What are you reading?

[719BR]

I read a lot of weird random stuff, and recently got into this:

https://www.amazon.com/Future-Crimes-Di ... 0804171459

There's a part in his intro where he talks about Neo in the Matrix having the choice to take one pill and wake up forgetting everything that had happened, or the other pill and his life would never be the same. And he says that you the reader have the same choice, and I remember thinking how effing melodramatic he was and almost putting the book down.

But the book was highly recommended to me so I read it anyway, and holy crap if he wasn't right. Especially in the wake of this week's Facebook debacle, it's especially pertinent in today's world.

[greenonion]

Recently finished "English Passengers" by Matthew Kneale. Loved it. 1800s ocean expedition from British Isles to Tasmania with an "interesting" crew and objectives.

2/3 of the way through "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson. American Ambassador and family sent to 1933 Berlin as Nazis consolidate power and ramp up into WWII. Very good, but very horrifying - especially as we navigate the current state of global events.

[jmanner]

Finishing Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War while on the train/bus to work and reading Hamilton's The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941–1942

Of course, I am always perusing my guide books to plan spring skimo trips or whatever. Sometimes its fun to just read about routes, I've definitively ended up climbing stuff I didn't plan to based on memory from prior readings.

[Deanxpv]

Just finished Night by Elie Weisel and am now onto the book Militarism by Karl Leibnecht (spelling?).

[mommyhiker]

Just finished Dreamland: True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones.

Next book: Rise and kill first : the secret history of Israel's targeted assassinations by Ronen Bergman.

[Vermont Mike]

A little ways in to "Dark Star Safari" by Paul Theroux about the author's overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town. It's my first time reading Theroux and I'm really enjoying his writing so far (although it's a small sample size).

[druid2112]

Almost finished with 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin. It tells the tale of a fisherman who was swept into the open ocean off the coast of mexico and survived (you guessed it!) 438 days in an open boat drifting across the Pacific until running ashore in the Marshall islands, some 6000 miles away. Interesting, but sort of written at about a 6th grade reading level

[MtnHub]

Sue Monk Kidd. The Invention of Wings -- the fictionalized history of the Grimké sisters who were at the forefront of the abolitionist and women's rights movements.

This is one of the best and most beautifully written books I've read in a very long time. I highly recommend it!

[BenjaminTaylor]

This Is All A Dream We Dreamed - An Oral History of the Grateful Dead
Blair Jackson & David Gans

Transcendent Summits
Gerry Roach

I'm about a quarter of the way into both of these and really enjoying them. The GD book is fascinating the way it alternates between different peoples' points of view to bring perspective to their storied history.

Roach's autobiography is also a gripping read so far. While I've spent plenty of time perusing a few of his guidebooks (Fourteeners, Thirteeners, and the Lost Creek Wilderness), it's great to learn more about his history and early years.

[MtnHub]

I'm enjoying some of the Xmas books I received this past holiday:

Joe Hutto. The Light in High Places

Hutto is a WY naturalist who writes in beautiful, almost poetic prose and describes his work studying the bighorn sheep of WY as well as the WY wilderness and the lost art of being a true cowboy.

[12ersRule]

Here's a few I've read over the past year or so:

"Cat's Cradle" - Kurt Vonnegut. Fun one!
"The Last Englishman" = Keith Foskett. Common man doing the PCT trail. Didn't care for it at all.
"AWOL on the Appalachian Trail" - David Miller. Common man on the AT. Very good!
"River: One Man's Journey Down the Colorado, Source to Sea" - Colin Fletcher - very good!


Just started "The Man who walked through Time" - by Colin Fletcher. So far, so good!

[montanahiker]

I finished Jim Bridger: Mountain Man last month. Great book on an interesting character who had a big impact on the northern Rockies. It motivated me to pick up Blood and Thunder (about Kit Carson).