Grassroots Booksports? :)

Reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance right now. Decent book if you like philosophy, but my mind keeps poking holes in the philosophical arguments/observations made.

Recently read Ready Player One. Interesting book, full of 80s nostalgia (but set in the near future). It had a couple of pointless rants in it that had little to do with the story, but otherwise enjoyable. It seems to have inspired the current interest in VR.

Currently reading "me, the boy, and the cat".. a turn of the last century true story of a man, his son, and their cat as they sailed from RI to Florida and back in a small catboat. Because it is a true story, written by an uneducated (but not in any means unintelligent) man, some of his phrases can really shock you back to a time to when Black men were not called Black.. and when he uses the N-word, it is not in a nasty tone, it was just the term they used then. Takes some real getting used to

I have been listening to a lot of books on my commute using Hoopla. It is linked to your Library and is free so I have been using the crap out of it. Anyway, I have been on a Detective kick lately and just started the Maltese Falcon.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Stephen King. I poured through MC, Robert Ludlum, and then tackled King. Thoroughly enjoyed everything I've read by him.

I finally finished reading "The Town" and wow... THAT is how you write a book! I didn't want to set it down.

Arthur C. Clarke. I like the 2001/2010/2061/3001 books. Read a few others as well. Last one was about earthquakes. Good sci fi.

Tom Clancy is always good.

As has been said already, Andy Weir's The Martian. Quick read, but very good.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner. It makes the CIA most of the presidents since WWII look really bad but I wonder how much the writer's opinions colored what was written and what was left out. After reading the book, most of the CIA leadership through the years makes me think of the Smoking Man from the X-Files.

Q regarding Tom Clancy. I've read more or less all of the main series and lightly dabbled in the smaller series's that he actually wrote. How good is the new "continuation" books written by other authors?

Halfway through "Catcher in the Rye". Teen angst manifesto, I wish I read it when I was 15.

Torn on what to read next. "A Brief History(of Time)" or "The Martian"? "The Boy, Me, and The Cat" sounds great, I may have a hand me down copy coming my way.

William johnstones ashes series is a great read if you can find used copys. Its a pretty long series about the government collapse and life after it.

Neat stuff on NASA, CIA, NRO websites (PDFs):

Project Mercury/Gemini & Apollo Program histories & Apollo 13 flight transcript were fun.

Bay of Pigs history & CIA DI Mcone's bio were mind-blowing, to say the least. Currently reading U2 program history.

Parry's History of Recon Satellites is what got me started reading FOIA declassified releases.

The Truman-Johnson eras are surely when "the sweater got knit", it is fascinating to read about.

Another vote for Neil Gaiman. But for sci fi and alternative history, Stephen Baxter fills that fairly well. Be warned, some of the books read like text books, there's a lot of research done into his novels, but that's what makes them good.

Robert Rankin is one of my favorite fantasy authors of all time. Quaint British humor, drinking buddies, a magical bike, an old wizard. The 9(currently) book Brentford Trilogy is one of my favorite series, but Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse is hands down my favorite book ever. I've had to buy several copies because people don't want to give it back after they read it.

Currently on the kindle though is The Store by Bentley Little. all of his books are fairly similar. something big arrives, people follow like lemmings, graphic sex, gratuitous violence, eventually a resolution.

Kirk F White story (as seen on the engine cover of Penske Ferrari)

link

If you're a fan of Monty Python then I've got a must-read. I just finished John Cleese's autobiography, "So, Anyway...". Prolly the funniest book I've ever read. Disappointing in some of the stuff he DIDN'T discuss, tho...

Brian wrote: Halfway through "Catcher in the Rye". Teen angst manifesto, I wish I read it when I was 15.

Even when I was 15 I thought that Holden Caufield was a whiny bitch that just needed to a good spanking.

I just finished Lehane's Mystic River and before that, Crichton's State of Fear.

Loved both.

I also picked up Lehane's Shutter Island and two more works by Crichton; Micro and Next.

I snagged a few more Michael Connolly books as well some Ludlum.

Couldn't find any Gaiman, Crouch or Tim Powers.

Thanks for all of the recommendations. :)

Mystic River... The FEELS!!!!

Andre Norton: Moon of Three Rings

Just finished "Paul McCartney: The Life" by Phillip Norman. I'm a huge Beatles fan, so I've read most of the group and individual biographies. I expected this one to be a complete rehash of the same things I've read before. Although it is in some ways, there are quite a few things that are were new to me. Plus, Norman is not an ultimate fan, so quite a bit of the book is not flattering. (but not a smear campaign, either).

Reading some samples at the moment to figure out what to read next. Right now, "Five Presidents", a secret service agent who covered Eisenhower to Ford, seems to be the front runner.

-Rob

A. Americans surviving home, its book 2 in the series and ive enjoyed both of them so far. Survivalist style fiction including the government collapse and remnants using fema camps as prisons.

I'm currently working through Ben Collins's "The Man in the White Suit". Entertaining back stories to all of the best of the Clarkson/Hammond/May Top Gear, and a lot of personal stories too. Good stuff.

Just started "Technopoly" per a John Cleese recommendation online. So far it's very interesting and asking questions like, "Whither calligraphy in a world of phone texts?"

They just dropped a new "Destroyermen" book in the last month, finished it over the weekend.

Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut. Really anything by Vonnegut.

I just finished Elmore Leonard's series of Raylan Givens (Justified source material) novels and enjoyed them.