What are you reading?

[vanbrat]

So it has been a heck of a month. Today I called in 'unavailable' to the world. Got me a really good old book out and a good glass/thermos of fresh brewed tea and hid out on my new hammock. I read "Call Of The Wild" from cover to cover and now may be ready to rejoin the world. Did not even stop, other then to go to the bathroom twice and eat a few bites of chocolate. The dog kept guard and didn't leave my side the whole time I read. I swear my batteries need to do that once in awhile just to recharge.

Someone gave me a first American edition of the story printed in 1932 and I always feel guilty reading and maybe messing up first editions. But books are made to be read right and for the life of me I could not remember how the story ended.

I didn't mess it up. It is safely back on it's shelf.

 

[travelaround]

Right now I'm reading The Barbary Coast by Herbert Asbury. Learning about many aspects of criminal behavior in early San Francisco history. There were some really b-a-d things going on back then. Why can't people just behave themselves and get along with others? A group of former soldiers from Boston came to San Francisco and had a gang call "Hounds" or "Society of Regulators" that attacked anyone from Central or South America. This led to the attack against Joaquin Murrieta and his wife and the murder of his brother. That led to his brief crime spree that has been turned into a legend by writers focused on him. He was tracked down and killed by a Los Angeles deputy. Murrieta was said to be 21 to 24 when he died. Now I'm reading about criminals that came from Australia and occupied the SF waterfront area in 1849 which was then called Sydney Town. It wasn't called The Barbary Coast until the 1860's. I'm just on chapter three. This book was published in 1933.

 

[nature lover]

I can’t read very well anymore except on the iPad where I Increase the size of the text. So I often use talking books from the seeing impaired library. Sometimes I just watch a film of a classic. Especially if it’s been something I read before I enjoy seeing someone else’s take on it. I just watched a BBC series of dickens “little Dorritt.” Dickens is a master of characters and I especially appreciated the BBC‘s actors characterizations in this series. I got it on Amazon prime. I also love dickens for his opening lines, nobody does them better. “Marley was dead as dead as a door nail. “. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times……” and so many more.

 

[user 30781]

Man, Roads to Quoz sure has some interesting stories in it. I'm on the 3rd chapter about a small town in Florida called Steinhatchee, it's somewhat shady past and an even more shady land developer. No wonder condos down there are falling down.

 

[travelaround]

Exciting - I need to read Roads to Quoz. Sounds like my kind of book. I'm still reading a variety of books. Today I read about a chapter from 7 of them. I guess I get bored too easy and need to switch gears.

I finished reading Roughing It by Mark Twain but am not ready to review it. I feel I need to do more research on what he wrote before I try to write about it. While doing that I noticed on YouTube there's a Roughing It miniseries in two parts. I'll be watching that soon.

 

[Morgana]

Man, Roads to Quoz sure has some interesting stories in it.  I'm on the 3rd chapter about a small town in Florida called Steinhatchee, it's somewhat shady past and an even more shady land developer.  No wonder condos down there are falling down.

Carl Hiaasen does wonderful fictional send-offs of shady Florida developers and politicians. Hysterically funny, occasionally quite dark. He's also a serious journalist and has several nonfiction books, often on similar topics. I re-read all his fiction during Covid stay-at-home times; it was a perfect mix of escapist and not-stupid. He's written some young-adult fiction, too; I think those are my favorites. Highly recommend anything by him!

 

[user 30781]

^^ I am familiar! I discovered his books around 2005 or so. We had a few of them in our library!

It's been a long time since I read any Hiaasen, I need to put him on my list. For later, I literally
have two big stacks of books to read next to my bed, things have gotten out of control.

 

[scottrod31]

Love Carl Hiaasen also like Tim Dorsey writes good Florida fiction.

 

[VanFan]

After listening to The Spectator Bird (thanks for the recommendation), I thought I would give another audio book a try.  Currently listening to The Echo Maker, when I have a spare ear.  At first, I didn't care for the reader's voice; now I like it.  The prose is breathtaking.

Behave is fascinating, but I was unable to finish the ebook before the due date.  I am on the waiting list.

Currently reading Disappearing Earth.  Not sure where the plot is going (good thing?), but I am enjoying a tiny glimpse into Russian culture.

Speaking of "culture," I just finished Joan Didion's South and West.  She is older than me, but we had a little bit of a timeline in common in terms of our experiences of California and "the South."

I had probably the shortest jury duty on record today:  45 minutes total.  It reminded me of A Time for Mercy, which was a good read.  (Thanks, again, for the recommendation.)

 

[user 30781]

^^ my jury duty was so short about a week ago that I didn't even have to go in, the trial was canceled.

 

[vanbrat]

^^ my jury duty was so short about a week ago that I didn't even have to go in, the trial was canceled.

Don't get me wrong jury duty is a good thing etc.etc. But I heard a comedian say once that he did not feel good about having his life in the hands of 12 people who could not figure out how to get out of jury duty. I have always had jobs and bosses that wrote notes to get me out of jury duty. 

Except once when I was between jobs, so no real reason I could not do it. But they didn't want me because I knew to many people who drove to many bikes and had way to many crashes.. I'm guessing it had something to do with bikes.

 

[travelaround]

I was only called for jury duty one time and the judge was upset with me for saying I wanted out because I lived 75 miles away in the middle of the forest (where I now am again) - apparently that's not a good enough reason but at the time I didn't know where I would sleep, how much it would cost to commute, etc... maybe if someone had answered my questions about that and offered information about lodging and compensation I would have been more willing. I was the very last person dismissed and was so glad to get out of there.

 

[user 30781]

It's ridiculous to expect someone to drive that far for jury duty, five cents a mile or not. Or whatever the rate is these days. In my case, I live in East Wenatchee which is the most populous town in Douglas County, but the county seat is up on the plateau in Waterville. There are two ways to get up there and both of them involve a long drive and a very steep grade.

My opinion is, they need to inch the Chelan county line over to the east just a tad and fit us into it.

 

[user 30781]

Back to reading..

Roads to Quoz....Joplin, Missouri early 1900s...holy hell what a plot twist. On that note I'm going to bed. Lol

 

[travelaround]

I spent the evening reading a letter about taking a sailing ship from San Francisco to Panama in November-December 1850 (took a long time to get there as sometimes there wasn't much wind!) and then switched books and read fiction about two boys (one white, one Native American) helping to try to maintain peace between the Takilma Natives and the Waldo pioneer settlers. Based on actual history just north of where I live. I guess that's enough reading for now. [Until I get in bed and turn on my audiobook.]

 

[gsfish]

If you like the sailing one try "Two Years Before the Mast". Incredible hardships. Very good descriptions on what it was like for the crew.

Guy

 

[travelaround]

try "Two Years Before  the Mast".

Sounds interesting - I like travel memoirs of all types. I already planned to read Kon-Tiki next year. I wonder how the books compare. Maybe I should read them together. Maybe have a water transportation type month. I could include William Least Heat-Moon's "River Horse" book. Oh, this sounds like fun..........

 

[user 30781]

If you like the sailing one try "Two Years Before  the Mast". Incredible hardships. Very good descriptions on what it was like for the crew.

Guy

This does sounds good, I'll look into it, thanks!  

That reminds me, I picked this one up early this year and still haven't read it.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

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

 

[travelaround]

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

That sounds good. Except for the cannibalism part. I'll put it on my list of water transportation books. I've been researching them.......... to create a list to choose from.

 

[nature lover]

Oh no I can’t stop myself again, but you mentioned cannibalism. A group of Cannibals were eating a clown when one looked at another and said “does this taste funny to you?