What are you reading?

[vanbrat]

We used to listen to some old westerns with the kidos way back when on long trips it was so nice and quiet when they where listening to a story.

 

[VanFan]

Between Two Kingdoms, a Memoir of a Life Interrupted.

 

[user 30781]

Travels with Charley by Steinbeck. Pretty good so far.

 

[eDJ_]

John Grisham's latest,  "A Time For Mercy".    Grisham is back to his Courtroom stories after trying to write  in other Genres.   Grisham having been a lawyer knows how to construct a story so that it just flows and makes for intriguing reading.  If you aren't familiar with his work you may try reading the first chapter of any of his works. I enjoy him.

I see Blue Highways mentioned here a lot.  It's good.   I would also suggest for any Nomad wannabe to consider reading Gurney Norman's "Divine Right's Trip"  When I was first on the road years ago I was reading it.  Set in the 60's in a VW Van,  I would recommend it to those in the 9 to 5 sticks & bricks.

And a salute to Cammalu for getting a Library Card. (hope you got a PIN number with it so you can use all the online resources in the Library's website)

So many people are intimidated when they walk into a Public Library,  but it is set up on the simple to follow Dewey Decimal System.  (10 basic categories)

It works like this:

000-099  Computer Science, Information, & General Works

100-199  Philosophy, Psychology

200-299  Religion

300-399  Social Sciences

400-499  Language

500-599  Science

600-699  Technology

700-799  Arts & Recreation

800-899  Literature

900-999  History & Geography___________

Apps worth knowing about for digital downloading: (often found in Library website/online resources)

Overdrive:  eBooks, Audio Books, and Videos

Libby:  An outgrowth of Overdrive designed to make finding, borrowing, and enjoying eBooks & Audio Books easier.

Lynda:  (now LinkedIn Learning) Online Courses, Classes, Training, & Tutorials

hoopla:  Borrow, music, audiobooks, eBooks, & more

Magzter:  Magazines & Newspapers

 

[LERCA]

Animal Speak and the Healers’ Manual by Ted Andrews. Love Animal Speak having trouble getting into the Healers’ Manual kind of basic and slow. Maybe too beginning. Not happy about a year of library closure. I had three cards and I now have to pay for Kindle Unlimited which has terrible books but I read too fast to pay $9.99-$24. for a book. The library had the latest books for free. They will now allow you to order books (their Kindle collections are small) and their hardcover books are good but I can’t see what’s new so I can’t browse. If I sound like a whiner it’s because reading is one of my favorite things in the world and gets me through physical pain and hard times.

 

[VanFan]

The library had the latest books for free. They will now allow you to order books (their Kindle collections are small)...

You've probably already looked into this, but sometimes a given library has reciprocal arrangements with other libraries with possibly larger e-book options/Overdrive accounts.  The library in my small city is not great, but I was able to get a card in the next town at no charge with a card from my home library.  (They even let people get a card on-line during COVID.)  That library system has a relationship with still another town.  I used to have a card there, too, but let it lapse.

I have to have libraries!

 

[user 30781]

but I can’t see what’s new so I can’t browse.

Yeah, that's been an unpleasant part about the last year.  The books I'm ordering through the library's mail order system are books I've seen mentioned online or at Goodreads you can see books similar to one's you already know you like.  Same with Amazon, suggestions.  If I'm unsure of a book I'll go to Amazon and see what kind of reviews it's gotten.

I think I've kept the mail order section of our library in business this last year. lol

 

[user 30781]

Just finishing Southern Sin - True Stories of the Sultry South and Women Behaving Badly and just got Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison who wrote ******* Out of Carolina in the mail today. Keep 'em coming, library!

 

[Dingfelder]

I love reading threads ...

Nomadland, of course!  Also a book on Antifa and dabbling in some others ... like a book on pickling ...

 

[user 30781]

Finished The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (was not expecting all the political views in that) and
started a fascinating book called Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca. 11:30 last
night and I had to get up early this morning and I had a really hard time putting the book down. lol

 

[VanFan]

Currently reading American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.  Recently finished Miracle Creek by Angie Kim.  Both of these have been suspenseful and eye-opening.  Recently read Ghost Rider, which made me realize what a couch potato I am!  Also skimming books on the DASH diet and lowering blood pressure.

 

[travelaround]

I'm reading The Ohlone Way by Malcolm Margolin, which is about the life of Native Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Bay Area prior to the arrival of the Spanish explorers and Franciscan priests. This is of interest to me as I was born/raised there.

 

[user 30781]

Finished the book about Gypsies. read To Sir, With Love by E.R.Braithwaite and just started A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli and oh man, this is going to be a....a....difficult book I think. If I remember right, I found it in a search for 'Southern Gothic' on Goodreads. It's Southern Gothic alright. Maybe along the lines of Child of God by McCarthy. Difficult like that.

One of my favorite authors writes 'difficult' books. Mo Hayder. I love them.

I'm strange. lol

 

[travelaround]

Just finished reading "Writing Blue Highways" by William Least Heat-Moon and mentioned on his Facebook page that I was reading it and he actually sent me a private message a few days ago thanking me for my comment! I am in seventh heaven of course - he is a favorite author. Now I'll have to read more of his books.

 

[user 30781]

How exciting!!  And now I've added another book to my list.  Which is long. lol

 

[JasonMcD]

Since i'll be visiting the west soon. I bought a few classic westerns to inspire me a little.

Shane: Terrific book, and can be read in a day or two at most. Its a wonderful blend of adventure, history, family and social dynamics of the era, and full of life lessons that can be taken to heart.

Lonesome Dove: Considered by many one of the greatest western novels. It took about 150 pages or so to get going, but once it did i couldn't put the book down. I read over a thousand pages in just a few days. It really is an accurate and epic portrayal of what life on the open range would have been like. Its full of characters that you really seem to get to know personally. Its inspiring, romantic, hilarious, and tragic all at once. I didn't want the story to end.

Blood Meridian: I'm currently just a few chapters in, and it reads differently than some of the books i've read. It is extremely descriptive and does a wonderful job of painting a picture in your head rather than telling you a story. It is rather violent though, which doesn't make it inauthentic. The wild west got its name for a reason, those were lawless times. I look forward to seeing how the rest of the story unfolds.

I'd be happy to add any suggestions to the list.

 

[travelaround]

@wanderingsoul - have you read "Blue Highways" ?? That was William Least Heat-Moon's original travel memoir. I read it a few years ago... before I was considering vandwelling.

Right now I'm reading "Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon" by Steve Sheinkin... a history of the atomic bomb... things I never knew before. It all happened less than a decade before I was born. I appreciate knowing the motivations of the people who worked on this project. I'm reading it because it was named a Newbery Honor Book in 2013 - and I'm reading the Newbery list these days.

Just finished "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat - a 2021 Newbery Honor Book. Fiction. Some magical realism elements. Setting is somewhat like Thailand as the author is half-Thai though she was born and raised in Texas. There's a Buddhist monastery in this novel.

 

[travelaround]

@JasonMcD - I read "Lonesome Dove" a few years ago when I first was vandwelling ... I remember it as being ridiculously sexist though it was also realistic. I'm still surprised that it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I read it for an event called "March of the Mammoths" in which we were supposed to read a book of more than 800 pages.

 

[JasonMcD]

@JasonMcD - I read "Lonesome Dove" a few years ago when I first was vandwelling ... I remember it as being ridiculously sexist though it was also realistic. I'm still surprised that it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I read it for an event called "March of the Mammoths" in which we were supposed to read a book of more than 800 pages.

I suppose its a matter of perspective. If you're looking for an allegory about the conflicts of masculine and feminine existence then it might not be your book. If you're looking for a book about life through the eyes of a group of cowboys then yes, it probably is realistic. There are other aspects of the book that some could find offensive such as the use of the "N word" but its a historical fiction, and meant to be as immersive as possible to an audience looking for the kind of story it tells.

 

[user 30781]

Yes, I read Blue Highways for the first time a couple months ago. Started to read it again and books from the library started pouring in.