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Reading Lamps and Smoking Jackets

Knucklehead

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I can't read books that aren't printed on sheets of pressed tree-derived cellulose.
I was the same way for the longest. The smell of the books in the library is a never forgotten memory. Holding that heft in my hand. I went to Kindle out of self defense because the little wifey used to grouch about the light while she was trying to sleep. I got tired of waking up on the couch having fallen asleep while reading with various aches and pains. With the iPad set to black screen with white letters I can safely read all night. But, yeah, I get you for sure.
 

Ed Patrick

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I reserved "Salt River" by Randy Wayne White at the local library. They called, said the book is in. All I need to do is pull up to the entrance, text them, they will come out, get my library card info, go back in, confirm it, bring the book out, put it on a table, go back inside, text me, then I can get out of my car and go pick up the book off the table and be on my way. Great, I'll be right there.
Nope, you need an appointment. Okay, how about tomorrow (this was Saturday, 05/30). They said how about June 5th at 5:00.
I sure hope it's a good read.
 

waikikigun

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I reserved "Salt River" by Randy Wayne White at the local library. They called, said the book is in. All I need to do is pull up to the entrance, text them, they will come out, get my library card info, go back in, confirm it, bring the book out, put it on a table, go back inside, text me, then I can get out of my car and go pick up the book off the table and be on my way. Great, I'll be right there.
Nope, you need an appointment. Okay, how about tomorrow (this was Saturday, 05/30). They said how about June 5th at 5:00.
I sure hope it's a good read.
That ain't too bad a wait these days. I don't get books from Amazon any faster than that right now.
 

GreenDragon

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I can't read books that aren't printed on sheets of pressed tree-derived cellulose.

I used to be the same way until the only copy of an out of print paperback i wanted was going for $89 used (for a $7.99 book) on-line. I've since learned to love my kindle app.

I read a lot of SciFi / Urban Fantasy with some mysteries, thrillers, and biography's mixed in. Love anything by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files*, Codex Alera) and John Scalzi. Also enjoy Dennis E Taylor (The Bobiverse Trilogy) Brian McClelland (The Powdermage Trilogy), and the First Law Series by Joe Abercrombie. Currently reading Brandon Sanderson's works (Cosmere universe), the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, and some misc murder mysteries. The wife just stared the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Also listen to a ton of audiobooks. I will even make the controversial statement that some books are actually better as audiobooks (gasp!). Having both read and listened to these, I can highly recommend the audiobook versions of Jim Butcher's books, John Scalzi's books read by Wil Wheaton (yes, Ensign Wes Crusher from ST-TNG) are hilarious, and the Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes.

*My favorite book series. Period.
 

waikikigun

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I used to be the same way until the only copy of an out of print paperback i wanted was going for $89 used (for a $7.99 book) on-line. I've since learned to love my kindle app.

I read a lot of SciFi / Urban Fantasy with some mysteries, thrillers, and biography's mixed in. Love anything by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files*, Codex Alera) and John Scalzi. Also enjoy Dennis E Taylor (The Bobiverse Trilogy) Brian McClelland (The Powdermage Trilogy), and the First Law Series by Joe Abercrombie. Currently reading Brandon Sanderson's works (Cosmere universe), the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, and some misc murder mysteries. The wife just stared the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Also listen to a ton of audiobooks. I will even make the controversial statement that some books are actually better as audiobooks (gasp!). Having both read and listened to these, I can highly recommend the audiobook versions of Jim Butcher's books, John Scalzi's books read by Wil Wheaton (yes, Ensign Wes Crusher from ST-TNG) are hilarious, and the Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes.

*My favorite book series. Period.
I recently paid $56 for an out of print mass market paperback.o_O
 

Knucklehead

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My buddy forwarded this to me from Facebook and I thought it was hilarious and wanted to share:

The electric fence and the lawnmower..
We have a 6 ft. Square tube and welded wire fence in the front yard, and last Saturday, when I heard some thieving Punks might be bringing their BS out to the country, I wanted to make sure they ran into a little resistance before meeting my Kimber 9mm, so I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.
Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 12.5 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, welded a 1/2 masonry bit to a piece of round rod, and sunk the ground rod 7.5 feet into the limestone..The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.
On Wednesday my idiot neighbors hired another idiot to trim all their oak trees, yes in June, so now they will all probably die of oak wilt but that’s a whole other story, and one of the limbs came crashing down on top of my fence leaving the main wire down in the yard. So yesterday I'm mowing the yard with my 5 hp Briggs and Stratton push mower. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger so I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.
Well my sweet little wife had seen that the fence was unplugged and thought one of the dogs had accidentally done it, so she plugged it back in “for me”....How very thoughtful of her.
Now I'm standing there, I've got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.21 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover.
Time.......stood........still..........
The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine.
It seems as though the fence charger and damn lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.
Science says you cannot poop, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just shit your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was like exhaust pulses from a HEMI turning 8 grand.
At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can't let go. I grew up on ranches so I know all about electric fences ... but Grandpa always had those piece of shit chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.
This one I could not let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the solid limestone rock. At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas.
'Damn!,' I think, as I remember I just filled the tank!
Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think 'Oh God please die .... Pleeeeaze die'. But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam engine waiting for the go command from it’s driver’s right foot.
So here I am in the middle of June , 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own front yard , begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day .... he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created.
I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire ....
I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned.
There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.
Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:
1 - Three of my teeth seem to have melted.
2 - I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).
3 - Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.
4 - My left eye will not open.
5 - My right eye will not close.
6 - The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.
7 - My nuts are still average size yet they are almost a foot long.
8 - I can turn on the TV in the bedroom by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don't understand this???).
Yesterday changed my life.
I now have a newfound respect for things.
I appreciate the little things more, and now I will always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow.
The good news, is that if someone does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which will also remind me to triple check before I mow.
 

Standy

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Oct 21, 2019
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Maybee mich.
My buddy forwarded this to me from Facebook and I thought it was hilarious and wanted to share:

The electric fence and the lawnmower..
We have a 6 ft. Square tube and welded wire fence in the front yard, and last Saturday, when I heard some thieving Punks might be bringing their BS out to the country, I wanted to make sure they ran into a little resistance before meeting my Kimber 9mm, so I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.
Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 12.5 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, welded a 1/2 masonry bit to a piece of round rod, and sunk the ground rod 7.5 feet into the limestone..The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.
On Wednesday my idiot neighbors hired another idiot to trim all their oak trees, yes in June, so now they will all probably die of oak wilt but that’s a whole other story, and one of the limbs came crashing down on top of my fence leaving the main wire down in the yard. So yesterday I'm mowing the yard with my 5 hp Briggs and Stratton push mower. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger so I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.
Well my sweet little wife had seen that the fence was unplugged and thought one of the dogs had accidentally done it, so she plugged it back in “for me”....How very thoughtful of her.
Now I'm standing there, I've got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.21 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover.
Time.......stood........still..........
The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine.
It seems as though the fence charger and damn lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.
Science says you cannot poop, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just shit your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was like exhaust pulses from a HEMI turning 8 grand.
At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can't let go. I grew up on ranches so I know all about electric fences ... but Grandpa always had those piece of shit chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.
This one I could not let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the solid limestone rock. At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas.
'Damn!,' I think, as I remember I just filled the tank!
Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think 'Oh God please die .... Pleeeeaze die'. But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam engine waiting for the go command from it’s driver’s right foot.
So here I am in the middle of June , 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own front yard , begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day .... he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created.
I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire ....
I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned.
There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.
Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:
1 - Three of my teeth seem to have melted.
2 - I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).
3 - Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.
4 - My left eye will not open.
5 - My right eye will not close.
6 - The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.
7 - My nuts are still average size yet they are almost a foot long.
8 - I can turn on the TV in the bedroom by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don't understand this???).
Yesterday changed my life.
I now have a newfound respect for things.
I appreciate the little things more, and now I will always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow.
The good news, is that if someone does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which will also remind me to triple check before I mow.
Wow wish I didn't know about lawn mowers and electric fences. Had a string of horses and some cattle for some time and trimming along the fence with the push mower and getting into the fence does produce exotic language and nasty ideas!!!
 

plantdude

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Some non fiction to put your mind at ease during the current times...
image.jpeg

A great book to read if you're into parasites (or if they are into you). Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer.
image.jpeg
(The cat is being featured for the Toxoplasma gondii section)
 

tullius

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NE Ohio
Some non-fiction to put your mind ill at ease during current times...

51iM3NMjQFL.jpg

Had the chance to read this before it was released. Wish the author had allowed time for editorial review. Still things to be gleaned.
 

Knucklehead

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I finished Dune! Would've made a considerable impact on me if I'd found it 30 years ago.
I’m at 68% finished with the first one and even this early would have to agree with you. I have no idea how I missed that one so long as it’s right in my wheelhouse but I was slow to pull the trigger on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as well. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in reading History for too long periods and need to read more fiction. So many books and so little time....
 

GreenDragon

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I’m at 68% finished with the first one and even this early would have to agree with you. I have no idea how I missed that one so long as it’s right in my wheelhouse but I was slow to pull the trigger on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as well. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in reading History for too long periods and need to read more fiction. So many books and so little time....

If you liked Dune then I think you would like The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (The First Law trilogy). Re-reading it now.

Just finished Peace Talks by Jim Butcher, book #16 in his Dresden Files series.
 

Knucklehead

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If you liked Dune then I think you would like The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (The First Law trilogy). Re-reading it now.

Just finished Peace Talks by Jim Butcher, book #16 in his Dresden Files series.
Added to Wishlist. Thank you!
 

Knucklehead

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Listening to Ennio Morricone, the guy that scored the songs for the spaghetti westerns like “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, “ Fistful of Dynamite“ and “ Once Upon a Time in the West” and many others. Different but very nice. Reading my favorite book of all time “Ivanhoe” by Sir Walter Scott. I’ve read this book 30+ times and that’s a conservative figure. About to smoke one of the F.X. Smith’s cigars from a sampler pack. It’s been raining for three days. Have a great day.
 

CobGuy

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I've been digging around trying to find my old Douglas Adams books so I can re-read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
We just watched a season of this on Hulu and it inspired me find them.

~Darin
 
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