Spring - Summer Reading Thread

[BSF21]

Finished this listen in a quick 7 hours. Proops is delightful and really knows his shit about old time baseball. Nothing earth shattering but a fun listen.

[DSafetyGuy]

Finished this listen in a quick 7 hours. Proops is delightful and really knows his shit about old time baseball. Nothing earth shattering but a fun listen.

Haven't read the book, but, based on your experience, you'd probably enjoy his podcast, too (The Smartest Man in the World).

[The Sybian]

Finished this listen in a quick 7 hours. Proops is delightful and really knows his shit about old time baseball. Nothing earth shattering but a fun listen.

Haven't read the book, but, based on your experience, you'd probably enjoy his podcast, too (The Smartest Man in the World).

Forgot about that book. Heard him talk about it on WTF, and wanted to read it. I'll have to check out his pod. He was one of my favorite comedians in the early 90s.

[BSF21]

Finished this listen in a quick 7 hours. Proops is delightful and really knows his shit about old time baseball. Nothing earth shattering but a fun listen.

Haven't read the book, but, based on your experience, you'd probably enjoy his podcast, too (The Smartest Man in the World).

I've been an avid listener for a while now. He's great.

[Rex]

Just started on The War Lovers, and I came across the most remarkable sentence about Teddy Roosevelt's father....

"Like many of his social class among the New York Knickerbockers, he bought an exemption from the draft, hiring two substitutes for three hundred dollars each."


I mean it's like he and Isiah are the same person

[Bensell]

I really liked this - it was on par with top bar Tom Clancy shit:



I read this in one day and loved it. Glad I already had the second book in the trilogy in my library request list

[Giff]

Bensell, I'm finishing up The Fold today. I'm not sure I'm enjoying the ending, but I still have about 50 pages.

[Bensell]

Bensell, I'm finishing up The Fold today. I'm not sure I'm enjoying the ending, but I still have about 50 pages.

The ending was a bit off, for lack of a better term, but I really liked the style and story of it.

[Giff]

Bensell, I'm finishing up The Fold today. I'm not sure I'm enjoying the ending, but I still have about 50 pages.

The ending was a bit off, for lack of a better term, but I really liked the style and story of it.

Yeah, until the craziness started, I was absolutely loving the writing and plot.

Thanks for a lot of what I read. I'm dropping this one at the library after work and picking up Graduation Day.

[The Sybian]

Haven't read the book, but, based on your experience, you'd probably enjoy his podcast, too (The Smartest Man in the World).

I generally like Proops, he was one of my favorite comedians in the pre-Whose Line days, but I couldn't make it through an episode. Does he typically ramble semi-coherently on random topics the entire show? I was waiting for something to happen, but he just scatterbrainedly jumped all over the place. Was this just one bad episode, or should I just not listen?

[Nonlinear FC]

Haven't read the book, but, based on your experience, you'd probably enjoy his podcast, too (The Smartest Man in the World).

I generally like Proops, he was one of my favorite comedians in the pre-Whose Line days, but I couldn't make it through an episode. Does he typically ramble semi-coherently on random topics the entire show? I was waiting for something to happen, but he just scatterbrainedly jumped all over the place. Was this just one bad episode, or should I just not listen?

Yeah, I listened to a bunch of episodes, but the style got a little old for me.

Though, for reference/context I have also stop listening to a bunch of podcasts that I used to listen to... Carola, Rogan, Maron... I've popped back in occasionally, but I got tired of their respective schticks.

[The Sybian]

Haven't read the book, but, based on your experience, you'd probably enjoy his podcast, too (The Smartest Man in the World).

I generally like Proops, he was one of my favorite comedians in the pre-Whose Line days, but I couldn't make it through an episode. Does he typically ramble semi-coherently on random topics the entire show? I was waiting for something to happen, but he just scatterbrainedly jumped all over the place. Was this just one bad episode, or should I just not listen?

Yeah, I listened to a bunch of episodes, but the style got a little old for me.

Though, for reference/context I have also stop listening to a bunch of podcasts that I used to listen to... Carola, Rogan, Maron... I've popped back in occasionally, but I got tired of their respective schticks.

I hear ya. I go weeks without listening to any given podcast, then catch up with the guests I'm interested in. Except Men in Blazers, they always get listened to due to timeliness. I need to hear about what is in the Amazon Emporium immediately.

[govmentchedda]

Haven't read the book, but, based on your experience, you'd probably enjoy his podcast, too (The Smartest Man in the World).

I generally like Proops, he was one of my favorite comedians in the pre-Whose Line days, but I couldn't make it through an episode. Does he typically ramble semi-coherently on random topics the entire show? I was waiting for something to happen, but he just scatterbrainedly jumped all over the place. Was this just one bad episode, or should I just not listen?

Yeah, I listened to a bunch of episodes, but the style got a little old for me.

Though, for reference/context I have also stop listening to a bunch of podcasts that I used to listen to... Carola, Rogan, Maron... I've popped back in occasionally, but I got tired of their respective schticks.

I hear ya. I go weeks without listening to any given podcast, then catch up with the guests I'm interested in. Except Men in Blazers, they always get listened to due to timeliness. I need to hear about what is in the Amazon Emporium immediately.

You really like sad books, huh?

[The Sybian]

You really like sad books, huh?

Gotta do something when I wake up from an Arsenaly sad nap.

[A_B]

Started reading Unbroken at my wife's suggestion. Our tastes don't typically run similar, but I have enjoyed it so far.

[Rush2112]

Started reading Unbroken at my wife's suggestion. Our tastes don't typically run similar, but I have enjoyed it so far.

I enjoyed it until aside from the last 1/4 or so. Got a tad religious for my taste.

[rass]

Jesus beach creating fuck I dropped my beach book in the beach water. With about a 1/5 left to read.

[brian]

Jesus beach creating fuck I dropped my beach book in the beach water. With about a 1/5 left to read.

He lives.

(Sorry for the spoiler.)

[Rams Fanny]

Haven't posted in this thread yet so here's been my summer reading:



Really good. My slight complaint is I was looking for a larger discussion of his "Code" rather than his military exploits but then again, that was his main gig. The lack of maps can make some battles confusing. Lots of keen insight into his character and relationships. I hate it when history gets referred to as "accessible" but in the sense this isn't a listing of events and is an interesting tale, it fits.



Pretty quick read so good for the beach or bathroom. Story is predictable but the characters are oddly likable. Maybe I know way to much about the '80s but while there were tons of references to that decade, very few were unrecognizable. Good read for those of us 40+ especially if you were a gamer (or spent your allowance in the arcade).



Don't read this is if depressed. Never have I encountered a book in which every sentence is bleak. Every sentence. Well done and worth the read, just try to be in a good place.



Now reading this. Excellent. Especially good if you've read previous biographies as he dispels some previous myths and conclusions due to his access to new archives. He's not a great writer so some of his sentence structure is difficult but worth the slog.



This is next. One of my all time favorite authors. Lyrical prose and a fantastic story teller. "Corelli's Mandolin" and "Birds Without Wings" should be mandatory reading.

[howard]

That Kotkin bio of Stalin is highly praised, I need to add that to the pile.

edit for spelling

[rass]

I went late 60s/early 70s SoCal with my beach reading last week. In addition to location, the books ended up having some similar themes (gentrification, class strife) beyond just being crime novels, and despite being written 30 years apart.

I picked up Chinaman's Chance based off an Andy Greenwald tweet that he happened to make on an afternoon when I was browsing Amazon for books. It was the one I dropped in the Atlantic (the outside mesh pocket of waterproof bags are not waterproof). Very easy to get into, characters maybe a little typical, but it was written in the late 70s so maybe Thomas helped define the types. Wrapped up a little too pat, but I guess that's what I want in a beach read, and I really enjoyed it and put a lot of effort into salvaging it so I could finish. Will look up other books by Thomas at the library.

IV I grabbed because it seemed like it would pair well. Took sometime to get into. I started it while drunk, and there were so many names? like dozens of them, with so many syllables, and so odd. I swear characters showed up as if we had met or heard of them before without a prior reference, but the couple of times I went to the trouble to flip back I proved myself wrong. I also stopped midway through to go back and finish the first, mostly dry, book and lost my hold on it for a bit when I picked it back up. It grew on me, not sure if it was the book or me at first, and I really liked the main character by the end. Hopefully PTA and J.Phoenix didn't fuck him up in the movie, since he would be easy to portray as just a dumbass stoner with a horseshoe up his ass.

[howard]

I've never finished a Pynchon book. Think I'll go with the movie.

If you want some more LA period stories, with a very un-dense style, try Bukowski. Factotum or Post Office are my recs.

[rass]

Thanks howard.

[A_B]

I've never finished a Pynchon book. Think I'll go with the movie.

If you want some more LA period stories, with a very un-dense style, try Bukowski. Factotum or Post Office are my recs.

A co-worker and I who share similar tastes in reading refer to pretentious readers who think you can't read anything below a graduate level book as "Conspicuous Pynchon Readers"

[Pruitt]

I've never finished a Pynchon book. Think I'll go with the movie.

If you want some more LA period stories, with a very un-dense style, try Bukowski. Factotum or Post Office are my recs.

I'll add "Ham on Rye" to the Bukowski list. Some of his stuff is sloppy and ultimately boring, but these three are really good. As are some of his short stories. "The Most Beautiful Woman In Town" was good.

[Pruitt]

Really enjoying this - first volume of a French epic set in the 16th century. Sex, intrigue, war... very entertaining.



Ultimately a great read. Will continue the series soon...



A 100 pages in and just incredible. Highly recommended.



Boring - save your money, haven't yet read anything I haven't learned from following the sport.

[Giff]

Finished this one in a couple days:



I didn't read too much of the plot, so I wasn't sure where it was going to take me. I was expecting more of a thriller, but it was a good drama/mystery.

[Bensell]

This, and its sequel, were very good reads:



I read the Monte Burke Nick Saban biography and it was a good, quick read but nothing groundbreaking.

Next up is:

[The Sybian]

Pruitt, the cover of the book says Arsenal dominates. That should have been your first clue.

Bensell, a Mark Levin book? I hope you aren't listening to an audiobook screamed by the author. Sounds like an interesting premise, but he one step below Michael Savage on the crackpot ladder. Curious to hear what he has to say.

[Bensell]

Pruitt, the cover of the book says Arsenal dominates. That should have been your first clue.

Bensell, a Mark Levin book? I hope you aren't listening to an audiobook screamed by the author. Sounds like an interesting premise, but he one step below Michael Savage on the crackpot ladder. Curious to hear what he has to say.

I can't stand any sort of audiobook, so no on that. I just want to know what crazy shit he has to say

[howard]

Next up is:

Is it a cookbook?

[Pruitt]

Pruitt, the cover of the book says Arsenal dominates. That should have been your first clue.

Yeah, but I'm a Spurs fan, so it's all relative.

[A_B]

I love audiobooks.

[BSF21]

I love audiobooks.

X2. Almost finished Bourdain's Medium Raw on a long drive today.