Literary Club Discussion... No Romance, Please!

[wyntrout]

Dang! I/We were getting a little carried away on another thread.

Here's a space for discussing books and authors.

Wynn

[wyntrout]

I think that I got my first Dale Brown book, The Flight of an Old Dog with a computer game based on the book. I don't remember what it was about... just the book, which started a whole series. It got to be more like science fiction, but, Hey! That's the kind of times we live in now, though we now have to stand at the side of the road and thumb rides up to the space station from our "good buddies" the Rooskies. That seems to fly in the face of a strong national defense posture... what next begging the Chinese??

Wynn

[gb6491]

My tastes run to shop manuals and stuff by Ludlum, Clavell, Michener, and Yoshikawa.
I will also admit a fondness for Clancy, L'Amour, Heinlein, Laumer, and Kipling.
The last book I read was "Nop's Trials".
Regards,
Greg

[Bawanna]

L'Amour. Now we're talking literary. I've read every one of his books at least 4 times and some several more than that.

My son had a teacher that wouldn't let him do a book report on a L'Amour book. Said they were all the same and had no literary value. I was in class the next morning with several selections all very different. I left them for her to read.

Kid had to do another book but she did tell me when she returned the books that in the future she would allow them.

I need to reread again, already forgetting titles. I liked the one about the Indian pilot shot down to get at his top secret plane. Good read that one was.

[gb6491]

I believe that is "The Last of the Breed" Bawanna
Regards,
Greg

[ripley16]

I'm partial to John le Carré, great spy plots.
John Paterson for some good murder mystery.
Elmore Leonard's always fun to read.
Clancy for his cold war thrillers.
Lawrence Sanders for fun and grins... a funny guy.
John Grisham was good at first. A Painted House is fun.
With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge should be required reading in high school.

[wyntrout]

I believe our nation is more about the future of mankind... not just tearing down the achievers and creating a larger "entitlement-class" of welfare recipients whose votes have been bought by politicians who promise them even more goodies wrested from the "evil rich". What's going to happen when we run out of "evil rich" or entrepreneurs or capitalists who take risks with their own money and create jobs?? The welfare recipients shouldn't even get to vote. There is no RIGHT to vote in the federal elections... that should be only for TAX-Paying CITIZENS!

Dang! getting up on the soapbox again... was trying to talk about science-fiction... about how our future is tied to the stars... if we ever get there. A wayward asteroid could take out the only home of humans... just about any day now... and it would be nice if the U.S.A. had a viable toehold somewhere else in the universe, instead of bogged down here trying to implement "social justice" and other foolish ideas or nonsense that could spell the demise of REAL "freedom loving Americans".

Our forefathers got on leaky, flimsy ships and sailed off into the unknown to try to find a haven from tyrannical governments and religions... or combinations thereof, and when they did win their freedom, they sought to write safeguards into the founding documents of this new nation to protect the citizens against a future government attempting to become too strong and enslaving the PEOPLE. Unfortunately, that's what we have happening now... the unwashed masses willing to give up freedom for everyone for the promise of "security" for themselves, with no regard to the next generations being wards of the ever-growing and all-powerful Federal Government.

Dang... BOOKS... military fiction... science fiction... and favorite authors, etc! Got to stay off the soapbox! I'm trying to steer toward the science fiction equivalent of what our forefathers did, but towards the stars!

Wynn

[Bawanna]

I believe that is "The Last of the Breed" Bawanna
Regards,
Greg

That's it you got a way better memory than me. I loved the letter with the scalp. In my life I shall take 2, this is the first. Makes a man sweat I bet.

That's the book that convinced the teacher too. A little out of the typical cowboy western read. I still don't stare into a campfire cause of that man too.

[wyntrout]

The Last of the Breed (1986) is the the most memorable book of Louis L'Amour that I've read... maybe the only one, though... I wound up with TWO copies, somehow.

I grew up reading my mother's Zane Gray novels, and the hero had a way of letting the evil Simon Legree, or Simon Girty... something like that... letting him get up or get away to kill again... even his own entire family one time. Damn! That used to piss me off as a kid... don't let him get up... finish him off! It ain't about fair, 'cause every time the hero put his gun aside, the evil guy would pull out another weapon and the good guy was almost killed... left for dead and the evil one went off to continue his killing spree. GRRR!

Wynn

[gb6491]

Darn Wynn, Heinlien's "Starship Troopers" echoes just about everything in your post #7.
regards,
Greg

[OldLincoln]

My mother was a L'Amour fan. She gave her collection to my sister who after reading them gave it to my son. He is a bit single minded at times and liked them so much he filled in the rest of the collection. I'll have to ask him again, but I believe he has them all. Let's put it this way, he hasn't ever offered to loan me any. Although I may ask.

I'm with Wynn having Old Dog be the first Dale Brown book I read. If I run across any of his at my new "cheap used book" place I just grab them. I tried reading a Michener book but it was tiresome so I put it down.

As for science fiction, I do like some. I enjoyed "Saucer" by Steve Coonts. It was like a comic book without pictures that you read in an afternoon but it held interest. Probably because it fed into some of my curiosities about mankind's distant past.

[gb6491]

I need to add James Fenimore Cooper to my list above; for some reason Bawanna's "I still don't stare into campfire's because of that man..." reminded me of him.
Regards,
Greg

[wyntrout]

I think that should be a requirement for full citizenship... honorable military service... and certainly a requirement for voting! Leeches and hangers-on shouldn't be deciding the leadership and fate of our great nation, based on who promises them the most stuff take from the "productive class".

People usually have a lot of choices in life and too many made the choice to live off the sweat of others and pop out more mouths for the rest of us to pay to feed to pop out more babies....

JMHO

Wynn

[Bawanna]

I don't remember the author or anything but anyone ever read the Ashes series? I think there was 5 or more in the series.

Out of the Ashes, Alone in the Ashes. It was like a nuclear attack, and there was cyber chambers, and coming back 5000 years later. Pretty good. I'd like to find them again and read em. It was a long long time ago.

There was a similar series with John Thomas Rourke as the main character but I can't even remember any of the titles in that one. It was a survivalist type scenario also.

[wyntrout]

After reading about 20 of those, there seemed to be a common thread there... good, but just the same stuff over and over and over... never ending bad guys. I finally gave up on those about 10-12 years or so ago. he does westerns, too:

http://www.williamjohnstone.net/

Wynn