Buy Tobacco Leaf Online | Whole Leaf Tobacco

Reading Lamps and Smoking Jackets

Buakaw

Active Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2020
Messages
28
Points
13
Location
Portugal
I am reading "The Bat", by Jo Nesbo. It is a book about a Norwegian Inspector who goes to Australia to hunt a serial killer. I have read other books from these series and enjoyed them very much.
Since my Tobacco is still in the making my smoke tonight will be a commercial cigar. I have bought a Macanudo Inspirado Red, overall a decent cigar. These nights reading and smoking can be really relaxing.
 

deluxestogie

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
24,779
Points
113
Location
near Blacksburg, VA
Garden20210220_5646_HistoryYEARbooks_500.jpg


I didn't do it! He started it!

Many months ago, @Knucklehead sent me the two books, 1491 and 1493. Although I've been struggling to complete writing a book of fantasy fiction, and can't allow myself to read other fiction until it's done, reading history is okay--by my personal rules.

The way history has usually been written for elementary school, high school and even college, we are exposed to an endless sequence of isolated events: reigns, revolutions, wars, famines. Seldom is the recounting of these events ever connected to the rest of the world. What was happening in China when Columbus landed in the Caribbean? How large were the native populations of the Americas, the day that Columbus landed?

I read those two books. Instead of a collection of events, I enjoyed a panoramic view--a slice through time, like a CT scan of that point in history. More! I want more!

Put @Knucklehead's deed alongside @ChinaVoodoo's revelation of the existence of ThriftBooks.com, and I was hooked.

[When I lived in Berkeley, California, back in the 1970s, one of my favorite passtimes was to browse through the numerous, enormous, used bookstores that stretched down Telegraph Avenue. I preferred that to sports or cinema. I would spend several hours browsing on a Friday evening. I have a photo of my son, as a 3 month old, asleep in a baby carrier strapped to my chest, with the endless shelves of Moe's Bookstore spread as a backdrop.]

After reading 1491 and 1493, I began to discover other history YEAR books listed on ThriftBooks.com. The stack in the above photo is the result. Two down; the rest to go.

Bob
 

deluxestogie

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
24,779
Points
113
Location
near Blacksburg, VA
I forgot about a YEAR book that I read about 20 years ago. But there it was yesterday, sitting on a shelf in my study: Story of the Year 1798, by Raymond Postgate. Napoleon was busy conquering the Mamelukes in Egypt in the Battle of the Pyramids (the birth of Egyptology). British Admiral Horatio Nelson was busy destroying Napoleon's fleet parked at the Egyptian Bay of Aboukir (Oops! Napoleon will have to walk home through Palestine, and conquer the ancient city of Acre along the way.) Toussaint L'Ouverture in Saint Domingue (Haïti) is successfully driving out the French military (led by poor Napoleon's brother-in-law, General Charles LeClerc).

Sounds like a winner. Here is a note I wrote in the upper corner of the title page.
"Has interesting content, but horrid writing! Dates are not quite accurate."

Bob
 

Knucklehead

Moderator
Founding Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2012
Messages
12,453
Points
113
Location
NE Alabama
“Many fruits and vegetables have lost large amounts of minerals and nutrients in the past 100 years with estimates that vegetables have dropped magnesium levels by 80–90% in the U.S.”

 

wruk53

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2020
Messages
544
Points
93
Location
Naples. Fl
Take a look at the project Gutenberg website, they have tons of free books that have gone out of copywrite. You can download them in several formats, including audio. I saw a few titles about tobacco, however, I haven't looked at them yet. There are a lot of classics, biographies, historical works, science, etc.

I highly recommend the works of P.G. Wodehouse, particularly the school stories: "The Gold Bat", "The Head of Kaye's" and "The White Feather". Give them a try, I think you'll enjoy them.
 

deluxestogie

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
24,779
Points
113
Location
near Blacksburg, VA
"The Internet is Rotting", by Jonathan Zittrain. This quite long article in the Atlantic, discusses the bizarre and ephemeral nature of what we assume to be stable references and authoritative documents on the Internet.

Although it is a lengthy read, it is worth the time--and you will learn a lot about what we all take for granted. I have long regarded digital writing as a poor substitute for printed paper (or vellum or parchment or stone). We still have writings from over two thousand years ago, because they were physical at the time they were created, and could be propagated in a physical format, and protected against catastrophe. By contrast, digital archives (or worse, websites) are mere vapor.

If you have any interest in the loss of human knowledge, you should read this article soon, before the link rots.


Bob
 

Tobaccofieldsforever

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2021
Messages
662
Points
93
Location
Ravenna, Ohio
I see there are a lot of science fiction fans on this site. I am a science fiction and fantasy fan as well. Has anyone read all 7 of the foundation novels (Asimov)? It's something I've been meaning to do but you know...have not done.
 

deluxestogie

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
24,779
Points
113
Location
near Blacksburg, VA
It was the Foundation Trilogy when I read it. (Of course, Frank Herbert's Dune never ended, even after he died.) I noticed yesterday that some TV streaming service is planning to film and show a Foundation series.

The Foundation story is ripe with historical and technological insights. The massive and dominant vs. the innovative and agile. Great read. (Don't know about the subsequent 4 books.)

Bob
 

Cray Squirrel

Squirreled a lot!!
Joined
Jul 2, 2021
Messages
261
Points
93
Location
Colorado
Robert Jordan and by the writer that finished his Wheel of Time series after he passed. Brandon Sanderson. I like things that test my perception of reality.
An older one..Inherit the Stars was interesting.
Kindle.. every day..
 
Top