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wicoxfreedom
Sport climber
Anoka, MN
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The Art of Coursesetting by Louis Anderson
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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The Zen of Recovery, by Mel Ash.
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weezy
climber
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^^^hahahahahaha!
you got farther than i did with Infinite Jest, sullly. i'd heard all the great things about it and went to the library, pulled it off the shelf, saw it's girth and the amount of footnotes and put it right back. just couldn't commit to a grade VII book at the time.
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Roxy
Trad climber
CA Central Coast
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just couldn't commit to a grade VII book at the time.
hahaha, my same thoughts when I saw that tome on the shelf.
edit: anybody know when Robbins Vol. IV comes out?
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Aug 16, 2013 - 12:00pm PT
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↑I can't see a tenth of the stars i used to could see 23 years ago, thanks to artificial light. the glow of the nearby city has dampened my view.
The First World War by John Keegan.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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Aug 16, 2013 - 12:39pm PT
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For the Infinite Jest aspirants...just hang in there. It was a grind for me for the first ~200-300p. Then I was fully hooked. And you really do have to read the footnotes for the full experience, some of which go on for dozens of pages each. Kind of annoying with the flipping back and forth since there are hundreds of them and they aren't in the footer but in an appendix. It doesn't help that some are integral to the story where some are literally one-line of non-critical info like giving the pharma name for a street drug.
There's a lot of self-indulgent wankery, and while DFW was clearly a towering intellect, very insightful and wickedly funny, the book could have used a more forceful editor. There's just too much droning on and on at times in ways that add nothing.
Gotta split so I can get back to my current read: Fluid Mechanics, 4th ed McGraw-Hill. Yeah, page turner this one. Haven't had fluids, hydrology, or environmental hydraulics classes for almost 20 years, time to refresh a bit.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Aug 16, 2013 - 01:18pm PT
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Infinite Jest seemed like an awfully big damn joke on the reader. I laid it down shortly after the first few pages, I think. A better doorstop than a read.
Brandon, next to reading too much and posting too much, we should be able to say climbing too much. That would be the most satisfying overdose possible. Good list, at any rate.
Thanks for the photo of a PRIVATELY-OWNED used book shop, Jaybro. I'll be dropping into Swan's one of these days, I hope with some coin in my pocket.
I'm just embarking on this old soldier by the man who began the Yosemite Museum and did much more than that for the NPS during a long career.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
Potemkin Village
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Aug 16, 2013 - 01:20pm PT
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Evil,
by Roy Baumeister.
It's one of the best, and I've read many.
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dirt claud
Social climber
san diego,ca
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Aug 16, 2013 - 01:46pm PT
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Welcome to the world of James M. Mister E. He is one of my favorites.
Will send you PM with info about PDFs of Shirer book Gregory C. It is a very interesting book.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Aug 16, 2013 - 03:38pm PT
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October 1964 by David Halberstam.
The 1964 World Series is one of my earliest baseball memories. Halberstam examines the season's and player's of each team and the times that were.
Nice chapters on Mantle and Maris. Also a good chapter on Bob Gibson, and his brother Josh's influence. Race was becoming an issue in America, big time, and one of the Cardinal's strength was the cohesiveness of the team. The Yankees were the last team to integrate, and it cost them.
Lots of respect for Bill White.
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hossjulia
climber
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Aug 17, 2013 - 02:58pm PT
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So I was looking for something to read at the local library and did a search for climbing fiction. I enjoyed Jeff Longs book and was looking for something similar.
Not much came up; a teen book about a 16 year old runaway who gets involved with another runaway who happens to be a climber. They do the road trip thing, one step ahead of the cops. Did not check that one out, but it sounded interesting.
I did check out The Last Mountain by Rick Craig, 2011. Fun read. Started out a little confused between first person and third person narrative, but that straightened itself out. So did the plot which is a twisty murder mystery set in the Tetons. Highly recommend for those who like murder mysteries with some pointed political commentary thrown in for good measure. 911 Conspiracy theorist (I guess I fall into that camp) and anyone who knows Jackson at all, will get a kick out this book.
The other book that came up was our own Largo’s Rock Junction, essays of fiction and non-fiction. Most I had read before in Gorilla Monsoon. Which begs a question, why a second book with the same, or much the same, stories? My favorite essay so far is First Time. Although I’m not done with Last Place on No Map yet. All are super fun stories. But I thought Candles for Ulak ended differently than in GM. I might look that up when I take it back to the library.
In my searches I also came across Rick Ridgeways The Big Open, about Galen Rowell’s last expedition across Tibet’s Chang Tang in search of the calving grounds of the endangered chiru, or Tibetan antelope.
Many of you are familiar with this journey on foot pulling rickshaws, which includes Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker and Ridgeway himself.
Ridgeway flushed this tale out beautifully with oh so human recollections of past expeditions, friends no longer with us and the quest to help keep one more species endangered by human greed alive. Combined with the sheer will power, stamina and conviction it took to be the only humans out in The Chang Tang (think a grass covered Great Basin at 18k) for 30 days with no support makes this a worthy read.
I’m looking forward to Doug Robinson’s forthcoming book, Alchemy of Motion. (I think that’s the title)
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rockermike
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Aug 17, 2013 - 05:54pm PT
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Morton Adler´s (20th century philosopher) Truth in Religion.
I don´t agree with him exactly, but he does a wondeful job of breaking down the arguments for rationality vs ¨revealed truth¨type of logic. I am still working on it, but loving it. And for a professional philosopher he is amazingly readable.
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Dickbob
climber
Westminster Colorado
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Aug 25, 2013 - 05:33pm PT
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The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman is a novel about a little boy and the mysterious girl Lettie that he meets at a near by farm house, at the end of the lane of his childhood home. It is a great read. One of the best books I have read all summer.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Aug 25, 2013 - 06:03pm PT
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http://gregcrouch.com/2013/shattered-sword-review
I'll have to put that one on the reading list!
One error though, Best was armed only with one 500 lb bomb and two 100 lb incendiaries. He hit the middle of the meatball with the 500lb'er and the two incendiaries hit about midships. They evidently burned through four decks to the torpedo magazines.
All of the first wave of Dauntlesses from Enterprise had the reduced bomb loading due to the extreme range of the attack.
Best probably was armed with a 1000lb'er for his strike and hit on the Hyriu later.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 25, 2013 - 06:54pm PT
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The Wise Man's Fear- Patrick Rothfuss
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 25, 2013 - 08:38pm PT
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Climbing the Mountain: The Scientific Biography of Julian Schwinger
Jagdish Mehra, Kimball A. Milton
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Aug 26, 2013 - 12:28am PT
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You should definitely get it on the list, TGT, it's a great book. What's your source for Best's bomb load, because quoting Shattered Sword, p242, "His [Best's] 1,000-lb payload sliced through the flight deck and exploded in the upper hangar..."
Has the Midway Roundtable published an errata on that subject?
Rereading the chapter, it seems like there was a mix of bombloads on the various Dauntlesses... 500 and 100 pounders on some aircraft, 1,000 pounders on others...
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