What do you read?

willis

willis

xsive compulsive disorder
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I’m not a big book person, but I’ve been trying to read more recently. Typically I don’t have attention span for most books so I read more magazines/ periodicals. Always looking for good motorcycle related book content that keeps me interested though. Anyone have a good suggestion? Here is my current reading list:

Magazines: BUILT Handcrafted Motorcycles ($10 an issue); Motorcycle Classics

Book: Shop Class as Soulcraft - An inquiry into the value of work. —Matthew Crawford
 
Magazines. Motorcycle Classics and Café Racer. Air Classics, Warbirds
forums, here and kzriders, do the ton,
about 2 dozen Haynes, Chiltons and few others of air cooled VW manuals. More Haynes of bikes I've had in the past.
Airplane books. vw books. Motorcycle books.
 
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Oddly enough I was a voracious reader when I was working, I spent every free moment of down time reading.
Then I retired and now I spend my days out in the garage wrenching on my old bikes, evenings I spend a lot of time on this here forum. I don’t read the way I used to, now it’s mostly news and assorted Cycle magazines that I subscribe to. Motorcycle Classics, Cycle World, Rider, and Motorcyclist.

For book authors, I’m a fiction fan. Some of my favorites
Michael Connelly / detective Harry. Bosch series and Lincoln Lawyer series
Robert B Parker / Spenser series and Jesse Stone series and his outstanding westerns the Virgil Cole series
Stephen King. nuff said
Dean Koontz love the weird stuff
F. Paul Wilson / Repairman Jack series more weird stuff
And my guilty pleasure Lee Child / Jack Reacher series
 
Science Fiction, mostly Analog magazine. Been a subscriber since the 70's.

Also military and law enforcement fiction. W.E.B. Griffin, David Baldacci, Tom Clancy et.al.

Read some Jack Reacher but noticed along about the 3rd or 4th one that the plot never changes.
 
I have a book at bed side, the bath room... in my little red truck and the family car... mostly WWII first person account. A couple cycle mags, drop'd Cycle World... they changed.. I didn't. Warbird mags. I ride m/cycles because I cant afford a P-47 with the fat Hamilton props.
 
I am currently reading the prehistory for the Book of fire and ice. Prior to that I was reading the Star Wars series. I have several subscriptions to motorcycle magazines as well.
Lately though, I find myself reading motorcycle forums more than anything.
 
I read anything & everything, Frederick Forsyth & Sherlock Holmes would be my favourite in fiction, Non Fiction anything motorcycle related especially Phil Irving and I have a liking for Australian History.
Some of my reading matter in front of me now.
IMG_20180813_212639.jpg
 
Read every night before bed... 90% WWII books, non-fiction, mainly on the 82nd Airborne, and 505 Parachute Inf. Regmt, which my wife's grandfather was a part of. Some older Stephen King stuff, a bit of modern military.

UM
 
Motorcycle Classics, trade rags (Motor Age, Automotive News, etc.), lots and lots of service pubs, text books, training material (I teach auto tech at a community college), and some scifi/fantasy (Piers Anthony and Orson Scott Card are favorites), although I haven't had the leisure time to indulge in those for awhile.
 
Right now I am reading The Last Best Hope Vol 1 by William Bennett which is a history of the US up to WWI. I read every night before bed. Mostly History...a habit I acquired pursuing a BS in that field.
 
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When I was 6 years old, my parents purchased a set of the World Book Encyclopedia and set it up in my room. It kinda set a precedent for non fiction.
I didn't know the expression of "down a rabbit hole" at the time but I certainly went down many. I'd crack one of those books open to start a search on a particular subject and then get distracted by some article along the way. Learned about Icarus and Daedalus by looking to see what the first subject was in the D book. It wasn't Daedalus that was the first subject but there was a picture of some guy with wings and I had to read what that was all about....and so on and so forth. I do like an understanding of the world around me in all forms, seen and unseen. As a pre teen, me Pops would buy the old Fate magazines and I'd read them cover to cover. Spooky, bizarre stuff hinging on fiction. Nowadays I get the VJMC, Muzzleblast and NRA Hunter mags. I could toss most of my library at this point in life excepting my Haynes manual.........and my Foxfire books.....and Eulle Gibbons........and How to Prune..........and Bloodletters and Badmen.......and The History of Beer........and Maneaters of Kumaon.......and Tacitus......and Twain. OK, some fiction.
 
My parents bought me an encyclopedia when I was about that age too. I think it was pretty common, and I actually remember the door to door encyclopedia salesman for some reason. Seems like he had to come back two or three times, but maybe it was me going in and out of the room :D
 
Downeaster said:
Science Fiction, mostly Analog magazine. Been a subscriber since the 70's.

Also military and law enforcement fiction. W.E.B. Griffin, David Baldacci, Tom Clancy et.al.

Read some Jack Reacher but noticed along about the 3rd or 4th one that the plot never changes.
Click to expand...


DE,

Back at you with W.E.B. Griffin, man he is damn good.
 
This is an interesting thread - somewhat like the gardening thread. We’re quite an eclectic group it seems.

The fiction bug never bit me, I guess because I mainly read history...of politics and technology (aircraft & marine stuff - mainly warships) along with biographies of famous leaders. I like to know what makes unusual people tick. My favourite authors are:
  • Robert K. Massie (Dreadnought, the Romanovs....)
  • Barbara Tuchman (the Guns of August....)
  • Dan Van Der Vat (Pursuit....);
  • the late Capt. (N) Eric Brown who has flown more different types of aircraft (487 in all) than any other pilot - anywhere. He also holds the world for the largest number of carrier deck landings (more than 2400). Brown was a Scot in the RN and he passed away a few years ago at arorund 97 years of age. He did most of the tests of the captured German jets after WW-II plus the Italian and Japanese aircraft too - AND he flew all of the Allied types and did the first deck landing of a twin engine aircraft on a carrier (DH98 Mosquito). He flew everything from a Tiger Moth to a Spitfire to an F4U Corsair to an ME-262 to a Lancaster / B17 to an F4 Phantom and he wrote several books consisting of his flight notes on these many types. Check ‘em out on AbeBooks.com (THE most awesome used book site anywhere).
I have a large collection of technical history books on aircraft including 1920s-30s Golden Age (Cleveland Air Races) racers such as the Gee Bees, Art Chester’s “Jeep”, the Wedell-Williams racer, the Howard DGA-3 “Pete”, the DH88 Comet and of course the Supermarine Schneider trophy racing float planes. A number of those aircraft are also the subjects of my R/C models (a hobby which has been dormant since I took up riding again in 2015).

On motorcycles, I seem to have settled on Classic Motorcycle Mechanics, Practical Sportsbikes and Motorcycle Classics. I like the history articles and learning how to fix things.

Like many others, I had subscribed to Cycle, the Motorcyclist and Road Runner but their new look is baloney to me. I’m not interested in the “artie” side of bikes, nor tests of the latest high-dollar model BMW / Ducati / Indian / Hogly-Ferguson with the optional handlebar fringe streamers and I don’t care what kind of custom fitted riding pants and undies the test riders wear on their wine tour of $700/night quinoa resorts. I’m not into frilly food or that sort of thing, I guess.
 
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MaxPete said:
Hogly-Ferguson with the optional handlebar fringe streamers and I don’t care what kind of custom fitted riding pants and undies the test riders wear on their wine tour of $700/night quinoa resorts. I’m not into frilly food or that sort of thing, I guess.
Click to expand...

BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I think maybe one of our fathers might have been back and forth across the border ifyaknowwhatimean...:laugh:
 
Downeaster said:
BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I think maybe one of our fathers might have been back and forth across the border ifyaknowwhatimean...:laugh:
Click to expand...

Indeed DE.

I had a big sloppy hamburger with Lakeview and RobinC in London today - and THAT was a good meal to me. When I ride, I wear black dockers and sometimes leather chaps on top and a puke yellow hi-viz jacket or black leather. I do not own a $1400 custom made riding suit....oh well. I'm not slagging those who do - but too frilly for me.
 
MaxPete said:
The fiction bug never bit me, I guess because I mainly read history...
Click to expand...

Funny, the fiction bug hit me hard, I guess because I mainly read history...

One of my shelves looks remarkably like one of Meddy's.

IMG_20180813_182829123_LL.jpg


Every few years, I reread Patrick O'Brian's 20-volume Aubrey/Maturin epic. It's like visiting old friends. I like to look for the first volume in used book stores and keep a few on hand to share. That boxed edition Meddy and I both have is riddled with typos. Missing punctuation, them for their, etc.

Bernard Cornwell for his Arthur, Sharpe, and Uhtred. Starbuck, not so much. Coyle and Shaara do the American Civil War much better.

Alan Furst's spies set in 30-40s Europe. Starting with Dark Star and Night Soldiers, he builds a world that all his subsequent novels and novellas live within. Furst is more Le Carré than Fleming.

Herman Wouk's Winds of War, War and Remembrance. A wide-angled view of WWII through the experiences of one family.

Doctorow's Ragtime, Book of Daniel, The March, City of God.

More recently, Good Night Moon and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
 
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