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  • Re: What are you currently reading?

    I’m just into If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino, translated from the Italian by William Weaver.

    I bought this book many years ago (in the 1980s) at the Friends of the Library Book Sale, but never got around to read it. I’ve always liked Calvino’s works, especially Cosmicomics and Mr. Palomar.

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    • Re: What are you currently reading?

      Just finished both Sunday papers!

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      • Re: What are you currently reading?

        Just finished "A Short History of (Almost) Everything" by Bill Bryson. I dug it, but am now started on "Jingo" by Terry Pratchett to indulge in some considerably lighter reading.
        Don't be mean,
        try to help.

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        • Re: What are you currently reading?

          Originally posted by jdub View Post
          Just finished "A Short History of (Almost) Everything" by Bill Bryson.
          I'm a big fan of Bryson's writing, though I still haven't tackled this one yet. If you read his recent memoir, "The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid," you'll get a glimpse of my own childhood. He and I are a decade apart in age, but we grew up in the same neighborhood in Des Moines, Iowa (are you listening, Anapuni?)

          I just started a book I picked up years ago in Canada, an insider's humorous look at the CBC: "Cue the Elephant" by Knowlton Nash.

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          • Re: What are you currently reading?

            Originally posted by Leo Lakio View Post
            I'm a big fan of Bryson's writing, though I still haven't tackled this one yet. If you read his recent memoir, "The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid," you'll get a glimpse of my own childhood. He and I are a decade apart in age, but we grew up in the same neighborhood in Des Moines, Iowa (are you listening, Anapuni?)
            "A Short History..." is all I've read, but he came highly recommended and now I see why. I look forward to whatever of his I pick up next, which will probably be "Thunderbolt Kid," as it comes from an inscrutably reliable source. Thanks, Leo!
            Don't be mean,
            try to help.

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            • Re: What are you currently reading?

              I picked up Bryson's first book, "The Lost Continent," when it first came out in 1989. I read the opening line: "I come from Des Moines, Iowa. Somebody had to." - and I was hooked. It's about his adventures after his father (a sports writer for the Des Moines Tribune) passed away. Bryson came home for the funeral, borrowed his dad's old car, and drove in a bowtie-shaped path around the contiguous states. One of the most hilarious books I've ever read.

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              • Interesting pix of Hawaii during the WW2 years

                In the new book - Hawaii Homefront... something something something, by MacKinnon Simpson, there are tons of (never before seen to me) pictures, and complimenting text, that really tries to capture the feeling of the times that were.
                One pic in particular was a real find, that of Ka'a'awa with the Army encampments shown from Makaua Valley to Ka'a'awa Valley, but focusing on the area of Makaua Valley where I used to live by Swanzy and the fire sta., and clearly seen is the storied ampitheater where the likes of Bob Hope used to entertain the troops. Many times friends and I tried to locate the exact spot amongst the overgrowth, looking for cement remnants or whatever, but now I know why it always ended in frustration. The ampitheater was just a big dug out area, with it's contours covered in grass, no seating at all, just quasi au-natural, with a little shack at the 'stage' for protection of the electrical equipment probably. Nothing else.
                https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Ingan...5875444640256/

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                • Re: What are you currently reading?

                  I picked up 2 books recently - the first is an unabridged reprint of a 1937 book called "Science & Music" written for musicians by Sir James Jeans. Very interesting. While the physics hasn't changed - they way we present the material has changed drastically. The book is full of what had to be hand drawn diagrams of sound waves (how else would they generate them in 1937?). There are a few photographs of a new technique they called "sound curves" generated on an oscilloscope - though the author refers to it as an 'electronic device'. Amazing! He also goes on about a new device that can actually detect the frequency spectrum of a given sound, though it still needed perfecting. There are some frequency spectra- which had to be calculated by hand and then graphed by hand. These spectra required the solving of complex integrals using a slide rule. The graphing required actual graph paper and pencils!

                  Today, I can record any sound live in class, and immediately analyze the sound file and FFT (today's version of frequency analysis). I can also alter specific frequencies (notes) to get it in tune or out, and alter individual amplitudes of those notes.

                  Another thing that I found fascinating (and in stark contrast to today) is that the author would use comparisons to the innerworkings of the telephone and wireless (radio) as if it were a given that everyone understood how they worked. How many of you would know how to build a microphone or speaker if given a bunch of wire and a magnet? I do a lab where we build a working speaker and it is always one of the class favorites because they have no idea how simple it is.

                  As you can tell, I found this book to be a compelling read - just to make comparisons to how it is done today.

                  The 2nd book I picked up is called "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. This is a fun read. For me, anything dealing with time travel is a fun read. But this is more of a romance/airplane type of book that happens to be about time travel. More of a guilty pleasure. I'm trying real hard not to blast the author for violating the laws! It's like going to a concert and enjoying it for what it is and not pay attention to technical details

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                  • Re: What are you currently reading?

                    No Speed Limit by Frank Owen. Sort of about the history of meth. I'm slowing easing my way back into the school mentality. 21 more hours until that sweet degree is all mine! (I'm almost done with the coursework part of becoming a licensed substance abuse counselor; I'm not taking meth to stay up to study. Just wanted to make that clear!)

                    Can't think of anything creative this time

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                    • Re: What are you currently reading?

                      Over Christmas I was on a reading spree and went through about six or seven books, lately I've been trying to find any time to sit and read.

                      A few weeks ago I finished Check The Technique by Brian Coleman, a book that takes an in-depth look at certain key hip-hop albums. Most hip-hop albums do not have liner notes, so the book is something for the liner notes junkie who needs to know more.

                      I purchased Hot Damn and Hell Yeah/The Dirty South Cookbook, a cookbook that combines two previously released cookbooks and brings them together. It is a vegan cookbook for those who want to have Southern style cooking but without the meat. I'm not a vegan or vegetarian, but as someone who enjoys cooking from time to time, I wanted to try something healthier, especially after the success of a vegan macaroni & cheese recipe a friend had sent to me. Plus it doesn't hurt to clear the arteries once in awhile.

                      I hope to start reading Traditions and Transgression, a book about jazz musician/composer John Zorn, this weekend.

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                      • Re: What are you currently reading?

                        Originally posted by Leo Lakio View Post
                        I just started a book I picked up years ago in Canada, an insider's humorous look at the CBC: "Cue the Elephant" by Knowlton Nash.
                        Finished it yesterday. Starting tonight on David Michaelis's biography of the creator of the comic strip, "Peanuts," Charles Schulz.

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                        • For guitar geeks only!

                          The new book on steel and solid body guitar pioneer, Paul A. Bigsby - www.bigsbyguitars.com/news12.html - www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101583548
                          https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Ingan...5875444640256/

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                          • Re: What are you currently reading?

                            Originally posted by Leo Lakio View Post
                            Finished it yesterday. Starting tonight on David Michaelis's biography of the creator of the comic strip, "Peanuts," Charles Schulz.
                            Leo, off topic, but inspired by this book you are reading:

                            Frank Miller's Charlie Brown
                            http://www.cinematical.com/photos/fr...-brown/1419750/

                            pax

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                            • Re: What are you currently reading?

                              Originally posted by Pua'i Mana'o View Post
                              Brilliant example of reframing - thanks, P.M., I dig it.

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                              • Re: What are you currently reading?

                                I'm reading "Younger Next Year" by Chris Crowley and Dr. Harry Lodge...ugh a serious, serious middle age wake up call. Good thing I've been cleaning up my own act before picking this up. Had I not I might feel like planning the celebration of my demise.

                                But the bottom line message is, if you make some (serious) life changes, you can have a dramatic effect on your quality of life as you grow older.

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