Book recommendations?

On Oct 26, 12:47*pm, "JT" wrote:
For the last several years my bride has given me a book for Christmas,
something I have enjoyed a great deal.

Are there any books that you would suggest?

It doesn't necessarily have to be fishing/flyfishing related. *In past years
I have read "The Ridge Runner" , "North to the Night", "Working on the Edge"
and could hardly put them down...

TIA,
JT

Whew! Book recommendations......this one always gives me the
fantods. Where to begin? Where to end?

Well, let's start with something that IS fishing related. Robert
Traver's (Traver was the nom de plume of judge John Voelker) "Trout
Madness" is still hard to beat after all these decades for
encapsulating what the title alone says so eloquently.

If you're a book lover (not every reader.....not even every avid
reader.....is), Hans Zinsser's "Rats, Lice and History" is a must.
So, what's to like about a 1930's vintage introduction to
epidemiology? The subtitle; "Being a Study in Biography, Which, After
Twelve Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the Preparation of the
Lay Reader, Deals With the Life History of Typhus Fever" gives some
subtle clues. Zinsser was playful, garrulous, opinionated, well
educated (a highly respected epidemiologist), as well as an
extraordinarily good writer. Digression, rants, digressions, cool
logic, digressions, wit, digressions, historical perspective,
digressions, a keen sense of the absurd in contemporary culture and
politics (in its time, of course) and digressions.....this book has
got it all. This was the first first and only book I have ever read
that made me laugh out loud on reading a footnote.....and has made me
do so again on each of a dozen or so rereadings over the last forty
years.

But enough editorialising.....a few other favorites, in no particular
order and sans (mostly) commentary (Google can find you billions and
billions of better reviews than anything I could ever hope to
provide):

"Metamagical Themas"--Douglas Hofstadter.
"The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat"--Oliver Sacks
any of Stephen J. Gould's books.
"West With the Night"--Beryl Markham
"Don Quixote"--Miguel de Cervantes. (Considered by many to be the
first true "novel"......you'll have to ask them about the
criteria.....and by many to be the best ever.....ibid. Bottom line;
Cervantes got it right the first time). But be careful about the
translation you pick (unless you decide to read it in the
original).....some are very dreary.
"Huckleberry Finn" by you know who, IS the quintessential "great
american novel" despite being commonly (and egregiously) libeled as a
children's book. (An old friend of mine, who took too many postgrad
lit courses, once told me that the book is "episodic"! No, duh.)
Pretty much anything by Barbara Kingsolver, but especially "The Bean
Trees," "Pigs in Heaven," and "Animal Dreams."
Anything by Annie Dillard.

Um......uh.....well, one could go on for days.

More?

giles

"Giles" wrote in message
...
On Oct 26, 12:47 pm, "JT" wrote:

More?


No, this should have me in reading for years to come...

Thanks,
JT

On Oct 27, 12:06*pm, "JT" wrote:
"Giles" wrote in message

...
On Oct 26, 12:47 pm, "JT" wrote:

More?

No, this should have me in reading for years to come...

Ah, that appears to suggest you found something on the list to your
liking. Good.

Thanks,
JT

You're most welcome. And so is your choice of topics.

giles

On Oct 26, 10:17*pm, Giles wrote:

Um......uh.....well, one could go on for days.

Books... meh.

:-)

Wm

On Oct 27, 2:39*pm, Wm wrote:
On Oct 26, 10:17*pm, Giles wrote:

Um......uh.....well, one could go on for days.

Books... *meh.

:-)

Wm

Yeah, I know, they'll never catch on. And they're obsolete.

giles
who can't help but wonder what that makes libarians.

On Oct 27, 8:03*pm, Giles wrote:
On Oct 27, 2:39*pm, Wm wrote:

On Oct 26, 10:17*pm, Giles wrote:

Um......uh.....well, one could go on for days.

Books... *meh.

:-)

Wm

Yeah, I know, they'll never catch on. *And they're obsolete.

giles
who can't help but wonder what that makes libarians. * * *

Both ahead of and behind the times.


Chuck Vance (how can you be in two places at once when you're
not anywhere at all?)

On Oct 28, 7:40*am, Conan The Librarian wrote:
On Oct 27, 8:03*pm, Giles wrote:





On Oct 27, 2:39*pm, Wm wrote:

On Oct 26, 10:17*pm, Giles wrote:

Um......uh.....well, one could go on for days.

Books... *meh.

:-)

Wm

Yeah, I know, they'll never catch on. *And they're obsolete.

giles
who can't help but wonder what that makes libarians. * * *

* *Both ahead of and behind the times.

* * * Chuck Vance (how can you be in two places at once when you're
not anywhere at all?)

Double index a that someone has already checked out.
Frank Reid
Just trying to be helpful

On 27-Oct-2009, Wm wrote:

..

Books... meh.

:-)

Are you interested in music recommendations?

Fred wrote:
Wm wrote:
Books... meh.

:-)

Are you interested in music recommendations?

Bill is a librarian. The :-) indicates that "Books... meh."
was a joke.

Once again, Fred, you have scorch marks on your pate from a
post screaming over your head at supersonic speed.

I must like you quite a bit, I mean I usually charge at least
a quarter a clue and I've given you five, six bucks worth of
clues by now.

HTH

--
Ken Fortenberry

On Oct 27, 9:38*pm, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:
Fred wrote:
Wm wrote:
Books... *meh.

:-)

Are you interested in music recommendations?

Bill is a librarian. The :-) indicates that "Books... *meh."
was a joke.

Once again, Fred, you have scorch marks on your pate from a
post screaming over your head at supersonic speed.

I must like you quite a bit, I mean I usually charge at least
a quarter a clue and I've given you five, six bucks worth of
clues by now.

HTH

--
Ken Fortenberry

Yeah, that'd be about right.....five, six (2009) bucks worth of clues.

Self-inflated fool.

g.
who remembers when a buck was worth a quarter.