What are you reading?

[JosephReidBooks]

Added Takeoff and False Horizon to my reading queue and enjoyed them at the beach last week -- perfectly described above as good, fun escapist entertainment. Will definitely pickup #3 (Departure) next!

Thank you so much for giving the books a try! I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed them!

[YmoBeThere]

What do you do when you've paid $xx for a book but don't find it interesting at all? I'm about 45% of the way through it.

[rsvman]

What do you do when you've paid $xx for a book but don't find it interesting at all? I'm about 45% of the way through it.

If I get that far through and don't find it interesting, I move on to the next book. Life is too short.

[aimo]

What do you do when you've paid $xx for a book but don't find it interesting at all? I'm about 45% of the way through it.

That's what libraries are for! I only pay full price for authors I already know I like. Otherwise, it's the library/yard sales/library sales. Wondering if the Crapel Hell Friends of the Library are actually going to hold their September Book Sale as they are advertising? They have not had one since 12/2019. Will be interesting to see if they cancel. We go to the Sunday bag sale, fill up a huge shopping tote for $7 (I expect the price to go up) and end up with books for `22 cents each.

[DUKIECB]

OMG!

Andy Weir's new book "Project Hail Mary" is killer!

This book is WAY better than "The Martian" and I LOVED that book. "Artemis" was just ok but boy he came back big with this new one.

My wife and I are listening to the book on Audible and the narrator (Ray Porter) is phenomenal.

The story line is excellent. He has reached a new level of geek-hood in this book as well.

We are only about 1/2 way through the book and CAN NOT STOP LISTENING!

Anyone else "reading" this book now?

Just finished listening to the audio version and could not agree more. I absolutely loved it! The story was excellent and Ray Porter (also reads the Cartel Trilogy from Don Winslow which is fantastic) was great as well. I could not stop listening and when I was forced to I couldn't wait to get back to it again. Weir is now firmly in my list of authors that I will read as soon as they publish. I don't want to give anything away but if you like audio books at all I would highly recommend listening to this one. You will know why when you listen.

[Phredd3]

What do you do when you've paid $xx for a book but don't find it interesting at all? I'm about 45% of the way through it.

Cut your losses. Stop reading and sell it or give it away. There are way too many books in the world to spend time reading one you don't like. Unless it was specifically recommended to you by someone you know and respect, of course. Then just suck it up and finish.

[YmoBeThere]

If I get that far through and don't find it interesting, I move on to the next book. Life is too short.

That's what libraries are for! I only pay full price for authors I already know I like. Otherwise, it's the library/yard sales/library sales. Wondering if the Crapel Hell Friends of the Library are actually going to hold their September Book Sale as they are advertising? They have not had one since 12/2019. Will be interesting to see if they cancel. We go to the Sunday bag sale, fill up a huge shopping tote for $7 (I expect the price to go up) and end up with books for `22 cents each.

Cut your losses. Stop reading and sell it or give it away. There are way too many books in the world to spend time reading one you don't like. Unless it was specifically recommended to you by someone you know and respect, of course. Then just suck it up and finish.

Thanks for the input, I'll probably stop reading it. It is an author I've enjoyed in the past but no dice on this book. It actually reminds me of one of the subjects that Professor Mauskopf covered in his Rise of Modern Science class that I took junior year. Unfortunately, it was my least favorite part of that class. I bought it digitally, so no returns. I'll just have cut my losses and move on.

[Jim3k]

Just finished The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf.

Anyone who is a scientist, or anyone who loves science and/or nature, should read it. I don't know if it's my memory, but I don't remember being taught anything about Humboldt in high school or college, don't even remember ever hearing his name. He was the greatest scientist of the early 1800s, and one of the most influential of all time. He had enormous influence on many disciplines and accomplished people, from Darwin to Bolivar to Thoreau to Muir and more.

He was once celebrated in the U.S., and on the centennial of his birth the New York Times said he had a "fame no nation can claim". The author posits that WWI and WWII anti-German sentiment led us away from giving him his due.

Though not a mountaineer, at the time he climbed higher than anyone had ever been, even the balloonists. He was the first to discuss human-induced climate change (in 1800!). There's much more, but you'll have to read it to get an appreciation for the man.

If nothing else, this should whet your apetite: more species and more places are named after Humboldt than any other human being. Discover him.

Wow, Dudog! You picked a doozy! Slow-going and completely fascinating.

Each chapter could be lifted and placed in the curricula of something else. Humboldt's early explorations of Venezuela (and the climb of Chimborazo); his connections to the poets and philosophers of the time; to political figures (Jefferson, Bolivar, Napoleon, Tsar Nicholas I, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, etc. Andrea Wulf's research is almost overwhelming.

It is too bad we don't study Humboldt today. She's right that as a German, he's been lost politically due to the German wars of the Twentieth Century, despite his world-wide fame of the early 1800s. His vision of nature truly did awaken the world; but it later narrowed as scientists lost focus on the whole of things to examine the granular (which I think is a good thing, too).

I had to read this in fits and starts. To anyone attempting this, I would recommend a chapter by chapter approach. Each is an essay unto itself. Some is high adventure; some is scholarly insight. Don't bite off too much at a time. I renewed it twice at my library.

Humboldt's impact on today is undeniable. He really did invent nature.

[WillJ]

Wow, Dudog! You picked a doozy! Slow-going and completely fascinating.

Each chapter could be lifted and placed in the curricula of something else. Humboldt's early explorations of Venezuela (and the climb of Chimborazo); his connections to the poets and philosophers of the time; to political figures (Jefferson, Bolivar, Napoleon, Tsar Nicholas I, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, etc. Andrea Wulf's research is almost overwhelming.

It is too bad we don't study Humboldt today. She's right that as a German, he's been lost politically due to the German wars of the Twentieth Century, despite his world-wide fame of the early 1800s. His vision of nature truly did awaken the world; but it later narrowed as scientists lost focus on the whole of things to examine the granular (which I think is a good thing, too).

I had to read this in fits and starts. To anyone attempting this, I would recommend a chapter by chapter approach. Each is an essay unto itself. Some is high adventure; some is scholarly insight. Don't bite off too much at a time. I renewed it twice at my library.

Humboldt's impact on today is undeniable. He really did invent nature.

I read this recently, too, and I was somewhat less enthralled. The adventure and the connections to other famous people were intriguing, but I think what I missed was an understanding of precisely how Humboldt moved the needle on our understanding of biology or nature. Put differently, and I say this sheepishly, where was the theory? Can we identify a particularly perspective, even an outmoded one, as "Humboldtian?" If so, what is it?

FWIW, I'm reading Wulf's book on the transits of venus, and I'm liking it more, perhaps because it is more centered around a big idea, though, in its case, an empirical one.

[sagegrouse]

Humboldt Current is the reason the water around the Galapagos Islands on the equator are chilly in July. I hear it is warmer in Jan. to Mat

[Jim3k]

I read this recently, too, and I was somewhat less enthralled. The adventure and the connections to other famous people were intriguing, but I think what I missed was an understanding of precisely how Humboldt moved the needle on our understanding of biology or nature. Put differently, and I say this sheepishly, where was the theory? Can we identify a particularly perspective, even an outmoded one, as "Humboldtian?" If so, what is it?

FWIW, I'm reading Wulf's book on the transits of venus, and I'm liking it more, perhaps because it is more centered around a big idea, though, in its case, an empirical one.

He didn't move the needle, so much as find one.

On a daily basis, your weatherman (and all meteorologists) use his invention of the isotherm (the temperature lines on weather maps). He measured nearly everything, trying to compare it with other measurements. While comparing altitudes he also compared the flora at altitudes. Still good stuff, today.

Humboldt's main theorem was: Everything in the world is connected to everything else. And he saw, much more than a glimpse, the whole.

So Wulf's subtitle is accurate: Humboldt did "invent nature."

Edit: I forgot to mention that his writings were studied and followed by scientists from Darwin (who had Humboldt in his Beagle library) to Muir 50 years later. Botany, biology, geology (his training)--all benefited from what he observed.

[Cormac]

I don’t normally read two books at once but thought I’d give it a shot. I’m reading Man’s Search for Meaning and Blindness by Jose Saramago. His style reminds me a lot of Cormac McCarthy. No punctuation besides periods. Blocks of text with multiple people speaking in them. I like it so far but I could see people being turned off because of it.

[WillJ]

He didn't move the needle, so much as find one.

On a daily basis, your weatherman (and all meteorologists) use his invention of the isotherm (the temperature lines on weather maps). He measured nearly everything, trying to compare it with other measurements. While comparing altitudes he also compared the flora at altitudes. Still good stuff, today.

Good points!

[Bob Green]

I received a gift card for my recent birthday so I took a trip to Barnes and Noble today and purchased two books:

1. The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan.
2. Clouds of Glory by Michael Korda

The first book is about the Vanderbilts and Biltmore Estate. The second book is a biography of Robert E. Lee. I look forward to reading both.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I don’t normally read two books at once but thought I’d give it a shot. I’m reading Man’s Search for Meaning and Blindness by Jose Saramago. His style reminds me a lot of Cormac McCarthy. No punctuation besides periods. Blocks of text with multiple people speaking in them. I like it so far but I could see people being turned off because of it.

I read Blindness 20+ years ago and found it quite impactful.

[YmoBeThere]

I don’t normally read two books at once but thought I’d give it a shot. I’m reading Man’s Search for Meaning and Blindness by Jose Saramago. His style reminds me a lot of Cormac McCarthy. No punctuation besides periods. Blocks of text with multiple people speaking in them. I like it so far but I could see people being turned off because of it.

I'm assuming you mean Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning?


Downloaded Falling by T.J. Newman which came out a few weeks ago. "Thriller" ser on a plane and a whole new approach to hijacking.

[YmoBeThere]

I'm assuming you mean Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning?


Downloaded Falling by T.J. Newman which came out a few weeks ago. "Thriller" ser on a plane and a whole new approach to hijacking.

Finished Falling this morning. On to the next book.

[Bob Green]

I'm assuming you mean Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning?

A powerful book.

[Duke79UNLV77]

I just finished Jerry Mitchell's "Race Against Time." Jerry is an investigative journalist whose efforts helped successful efforts, after many years, to bring to justice killers in the Medgar Evers assassination, the firebombing of Vernon Dahmer, the Birmingham 16th Street Church bombing, and the Mississippi Burning case. I've also seen Mitchell speak at a couple of continuing legal education seminars and got his book autographed at one. Mitchell has amazing stories to tell that society needs to hear and showed a lot of guts and passion along the way, as he very much made himself a bull's eye for a lot of very, very bad human beings.

[Bob Green]

I’m 200 pages into A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father by David Maraniss. An informative book that lays out the excesses of HUAC.