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ewto
Mountain climber
slOwHIO
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Dec 15, 2007 - 04:52pm PT
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This is almost embarrassing, but I just finished a kids book called "Peak" by Rowland Smith. It's about a kid who's separated parents are (or were) world-class climbers. The kid gets in trouble and his estranged dad comes to take the kid to climb Everest.
My 12 year old son was reading it, and seemed mesmerized by it, so I picked it up last Friday, and suddenly couldn't put it down. If you know kids who like climbing, it's a great read. (Some of you adults might like it, too.)
http://www.amazon.com/Peak-Roland-Smith/dp/0152024174/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197755521&sr=8-1
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Scrunch
Trad climber
Provo, Ut
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Dec 15, 2007 - 05:16pm PT
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"Ink" By Hal Duncan. It's as close to perfect as modern literature can get.
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Tahoe climber
Trad climber
a dark-green forester out west
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Dec 15, 2007 - 05:47pm PT
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that's funny, nature.
I keep seeing bumper stickers that ask "Who's John Galt?"
aaron
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Jennie
Trad climber
Idaho Falls
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Dec 15, 2007 - 05:57pm PT
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Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Since some surveys rate it as the greatest novel ever written I felt obligated to finally read it. Something lost in the translation, perhaps, I found it disappointing, a story not likely to happen in real life. War and Peace is probably Tolstoy's masterpiece, but (in my opinion) not always the voice of truth.AK is much less of a sweeping historical epic.
Having finished, I feel compelled to read Look Homeward, Angel for the 27th time. Beware of (long) classics reading lists unless you're a Cliff's Notes kind of person.
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Jonny D
Social climber
Lost Angelez, Kalifornia
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Dec 15, 2007 - 06:15pm PT
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Africa Trek part 2
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Dec 15, 2007 - 06:34pm PT
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Ron, I actually did buy a Balalaika after I read Pasternak, but them damn theives pinched it!
"John Galt" is always going to be an 'in' thing for all kinds of refernces. However, though 'The Fountanhead' was a brilliant work about integrity, and idealism, 'Atlas shrugged' was a too long bit of self-referential nonsense; no wonder they threw her in the bin after she inflicted that limbaugh-esque tripe on the world.
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
Redmond, OR
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Dec 15, 2007 - 06:39pm PT
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Right now I'm reading Cormac McCarthy's "No Country For Old Men," which is playing now at- a- theater- near- you.
Piton Ron: I would actually love to learn the balalaika, but they are about as common as Russian Aiders, which I also want to try. After I recover economically from buying the boat, I would like to buy a balalaika cuz as you astutely suggest, Zhivago's daughter plays one, and "No Country" is almost inspiring me to buy...a...er...shotgun.
B
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Tahoe climber
Trad climber
a dark-green forester out west
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Dec 15, 2007 - 06:47pm PT
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ha ha - i hated anna karinininininina
the only book i ever started that i didn't finish!
yeah jaybro, the fountainhead is awesome
i loved atlas shrugged too though
-aaron
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Dec 15, 2007 - 07:01pm PT
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To each their own I guess, TC.
I've read Anna K, multiple times (more than 3) and got different things out of it each time. (Never really made it through some others, like,say, Moby Dick, without cheating, though.) Did you like War & Peace or the death of what's his name?
I'm with you on the F-head. But feel I was hornswaggled out of hours of my life with Atlas- the whole thing is Leb-ified, to use the vernacular of our day.
One cool thing about the Balalaika is that two strings are the same note (E?) so you save money when buying replacemnt strings in bulk.
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
Redmond, OR
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Dec 15, 2007 - 08:35pm PT
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Jaybro: Do you mean "One Day in The Life Of Ivan Denizovitch," by Solzhenitsyn (sp)? Piton Ron: You must play a stringed instrument??
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Tahoe climber
Trad climber
a dark-green forester out west
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Dec 15, 2007 - 08:41pm PT
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maybe i need to try anna again...now that i'm older and slightly more patient...
ayn does get a little wordy in atlas, but LEB-ified? I disagree with you for once jaybro.
She at least sticks to topic! Though she does tend to repeat herself a little. (and by a little i mean a lot, but i like the message so it's okay)
war and peace -*shrugs* eh.
death of a traveling salesman? more of the same.
its okay if we don't "like-like" the same books. :)
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Anastasia
Trad climber
California
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Dec 15, 2007 - 08:51pm PT
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I read two to three books a week, usually water down fiction that is not worth recommending.
Yet just recently I came across a book that blew my mind.
it is so well researched and documented, it has changed my way of seeing how biographies can be written.
"The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh, A woman in World History." By Linda Colley.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Dec 15, 2007 - 08:53pm PT
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"She at least sticks to topic!" LOL! -which one?
at least they each stick to their own agenda! hardy-har.
No prob, plenty of books out there to agree/dis about.
Remember, Gregor Samsa was a traveling salesman, too.
Bruno-The death of Ivan Illyitch.
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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Dec 15, 2007 - 09:36pm PT
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Alternating between the Meaning of Night by Michael Cox, which is a mystery/thriller set in Victorian England, and The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk, non-fiction about the struggle for Central Asia between England and Russia.
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andy@climbingmoab
Big Wall climber
Park City, UT
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Dec 15, 2007 - 11:02pm PT
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Anna Karenina is great - a book i've read twice. That and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo are probably my two favorite novels.
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch is also wonderful. I got on a big Russia kick after working for awhile at a former gulag in Uzbekistan, and A Day in the Life really brought that experience into focus for me. I've been working my way through the Gulag Archipelago for a long time, but it isn't quick.
Some cool more modern Russia travelogues are Open Lands by Mark Taplin, and Siberia Bound by Alexander Blakely.
Another Russian favorite that is hard to classify is Master and Margerita by Bulgakov.
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reddirt
climber
subarwu
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Dec 15, 2007 - 11:02pm PT
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currently reading:
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
Redmond, OR
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Dec 15, 2007 - 11:12pm PT
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I'm with you Andy, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, to me, is the greatest novel ever. But I still have a few more to go. B
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Jennie
Trad climber
Idaho Falls
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Dec 15, 2007 - 11:37pm PT
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Just curious---did anyone read Anna Karenina in Russian text?
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L
climber
The Late Great Planet Earth
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Dec 15, 2007 - 11:42pm PT
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I did, Jennie...and since I don't know Russian, it was a bitch to understand! :-)
Currently reading No Time To Lose by Pema Chodran and Hang Gliding for Beginner Pilots by Peter Cheney.
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samg
climber
SLC
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Dec 15, 2007 - 11:45pm PT
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Ugh, you're reading thousand plateau's voluntarily? I'm impressed.
The Man Without Qualities is slower and rougher going, surprisingly, although I think Musil is right up there with Joyce. Plus it's kind of fun to decipher D&G's word games.
Then again, I'm the kind of sick person that actually thinks the banana tree counting passage in Robbe-Grillet's Jealousy is fun to read...
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