What are you reading right now?

[Number_35]

I'm fortunate. Retired, mostly, but proofread and copy edit for a group of authors. So rather than going and buying books they are sent to me and I'm paid to read them. Sadly, they don't write fast enough in spite of my regular encouragement to write faster. That's when I go to things like Haley etc.

That sounds great! How did you get the job?

I've written to publishers a few times pointing out typos, but have never heard back. (I worked as a technical writer for a few years.)

 

[Number_35]

I am pretty sure I read Hotel more than once in my early 20s and loved it. I am pretty sure there was a major Hollywood movie made about the movie with the same title from the 1960s. Some may call it BORING! But I thought it was a very well made "period" film that just simply showed a slice of a certain time in America. Matter of fact the movie stared some real big Hollywood talent from the late 60s. I need to look into the Moneychangers as well. Thanks for listing those.

As you might guess, The Money changers was about banking, and Overload was about an electrical utility. Both were very good reads.

In High Places was published c. 1962 (IIRC) and was about politics in the U.S. and Canada as the Cold War heated up. It was a good read, but very dated even when I read it in the '80s.

Arthur Hailey was close friends with Pierre Burton, who wrote Canadian history, and shockingly made it interesting.

 

[LDB]

That sounds great! How did you get the job?

I've written to publishers a few times pointing out typos, but have never heard back. (I worked as a technical writer for a few years.)

In another lifetime I owned trucks and drove one in a niche, expediting. It was exclusive use direct delivery so I'd bounce around anywhere in the U.S. or Canada that had a road. Once delivered then it was hurry up and wait until the next job. I'd read. I thought why don't they do a better job on these books. I emailed one author and offered my observations. They were well received and he hired me to do his next book. I started contacting every author I read, provided I liked their work well enough. Maybe 1 in 10 would reply and maybe 1 in 10 of those would engage my work. But it slowly grew. I still do the same.

I've never had any luck with publishers. I don't know if it is because they are embarrassed by how poor their work is or what. One of my author's got a deal with a publisher but still commissions me. Here's one of his comments: “Yowser. It’s amazing a book that went through the production process at a New York house can have that much sloppiness. Good eye.” That work had 3 direct absolute errors, 2 debatable but in my opinion errors and 2 plot issues.

And one of my cold call clients said this: "I think your work is fantastic, Leo. At least five people, besides me, have been through these novels with the sole purpose of weeding out typos and dropped words, etc. These are people I trust and respect. The last one was a "professional" proof reader. You have a special gift for seeing the smallest things, almost as though you have a microscopic eye that nearly all the rest of us lack. I often have to go through the sentences you've sent me more than once before I see the error. It's truly amazing, and I'm glad you reached out to me. You make the work better. I don't know what higher praise I could give you.”

I find all sorts of things like vehicles that magically change color, guns that change caliber, names that change, who know what. But I never work for a minute. Doesn't get better.

 

[Pablo]

Just finished:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W969O0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_351_o09?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C7RJMJ8S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_351_o00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MYNQLZX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_351_o01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now reading:

https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Gold-Deep-Blue-Sea-ebook/dp/B008V43RXE

 

[53' Stude]

Few books about hiking Appalachian trail

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Few books about hiking Appalachian trail

i have read a couple very entertaining books about the "trail" by folks who have hiked a great deal of it. I have a cousin who grew up and lived really close to a portion in North East Tennessee and he was a park ranger at one time and he did a good bit of hiking and camping along the trail. He did mention there are some really tought sections one can encounter.

 

[53' Stude]

Very good can’t put it down

 

[Number_35]

Very good can’t put it down

View attachment 234998

Excellent book! I read it quite a few years ago, but some points still stick:

- Lou Gehrig was a natural hitter, who adapted well with increasingly lighter bats as his strength failed.

- His symptoms likely started months before it became apparent to anyone else.

- Ironically enough, it's very possible he had CTE due to being beamed so many times during his Ironman streak, rather than actual ALS.

He was a very good man by any standard.

 

[Pablo]

Now reading:

https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Gold-Deep-Blue-Sea-ebook/dp/B008V43RXE

View attachment 233890

Wow, this book is pretty intense so far. His detailed description of the ship failing is well written.

I enjoy this type of reading very much, fantasy and sci fi OK, I am quitting on political reading. Too depressing!! But historical type stuff seems to be my current favorite. Only some new gen fantasy books - I just quit reading after 20-30 pages. VERY POOR writing!!

 

[53' Stude]

Started this this afternoon between walks with Trevor. Very good, and I haven’t put it down til’ dinner bit ago.

 

[53' Stude]

Was working on Lou Gehrig til this 4 leg “thing” came up and knocked book out of my hands.

Someone didn’t get enough attention I’d wager

 

[53' Stude]

WS reading this at 6:30 am on porch. Very interesting book.

 

[Number_35]

WS reading this at 6:30 am on porch. Very interesting book.

View attachment 239005

HST is considered by many historians to be in the near-great category.

Trivia: I heard many years ago that the "S" in Truman's initials was just a filler, and wasn't the first letter of a middle name.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Trivia: I heard many years ago that the "S" in Truman's initials was just a filler, and wasn't the first letter of a middle name.

 

[Number_35]

It's time to revive this thread.

A week or so ago a friend dropped off several old paperbacks he was done with. One of them was "Enigma", historical fiction about the code breakers at Bletchley Park in England during WW2.

I thought it was really good. I'd never heard of the author, Robert Harris.

So I borrowed "Munich", another work of historical fiction from Harris, on Libby.

It's a fictional account of the events surrounding the Munich agreement in 1938, centered on British PM Neville Chamberlain's frantic attempts to secure a lasting peace with Hitler, and thus avert another world war.

Chamberlain is now remembered as a appeaser, who should have stood up to Hitler earlier, but the book presents him in a sympathetic light.

There's a quote from Hitler in the preface, from February 1945, in which he laments that if the war had started a year earlier, the Third Reich would have won easily.

So perhaps Chamberlain deserves credit for delaying the inevitable for 16 months.

Anyway, I thought it was really good, and recommend it highly.

 

[Pablo]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GUS68I

Really easy reading. This guy is a good, and breezy writer. Very enjoyable - lots of history of science for those of you (us) here that got none of this in grade school (I took an upper level History of Science class at university)

Anyway the meat of this book is quite good.

I mean how many people know the USA committee on the atomic bomb met (first important meeting) on Dec 6 1941?
The Germans coulda shoulda woulda atomic bomb, but perhaps if they really tried, they would have lost the war sooner. Yet this book starts well before this, and well ends with our current predicament without judging harshly either way.