# Read Any Good Books Lately? 3 Recommendations Here



## keto (May 23, 2006)

I read a lot, always have. Mainly what I'll very loosely classify as 'American fiction', from F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway up to some current authors. Try and get in some CanCon when I hear about good stuff, the odd biograpy, a little sci-fi, and some trashier bulk stuff ala King and Grisham from time to time.

Anyways, I reread Shogun by James Clavell a couple of weeks ago. Sprawling epic 1200 pager about feudal 1600's Japan, and the beginnings of European entrance to Japan. Fantastic piece of historical fiction, based on real events but fictionalized characters. A classic and highly recommended. Some of you may remember (as I do) the TV mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain, I think that was early 80's.

I just finished Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen. I picked it up off the 'Heather's picks' table at Chapters, knowing nothing about the book or author (she's Canadian), just based on the description on the back cover. Wow, what a stupendous read. Story revolves around life in a travelling circus in the 1930's, lots of great detail about that industry mixed in with a bit of a love story (2 if you count the woman and the elephant TOP THAT!). And occasionally the main character flashes forward to modern times, when in his 90's he reflects back on his time as the vet for the travelling circus. Great characters, great atmosphere, believable plot that sucked me right in. I was just blown away, it was the best book I had read since

Three Day Road, by Joseph Boynton. Also a Canadian. 2 Natives from a reservation enlist for WWI and become an elite sniper or more accurately counter-sniper team. You follow them right from the bush to boot camp to the front lines in Europe picking off German snipers. Boynton won several awards for this one, again it comes with the full keto stamp of approval.

PS Take a pass on the latest Stephen King short story collection. I seriously wanted my $12 back, it was brutally bad.

So what has piqued your interest lately?


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

I dont read anymore because print is dead, and it interferes with my collections of molds, spores and fungii. However when I did read, I always liked A Confederacy of Dunces, The Great Shark Hunt, and Where the Buffalo Roam. I liked crazzee authors..............


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

There of my favourites from 2009. I get all my books from the local library, so it doesn't really matter if I get a stinker once in a while:

World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler:
http://tinyurl.com/ydmavlz


The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
http://tinyurl.com/y8mhsv9


The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson
http://tinyurl.com/yacz4bs


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Accept2 said:


> I dont read anymore because print is dead, and it interferes with my collections of molds, spores and fungii. However when I did read, I always liked A Confederacy of Dunces, The Great Shark Hunt, and Where the Buffalo Roam. I liked crazzee authors..............


Hunter is probably my favorite author of all time. His grotesque sense of humor would describe mine pretty well. Outside of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is a must read for any freak. Try and find "The Curse of Lono". I rate that number two of all his work.


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## ashm70 (Apr 2, 2009)

Just finished a few:

The Book of ******

It was pretty good, but felt like it was wrapped up too quickly for the last quarter...

Raymond Fiest - Daughter of the Empire series and Conclave of Shadows

Have read all of his other stuff... Along the same lines, well written stories

HP Lovecraft 

Assorted tales, love his stuff...

I just got a few wilbur smith books to read, gonna get started on those this week probably.


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

OK..if you're into 80's rock & Roll..and into Ozzy and Randy Road, this is an incredible book, almost done reading it and it's incredible read. you'll see what a CRAZY BITCH Shanon was from the start..hehehe.

OFF THE RAILS by Rudy Zarzo.


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## Rugburn (Jan 14, 2009)

Another vote here for Hunter S. Thompson. "Songs Of The Dooomed" is a cool collection of previously published material and some new writing as well. It mostly spans the "prime" years of his writing.

William S. Burroughs is a fascinating writer if you can stomach some of the themes. Anything by Ernest Hemmingway. One of my favorites is "A Moveable Feast". This book was born out of a trunk Hemmingway found containing diaries he kept when he lived in Paris. It's been re-published this year and contains changes made by his grandson upon finding a previously lost manuscript with the updates in it. Cool!


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## Morbo (Aug 26, 2009)

Good recommendations, you guys mentioned lots of authors on my list "to eventually read". I'll read a few crazy books around during my short Christmas break. 

I recommend A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, a series of books that will be 7 books long when finished, with 4 already published. The first one is A Game of Thrones. It's technically fantasy but it's very mature, very well-written. Read it before the HBO adaptation comes out (which is going to be... incredible).


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## Guest (Nov 11, 2009)

My wife is a voracious reader. I finish a book and she recommends the next one. That's usually how it goes. I'm also a big H.S.T. fan -- _Hells Angles_, _The Run Diaries_, _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_, _The Great Shark Hunt_ (his reports from the Kentucky Derby are some of his best writing IMO) are all amazing books.

Cormack McCarthy - _The Road_: I'm not sure I liked this book. It is disturbing. Especially if you're a father. Deeply, profoundly disturbing. I understand why he got the acclaim for it -- he paints huge pictures with very few words. But still: this book is warped. Haunted me for days after I finished it.

Larry McMurty - _Lonsome Dove_: I don't usually go in for westerns, especially big huge westerns like this one. But the wife convinced me I'd like it and she was right. This is an epic tale, told so well you'll get to the end and wish there was another 1000 pages to read. The characters evolve so well, the plot moves so nicely. There's an ebb of highs and lows in the tale. I want to read some other McMurty books now like The Last Picture Show.

Terry Pratchet - Just about anything he writes: I'm on the last book of the Discworld series now, _Unseen Academicals_. I've read the rest of the books in the series. Plus the offshoots. Bit of a fan I am. I like the Brit style of dry humour. Before Pratchet it was Douglas Adams. It's a real shame he's terminally ill.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Last 6 months or so I have finished of these as well

The Appeal - John Grisham 3*
The Footprints of God - Greg Iles 4*
The Bourne Betrayal - Robert Ludlum 3*
Angles and Demons - Dan Brown 3*


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## Guest (Nov 11, 2009)

Rugburn said:


> One of my favorites is "A Moveable Feast". This book was born out of a trunk Hemmingway found containing diaries he kept when he lived in Paris.


I _love_ this book. Far and away my favourite Hemmingway book. You can feel him struggling with his less-is-more writing style and his pre-machismo writing is so much more interesting.


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

I am currently in the middle of "We Were Soldiers Once...Any Young" by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L Galloway. A true history lesson on the Ia Drang battle in Vietnam.

The first few chapters were a little too dry and loaded with military lingo, but heats up fast when the Huey's drop in to a red hot LZ. For me this is a window into the realities of war, and what seems to be a massive waste of lives. Very sad. This war was before my time however has lingering effects still today, therefore I wanted to better understand it.


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## Guest (Nov 11, 2009)

cheezyridr said:


> i am a voracious reader, but the stuff i read would make the intelligentsia among us sneer. most of what i read comes from the book exchange down the street. i like dean koontz, and tom clancy alot. i've read the assorted lovecraft stories more times than i can count.


Some people are too serious. I read for fun, to relax, to escape. Most of what I read wouldn't be considered mind-expanding literature. I'm a big Pratchet fan. I've read all the John Rebus series from Ian Rakin (plus a bunch of his other books -- just finished The Complaints, his latest, and it was good but certainly not ground breaking literature...just a good cop story.). I really enjoy the Elvis Cole detective series from Robert Crais (the pair of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike is a cool team).


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I think ANY kind of reading is good. No matter what it is it is good for you. I learn something from anything I read, might be just a few new words but I think reading is a great thing to expand the mind.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

cheezyridr said:


> i am a voracious reader, but the stuff i read would make the intelligentsia among us sneer.



...same here. i've read way too many koontz, patterson, grisham, king etc.

my passion is detective novels. ian rankin. peter robinson. michael connelly.

i've recently discovered lee child. his "jack reacher" character is fascinating.

however, i do plan to make a list of some of the great books mentioned here and look for them at my favourite second hand shops.

-dh


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

cheezyridr said:


> i am a voracious reader, but the stuff i read would make the intelligentsia among us sneer. most of what i read comes from the book exchange down the street. i like dean koontz, and tom clancy alot. i've read the assorted lovecraft stories more times than i can count.


Me 3, I would add David Baldacchi, Johanathan Kellerman, & Lisa Jackson to that list, I read like some folks watch TV. I also will admit to really liking Historical Fiction and the occasional bodice ripper


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

cheezyridr said:


> i am a voracious reader, but the stuff i read would make the intelligentsia among us sneer. most of what i read comes from the book exchange down the street. i like dean koontz, and tom clancy alot. i've read the assorted lovecraft stories more times than i can count.
> 
> i will reccomend 2 books i wish people would read.
> 
> ...


Hope I didn't come across as snooty in first post - I too read mostly for pure enjoyment plus, as GC mentions, I seem to inadvertently _learn a lot_ while reading. Sure, lots of it is trivial, but too a lot of it contributes to a better understanding of the world we live in. In just that vein, I'm very interested in the 2 books you referenced.

True for me too that there are authors that I know are important, that I _want_ to like, that I have tried mostly multiple times, and yet I just cannot force myself to slog through their work. Hunter S. is one, others are Thomas Pynchon (I have both Gravity's Rainbow and Remains of the Day here and can't finish either), Jose Saramago, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My brother gave me Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie years ago, I've started it probably 5 times but never got even halfway through. So I'm no snob.

I'm going to give another recommendation, seeing as I'm posting  Most of you have likely heard of Norman Mailer. The book he made his reputation on is a WWII subject, about a squad on an island in the Asian Pacific. The Japanese still hold a good portion of the island, the squad is sent long-way around and over a mountain to do some scouting. Very gritty, graphic for its time - The Naked And The Dead. I think most of the rest of Mailers career was coasting off of this one, but it's very well worth the time to read.

Funny how tastes are so different. Starbuck mentions Baldacci, I slogged thru a couple of his and have no idea how he became popular in the first place


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## fretboard (May 31, 2006)

I enjoyed the couple of Malcolm Gladwell's I read recently - Blink & Outliers. I didn't really want to like them because they're a little too "flavour of the month", but too many of my friends suggested them and they were good reads. 

I'm at the library once a week anyway with my kids so I've also feasted on the typical crime/mystery stuff - Michael Connelly, James Rollins, Dan Brown, etc. Love Elmore Leonard's writing and Walter Mosley too. Really enjoy the Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child books they write together.

Going to start a new one from Emily Schultz soon, just because we grew up a couple streets so away from each other and would hang out from time to time with her brothers, and my dad still golfs with her dad. Glad to see a SW Ontario gal doing well for herself in her chosen field.


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

I used to love to read. After 15 years in the IT field where I read documentation, manuals, white papers, technical papers etc, the last thing I want to do when I get home is read. Plus after playing guitar most every night for 2 hours I usually wind down with about an hour of TV then go to sleep.


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## Guest (Nov 11, 2009)

fretboard reminded me: I went on a Dashiell Hammett kick earlier this year. Read through all of his stuff. Fantastic crime/mystery novels. Totally belies the time when they were written. Sam Spade is a super freaking cool private eye character. If you're a Calvin & Hobbes fan, the Tracer Bullet character that Calvin plays is modeled after Sam Spade.

Another series that I borrow from my inlaws from time to time, because it can be a bit hard to find, is the Travis McGee series from John D. MacDonald. Another "too cool for you" type detective with some seriously twisted stories. _A Tan and Sandy Silence_ and _The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper_ are really good. I've been trying to track down a hard cover copy of _The Lonely Silver Rain_ to add to the library.


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## Luke98 (Mar 4, 2007)

I Just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Pretty depressing book, about a post nuclear armageddon in America, and a father and son trying to travel south. Extremely well written, just a great book. May be a little graphic, but still a riveting read.

And I'm reading John Dies at the End by David Wong. It's sort of a mix between horror and comedy, often laugh out loud funny, and scary in a Lovecraft sort of way. Another great book.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

This past summer I got down to business on:

*Songbook* (Nick Hornby), pretty light reading.

*The World In Six Songs* (Daniel J. Levitin), more light reading.

*Music, The Brain, & Ecstasy* (Robert Jourdain), brilliant and amazing stuff, highly recommended.

Right now I'm starting:

*Music In Canada, Capturing Landscape and Diversity* (Elaine Keillor), which looks great.

...and spending lots of time with the *Oxford Companion To Music*, which has been my favourite music reference for many years.

Haven't read any history in a while, and very little fiction in years.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

Here's what I've read recently:

*Songbook* by Nick Hornby. Love his work. Very funny stuff.

*Scarecrow* by Michael Connelly. My favorite detective/police procedural writer

*The Footprints of God* by Greg Iles. Another one of my favorite fiction writers.

*The Game by Neill Strauss. An account of Strauss' venture into the world of pickup artists. Highly recommended if you are interested in psychology.

Champion Body for Life by Art Carey....because someday I will complete the BFL Challenge!!! Just have to find time and will power!!

Room Full of Mirrors by Charles R Cross. Biography of Jimi Hendrix

Heavier Than Heaven by Charles R Cross. Biography of Kurt Cobain

The Dave Grohl Story by Jeff Apter

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Age of Propaganda by Anthony Pratkanis

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Have been wanting to read this forever. Finally did it. Concluded that I wasn't really missing much and would never get that time back.

I've read a lot more than that over the past six months but can't recall what. I try to alternate between fiction and non-fiction. 1:1. Keeps me in control. That way I don't get too caught up in the fiction (about 10 years ago I read 34 Robert Ludlum books in a row and figured out that all of his stories are essentially the same!)

Currently reading The Great Depression Ahead by Harry S Dent. I hope he is wrong or else the next 10 years or so will suck.*


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

*Music In Childhood* (Patricia Shehan Campbell & Carol Scott-Kassner)

*The Singing Book* (Meribeth Bunch & Cynthia Vaughn)

University bookstores are dangerous places for me. I've got 2 kids and the bride all in different universities so the temptation to visit and spend are great. 

Peace, Mooh.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I love to read books that draw me in, but I was never the type to look up authors and stuff - just read the backs/insides of books, see if it interests me, and proceed from there.

The last book I was reading is called "The Magicians" (I think). I borrowed it from my sister over thanksgiving, where I read it from 12am to 6am the night before I had to come back to school. I didn't finish it, and need to find it again so that I can. Fantastic read! Narnia mixed with harry potter, but more believable than both.


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## Rugburn (Jan 14, 2009)

I've mentioned "Musicophilia" by Dr.Oliver Sacks before, but for those who might not know about this book, it's an amazing collection of research and study on the effects of music on the brain. Written in a style that doesn't leave those of us who don't have their "Psych 101" in the dust. There's a few videos on the Amazon page by the good Dr. himself. Check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/Musicophilia-Tales-Music-Oliver-Sacks/dp/1400040817

Shawn :smile:


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

guitarman2 said:


> I used to love to read. After 15 years in the IT field where I read documentation, manuals, white papers, technical papers etc, the last thing I want to do when I get home is read. Plus after playing guitar most every night for 2 hours I usually wind down with about an hour of TV then go to sleep.


I hear you. For me, the "ideal" reading is simply a parts catalog, or my binders of schematics.

While I certaily don't poo-poo fiction, whether "literature" or pop stuff, it lost its attraction for me somewhere in the early 80's, so I'm mainly about non-fiction and catalogs for the last quarter century. The three things I have my bookmarks in for "busride reading" at the moment are:

- this one: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/?view=usa&view=usa&ci=0199234035

- this one: http://ca.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405179023.html

- and this one that I just took out of the library this morning: http://www.e-elgar.com/bookentry_mainUS.lasso?id=4187

Not exactly cottage or beach reading, I'm afraid. I did enjoy Dave Bidini's "Around the World in 57-1/2 Gigs", though, which my wife bought me as a present last year. Does that count as "light"?


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

lot of my lifelong favourites already mentioned here.
this week i re-read Thor Heyerdahl's "The RA Expeditions"
i love everything this guy ever did or wrote
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl

also just last night finished reading William Craig's "enemy at the gates"
this is the book they based that movie on- you know the one about the russian sniper, with all the russians sporting english accents. funny that.
the book however is a pure factual account of the battle for stalingrad, replete with maps and photos. the movie was based on the facts contained within just 2 pages of this books 450 pages.

if i may suggest a couple of my favourites not already mentioned-
James Michener-"The Source"
Gary Jennings-"Aztec"

i love books that i cant put down- big fat epics that i can sink into for hours- and these 2 are so good i re-read them each about once a year or so-


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## nitehawk55 (Sep 19, 2007)

keithb7 said:


> I am currently in the middle of "We Were Soldiers Once...Any Young" by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L Galloway. A true history lesson on the Ia Drang battle in Vietnam.
> 
> The first few chapters were a little too dry and loaded with military lingo, but heats up fast when the Huey's drop in to a red hot LZ. For me this is a window into the realities of war, and what seems to be a massive waste of lives. Very sad. This war was before my time however has lingering effects still today, therefore I wanted to better understand it.


That's a hard book to get into , the movie is good watching . 

A good read on the CDN military in Afganistan is called "15 Days"...it's done very well and is a real eye opener .


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

keithb7 said:


> I am currently in the middle of "We Were Soldiers Once...Any Young" by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L Galloway. A true history lesson on the Ia Drang battle in Vietnam.
> 
> The first few chapters were a little too dry and loaded with military lingo, but heats up fast when the Huey's drop in to a red hot LZ. For me this is a window into the realities of war, and what seems to be a massive waste of lives. Very sad. This war was before my time however has lingering effects still today, therefore I wanted to better understand it.


The movie stars Mel Gibson and Madeline Stowe. It was very well done I thought, showing the battle from both sides.


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## nitehawk55 (Sep 19, 2007)

Big_Daddy said:


> The movie stars Mel Gibson and Madeline Stowe. It was very well done I thought, showing the battle from both sides.


Yes it was pretty intense , especially when Too Tall and Snake Sh*t open up on them with the gattling guns on the helecopters....brutal . 
Snake justed passed away back in the spring but the reporter ( can't think of his name ) played by Barry Pepper still has an active website if you google it .


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Not too many sci-fi readers? I would recommend Asimov. Brilliant! I read the whole "Robot" series which is a collection of about 24 books and shhort stories. The "Foundation" series is awesome too, about 30 novels and short stories. The Anne McCaffery "Pern" series is excellent.
Other than that, I read a bunch of Steven King (Dark Tower series, WOW!). Robert Ludlem (the books are soo much better than the movies). LeCarre is cool. I read Homers Oddessy whch was good if you can get by the repetativeness (originally an epic poem).
I tend toward non-fiction and read a bunch of things on alt energy, electronics, wood working, car stuff and just re-subscribed to Harrowsmith.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Jim DaddyO said:


> Not too many sci-fi readers?


Used to, a lot. Subscribed to Omni magazine too, remember that? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_(magazine)) Got out of the habit as my eyesight declined and my work related reading (case law, yawn) increased. 

Peace, Mooh.


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## Andy (Sep 23, 2007)

Jennifer Government by Max Barry - Basically the capitalist equivalent of Nineteen Eighty-Four, but with a generous dose of dark humor. This is probably my favourite book.

The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov - Again, dystopian fiction -- I'm a big fan of the genre.


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## rhh7 (Mar 14, 2008)

"ABDUCTED:How People Come To Believe They Were Kidnapped By Aliens", by Susan A. Clancy - a Harvard trained Phd. in psychology-Clancy interviews 50 people who believe they were abducted by aliens-an interesting study of memory, and the nature of belief. I really enjoyed this book.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

That actually sounds like an interesting one. There are certain commonalities to "outlier experiences" that shed much light on the human nervous system and mind. For example, the commonalities in what people describe following near-death experiences, or the manner in which schizophrenics all over interpret their unusual perceptions as thoughts being broadcast or placed into their heads by others. I'm not suggesting that folks who believe they have been abducted are mentally ill. Rather, the human mind constantly strives to make sense of the information it takes in, and when the information or circumstances are off the beaten track, the manner in which the information is interpreted gets, um, "interesting".

To whit, some 35 years ago, as an undergraduate, I volunteered to have a simulated arm amputation in a study of "phantom limb" pain. The simulated amputation involved cutting off the blood supply to my right arm for 45 minutes. Myself, and pretty much everybody who participated experienced many of the sensory phenomena of phantom limbs (including distortion of limb size and the perception of the arm in a standard position against one's chest), except that unlike those who actually lose limbs, we got to return to normal life. Not right away, though. For about a day and a half after they let the blood back in, my right arm felt like it was not part of me. "Me" ended at my shoulder, and I was merely using the arm the way one would use a tool. Weird....but fascinating. And hey, I earned $8.50, which bought a week's groceries in those days!


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## rhh7 (Mar 14, 2008)

Wow!...I could never have done that.


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## rhh7 (Mar 14, 2008)

Tonight I am reading "Hound", by Vincent McCaffrey. McCaffrey is the owner of Boston's legendary Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop, and this mystery is his debut novel. 

The hero is a "bookhound", he makes his living buying and selling books at estate auctions, and from the relatives of the recently deceased. He gets drawn into a murder investigation, when a former lover calls to ask him to appraise her late husband's books. I am really enjoying this one!


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## rhh7 (Mar 14, 2008)

Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann 

I just finished this book, and highly recommend it. IMO, this is the definitive explanation of the murders of Jack Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy.


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