What are you reading right now ?

[Red John]

"A Pirate of Exquisite Mind" or "The Life of William Dampier" . . . EXCELLENT! (and cheap-ish on Amazon). Give incredible history of a 'normal' pirate/sailor erstwhile gentleman of the Morgan era . . . really gives a context of what all else besides Morgan was going on then, and as he's just a wee bit younger than Morgan, his visit to Panama was 4 years behind Morgan and so on (who knew it had more or less become common for pirates or adventurers to cross the isthmus of Panama just four or five years after Morgan made such fame from it?). It is an invaluable look at the era, the terrain and nautical parts sailing and so on, and a real insight into the Indian culture, the day-to-day pirate/privateer/adventurer mind . . . even logcutters . . . and the Spanish too. Bottom line, every bit as good as the liner notes say it is. And I don't say that every day, if ever. Yes, Dampier is an amazing individual, but a thinking man among 'pirates' . . . educated more than most, yet who chose to be a pirate himself . . . likely more common than not in those days, for all the reasons Dampier shows us . . .

Yours, Aye-

[CaptianNasty]

I just finished reading Sinner's Creed (not piratey but it sounds PIratey). Scott Stapp (lead singer of Creed) wrote a book about his life and the story behind a lot of his lyrics. It was really good to my plesent supprise. Good read i highly recomend it.

[Jas. Hook]

Memoirs of a Buccaneer: Dampier's New Voyage Around the World 1697 by William Dampier, Dover Maritime 2007

[hitman]

The Wrecking Crew; The untold story of Rock and Rolls best kept secret

This is a little book about the L.A. session artists that played on your favorite 60's rock and pop hits. The book has a lot of great stories in it and as is the style these days it's relatively short which is somewhat of a blessing as either the author's narrative ability stinks or his editor cropped the hell out of it. All in all it was a fun read due to the subject matter but the writing left me cold as does the continued assertion that the Wrecking Crew and or it's contemporaries in NYC, Nashville, MoTown, etc. are some how still a secret just waiting to see the light of day. (hyperbole sucks)

[Jib]

Republic of Pirates: Colin Woodward. I really like it!

[Jas. Hook]

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen

[hitman]

The Horse in My Garage and Other Stories by Patrick McManus. A lot of laughs but not his best collection of humor pieces still worth a read though.

Edited July 29, 2013 by hitman

[hitman]

Hunting the Grizzly and Other Sketches by Theodore Roosevelt.

A nice little read that was well worth the time if your interested in the outdoors or the late nineteenth century west.

[Jas. Hook]

Montauk, The Disappearances by Richard Prince, 2007, AuthorHouse

[hitman]

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

A good book though I wish the author would have made fewer leaps in time and place in his writing. This may just be a result of listening to it as an audio book instead of physically reading the book but it always feels weird to me when the groups being followed aren't kept in some form of parity time wise and this makes anecdotes from earlier or later periods seem all the more off.

[hitman]

The Striker by Clive Cussler

Look it's me reading a Clive Cussler book of course I loved it!!! A real page turner I finished it six hours after starting it despite spending several of those hours cleaning house and eating supper.

[jendobyns]

Two blogs. India Mandelkern's Homo Gastronomicus, and Ivan Day's Food History Jottings. Both food history, Ivan Day's blog comes with recipes. Short stuff is all I have time for lately.

[Jas. Hook]

My American Revolution by Robert Sullivan

Pirates and Patriots of the Revolution by C Keith Wilbur

[hitman]

Built for Adventure by Clive Cussler

This basically just a coffee table book about his car collection but the cars are awe inspiring and the photos superb. Highly recommend it for gear heads and at lovers....Mission .... :-P

[hitman]

Zero Hour, Clive Cussler and Graham Brown

As always a fun romp. Loved every page even if it isn't the best of the bunch.

Challenger, Mickey Thompson with Griffith Borgeson

A great look into the early years of hot rodding from a man who lived it. Other than a very stiff morality that might as well be considered a given as the book was written in 1962 it was a great read. Reading the last few chapters was rough however as Mickey was so full of energy about the 63 Indy 500 which we now know as having the worst crash in the brick yard's history and it was caused by one of Mickey's cars.

[hitman]

A Moveable Feast by Earnest Hemingway

Right it's a book by Hemingway so you know it's good right? I enjoyed it very much.

[hitman]

The Victorian Internet

A fascinating look at the parallels between the rise of the telegraph and the internet. A good fun read.

[hitman]

Well it's obviously been a little while since I read anything but I just finished A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage which is an excellent book right on par with his Victorian Internet. I did spend quite a while working on Quick Silver but I just don't have the time especially since I found out last Monday that there was going to be a new member of the crew this September.

[hitman]

Let's Go To The Video Tape, Warner Wolf

A fun quick read that was well worth the dollar I paid for it. ;-)

[jendobyns]

South-carolina Gazette, 1733-1771.

[hitman]

Mirage by Clive Cussler

A good book not perhaps the best in the Oregon Files series but very good none the less.

[hitman]

double post sorry

Edited February 27, 2014 by hitman

[hitman]

Inside Inside by James Lipton

An interesting look at the show, it's guests, and it's host. A fun read and at $1 a hell of a value. ;-)

[hitman]

The Turk by Tom Standage

A really fun read about the chess playing pseudo automaton.

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

After watching the Girl With the Pearl Earring a bazillion times, found a copy of the book in a pile of free stuff. Excellent.

Taking a few minutes to catch up on my rare day-off from the nursing home maint.

Bo