Whatcha reading redux.

Everything cultural, pop or otherwise. Books, movies, music, comics, poetry, random cultural geekery.
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308Mike
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by 308Mike »

The offer is much appreciated, but it's not real close to the top of my reading list right now. I have a few books ahead of it, including the one I'm currently reading (Wings of the Eagle - which I'm sure you'd also enjoy). I prefer combat books over political fights. One of books I have on deck is: Scream of Eagles, by Robert K. Wilcox:

Image

One of the reviews reads:
When I finished reading Robert Wilcox' Wings of Fury, I was impressed. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to read his earlier work Scream of Eagles (The Creation of TopGun).

Sincerely this is even better than Wings of Fury. There are plenty of first person accounts (sea stories) of TopGun's genesis and dogfights against the VPAF. The USN was less than enthusiastic about funding and equipping this new school in 1969. When you read about this and put yourself back in time, it's amazing that TopGun ever got started. But that's just part of the story...

The F-8 Crusader's days were numbered as the F-4 Phantom was replacing the 'sader in the Fleet. The men that developed TopGun knew that BVR missile shots were not the answer. Pilots needed to know how to dogfight and get the maximum performance out of their airplane and work as a team (both as a section of fighters and as a Pilot/RIO team). TopGun provided the cadre to teach fleet Phantom crews to build this teamwork.

If you're a fan of the F-4 Phantom, read this book. If you're a fighter aviation history buff, read this book. After you read this, go read Marshall Michel's CLASHES:Air Combat Over North Vietnam 1965-1972. You'll be shaking your head, wondering if the USN and USAF were fighting the same war. Makes you kinda wonder why the USAF scaled back its Agressor squadrons in recent years.
However, I certainly appreciate the offer! :D :D :D
POLITICIANS & DIAPERS NEED TO BE CHANGED OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON

A person properly schooled in right and wrong is safe with any weapon. A person with no idea of good and evil is unsafe with a knitting needle, or the cap from a ballpoint pen.

I remain pessimistic given the way BATF and the anti gun crowd have become tape worms in the guts of the Republic. - toad
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Rumpshot
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Rumpshot »

You guys need to remember, there is a book store amongst us. It gets books from all kinds of sources and sells books at extremely reasonable prices. Possibly even a Gun Counter Discount. Get your wish list in order and ship it to me. We can be watching for books.
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308Mike
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by 308Mike »

Rumpshot wrote:You guys need to remember, there is a book store amongst us. It gets books from all kinds of sources and sells books at extremely reasonable prices. Possibly even a Gun Counter Discount. Get your wish list in order and ship it to me. We can be watching for books.
DAMN STRAIGHT!! I made sure he has lots of combat books to sell to your friends!! :D :D

What it was, three boxes full (oh sure, complain because they were only boxes which could hold a few boxes of Cracker Jacks (for all you youngsters who can't or REFUSE to remember them), and a couple of them were things like War & Peas, or even War and Peanuts, and even "War and Penis" (I don't remember, I'm suffering from the CRS syndrome) - see 1960 and the comment: "1960 - Kennedy & Nixon debate the Cold War and penis length in the second of four scheduled debates."

But in any event, he's got the books I gave him - GOOD books too (some BAD ones too)! Books worth paying DAMNED GOOD money for, books which take you away from your burger-flippin' existence, books to put you inside the cockpit of a fighter-bomber, or as a company commander on the ground commanding troops in battle!! Or maybe even a Huey pilot trying to not get blown out of the sky!! You NEED to buy these books from Kathi's Bookstore, located in Arizona - and if you show up for Rumpshot's Revenge in October, you might even get a discount!! :D :D :D ;) ;) (Or NOT). :lol: :lol:

Sorry, DINNER is calling. :D :D
POLITICIANS & DIAPERS NEED TO BE CHANGED OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON

A person properly schooled in right and wrong is safe with any weapon. A person with no idea of good and evil is unsafe with a knitting needle, or the cap from a ballpoint pen.

I remain pessimistic given the way BATF and the anti gun crowd have become tape worms in the guts of the Republic. - toad
Greg
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Greg »

Rich wrote:Read Dune a long time ago, and enjoyed it. IT.
The book is awesome. The movies are... compromised. (I remember the first movie more clearly than the second, but IIRC I'm right.) They each had to do funny things to try to translate things to the screen- Herbert's good books (he's put out some rank stinkers) are often very much centered around things going on inside people's heads, and that doesn't make a good movie- voice over's are the debbil's work. :lol:
I started the first sequel, read a few pages and put the book down, never to open it again. It felt to me to be too much of a "let's make more money" type of sequel.

Kind of like one of Saberhagen's Berserker paperback books, where he refought the Battle of Midway and didn't bother to rename the ships.

(At least I think it was Midway.)
The only space battle that I recall from Saberhagen's Berserker series that was obviously based on a real-life event was Stone Place, aka space Lepanto, and that was well done. There are other stories clearly based on real-life sources, like the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

I skipped the later Berserker novels... I know the novel "Ardneh's World", a half-baked sequel to the trilogy collected in "Empire of the East", and prequel to the Swords books, wasn't very good. IIRC it included poorly veiled Bush Derangement Syndrome, and it definitely more or less did everything it could to piss all over the central good guy of EoTE. Really it made me think Saberhagen had pretty much lost it, and was writing just because he needed the money or was bored or something.
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby

If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
Greg
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Greg »

Dub_James wrote:Just finished The Hot Gate. Not the book most people might expect, but a very good look inside culture clashes, and the best way to deal with them when something critical is on the line.
I also just finished "The Hot Gate". Really enjoyed it. On other forums I've seen people completely befuddled by the culture-clash plotline, but it makes perfect sense to me. (And helps to explain why he and Kratman get on so well.) It adds drama and tension to the books, lets him set up some compelling characters and situations, teaches some vital real-world lessons, and explains some things about why the human universe in the period of the actual Schlock comic is the way it is.
looking forward to the next one, as well as the last two Aldenata books (if they ever get released)
Oh, yes.
And, of course, MH:Alpha later this year :twisted:
I just read the sample chapters for that, and the waiting is already difficult.
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby

If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
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arctictom
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by arctictom »

WEB Griffins the Corps series , The Elusive quest for growth and Profiting from the Worlds Economic Crisis
You live and learn.
Or you don't live long.
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Dub_James
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by Dub_James »

Just finished Fight Club. Now onto The Diamond Age.
Oh, the heads that turn
Make my back burn
And those heads that turn
Make my back, make my back burn

-She Sells Sanctuary
The Cult
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308Mike
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by 308Mike »

You know, after going through all the books we read for leisure, and KNOWING there are many other books regarding work and tech manuals in between, it's no wonder this group has knowledge of such a wide variety of subjects.

Overall, we're a VERY WELL read group of people. Most of us have college degrees, the others have degrees from the school of hard knocks. And then the others which have degrees from BOTH (college AND hard knocks). But overall, we tend to be VERY educated and informed.

A GREAT group of people!
POLITICIANS & DIAPERS NEED TO BE CHANGED OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON

A person properly schooled in right and wrong is safe with any weapon. A person with no idea of good and evil is unsafe with a knitting needle, or the cap from a ballpoint pen.

I remain pessimistic given the way BATF and the anti gun crowd have become tape worms in the guts of the Republic. - toad
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cu74
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by cu74 »

Currently reading The Screwtape Letters, (C.S. Lewis) after finishing The Gun, (C.J. Chivers) about Mikhail Kalashnikov and his AK-47. Was previously rereading several P.D. James murder mysteries.
Jim Dozier - Straight, but not narrow...
“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition.” - Rudyard Kipling.
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arctictom
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Re: Whatcha reading redux.

Post by arctictom »

CByrneIV wrote:
arctictom wrote:WEB Griffins the Corps series

I re-read it in its entirety last year, followed by brotherhood of war. That was a good month.
I like the guys writing , makes history very real.
You live and learn.
Or you don't live long.
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