14ers.com

I am reading this thread.

dj- saw the movie and liked it...looking forward to reading the books!

Also want to pick up the former SEAL's book about the Bin Laden raid.

Great thread. I need some ideas.

After too much of my usual diet of politics, history, economics, etc., I picked up some of the Conan series written by Robert E. Howard. I read all 12 in high school, on several occasions. I had forgotten how good of a storyteller Howard was.

seano732 wrote:If you want post-apocalypse+Colorado, nothing beats the master, Stephen Kings The Stand.

+1 for Stephen King. I'm currently finishing The Shining, another great book that involves Colorado.

Survival of the Sickest: The surprising connections
between disease and longevity.

I WAS working on 3 other books but after having this book recommended by my old Biology Professor, I've dropped everything else to focus on this.
The beta contained therin is absolutely fascinating. He talks about how diseases like: diabetes, high cholesterol, plant [food] allergies, anemia, etc. were at one time
actually beneficial to human survival, adaption to the environment.
I'll type out parts of 2 paragraphs from a chapter called, "A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Temperature Go Down". Only because it involves something we've all experienced...having to pee when it gets cold.

"The body has one more response to the cold that's not completely understood--but you've probably experienced it. When most people are exposed to the cold for a while, they need to pee. This response has puzzled medical researchers for hundreds of years. It was first noted in 1764 by Dr. Sutherland who was trying to document the benefits of submersing patients in healing but cold waters. After submersing his patients due to a myriad of ailments, Dr. Sutherland noticed that the patient was 'pissing more than he drank.' Sutherland chalked it up due to external pressure...he was wrong. It wasn't until 1909 that researchers connected increased urine flow, or diruesis, to cold exposure.
The leading explanation for cold diuresis-the need to pee when it's cold-is still pressure; but it's not external pressure, internal pressure. The theory is that as blood pressure climbs in the body's core because of constriction in the extremities, the body signals the kidneys to offload extra fluid. But that doesn't explain the whole process...more recently conducted studies by the military have shed light on a much bigger problem-like a disease that currently affects 171 million people...diabetes.
...Eliminating water and driving up blood sugar levels to deal with the cold: Grapes do it. Now we know that some amphibeans do it also. Is it possible that some humans adapted to do it, too?
Is it a coincidence that the people most likely to have a genetic propensity for a disease characterized by exactly that (excessive elimination of water and high levels of blood sugar) are people descended from exactly those places most ravaged by the sudden onset of an ice age about 13,000 years ago? It's hotly debated, but diabetes may have helped our European ancestors survive the cold of the last ice age...any adaptation to manage the cold, no matter how disadvantageous in normal times, might have made the difference between making it to adulthood (reproducing) and dying young."

The chapter than goes on to talk about the effects of fluids freezing in the body, blood sugar levels and how diabetes once helped to protect folks from cold.
It also talks about something I've NEVER come across in all my biology courses...Brown Fat.
Riveting book!!!

Damn Dude, now I gotta read that! I'm sure you've heard of it but I love the gaia hypothesis by james lovelock.

Currently reading "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts: So very good.

Other good reads:
Ishamael
The Story of B
Deep Survival: Who lives, who dies and why (awesome)
Tao Te Ching
365 Taoist Meditations (awesome)
Colorado (14er) Disasters
and at random, the DSM IV

Reading a great book about young guys and gals who climb the tallest redwoods (and have sex in them).

http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Trees-Story- ... s=redwoods" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The book also takes a look at the fascinating science of redwood trees and their environment.

Because I need to do more research on stupid British bands nobody listens to: and With my right ankle in an air splint for the next month and no hiking, will probably be doing a lot more reading on the weekends. The Denver Public Library is your friend

Just finished "Three Dog Nightmare" by Chuck Negron
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Dog-Nightma ... 1580630405" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And "Brian Jones: The Inside Story of the Original Rolling Stone"
http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Jones-Insid ... 0399130616" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And currently in the middle of Vince Neil's "Tattoos And Tequila"
http://www.amazon.com/Tattoos-Tequila-R ... 0446548049" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
All of which are available at the Denver Public Library.

TeeVee is dumb. TeeVee is for retards. Read more books

Brian Thomas wrote:
TeeVee is dumb. TeeVee is for retards. Read more books

I'd be inclined to agree, but what you're reading doesn't count as "books." Try "the drug-fueled rantings of rock stars ghost-written by hacks."

I just finished "Eiger Dreams" by Jon Krakauer, which has a great set of articles that he wrote for various publications. One is a horrifying account of the conditions on Denali, describing the terrible blizzards that descend on the upper camps. Another is an account of his climb of the Devil's Thumb in Canada and how it changed his perspective on climbing.

First of all, this thread is dope. I picked up "Ultimate High" by Goran Kropp based on a suggestion here and it was awesome. That guy has some great stories (and is f'n crazy).

Anyway, I just finished reading "A Walk in the Sky" by Nicholas Clinch. It is about the first successful ascent of Hidden Peak (which was by an American expedition). Clinch wrote the book several years after the expedition but he tells an incredibly vivid and detailed story about their [essentially] flawless expedition.

Right now I'm reading "Annapurna", which is about the first successful ascent of an 8000m peak. It is by Maurice Herzog, but he had to dictate it to
someone due to losing his fingers to frostbite on the title climb. Im only 50 pages in but so far so good...