The best thing you ever read.

I'll have to keep my eye out for that, I dig Sherlock Holmes. I just re-read some of my Holmes stories earlier this week and I started thinking how cool it would be to have some new stories.
 
littlebill31 said:
My father-in-law is an author and editor, so he reads all day. His personal library is crazy and he's a biker. Can't judge a book... Anyway, he told me the other day that the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has authorized a british author to write a new Sherlock Holmes book. I love to read Holmes and mysteries in general. It's been quite a long time since a new Holmes was published.
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I am also a voracious reader.....one of the great pleasures of life!! I agree that more Sherlock Holmes would be great but I'm not so sure that it would translate well from the 21st century to the late Victorian era. Haven't been so impressed by the rewrites of more modern books such as the James Bond series and Robert Ludlum's convoluted espionage thrillers. An even more recent example would be Tom Clancy's new book "Dead or Alive" which was written with the assistance of a true co-author. Read the "The Hunt for Red October" of any of the other early novels and then read the new one....no contest! The new one is a decent read but lacks the descriptive punch and intricate plotting of the earlier works.
My kids gave me an Amazon Kindle for Christmas....which I now consider one the greatest inventions of the 21st century thus far! Can you believe it? You can walk around with a personal library of 4500 books in device roughly the size of a steno pad.
Frickin' amazing!
 
Well, hopefully, Doyle's estate will protect the new book from modern encroachment. I think this is why they really take time in releasing new books about Holmes and ensuring the author is someone Doyle would have chose himself.
I have a Kindle and Amazon has extremely low prices on Kindle books. I downloaded every book and memoir about Holmes for 99 cents. I still love the feel of a book though, but the Kindle allows me to read any book, anywhere. I have about 900 on there now.
 
Tobruk, by Peter Fitzsimons. An awesome in depth story on the lives of the people involved (and their families) in the seige of Tobruk. (WW2)
Told mainly from an Australian perspective, however has incredible insights to Erwin Rommel, Hitler & Mussolini.

Fitzsimons is a master at crafting his heavily researched non fiction into a work that rivals any fictitious thriller! This can also be seen in his other titles; Kokoda, Nancy Wake: a biography of our greatest war heroine, and Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men. All thrilling (and extremely educating) reads of modern history.
 
zen and the art of motorcycle maintainence by Robert Persig, alot deeper than it sounds .If youve read it ,im the dude that cuts up a beer can to make up BMW handle bar shims.all aside everyone will get something outa this book.
 
cruza said:
zen and the art of motorcycle maintainence by Robert Persig, alot deeper than it sounds .If youve read it ,im the dude that cuts up a beer can to make up BMW handle bar shims.all aside everyone will get something outa this book.
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Great book! Nice to meet you. I once made custom breathers for a 550 Honda 4 from the tiny V-8 Vegetable Juice cans.

I'd plug my 4 books but when looking at the titles mentioned above I feel I'm out-gassed.
 
chopfather said:
I just ordered it last night. I didn't even know Twain had written this but I can't wait to get it.
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Did you read this, if you're still around...?

I'm going through it again. One time I was thinking about it and I realized I was thinking about it visually, like a movie. It's that vivid. Re-reading it now I realize that it is that vivid while going into minute detail that a movie never could.

Twain and Joan of Arc. I can't imagine a better combination.
 
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This is one of the best really, really, short things I ever read:

Purplezinger said:
...This same philosophy also applies to motorcycles. Make this part of your every day routine. Look, observe, test, measure, check, check again, acquire patience and change your thinking process.
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What? no "call me Ishmael"?

I see a fairly direct line from Melville through to Hemingway.

But I love the work of lots of others too. Steinbeck, Kerouac.

I love "Zen ATAOMM" too, but parts of it are really hard for me to wade through, for both emotional and intellectual reasons. But I truly learned from that book - and may learn more from it yet! - as it's one of that handful of books I revisit every ten years or so.

Have been wanting to revisit Dickens, too...just to give a nod to the other side of the pond. (plus, these times we're living in seem really apt for his work)
 
I just cant read fiction..Cant abide 'made-up ' stuff
Ive just read No Angel by Jay Dobyns, true story an under-cover agent who infiltrated the Hells Angels..Great read.
Other than that, mostly WWII pilots autobiographies /accounts..
Oh and the likes of Ernie Pile , war correspondant , youve got to read this!
 
My favorite red so far has been a journal that my friends uncle wrote while in WWII. He was a great writer and story teller.
 
I read a lot. But i'm into a shit ton of different genre's

Zombie/Apocalypse:
Oryx And Crake by Margaret Atwood
ANYTHING (and i mean this!) By Brian Keene
Blindness By Jose Saramago
The Road By Cormac McCarthy

Politics/Radicalism/Anti-Government:
What Every American Should Know About the Middle East By Melissa Rossi
Culture & Anarchy By Matthew Arnold
Gorilla, My Love By Toni Cade Bambara
Sleeping With The Devil By Robert Baer (yeah, the dude responsible for Syriana)
Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman

Mind fucks and weird books:
Outliers By Malcom Gladwell (ALL of this dude's books are absolutely incredible)
Travels With Charlie By Steinbeck (HUGE Steinbeck fan.. East of Eden makes my all-time Top 10 list)
Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins (Anything by this dude is really incredible)
A shit-ton of stuff by Charles Bukowski (i have no idea why i waited until 21 until waiting to read this dude's stuff)

yup. that's all the stuff i've read in the past month
 
Jeez Maxwell, how do you find the time to get out at night with your guns....:laugh:

Only kidding mate...
This time of year Im too busy working on, or riding to read:shrug:
 
I hear you man... but being a journalist and an english major, a lot of that shit is in the job description, you know?

but rest easy - we get into PLENTY of trouble and fun, good sir ;). i'd say that a lot of my batshit crazy antics and lifestyle choices have come from a lot of the books that i've read. Not that i'm a fake or anything, but because i've read so many incredible TRUE stories by so many incredible people that i've learned that life is just a giant long and crazy ride, and one should act accordingly ahaha.
 
littlebill31 said:
I read a lot!!! A whole lot!!! Twain is one of my favorites. There is actually some of his work coming out, unpublished work, that he told publishers to hold until 100 years after his death. No shit!!
If you want to see how diverse Twain was read, "Letters from Earth". This is not a book of adolescent adventures or frogs full of shot. It is quite dark.
It is something Twain enthusiasts should definitely read. It's a must in my opinion.
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And you love fishing? Have you read a longtime favorite of mine "The River Why?", David James Duncan. Great stuff! Blue
 
^Bill, I will read that one. Personal Recollections... is also very different from what he's most known for.


A book I've had a long time, which I went through again the other day is an army field manual :) FM21 78, Prisoner of War Resistance. It's an interesting guide to keeping your spirits up in the face of adversity; even when somebody isn't holding you prisoner in a bamboo cage. You can download it here, I think:

http://www.survivalistboards.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1071
 
easy_e said:
I'm an avid reader as well. I recently picked up H. P. Lovecraft and enjoy his stories greatly. One of my favorite books ever is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Its not for everyone, but I think its rad!
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I can second this, hands down House Of Leaves is the most disturbing and engrossing book that I have ever read. The author uses text layout to evoke feelings of agro/claustro-phobia-- it is difficult to describe how unsettling it is. If you are going to buy it make sure that you get the version with the Whalestoe letters in the back, they add a lot.
 

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