Author Topic: Favorite unheralded book  (Read 18390 times)

Offline kingoffleece

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #30 on: February 01, 2016, 09:31:06 PM »
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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #31 on: February 01, 2016, 09:32:57 PM »
Last Fall I was really smitten with The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel, by Edward Abbey.

Strangely enough, I found it by googling "A Fool's Progress," which had come to mind as a title for a motorcycle adventure in my youth.

Any way, it's an end-of-life novel, and honest, and funny, and deeply moving, to me. If you have any history of adventures in the western U.S. of 50 years or so ago, you'd probably find it evocative of them, like I did.

Moto


Offline travelingbyguzzi

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #32 on: February 01, 2016, 09:43:57 PM »
Burmese Days by George Orwell. Nothing like the two novels he is so well known for.
Burmese Days is set in the rubber plantations of colonial India..
If you didn't hate women before you read it, you will afterward.
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Offline travelingbyguzzi

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #33 on: February 01, 2016, 09:47:50 PM »
 Perhaps more easily aquired would be either 'Accordian Crimes' or 'Postcards' by Annie Proulx.
Neither ends happily.
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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #33 on: February 01, 2016, 09:47:50 PM »

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #34 on: February 01, 2016, 09:54:15 PM »
Perhaps more easily aquired would be either 'Accordian Crimes' or 'Postcards' by Annie Proulx.
Neither ends happily.


 Yeah , great writer , she penned The Shipping News , and Brokeback Mountain .

 Dusty

Offline ritratto

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #35 on: February 01, 2016, 10:34:18 PM »
The Floating Opera by John Barth
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Offline Yukonica

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #36 on: February 01, 2016, 11:38:14 PM »
Connie , no doubt I need to read Stealing Speed . Is it more about Walter Kaaden , or Degner and Suzuki ?

 Dusty
Come on!!! That would be telling. Let's just say it is a brandy snifter, warm fire, one evening read.
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Offline Chuck in Indiana

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #37 on: February 02, 2016, 07:24:23 AM »
Perhaps more easily aquired would be either 'Accordian Crimes' or 'Postcards' by Annie Proulx.
Neither ends happily.

A novel about a motorcyclist, a deer, and life in Hawaii.
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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #38 on: February 02, 2016, 08:48:53 AM »
Dusty,

Here is one with a motorcycle theme (at least beginning of movie), British power at its best and worst, and plenty of sand and dust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Pillars_of_Wisdom

The desert crossing alone is worth the read.  Superb. 


Offline Daleroso

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #39 on: February 02, 2016, 10:47:23 AM »
I dare anyone. Try reading Moby Dick.

Offline slowmover

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #40 on: February 02, 2016, 10:51:25 AM »
The Awakining of Intelligence by J.Krishnamurti

Offline Chuck in Indiana

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #41 on: February 02, 2016, 11:15:07 AM »
I dare anyone. Try reading Moby Dick.

I've read it. We shouldn't be killing these intelligent creatures..
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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #42 on: February 02, 2016, 11:46:51 AM »
I dare anyone. Try reading Moby Dick.

That's my favorite novel, without question.

Moto

(But it's not unheralded!)
« Last Edit: February 02, 2016, 11:47:29 AM by Moto »

Online normzone

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #43 on: February 02, 2016, 01:25:40 PM »
Dusty,

Here is one with a motorcycle theme (at least beginning of movie), British power at its best and worst, and plenty of sand and dust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Pillars_of_Wisdom

The desert crossing alone is worth the read.  Superb.

Oh gawd....tried to read it several times as a kid and could not.

Found it again when cleaning our the house I grew up in and couldn't put it down. Wore it out with re-reads and own a couple of different copies now. You know all that IED warfare in that part of the world ? We taught them how to do that...on camels.
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Offline mjptexas

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #44 on: February 02, 2016, 02:15:50 PM »
Perfect by Lew Paper.

Chronicles inning by inning the perfect game Don Larsen pitched in the 1956 World Series (NY Yankees vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers).  Lew provides a very compelling biography about every player in the game.  Reads like a 'Who's Who' from the golden age of baseball.  Amazing the players that were in that game: Roy Campanella, Billy Martin, Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle, Pee Wee Reese, Yogi Berra along with a host of other recognizable names.

Must read for even the most casual baseball fan.
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Offline LowRyter

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #45 on: February 02, 2016, 05:26:38 PM »
Connie , no doubt I need to read Stealing Speed . Is it more about Walter Kaaden , or Degner and Suzuki ?

 Dusty

The first third of the book is Kaaden, the next part is their collaboration and the last third was Degner escaping with his family and Suzuki.  More or less.
John L 
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Offline giusto

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #46 on: February 02, 2016, 06:09:38 PM »
Last Fall I was really smitten with The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel, by Edward Abbey.

Strangely enough, I found it by googling "A Fool's Progress," which had come to mind as a title for a motorcycle adventure in my youth.

Any way, it's an end-of-life novel, and honest, and funny, and deeply moving, to me. If you have any history of adventures in the western U.S. of 50 years or so ago, you'd probably find it evocative of them, like I did.

Moto


my favorite Edward Abbey quote

"Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul"
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Fuzzy

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #47 on: February 02, 2016, 06:10:36 PM »
True Grit (better than the movie(s), which I liked a lot)
City of Thieves (St Petersburg WWII)
Little Big Man (also better than the movie, which I like a lot)
The Southpaw (best baseball fiction ever,prequel to Bang the Drum Slowly). If you love baseball try "The Glory of their Times" best baseball non-fiction.
If you like bicycling "A Dog in a Hat"

all lightweight and thoroughly entertaining

twowings

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #48 on: February 02, 2016, 08:25:06 PM »
The Billion Dollar Spy - David E. Hoffmann
Red Notice - Bill Browder
Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden
Lawrence In Arabia - Scott Anderson

Offline SmithSwede

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #49 on: February 02, 2016, 10:08:28 PM »
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.

This is an 1884 satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott.

Describes what the world is like from the perspective of 2 dimensional creatures, and one dimensional creatures, while satirizing Victorian culture. 
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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #50 on: February 02, 2016, 10:18:26 PM »
Okie man of desiccated clay, quartz and perhaps feldspar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)

The best SciFi novel of all time, in my opinion.  Desert power!!

Classic quote:

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Offline wrbix

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #51 on: February 03, 2016, 08:43:13 AM »
Books, actually: The Border Trilogy by Cormack McCarthy - enjoyed them more than his more heralded and cinematized works.
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Offline Dean Rose

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #52 on: February 03, 2016, 09:17:14 AM »
Okie man of desiccated clay, quartz and perhaps feldspar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)

The best SciFi novel of all time, in my opinion.  Desert power!!

Classic quote:

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Read the book when it came out then saw the movie later. They were close with the movie.


Dean
« Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 09:18:05 AM by Dean Rose »
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Online Gliderjohn

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #53 on: February 03, 2016, 09:29:39 AM »
Not an easy or fun read but still a good read is Neal Peart's "Ghost Rider". I could empathize much with the author after the death of my first wife just short if 23 years. Neal Peart is an interesting and talented person.
GliderJohn
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Offline Kiwi_Roy

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #54 on: February 03, 2016, 09:46:29 AM »
If you are into sailing
The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby

Hauling grain from Australia to England before WW2
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Offline Dean Rose

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #55 on: February 03, 2016, 11:02:34 AM »
If you are into sailing
The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby

Hauling grain from Australia to England before WW2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vej3ujosM
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Offline LowRyter

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #56 on: February 03, 2016, 11:09:42 AM »
Not an easy or fun read but still a good read is Neal Peart's "Ghost Rider". I could empathize much with the author after the death of my first wife just short if 23 years. Neal Peart is an interesting and talented person.
GliderJohn

It was a good book.  Heartwarming.  A guide to work your way out of grief.  Being a garage band drummer and rider, it had lots of hooks for me.  I am not a huge Rush fan but they're OK, seen 'em in concert.  I couldn't read his other books after a few pages.
John L 
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Offline Kiwi_Roy

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #57 on: February 03, 2016, 11:56:00 AM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vej3ujosM
Dean,
           Wasn't it the Pamir that disappeared without a trace, I remember at the time the conclusion was she just powered herself to the bottom, they weren't known for slacking off in foul weather were they?
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Offline Chuck in Indiana

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #58 on: February 03, 2016, 11:57:05 AM »
Books, actually: The Border Trilogy by Cormack McCarthy - enjoyed them more than his more heralded and cinematized works.

Thanks.  :thumb:

In sort of the same genre, when I was a kid we had a set of hard back books written by Will James. I read them all, and still have them.. one of the few things that survived my parent's foray into selling antiques. :) It's obvious that he has BTDT, and tells what it was really like to be a cowboy.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 12:02:49 PM by Chuck in Indiana »
Chuck in (Elwood) Indiana/sometimes SoCal
 
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Offline cj750

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Re: Favorite unheralded book
« Reply #59 on: February 03, 2016, 05:22:21 PM »
Appropriately enough, given the date, I'll throw out a recommendation for Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede by Bradley Denton.

It's an odd but compelling story, set primarily in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma, so you'll recognize a lot of the places described. Considerable British motorcycle content, too.
Then again, when I was watching Predator I didn't think two members of its cast would become governors, either. So you never know.

 

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