Books

[cheezyflier]

remember those?

do any of you still read them? i do alot of reading, most of it pretty light stuff. i like dean kootz, lovecraft, (no, i don't like stephen king)chrichton, clancy, arthur c. clarke, the old stuff from terry brooks, and a host of others who's paperbacks i've read but didn't impress me enough to remember their names. i recently finished medved's "hollywood vs. america, popular culture and the war on traditional values" and i am now reading "meoires of a geisha" (they made a book out of that?)
i have to say, i didn't like the movie because it was grossly inaccurate in the details about geisha, and they used mostly chinese actresses. however, 36 pages into the book so far, and i am really impressed with the way it is written. the guy has talent and style in abundance.

[sandar]

I do a lot of reading. Our library contains several thousand books of all genres.

Currently I am reading Most secret War by Dr. R.V.Jones (for the umteenth time) It is about British scientific intelligence, mostly for the RAF, during WWII. I am no physicist, but the book is easy to understand and fascinating.

I prefer historical based novels based on fact to science fiction or fantasy, although I was captivated by The Hobbit and the Lord of The Rings forty odd years ago, long before they were made into films. Some of my favourite authors include H.H.Kirst (Gunner Asch etc) Christian Jacq, Simon Scarrow, Bernard Cornwell, Sharon Penman, the WWI based book by Pat Barker and Sebastian Faulks to name but a few. I also like most of the books by Alexander McCall Smith. More recently I have been reading Phil Rickman and Patrick Robinson.

In addition I have a lot of books about WWI, aviation (now there is a surprise) and history in general. I still have most of my reference books left over from when I was studying for my degree (modern history) and still read them occasionally.

[Chacha]

remember those?

do any of you still read them? i do alot of reading, most of it pretty light stuff. i like dean kootz, lovecraft, (no, i don't like stephen king)chrichton, clancy, arthur c. clarke, the old stuff from terry brooks, and a host of others who's paperbacks i've read but didn't impress me enough to remember their names. i recently finished medved's "hollywood vs. america, popular culture and the war on traditional values" and i am now reading "meoires of a geisha" (they made a book out of that?)
i have to say, i didn't like the movie because it was grossly inaccurate in the details about geisha, and they used mostly chinese actresses. however, 36 pages into the book so far, and i am really impressed with the way it is written. the guy has talent and style in abundance.

I have thousands of those, I mean thousands

I am reading Pride and Prejudice... Interesting book.

I just finished The Mark (a Left Behind Series) La Haye & Jenkins....

Once in a while I switched to a suspense thriller. My daughter and I are bookworms, so from Dr Seuss to T. D. Jakes.

I watched the Geisha, I will put that on my list, it is always good to read the book version than watch the movie, and yes the style is totally different.

[Tako_Kichi]

Hi, my name is Tako_Kichi and I am a bookworm!

I too love books and if I find an author I like I tend to collect their entire works if possible.

I am currently into Science Fantasy (Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams etc.) and the Harry Potter series (don't knock it, they are actually VERY good books once you start reading them).

I also read and re-read the same book(s) many times over. I will start with the first book by an author and then read their works in chronological order until I get to the end and sometimes I will start right back at the beginning again. I am currently on my fourth or fifth time through the HP series (middle of book 5 at the moment) and I still find them interesting and fun to read. My collection of Spike Milligan's war memoirs have been read so many times they are literally falling apart now and I know I am unlikely to find replacements for them so they don't get read very often now.

My dream is to buy a branch of Chapter's or Indigo Books and then turn it into my private dwelling so I can have an endless supply of books! Of course there would be one corner set aside for flight simming too!

[Henry]

I have a series of Noddy goes to toyland
and Rupert the bear !
all Agatha Christies
most of the reading i do today are non fiction
and mostly WW2 variants
H

[Willy]

I do a lot of reading. It's hard to beat a real book in your hands. I'll read most anything except a romance novel.

Ernest Gann is a favorite. His "Fate is the Hunter" and "Flying Circus" are must reads for aviation fans.

More recently I've been reading a lot of Ben K. Green's horse books. If you like western type tales, then his "Horse Tales", "Horse Trading", "More Horse Trading" and "A Thousand Miles of Mustanging" are very good. I just ordered his "Cow Tales" from Amazon about an hour ago.

I'm also notorious for reading tech and/or repair manuals on stuff that I'm interested in as well.

As far as movie vs book, the movie almost always seems to come up short when compared to the book.

[WarHorse47]

I am an avid reader and collector. My library is over 500 books strictly on aviation. This includes biographies, air craft designers, speciifc aircraft, and other various aspects of aviation history. Even have some about the Reno Air Races and aircraft restoration and archeology.

I read every night after spending most of the day on a computer. At the moment I'm reading Launch the Intruders by Carol Reardon which is about VA-75 "Sunday Punchers" attack squadron during the Vietnam War.

--WH

[PRB]

Just came back from the Barnes & Noble with three more books! One is on the middle ages, by William Manchester, which I am now starting. I was inspired by "Timeline", by Michael Crichton, which I just finished.

[gigabyte]

I have to admit I was never much of a reader, I hated English Lit in High School, rarely read any of my text books, but always passed my classes. The funny thing for me was I started to read when I lost my hearing and couldn't watch movies (I hate captioning). I started with books that had inspired a couple of my all time favorite movies, The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, (can you see a Tom Clancy theme developing), when I finished those two I was hooked... I had to collect all of Clancy's books in Hard Cover. Then I was introduced to Clive Cussler (I now have most of his in HC as well), Vince Flynn, Jack Higgins, and on and on. I have not stopped since, in 5 years I have collected 4-500 books, and read most of them (all of the Clancy and Cussler several times), I am working on starting up with Freeman Patterson and Stephen Coonts now, I can't believe what I missed, I have to have a book on the go at all times, sometimes several. Strange how we adapt, but now even though I do enjoy movies thanks to my Cochlear Implant I can't put down the books, there is a reason for everything I guess.

[brad kaste]

.....My 'library' can't hold anymore more books. Mostly military in origin. I now schlep to the local libraries to pick new ones.
....I was wondering has anyone used the electronic 'kendle (?) put out by Amazon and how do you like it in comparison to a conventional book?

[rpjkw]

My library consists of almost 500 hard bounds ( I'm not a fan of paperbacks). MOstly military history or military novels with a strong emphasis on aviation. Over the last 3-4 months I've bought close to 50 books dealing with naval/merchant marine history, ships, shipping, etc. I ordered 8 more books, I think, yesterday from Alibris and Amazon.

What I need now is MORE shelf space.

Reading, IMHO, beats watching TV 10 ways to Sunday.

Bob

[PRB]

...I was wondering has anyone used the electronic 'kendle (?) put out by Amazon and how do you like it in comparison to a conventional book?

That kindle device would be good for reference books, programming references, and other work related stuff. But in my house I like real books. I like the way they look (my office looks like a 'li-berry') and the way they smell, and the way they feel. Gotta have real books all over the place.

[Chacha]

.....My 'library' can't hold anymore more books. Mostly military in origin. I now schlep to the local libraries to pick new ones.
....I was wondering has anyone used the electronic 'kendle (?) put out by Amazon and how do you like it in comparison to a conventional book?

I purchased Kindle for my sister. I loved it. I am saving money to purchase one for me. Scratch has a Kindle and he enjoyed it. Ask him! And someone else has one too, and I hear all positive reviews!

[strikehawk]

I dropped $75 at B&N and $110 at Borders last Sunday. And I do that every payday. I always have book near me even at work. Right now the majority of my reading is manga and Japanese "light" novels, mostly the stories that the Anime shows are based on. That said I also get sci-fi, most based on the Warhammer 40K miniatures game, Military history and books on the par-normal and UFOs.

Last serious book I read was about the HAL-3 Seawolves from their commissioning to the Tet Offensive. Right now I'm re-reading William Gibson's "Neromancer" for the 10th time. I figure that I could fill at least one shelving bay with my manga collection, I'm afraid to even start on putting my "normal" books an the shelf as that collection goes back to my Jr. High days.

[paiken]

My wife & I are both avid readers. She's into the lighthearted stuff and true crime drama (In Cold Blood, etc.) while I delve heavily into Science Fiction...not the wizards and elves, but the real deal, with hard scientific facts to back up the premise...Arthur C. Clarke, Phillip K. Dick, and the true master, Robert Heinlein. I also enjoy Spider Robinson's books a lot, funny stuff. I'd love to go to Callahan's place out on Long Island some day, but of course that's not really possible.