what books are you reading?
Who is the author ?Quote: billryanI am currently reading "1863", an alternative history of the Civil War. It started well enough, but somehow the author has half of The Army of North Virginia fighting in Pennsylvania, then boarding a train and arriving in Mississippi two days later with their wagons and pack animals. They then march from Vicksburg to Nashville in under a week. A Civil War army moved at a pace of 15-20 miles a day, and a few units could do thirty miles in a day, but 450 miles would normally take a month. For some bizarre reason, the author keeps talking about how young and pretty General Grant's aides and attaches are, and it seems to imply the entire Union army is less manly than their rebel counterparts.
He uses the fact that many Union soldiers wore glasses as a sign of their inferiority, whereas the truth was many Southern soldiers were dirt poor and couldn't afford them.
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am looking forward to reading this new book re the assassination of President Garfield which was carried out by Charles J. Guiteau
the author links him to the Oneida Community in the late 1800s which was a free love, religious communal society
https://www.amazon.com/Assassin-Utopia-Nineteenth-Century-Presidents-Murder-ebook/dp/B0B3YCVPRW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LD60DLEFRUDQ&keywords=an+assassin+in+utopia&qid=1675593652&s=digital-text&sprefix=an+assassin+in+u%2Cdigital-text%2C64&sr=1-1
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On Deck: Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson. I'm due for a re-read.
Recently, I finally got a Kindle, once I was assured you can enlarge the print as much as you need. This has made all the difference, I'm back to about 2 books a month now, plus a magazine I like that kept shrinking the print and using shiny paper.
Currently reading Fatal Lies, by Frank Tallis. If you have seen "Vienna Blood" on PBS, that is based on this author's work. I'm going to read all those books.
Tallis not topping though my favorite authors at the moment, who are Dennis Lehane, Robert K Massie, Pete Dexter, and Erik Larson
The story starts with a young woman who assassinates a lord of a city-state (a monster who rapes and kills young women and men) who is then helped to escape by a young scholar who happens upon the scene. The story gradually expands to 6-7 characters in a plot that is impossible to summarize. Beautifully written.
Billy Walters autobiography - not coming out until August - he was definitely the GOAT sports bettor - won many millions - and quite a character
I really doubt there will be tremendously valuable secrets passed on as the subtitle suggests - but who knows - even if not it will prolly be an enjoyable read
https://www.amazon.com/Gambler-Secrets-Life-at-Risk-ebook/dp/B0BTDVLPQF
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Quote: lilredrooster_____________
Billy Walters autobiography - not coming out until August - he was definitely the GOAT sports bettor - won many millions - and quite a character
I really doubt there will be tremendously valuable secrets passed on as the subtitle suggests - but who knows - even if not it will prolly be an enjoyable read
https://www.amazon.com/Gambler-Secrets-Life-at-Risk-ebook/dp/B0BTDVLPQF
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Please let me know what you think of it. That sounds like a book I will probably want to read. I love autobiographies.
Quote: DRich
Please let me know what you think of it. That sounds like a book I will probably want to read. I love autobiographies.
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while we're waiting for the book you might enjoy this interview with 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗡
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It is interesting to note the differences in the way she writes compared to how modern mystery writers approach their craft: tough to quantify but certainly different.
Quote: DRichQuote: lilredrooster_____________
Billy Walters autobiography - not coming out until August - he was definitely the GOAT sports bettor - won many millions - and quite a character
I really doubt there will be tremendously valuable secrets passed on as the subtitle suggests - but who knows - even if not it will prolly be an enjoyable read
https://www.amazon.com/Gambler-Secrets-Life-at-Risk-ebook/dp/B0BTDVLPQF
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Please let me know what you think of it. That sounds like a book I will probably want to read. I love autobiographies.
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You can write yours but it would consist mostly of you went to the gas station, ate a hot dog, came home, laid on the couch for 14 hours watching sports, went to bed. Repeat tomorrow. Not a bestseller..
About as interesting as: I set my clocks three hours ahead of local time, posted a picture of my lunch, posted a clip about how life was in the 1950s, then fed the catsQuote: EvenBob[
You can write yours but it would consist mostly of you went to the gas station, ate a hot dog, came home, laid on the couch for 14 hours watching sports, went to bed. Repeat tomorrow. Not a bestseller..
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Quote: EvenBob[
You can write yours but it would consist mostly of you went to the gas station, ate a hot dog, came home, laid on the couch for 14 hours watching sports, went to bed. Repeat tomorrow. Not a bestseller..
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Sadly, you are correct. I do not have the same exciting life that you and Billy Waters have.
my favorite author is William Faulkner - his style is very different - he's very deep - very long sentences expressing many different ideas - he can be difficult to read - but imho it's worth it to take the extra time to try and follow him
"Go Down Moses" and "Light in August" are my favorite books of all time
I will often reread those books
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Quote: DRichQuote: EvenBob[
You can write yours but it would consist mostly of you went to the gas station, ate a hot dog, came home, laid on the couch for 14 hours watching sports, went to bed. Repeat tomorrow. Not a bestseller..
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Sadly, you are correct. I do not have the same exciting life that you and Billy Waters have.
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Easily corrected. For starters try sitting up watching sports instead of lying down. This could lead to other inspirations now that your blood is not all pooling in your head and you can think clearly.
Quote: Ace2About as interesting as: I set my clocks three hours ahead of local time, posted a picture of my lunch, posted a clip about how life was in the 1950s, then fed the catsQuote: EvenBob[
You can write yours but it would consist mostly of you went to the gas station, ate a hot dog, came home, laid on the couch for 14 hours watching sports, went to bed. Repeat tomorrow. Not a bestseller..
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My two hours a day experiment works excellently and makes for some great anecdotes. It never seemed fair New Yorkers got their Happy hour two hours before I did.
They certainly don't make it easy to choose the right programs.
Quote: billryanMedicare Made Easy: A What to Do Guide for Americans Approaching Age 65.
They certainly don't make it easy to choose the right programs.
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Just turn your calendar back 6 months and you have all that extra time to make up your mind. Isn't that what you think you're doing, adding actual extra time to your life by screwing with your clocks? The rest of us are on just harmless daylight savings time but you've discovered a time machine. Brilliant.
Quote: TigerWu
I'm still waiting on how to beat Roulette.
no need to wait - the secrets were revealed long ago - those in the know - well let's just say this - they know things
let the good times roll
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Quote: EvenBobQuote: billryanMedicare Made Easy: A What to Do Guide for Americans Approaching Age 65.
They certainly don't make it easy to choose the right programs.
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Just turn your calendar back 6 months and you have all that extra time to make up your mind. Isn't that what you think you're doing, adding actual extra time to your life by screwing with your clocks? The rest of us are on just harmless daylight savings time but you've discovered a time machine. Brilliant.
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No, but I can understand how you wouldn't comprehend it. I'm adjusting my daily clock so I have more productive time and less unproductive hours. It's a shame that this bothers you so much. I hope it doesn't affect your quality time with your many cats.
Quote: TigerWuI'm still waiting to buy EB's book on how to beat Roulette. ]
I might write a book about cats but that's about it. Want to buy a book about cats?
Quote: billryanQuote: EvenBobQuote: billryanMedicare Made Easy: A What to Do Guide for Americans Approaching Age 65.
They certainly don't make it easy to choose the right programs.
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Just turn your calendar back 6 months and you have all that extra time to make up your mind. Isn't that what you think you're doing, adding actual extra time to your life by screwing with your clocks? The rest of us are on just harmless daylight savings time but you've discovered a time machine. Brilliant.
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No, but I can understand how you wouldn't comprehend it. I'm adjusting my daily clock so I have more productive time and less unproductive hours. It's a shame that this bothers you so much. I hope it doesn't affect your quality time with your many cats.
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Just get rid of your clock and do whatever you want. Live on pretend time, that's the ticket.
Quote: lilredroosterQuote: TigerWu
I'm still waiting on how to beat Roulette.
no need to wait - the secrets were revealed long ago - ]
There are no secrets, just put in the required 10,000 hours of work and you're good to go. Supposedly that's how long it takes to learn any profession is 10,000 hours of work and study. Most gamblers are good for about 2 hours before their attention span wanders so I wouldn't get my hopes up.
in the short story "Fifty Grand" - Hemingway left us something great
it's the story of a crooked boxing match - the Champion, Jack Brennan, fixes the fight - plans to lose the fight - to make a betting coup
he justifies his actions by saying, "It ain't crooked. How can I beat him? Why not make money on it?"
my all time fave short story
the entire story is at the link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1927/07/fifty-grand/648941/
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Quote: EvenBobQuote: TigerWuI'm still waiting to buy EB's book on how to beat Roulette. ]
I might write a book about cats but that's about it. Want to buy a book about cats?
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I might buy it. One of my wife's favorite books was written by a cat. I believe it was a story of a cat's life, from the cat's perspective. It may have been an autobiography.
If you're a Tolkien fan when it comes to the dwarves or elfs, you should try.
Quote: lilredrooster____________
in the short story "Fifty Grand" - Hemingway left us something great
it's the story of a crooked boxing match - the Champion, Jack Brennan, fixes the fight - plans to lose the fight - to make a betting coup
he justifies his actions by saying, "It ain't crooked. How can I beat him? Why not make money on it?"
my all time fave short story
the entire story is at the link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1927/07/fifty-grand/648941/
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Hemingway himself was a great boxer. When he lived in Key West in the 1930s he had a standing $50 prize for anybody that could beat him boxing and nobody ever did. Lots of them fried but Hemingway was extremely competitive and he always went in for the kill in every boxing match. He was a big guy and he had a wicked left hook and nobody lasted very long with him. $50 in 1935 was over $1,000 in today's money so it wasn't peanuts they were fighting for
Quote: EvenBob
Hemingway himself was a great boxer. When he lived in Key West in the 1930s he had a standing $50 prize for anybody that could beat him boxing and nobody ever did. Lots of them fried but Hemingway was extremely competitive and he always went in for the kill in every boxing match. He was a big guy and he had a wicked left hook and nobody lasted very long with him. $50 in 1935 was over $1,000 in today's money so it wasn't peanuts they were fighting for
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To put that in perspective, $1000 would buy 315 dozen eggs at Walmart today compared to 248 dozen a year ago. Price dropped from $4.02 to $3.17 over last 12 months. Unfortunately, my journal of Walmart egg prices doesn’t go back to 1935
Quote: Ace2Unfortunately, my journal of Walmart egg prices doesn’t go back to 1935
You would be hard pressed to find those before 1962.
Quite enjoyable, but not what I thought it would be.
Quote: DieterJust starting Foundation (Asimov).
Quite enjoyable, but not what I thought it would be.
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I have not read Asimov since the 1960s. At one time Isaac Asimov was the most published author in the world with 200 books currently in print, 98% of them were science books, he had a huge IQ and could write a science book in about 10 hours but it took him 30 hours to write a science fiction book. Can you imagine writing an entire book in 30 hours, it takes most people months and months and months and that's if you're an experienced author. He had the entire book written in his head before he sat down to type. He kept four selectric typewriters in his home office because two were always broken waiting for repair one worked and the other was a spare and they constantly rotated. Like so many geniuses he had a whole bunch of phobias and was very neurotic. If his wife was 5 minutes late coming home from work he would have panic attacks and imagine all kinds of dire things that probably happened to her like falling in manholes and pianos falling on her head. The price of being a genius..
He gave a great talk that evening, one that wandered over many topics. I remember him saying that to make a living as a writer, you needed to be intelligent, creative, literate and well-read, a hard worker and devilishly handsome. He then said "I am not at all sure that I am all of those things but at least, beyond any doubt, I am devilishly handsome."
He gave a great talk that evening, one that wandered over many topics. I remember him saying that to make a living as a writer, you needed to be intelligent, creative, literate and well-read, a hard worker and devilishly handsome. He then said "I am not at all sure that I am all of those things but at least, beyond any doubt, I am devilishly handsome."
Quote: gordonm888I met Isaac Asimov when he stormed into the administrative office of our Student Union building (at Rensselaer in Troy NY where I was student body president) complaining that no one had met him at the Albany airport. He was incensed that he had had to take a cab. He probably had a righteous complaint, but oh what a first impression he made on everyone, what a temper he had!
He gave a great talk that evening, one that wandered over many topics. I remember him saying that to make a living as a writer, you needed to be intelligent, creative, literate and well-read, a hard worker and devilishly handsome. He then said "I am not at all sure that I am all of those things but at least, beyond any doubt, I am devilishly handsome."
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Hemingway said basically the same thing about being an author except the good looking part. He said being well read was a huge part of writing and Hemingway read constantly everyday every spare minute that he had when he wasn't fishing or drunk in a bar. He had over 7,000 books in his personal library in Cuba when he died and they are still there.7000 books, some small public libraries don't have 7,000 books. Isaac Asimov was brilliant but he was basically an egotistical asshole as are most genuses. They have very little patience.
Quote: gordonm888I met Isaac Asimov when he stormed into the administrative office of our Student Union building (at Rensselaer in Troy NY where I was student body president) complaining that no one had met him at the Albany airport. He was incensed that he had had to take a cab. He probably had a righteous complaint, but oh what a first impression he made on everyone, what a temper he had!
He gave a great talk that evening, one that wandered over many topics. I remember him saying that to make a living as a writer, you needed to be intelligent, creative, literate and well-read, a hard worker and devilishly handsome. He then said "I am not at all sure that I am all of those things but at least, beyond any doubt, I am devilishly handsome."
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Asimov might have been complaining about not being met at the train or bus station instead of at the airport since he was famously afraid of flying.
Here's something from http://asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html:
Is it true that Asimov had a fear of flying?
Yes, the same author who described spaceflights to other worlds and who argued valiantly for the cause of rationality suffered from an irrational fear of heights and flying. This had the consequence of limiting the range over which he travelled throughout much of his life.
Asimov discovered that he was acrophobic at the New York World's Fair in 1940, when he took his date and first love Irene on a roller coaster, expecting that it would cause her to cling to him in fear and give him a chance to kiss her. Instead it was he who was terrified while his date remained perfectly calm. Two years later, his wife-to-be Gertrude convinced him to ride on a roller coaster at Coney Island, and he was once again terrified.
Asimov did in fact fly on an airplane twice in his life...
"Ward No. 6" is a great and amazing short story by Anton Chekhov
A Doctor visits the mental ward adjacent to the hospital where he works - the patients there are considered lunatics
the Doctor finds one of the patients there to be very intelligent and interesting and has long conversations with him
the people of the town are shocked that he is spending so much time in the mental ward with this patient
the townspeople create a Council and judge the Doctor to be insane
The Doctor is committed to the same mental ward where he was visiting this patient
the complete story can be read at the link if anyone is interested
https://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/ac/w6-01.html
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Quote: ChesterDogQuote: gordonm888I met Isaac Asimov when he stormed into the administrative office of our Student Union building (at Rensselaer in Troy NY where I was student body president) complaining that no one had met him at the Albany airport. He was incensed that he had had to take a cab. He probably had a righteous complaint, but oh what a first impression he made on everyone, what a temper he had!
He gave a great talk that evening, one that wandered over many topics. I remember him saying that to make a living as a writer, you needed to be intelligent, creative, literate and well-read, a hard worker and devilishly handsome. He then said "I am not at all sure that I am all of those things but at least, beyond any doubt, I am devilishly handsome."
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Asimov might have been complaining about not being met at the train or bus station instead of at the airport since he was famously afraid of flying.
Here's something from http://asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html:
Is it true that Asimov had a fear of flying?
]
Asimov had more fears and phobias than a cat has fleas. Genius IQ people a lot of the time have overactive imaginations and he was quite miserable a lot of the time.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180047462A1/en?oq=2018%2f0047462
Quote: DRichNot a book but this patent I have been reading is incredible and fascinating. I am guessing that this is getting very close to practical civilian uses and wouldn't be shocked if it is already being tested in the military.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180047462A1/en?oq=2018%2f0047462
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Isn't your main concern that they can use it for making better gas station hot dogs? Ones that can turn on the rotating machine for 2 months and still be edible?
Quote: EvenBobQuote: DRichNot a book but this patent I have been reading is incredible and fascinating. I am guessing that this is getting very close to practical civilian uses and wouldn't be shocked if it is already being tested in the military.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180047462A1/en?oq=2018%2f0047462
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Isn't your main concern that they can use it for making better gas station hot dogs? Ones that can turn on the rotating machine for 2 months and still be edible?
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Clearly you did not read and comprehend the patent. Those hot dogs will spin for thousands of years on the spits.
Not for everyone, but I'm getting a chuckle.
Current checkout list:
The Ships of Earth (Homecoming series)
Idoru
I've been studying and reading about the American Civil War so much that I need a change of pace. I read a few Follet books many years ago and recall enjoying them but I don't really remember them.
Quote: billryanJackdaws by Ken Follet.
I've been studying and reading about the American Civil War so much that I need a change of pace. I read a few Follet books many years ago and recall enjoying them but I don't really remember them.
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Let me know how that is. It looks like something that I might read.
When I saw the name I thought might be about Jackdaw birds of which I have no interest.
It's about an attempt to blow up France's phone network on D-Day.
openlibrary.org has a goal of making every single book ever published available on its site
they claim to have 20 million books currently
I don't really know if that's true
anyway, I've read several books on their site which were not available online from my County library's online service
several publishers have sued them - apparently without success
it's all free - they only require that the user provide an email address
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Nothing of particular note on the reading list right now.
