Reading!

I've been on a WWII kick for a while, but decided to take a break when I finished a book over the weekend.

Read an excellent book about Omaha Beach, called Omaha Beach. Detailed account of the planning and the D-Day invasion, including the airborne landings. It's a little slow and meticulous in some parts but interesting.

Finished Inside Hitler's Bunker by Fest. This book doesn't get bogged down with too many details or theories on what happened during the final days in April 1945. A real straight-forward account. It was a fast read.

I am currently shambling through "Guns, Germs and Steel", and I just read:


Hawkworld 1-3
I picked these up and the comic store a while back.
Like most of DC Comic's offerings from the mid-80s,
this is a "new-start" for the character. In this
case, Hawkman is a young cadet in his world's police
force. The story starts off strongly, if a bit too
politically, but quickly degenerates into some of the
worst cliches of the genre, and concludes with an
ending so contrived that I did not see it coming
because it was such a tranparently stupid idea.
Grade: C/D Do not bother.

Superman/Batman Annual 1
Ugh......This was the first Post-Neo-Crisis appearance of the Crime Syndicate. Ugh......... Any comic with that band of reject characters has problems to begin with. That this is also the PNC "Batman and Superman learn each-other's identitities" story makes it even worse. The whole thing comes off as a bad sitcom, complete with a resolution that gives DC a way to ignore this story, and *undefine* the comic even more, if they decide to. (Of course, deciding to ignore this story means DC has to make a decision at all.....) Oh, and note to DC's Editorial staff: Cheap gimmick swipes at other company's characters got old with "Kingdom Come", now grow up. Grade: D

Dom
-notes that Nightwing may be a title to watch with the upcoming issue

"It's been awhile
Since I could say,
That I [read a whole book] and..."

... it was a weird one. You know how The Simpsons keeps poking fun at the fact that Thomas Pynchon is a reclusive author? (Forumites nod heads in agreement) He's the guy with the bag with the question mark on his head, who always is a shill for publicity. Anyhow, due to that pop culture reference and a colleague's recommendation, I read one of his novels: The Crying of Lot 49. Uh, let's just say, since it was written in the 1960s that I'm fairly certain there were some "influences" involved. Whoa! and huh? all together. Keep that bag on, dude! :rolleyes:

And during this long vacation I read the SW comics I had piled up for a couple months (some Marvel Ewoks and Droids, Q-G & O-B on Auorient Exp, QA: Episode I, trade paperbacks of BF: Enemy of Empire, SW: Visionaries, Leviathan and T & B Were Here). Now I'm starting Dean Koontz's Twilight Eyes, another recommendation from another friend. We'll see how long that takes to finish (I'm only 5 chapters in).

The Crying of Lot 49 I don't remember too well, but I remember liking it. I picked up one of his more recent novels (Mason & Dixon) a few years ago, though, and it was absolutely unreadable.

Finished a book on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald which went down in November of 1975 and is one of the most famous ships to sink in the Great Lakes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JimJamBonds

Finished a book on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald which went down in November of 1975 and is one of the most famous ships to sink in the Great Lakes.

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You could've saved some time and just listened to Gordon Lightfoot's song. :D

Chux, when I get more time (probably around school winter break) I plan to try either Vineland, V, or the Rainbow one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bel-Cam Jos

You could've saved some time and just listened to Gordon Lightfoot's song. :D

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I'm one step ahead of you BCJ, I've long since put the words to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald to memory however there are errors with the song... plus you can get a touch more in depth in a 200 page book compared to a 6 minute folk song. :D

Picked up Darth Bane from the library. Only 30 pages into it. Good so far.

Saw an interesting documentary on the Edmund Fitzgerald on the Discovery Channel years ago.

Having some free time rocks! I was able to finish...

Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz. This summer, I'd planned on reading 30 books (I failed, and only got to 25 I believe), including some popular authors I have had yet to read. A friend recommended this one, and it wasn't too bad; I have no other Koontz books with which to compare. Not as scary as the cover comments said, however.

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn. I'd actually had this book on my shelf for some time. sw.com had a poll about the best SW novels of '06, and I selected Hard Contact: Triple Zero because I had not yet read this one; I stand by my poll choice. This does not get the dreaded "eh" rating, in fact, it was pretty good. I'd give it a 7.8 on no particular scale. The ending was predictable, but that's to be expected since the readers know the end results.

The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry. I noticed this book in the half-off bin at the store, and since I think I've read everything Mr. Barry's written in book form, I had to have it. It was funny, of course, but he's changing his style to be less gross-out and more nostalgic. Ah, nostalgia again... :rolleyes:

I am about 1/3 through Tempest, the next "eh" book in the SW Legacy series. So far, it's still "eh."