The Gun Counter

On to Steakley's Armor now.

Looking forward to the next MHI. They scream out for being made into movies, I'll look for them a cinema in the future Seriously, Gnomies from the Hood, can't beat that.

I'll probably try Hard Magic next.

Just started Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings (first one in the newest series he's coming out with.) For those unaware, he's the author who was chosen to finish the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan died. I've read all his adult fiction so far (Elantris, Warbreaker, and the Mistborn trilogy), and they've been consistently well-above the standard for the genre. Not to mention that for each universe he's created an entirely new, well-constructed form of magic that pervades its entire world seamlessly.

Just started James Rollins' "The Devil Colony". Also picked up both MHI books last weekend. I'm starting on them next.

Finally finished rerereading the second volume of Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative. Just started Scalzi's Agent To The Stars.

From Dawn To Decadence looked depressing, and these times are depressing enough. I'll save it for a rainy day.

The Law, by Frederic Bastiat:



{I hope you don't mind my edits - Mike}

Well, I'm wrappin' up reading Phantom Warriors (LRRPs, LRPs, and Rangers in Vietnam):



And am getting ready to start Lucky's Bridge (Tom Wilson, author of Termite Hill):



Once I get done with these two, I might be looking into cruising through this post and grabbing a few of the other outstanding books mentioned and/or read by my fellow GunCounter reading geeks.

As much as I like reading about surface combat, I think I'd due for a break and might go back and re-read a couple of my old favorites: The Silent Service - Grayback Class, and the other I've just noticed I've read recently - Boomer - which (IMHO) wasn't nearly as good as the Silent Service books, probably because the "Service" books are based upon REAL action/encounters/history, whereas Boomer is entirely fictional (and might even be part of the basis for the movie Crimson Tide - even though they don't say so).

Of course, YMMV (GREATLY), but I tend to prefer the historical perspectives rather than the fictional story building and other things that go along with PURE fictional writing about historical events. Books containing both fiction AND historical record I can tolerate, and even enjoy, knowing they are NOT trying to recreate history but simply trying to tell another story for a different viewpoint while incorporating other perspectives and experiences.

Semper Fi!

Did you have to google my guy, Mike?

That book is well worth a read. It's up there with The Road to Serfdom.

Last weekend I read, Webb's "Born Fighting", Stross' "The Fuller Memorandum", Van Goht's "The Weaponshops of Isher", and Pournelle's "High Justice". Between flying & waiting on panels, I read a lot at conventions.

I was at the used book store and came across some great fishing books from the 1980s, 1970s and 1930s.

Traver, Robert.....Trout Madness

Gierach, John.....Standing in a River Waving a Stick

Haig-Brown, Roderick.....The Western Angler -- The only one of his great works that I hadn't read in the past--great find as now it completes the series..

Also by the same authors that I can recommend:
Traver, Robert.....
Trout Magic
Laughing Whitefish
Anatomy of a Fisherman -- all hilariously funny
He also wrote a number of crime novels that weren't bad...He was a lawyer--but we won't hold that against him--yet his style was very lively, comical in a very oblique manner.

Gierach, John.....
Sex, Death and Flyfishing -- First One that I had read and what got me hooked on him as a writer and educator...One of the best untrained naturalists.
Fishing Bamboo
Dances With Trout -- Great read
Even Brook Trout Get the Blues
Another Lousy Day in Paradise
Where the Trout Are: As Long as your Leg
Fly Fishing Small Streams -- Excellent work on technique
The View from Rat Lake
Trout Bums -- Spawned a whole group of anglers and a trade name for rods
Fly Fishing the High Country -- Another excellent work on technique

Haig-Brown, Roderick.....
A River Never Sleeps
Fisherman's Spring
Fisherman's Summer
Fisherman's Fall
Fisherman's Winter
Return to the River
All magnificent works by the acclaimed dean of Fly Fishermen from the 1930s to 1950s...Written in "English" from the time period but still with wit, humour and a superlative eye for detail...Must have for any avid flyfisher...This now gives me his complete set...I bought a few in the 1970s and hadn't picked up a fly rod until about 2000/2001...His detail even worked for spinning rigs on fish habitat, behaviour and feeding habits

They also had the complete twenty two volume series of Casca the Eternal Mercenary by Barry Sadler--who also wrote the "The Ballard of the Green Berets" song...He extensively researched his stories before writing them covering from ±40AD in Judea to the 1970s and Vietnam and the Israeli Wars...I had read them back in the 1980s and enjoyed them then and the complete set was only $40 (twice what they were new) so I bought them.

SeekHer wrote: ... He was a lawyer--but we won't hold that against him...

Aha.

Are you going soft in your old age, my friend?