What are you reading right now ?

[Kian McBrian]

Reading my Airman Leadership Course (ALS) for work....sooooooo dry. I almost wanna burn the books and be done with them...only a few more months to go though

[Morgan Dreadlocke]

Job applications an help wanted ads

[Patrick Hand]

OK...OK...I HIT THE WRONG BUTTON.....so sue me.....

I though I was in another thread... and the first thing I read is...

Job applications an help wanted ads

Eeergh... when I read it thinking I was in (that) other thread.......Dang... .He's a lot more desperate than I am.......

[blackjohn]

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco... don't you just LOVE sci-fi that draws on history and conspiracy theories?

Why yes, yes I do. I'm fairly certain I'd like this one. I know I've contemplated reading it at least once. And if it is anything like Angels & Demons or The Davinci Code, then I'm sure I'd give it two thumbs up.

[blackjohn]

Ah, Stranger in a Strange Land. Number 3 or 4 on my top five favorite books list. Get the unabridged version if you can find it. It contains a few scenes the make a great book excellent.

Right. I wasn't sure about which to read when/if I do, so I'll take your advice.

(Which kind of reminds me of the Rings trilogy, although I'm not sure that's an apt comparison.)

Every aside in LotR was just icing! It give the story depth. Ymmv, of course. I think that's one of my (many) complaints about the movie, it just wasn't able to convey the sense of history that the books were able to convey.

So, I don't suppose you liked The Silmarillion then, did you?

[RustyNell]

The Mote in God's Eye

I like reading Parnell and Niven, but I just couldn't get into that one..... maybe I should give it another try......

Give it another try. It takes some time to build up, but I think it's worth it. There are some very vivid scenes in the last half of that book. In later years I discovered the ship was based on one of my favorite models... the Leif Ericson, aka the UFO Mystery Ship!

http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/le.html

ps - Pournelle

This title rings a bell, I think I'll have to add this to my list.

[RustyNell]

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco... don't you just LOVE sci-fi that draws on history and conspiracy theories?

Why yes, yes I do. I'm fairly certain I'd like this one. I know I've contemplated reading it at least once. And if it is anything like Angels & Demons or The Davinci Code, then I'm sure I'd give it two thumbs up.

His book The Name of the Rose was quite good as well, similar in subject matter, mystery, conspiracy etc... I read it after I found Foucault's Pendulum. I like Eco...smart man... very complex books.. to be honest I felt a bit dumb when I first started reading him. He certainly spurred me to open many other books in order to better understand his.

[Mission]

(Which kind of reminds me of the Rings trilogy, although I'm not sure that's an apt comparison.)

Every aside in LotR was just icing! It give the story depth. Ymmv, of course. I think that's one of my (many) complaints about the movie, it just wasn't able to convey the sense of history that the books were able to convey.

So, I don't suppose you liked The Silmarillion then, did you?

The Simalarion was like the LotR books without a plot. As such, I didn't finish it. I really like organization and closure in books. That one fails both tests from what I read. (Of course, I realize that not everyone has the same requirements for books as I do. In fact, not everyone likes to see the word "requirements" in the same sentence as "books." So feel quite free to ignore my opinion on such things, although this won't stop me from opining. It's in my analytic nature. )

[Captain Mickey]

Just finished The Halfling's Gem.

And I have just started Treasure Island. Can you believe that I have NEVER read it before?

Edited February 12, 2009 by Captain Mickey

[Captain Mickey]

(Which kind of reminds me of the Rings trilogy, although I'm not sure that's an apt comparison.)

Every aside in LotR was just icing! It give the story depth. Ymmv, of course. I think that's one of my (many) complaints about the movie, it just wasn't able to convey the sense of history that the books were able to convey.

So, I don't suppose you liked The Silmarillion then, did you?

The Simalarion was like the LotR books without a plot. As such, I didn't finish it. I really like organization and closure in books. That one fails both tests from what I read. (Of course, I realize that not everyone has the same requirements for books as I do. In fact, not everyone likes to see the word "requirements" in the same sentence as "books." So feel quite free to ignore my opinion on such things, although this won't stop me from opining. It's in my analytic nature. )

The Simalarion is more like a history book. It actually has many different stories with beginning and endings. I have found that listening to it on Books on Tape is the best way to hear the stories the first time.

The Children of Huron has a bit more of the kind of greek inspired beginner, middle and end to some of the later stories of The Simalarion, concerning men and the Númenóreans.

Edited February 12, 2009 by Captain Mickey

[Capn Bob]

*Not* read Treasure Island before?! Gasp, there is a *heretic* among us! Roll on the Soft Cushion and the Comfy Chair, and beardy guys wearing big red hats!

Just finished The Halfling's Gem.

And I have just started Treasure Island. Can you believe that I have NEVER read it before?

[Capn Bob]

And now...reviving a long lost topic...

Guess what I found! I got me a copy of "Pirate Port: The Story of the Sunken City of Port Royal", by Robert Marx, published 1967. Found it at Buckeye Books (sorry, its a bookshop, not online) when I was looking for "The Yacht Navigator's Handbook" (and I wish to point out that I am not a yacht owner, or a yak owner, but it looks to be a good book for learning a bit of navigation)

[blackjohn]

The Children of Huron has a bit more of the kind of greek inspired beginner, middle and end to some of the later stories of The Simalarion, concerning men and the Númenóreans.

It's on my list. Right now, I'm rereading Dune for the third time, and this time I've actually gotten beyond page 80something. Yeah, I tried reading Dune twice before, and just couldn't get into it, as much as I wanted to. But something has clicked, and now I'm enjoying it as much as I thought I should have enjoyed it on those previous two attempts.

[LadyBrower]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy... Talk about violent. EeK!

All I have to say is "the tree of dead babies" sick...

[Capn Bob]

"My Baybees! Please don't eat my baybees!"...

Sorry...old college routine...

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy... Talk about violent. EeK!

All I have to say is "the tree of dead babies" sick...

[LadyBrower]

Done with Blood Meridian!

In honor of the swine flu, I'm going back to Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill,

for my piratical needs Under the Black Flag, by David Cordingly

And for fun, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

=P

[Cheeky Actress]

Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb (Early Modern Literature in History)

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Under Enemy Colors

Edited May 15, 2009 by Poopdeck Pappy

[Honour Bright]

'Lean Mean Thirteen' by Janet Evanovich.

You have to love bounty hunters with blown up cars and crazy grandmothers!

Oh...and pharmacy textbooks so I can study for the board exam.

[Cheeky Actress]

Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King by Charles Beauclerk

[Guest]

I just finished reading...

Cannery Row by Steinbeck (I've read if a few times before)

and Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose...

Going to start reading Wind in the Wires by Duncan Milne...

[Black Angus]

Shipmates,

At the risk of sounding like a scurvy promoter, if you haven't picked up a copy of Piracy: the Complete History by Angus Konstam, then you should. It does exactly what it says on the box - particualrly for the so-called "Golden Age".

_____________

I'd also like to wade into the debate about Kevin Duffus' new Blackbeard book. I take issue with one description of this as being "well researched".

First, let me repeat what Dave Moore had to say, a man who'se forgotten more about Blackbeard than this new author - Kevin Duffus - has ever claimed to have "discovered". He's an archaeologist and curator at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, and was involved in the excavation of Blackbeard's flagship "Queen Anne's Revenge";

Kevin P. Duffus. The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate: Within Every Legend Lies a Grain of Truth. Raleigh, N.C.: Looking Glass Productions, Inc., 2008. 239 pages; maps, limited notes, bibliography, and index. US $24.95, cloth; ISBN 1888285230.

The author of this book on Blackbeard is a journalist, not a historian, which is glaringly apparent throughout the book. The overall thesis of the book is nothing new; it is based on the research of genealogists John Oden, Jane Bailey, and Allen Norris, published in 2002 as "Legends of Black Beard and His Ties to Bath Town: A Study of Historical Events Using Genealogical Methodology" in the North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal. This original research, containing numerous suppositions and assumptions, provided the somewhat historically shaky foundation upon which Kevin Duffus constructed his book. The cornerstone of both studies is that one James Beard, an early resident of Bath, North Carolina had a son, whose name, unfortunately, remains unknown. The book postulates that this son's name was Edward and he would become the infamous and notorious pirate captain "Black" Beard—therefore not named Edward Thatch or Teach, as historical documents have informed us for almost three centuries. Unfortunately, very little of the evidence presented supports such a claim, a situation readily (and interestingly) admitted by the author on several occasions.

David D. Moore North Carolina Maritime Museum

Well, I'm afraid I have to agree with Dave. Kevin Duffus makes some bizzare claims, such as the notion that no armed force was ever sent south from Virginia into North Carolina, to aprehend Blackbeard and his crew. Sorry, but that just shows that he's never pored through the archives in London's National Archives.I have, and the reports are there, along with returns, expenses and other detailed accounts. Duffus has a point when he questions the fact that Blackbeard was born in Bristol. As I said in my own book, I've scoured the Bristol archives, and found

no mention of a Teach, Tatch or Thatch of the right period. However, there's also nothing to substantiate Duffus' claim that Blackbeard hailed from the author's own back yard of North Carolina. In fact, a lot of circumstantial

evidence points against it. For a start, if that was the case, how come nobody mentioned it, or used his real name in official colony documents? It also flies in the face of the research of all other pirate historians, including David

Cordingly, Robert Lee and myself. I'm sorry, but while I could describe Mr. Duffus' self-plugged and self-published book as "earnest", I'm afraid I couldn't call it "well-researched".

Angus Konstam

Author of "Piracy: The Complete History", "The History of Pirates" and

"Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate"

[Mission]

'Lean Mean Thirteen' by Janet Evanovich.

You have to love bounty hunters with blown up cars and crazy grandmothers!

I sort of liked this series and followed it up to about the seventh novel. At that point I found it had gotten weighed down as the author kept acquiring zany new regular characters to 'help' Stephanie out. (Although I suppose it gets boring writing about the same characters - adding new ones gives you goofy new directions to follow.)

I am still reading Maritime Quarantine by John Booker, which is, for the most part, stultifyingly dull; Confess, Fletch by Gregory McDonald (For probably the 7th or 8th time) and Code Name High Pockets by Edna Binkowski.

I am also in the middle of several books I have set down for the nonce (to allow me to wade through the Quarantine book which is due back to the library soon) including Churigius Marinus by John Moyle and the General History of the Most Notorious Pyrates by Johnson (although the version I have is mis-attributed to Defoe.)

[Ransom]

In between regular reading, I'm trying to read some of the classics that I've never gotten around to. Just finished Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

Currently:

The Annotated Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (The first in a series of six historical fiction books that I have re-read more times than I can count, since discovering them in the early 80s. Exceptionally good books!)

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunan

And, while sewing, I was listening to the book on tape version of The Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald.

I've also read Evanovich. I think I got up to book ten before I got bored with them.

[Cheeky Actress]

Okay...just picked this up last night...it fiction, based on history.

The Perfect Royal Mistress: A Novel (Paperback)

by Diane Haeger (Author)

Edited May 21, 2009 by Cheeky Actress