OP
OP
Holy crap, I love Bill Bryson! Bought it.
I read more non-fiction than fiction. And this guy is comedy gold in non-fiction.
What book is on your nightstand? Readers!
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Holy crap, I love Bill Bryson! Bought it.
I read more non-fiction than fiction. And this guy is comedy gold in non-fiction.
Airplanedoc
Well-Known Member
This one is a bit different than other Bryson books, But I still could not put it down. 1927 must have been a fascinating year to be alive.
OP
OP
It's already on my Kindle. We'll see. He's a great writer. Thanks!
FermentusMaximus
Well-Known Member
I'm about halfway through a pretty creepy book right now called the Demonologist. The book describes a few of the more popular cases from the files of Ed and Lorraine Warren. These two were the paranormal investigators from the recent movie the Conjuring and they were also called in right after the Lutzes fled the Amityville house. Whether you're a believer or not, these stories are terrifying to say the least.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193516922X/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
The reviews of this book are legit...get ready to sleep with the lights on.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193516922X/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
The reviews of this book are legit...get ready to sleep with the lights on.
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Airplanedoc
Well-Known Member
Just finished "The Boys In The Boat" It was pretty good.
OP
OP
I'm reading that Bryson book now. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Airplanedoc
Well-Known Member
I loved some of the names in the book, You just don't hear many of them these days.
I found a book called "Yesterday's Gone" through a dystopian collection on the Kindle... enjoyed enough to buy the next three books in the series.
Also bought "How Not to be Wrong", a book about mathematics. Also very interesting...
Also bought "How Not to be Wrong", a book about mathematics. Also very interesting...
pricelessbrewing
Brewer's Friend Software Manager
Just finished The dwarves hy markus heitz. Before that I had read tower lord, sequel to Ravens shadow which is disappointing. Alex varus series was good. The first book of earthsea, pretty good. Can't get into the 2nd one. Also crimes against magic, which was pretty good.
Need to find some more to read.
Need to find some more to read.
Just started reading "The Girl Next Door". I have no idea who wrote it. It was a freebie from Gutenberg Project.
Ok, it's basically a young ladies story from way back, but I'm hooked on it. It's fascinating how people lived and thought back then.
Ok, it's basically a young ladies story from way back, but I'm hooked on it. It's fascinating how people lived and thought back then.
gratus fermentatio
Well-Known Member
I just started The Long Earth (1st in a series) by Terry Pratchett & Stephen baxter. Never read anything by either of them before; so far, so good!
Regards, GF.
Regards, GF.
MaddBaggins
cervisiam vitae
My book shelf is loaded with
Stephen King
Tolkien
Heinlein
Dan Brown
Anne Rice
Robert Jordan
A bunch of various author Star Wars
Reloading data and ballistics tables books
And every Heavy Metal magazine going back to 92.
Oh! I almost forgot the religious section:
Papazian
Palmer
Tonsmeire
Stephen King
Tolkien
Heinlein
Dan Brown
Anne Rice
Robert Jordan
A bunch of various author Star Wars
Reloading data and ballistics tables books
And every Heavy Metal magazine going back to 92.
Oh! I almost forgot the religious section:
Papazian
Palmer
Tonsmeire
Pratchett is rather fun to read. If you enjoy his work,you should check out his collaboration with Neil Gaiman called Good Omens.
gratus fermentatio
Well-Known Member
I'll have to check it out. I'm really kind of grooving on The Long Earth, I'm about 2/3 of the way through it & would like to finish the series before starting another. Which reminds me, I should go to the bookstore soon.
Regards, GF.
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I've read the book on einstein's theories from 1941 when I was like 7 or 8. Homer's odyssey, HG Wells books, Jules Verne, Melville's Moby Dick, House of the 7 Gables ( a colonial soap opera), & many books by the original Star Trek writers. Cemetary World & Splinter of the Mind's Eye were pretty good. Read Asimov's The Gods Themselves. Many other books from when I belonged to the sci-fi book club, like The Dream Lords trilogy with Galad Sarian. And of course George Orwell's 1984. My 1st book Time Lords 2034-The Alternate Prometheus is based on modern events that cause Orwell's future vision to happen some 70 years later. I'm almost done re-writing book one & started on book two. It is, of course, dystopian sci-fi. FEMA, the New World Order & technology become evil bedfellows. Too many books to remember them all. But a lot of classic fiction & sci-fi. I still have a copy of the only Conan novel Robert E Howard ever finished-Conan the Conqueror. Some of the stuff in my books has some Wells & Orwellian slants in them. I really liked the Time Machine, War of the Worlds & first Men in the Moon. I also read Mary Shelley's original version of Frankenstein. I used to like buying as old a version of a book as I could find, unabridged. You really get a feel for the formal, flowery writing style of those times. The Copy of Homer's odyssey I have is as direct a translation of it as possible, still in the epic prose.
Gus_13
Cul de Sac Brewer
I'm working on The Dwarves now. I went ahead and bought the whole series. I was super interested in it. I'll probably get Orcs as well.
I'm also reading The Prince of Thorns. I have to keep multiple books going at the same time.
Downloaded "A Romance of Lust: A Victorian Erotic Novel" to my phone.
Kind of expected a slightly prudish, ribald story with careful phrasing and lots of innuendo.
NOPE.
Pure Victorian porn. Although the terminology is very often archaic, it's often not. The things the author describes are your basic sexual maneuvers along with some of the more lascivious options.
They usually do it multiple times in multiple fashions in every scene. I'm only about 20% through the book and I'm exhausted just reading it!
SPOILER ALERT! There is not much plot to the story so far...
Kind of expected a slightly prudish, ribald story with careful phrasing and lots of innuendo.
NOPE.
Pure Victorian porn. Although the terminology is very often archaic, it's often not. The things the author describes are your basic sexual maneuvers along with some of the more lascivious options.
They usually do it multiple times in multiple fashions in every scene. I'm only about 20% through the book and I'm exhausted just reading it!
SPOILER ALERT! There is not much plot to the story so far...
gratus fermentatio
Well-Known Member
Homer, if you like that, you might enjoy Justine by Marquis de Sade. 
Regards, GF.
Regards, GF.
hunter_le five
Sheriff Underscore
I've started making my way through Christopher Moore's books, kind of comedy-horror and comedy-fantasy mostly. I'm on his third novel (by order of publication) now. They're really funny in a dry-humor sort of way (reminds me perhaps of an American Douglas Adams), though I wouldn't consider any of it to be great literature. Just pure entertainment.
Also just finished Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Hilarious.
Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
Also just finished Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Hilarious.
Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
Homer, if you like that, you might enjoy Justine by Marquis de Sade.
Regards, GF.
I'm not into the S&M type thing. There are some things in this book that are particularly unsavory (in their language) to me. I'm about to give up on it. The story is not particularly interesting. Basically the main character gives a (much inflated, if I am not mistaken) account of all of his sexual experiences as a young man of about 15 or so (at this point).
It's obviously a work of fiction, and although I enjoy a good erotic story as much or more as the next guy, it's getting a LOT monotonous, and his idea of what is stimulating is often far different from mine own.
I just need to find something to replace it. I do think I still have to finish the fictional dystopian story about the brewers. I forget I have it. I open my ebook reader out of habit and forget that I have Kindle for Android installed.
I like Project Gutenberg because I can access free books right from my phone. Many of them are classics. I can download almost anything written, but I usually have to find it on my desktop and copy to my phone.
Peruvian802
Well-Known Member
I'm looking forward to the third book of James Howard Kunsler's World Made By Hand series.
Downloading Christopher Moore now...
Halfway through his followup Sometimes a Great Notion. Takes some work to get a grip on the flow of the narrative, but excellent once you get into it!
I still have to finish the re-write on that dystopian brewer's story. Almost done with that. Got book 2 started. Can't wait to get to it, now that I'm learning something about kindle. My original thought for it was a trilogy. IDK where I'll go after that?
I still have to finish the re-write on that dystopian brewer's story. Almost done with that. Got book 2 started. Can't wait to get to it, now that I'm learning something about kindle. My original thought for it was a trilogy. IDK where I'll go after that?
A Homebrewer Erotic Novel.
50 Shades of SRM.
I found that writing x-rated stuff into a story to be too easy. Writing it for more people to read is harder I'm finding.
As I look back now, it's all too apparent where the trouble started. Originally I had offered to help out the local community college in their new "Brewer's Certification Program" by having potential course takers assist me in home brewing during the summer. I thought the young college students would gain valuable experience in brewing, just to "get their feet wet" as a figure of speech, and of course, sometimes literally. Had I only more thoroughly thought through the whole process, I could have avoided the terrible end result, which shall be described much later in the story. For now, let me simply recite the events as they unfolded. No use in spoiling the dinner with the dessert, as they say (or should say, if they don't already!)
It was a warm July morning. The air was damp with last night's dew as the sun did it's utmost to turn a reasonably pleasant morning into a sticky, muggy day. I thought to myself how lucky it was that I had scheduled the first college student visit so early. Hopefully at the end of the brewing he and I could head down to the local brewpub and cool off with a couple of beers and have a much more in-depth discussion on the merits of craft beer and working in the industry. I had an inkling that the local brewer would only be too happy to encourage the young man in his endeavours.
A car pulled into the driveway. I was pleased to see that Alex, as my friend at the college named him, was on time and we could start right away. I began to walk toward the vehicle when Alex got out. Instead of the young man I had expected, out climbed a vivacious young coed with long curly blonde hair, sparkling eyes, and a slight smirk, as if she was enjoying some private joke and wasn't about to let anyone in on it.
I admit I was taken off guard, and may have actually stumbled slightly at that point, but it was too late to stop and ponder the circumstances. I carried on.
"Alex?" I inquired.
"Yep! You must be Mr. Davison." She replied, extending her arm out for a shake. I took her hand, by this point regaining my confidence. It was a brief respite.
"That's me." We shook hands and I noted her grip was firm and confident. And it was much longer than polite social protocol required.
"I can't wait to get started! I'm so excited!"
I don't think I would be lying to say that her eyes sparkled just a bit more at that comment, and she definitely stepped just a little closer as she said it. I swallowed hard.
After what seemed like a short eternity I managed to release her physical grip on me and invited her into the garage to get started. It was about this time that I realized that Alex's brewing attire was not precisely what I had envisioned for the student to wear. I had told Professor Williams that the expectant student should wear something they would not mind getting wet or maybe dirty. At the same time it should also be light enough to keep them from overheating in the summer air. After all, we would be working with heavy grains, and hot water. Foot protection was a must as well.
Alex's idea of appropriate outerwear is clearly in line with the idea of light. I had never seen anyone brewing in a skirt before, but I suppose it offered as much protection as shorts, when it comes right down to it. The tight sleeveless top covered everything up, yet left little to the imagination. To keep from seeming too interested in her, I commented on her choice of attire.
"Oh, it's not my favorite outfit, and I'm not afraid to get a little dirty." She leaned against the mash kettle with her head resting on her crossed arms and looked up at me as if she were expecting something.
"Fair enough." was all I managed to say. If you were to ask me what the problem was at this point, I really couldn't say. All I know is that my conscience was screaming at me to run away. I had never run from anything in my life, except that one time when I was crossing the apple orchard and didn't know the farmer had pastured his bull in that particular field. I wasn't about to run away now.
That was probably mistake number two.
It was a warm July morning. The air was damp with last night's dew as the sun did it's utmost to turn a reasonably pleasant morning into a sticky, muggy day. I thought to myself how lucky it was that I had scheduled the first college student visit so early. Hopefully at the end of the brewing he and I could head down to the local brewpub and cool off with a couple of beers and have a much more in-depth discussion on the merits of craft beer and working in the industry. I had an inkling that the local brewer would only be too happy to encourage the young man in his endeavours.
A car pulled into the driveway. I was pleased to see that Alex, as my friend at the college named him, was on time and we could start right away. I began to walk toward the vehicle when Alex got out. Instead of the young man I had expected, out climbed a vivacious young coed with long curly blonde hair, sparkling eyes, and a slight smirk, as if she was enjoying some private joke and wasn't about to let anyone in on it.
I admit I was taken off guard, and may have actually stumbled slightly at that point, but it was too late to stop and ponder the circumstances. I carried on.
"Alex?" I inquired.
"Yep! You must be Mr. Davison." She replied, extending her arm out for a shake. I took her hand, by this point regaining my confidence. It was a brief respite.
"That's me." We shook hands and I noted her grip was firm and confident. And it was much longer than polite social protocol required.
"I can't wait to get started! I'm so excited!"
I don't think I would be lying to say that her eyes sparkled just a bit more at that comment, and she definitely stepped just a little closer as she said it. I swallowed hard.
After what seemed like a short eternity I managed to release her physical grip on me and invited her into the garage to get started. It was about this time that I realized that Alex's brewing attire was not precisely what I had envisioned for the student to wear. I had told Professor Williams that the expectant student should wear something they would not mind getting wet or maybe dirty. At the same time it should also be light enough to keep them from overheating in the summer air. After all, we would be working with heavy grains, and hot water. Foot protection was a must as well.
Alex's idea of appropriate outerwear is clearly in line with the idea of light. I had never seen anyone brewing in a skirt before, but I suppose it offered as much protection as shorts, when it comes right down to it. The tight sleeveless top covered everything up, yet left little to the imagination. To keep from seeming too interested in her, I commented on her choice of attire.
"Oh, it's not my favorite outfit, and I'm not afraid to get a little dirty." She leaned against the mash kettle with her head resting on her crossed arms and looked up at me as if she were expecting something.
"Fair enough." was all I managed to say. If you were to ask me what the problem was at this point, I really couldn't say. All I know is that my conscience was screaming at me to run away. I had never run from anything in my life, except that one time when I was crossing the apple orchard and didn't know the farmer had pastured his bull in that particular field. I wasn't about to run away now.
That was probably mistake number two.
