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Thread: What are You Reading These Days

  1. #1
    Woodsman Adventure Wolf's Avatar
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    Default What are You Reading These Days

    I've finally got through my back log of reading material, and I'm looking for some new books to read. This happens usually every winter when I'm out of work, but recently I've become rather bored with mainstream literature. I'm tired of all of the paint by number literature that has been put out in the last five years or so. It seems to me that many authors are telling the same story with different characters. To really get any good reading, I've had to look through small publishers and classics, because those books are much higher quality.

    If you notice I'm seldom posting here, because I'm either working or reading these days.

    My last book was Pandora's Box by Wesley Brian Williams. It wasn't a great book, but I know the author (fellow Raleigh resident) and I'm friends with one of the guys helping him promote it. As an author he has some potential, but it was his first publication. There was some good character development, and the characters were named after people that I know in real life. It was amusing watching their fates in the book.

    Before that I finished "Beneath A Northern Sky by Woodworth". Before that I read "Notes on Spain and Spaniards in the Summer of 1859, With a Glance at Sardina" by James Johnson Pettigrew (modern reprint). So I read across the spectrum.

    Any suggestions?


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    Halfway through "Hunter" by J.A. Hunter for the third time.

    Alan

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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    I generally read a few different books at a time. One that I've been reading lately is a new book by Samual Thayer called Incredible Wild Edibles. I also read a lot of magazines, Fur-Fish-Game, Backwoodsman magazine and Handloader magazine
    so the definition of a criminal is someone who breaks the law and you want me to believe that somehow more laws make less criminals?

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    Senior Member Antonyraison's Avatar
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    I am reading people's really strange and convoluted Facebook posts, for some reason I enjoy debating really odd views, and for the most part those debates often get me researching very weird claims and checking the validity (although that usually rests on the claimant to prove) however I do check most things, and that way I have learn a lot about many topics and kinda understand many views on a particular subject,whatever that may be.
    It's surprising to me how some people think... hahah
    I should really pick up a book again..
    But however now I have a really like basic level of understanding on a number of things, from health, training, supplementation, science/ physics, history/ Mathematics, various religions, myths, lore, Tv shows, morals, polotics.. man lol.. Kinda have a really well rounded insight on a number of stuff..
    and Now I am like hmmm ok.. how many people actually did anything at school? hahah really?
    Last edited by Antonyraison; 01-30-2018 at 02:21 AM.
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    Future Senior Member? Rollicks's Avatar
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    I like to read cook books. I just finished reading "The Chili Cookbook," by Robb Walsh. It's like a history book on Chili, with all the different varieties in America and how they came to be. Right now I'm working on reading "Fiery Ferments," by Kirsten Shockey. It's an excellent book about fermenting hot pepper mashes, pickles and mustards. If I'm alone and I'm camping, I have two books that I reread constantly: Moby Dick and Don Quixote. My copy of Moby Dick is worn, torn, singed, blotchy, moldy and held together mostly with Duct tape and Rubber Cement. I also recommend "Don't Point That Thing At Me," by Kyril Bonfiglioli. A friend got that one for me and I've really enjoyed it.

  6. #6

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    Just ordered "Horse Soldiers", the book the movie "12 Strong" was based on.

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    Senior Member WolfVanZandt's Avatar
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    I don't actually "read" if I can avoid it. I use a screen reader with digital copy. I usually go through a stack at a time and much of it is video. Currently, it's:

    an MIT opencourse on animal psychology
    Experiencing America - a lecture series on Smithsonian holdings about American history
    Proverbs (the Bible book)
    Great Utopian and Dystopian Literature (a lecture series)
    A Visual Guide to the Universe (another Smithsonian-Teaching Company collaboration about astronomical explorations)
    And, The Life and Music of Wagner - a lecture series on, well....Richard Wagner, the most arrogant musician who ever lived (so says Guinness).
    True enough, my final home is still out there, but this is most certainly my home range and I love it. I love every rock I fall off and tree I trip over. Even when I am close to dying from exhaustion, a beautiful sunset doesn't lose it's power to refresh and inspire me and that, in itself, is enough to save me sometimes.

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    I recently finished The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan. It is a biograpy of Thomas Francis Meagher, an Irish nationalist of the 19th century who became a Union general during the Civil War and who died in Montana.

    Interesting book. I learned things about Irish history, the Potato Famine, the Civil War and draft riots, Montana history and other things through the life of one man.

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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    I do not do as much reading of traditional works these days as I once did. My academic career required forced reading of thousands of pages each week, most of it information of interest to the professors but not to me.

    I then spent decades trying to feed information to minds filed with mush, which only got mushier as the decades wore on.

    Most of my reading now is involved with in depth research of topics I once did not have access to, but now can access due to the internet. When I am not on WSF I am generally on some dig-survey report trying to figure out how the Indians on the Tellico River had access to Spanish muskets in the 1600s.

    Much if it is archaeological survey work in relation to biblical studies. I have always been interested in archaeology, anthropology, prehistory, population distribution and migration patterns.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Need to finish ".Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture"

    https://www.amazon.com/Across-Atlant.../dp/0520275780
    THese guys think humans crossed at Atlantic ice bridge bringing the Clovis culture and tools .....From Europe.....
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    Senior Member Antonyraison's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post
    I do not do as much reading of traditional works these days as I once did. My academic career required forced reading of thousands of pages each week, most of it information of interest to the professors but not to me.

    I then spent decades trying to feed information to minds filed with mush, which only got mushier as the decades wore on.

    Most of my reading now is involved with in depth research of topics I once did not have access to, but now can access due to the internet. When I am not on WSF I am generally on some dig-survey report trying to figure out how the Indians on the Tellico River had access to Spanish muskets in the 1600s.

    Much if it is archaeological survey work in relation to biblical studies. I have always been interested in archaeology, anthropology, prehistory, population distribution and migration patterns.
    Fascinating stuff.
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  12. #12

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    Two books being read right now .Ersatz in the Confederate by Mary Elizabeth Massey and Civil Defense by Mabee.

  13. #13
    Senior Member WolfVanZandt's Avatar
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    Kyrat, that's actually my favorite kind of learning. I keep a blog that gives accounts of my "adventures" in the area and in the past studying different facets of my surroundings. I studied philosophy and psychology in the Denver area last year and am switching to religion and sociology this year. Next year it will be language and mathematics and, if I live long enough, I'll go through the whole Dewey Decimal System. I'm trying to encourage people to get away from their TVs and computers and start interacting with their world first hand. I'm planning to volunteer for a conversation group to help English learners. I'm checking that out today and it will give me blog material for next year. I'm also going to stroll down to the Iliff School of Theology down the street to see what they're doing. There's an Anglo-Saxon Heathenry group In Denver that I hope I can visit and see what Anglo-Saxon Heathenry is.

    I don't actually report on what I learn (that would mean books and the whole idea is for other folks to get out and learn - I don't want to spoil the end of the story) but I give my impressions of my experiences. Occasionally I list my favorite books and videos on the subjects but that's not my focus.
    True enough, my final home is still out there, but this is most certainly my home range and I love it. I love every rock I fall off and tree I trip over. Even when I am close to dying from exhaustion, a beautiful sunset doesn't lose it's power to refresh and inspire me and that, in itself, is enough to save me sometimes.

  14. #14

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    Anybody read Shackleton's (I think) epic last trip? It's been awhile since I read it, but I'd stop reading now and then and wonder what those men were like.

    edit- Hey I found it. "Shackleton's Boat Journey". By F.A. Worsley. I'm starting it again right now.
    Last edited by madmax; 02-01-2018 at 02:15 PM.

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    Senior Member WolfVanZandt's Avatar
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    I like travel logs. My favorites are William Bartram's and John Wesley Powell's. I wish I could have seen the country before all the trees were chopped down and the rivers were dammed up.
    True enough, my final home is still out there, but this is most certainly my home range and I love it. I love every rock I fall off and tree I trip over. Even when I am close to dying from exhaustion, a beautiful sunset doesn't lose it's power to refresh and inspire me and that, in itself, is enough to save me sometimes.

  16. #16

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    I read John Wesley Powell's account of his exploration of the Colorado River while on a 21 day raft trip through it.

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    I picked up a copy of The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nillson recently. It's really enormous, and makes for fascinating reading, even some of the recipes would be difficult, impossible or in one or two cases illegal to execute in Canada. It covers traditional recipes from all over northern Europe. Highly recommended. Also I kind of want to Magnus Nillson when I grow up except that I'm slightly older than him and I'm a library technician not a chef so it's probably not happening. But he wrote a cookbook that makes for really great reading.

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    Gadget Master oldsoldier's Avatar
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    Re-reading several William W. Johnstone books. Mainly the post apocalyptic "ashes series" along with several new ones.
    If by what I have learned over the years, allow me to help one person to start to prepare. If all the mistakes I have made, let me give one person the wisdom that allows them to save their life or the life of a loved one in an emergency. Then I will truly know that all the work I have done will have been worth every minute.

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Hey! Where the heck you been?

  20. #20

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    "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" by Neil deGrasse Tyson and a back log of magazines I get in the mail. Used to finish them as quick as they came in. I am a bit less interested lately I guess.

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