Whatcha reading redux.

Everything cultural, pop or otherwise. Books, movies, music, comics, poetry, random cultural geekery.
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HTRN
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by HTRN »

308Mike wrote: Fri May 04, 2018 3:09 am One of the Amazon.com pages shows the books being sold at hundreds of dollars ($723.35 & FREE Shipping + $0.00 estimated tax Used - Good), so I picked up 2 copies - one to keep, one to sell later when the price goes up. FYI - Scott is no dummy, he's quite smart, so I'm not surprised he self-published his own book, and so far, it's an entertaining read!! :lol: :D :lol: :) :D :lol: :shock: 8-) :lol:
You dont understand about high priced used books on Amazon, do you? It has nothing to do with Market price, and everything to do with 1 button buying, and fumble fingered amzon shoppers.
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Netpackrat
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Netpackrat »

Just finished Three Books of Known Space, and started reading Creative Anchoring by Fatty Goodlander. Yeah, somebody wrote a 360 page book about ground tackle, and the philosophy/use thereof. It is actually pretty interesting so far.
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Langenator
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Langenator »

Fiction:

The Complete Hammer's Slammers, vol 2 by David Drake

Non-fiction:

The Pity of War: Explaining WWI by Niall Ferguson

(Of note - I'm still waiting for To Keep and Bear Arms by Joyce Lee Malcolm and A Savage War: A Military History of the Civil War by Williamson Murray to be returned to the university library.)
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HTRN
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by HTRN »

Did they ever release a full anthology of Laumers Bolo books?
HTRN, I would tell you that you are an evil fucker, but you probably get that a lot ~ Netpackrat

Describing what HTRN does as "antics" is like describing the wreck of the Titanic as "a minor boating incident" ~ First Shirt
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Windy Wilson
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Windy Wilson »

Langenator wrote: Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:14 pm Non-fiction:
The Pity of War: Explaining WWI by Niall Ferguson
I've read another book by Niall Ferguson on counterfactual history. I'll put this on the list, too.
The use of the word "but" usually indicates that everything preceding it in a sentence is a lie.
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"I believe in Freedom of Speech, but". . .
"I support the Second Amendment, but". . .
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toad
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

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Just got through reading "Money Ball" on kindle , https://www.amazon.com/Moneyball-Art-Wi ... B000RH0C8G
Anyway it reads like a bunch of short magazine articles stiched together.
Two things that I take away are the owners of baseball teams ARE as stupid as I always thought they were and that the 5 games the World Series are not enough to sort out the teams from random luck. :lol:
Actually the typical baseball writers and baseball owners strike as similar to those in the Main Stream Media and the Washington D. C. crowd. They regard themselves as experts and authorities but they really don't have that much expertise or experience with reality.
Langenator
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Langenator »

toad wrote: Sun Jul 01, 2018 9:12 pm Two things that I take away are the owners of baseball teams ARE as stupid as I always thought they were and that the 5 games the World Series are not enough to sort out the teams from random luck.
So, what if the World Series was extended to 7 games? 8-)
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toad
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by toad »

IIRC, the theses was that you'd need to extend out to ten games to kill off randomness. I don't know how you would schedule that though ?
Langenator
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Langenator »

Did he use the 2014 World Series as an example? I think that would be a great one.

KC was probably the better team...but Madison Bumgarner was by far the best pitcher, and SF started him 2 games, and he pitched 5 innings in relief in Game 7, which the Giants won. They won just 1 of the 4 games that Bumgarner wasn't involved in, but it was enough, since they won all 3 games in which Bumgarner pitched.

Extend that series to 9 games (which the WS used to be, long ago) and KC probably wins.
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Johnnyreb
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Johnnyreb »

I've been in the mood for history of late.
Just finished
Inspector Oldfield And The Black Hand Society by William Oldfield and Victoria Bruce.

It is the story of how US Postal Inspector Frank Oldfield. achieved the first organized crime conviction in America and at the same time proved that the mafia, or the Black Hand as they were called then, existed in cities all over America, which many in law enforcement at the time either didn't believe, or didn't want to, as there were almost no Italian cops in those days and the people being preyed upon were Italian and Sicilian. In 1909, there was only the Postal Inspectors, Secret Service, and the Marshals as Federal Law Enforcement. And a Postal Inspector could claim jurisdiction over a case if any letters or postage at all were involved.

Just started
The Real Horse Soldiers bu Timothy B. Smith

If you've seen John Wayne in the Horse Soldier movie, well they altered that a lot. Grierson was short, had a beard, looked nothing like the Duke and never built any railroads. He was a music teacher and said to have not even liked horses. And what he did beats the hell out of JEB Stuarts rides, which lasted only a few days each, and did not defeat the Army of the Potomac, but only annoyed it. Much as I admire Stuart. Grierson raised hell with the entire state of Mississippi for 16 days. And while Pemberton was worried solely about Grierson, he wasn't paying attention at all to Grant, who was busy moving his whole army to the other side of the Mississippi below Vickburg, ending the Confederates hopes of holding the river and likewise ending their hopes of winning the war at all.

And next up
Peter G. Tsouras and Major General George H. Sharpe and the Creation of American Military Intelligence in the Civil War.
This officer created the first military intelligence organization we ever had. Started his outfit out a few months before Chancellorsville and by then had Lee's order of battle down to the regiment level and also provided the Army of the Potomac with full info on fords, bridges, and railroads in the operations area. But he had no control over whether the commander would use the information.

I found out about him from an alternate history series where the Union went to war with Britian and France too and Sharpe got to have a lot more influence on things, and brought in the coffee mill guns, gatlings, and repeating rifles. And the author had Sharpe bring back the balloon corps too. And really, we did very nearly go to war with Britain over the fact that Confederate commerce raiders were all British built, British armed, and mostly crewed and officered by British men.
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