Thread: A Good Book

Holy crap JDCAL20, this thread's been dead since 2008! LOL.

Originally Posted by joesixpack

Holy crap JDCAL20, this thread's been dead since 2008! LOL.

Not dead, it's just been resting.

Originally Posted by ReardenSteel

Not dead, it's just been resting.

Like Cthulhu.

"That is not dead
Which can eternal lie..."

Gentlemen, Since the thread is awake let's get back to books.

I'm currently reading:

The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels - by Patrick O'Brian

Rogue Warrior: Domino Theory - by Richard Marcinko

Iberia - James A. Michener


other authors I like:

Ernest Hemingway
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sonny Barger
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ayn Rand
Charles Dickens
and a bunch of others.

Actually, I was inspired to re-read "The Call of Cthulhu" last night for the first time in 30 years. It was a lot better this time, actually. His stuff holds up remarkably well.

Originally Posted by Otto

Gentlemen, Since the thread is awake let's get back to books.

I'm currently reading:

The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels - by Patrick O'Brian

Those are wonderful novels. I've read them all through 5 or 6 times now. My pattern for a couple of years was to start over with Master and Commander as soon as I finished Blue at the Mizzen. Have you read any of his other novels or short stories?

My appreciation of O'Brien's work led me into reading Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, whom I had not touched since high school, I think. Both keen obervers and satirists of society; I find Dickens' brand more laugh-out-loud, while Austen's is more subtle and even a bit sly.

Seamus Heaney's verse translation of Beowulf is quite good. It's got modern English on one page and Old English on the facing page, and he does a great job of preserving the rhythmic and alliterative conventions of Anglo-Saxon poetry while preserving a great deal of the poetic sense of the original lines--a very difficult task.

Originally Posted by Durhampiper

Seamus Heaney's verse translation of Beowulf is quite good. It's got modern English on one page and Old English on the facing page, and he does a great job of preserving the rhythmic and alliterative conventions of Anglo-Saxon poetry while preserving a great deal of the poetic sense of the original lines--a very difficult task.

I'll have to check that one out.

Originally Posted by joesixpack

I'll have to check that one out.

I first encountered it back in December 2002. We had an ice storm here that left us without power for a week. In the evenings, we'd play games or read by the fire. One night, I started reading Heaney's Beowulf to my wife and kids. I started off reading the first page in Old English, and then went back and read it out in modern English. They were hooked.

The Bible....King James Version

I've pretty much fallen off the fiction reading wagon. The only things I read anymore are manuals, books for school, and about three different wood working magazine subscriptions. I can't get into stories anymore. Current reading list covers metal working, machining, woodworking, and knife making, and of course the SRP Wiki. I think the last really good fictional book I read was called the Caine Mutiny. Excellent book for the former military member, or someone who enjoys military fiction. But that was over a year ago. A lot of you seem to like some pretty classic literature. +1 to all of you for being able to enjoy it. I've read several classics, but the only thing I got out of them was the sense that I'd just swam through a river of mud when I was finished. The language is too cumbersome for me to enjoy the story. I'm always jealous of people who can read out of Otto's book list and enjoy them. I do like Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and other philosphy text, although I'm far from versed in any of it.