What is everone reading ?

“I read Watership Down, I thought it was stupid! I just kept thinking, "but rabbits can't talk?!" LOL!! Then again, I was in 9th grade...for some reason I couldn't get past the fact that it didn't seem "real." I have no clue what it was really about...maybe I should read it again!

Right now, I'm reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth! Fascinating, I tells ya.”

“I agree with Hyway.”

“That's usually thye correct thing to do, but what, in particular, are you agreeing with me on this time? Watership Down or Walk in the woods?

lyra, read it again. When I finished that book I cared more about the characters in that book than about the people in most books I've read.”

“Seeing as I always try to do the right thing I would have to go with both. lol.

But in this particular instance I am agreeing that A Walk in the Woods is a book I should have never finished. Quit halfway and call it good.

I've never read watership down but I think I might need to change that.
last edited: 8/24/07 7:52:10 AM”

“I cared more about the characters in that book than about the people in most books I've read

hell i cared more about them than the people in real life that ive known”

“LOL, too true, crash.

Treebait, I looked up Tailchaser's song and looked at teh cover and thought (like I used to think about Watership Down) that it wasn't a book for me. Then I noticed the authors name looked familiar to me. A while back I read the Otherland series by Tad Williams and thoroughly enjoyed them. I never got around to reading anything else by him, but maybe I will change that now.
last edited: 8/24/07 7:59:08 AM”

“I recently finished a cool book called the Rule of Four.”

“i read the first otherland book. it was good. how many are there total?”

“there were 4 when I read them. All super thick lol and if I remember correctly no transitions at the beginning of the sequels or 'bringing you up to date' trips down memory lane like most sequels. It was like he had this one massive tome and the publishers decided to break it up into 4 books without editing it at all.”

“Uh ya, just found out last night that they rented a car and drove to the Shenandoa's. WTF?!!!”

“I'm telling you stop reading now. The few remaining good yucks aren't worth the misery.”

“Stop reading now, Meangreen.”

“What does this thread have to do with the outdoors or backpacking?”

““What does this thread have to do with the outdoors or backpacking?”

Gee, don`t you ever take a book into the backwoods with yah ?”

“a book is my most vital gear.”

“What does b|tching about this thread have to do with the outdoors or backpacking?”

“http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416954627/downandoutint-20

I'm going to get this one for Laurel. I'd never of pegged Hawking as a children's author.”

“I read Watership down and I think Lyra's stupid;)”

“a walk in the woods, and the bourne trilogy”

“In Beauty May She Walk,by Leslie Mass
About her thru-hike on the AT. :)”

“HOW TO OUTWIT DEER

funny but informative book”

“I loved Watership Down but didn't like Plague Dogs, which Richard Adams also wrote.

I just read Cell by Stephen King - the first of his I've picked up in a long time...it was predictable, but good.

Next on my list is Wicked, but I seem to have misplaced it...”

“I just finished re-reading Potter 5 and started Potter 6 last night. I'd love to finish the series before my move 9/28, but doubt I get there. I'm sure most of my leisure time is about to be spent packing.”

“A coworker just gave me Wicked today. She said it was right up my alley. Wasn't sure if she was saying I would like it or thats where she wanted to shove it.”

“Just started the latest Harry Potter - had to wait until B-Son finished it....”

“Just finished Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The first half could be shortened significantly, but by the end I was so not looking forward to the end of the book. Mainly because we all know what happens to the Wicked Witch of the West when she meets Dorothy and I didn't want her to die. Overall I enjoyed the book, but the first half was so slow that if it wasn't for the hook that this was the world of Oz I might not have read far enough to get to the more interesting 2nd half.”

“I have started reading Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarpe http://www.matthewjarpe.com/book.php

I found it on the new release shelf at the local library. 1st book by a new author, but the story sounded interesting. I wish I could blow off the rest of the afternoon just to finish this. here is the blurb from the webpage.

Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarpe.
Available Summer 2007 from Tor Books.

Give the people what they want.

That's what they say, but if you ask the people what they want and then try to give it to them, you end up with a mess. So you don't ask them. You don't get objective truth out of the mouth, you have to go to the source. You have to get inside their heads.

Aqualung knows how to get inside his audience's heads. He knows what kind of music they really want, and this knowledge has propelled the Snake Vendors to the peak of fame. He also knows what kind of world the people want, and it isn't the kind of world they are about to get.

Walter Cheeseman is about to give the people the kind of world he wants. He knows how to control the people by controlling information. The only thing that stands in his way is a wild intelligent virus called the Digital Carnivore.

Quin Taber is on the trail of the Digital Carnivore. He has discovered the origins of the virus and is about to unlock the secret that will control it, and through the virus, all of the computers in the world. His motivation: revenge against his former boss, Walter Cheeseman.

On the eve of Unification, when all countries of the world come together under one government, a musician, a hacker and a trickster god of the web combine forces to give the people a new choice.”

“I just started a book called "Spaceman Blues: A Love Song" a first novel by Brian Francis Slattery. I have given it 3 chapters but I can read no more. I think this must be a literary joke by publishing elitist in New York. One thing I noticed from reading some reviews (trying to decide if I want to keep reading) is that it paints a pretty accurate picture of what it is to live in New York. One reviewer wrote this ...

Somewhere in the first twenty pages of the book, I found myself in tears. Slattery describes the New York I live in with tremendous love (and, believe it or not, only the slightest exaggeration). I have walked those streets in Washington Heights and Astoria and Red Hook, watched street parties take over entire neighborhoods, danced to enormous pickup bands that don't seem to ever stop playing, joined the children running through the water pouring from open fire hydrants on the hottest days of summer. My neighbors have names like Manuel Rodrigo de Guzmán González. I will probably read those first twenty pages again and again: to myself in far-away places when I feel homesick, to friends just moved to New York who don't quite know what they're in for.

If you live in New York, you might like this, or if you are a pretentious literary elitist and throw around descriptions like these ...
Call it what you want; surrealist, transrealist, post-modern, absurdist, slipstream, fabulist, literary fantastic ... whatever, there's no word that does justice to Spaceman Blues. Otherwise, read something else.”

“The Ordinary Adventurer by Jan Leitschuh”

“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-images/1570822611/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_all/104-2968235-5302328?ie=UTF8&s=books#gallery

I don't think I'll get Laurel this particular kids' book.”

“ask Laurel why tigger stuck his head in the toilet. Tell her he was looking for pooh.”

“The Wilderness Road

A great historical look at the Cumberland Gap and Wildnerness Road through VA, TN and KY. I should finish just in time for the Turkey Day hike in the Gap.

Conservatives without a conscious, by John Dean.”

“A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold. Just finished it for school...”

“Cool, that is on my list RM.”

“It seems like everytime I read one of the "classics" like Sand County I come away wondering what all the fuss was about. I enjoyed it, but it didn't grab me. Desert Solitaire would fall in the same category. Again, enjoyed both books but wasn't blown away.”

“Both guys were waaaay ahead of their time.”

“Software Requirements Specification (High Level Design)for Target State Profitability

Then I get to delve into designing an internally facing social networking application without any sort of road map or spec document.”

“HPM, is the other title, "The Cure for Insomnia"?”

“rosey - good point, what reads as typical stuff in 07 was pretty radical in 72 or the 50's in the case of Almanac. It may not be that old though. I did enjoy the personal journey aspect of Solitaire though. He was friends and wrote about a guy named Doug Peacock. I've really enjoyed 2 of Peacock's books.”

“Wendell Berry's books on Agrarian issues have been timeless.”

“Orbital Decay by Allen Steele. A very early word by Steele. Nice science and imaginative story telling, but the writing wasn't as polished as the Coyote series.

A war of gifts : an Ender story / Orson Scott Card. This is more of a vignette than a full story, but it involves Ender and the Battle School.

Just starting Halting state by Charles Stross. (from some review) - Charlie Stross's latest novel Halting State starts out as a hilarious post-cyberpunk police procedural, turns into a gripping post-cyberpunk technothriller, and escalates into a Big Ideas book about the future of economics, virtual worlds, the nation state and policing, while managing to crack a string of geeky in-jokes, play off a heaping helping of gripping action scenes, and telling a pretty good love story.”

“Beach Road by James Patterson
Naked Chocolate by David and Shazzie Wolfe”

“Thanks for the tip, Dayhiker. Will have to look into Peacock's works.”

“I just read a journal of a hiker who hiked from Townsend to Big Creek.....in 1914. Not many trails, crappy maps and..well, 1914 gear.

A couple of tough bastards.”

“Peacock is who Abbey based the character Hayduke on in The Monkey Wrench Gang.

I have his books Grizzly Years and Walking It Off and enjoyed both.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Peacock
last edited: 11/07/07 12:50:50 PM”

“chili - trying to remember where Big Creek is.....that's where we camped before our Newfound and north trip isn't it? Wow, crow flies that's what, 50 miles with probably 15k up and 15k down in elevation maybe? Killer hike.”

“Cool! Thanks for the tip, Dayhiker.

Along those lines of badasses in the wild, Clarence King's "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada," describing his climbs solo and with Muir, is an excellent read!”

“Thanks. I've been looking for something to put in the reading batters box.”

“For all you Nicholas Sparks fans...I was excited to find his new book on the stands yesterday. "Choices" I believe it is called.

The hubby is out of town tonight so I think I will dive in. I haven't finished Three Weeks With My Brother yet but I can multi read.

(no comments Hyway)”

“Daisy Scouts leadership manual.”