Booklopnik

"Hot Takes Salesman" (normiesgetoffmyboardreeeeeeee)
08/06/2015 at 23:22 • Filed to: None

What chu readin, Oppo? I’m reading Wing Leader, written by the highest scoring Allied ace of the war, J.E. ‘Johnnie’ Johnson. Also gotten halfway through Band of Brothers, finished Phil Klay’s Redeployment, and have got this whole stack here. So what are you guys reading?

Fun fact- The Goodwood circuit used to be a satellite (remote) airfield at Westhampnett, which Johnson was stationed at in summer, 1941.

DISCUSSION (39)

BReLp7dzHM3ytYsE > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:25

I’m a huge Cormac McCarthy fan. Not currently reading anything right now cause I’m too lazy, sadly.

pjhusa > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:31

The Good Earth

Nibby > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:32

oppositelock

Hot Takes Salesman > Nibby
08/06/2015 at 23:37

Me too. Fascinating.Very weird though

Jcarr > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:37

I’m about 1/3 through 11/22/63 by Stephen King and it’s fantastic. After that I’m on to Skunk Works by Ben Rich. I’m also working my way through Tom Clancy’s collection, but I'm taking a bit of a break from those.

Nibby > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:39

Kinja'd!!!

Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:39

Just started Boys in the Boat

Hot Takes Salesman > Jcarr
08/06/2015 at 23:40

I’d go for some Stephen Ambrose. He's not just a fantastic war writer- he's just a great historian

TractorPillow > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:42

Books are for nerds!

Hot Takes Salesman > Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop
08/06/2015 at 23:43

Wow, amazing story. Reminds me of Unbroken but without WW2

Jcarr > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:43

I have Citizen Soldiers by him, but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. Most of what I “read” is actually in audiobook form as it’s easier for me to get through while working and I have that one in paperback.

jester74 > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:45

First of all, why the hell can’t I star people’s comments?

Secondly, I am re-reading my way through the entire Shannara series, based on Terry Brooks’ suggested reading order.

I recently finished reading through all of the Dark Tower series based on Stephen King’s suggestion. This included all the peripheral books that had any ties to the DT series. It was a metric ass-ton of pages to read through it all.

Hot Takes Salesman > Jcarr
08/06/2015 at 23:46

Ambrose’s works are a great lens through which to view the American Second World War experience and what it meant to the men fighting.

Hot Takes Salesman > TractorPillow
08/06/2015 at 23:46

kinja blogs are for nerds

TractorPillow > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:48

Agreed!

TheOnelectronic > Hot Takes Salesman
08/06/2015 at 23:50

A bit of a different tack but I just finished The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds, and Nemesis Games by James SA Corey. (I was reading them concurrently.)

Now I need to find something else to read. The Expanse series surprised me. Book one was good, book two was okay, but three took off, four fired off the second stage, and then five reined in some of the craziness a bit. I am eagerly awaiting book six.

Prefect, on the other hand, was interesting because it takes Reynolds sort of dark and apocalyptic (and also relatively realistic- no FTL of any kind*) vision of civilization in space and shows you how it was before everything went so bad, while at the same time applying a sort of police thriller framework to it instead of the typical Archaeology ‘n Aliums slow burn.

*FTL is possible in his books, but it has yet to work and usually has nasty side effects like “erasing people from history”

Jcarr > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 00:05

Ship of Ghosts by James Hornfisher is a great WWII story along those lines. It's about the men of the USS Houston who are taken prisoner.

PowderHound > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 00:06

I just got “how to be a graphic designer without losing your soul” need to get on that one. Been in a slight reading slump.

desertdog5051 > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 00:52

Kinja'd!!!

I am a lover of geology and John writes about it in a great story telling way. I have 7 of his books.

promoted by the color red > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 00:57

Halfway through Tina Fey’s Bossypants. I’ve got some Toyota management books but my Tour de France book just arrived at the library, so it looks like they might go to the back burner.

ttyymmnn > Jcarr
08/07/2015 at 00:57

Read D-Day first, if you haven’t already. I read both D-Day and Citizen Soldiers , but never made it through Band of Brothers . I believe it was written with all the material that Ambrose left out of the other books, and I think it shows.

ttyymmnn > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 00:59

Kinja'd!!!

I have read his three-volume Military History of the Western World also. This book was written soon after the war ended, so there’s not very much Monday morning quarterbacking. His style might be a bit stiff and bookish, but the info is excellent.

ttyymmnn > Nibby
08/07/2015 at 01:00

Nibby, you never disappoint.

Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 01:03

I’m told it actually overlaps with Unbroken—the crew team rides the same boat over to the Olympics and they even describe Louie as the only guy who ate more on board than they did!

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > Jcarr
08/07/2015 at 06:36

That book (11/22/63) got recommended to me by someone here on Oppo, but I could never find the post again to thank them. Great book.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 06:38

Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis from the NFL to Youth Leagues. It's a book about CTE and how damaging head impacts can be. It's a quite interesting read.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > Nibby
08/07/2015 at 06:38

That is beyond terrifying, yet I can't look away.

Jcarr > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
08/07/2015 at 06:53

Tohru or Takuro (I can't remember which) recommended it to me the other day. I'm loving it so far.

DasWauto > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 08:01

I currently have ‘D-day’ by Antony Beevor and the Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum on the go. I’m enjoying both - the first is very informative and WWII history is one of my favourite subjects while the Bourne books look to be a great read because the movies didn’t follow the novels too closely, keeping the material fresh and interesting.

Nibby > ttyymmnn
08/07/2015 at 08:37

\o/ Thanks

Hot Takes Salesman > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
08/07/2015 at 11:24

And there's also how the NFL has largely ignored it for years. I saw a Frontline or 60 Minutes piece about how they were trying to suppress a doctor releasing a study about football CTE

Hot Takes Salesman > Nibby
08/07/2015 at 11:27

Christ almighty smite that fucking thing holy shit

Hot Takes Salesman > Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop
08/07/2015 at 11:29

However Louis was a 1500 meter runner, not a rower

Hot Takes Salesman > jester74
08/07/2015 at 11:31

You cannot star for you have been cursed by the evil ways of Kinjaaaaaa

Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 11:52

Right. All the American athletes shared a boat across the Atlantic.

Unbroken recounts Louis’s trip on the boat (and all the food he ate on board).

Boys in the Boat, which is about the rowing team, makes mention of the voyage too. The rowers remember Louis as the only guy on board who ate more than they did.

Kind of a cool thing to read 2 different accounts of this slice of history in 2 different books.

Hot Takes Salesman > Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop
08/07/2015 at 11:57

Ooooooh I see, makes sense. Cool

CaptDale - is secretly British > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 13:51

I have been trying to read Atlas Shrugged

911e46z06 > Hot Takes Salesman
08/07/2015 at 18:34

The Godfather. Fuckin finally. Can’t believe it took me this long to get around to it.

Grindintosecond > Hot Takes Salesman
08/27/2015 at 14:54

I’m reading ‘Poilu’ soon...about a French barrel maker that was sent to war in 1914 and survived the infantry for four years. He filled out 19 notebooks and it is all translated into that book. The only true account of a long term infantryman in WW1 on the front. Everything else is history writing using letters to home and from home and combining it all for a picture. this book is the real stuff.

After that, ‘Dark Invasion’, About discovering and pursuing the first Terrorist cell in america. It was during WW1 but before the US entered it and it was run by the German ambassador in D.C. they firebombed or destroeyd 40+ factories and attempted to bomb bridges and railroads and successfully set fire to many ships delivering supplies to the Allies....Very interesting to learn what I never learned in school.