What are you reading?

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Dave B
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Dave B »

A friend talked me into reading World War Z, which took a substantial effort given how godawful the movie was.

My friend was right, that books is amazing. I love the short interview format, very engaging.
Last edited by Dave B on Sat Dec 04, 2021 7:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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susanjoypaul
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by susanjoypaul »

madbuck wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:03 am
Altitude High wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 7:37 pm Thanks for resurrecting this thread. I've been looking for some more good books to read. There seem to be fewer today. I think the internet is killing books.
I've placed an ILL request for Project Hail Mary. Looks interesting. It seems loosely along the lines of The Hot Zone, one of my favorites (though involving alien life, not a deadly virus).
It wasn't encouraging that the first two listings in an Amazon search were "audiobooks."
Goodreads is great for book recommendations/reviews.
Another vote for Project Hail Mary. And I listened to the audiobook version and quite enjoyed it -- actually the, uh, voice of the characters worked well in audio form.
I really liked Project Hail Mary, especially after reading Artemis (also by Andy Weir), which I thought was awful.

Ray Porter is my favorite narrator! If you liked him for Project Hail Mary (his treatment of Rocky was pretty cool), check out Dennis E. Taylor's books. Porter narrates for him a lot. My favorite is the "Bobiverse" series: We Are Legion [We Are Bob], For We Are Many, All These Worlds, and Heaven's River.

The Singularity Trap is pretty good too. I'm in the middle if Outland right now. Both are Taylor/Porter collaborations on Audible.

The Omicron variant has been a topic of discussion on the Bobiverse forums lately due to a location in the Bobiverse series: Omicron Eridani. Otters are also a common topic of conversation, but you'll have to read (or listen to Porter narrate) the whole series to figure out why.
timisimaginary
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by timisimaginary »

Dave B wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 7:03 am A friend talked me into reading World War Z, which took a substantial effort given how godawful the movie was.

My friend was right, that books is amazing. I love the short interview format, very engaging.
they shouldn't have been allowed to call that movie World War Z. it almost literally has nothing to do with the book beyond the presence of zombies.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Jenna N S »

I'm re-reading The Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Such great books and universe and characters! Highly recommend to anyone who like fiction/fantasy.
"They say that time is a great teacher but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. The mountains are also great teachers, and better still, they let the occasional star pupil live." Mark Lawrence King of Thorns
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Hiker Mike
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Hiker Mike »

Just completed this book.

The Moth and the Mountain Book by Ed Caesar. More about the man than the mountain but well worth reading.

Last month I read this book.

Seven Days in January with the 6th SS Mountain Division in Operation Nordwind by Wolf Zoepf. Good read by one of the officers who was there.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by arianna2 »

Stronghold was a really good book.

improbable and inspiring story, Stronghold takes us on a wild adventure, from Oregon to Alaska to one of the world’s last remaining salmon strongholds in the Russian Far East, a landscape of ecological richness and diversity that is rapidly being developed for oil, gas, minerals, and timber. Along the way, Rahr contends with scientists, conservationists, Russian oligarchs, corrupt officials, and unexpected allies in an attempt to secure a stronghold for the endangered salmon, an extraordinary keystone species whose demise would reverberate across the planet.
Alpineair
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Alpineair »

If you hike in lion country I highly recommend this book. Great read from a former science and environmental reporter at NPR.
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bking14ers
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by bking14ers »

Mountain Man. The book Jeremiah Johnson was loosely based on.
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Wentzl
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Wentzl »

I have put this up earlier, but for the newbies here, this book is great for all the reasons it has NOT been made into a movie:

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/blo ... dian-movie
Shorter of Breath and One Day Closer . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZXKgl8turY

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greenonion
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by greenonion »

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow)

Dern fine book (both actually).
arete66
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by arete66 »

If you are looking for a good winter tome to sink into...
THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD by Apsley Cherry Gerrard
It's as thick as LES MISERABLES (the book--not the musical, for God sakes!)
Read the preface, the intro, the title page, the page numbers. Read the whole book. Take your time. I've been reading climbing literature for 50 years and this rewired my brain. Definitely made me mentally tougher in the the mountains in the winter.
You will never whine in the mountains again after this.
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susanjoypaul
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by susanjoypaul »

arete66 wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:29 pm If you are looking for a good winter tome to sink into...
THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD by Apsley Cherry Gerrard
It's as thick as LES MISERABLES (the book--not the musical, for God sakes!)
Read the preface, the intro, the title page, the page numbers. Read the whole book. Take your time. I've been reading climbing literature for 50 years and this rewired my brain. Definitely made me mentally tougher in the the mountains in the winter.
You will never whine in the mountains again after this.
I recommended that one back on page 60 of this thread - glad someone else enjoyed it too! From that post:

I read a lot of nonfiction for work and for pleasure. Two standouts this year were The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration by David Roberts. Highly recommend both, enjoyed with a hot cup of cocoa because the setting - Antarctica - and the thrills will chill you to the bone. if you liked Alfred Lansing's Endurance, you'll love these books.

If you're looking for more polar adventure, I'm in the middle of In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette right now and it's pretty great. I've read many books about Antarctica and the South Pole - this was the first I've read about the North Pole. I don't want to give anything away but...we knew NOTHING about that part of the planet in the late 1800s. Cartographers believed there was a big warm ocean on top of the planet - if only we could break through that ring of ice. As you can imagine, this belief set explorers of that region up for disaster. The book starts off with a lot of history, but it's worth reading. Lots of interesting characters. You'll recognize a few names that you wouldn't expect to see in a book about the Arctic.

Agree about "never whining in the mountains again." Ha! Whenever I'm hiking with a buddy whose read the same books as I have and the going gets especially tough, I like to remind them, "At least your skin isn't falling off. At least there aren't any killer whales up here trying to knock us off the mountain. It could be a lot worse, you know." That puts our situation into perspective and gives us enough of a laugh to stop whining and carry on.
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