What are you reading right now?

[Robson Valley]

Andy Weir's "The Martian" shook me up pretty good so have settled back into my groove with
"Cedar: Tree of Life to the Northwest Coast Indians" by Hillary Stewart. Detailed and illustrated
description of the multipurpose tree (Thuja plicata = western red cedar.)

 

[fishfish]

i am just starting a book called 'the bielski brothers' by peter duffy .the true story of the brothers saving 1,200 jews in the Belarussian forest and forming the 'bielski otriev' partasan fighting force. so far the book is way better than the hollywood adaptation .

 

[weekender]

i am just starting a book called 'the bielski brothers' by peter duffy .the true story of the brothers saving 1,200 jews in the Belarussian forest and forming the 'bielski otriev' partasan fighting force. so far the book is way better than the hollywood adaptation .

As is often the case, great book and fascinating story.


Sent from somewhere?

 

[Goatboy]

i am just starting a book called 'the bielski brothers' by peter duffy .the true story of the brothers saving 1,200 jews in the Belarussian forest and forming the 'bielski otriev' partasan fighting force. so far the book is way better than the hollywood adaptation .

Haven't seen the film but the book was great. Ray Mears also did a bit on them in one of his programs explaining how they managed to survive and thrive in the cold snowy woods. Was a good program.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Dave]

The Last Kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell
One Mans Wilderness Sam Keith
Patrick Modiano Missing Person
Feral George Monbiot
Just finished A year in the Woods by Colin Elford.

 

[Magentus]

Haven't seen the film but the book was great. Ray Mears also did a bit on them in one of his programs explaining how they managed to survive and thrive in the cold snowy woods. Was a good program.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

How are you finding 'Feral' by Monbiot? I've had my eye on that for a while......

 

[Tony]

Just started The name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
right at the end of Delivering happiness by Tony Hsieh
the hard things about hard things by Ben Horowitz

 

[Goatboy]

How are you finding 'Feral' by Monbiot? I've had my eye on that for a while......

I think it was Dave who was reqding Feral.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Magentus]

Sorry Goatboy, you're correct!

Tony, I'll be interested to know if you enjoyed 'The name of the wind' - I enjoyed it and lent it to my dad who liked it so much I bought him the second installment for his birthday.

 

[Palaeocory]

I just re-read 'Cedar' by Hilary Stewart and finished it yesterday, and 'The Secret Life of Trees' by Colin Tudge the day before.

Now I'm looking for another before-bed-nothing-to-do-with-my-thesis book, I might be stealing the one on the history of English cooking that is living on my husband's night table...

 

[THOaken]

Star Carr, Life in Britain after the Ice Age-Nicky Milner et al
Lighter treatment of the Mesolithic settlement area than the Classic Star Carr- J D Clark. Very interesting and has the implication than the Mesolithics were more in charge of their environment that previously thought.

Various pulp American post-apocalyptic novels on Kindle, guns, bad government, egos at war.

Re-reading The Boyne Currach- Claidhbh O Gibne. History of and how to build a Boyne currach/coracle and on the build of a large currach.

If I remember correctly, the Mesolithics dabbled in disturbance ecology to increase food yields, with periodic woodland burning to allow increased light input and the regrowth of several edge taxa through the various seral developments. Interesting because that's essentially the start of the plagioclimax. We once thought that such intervention and influence over vegetation was the domain of the Neolithic and that anything before was ephemeral and insignificant to the structure of woodlands.

On a separate note: great to see everyone digging in to the thread. Hope we're helping each other out with good reads.

 

[GGTBod]

I've definitely flagged several books into my Amazon wishlist (probably buy em elsewhere when the time comes as Amazon is terrible for book prices these days but the wishlist is handy), good to see what everyone is filling their minds with, thread kudos deserved

 

[Lou]

Got several on the go at the moment;

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell - great fun,
Spiritual dowsing by Sig Lonegran,
Revolution by Russell Brand - in turns thrilling and annoying,
The Walkers Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs by Tristan Gooley - brilliant!

Spiritual Dowsing looks great, I'll hv to look that one up.

I love threads like this. I just received 'Botany in a Day' in the post, something I have been hankering after for a while, finally got round to ordering it. I think it is gonna take me longer than a day though, more like a few weeks to get my head round it. Has anyone else read it?

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

 

[Dave]

How are you finding 'Feral' by Monbiot? I've had my eye on that for a while......

Its a good read, buy it. Everything seems to be at a changing point, the end of neoliberalism capitalism, and possibly banking as we know it. Whats the future going to look like? Bit currents, shareware, etc. collapde of paper markets. The OECD tell us to panic, negative growth forecasted for fifty years etc etc etc.
He doesnt discuss any of that.
But its a look at the future of the planets wildlife, and how we treat them. Rewilding etc.

It'll not all happen in our lifetimes, in fact well probably miss all of it, but its coming. Nature will regulate us. He just puts forward some interesting avenues.

 

[Magentus]

Its a good read, buy it. Everything seems to be at a changing point, the end of neoliberalism capitalism, and possibly banking as we know it. Whats the future going to look like? Bit currents, shareware, etc. collapde of paper markets. The OECD tell us to panic, negative growth forecasted for fifty years etc etc etc.
He doesnt discuss any of that.
But its a look at the future of the planets wildlife, and how we treat them. Rewilding etc.

It'll not all happen in our lifetimes, in fact well probably miss all of it, but its coming. Nature will regulate us. He just puts forward some interesting avenues.

Cheers Dave - I think I will buy it. I like a lot of his ideas, but my respect for him took a serious beating when he came out pro nuclear. That's why I was wavering about whether to buy it or not. I agree with you that we seem to be on the cusp of some huge changes. Interesting times!

 

[Dave]

Its pretty good prose. He can write.

 

[fishfish]

I've definitely flagged several books into my Amazon wishlist (probably buy em elsewhere when the time comes as Amazon is terrible for book prices these days but the wishlist is handy), good to see what everyone is filling their minds with, thread kudos deserved

mate i use www.[B]abe[/B]books.co.uk good prices for second hand books and pretty much any book you could think of!

 

[GGTBod]

Cool i'll stick it in my bookmarks, i find evilbay quite good now and then, well i say good i actually mean just slightly better than Amazon

 

[Goatboy]

Must say though I live surrounded by books and love the smell and feel of them Amazon do some great books on Kindle. A lot of stuff that would be hard to get in paper or just to darn expensive can be gotten easily in electronic form. Also have a heap of books in PDF form that are free from various American libraries. Some great obscure stuff out there to feed the mind.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[dewi]

Just read 1984 for the second time in my life... its amazing to read when you consider when it was written. Orwell was either on loopy juice or he was a soothsayer!