Good Books.... Well, there are a few.

[Wasmeneh]

I like the Gabriel Alon books and I also like the Bosch series both Book and TV. I love Jack Reacher but Tom Cruise is no Jack Teacher.

 

[caver]

The author Bill Beer was in an ultralight forum back in the 90's. He died in an ultralight accident....I think he had a heart attack after takeoff. Someone mentioned he wrote a book about something he did years earlier. We Swam the Grand Canyon: The True Story of a Cheap Vacation that Got a Little Out of Hand: Bill Beer, Beer, Bill, Bill Beer, Phtos by Bill Beer and John Daggett: 9785593: Amazon.com: Books

years later I took a commercial trip down the canyon...repeated that two more times.
****************************************************************

Next is a Scottish guy who ships his trike to the US and flies coast to coast.

On a Wing and a Prayer: MacKinnon, Colin M.: 978962247521: Amazon.com: Books

 

[bunyip]

I didn't bother to watch the Reacher movie because I just couldn't picture Cruise in that role. It would be about like me playing the part in a John Wayne biography... not going to work.

Yes, casting a 3'9" actor into a 6'7" role is just wrong.

 

[mrmikey]

FWIW...there is a new Michael Connelly novel 'The Law of Innocence' which is a Mickey Haller story

Thank you....next on the list for me as that was another good series, Mickey Haller. The Lincoln Lawyer was a good movie and book, Matthew Mcconaughey played it well......Mike

 

[Frankenkubota]

There are many...most of the best movies (and TV shows which should be another similar thread) are derived from written works of both fiction and nonfiction...

One work of historical non fiction is 'Escape from Davao'...it was the story that actually let the rest of the world know about the atrocities by the Japanese against captured Philippine, American and Allied soldiers...including the Bataan Death March...

It is much less widely known that some of the atrocities carried out by the Japanese make what the Nazis did look like a garden party...!!!

Escape from Davao - Wikipedia

So true. Certain cultures/nations seem to get a free pass while others are condemned. The Polish in WW2 have an interesting history, let's just say they looked the other way.

Truth.......on one of my first sales calls to Western Electric, remember them, i met an old engineer working on the first base stations for cellular. They Didn't use the G name then but I guess it would be called 1 G. Really called AMPS. American Mobile Phone Service. All analog, 6 watts, you could reheat your turkey with those transmitters. Ha ha.

He was married to a younger Philippine gal and asked if she could join us for lunch. In my business, the more the better, regardless.

Turns out he was a survivor from the Bataan death march, one of I guess 10%. Sweetest old guy you want to meet.

Seems to me, whoever has the big stick at the moment is gonna use it and in too many cases, take pleasure from it.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Best book I've read in years is called Sapiens. Also a history book called White Trash, that was amazing.

Worst book i've read is, no joke, the history of the Spanish Flu and other contagious disease. The really odd coincidence is, I read the book 3 months before the virus hit, that's the truth! The Spanish get a bad rap. The Spanish flu, the Spanish inquisition? If anything it should be called the catholic inquisition, just ask Galileo.

BTW, they have been studying this virus in bats for years

 

[Citydude]

A book has to keep me interested or I give up on them. As mentioned, the Reacher books I stuck with.

I’ve only read one book twice. Once in the 80’s and again in the 90’s. Chesapeake, by James Michener was a novel I couldn’t put down once I opened it.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

My memory has faded after all these years, but I recall reading a book...or short story as the case may be...by Isaac Asimov entitled "I, Robot". Years later, I saw the movie and wondered if it was the same story. I thought the movie sucked. I's been probably 50 years or so ago, but I do remember reading a sci-fi book entitled "Death World" that I thought was good, and another entitled "A Canticle for Lebowitz."

 

[fiddlearound]

Just finished re-reading Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984". Considering the current events, they were even more disturbing than when I read them over 50 years ago. Accurate, though.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Just finished re-reading Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984". Considering the current events, they were even more disturbing than when I read them over 50 years ago. Accurate, though.

Wow!

Another good one is Watership Down.

I just reread Huckleberry Finn after 50 years. I didn稚 realize it痴 considered by many to be the first true American literature.

I wouldn稚 know.

 

[Jstpssng]

Wow!

Another good one is Watership Down.

I just reread Huckleberry Finn after 50 years. I didn稚 realize it痴 considered by many to be the first true American literature.

I wouldn稚 know.

I finished Tom Sawyer and am just starting to reread Huck Finn. If those books were written today the author would never find a publisher.

 

[Redlands Okie]

As a youngster I was quite impressed with Louis L’Amour books, in particular the Sackett series. Was neat later on in life to visit many of the areas he wrote about since they actually existed.

 

[Jstpssng]

As a youngster I was quite impressed with Louis L’Amour books, in particular the Sackett series. Was neat later on in life to visit many of the areas he wrote about since they actually existed.

I suspect that most people think of him as a cheap western author. I know that I did until I started reading more and more of his books. He was actually a smart and well travelled man, and most of what he wrote about was based on first hand experience. He also wrote novels on other subjects besides westerns.

 

[/pine]

Although they are a little dated now days...one of the most entertaining series of novels I ever read were the Travis McGee books by John D. MacDonald...

MacDonald's ability to create characters was so defined that you actually feel like you personally know the characters...his descriptive prose makes you feel like you are within the scenery...

The protagonist in the series mentioned call himself a "salvage consultant"...who lives on a house boat in FL and drives a modified Rolls Royce pick up truck...if a person is a victim and has lost something of value by whatever means (often a scam or con job etc...) and for whatever reason cannot use conventional legal means of recovery...McGee will do the "salvage" job for half the value...

MacDonald was one of the first writers to create a series character targeting readers that bought books on the spur of the moment and included colors in his titles to help readers remember what they have read...

Although they are a bit dated I highly recommend them... a couple have been made into film adaptations but they never lived up to expectations...in one the protagonist was played by Rod Taylor and another by Sam Eliot...neither successfully...one film from a single novel was successful called 'Cape Fear'...

John D. MacDonald - Wikipedia

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^
I will have to check that out. "Cape Fear" is one movie I have seen without ever reading the book. If memory serves me there was a remake somewhere around 1990.

Edit; according to google the book was written in 1957, first movie in 1962, remake in 1991.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I finished Tom Sawyer and am just starting to reread Huck Finn. If those books were written today the author would never find a publisher.

My wife is a teacher, AP English, and there are books you would not believe that raise all sorts of PC questions. Like to kill a mocking bird is one of them.

Or I got Twenty thousand leagues under the sea and the publisher plopped there all sorts of explanations for the reader not to get wrong idea about natives etc. Apparently Jules Verne was an idiot and publisher is not. Or the publisher thinks the reader is an idiot and will become racist because of a book over hundred years old.

 

[Frankenkubota]

You said it brother!

All this PC BS is taking us down to the lowest common denominator. I am ashamed of American education, what a waste of generation after generation.

Remember all in the family? Can you imagine?

We must get education out of the hands of govt. or keep on this hypocritical path of PCBS! IMHO

 

[lennyzx11]

I’m not a Luddite by any means with 4-5 computers, 3 kindles, smart TVs and phone.

I was just thinking last night (while reading my kindle) what would happen to all of the books and information that has been stored digitally over the last few decades if the big EMP hit like in all the dystopian post apocalyptic stories.
Makes me want to hang on to all my paper books.

 

[/pine]

^^^
I will have to check that out. "Cape Fear" is one movie I have seen without ever reading the book. If memory serves me there was a remake somewhere around 1990.

Edit; according to google the book was written in 1957, first movie in 1962, remake in 1991.

From the Wiki:

...His 1957 novel The Executioners was filmed during 1962 as Cape Fear featuring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Martin Scorsese directed the 1991 remake of Cape Fear starring Robert DeNiro and Nick Nolte. Because of the success of the films, The Executioners has been republished under the Cape Fear title, even though the novel is set in Florida and does not mention Cape Fear, North Carolina.

 

[om21braz]

I知 not a Luddite by any means with 4-5 computers, 3 kindles, smart TVs and phone.

I was just thinking last night (while reading my kindle) what would happen to all of the books and information that has been stored digitally over the last few decades if the big EMP hit like in all the dystopian post apocalyptic stories.
Makes me want to hang on to all my paper books.

Something to think about - excerpt from Neil Postman:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism.

Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumble puppy.

As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists, who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny, 吐ailed to take into account man痴 almost infinite appetite for distractions.

In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.

I think Huxley is closer to right than Orwell