cracked Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 Monkey Wrench Gang s reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 For floating the Yukon, Michener's 'Alaska'. For anything down in the canyon lands, The Exploration of the Colorado River, by John Wesley Powell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr._Natural Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 steinbeck. read about the trask family in east of eden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lummox Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 steinbeck. read about the trask family in east of eden. exerpt from The Log from the Sea of Cortez "We come now to a piece of equipment which still brings anger to our hearts and, we hope, some venom to our pen. Perhaps in self defence against suit, we should say, "The outboard motor mentioned in this book is purely fictitious and any resemblance to outboard motors living or dead is coincidental". We shall call this contraption, for the sake of secrecy, a Hansen Sea-Cow -- a dazzling little piece of machinery, all aluminium paint and touched here and there with spots of red. The Sea-Cow was built to sell, to dazzle the eyes, to splutter its way into the unwary heart. We took it along for the skiff. It was intended that it should push us ashore and back, should drive our boat into estuaries and along the borders of little coves. But we had not reckoned with one thing. Recently, industrial civilisation has reached its peak of reality and has lunged forward into something that approaches mysticism. In the Sea-Cow factory where steel fingers tighten screws, bend and mold, measure and divide, some curious mathematick has occurred. And that secret so long sought has accidentally been found. Life has been created. The machine is at last stirred. A soul and a malignant mind have been born. Our Hansen Sea-Cow was not only a living thing but a mean, irritable, contemptible, vengeful, mischievous, hateful living thing. In the six weeks of our association we observed it, at first mechanically and then, as its living reactions became more and more apparent, psychologically. And we determined one thing to our satisfaction. When and if these ghoulish little motors learn to reproduce themselves the human species is doomed. For their hatred of us is so great that they will wait and plan and organise and one night, in a roar of little exhausts, they will wipe us out. We do not think that Mr Hansen, inventor of the Sea-Cow, father of the outboard motor, knew what he was doing. We think the monster he created was as accidental and arbitrary as the beginning of any other life. Only one thing differentiates the Sea-Cow from the life that we know. Whereas the forms that are familiar to us are the results of billions of years of mutation and complication, life and intelligence emerged simultaneously in the Sea-Cow. It is more than a species. It is a whole new re-definition of life. We observed the following traits in it and we were able to check them again and again. Incredibly lazy, the Sea-Cow loved to ride on the back of a boat, trailing its propeller daintily in the water while we rowed. It required the same amount of gasoline whether it ran or not, apparently being able to absorb this fluid through its body walls without recourse to explosion. It had always to be filled at the beginning of every trip. It had apparently some clairvoyant powers, and was able to read our minds, particularly when they were inflamed with emotion. Thus, on every occasion when we were driven to the point of destroying it, it started and ran with a great deal of noise and excitement. This served the double purpose of saving its life and of resurrecting in our minds a false confidence in it. It had many cleavage points, and when attacked with a screwdriver, fell apart in simulated death, a trait it had in common with opossums, armadillos, and several members of the sloth family, which also fall apart in simulated death when attacked with a screwdriver. It hated the engineer, sensing perhaps his knowledge of mechanics was capable of diagnosing its shortcomings. It completely refused to run: 1 when the waves were high 2 when the wind blew 3 at night, early morning, and evening 4 in rain, dew, or fog 5 when the distance to be covered was more than two hundred yards But on warm sunny days when the weather was calm and the white beach nearby - in a word, on days when it would have been a pleasure to row - the Sea-Cow started at a touch and would not stop. It loved no one, trusted no one. It had no friends. Perhaps towards the end, our observations were a little warped by emotion. Time and again as it sat on the stern with its pretty little propeller lying idly in the water, it was very close to death. And in the end, even we were infected with its malignancy and its dishonesty. We should have destroyed it, but we did not. Arriving home, we gave it a new coat of aluminium paint, spotted it at points with new red enamel, and sold it. And we might have rid the world of this mechanical cancer." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg_W Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 For history buffs, I am plowing through "The Arms of Krupp", by William Manchester. A very comprehensive history of the Krupp Firm and the family; main armorers for two Kaisers and Adolf Hitler. Alfried Krupp was tried at Nuremberg as a war criminal. A great view, from a different angle, into the culture/mindset of Germans in the 3rd Reich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelle Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 I'm almost done with No Man Knows My History by Fawn Brodie and trying to break into Jose Saramago's Baltasar and Blimunda. No Man Knows is a beautifully written biography of Joseph Smith. You couldn't make that stuff up, truth being stranger than fiction, but so far, B&B is plenty strange. William Manchester ruined me for fiction. Joseph Smith the Mormon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 For history buffs, I am plowing through "The Arms of Krupp", by William Manchester. A very comprehensive history of the Krupp Firm and the family; main armorers for two Kaisers and Adolf Hitler. Alfried Krupp was tried at Nuremberg as a war criminal. A great view, from a different angle, into the culture/mindset of Germans in the 3rd Reich. I like the lead up to the Franco-Prussian war, when all of Europe thought the militaristic French would crush the Pansy Germans Manchester's Churchill Biography series is also good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 One of the best books I have ever read - Will Campbell's The Glad River. Other amusing titles: Twight - Kiss or Kill Herzog - Annapurna I really appreciated Above the Clouds: Above the Clouds: The Diaries of a High-Altitude Mountaineer. This is a collection of Anatoli Boukreev's journal writings. It was quite an interesting read. Burgess Book of Lies by Alan and Adrian Burgess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
selkirk Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 I'm glad someone metioned "Zen" That's one seriously dense book. how about Brave New World 1984 and/or Animal Farm The Wreckage of Agathon, and of course there's the stash of climbing porn.... The White Spider Ascent (biography of Willy Unsoeld) my 2 cents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMo Posted June 5, 2004 Share Posted June 5, 2004 Coupla Manchester mentioners already but check out Goodbye Darkness by him. A bit old ('78?) and maybe out of print. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Posted June 5, 2004 Share Posted June 5, 2004 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is fun non fiction. Guns Germs & Steel by Jared Jackson is good also. Jedi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drederek Posted June 5, 2004 Share Posted June 5, 2004 Try "It" by Steven King. Read it at bedtime deep into the night. "It" will stir up your gray matter. "Brave New World" and "King Rat" (Clavell) very good also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeezix Posted June 5, 2004 Share Posted June 5, 2004 Do not read: River Horse by William Least Heat Moon "We motored in the rain all day. Tied up the boat and went into town to drink beer." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothrop Posted June 5, 2004 Share Posted June 5, 2004 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is fun non fiction. The DaVinci Code is definitely fiction... "historical" fiction. The Idiot by Dostoevskiy has been pretty good so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrashador Posted June 5, 2004 Share Posted June 5, 2004 Speaking of historical fiction... The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon Was introduced to this wonderful read by someone on this site. I can't recall who? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cairns Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Goodnight Moon Notes from the Underground Angle of Repose The 13 Clocks I forget who they're by.. prolly all by the same author. The Thirteen Clocks is by James Thurber. It's prolly the best fairytale ever. Hark, hark, the dogs do bark, The Duke is fond of kittens, He likes to take their insides out, And use their fur for mittens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is fun non fiction. The DaVinci Code is definitely fiction... "historical" fiction. Dag, total brain lapse on the that. Don't WHAT I was thinking. Thanks for the correction. Jedi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mothboy88 Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 I have been working through Anna Karenina for the last couple weeks. My wife just informed me that its now the new Oprah Book Club selection. What the hell? Since when did Oprah try to get America to read Tolstoy? Now everyone is gonna give me crap about being a minion of Oprah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonrover Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Jesus you guys are making me rack up my Amazon account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distel32 Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Our Man in Havana Franny and Zoey Libra Dune The River Why The Bell Jar Sons of the Profits those are just a few of my favorites shelf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonrover Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 Stop!! I just put in an $82 order! Actually no keep going... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtnNomad Posted June 6, 2004 Share Posted June 6, 2004 -Extreme Landscape, The Lure of Mountain Spaces.(Various writers) -On the Warrior's Path, Philosophy, Fighting and Martial Arts Mythology. (Excellent) -Party of One, The Loner's Manifesto (Interesting) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip_M._Kliphiem Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 I'm almost done with No Man Knows My History by Fawn Brodie and trying to break into Jose Saramago's Baltasar and Blimunda. No Man Knows is a beautifully written biography of Joseph Smith. You couldn't make that stuff up, truth being stranger than fiction, but so far, B&B is plenty strange. William Manchester ruined me for fiction. Joseph Smith the Mormon? Speaking of Mormans, checkout "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Krakauer. Recently read: "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" by Chris Hedges "American Dynasty : aristocracy, fortune, and the politics of deceit in the house of Bush" by Kevin P. Phillips "Tamata and the Alliance" by Bernard Moitessier Currently reading "The Endless Knot" by Kurt Diemberger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 i read "40 signs of rain" and "the zenith angle" in a day and a half. back to thackeray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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