I just found out about this book.
The Big Picture by Sean Carroll was great for what I read. I had to put it down though when it started contributing to my general fear of a lack of significance leading to the heat death of the universe.
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty was excellent. One hell of a writer. Itâs the pleasure of voyeurism usually found in psychological suspense. In this one, nine strangers gather at a remote health resort where they soon wonder what theyâve gotten themselves into. Previous fare from Moriarty was Big Little Lies.
Working my way through Plot Outlines of 101 Best Novels. This copy was published in 1969. Found it at the thrift store. Thatâs where I got Nine Perfect Strangers. I like to find stuff to read there. The best finds are when someone left a bunch of handwritten notes.
Also opened a copy of Penguin History of the World and already am going to need a magnifying glass. Iâve never seen print this small!
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I spent Xmas deep diving into the trans horror novel Manhunt.
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Whatâs the last Michael Crichton book everyone read?
Mine was Prey. Then he did State of Fear and I very suddenly just couldnât with that one or anything after.
I got on a big Michael Crichton kick in middle school when I read Terminal Man, Andromeda Strain, Sphere, Jurassic Park, some book about Vikings (I think?) and maybe some other stuff. I never read his later work though
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I need to do a ranking. I think mine was State of Fear. I read it in college right when I started being political and I remember reading a blurb about how he rushed it to push for the Bush anti environmental agenda and I remember reading it and being like âoh yea that tracksâ.
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I was the same. Sphere, Congo, Jurassic Park and a couple others. I also read a bunch of the Bourne books and Tom Clancy as an elementary/middle schooler.
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The 13th Warrior!! That was made into an excellent movie starring Antonio Banderas.
Crichton at his peak was unbeatable. I could still read Jurassic Park, Sphere, and Andromeda Strain. Oh and Timeline! That felt like a revelation for me at the time that cut through a bunch of Hollywood mythology vs the reality of medieval France.
The movie also gave birth to the TREBUCHET meme.
Reading The Stakes from Flight 93 Michael Anton guy. The start really lays out that these guys are loser dweebes from California in that Iâm treated to a very long and extended diatribe against California but in such detail that you can tell he lives there.
So far the number one issue heâs complaining about is housing costs. Rubbing my hands to see if he thinks California should build more houses or stop immigration.
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Reading The Fifties by David Halberstam as it popped up for free on Kindle Unlimited. Highly readable condensed history of, well, the fifties. An era before my time and thus never knew a whole lot about. Until now.
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I liked it. The focus on individual people who would later represent movements was a nifty idea.
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Recently read the Samuel Johnson bio by W. Jackson Bate. It is long and detailed but I really liked it. SJ is a bit of a role model for me after reading this.
He almost single-handedly wrote THE English dictionary for 150 years (!) before the OED. This despite the fact that he grew up pretty poor (he went to an Oxford college for a bit but didnât have the $ to continue). He was loyal to his friends, constantly helping them out by writing introductions etc. He helped poor people, despite having little money himself. Even after the success of the dictionary he was so poor that he almost got thrown into debtorâs prison. Also he dealt with what was probably Touretteâs syndrome, and had bouts of crippling depression and despair. I feel ya dawg⌠Overall seemed like an honest and insightful guyâthe first great English critic, by most accounts.
The biography delves too much into psychological analysis of SJ at timesâe.g. pronouncing that his depression was due to Factors X, Y, and Z. Most of the time this analysis seems insightful, but sometimes it lapses into unfalsifiable mind-reading.
After that I read ColeridgeâEarly Visions 1772-1804, the first of a two-volume bio by Richard Holmes. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the OG of the Romantic poets. He grew up around Wordsworth and a lot of the other intellectual hotshots of the day. He was very dramatic as a youth, with lots of navel-gazing and exclamation points. He would have fit in well as a member of The Cure. Became addicted to opium and didnât treat his wife very well (was always traipsing around, leaving her alone with the kids for long periods) and had semi-public infatuations/affairs with other women. Probably was manic-depressive. Big walker (the book says he walked 90 miles in two days once). Coleridge was an influence on Emerson, another one of my role models.
Famous poems include Rime of the Ancient Mariner which gave rise to an excellent Iron Maiden song and the phrase âwater, water everywhere, nor any drop to drinkâ (which apparently we all mis-quote), and the metaphor of an albatross around your neck.
Another famous one is Kubla Khan, which is, like, out there, man. I kind of empathize with Dejection: An Ode.
Iâll probably read the second STC volume, but maybe in a few months. This book is recommended only if you have an interest in STC or romantic poetry; otherwise you might find it tedious. I liked it though.
Also read With the Old Breed by Sledge. Gruesome accounts of the battles for Peleliu and Okinawa. The Pacific HBO mini-series was partly based on this book. Man, the Pacific theater was the worst. Heat and muck and hand-to-hand combat. Nightmare scenes of being battered by mortar and artillery for hours on end, with decaying corpses all around. Brutal fighting with the Japanese often resisting to the last man. Really grim shit that should be required reading to anyone who has notions of war being at all glamorous.
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I rewatched the Pacific last year and read a ton about it after that.
Guadalcanal Diaries was great
Helmet for my pillow was solid
Island of the damned was ok but seems like a retread of sledgeâs book just not as good
Finished Bag of Bones, loved it. Thanks Risky.
âGrief is like a drunken houseguest, always coming back for one more goodbye hug.â Tell me that doesnât hit.
Different Seasons next.
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Different Seasons is a great read. Three of my favorite shortish novels by King.
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