I have to chuckle, Magnus because the Essex book has will bring back Moby Dick to MY 'to-read' pile after about 50 years....and thank you for helping me discover "brain pickings".
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Happy Tear the Tags Off the Mattress Day! 🛏️✂️🏷️🚔🚨👮
What are you reading?
- Thread starter roadends
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I'll warn you, Dave: reading Brain Pickings will diminish your paddling budget while increasing your collection of books. This little corner of the Internet is for those who don't find entertainment in clickbait, celebrity gossip, or memes. This is where curious people go to find fresh fuel for their intellectual spark. It's also been known to renew hope in those who hold a dim opinion of the future of humanity.
Warning noted; however, 'fresh fuel' and hope is more than ever, welcome.
Ever since my our trip out west in '15 I haven't been able to shake off those wide prairie skies, rolling ranch-lands and craggy majestic mountains. South west Alberta has really captivated me, and so I've started to read one of R.M. Patterson's lesser known works The Buffalo Head, a book about his fascination for mountains and wild places culminating in his travels to the Rockies, and the very region that still calls to me. 
ps I've finished this book, and thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in his explorations of the high country on horseback and on foot, long before roads, dams and development.
ps I've finished this book, and thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in his explorations of the high country on horseback and on foot, long before roads, dams and development.
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My wife gave me 'The Forest Unseen' by David Haskell for Christmas. I'm 2/3 of the way through but I can already say that it's a great book. Haskell is a biologist and visited the same square meter of forest in TN almost every day for a year. He spins his observations into a fine yarn as he writes about the plant and animal life as well as the rest of the natural world. The chapter titles will make finding my favorite parts more easy when I come back to reread them - and there are a lot of them.
Continuing under the spell of "long ago, but not too far away" type reads, I'm starting Cache Lake Country by John J. Rowlands. Illustrations by Henry B. Kane. Maybe I'm stuck in a chapter of my own childhood, still desiring "picture books", but I greatly admire good reads with good artwork included.
I just my copy of 'Canoes' A Natural History of North America, in the mail today. I did a quick thumb thru and might have to take a pass on the Bruins game tonight.
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I will be starting on this tonight... Songs Upon The Rivers, just got it in the mail, it was a surprise from a friend far away!! http://www.barakabooks.com/catalogue/songs-upon-the-rivers/
Thanks for the mental jab to Patterson, I have read and reread his work but somehow never got onto this title. Just purchased a copy for $1 on Abe Books (what a site to browse old books!)...thank you! There are some fantastic titles on this general area covering from initial explorations by European explorers, trappers, HBC to modern reflections on mountain life by folks like Rick Bass.
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Another stack of non-fiction books appear on the bedside table, including three on a favorite topic, the Pacific theatre in WWII.
James Hornfischer’s The Fleet at Flood Tide, America at Total War in the Pacific 1944-1945
https://www.amazon.com/Fleet-Flood-...84584&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Fleet+at+Flood+Tide
And Hornfischer’s Ship of Ghosts
https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Ghosts-...qid=1484584701&sr=1-1&keywords=ship+of+ghosts
Both well crafted, informative and engaging reads.
And one from the Best Seller’s list that was maddening in its inaccuracies, misstatements and outright fabrications. Bill O’Reilly’s Killing the Rising Sun.
I realize O’Reilly is tossing off these “Killing. . . .” books at a good clip, but dang man at least get the facts straight. Worse, much of the nonsense is contained in unattributed “footnotes”: A few of the more egregious footnotes:
*“Five thousand of the American dead in the Battle of Okinawa are sailors killed in kamikaze attacks”. My, what a nice round number. One widely accepted number of all Allied deaths by kamikaze attack, at the end of the war is 3048. Sure Bill, just make up the numbers as you go.
*“Kamikaze attacks largely came to an end when a lack of pilots and planes made it impossible to continue”. Um, not true. The Japanese had thousands of planes left when they surrendered, three times the number Allied intelligence had estimated. They were marshaling their remaining planes and pilots to defend against the invasion of the home islands.
My personal favorite “footnote”,
*“A slang term for an artillery coordinate”, referring to a quote in the text above from a forward observer “Back off just a blond one”* Dammit O’Reilly, do I really need to explain that one?
Those are just some of the obvious footnote inaccuracies; the text itself is rife with mistakes. About the Battle of Okinawa “One notable casualty is legendary American journalist Ernie Pyle”. OK Bill, I’ll give you partial credit, Pyle died on the small island of le Shima, which is in the Okinawa prefecture. How hard would it have been to at least Wiki Google Ernie Pyle.
Longer rant than I intended. O’Reilly has a series of Best Selling “Killing . . . .” books out (Lincoln, Patton, Kennedy). If this is what now passes for history we’re in trouble.*
*Accurate footnote:
*I was number 83 on the public library waitlist for this serial trash. This is what now passes for history.
James Hornfischer’s The Fleet at Flood Tide, America at Total War in the Pacific 1944-1945
https://www.amazon.com/Fleet-Flood-...84584&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Fleet+at+Flood+Tide
And Hornfischer’s Ship of Ghosts
https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Ghosts-...qid=1484584701&sr=1-1&keywords=ship+of+ghosts
Both well crafted, informative and engaging reads.
And one from the Best Seller’s list that was maddening in its inaccuracies, misstatements and outright fabrications. Bill O’Reilly’s Killing the Rising Sun.
I realize O’Reilly is tossing off these “Killing. . . .” books at a good clip, but dang man at least get the facts straight. Worse, much of the nonsense is contained in unattributed “footnotes”: A few of the more egregious footnotes:
*“Five thousand of the American dead in the Battle of Okinawa are sailors killed in kamikaze attacks”. My, what a nice round number. One widely accepted number of all Allied deaths by kamikaze attack, at the end of the war is 3048. Sure Bill, just make up the numbers as you go.
*“Kamikaze attacks largely came to an end when a lack of pilots and planes made it impossible to continue”. Um, not true. The Japanese had thousands of planes left when they surrendered, three times the number Allied intelligence had estimated. They were marshaling their remaining planes and pilots to defend against the invasion of the home islands.
My personal favorite “footnote”,
*“A slang term for an artillery coordinate”, referring to a quote in the text above from a forward observer “Back off just a blond one”* Dammit O’Reilly, do I really need to explain that one?
Those are just some of the obvious footnote inaccuracies; the text itself is rife with mistakes. About the Battle of Okinawa “One notable casualty is legendary American journalist Ernie Pyle”. OK Bill, I’ll give you partial credit, Pyle died on the small island of le Shima, which is in the Okinawa prefecture. How hard would it have been to at least Wiki Google Ernie Pyle.
Longer rant than I intended. O’Reilly has a series of Best Selling “Killing . . . .” books out (Lincoln, Patton, Kennedy). If this is what now passes for history we’re in trouble.*
*Accurate footnote:
*I was number 83 on the public library waitlist for this serial trash. This is what now passes for history.
O' Reilly makes Stephen King look like a nonfiction writer. I am in the last of the Bill Hodges trilogy.. Damit I finished #2 yesterday, hubby went to the library and found the third... Now I have a deadline.
To use today's term "Fake History".
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I had never before read one of O’Reilly’s books, and I honestly tried to approach Killing Japan with an open and unbiased mind, despite my misgivings about the author. I was literally on chapter one, paragraph two when my sons came to see if I was having an attack of sudden onset Tourettes.
OK, I kind of expected the jingoistic, nationalist adjectival debasement of the Japanese, which rings like wartime squint-eyed, buck-toothed 1943 propaganda portrayal, but dang, at least get the facts straight. O’Reilly is entitled to his own opinion, not his own facts.
Seriously, I am no naval history scholar, but even for a well read layman that was bullpucky.
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I will explain that. Chapter 1, paragraph 2, invasion of Peleliu:
“There are no journalists or photographers hitting this remote beach today”
From past readings that didn’t sound right. A quick Google search turns up 30+ correspondents covering the invasion of Peleliu. Ok, maybe none were actually hitting the beach on day 1. But I am sure I have seen photos of the Peleliu invasion.
Why look, there is one, taken from a landing craft, of a line nearby landing craft, crammed with Marines and headed ashore. Captioned “Final moments before landing on Peleliu”. Where you ask did I find that photo?
Oh, there it is, two pages later in O’Reilly’s own book.
See, oh, I dunno, maybe Marine Combat Cameramen.
See not factual, see not even proof read.
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Killing Japan is due back at the library tomorrow, so I will stop. After this.
My son’s continue to laugh at my fascination with this faux non-fiction. I have a library run tomorrow, so I paged through Killing Japan again last night just for craps and giggles paroxysms of confoundment. My boys are such aholes they will probably buy me a used copy to continue tormenting me.
While putting Killing Japan in the bag of return due books this morning I finally glanced at the back cover and had another conniption fit at the sole review:
“ A masterful, meticulously researched work that “ blah, blah, blah.
Italic mine. Review from General David H. Petraeus.
Oh. My. God. Am I to believe that even West Point can’t teach military history without alternate facts?
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
My son’s continue to laugh at my fascination with this faux non-fiction. I have a library run tomorrow, so I paged through Killing Japan again last night just for craps and giggles paroxysms of confoundment. My boys are such aholes they will probably buy me a used copy to continue tormenting me.
While putting Killing Japan in the bag of return due books this morning I finally glanced at the back cover and had another conniption fit at the sole review:
“ A masterful, meticulously researched work that “ blah, blah, blah.
Italic mine. Review from General David H. Petraeus.
Oh. My. God. Am I to believe that even West Point can’t teach military history without alternate facts?
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
‘The Sympathizer,’ by Viet Thanh Nguyen
NYT Review here https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/books/review/the-sympathizer-by-viet-thanh-nguyen.html?_r=0
NYT Review here https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/books/review/the-sympathizer-by-viet-thanh-nguyen.html?_r=0
Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes by Selwyn H. Dewdney and Kenneth Kidd.
Dewdney spent many summers travelling by float plane and canoe, researching, finding and eventually tracing/recording First Nations pictographs in this region. For many of those trips his wife, and later their children, travelled with him. This is no adventure story, but does appeal to those with an adventurous heart and inquisitive mind. Who painted these centuries old works? And why? What do they tell us of a culture pre and post colonial contact? You won't get all the answers to these questions, but Dewdney's work is fascinating to follow nonetheless.
On-line here: https://archive.org/details/indianrockpainti00dewd
https://www.amazon.ca/Indian-Rock-Pa.../dp/B000JCRTQ2
Dewdney spent many summers travelling by float plane and canoe, researching, finding and eventually tracing/recording First Nations pictographs in this region. For many of those trips his wife, and later their children, travelled with him. This is no adventure story, but does appeal to those with an adventurous heart and inquisitive mind. Who painted these centuries old works? And why? What do they tell us of a culture pre and post colonial contact? You won't get all the answers to these questions, but Dewdney's work is fascinating to follow nonetheless.
On-line here: https://archive.org/details/indianrockpainti00dewd
https://www.amazon.ca/Indian-Rock-Pa.../dp/B000JCRTQ2
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Odyssey, I'll check that one out. I always like visiting pictograph sites. I didn't get to see any when I was up at Lake Superior this year. Most of my sightings have been in the southwest. Some places almost every rock in sight is painted.
Not currently reading this and I keep forgetting to post it here until now.
Voyage of the Paper Canoe by Nathaniel H. Bishop.
It's the story of Bishop's journey from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico in his 18 ft. 58 lb. canoe made of paper and glue in 1874. It includes a chapter describing the boat and its construction for us builder nerds. The first composite canoes. It's public domain now, so you all can read it free online with the maps and illustrations here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nhb/paperc/intro.html
Not currently reading this and I keep forgetting to post it here until now.
Voyage of the Paper Canoe by Nathaniel H. Bishop.
It's the story of Bishop's journey from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico in his 18 ft. 58 lb. canoe made of paper and glue in 1874. It includes a chapter describing the boat and its construction for us builder nerds. The first composite canoes. It's public domain now, so you all can read it free online with the maps and illustrations here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nhb/paperc/intro.html
"Coaching Agile Teams" by Lyssa Adkins.
I just started reading it too. I bought it because in the bow and as team navigator during the Yukon River races, I am responsible for "reading the river" surface currents, in our attempt to find the fastest current during the race. There's a real art to reading the changing surface riffles and what they mean about the converging and diverging currents. A horizontal displacement of a canoe length of less may gain or lose as much as 2-3 mph of current. I hope to improve my skill at it. Unfortunately the book is more of an collection of stories of a motorized canoe trip down the river. Still a good read with interesting descriptions of many of the places I have become familiar with on the river.
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