What Book Are You Reading Now, Round 2.

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FRUMY

Trad climber

Bishop,CA

Nov 22, 2018 - 09:08am PT

Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure

Gunkie

Trad climber

Valles Marineris

Nov 28, 2018 - 05:16pm PT

Just finished the 2nd Chas Smith book, Cocaine + Surfing. Good read, but strongly recommend reading his first book, first. Just started Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and I'm already bored.

john hansen

climber

Nov 28, 2018 - 06:38pm PT

Finished Greg's Bonanza King. Like China Wings it was a very well researched and well written book.

Have read many of the suggestions here over the last year.

Thanks for the tips.

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Dec 3, 2018 - 09:05am PT

^^^ Sweet. Thanks.

Saw Arabian Sands recommended higher in the thread. I second that. Marvelous book. Among my favorite adventure stories of all time. Others being:

Wind, Sand and Stars (St. Exupery)
West With the Night (Markham)
The Mirror of the Sea (Conrad)
Endurance (Lansing)
The Last Place on Earth (Huntford)

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Dec 3, 2018 - 09:13am PT

Ernest Gann’s autobiography Fate Is The Hunter reads like an improbable novel on a par with the inimitable St Exupery. You can’t make that shite up.

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific

Dec 3, 2018 - 09:53am PT

Red Platoon- Clinton Romesha Battle of Keating in Nuristan 2009 Medal of Honor recipient

Log of the Centurion- Leo Heaps Anson's circumnavigation 1740-44

ontheedgeandscaredtodeath

Social climber

Wilds of New Mexico

Dec 3, 2018 - 09:56am PT

I just wrapped up the Bonanza King- good job Greg! I especially enjoyed recognizing the origins of so many street names in San Francisco, as well as learning how much of our modern vernacular has roots in mining lingo (not the main thrust of the book of course, but anyone who has lived in SF will see a lot of familiar names). What a colorful time in history!

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Dec 3, 2018 - 12:21pm PT

Fate is the Hunter is a good one. When I was researching China's Wings, I got to meet an elderly woman who claimed to have been Gann's mistress in Hong Kong. She had some good stories.

And thanks, Tim. My favorite is tiny Ophir Alley between Cosmo Place and Post Street a few blocks west of Union Square—which surely takes its name from the Comstock's first bonanza mine. There're also Flood and Hearst avenues, a Ralston Street and a Ralston Avenue, Sharon Street, the Sharon Building, the Palace Hotel, the Flood mansion (now the Pacific Union Club), the Fairmont Hotel, the Flood, Phelan, and Hearst buildings on Market Street, the Mills Building, Millbrae, and Mills Field (which we all know as San Francisco International Airport). And who can forget the Cable Cars, whose flat, braided steel wire cable was developed for the winding drums of the hoists that once raised and lowered the cages into the Comstock Mines? And that's just San Francisco... making no mention of the Comstock connections of Belmont, Hayward, Baldwin Hills, Baldwin Park, Santa Monica, Santa Anita, and others I am forgetting right now. The Comstock was the Silicon Valley of its age.

Ward Trotter

Trad climber

Dec 3, 2018 - 04:00pm PT

An indispensible read for anyone curious about this gifted man and his intimate life-- at least that portion capable of being appreciated and discerned. Jefferson was an exceedingly private man who at all times throughout his life struggled with the often times tortuous intersection between that secret life and the intensely political one that aided in founding a great nation.

SilverSnurfer

Mountain climber

SLC, UT.

Dec 3, 2018 - 04:11pm PT

August 1914 by Solzhenitsyn
Historical fiction from a fascinating period in Russian history about which I knew nothing.

Also reading:

Rembrandt: The Painter at Work
An exhaustive and beautifully illustrated study of the old masters techniques and material.

Fat Dad

Trad climber

Los Angeles, CA

Dec 3, 2018 - 05:11pm PT

I agree with the recommendation of Wind, Sand and Stars. A remarkable book. Some parts get a little flightly (no pun intended) and others are probably best skimmed over but the meat of the book is riveting and rewarding. A shame he died so young.

I haven't read The Mirror of the Sea. I like me some Conrad, though some books are definitely better reads than others. Something like Lord Jim, despite its merit, is a tough read. I find some of his other works like N-word of the Narcissus far easier going and just as interesting, perhaps more so if you're just looking for a good sea yarn.

Gunkie

Trad climber

Valles Marineris

Dec 4, 2018 - 05:41am PT

Just finished Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut. Meh... Just like I find Kerouac, Hemmingway, and F Scott Fitz. I'm going to pick up on one of the recommendations above.

EDIT:

Bonanza King

it is, based on the taco reviews... look like the commuter train ride just got an upgrade.

Gary

Social climber

Desolation Basin, Calif.

Dec 13, 2018 - 11:26am PT

Back from a long train trip. Read Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams and highly recommend it. He's forgotten today, but he won those two Pulitzers for a reason.

For the first time she was vaguely perceiving that life is everlasting movement. Youth really believes what is running water to be a permanent crystallization and sees time fixed to a point: some people have dark hair, some people have blond hair, some people have gray hair. Until this moment, Alice had no conviction that there was a universe before she came into it. She had always thought of it as the background of herself: the moon was something to make her prettier on a summer night.

Tobia

Social climber

Denial

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 15, 2018 - 05:56am PT

I just finished Greg's Bonanza King, another well orchestrated treasure chest of history. What's next?

Now reading Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger.

Gunkie

Trad climber

Valles Marineris

Dec 28, 2018 - 05:29am PT

I just finished Greg's Bonanza King

Me too. Fantastic read. I have the Kindle edition. 35% of the book was references. Impressive. Really made my train commutes feel too short.

F*#k John Galt. John MacKay is a real man. Gotta make sure my wife doesn't read the book.