What are you reading?

[Calaverasgrande]

Currently reading Wolf: The Lives of Jack London... a biography.

I used to live in "Jack London", nieghborhood in Okaland CA that was just the part of Chinatown on the other side of the 880.
Then they renamed it "Jack London" in the 90s to make it more attractive for development.
He did used to poach clams there. And later busted clam poachers.
The bar Heinholds is still there. Apparently Jack used to frequent it, and the owner paid for him to go to college or something.
Heinholds is tiny as heck, but that was one of my favorite dives for a few years.

 

[travelaround]

@txmnjim - you may be right - Dawson .... that's a bit far north for me, but then, getting to the Oakland waterfront these days means time on the wretched Bay Area freeways - something I don't want to do. Maybe I could find a way to get there on "blue highways" but... since I've been there before, I think my next Jack London travel adventure is more likely to be his house in Glen Ellen that is now a CA state park.

Jack London State Historic Park
https://jacklondonpark.com/

@Calaverasgrande - Heinhold's is a strange place to hang out. I've been in there only once. I was born in Oakland but no longer live in the Bay Area. Here's a photo of Jack London studying in Heinhold's . . . he liked reading the dictionary kept on a table there. I found the photo on Jack London's Wikipedia page. Same tables still in use there?

 

[user 30781]

I finished all the books I ordered about Appalachia finally. Ordered some used books from Amazon to fill
out a series I've been collecting for years, the Pendergast books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I
used to buy them as soon as they came out but can't afford new books anymore so I wait until the price
drops drastically and order used ones. Somehow I lost interest in the series and when I checked again, there
were four books I hadn't read yet, so I ordered them.

I've read Dune many many times over the years but never the rest of the series. I got interested after the new
Dune movie came out and I had lots of credits on my Chase card I use for Amazon so I ordered the other
5 books that Frank Herbert wrote and got them for practically nothing. I know his son took over writing the
series after his father died but I probably won't go that far. Maybe I'll get them from the library.

I was going to save all these books for winter reading but ended up not being able to stay out of the Dune books. lol

 

[scottrod31]

Really like the Pendergast series

 

[Calaverasgrande]

@txmnjim - you may be right - Dawson .... that's a bit far north for me, but then, getting to the Oakland waterfront these days means time on the wretched Bay Area freeways - something I don't want to do. Maybe I could find a way to get there on "blue highways" but... since I've been there before, I think my next Jack London travel adventure is more likely to be his house in Glen Ellen that is now a CA state park.

Jack London State Historic Park
https://jacklondonpark.com/

@Calaverasgrande - Heinhold's is a strange place to hang out. I've been in there only once. I was born in Oakland but no longer live in the Bay Area. Here's a photo of Jack London studying in Heinhold's . . . he liked reading the dictionary kept on a table there. I found the photo on Jack London's Wikipedia page. Same tables still in use there?

I lived a few blocks from Heinholds for about 6 years. Used to stop by when I took my dog for walks.
Ended up making friends with one of the bartenders.
Not sure if they are the exact same tables, but they look very similar.
Haven't been back in over 13 years, as I've been sober that long!
"Heinholds First and Last chance" is the full name. The floor slants crazy because it's basically an ancient decrepit shack from the 1800's.
Used to be where me and my buddies would start our disastrous pub crawls. Hitting up Merchants, Radio and Ruby Room. So many black outs.
(did I mention I'm sober now?)

 

[gsfish]

"Devil's Gate" was a fascinating read. I will never understand the torment that people will endure for a religious concept.

I am near finishing up "Incidents of a Whaling Voyage". A journal written in 1839 buy a man who traveled on a whaling ship as a passenger and then traveled around the Pacific. Quite a bit of detail on the process of life on a whaling ship. It took me a bit to get beyond the flowery style of writing and I almost put it down but I'm glad that I 'stayed the course', another good read.

Fifty pages to go and I will need to make another decision. I have three or four half read books to finish before starting another new one.

Guy

 

[Calaverasgrande]

Finished "Fellowship of the Ring" last week
Starting The Two Towers.
Have to say, my copy of Fellowship was from the early 60's and was full of typos!
I don't like binning books, but the cover fell off and the pages tore off in my hands while reading a couple times.
As much as I felt bad throwing it away when I was done, I couldn't bear the idea that someone would get a couple hundred pages invested in the book and come across a missing page. After all, it's not a rare book!
After I finish the Ring cycle I'm going to try and find the other Dune books.
I read Dune a month or so ago. Never got around to reading all the subsequent books in order. And I've never read Brian Herbert's stuff. So I'll probably ring in the new year on Arrakis.

 

[user 29503]

Just started re-reading the first trilogy of Star Wars Novels after the original movies.  I bought Heir to the Empire when it first came out, on vacation, at Disney MGM as a kid. Really good, adult themed Star Wars fiction, worthy of film had J.J. Abrams not ruined my childhood.

 

[gsfish]

I'm 75 pages into re-reading "Krakatoa" by Simon Winchester. Amazing natural disaster that occurred in 1888.

I picked up three books at the flea market for $5. One is "Indian & Eskimo Artifacts of North America" by Charles Miles that I am finding very interesting after a quick browsing. Another is "Any Shot You Want", a reloading manual that is SELLING on eBay for $100. The third is a very nice book on Japanese bamboo baskets.

Guy

 

[vanbrat]

I have finely gotten through all of the Harry Potter books and am now on my second go around with them.... I would not watch the movies until I read the books, so now I have also watched the movies.... Good books, good movies, but both are best when done together... A lot in the books needed the visual of the movies and alot of the movies needed the books to show feelings and detail..

 

[user 29855]

Currently re-reading Walden by Henry Thoreau. I first read his works when I was in my early 20's and working for IBM. His writings planted an early seed which grew during my "productive" years, and produced fruit 50 years later, when I gave up the concept that only a HOUSE or APARTMENT qualified as HOME, and that a new car/boat/motorcycle equated to happiness.

Living in my van and working as a self employed designer of electronics fulfills me like nothing before.

 

[RonDean]

I read a lot. Some high-brow and a lot of low-brow. And, Walden is a great read. With limited space, I had to give up paper books and go strictly digital. With the exception of one or two emergency paper books should all my batteries fail at once. I have also found a lot of entertainment in audiobooks while driving.

 

[Calaverasgrande]

Finally finished that massive cryptography book.
Starting on the collected short stories of JG Ballard.
I'd only read one of the stories in this book before and it was good. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[CoyoteG]

The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

 

[picinisco]

Peter May's "Lewis Trilogy"

 

[unaccompaniedsenior]

“A Literary History Of Ireland” (1899) by Douglas Hyde (January 17, 1860--July 12, 1949)

 

[SierraVanCampers]

Not sure if anyone here has ever read my last read book. How to Live in a Van or RV by Bob Wells. LOL

Also Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. As you can tell, I only read lately what relates to my camping and van.

 

[CobbtownAcres]

I love reading threads because they allow me to add to my wanted list.

I don't remember where I saw this book mentioned but I ordered it from our library. They didn't have it in any of the branches so they ordered it from the interlibrary loan system and it came to me in North Central WA all the way from Emporia, KS!

The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain by Damian Le Bas

I only just started it right before I took a much needed nap late this afternoon but it caught my attention and drew me in immediately. I've been interested in the Travellers of Great Britain ever since seeing a National Geographic article about the Travellers in Ireland.

He says the preferred van of the Travellers is a Ford Transit.

I just finished a science fiction book called Eternity by Greg Bear, book two in a trilogy. I don't think it was quite as good as the first book, Eon. No matter how many times I read it, or read about one online, I still don't understand what a singularity is. lol Eon is a FANTASTIC book if you like sci-fi.

Just started The Midnight Library It's about having the opportunity to look at every different version of your life that's happening in different dimensions.

 

[vanbrat]

I used to live in "Jack London", nieghborhood in Okaland CA that was just the part of Chinatown on the other side of the 880.
Then they renamed it "Jack London" in the 90s to make it more attractive for development.
He did used to poach clams there. And later busted clam poachers.
The bar Heinholds is still there. Apparently Jack used to frequent it, and the owner paid for him to go to college or something.
Heinholds is tiny as heck, but that was one of my favorite dives for a few years.

I like going to off beat things like that. When I was in high school we used to hang out in Steinback's Cannery row in Montery. But since then it has gotten touristy ritzy. The old broken down junk boats and head shops are gone. I made hubby drive around Bangor Maine to see if we could find Steven King's place and I want to go to Key west and .......

 

[aytee]

Let me introduce you to Project Gutenberg. Free ebooks.

I volunteer with proof-reading for this website. Due to copyright restrictions, most of the books are 100 years old or more. But really fascinating reads. A book I finished yesterday was about how to fight with sabres and swords, and the rules of a duel. Yikes!