More Books

I'm fascinated by lists, so let's assume you are, too. You know the drill.  This is what I've been reading lately.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman
I've read it before (more than once probably), but since I had just read Cary Elwes book, I thought it was fitting to read this again. Delightful as always.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
In a world where all movie previews start out with "In a world . . .", this book was not what I expected.  These days you know just what to expect when hostile aliens land on earth, there will be explosions, the military, and probably the president of the United States is going to have to personally punch someone in the face or something. You know what I'm talking about, you've seen this movie ten times over. This book is not any of those movies, though. It's a travelogue narrated after the fact detailing the Martians landing in England. Interesting, but not captivating. Interesting is good for non-fiction, but fiction needs more captivating.

Manhunt by James Swanson
John Booth, cranky actor, shot President Lincoln, jumped from the box to the stage, broke his leg, ran off, was discovered in a barn in Maryland and was shot and killed. That's a nice tidy story, which until recently I assumed took less than 12 days to happen. As it turns out, I was wrong.  As we live in the Land of Lincoln these days, I figured I should be a little more knowledgeable on the subject.  The book is well written. At 391 pages, it can start to get a little slow when Booth and friend spent the better part of a week hiding in the bushes, but I'd definitely recommend it if the topic interests you.

Wu Tang Physics Clan by Boring Liberal Arts-Major
Ok, the book is actually named The Dancing Wu Li Masters and it was written by Gary Zukav. It's from the 70s and is supposed to be some sort of lay mans description of modern physics. It's terrible. I tried, but I could only get about 50 pages in. I don't remember what his point was with the title of the book, but the first 50 pages were primarily him blathering on about Eastern Philosophy and modern physics and how wonderfully difficult it is and how understanding the universe. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for understanding the universe, but that phrase has two distinct means which I think Mr Zukav is wrong to conflate. Physics want to understand the mechanisms by which a set of physical conditions causes other events to happen. Liberal Arts majors want to talk about "what it all means". Both are worthy things to discuss, but I don't believe that one is particularly useful in describing the other. If you want to understand something about modern physics, I can point you to all sorts of better books. I've reviewed entertaining ones, massively dense books, and dumb books. I've also apparently neglected to review yet other books on the general subject that range from challenging but excellent, to simple enough that your dog can understand. Any of them would be better than this one. (Though, if you are really going to read something, the first one is excellent, and the last two are very good.  Skip the other two.)

Once a Spy by Keith Thomson
Dad is 60-something, suffering from Alzheimer's and doesn't have much of a relationship with his son. Oh, and someone wants him dead. Turns out, he never mentioned to his son that he used to be a super spy. All sorts of fast action spy stuff the occurs, interspersed with Dad not knowing what's going on. This book was OK, but for me there were a few too many plot twists to the point that every chapter seemed to end with "But wait! Here's something else!"

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
I've now read about a half a dozen of McCullough's books which are typically very good. This one is even better than average. This is the story of the Wright Brothers focusing primarily on their years when they were developing the first airplane. At the end, I was wishing the book were longer (it's only 262 pages) but it's one of McCullough strengths that he doesn't try to write everything on a topic that could possibly be written and instead just tells the story with enough detail that you can appreciate it all. I would recommend this book. Also, North Carolina needs to give up this whole "First in Flight" thing on their license plates. Two guys from Dayton, OH came to your tiny fishing village on the outer banks because you had a sandy hill and a nice breeze. You really ought to be able to come up with something more impressive about your state. The Wrights built their plane in Ohio, and once they had made their first powered flights they quit going back to Kitty Hawk at all because they didn't need the breeze and hill any more and just flew around in someone's field a few miles outside of Dayton. Essentially the whole state is hanging it's hat on "Dayton didn't happen to have a nice breeze like Kitty Hawk does." (And of course they put it on their quarter, too.)

Ok, now I'm running of things to read, so you can suggest me a book if you want.