Books... What are you reading? And what do you recommend?

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
I gotta admit, I haven't read any of the 10 books they listed but shouldn't any questionable literature (offered in a library)
be read and discussed by both parent and child? What was the takeaway to the child? What was the author trying to convey. :(

i've read the handmaiden and it's not bad....wtf Texas....scared of a free mind
 

StonedGardener

Well-Known Member
Robert A Heinlein, Stranger in a strange land. I read this book every decade, I process it differently each time. Funny, sad, sexual, and political. A good look at the human condition!!!
What a classic! Leon Russelll did a song...."Stranger In A Strange Land"......read back in 1971............I use that phrase, " earthling humor" all the time. Took that alien a long time to understand human laughter ( others misfortune)....Great book
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
I gotta admit, I haven't read any of the 10 books they listed but shouldn't any questionable literature (offered in a library)
be read and discussed by both parent and child? What was the takeaway to the child? What was the author trying to convey. :(

I've read Cider House Rules, (of course). And I think I have Middlesex in my library, but don't think I've read it. I wonder if they banned Boys and Girls Together by William Goldman. I don't remember much of the book, but there was a very well told gay sex scene.
 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
:(
"Roughly a quarter of American adults (23%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form, according to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Jan. 25-Feb. 8, 2021

Several demographic traits are linked with not reading books, according to the survey. For instance, adults with a high school diploma or less are far more likely than those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree to report not reading books in any format in the past year (39% vs. 11%). Adults with lower levels of educational attainment are also among the least likely to own smartphones, an increasingly common way for adults to read e-books.

In addition, adults whose annual household income is less than $30,000 are more likely than those living in households earning $75,000 or more a year to be non-book readers (31% vs. 15%). Hispanic adults (38%) are more likely than Black (25%) or White adults (20%) to report not having read a book in the past 12 months. (The survey included Asian Americans but did not have sufficient sample size to do statistical analysis of this group.)

Although the differences are less pronounced, non-book readers also vary by age and community type. Americans ages 50 and older, for example, are more likely than their younger counterparts to be non-book readers. There is not a statistically significant difference by gender.

The share of Americans who report not reading any books in the past 12 months has fluctuated over the years the Center has studied it. The 23% of adults who currently say they have not read any books in the past year is identical to the share who said this in 2014.

The same demographic traits that characterize non-book readers also often apply to those who have never been to a library. In a 2016 survey, the Center found that Hispanic adults, older adults, those living in households earning less than $30,000 and those who have a high school diploma or did not graduate from high school were among the most likely to report in that survey they had never been to a public library."


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Many of the United States ills are directly related to illiteracy. Here are just a few statistics:
  • Literacy is learned. Illiteracy is passed along by parents who cannot read or write.
  • One child in four grows up not knowing how to read.
  • 43% of adults at level I literacy skills live in poverty compared to only 4% of those at level V.
  • Three out of four food stamp recipients perform in the lowest two literacy levels.
  • 90% of welfare recipients are high school dropouts.
  • 16 to 19-year-old girls at the poverty level and below, with below average reading skills, are 6 times more likely to have out – of – wedlock children, who in turn will have below average reading skills or none at all.
  • 15% of the United States population has specific reading disorders.
  • 46% of American adults cannot understand the labels on their pharmaceutical prescriptions.
  • 56% of young people claim they read fewer than 10 books a year.
  • 50% of U.S. adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book.
  • 33% of U.S. high school graduates never read a book after high school.
  • 80% of U.S. families have not purchased a book this year.
  • 50% of books started are never read to completion.
  • 70% of adults have not been in a bookstore in the past five years.
  • 15% of U.S. students are dyslexic
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
I only read books in waiting rooms. I keep one in the trunk of the car for that reason. I've thought about selling my books. Half of the upstairs is library, and I could use the space more effectively storing something up there that I actually use.
 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
I'm a big fan of C.J. Box's book series about a Wyoming game warden (Joe Pickett) and his family living in a small town (Saddlestring) and battling all sorts of criminals and corrupt pols. This TV series looks promising. Great visuals although filmed in Alberta, Canada for budgetary reasons. A shame we can't show off our own beautiful country more.

 
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injinji

Well-Known Member
I'm a big fan of C.J. Box's book series about a Wyoming game warden (Joe Pickett) and his family living in a small town (Saddlestring) and battling all sorts of criminals and corrupt pols. This TV series looks promising. Great visuals although filmed in Alberta, Canada for budgetary reasons. A shame we can't show off our own beautiful country more.

I used to read his books. Is this the game warden that arrested the Governor? Not the best path to promotion.
 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Dr. Smith is a Harvard educated MD who usually writes diet/shred books. These are a couple of his fiction entries.
The unspoken / Ian K. Smith.
Wolf point / Ian K. Smith.

The burning blue : the untold story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA's Challenger disaster / Kevin Cook.

Agent Sniper : the Cold War superagent and the ruthless head of the CIA / Tim Tate.

The guns of John Moses Browning : the remarkable story of the inventor whose firearms changed the world / Nathan Gorenstein.

You bet your life : from blood transfusions to mass vaccination, the long and risky history of medical innovation / Paul A. Offit, MD.

Ouch! : why pain hurts, and why it doesn't have to / Margee Kerr and Linda Rodriguez McRobbie.

Sunbelt blues : the failure of American housing / Andrew Ross.

The Mountbattens : the lives and loves of Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten / Andrew Lownie.

Erased : the untold story of the Panama Canal / Marixa Lasso

The path between the seas : the creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
/ David McCullough.

The building of the Panama Canal in historic photographs / Ulrich Keller

Lost libraries : the destruction of great book collections since antiquity / edited by James Raven.

The big ditch : how America took, built, ran, and ultimately gave away the Panama Canal / Noel Maurer & Carlos Yu.
 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Exact opposite here. Still picking up anything I find interesting. I saw a bunch of free books one day close to work, layed in bed that night and knew there must be something good in those boxes. Found a nice copy of an old classic
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Edit @BarnBuster did you ever get around to reading Klondike?
Good memory! I did as a matter of fact along with these others that I'd recommend:

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injinji

Well-Known Member
They mentioned these on a morning talk show today. How many had these in the hallway? Google v.1962
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I have a normal set, circa 1990's that was Mamma's. But I also have an almost complete set of "Cyclopedias from the 1890's.

On a totally unrelated issue, does anyone want to buy a few books? At some foggy, distant time when I hike the AT, or move to the riverhouse, I want lease the sandhill house. So I will have a few thousand books to sell or give away.
 

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Angels of the Pacific : a novel of World War II / Elise Hooper

The survivors club : the secrets and science that could save your life / Ben Sherwood

Empty mansions : the mysterious life of Huguette Clark and the spending of a great American fortune / Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.

The last slave ship : the true story of how Clotilda was found, her descendants, and an extraordinary reckoning / Ben Raines.

Aftermath : life in the fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955 / Harald Jähner ; translated by Shaun Whiteside.

Invasion of the prostate snatchers : no more unnecessary biopsies, radical treatment or loss of sexual potency / Ralph H. Blum, Mark Scholz.

Excitotoxins : the taste that kills / Russell L. Blaylock ; foreword by George R. Schwartz.

The wave : in pursuit of the rogues, freaks and giants of the ocean / by Susan Casey.

Hitler's holy relics : a true story of Nazi plunder and the race to recover the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire / Sidney D. Kirkpatrick.

Stalling for time : my life as an FBI hostage negotiator / by Gary Noesner.
 

MarkGin

Member
There was a time when I loved fantasy novels, something like Pratchett. But what's going on in the economy has made me feel old and boring. I spend more time studying how to calculate crypto gains now. Anyone else in the same position? I'm afraid to open the news because things don't look good. You need to have extra income and it's quite difficult after 50.
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
I gotta admit, I haven't read any of the 10 books they listed but shouldn't any questionable literature (offered in a library)
be read and discussed by both parent and child? What was the takeaway to the child? What was the author trying to convey. :(

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