:Just finished a great book about computer hacking called "Ghost in the Wires" about a hacker named Kevin Mitnick - fascinating stuff.
The title alone makes me want to read that book... I'm now reading "There Must Have Been An Angel" by Lee Bergthold. A true story of two friends who take a 125 mile cross country hike/journey on a 280 degree direct compass heading from Badwater, Death Valley (-282ft below sea level), to the summit of Mt Witney, Ca. At specific check points along the way, they have their friend Doyle bring them each just two quarts of water everyday. They take nothing else from him. I'm only 1/2 finished but it's a great read so far.
Everything you want in life is on the other side of fear. -- Margaret T.
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rijaca
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by rijaca »

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose.

A biography of Meriwether Lewis, and a great story about the Lewis & Clark expedition.

No GPS, no cell phones, no contact with 'civilization' for two years.
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Oman
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Oman »

Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Pulitzer winner. Connected short stories centered around the NYC rock / punk business of the 1980s. Good writing, but angsty.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. Misfit cousins in the WWII comic business. Sweet, fun, and long.
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. Fun satire about serf owners in pre-Soviet Russia. Somehow got through college without reading it.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Another classic I should have read years ago. Great stylist who beats you over head with his message, a take on the Bible's Cain and Abel story.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Hard for me to understand the cult around this book. Sloppy and repetitive. Probably meant more when it was first published, but it didn't age well for me, at least.
In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson. U.S. diplomat and his slutty daughter in Hitler's pre-WWII Germany. A little boring to read, but great stuff to think about and argue about afterward.
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wooderson
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by wooderson »

I just finished “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz (another Pulitzer winner). Thought it was hilarious and different than anything I’ve ever read.

Now I’m about 100 pages into Cormac McCarthy’s “Suttree.” Don’t want to give anything away so I won’t go into details but let’s just say there are some grotesqueries in this book that far surpass the scalpings and gory violence of “Blood Meridian” (discussed earlier in this thread).

Oman, re: Kerouac… I tried to re-read Desolation Angels a while back and found it tough to stick with, even though I remember loving it the first time around (several years ago). I still appreciate his writing though… the sloppiness of OTR is part of its appeal. It also has a lot to do with how it was written:

“The manuscript was typed on what he called ‘the scroll’—a continuous, 120-foot scroll of tracing paper sheets that he cut to size and taped together. The roll was typed single-spaced, without margins or paragraph breaks.” (from Wiki)
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Brian Thomas
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Brian Thomas »

Now reading the "Business Environment and Concepts" section of the CPA Excel test prep review. Finance, economics, et cetera...
"I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them" - Bob Dylan
sad2
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by sad2 »

Hobbit. The series has been on my list for a while.
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Jim Davies
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Jim Davies »

"The Signal and the Noise" by Nate Silver. Fascinating discussion of forecasting and prediction in various areas (weather, economics, elections, epidemics, sports). Not to spoil the plot, but it reinforced my impressions of weather forecasts (short-term forecasts have improved markedly in recent years, but anything over 8 days is worse than taking the averages for the date!). Also, economists are really, really bad at predicting the future, but usually don't care because of political bias.
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MUni Rider
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by MUni Rider »

Sisterhood of Dune. by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. January 2012

1st book of "The Great Schools Trilogy", one of several sets of prequels to Dune. This one deals primarily with the origins of the Bene Gesserit.
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." (Theodore Roosevelt)

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit." (Edward Abbey)
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Fishdude
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Fishdude »

I avoid reels at all costs :shock:

The Cod biography was written by a distant cousin. He is a huge liar. None of that happened :lol:
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DeucesWild
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by DeucesWild »

Fishdude wrote:He is a huge liar. None of that happened
All fishermen are liars...it comes with the job.
Snowflakes, Uber Alles!

http://www.deuceIRA.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Put the Douche in your FiDeuceiary needs today!!
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12ersRule
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by 12ersRule »

Fishdude wrote:The Cod biography was written by a distant cousin. He is a huge liar. None of that happened :lol:
Probably just regurgitating what he learned in school.
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TallGrass
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by TallGrass »

Free and online, many might find this interesting as it intertwines with CO 14ers, especially with many summits being benchmarked by the USGS. Also an interesting and different historical angle on the development of the U.S.:

The United States Geological Survey: 1879-1989
By Mary C. Rabbitt
A history of the relation of geology during the first 110 years of the U.S. Geological Survey to the development of public-land, Federal-science, and mapping policies and the development of mineral resources in the United States
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