Important Jack Reacher news!
This could have gone in the Watching thread, but I figure the Reading thread is where the people who know the real deal are. The glassy-eyed couch potatoes over in the Watching thread probably think Tom Cruise = Jack Reacher, but we know better.
Lee Child set to adapt Jack Reacher novels for TV (but with a taller star)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
Not what I was expecting but it's a bit captivating.
I went to a Craig Johnson book signing last night and got a copy of the latest Longmire novel, "Depth Of Winter", personalized for my brother-in-law, as I've done once before.
And I'm pleased to learn that George Guidall is reading the audiobook once again. He has read all the Longmire audiobooks so far and I'm glad he's still cranking out audiobooks at the age of 80. I'm now 34th on the waiting list at the library for the audiobook that is shown as "on order". Might be a while, but I'm used to waiting for my favorite titles since I finally learned how to place a hold online.
This inter-net thing might catch on after all.
Starting listening to the audiobook “The Brain That Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge. A couple of chapters in and finding it fascinating. It focuses on neuroplasticity, which has graduated from the realm of pseudoscience over the past couple of decades, and is mostly accepted in the mainstream scientific community.
The concept kind of gives you hope that you can overcome most ailments without resorting to drugs. Not that I have any ailments. Just stuttering, which I fucking hate.
Last edited by sandydandy; July 22nd, 2019 at 12:32 PM.
lately just been re-reading a lot of the Jack Ryan novels. That, and fanfiction. I am nerd.
I realized I had never read a Jack Ryan novel a while back. Read Hunt for the Red October. Was interesting.
I did watch the series on Prime and like it a lot.
Here I go again talking about audio books in the reading thread, but I finished a powerful audiobook in early November and I am still thinking about it two months later.
Roots, by Alex Haley, read by Avery Brooks on twenty-four audio CDs.
And before that, I heard the Librivox.org recording of The Life And Times Of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, read by some volunteer who did a fine job but didn't really sound the part. Soon after, I happened to see Roots on the shelf at the library and grabbed it as if it were some long-lost treasure I had been seeking for years. And it was. I just didn't know it at the time.
Avery Brooks was superb as the narrator of Roots and I suppose there's not much I can say about Alex Haley's family story that hasn't been said many times before. I remember when the mini-series was on TV in the 1970s and it seemed like that's all anyone talked about at the time. I didn't see it for a variety of reasons, probably - too young for the subject matter, the episodes were on past my bedtime, and so forth, but I remember my parents and probably every other adult back then in a time of just a few TV channels tuning in every night to watch it. I did remember hearing as a child that someone...
WARNING: Important plot point revealed below!
Spoiler:
...which was shocking enough that I still remember that after all this time. I think we probably talked about it in school as well, but none of that prepared me for the intellectual and emotional experience of hearing the book performed by a talented actor. And by the way, despite being a rabid fan of the original Star Trek series, I haven't seen any of Deep Space 9 and didn't know Avery Brooks before this.
Here's a strange but true way this book changed the way I think about some things now. I don't know if this is just a temporary thing while it's fresh on my mind or if this kind of thinking will continue.
While watching the 1964 TV show Rudolph The Red-Nosed Raindeer starring Burl Ives with the family this year, I saw the following scene.
Spoiler:
I can't think of too many other books that have had such an impact on me. Read or listen to it if you can.
I've spent the last few months re-reading Iain M. Banks' "Culture" novels because they're comforting. For context, it's a series of space opera novels situated within the context of a post-scarcity, post-withering of the state, anarchist utopia. They're really funny and great, and its a damn shame that Banks died a few years ago.
-Formerly Stabulator
I found 1491 on audio CDs at the library yesterday. Better late than never.Originally Posted by JoshInKC way back in 2014
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