I would guess that many monkeys are avid readers, I go through spurts where go through books very fast, and cannot read enough. Right now I am working on a research paper so I uncharacteristically am in the middle of three different books for the research paper, and another book for another class. The books are: A Popular Survey of the Old Testament by Norman L. Geisler Inside Delta Force by Eric L. Haney Inside The Revolution, How The Followers Of Jihad, Jefferson, & Jesus Are Battling To Dominate The Middle East And Transform The World by Joel C. Rosenberg Ghost Wars, The Secret History Of The CIA, Afghanistan, And Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion To September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll. All of these books are excellent, I just wish I had the time to concentrate on one at a time. Time is of the essence though and I cannot. So what are you reading?
The Cat from Hue (A Vietnam War Story) by John Laurence who covered the Vietnam War for CBS from 1965 to 1970. Just finished rereading the Coming Darkness by Dan Warder, a story of the American Civil War. By coincidence, I have autographed copies of both books, both gifts from the authors. On my nightstand is Empty Promises by Ann Rule - I'm a crime story junkie
I am re-reading James Lee Burke's works because he writes with an eloquence that is long missing from our language.
A persons reading material is a view into their world. People come to my house and they spend a long time perusing my library shelves. I have an eclectic taste but some themes tend to emerge. <FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comThis is just a minute sampling I have several shelves dedicated to oilfield subjects. Manuals, histories, etc. Tales From The Oil Patch-Clive Murchison An American Hero (the biography of Red Adair) Crossing the Rubicon-Michael Ruppert Oil! - Upton Sinclair (the book that the movie "There Will be Blood" is based on.) The Big Rich-Bryan Burrough (good book about the early Texas oil billionaires) Oil On The Brain-Lisa Margonelli The Long Emergency-James Howard Kuntsler Twilight in The Desert- Mathew Simmons Resource Wars- Michael Klare I have several shelves dedicated to religious studies These include several translations of the Bible. From the Geneva Bible of the 1600's to the New International Version, Fenton-Ferrar, Jeffery’s Prophetical study Bible. Several study guides such as The Complete Works of Josephus-Kregel Strongs Concordance- Strong Do it Yourself Hebrew and Greek-Goodrick Every Prophecy of the Bible- Walvoord Christian Symbology-Gray The Apocrypha The Book of Jasher And books by several of my favorite Christian authors This Present Darkness- Frank Peretti Piecing the Darkness-Frank Peretti most anything by Peretti. Also Grant Jeffery, Stephen M. Collins, E. Raymond Capt, Alexander Hislop Then of more interest to Monkeys I have several shelves of gun related books A few "coffee table books" Armed America-Cassidy (this is an awesome pictorial book) The Complete Encyclopedia of Pistols and Rifles-A.E. Hartink The Worlds Great Machine Guns-Rodger Ford Twentieth Century Small Arms- Chris Mcnab Rifles and Small Arms- Adam, Connolly, and Wilkinson Then the more readable books AK47, The Weapon That Changed the Face of War- Kahner (great book) Patton, A Genius for War-Carlo D'Este (long but good read) Rommels Desert War-Mitham (I can't get enough of Rommel) The Campaigns of Hannibal-MacDougal Napoleons Military Maxims- Napoleon On War-Clausewitz (interesting but a dry read) Decoding Clausewitz-Sumida (a very good synopsis of Clausewitz) The Art of War- Sun Tzu (actually historians believe that there was no one person called Sun Tzu. It was a common Chinese literary device to use a first person style of writing in military manuals. TAoW is most likely a collection of military maxims garnered form many sources over time) (I have several translations and commentaries) The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China-Sawyer (This includes TAoW but also other lesser known but just as instructive manuals such as, T'ai Kung's Six Secret Teachings, The Methods of the Ssu-ma, Three Strategies of Huang Shih-kung. Plus 2 more first person narratives similar to TAoW.) The Sword and The Mind-Hiroaki Sato The Mongol Art of War-May The Utility of Force-General Rupert Smith Strategy-B.H. Lidel Hart On Guerilla Warfare- Mao Tse-Tung Out Of Nowhere, A History of The Military Sniper-Martin Pegler (one of my favorites) Then I have my Patriot books Surviving the Coming Collapse- James Wesley Rawles Unintended Consequences- John Ross Out of The Ashes- William W. Johnstone A Nation of Sheep- Andrew Napolitano Constitutional Chaos-Andrew Napolitano A Foreign Policy of Freedom- Ron Paul Revolution, A Manifesto-Ron Paul Then I have a few prized books that are autographed by the authors My Brothers Keeper- Lt. Col. James "Bo" Gritz The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge: In Our Own Words- Randy Weaver, Sara Weaver A Place Called Waco: A Survivors Story- David Thibodeau The Davidian Massacre- Carol Moore Then there's my eclectic tastes The Outline of History (vols. 1 and 2) - H.G. Wells A Brief History of Philosophy-Derek Johnston Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers- S.E. Frost Jr. The Book of the Dead- Budge Who's Who in Mythology-Murray A Treasury of American Superstitions- Claudia De Lys Then you jump over to my wife’s side of the library and you find all of her nursing books Books on holistic medicine and home remedies She teaches sign language so she has several books on that. She is a big James Patterson fan so she has about anything he ever wrote. Plus Patricia Cornwell and Thomas Harris (the Hannibal Lector author) We both like fantasy novels. She is into this Paolini kid who writes the Eragon series. I am more into Robert Jordan’s "Wheel of Time" series. My wife is always complaining about the pile of reading material that is constantly beside my recliner. Right now I have beside me the latest Shotgun News, Guns and Ammo, and Shooting Times. I am reading Claire Wolf's "The End of America", and I just last night finished "Animal Farm". Ok, more information than you asked for But I always like to show off my library when company comes over, most people are impressed with the volume and the variety. My wife and I are both bibliophiles. I love reading a good book..
Mostly how-to books but I'll read anything from W.E.B.Griffin and Audel books on any subject ,and the Bible .
Not so much here right now, BUT, I did just find some oldies but goodies on ebay and they are on their way... Chemistry for dummies ( Had a problem in school with math, but that was overcome in the military, in professional photography, and aerosapce machining!) I mean who knew? My teachers would freak out that I learned AFTER them! Getting some formulae books from a few eons back in time....as well. It's a need to refresh subjects too long ignored, but soon may be needed! I was looking into a set of machining books, but they really want a LOT of $$$ for even the oldest ones...$169.00 for 1 of 3!
The oldies seem to be the best, and have viable information. Today, far too many books are written with NO heart to them!
My son just read this in school. It made a huge impact on him, he spoke about it over and over. Supposed to be a great book. @Pax Mentis this is the book I was telling you about.
Did I forget to mention that I got it a couple weeks back on Kindle and read it? Excellent book. Tim O'Brien is very good. I had read his original Vietnam memoir some years back and found it very worthwhile. For anyone interested in "scholarly" books about war related PTSD and Vietnam in particular, I recently found a book written in the '90's by Jonathan Shay (MD, PhD) called Achilles in Vietnam...Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. I would call it required reading for anyone who wishes to really understand the root causes of PTSD from the wars of the past 50 years...it goes a long way toward identifying why the prevalence of war trauma related PTSD has grown so much by using the story of Achilles in Homer's Iliad and it's relationship to the military in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It is best with a chapter read and then about a day to ruminate on it.
Just finished "The Jakarta Pandemic". Fiction, but a fairly realistic story about surviving a deadly pandemic. Now it's time to beat my feet to the book club...
The way my mind works I am more interested in how to books. I would group the FoxFire series into that category. Any 60s or 50s era gunsmithing books work for me because current books are too expensive, commercial, and tend to rely on expensive tooling whereas older books are of an older "make your own tools" mentality. The few fictional books lately that have caught my attention were One Second After and Patriots. Patriots has a good story but is poorly written to me. And, One Second After is probably the most realistic minded of the two.
