What are you reading?

just started this one.
here's a quote:

In a bizarre coincidence, a 1981 fictional novel The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz predicts a Coronavirus like outbreak and its origin.
The book talks about how the virus called Wuhan-400, was developed in military labs around the Chinese city of Wuhan from where it got its name.
The top secret information of the Biological weapons Program is later acquired by US intelligence from a Chinese defector.
 
Currently reading some of Heinlein's earlier works.

I've always been fascinated to see how an author's writing has evolved over their career, especially well known authors with such reputations as Heinlein and Asimov.

Right now, I'm about 50 pages into Heinlein's 1952 book "The Rolling Stones", about a lunar family who buys an old space ship, fixes it up, and then has some sort of adventure (don't know what, yet, as the book hasn't evolved that far).

There's DEFINATELY a vibe of "grade-B" writing there (especially since science and SciFi has evolved quite a lot in the last 70 years), which I kinda like. It's also not nearly so "smooth" and "well developed" as his later works. His political philosophy is not nearly so evident as in later books, either.

"Roger, have you ever met any normal people? I never have. The so-called normal man is a figment of the imagination;every member of the human race, from Jojo the cave man right down to that final culmination of civilization, namely me, has been eccentric as a pet coon - once you caught him with his mask off."
 
Currently reading some of Heinlein's earlier works.

I've always been fascinated to see how an author's writing has evolved over their career, especially well known authors with such reputations as Heinlein and Asimov.

Right now, I'm about 50 pages into Heinlein's 1952 book "The Rolling Stones", about a lunar family who buys an old space ship, fixes it up, and then has some sort of adventure (don't know what, yet, as the book hasn't evolved that far).

There's DEFINATELY a vibe of "grade-B" writing there (especially since science and SciFi has evolved quite a lot in the last 70 years), which I kinda like. It's also not nearly so "smooth" and "well developed" as his later works. His political philosophy is not nearly so evident as in later books, either.

"Roger, have you ever met any normal people? I never have. The so-called normal man is a figment of the imagination;every member of the human race, from Jojo the cave man right down to that final culmination of civilization, namely me, has been eccentric as a pet coon - once you caught him with his mask off."


I love RAH’s early books. I think I was in 5th or 6th grade when I read “ Farmer in the Sky” it was the first of his for me. If you read his library chronologically as written, you can definitely see the progression of his political views and social views. I think his books were the first time I ever really noticed seeing a change in a long term author. Just because I read them so fast back to back.
 
Dean Koonts - something...Remembrance or something. Anyway, it's actually a paper book.

7ScwUIn.gif
 
Just finished the Tarackers series. Pretty entertaining. North Korea EMP hits the US, book tells the story of the aftermath. The story centers around law enforcement from a small town dealing with a serial killer, rogue marauders, Neo Nazi groups, and a dash of political touching on how the federal government recovers.
The series is more in my opinion entertainment value than educational or real life but I gobbled all four books up rather quickly

https://www.amazon.com/Trackers-Complete-Post-Apocalyptic-Survival-Thriller-ebook/dp/B07JFMQ3RR
 
Last edited:
Savage Son, the third novel from Jack Carr in the James Reece series.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I downloaded the Kindle app on my tablet a little more than a year ago and I haven't regretted it since.

Between Kindle and B&N, I've been up to my ears in books to read. The nice thing about Kindle is Amazon is also loaded with books written by authors who haven't hit the mainstream, and many of them are quite good.

I'm currently reading The Tome of Bill series, a humorous series about a guy named Bill who was turned vampire. Very entertaining, at least to me.

Also...search youtube for audiobooks. I'm currently listening to the Pip and Flinx books by Alan Dean Foster while in the car.
 
Last edited:
For apocalyptic fiction, read "Lucifer's Hammer " by larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Relatively accurate science, scarily accurate at points.
 
An excerpt from one of the books in The Tome of Bill series I mentioned before (a book about vampires and whatnot).

Character set up:

Bill is a recently turned vampire, a former gamer/programmer. At this point in the series, he's a very young vampire, less than 2 years turned. However, he's unique, in that he is a "Freewill", meaning (among other things) a rare, legendary vampire against whom compulsion does not work (other vampires cannot compel him against his will).

Gansetseg (Gan) is a recurring vampire character. She's Chinese (Mongolian) who was turned by her many-times-great-grandfather (a direct descendant of Ghengis Kahn) three hundred years earlier in order to save her from dying of some disease. She was 12 at the time, which makes her a 300 year old, pubescent vampire. She has decided she loves Bill and that it's their destiny to be together. Bill is radically creeped out by this because, despite the fact that she's a vampire over 300 years old, she's also a 12 year old.

Scene:

Gan has reappeared in the story after a point where one of Bill's human best friends (Ed) has been captured and spirited away for nefarious reasons. Gan is updating Bill and company on this.

GAN: "I did not say she could not control him. Though unique, once the change was complete, your friend appeared to have no more power than any other of the freshly turned. Surrounded by enemies, in the presence of our progenitor and trapped far below ground, where was he to go? No, Ib was not so easily thwarted. The best your friend seemed able to do was utilize his somewhat colorful knowledge of metaphor. Tell me, my love, what is a twat-waffle?"

BILL: "Um, it's an American breakfast specialty." Exasperated sighs from around the room met my lame answer.

GAN: "Though I need no sustenance other than blood, if you enjoy these twat-waffles, then I would be pleased to sample them, beloved."

LATER IN THE STORY, the group of main characters are getting something to eat.

BILL: "Yeah," I quickly added. "We can finish the rest of this over some breakfast."

GAN: "If that is what you wish, then I agree, my love. Perhaps you can make some of those twat waffles you told me about. I would so love to try them."
 
Last edited:
"An Army at Dawn"
Account of Allied invasion of Africa in WWII.
You would not believe how much the Allies blundered trying to figure this war out in Africa.
 
Just finished a series, The End, by J L Robb. It is in several installments. It is an fictional account of end time events based scripture. A very interesting read. Before that I read the Going Home series by A. American. I kind of like reading the collapse of society/prophetic filling type of books.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
 
finished War and Peace.
my review:

1. it's a soap opera.
2. long, but an easy read.
3. Tolstoy says free will is fake.
 
Black Swan by JL Robb.Almost finished book one.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
 
Total Resistance by H Von Dach
 
Just started on the third book of the Ranch series by Sean Liscom. It's another post EMP series. They are actually armed and supplied pretty well, but they have to try and keep what they have while trying to put life back together in NE Nevada.
 
The Big Sky, by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

A well-written book about a mountain man, by someone who understood his subject well.
 
Last edited:
I'm reading:

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

The Proximity Principle by Ken Coleman
 
Re-reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Just got past the “courtroom” scene where Man (Manuel) is an ad hoc judge. I gotta say, it sounds like a good approach to the court system.
 
Back
Top Bottom