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I have read almost daily for over 50 years so where does one start. My two favorite books I have read multiple times: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Other authors I enjoy: Pat Conroy, Stephen King, Robert B. Parker, John Sandford, Dean Koontz, James Clavell, Nelson DeMille, JRR Tolkien, Patrcia Cornwell.
For some great books about WWII, both novel and history Len Deighton (Goodbye Mickey Mouse) and Stephen E. Ambrose (Band of Brothers) are excellent. Winston Churchill's 6 book series, The Second World War, is wonderful.

These just start the list, there are many, many more.

Big R

The KYChemist wrote:

just sayin wrote:Bryson is great, picked up his American English last week at the beach, fascinating! Read " Dr. William Davis's "Wheat Belly". Changed my life, have dropped forty pounds and my cane, nothing hurts! Almost a miracle! Have not felt this good in ten or fifteen years,
+1 on the "Shining" and the "Dune" series, been decades since I have read them but after all these years they do creep into the edges of my dreams from time to time.

Hmmm.... The wife, and I, inherited a copy of "Wheat Belly". I'm going to have to check it out now. I figured it was another gimmicky diet/cookbook.

i quit eating wheat two years ago, not because of the book but just as an experiment. within 2 days my GI system was 1000% happier, within a week i dropped 8 Lb within 10 days my joint pain was 75% better. 2 yr later i'm consistently 14 Lbs lighter. GI i think 10000% happier, joints only hurt now when i overwork them, and overall consistently better mindset.

i have tried 2 wheat meals in those two years with immediate and dramatic negative results. it's an easy experiment to try if you have a chronic health concern, the hardest thing is finding lunch. gluten free baking products actually taste better than wheat flour products too! (just because they don't have wheat does not mean they skrimp on the sugar and fat...yum.)
"they" say that 10%-12% of the population has a problem with a certain protein in wheat..similar to a celiac disease person (who is flat out allergic to wheat.)

it's the only thing that keeps me from trying a wheated bourbon recipe

Check out the Hackett series from Louis L'Amour (or any of his books). They're westerns, so only if your into that sort of thing. I think there is a few movies based off the Hackett books as well.

Clive Cussler is an excellent author. Vince Flynn is also good if your into black ops stories. Vince just died recently, 40 something years old, so he has been getting more attention of late. He's an interesting cat if you look into his history.

bearriver wrote:Check out the Hackett series from Louis L'Amour (or any of his books). They're westerns, so only if your into that sort of thing. I think there is a few movies based off the Hackett books as well.

Clive Cussler is an excellent author. Vince Flynn is also good if your into black ops stories. Vince just died recently, 40 something years old, so he has been getting more attention of late. He's an interesting cat if you look into his history.

It's the Sacketts, some of the best reads out there mentioned earlier in the thread..

Any of John Gierach's books. Fly fishing books, but more about life than fishing. Great stories. Read em all

All good books Jimbo. Met John at a book signing. A K was there as well. Tried to persuade them to fish with me that evening but they had access to some private water on the Frying Pan set up. I wouldn't pass that up to fish with me either.

I'm another one who can't sit and read unless it's technical or related. I'm a software engineer, I design medical equipment, medical systems, I've been in the field for about 25 years. I can read data manuals, engineering stuff, or "how to" books, but I can't get through a page of a novel or some other "normal" book. I envy people who can lose themselves in a book, I just lose consciousness myself. My hat's off to you.

I've been trying to find as many books as I can on distilling, alcohol, Whiskey, etc. and I've found a number of books and reference material. Just wanted to share a list of some of what I've found. All of these I found on the web.


• Aging Spirits in Oak (very short)
• The Alcohol Textbook (this one is 449 pages long)
• Analyzing Alcoholic Beverages by Gas Chromatography (very cool info)
• The Art of Distilling Whiskey and Other Spirits
• Chemical Composition of Alcoholic Beverages Additives and Contaminants
• The Complete Distiller
• Craft of Distilling Whiskey
• Difford on Distillation (good webpage)
• Food Chemistry 4th Revised and Extended Edition (1114 pages), chapter 20 is on alcoholic beverages
• Home Distillation Handbook (this is so so)
• Making Pure Corn Whiskey
• Ethanol Distillation - The Fundamentals, (Chapter 18)
• A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol, written in 1907 (kind of cool looking at the old stuff)
• World Whiskey, Charles Maclean (this one mainly just talks about all the different brands and stuff)

woodshed wrote:All good books Jimbo. Met John at a book signing. A K was there as well. Tried to persuade them to fish with me that evening but they had access to some private water on the Frying Pan set up. I wouldn't pass that up to fish with me either.

Lucky! Love his sense of humor, in one story he was talking about his Philosophy degree, and said he wasnt sure what the hell he was thinking, maybe he'd put a shingle out that said

PHILOSOPHER
Reasonable rates-no waiting
No question too large
No question too small

Someone else mentioned a couple of my favorites - "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Atlas Shrugged". I like most anything by Steinbeck and Rand's "The Fountain Head". There was recently movies of "Atlas shrugged" in two parts that was pretty decent although it didn't follow the book very closely.

I've always read mostly classics - Jonathan Swift, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, James Joyce. Also enjoyed reading Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", but found "The Gulag Archipelago" and other works to be very dry and angry (understandably). You might also find some biographical stuff to be interesting. A few years ago I was caught up in reading the biographies of some of the abstract expressionist artists of the the late forties and early fifties - Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, David Smith, and others.

Anyway, what reading I do these days is mostly from audio books.

SoMo wrote:
It's the Sacketts, some of the best reads out there mentioned earlier in the thread..

Well I guess I hacked that one up. :p Pops would read it to me as a kid. Then I picked through the series in school. I guess I forgot more than I can remember over the past 10 years... All the same it was a favorite of mine, and worth reading again.

Time for me to get a kindle account.

Art of war Sun Zhu I think it's a pretty good read.
Woodshed have you considered writing a book, of Woodshed.

I really enjoyed the hell out of Keith Richards 'Life'. Starts off a touch slow with the whole kid part of his life thing. But man did it get good fast. For being such a waxed out druggie it is a mindblowing memoir of so many crazy ass escapades. Miles (The autobiography of) is amazing too. As is Steven Tyler "Does the Noise in my Head Bother You". Ive read a pile of music related autobio's like this. Those were my favorite.

Aubrey Maturin is a series of 20 books written by Patrick O'Brien . They made the movie "Master and Commander" out of it. I've read all 20 books three times over the years. All about wooden sailing ships and Napoleonic wars. And you'll learn how to make Sillabub.

That was a good book Jimbo. Hard to believe he could remember it all. Huge Stone's fan so had to read it. Actually bought it hardback which is rare for me. Donated to the local library. Generations of young Pagosa children will hopefully benefit.

The one book that goes everywhere with me is Desert Solitaire by Cactus Ed Abbey. It lives in my camera bag which goes every where with me. Quite often getting a great shot involves alot of waiting.
My first summer in CO I found this book. I was 17 and fresh out of high school.
Two years later I was walking downtown Durango and there he was at a sidewalk table sipping coffee.
And I had my copy with me. I tried desperately to be chill but the book had really hit me.
He was gracious and signed it for me. Different camera bag. Same book.

HELL WOODSHED ,I guess my favorite is PENTHOUSE FORUM

Damn swamp, the real thing is a lot better.

How about Life of Pi? Anyone else read it? Visually stunning movie but as usual the book was much deeper.

Bartlets familiar quotes makes or some interesting reading.

Desert solitaire is another favorite of mine.colin Fletcher's thousand mile summer is a good read.another good stienbeck is cannery row.

patrick mcmanus is good for a grin. i've always been fond of heinlein, huxley and castaneda. auel's cave bear, mammoth hunters, shelters of stone.
the journals of lewis and clark while dry are interesting. the foxfire books. the encyclopedia of organic gardening. the encyclopedia of hunting.
the last book i finished was "a book of five rings" by Miyamoto Musashi
woodshed; any particular direction?

WOW ! I find so many folks so well read here that I am at a loss to recommend more . You folks have brought up places I have already been . Didn't see Stephen Hunter mentioned . Well informed gripping fiction if you are bent that way .

I enjoy the Kamasutra, The Prince, and The Art of War.

ga flatwoods wrote:I enjoy the Kamasutra, The Prince, and The Art of War.

Damn GA you don't quit, woodshed no one has said this but I hope what ever Medical hardship you're going thru has a positive out come for ya. I'm sure you are in a lot of folks thoughts and prayers. Good luck.
The dragon riders of pern was a good read too!

woodshed wrote:Damn swamp, the real thing is a lot better.

How about Life of Pi? Anyone else read it? Visually stunning movie but as usual the book was much deeper.

I read it as well. Didn't really like or hate it. Way ahead of its time!

My book tastes are pretty eclectic. A series I'd recommend is Wendell Berry's novels about life in hard scrabble rural Kentucky. Titles include: Andy Catlett; Jayber Crow; That Distant Land; Hannah Coulter and others. Beautifully written.

Elmore Leonard pretty good too.

I thought life of pi was very engaging, very well written, and a beautiful story if you can read between the lines.

According to Goose Eye.

My favorite book of the year......

Loved the Tom Robbins Books! Stumbled onto Skinny Legs, and then had to read them all. I think Woodpecker was my favorite.
Also really liked Comfort of Strangers, or pretty much anything else by Ian McEwan. And the movie made from it with Christopher Walken is a total classic.
From the Rock Hero section of the bookstore, Warren Zevon's "I'll sleep when I'm Dead" is a great way to discover his dirty life and times.
I was given a fun book a long time ago called "fuck, YES!" by Reverend Wing F. Fing M.D. (not making that up). It's a guide to the happy acceptance of everything.
And, of course, there's Calvin & Hobbes. I have the deluxe boxed set. Such adventure!

I have to say Jitterbug perfume is my favorite Tom Robbins book followed closely by Cowgirls which was turned into a lousy movie.