BarG
Founding Member
I read every Lois Lamour my grandad ever loaned me, lol
Reading Lamps and Smoking Jackets
- Thread starter Knucklehead
- Start date
BarG
Founding Member
That's how you spel louie
Over the decades, I've read several biographies of Theodore Roosevelt. This one, published in 1998, caught my eye for inexplicable reasons a few months ago, perhaps because the cover shows one of the remarkably few photos of TR actually smiling. So I purchased a used copy. So far, I've read nearly a quarter of its 800 pages of text. (The back matter adds another 150 pages or so.) A truly enjoyable, sometimes emotional read.
Roosevelt loved to hunt. He loved to hunt in the wildest places (Maine, the Dakota Territory, etc.). He loved to shoot the largest of game as well as the smallest. During his youth and young adulthood (late 19th century) shooting and taxidermy were how naturalists and biologists studied their subject—his greatest interest.
And during his youth and early adulthood, nearly everybody considered this physically diminutive, abrupt nerd in spectacles to be a fairly strange misfit. His high-pitched voice literally sputtered out his words. He was home-schooled by his well-to-do, upper Manhattan parents, then attended Harvard. Home schooling is not known for enhancing peer-appropriate social skills. The stage was set for a wild and improbable life.
Bob
Amberbeth84
Well-Known Member
Bob, have you by chance read any of the Black Chamber series by S. M. Stirling? It's set in an alternate history where in 1912 Taft died of a heart attack, leaving the way clear for Roosevelt to win nomination as the Republican nominee and the election against Wilson. The main plot is a spy thriller/romance, but the world building is what really sells me on it.
I have not read it. The what-ifs are infinite in number. My aging brain barely keeps up with reality.
Bob
Bob
smallwanderings
Well-Known Member
1900, copyright 1894. Compiled by Joseph Knight.
7 days, $9.99 + shipping and handling
smallwanderings
Well-Known Member
The auction is live now for anyone interested; I'm not bidding.View attachment 44573
View attachment 44574
1900, copyright 1894. Compiled by Joseph Knight.
7 days, $9.99 + shipping and handling
Thanks for that. Available free on Kindle.View attachment 44573
View attachment 44574
1900, copyright 1894. Compiled by Joseph Knight.
7 days, $9.99 + shipping and handling
Amazon.com: Pipe and Pouch The Smoker's Own Book of Poetry eBook : Various: Books
Amazon.com: Pipe and Pouch The Smoker's Own Book of Poetry eBook : Various: Books
www.amazon.com
Beatriz Flamini: Athlete emerges after 500 days living in cave
www.bbc.com
Bob
"A Spanish extreme athlete has emerged from a cave after spending 500 days with no human contact, in what could be a world record....
'I'm still stuck on November 21, 2021.' Ms Flamini, 50, entered the cave aged 48. She spent her time in the 70m (230ft) deep cave exercising, drawing and knitting woolly hats. She got through 60 books..."
'I'm still stuck on November 21, 2021.' Ms Flamini, 50, entered the cave aged 48. She spent her time in the 70m (230ft) deep cave exercising, drawing and knitting woolly hats. She got through 60 books..."
Beatriz Flamini: Athlete emerges after 500 days living in cave
Beatriz Flamini spent two birthdays in the cave, and kept busy drawing and knitting woolly hats.
www.bbc.com
A Thousand Years of Ignorance
What caused the "dark age" of Europe?
The smaller of these two books recounts the history of the libraries of antiquity. The larger book follows the remarkable journeys of 3 major works of antiquity, and how, against all odds, they survived, and were eventually returned to the realm of European scholarship. Galen (medicine), Euclid (mathematics, geometry) and Ptolemy (astronomy).
The Muslim Caliphates play a hero's role in preserving much of what survived. Even so, only a fraction of the ancient writings still existed by the time they were finally rediscovered by Europe.
It took only about a thousand years for these, and other important works of ancient learning to "suddenly" reappear from oblivion; then another century or two for the newly reborn scholarship of Europe to recognize that the ancients actually did not have all the answers. This led to the scientific revolution of the 16th Century.
I suggest reading Libraries in the Ancient World first, then reading what is essentially its historical sequel, Map of Knowledge. You are likely to find many surprises in both.
Bob
What caused the "dark age" of Europe?
The (gradual) collapse of the Roman Empire certainly altered politics and trade patterns. It was definitely a setback for infrastructure and relative political stability. But the rise of the widespread, intentional destruction of all "pagan" writings (ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, poetry, natural science, geometry, medicine, etc.) insured that, so long as that repressive environment persisted, Europe would remain "dark".
The Muslim Caliphates play a hero's role in preserving much of what survived. Even so, only a fraction of the ancient writings still existed by the time they were finally rediscovered by Europe.
It took only about a thousand years for these, and other important works of ancient learning to "suddenly" reappear from oblivion; then another century or two for the newly reborn scholarship of Europe to recognize that the ancients actually did not have all the answers. This led to the scientific revolution of the 16th Century.
I suggest reading Libraries in the Ancient World first, then reading what is essentially its historical sequel, Map of Knowledge. You are likely to find many surprises in both.
Bob
smallwanderings
Well-Known Member
From a purely biologic standpoint, the human penchant for seeking out and indulging in mind-altering intoxicants would seem to be maladaptive. Most are metabolic poisons. Most cause individual consumers to become at least temporarily unfit for survival. Darwin should have scratched off those folks 10,000 years ago. And yet, the industry of obtaining ingredients, processing them into consumable intoxicants, distributing them, and consuming them can be documented as far back as the advent of agriculture.
In his book, Drunk: how we sipped, danced, and stumbled our way to civilization, Slingerland examines the history of intoxicants, as well as the social and behavioral theories about how their consumption has not only persisted, but grown over the past millennia.
[And speaking of stumbling, many of the used books—truly excellent books—that I purchase on-line from thriftbooks.com have been withdrawn from various libraries. Not enough interest. Too many new "best sellers" to fit onto their shelves. A recently purchased book on the history of the 1811 slave rebellion in New Orleans, a story which was essentially expunged from formal history for two centuries, was available to me because a copy had been expunged from a library in, ironically, Independence, Missouri.]
Bob
I'm currently reading this one:
It's a historical novel about Llewelyn the Great of Wales and his wife Joan, the natural daughter of King John of England. Places, names, dates, are fairly accurate with a romantic adventure story woven throughout the history. Knights, battles, storming and taking of castles back and forth. King John, William Marshall, Kings Louis and Phillip, Bishop of Canterbury, etc. but no dragon. First of a trilogy.
edit: I fell for the catchy dragon title. No dragon.
It's a historical novel about Llewelyn the Great of Wales and his wife Joan, the natural daughter of King John of England. Places, names, dates, are fairly accurate with a romantic adventure story woven throughout the history. Knights, battles, storming and taking of castles back and forth. King John, William Marshall, Kings Louis and Phillip, Bishop of Canterbury, etc. but no dragon. First of a trilogy.
edit: I fell for the catchy dragon title. No dragon.
King John of England was a contemporary of Genghis Kahn. Lots of possibilities for dragons!
Bob
Bob
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
Listening to this right now. Has actual dragons in it (so I win LOL!). Picked it up on a daily deal for $2.99. Fun book, like the narrator, helps the chores go by quicker.
wruk53
Well-Known Member
Just finished reading "Testimony" written by Robbie Robertson who recently passed away. It was a good read, anyone close to my age would probably find it interesting. I'm 69, soon to be 70 and listened mostly to rock and roll during the sixties and seventies, so I am familiar with a lot of his music with "The Band" and Bob Dylan. The book gives a lot of insight about what it's like to be on the road with a rock band for a long period of time. Also, if you're a fan of this type of music, you should check out "The Last Waltz" which is a movie about the Bands last concert, directed by Martin Scorsese. It has some fantastic music and performances by many famous artists from that era.
Controlled Chaos
Well-Known Member
Which book to start? That is the question. Then to decide which pipe and blend to start with while reading
OakBayou
Active Member
What's the title of this one? It's a subject I'm deeply interested in as a Louisiana native. I've speculated that the influx of Creole refugee Haitian land/slave owners and some of their servants into New Orleans after the island's revolution also brought along radical French revolutionary literature that helped to inspire this event. I also wonder whether the French rite (later subsumed into Scottish Rite) masonic lodges may have also been a nexus for that dispersal of ideas. The 1811 rebellion wasn't just some desperate attempt to escape oppression--the participants and organizers had long term goals, intent on marching fr inom the plantations along the river to New Orleans to set up an independent and free republic there.
I'm ashamed to admit I don't read nearly as much as Id like these days, but these are on similar topics and near the top of my list:
Currently smoking: C&D Haunted Bookshop. Will definitely make a clone someday and post recipe here. It will be called "Haunted Library."
The book on the revolt in New Orleans is on the left. I'm currently reading the Simon Schama book (right), which delves into the fine details of the slavery issues and events of Britain and the North American Colonies during the revolutionary foment of the mid-18th century and onward.
Bob
May you read many books in the New Year! Reading is how you learn at least as much each day as you forget.
This is in contrast to the quip of a classmate, over a half-century ago:
This AI image was generated with the prompt: "Rembrandt tree of knowledge".
If only AI could read a few more books, it might learn that people are not usually taller than the first storey of a building.
Bob
This is in contrast to the quip of a classmate, over a half-century ago:
The more I read, the more I know.
The more I know, the more I forget.
The more I forget, the less I know.
So, the more I read, the less I know.
This AI image was generated with the prompt: "Rembrandt tree of knowledge".
If only AI could read a few more books, it might learn that people are not usually taller than the first storey of a building.
Bob
