What are you reading this summer? 4.0

[Ensign]

Hi everyone,this has been a question I've been asking you, every summer for the last 4 years now.

I have even picked up a few books over the years,that have sounded like good reads due to you mentioning them here.

I do most of my reading while on vacations or at our cottage.

Mostly because I can't model while I am at those places.

So far this summer I have managed to read "Local Library Global Passport" The evolution of a Carnegie library by J.Patrick Boyer.

It's the history of one towns, (Bracebridge Ontario)desire to take Andrew Carnegie9American Millionaire) up on his generous offer of building them a free town library,that was eventually started in 1907 and finished in 1908.

As long as they provided free land for it to be built on,and 10% of the buildings cost annually as an on going operating cost.

Mr.Carnegie built around the world almost 3000 libraries,an amazing gift to the people of the world!

I remember the Carnegie library we had in St.Catharines,Ontario growing up as a kid.

It was sadly torn down in the 70's to make way for a new provincial courthouse.

But a great many of them still survive today around the world.

So what are you reading this summer?

Greg Shinnie

[deemery]

I just finished the 3rd volume of Rick Atkinson's masterful history of the US Army in WWII European Theater, The Guns at Last Light http://www.amazon.com/The-Guns-Last-.../dp/0805062904 . Very strongly recommended! Atkinson has done a good job highlighting new thinking (including the often ignored landings and subsequent advance from southern France). He brings in individual stories, but always in context.

I remember seeing the Carnegie Library in Hokatika, NZ: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photogra...lding-hokitika As a kid in Pittsburgh, of course the Carnegie Library system was a big part of growing up. I still remember my first library card number (WR17862, now in use as my GMail address :-) .

dave

[brakie]

My usual western novels and MR,Trains,Classic Trains and Railfan.

I also read a Judge Dee book by Robert H. Van Gulik

[Rick]

NORAC (Northeast Operating Rules Advisory Committee) 10'th Edition

What it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northea...sory_Committee

Various other 1:1 RR books such as NJ Transit System Timetable No. 6 Special Instructions GO 601, TRO-3 Electrical Operating Instructions.........

[George_D]

I seem to read in spurts. This spring I read The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, which is about the start of WWI and the Victors by Steven Ambrose, which is about WWII from the generals to the privates. I haven't done any reading recently and need to download some books on my Kindle so I can get back at it.

George

[Tyson Rayles]

"Raising less corn, more Hell" by George Pyle.

[Ensign]

Hi Dave!"The Guns at last light" by Rick Atkinson, sounds like interesting reading.

The last war related book that I read,was "The Monuments Men" by Robert M.Edsel.

Suggested by another forum member awhile back, right here in one of these what are you reading threads.

That photo of the Carnegie library in Hokatika,NZ is a beauty.

Here is a photo showing the Carnegie library in St.Catharines that was completed in 1904,and torn down in the late 70's,such a shame!



Greg Shinnie

[deemery]

One of the most interesting Carnegie libraries is in Carnegie PA. Check out the "Civil War Room." My mother goes to this library, and says the building has been very nicely restored.

dave

[JPIII]

Last month.

The 3rd part of Atkinson's trilogy.

McCullough's "Great Bridge" & "Path Between the Seas". A couple of Parker's replacements books.

Other than that, nothing but re-reading some nonfiction.

[mwbpequod]

Whatever distracts me from my mountain of technical reading and the rest of the world....

[Dave_S]

Greg,


I was just contemplating opening a new thread about good Summer reads when I saw that you once again had begun the thread. I hope you enjoyed your read of the Robert Edsel book The Monuments Men as much as I did. In fact the reason I was going to start the thread was because while I was at Barnes & Nobel Books yesterday looking at the "recent releases" table I spotted and subsequently purchased the latest Edsel book, Saving Italy, The Race To Rescue A Nation's Treasures From The Nazis. So that selection is on my nightstand along with a few other books I want to read this summer.


The book that I want to suggest for all to consider reading this summer is Fire Season, Field Notes From A wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors. This book is far more than what life in a 7' X 7' lookout tower at 10,000 feet was like. While reading this selection just one of the things I learned was that "smoke jumpers" were responsible for training the 101st Airborne Division on proper techniques to be used while making difficult jumps into forested areas. I also learned about the National Forest Service's beginning, the men who had the vision to create these wilderness areas and the ever evolving strategies of when to stop a fire and when to let it burn. Something still under discussion more than 100 years after the National Forests were created. It was a very entertaining and infomative read that I read late into the evening a few times.


As a result of reading Fire Season I have also purchased Norman Maclean's 1972 selection Young Men And Fire published by the University of Chicago Press. While this selection is about the tragic Mann Gulch Fire in Montana during August, 1949 where twelve of fifteen "smoke jumpers" lost their lives less than an hour after their jump, I will certainly learn more about the National Forest Service and the great American writers who served as "Fire Lookouts" as young men.


Books about our National Forests are of great interest to me as I now live in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains and the Coronado National Forest. I hike the trails in the Catalinas and have visited the Fire Lookout Station at the summit of Mt. Lemmon, the location of the 2003 Aspen Fire that burned 84,750 acres of wilderness and 325 of 340 structures in Summerhaven while driving wildlife (deer, black bears and mountain lions) down into the city limits. Wildfires are no stranger to Tucson residents who sit up well after sunset watching the glow of wildfire flames well into the night off in the distance hoping that the fires can be contained quickly and our natural treasure, the forests and it's inhabitants, will be spared.


Later, Dave Sarther Tucson, Arizona

[Ensign]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dave S

Greg,


I was just contemplating opening a new thread about good Summer reads when I saw that you once again had begun the thread. I hope you enjoyed your read of the Robert Edsel book The Monuments Men as much as I did. In fact the reason I was going to start the thread was because while I was at Barnes & Nobel Books yesterday looking at the "recent releases" table I spotted and subsequently purchased the latest Edsel book, Saving Italy, The Race To Rescue A Nation's Treasures From The Nazis. So that selection is on my nightstand along with a few other books I want to read this summer.


The book that I want to suggest for all to consider reading this summer is Fire Season, Field Notes From A wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors. This book is far more than what life in a 7' X 7' lookout tower at 10,000 feet was like. While reading this selection just one of the things I learned was that "smoke jumpers" were responsible for training the 101st Airborne Division on proper techniques to be used while making difficult jumps into forested areas. I also learned about the National Forest Service's beginning, the men who had the vision to create these wilderness areas and the ever evolving strategies of when to stop a fire and when to let it burn. Something still under discussion more than 100 years after the National Forests were created. It was a very entertaining and infomative read that I read late into the evening a few times.


As a result of reading Fire Season I have also purchased Norman Maclean's 1972 selection Young Men And Fire published by the University of Chicago Press. While this selection is about the tragic Mann Gulch Fire in Montana during August, 1949 where twelve of fifteen "smoke jumpers" lost their lives less than an hour after their jump, I will certainly learn more about the National Forest Service and the great American writers who served as "Fire Lookouts" as young men.


Books about our National Forests are of great interest to me as I now live in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains and the Coronado National Forest. I hike the trails in the Catalinas and have visited the Fire Lookout Station at the summit of Mt. Lemmon, the location of the 2003 Aspen Fire that burned 84,750 acres of wilderness and 325 of 340 structures in Summerhaven while driving wildlife (deer, black bears and mountain lions) down into the city limits. Wildfires are no stranger to Tucson residents who sit up well after sunset watching the glow of wildfire flames well into the night off in the distance hoping that the fires can be contained quickly and our natural treasure, the forests and it's inhabitants, will be spared.


Later, Dave Sarther Tucson, Arizona

---

Hi Dave,sorry that I could not remember it was you, that first mentioned the book "The Monuments Men" by Robert Edsel, here in one of these what are you reading threads.

And yes I did enjoy it,as I recall.

This new one you have suggested sounds good too!

"Fire Season,field notes from a wilderness lookout" by Phillip Connors.

I will look for it!

Greg Shinnie

[elwoodblues]

Well I decided to read something light this summer, so I just started reading "The War of 1812" by Pierre Burton.

[fireman93514]

Right now I am reading Gods and Generals by Jeff Sharaa. I just finished Robert Donovan's PT-109

[George_D]

Speaking of Carnegie Libraries, here's a picture I took several years ago of the back of the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh.



George