Books You've Read in 2020

[monadnocky]

I've read Into The Wild twice, and it absolutely discusses how unprepared he was. And interviews people who also discuss how absolutely unprepared he was. This isn't my opinion - just read the book.
I don't see how chronicling what occurred makes this an irresponsible book, anymore so than any other work of nonfiction.

[AngryScientist]

my rant had nothing to do with lawsuits. i was responding to the poster who said the book was "incredibly dangerous", and lamenting that we now think everything dangerous requires a warning.

[bcm119]

Into the Wild was a great book, highly entertaining. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it dangerous, but I can empathize with that sentiment. While Krakauer does a good job of noting the long list of preparation failures, the overall impression the writing leaves is more celebratory of McCandless’ spirit than critical of his lack of preparation. I think celebrating his spirit is somewhat irresponsible. Outdoor recreation has exploded in the past few decades, partly because of “burnout culture” in the workplace and partly because hiking has finally become socially acceptable and not just for bearded dorks in knee high socks. And so the number of people venturing into the wilderness with no idea what they’re doing is pretty high these days, and in light of that, I would’ve preferred to see Krakauer take a more harshly critical stance in the book. Disclosure-- I work for a federal land management agency, where we are constantly trying to strike a reasonable balance between encouraging responsible exploration of public lands and reducing the number of people who needlessly put themselves in danger.

[monadnocky]

^^^ I can get on board with this. I did find, at times, to be somewhat irritated at the angle you describe, when I felt that McCandless was irresponsible (to the point of putting others in harms way) and perhaps even psychologically impaired or even suffering from something more significant.

[holliscx]

Walden by Thoreau was excellent.

On my nightstand, Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout II, and my wife is reading To Kill a Mockingbird which I gave her years ago. I read the first page last night and want to reread. Ms. Lee was on top of her game.

I read Into the Wild at Peace Corps training in Mauritania in 1997. I remember I was devouring it in the back seat of a Toyota Landcruiser flying across the Sahel. I finished in 1-2 days and passed it on to other volunteers. It was universally well received.

[NorTX-Dave]

I'm a huge fiction fan.....

The Water Dancer by Ta-Ne­hisi Coates

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva

I'm currently slogging through Inland by Tea Obreht

But for light reading in bed before I go to sleep I've been going through some books I got for Christmas:

The Spring Classics, Goggles and Dust and Cycling's Golden Age - truly inspiring bios and photographs of some of my bicycling heroes. The Bicycle Artisans by Will Jones is fueling my desire for a custom bike. Chris Bishop.......I'm this close.

[Mabouya]

I'm nearly through this. Definitely something different:

[gregl]

Full disclosure: this is a biography of my uncle. I’m a stickler for detail. This bio is both incredibly accurate and a very well crafted story. If you’re a fan of manned space flight, you will love this book.

Greg

[megapope]

low got a biography? took them long enough. kranz got all the glory because he was the one actually running around and yelling, as with many things in life...

[wgp]

Fiction consumed while sitting on the beach on an island vacation -

Rules of Civility - Amor Towles - loved A Gentleman in Moscow, so thought I’d give this a try and enjoyed it a lot (but not as much as Gentleman)

News of the World - Paulette Jiles - moving story ...

[dgaddis]

Full disclosure: this is a biography of my uncle. I’m a stickler for detail. This bio is both incredibly accurate and a very well crafted story. If you’re a fan of manned space flight, you will love this book.

Greg

I'll have to add that to my list. After watching a documentary about mission control I picked up Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz, I'm looking forward to getting to it too.

The documentary is on YouTube, highly recommend checking it out. Trailer below. Pretty sure I watched it originally on Netflix.



I just started Dune for something different, probably read Failure Is Not An Option after that.

[deano]

This book, while a good read, is incredibly dangerous. It's inspired many people to venture into the wilderness without any sort of training or preparations. It also lacks any discussion about how wildly unprepared McCandless was.

Abusus non tollit usum

[deano]

In the midst of Monkey, an ancient Chinese epic. Really funny, and fun to read a non-western take on the problem of existence, the good life, etc.

Also, Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue. Not a good writer. But, great thinking about ethics for any Aristotelian.

[fortyfour]

Just finished "The Indifferent Stars Above" by Daniel James Brown about the Donner Party. I knew the tale well, but this one really gets into it.

A previous tale of survival is Nathaniel Philbrick's "In the Heart of the Sea". The next one on my list of his is "Valient Ambition".

Currently reading Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace". That should keep me busy till the Spring melt.

A great piece of fiction I just re-read is "The Meaning of Night: A Confession" by Michael Cox.

[monadnocky]

....A previous tale of survival is Nathaniel Philbrick's "In the Heart of the Sea"

Wow was that a gut-wrenching read. I'll check out the Donner Party read as well.

[deano]

Tolstoy

Report back. I have never connected with the Russians but want to try again. I loved something about Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov but am maddeningly 75 pages from the end and haven't been able to pick it back up for years now. Am an American lit guy mostly but I love how others love Fyodor, Leo, etc.... And I want to love them too.

I think I was taking it too seriously, too, and missed how darkly comic it is. Anyway, earnestness is nice sometimes but if it makes you miss the joke, then, well, yeah.

[fortyfour]

Wow was that a gut-wrenching read. I'll check out the Donner Party read as well.

The Indifferent Stars Above is incredible. The detail the author goes into the mental and physical factors that go into survival, and what actually happens mentally and physically when humans are pushed to that line is pretty incredible and fair warning: Graphic. What was a bit surprising was just how quick the members in that party turned to cannibalism.

Report back. I have never connected with the Russians but want to try again. I loved something about Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov but am maddeningly 75 pages from the end and haven't been able to pick it back up for years now. Am an American lit guy mostly but I love how others love Fyodor, Leo, etc.... And I want to love them too.

I think I was taking it too seriously, too, and missed how darkly comic it is. Anyway, earnestness is nice sometimes but if it makes you miss the joke, then, well, yeah.

If you've ever read any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories, you'll know how he quickly sets the hook and pulls you right into the story. Tolstoy does this immediately within the first two chapters I'd argue. The way he describes Pierre paints a vivid picture in your imagination.

Another is Caroline Alexander's translation of the Iliad. Now I read that one as required reading while at PSU for one of my required art history classes but that was the Lattimore translation. The Lattimore translation took every bit of at least a month to read. The Alexander translation? I blew through that one in less than a week. Comparing line for line, they read and translate essentially the same, but there's something Alexander's version of the translation does that Lattimore doesn't: The words kind of dance and sing on the page. It's quite amazing. Reading two excerpts out loud, Lattimore read kind of clunky I'd say. Her version of Achilles dressing down Agamemnon in the first chapter starting on line 149 is gold.

[Matthew Strongin]

Report back. I have never connected with the Russians but want to try again. I loved something about Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov but am maddeningly 75 pages from the end and haven't been able to pick it back up for years now. Am an American lit guy mostly but I love how others love Fyodor, Leo, etc.... And I want to love them too.

I think I was taking it too seriously, too, and missed how darkly comic it is. Anyway, earnestness is nice sometimes but if it makes you miss the joke, then, well, yeah.

When I get some time I can pull together a list for you. Don't let my career in tech fool you, my formal training is in Russian Literature. A good way to build up to the large works from the Golden Age is with povest (novellas) that are shorter and help develop an appreciation for the depths of the big works. Dostoevesky's Notes from Underground is a great warmup to Crime and Punishment. Some of the short stories and novellas from Pushkin, Gogol and Turgenev are also great and not typically on the Russian sampler reading list.

Also, I think 20th century Russian Lit has some of the best (and absolute worst, but that's for another day). Two of my absolute favorites are The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov and The Life of Insects by Victor Pelevin.

[deano]

When I get some time I can pull together a list for you. Don't let my career in tech fool you, my formal training is in Russian Literature. A good way to build up to the large works from the Golden Age is with povest (novellas) that are shorter and help develop an appreciation for the depths of the big works. Dostoevesky's Notes from Underground is a great warmup to Crime and Punishment. Some of the short stories and novellas from Pushkin, Gogol and Turgenev are also great and not typically on the Russian sampler reading list.

Also, I think 20th century Russian Lit has some of the best (and absolute worst, but that's for another day). Two of my absolute favorites are The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov and The Life of Insects by Victor Pelevin.

LOL, I did not know that about you! I need to pull the humanities escape hatch, too, you just had the sense to do it before me. That's great ... Bulgakov and Turgenev have come up a lot in people I've read or known. I have "Fathers and Sons" on my shelf, just not gotten to it. Melville and Steinbeck type stuff are my lane, the dark, brooding, biblical American apocalyptic stuff. Bbut when I depart from them, I usually love it. Got on a big translation kick two or three years back; read a buncha stuff; Polish, Lebanese, French writers, it was fun.

Have you read Laurus by Eugene Vodalozkin? Buncha peeps I hang with raved about it. It's been on my list of Eastern writers.

[deano]

I want @caleb to be in this thread too. Where you at?