doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com OT - more books

Okay Joe. I never read "Old Men" and apparently, you may not have read the border books. Perhaps that is where the issue lies. Perhaps just different tastes.

Still, comparing McCarthy to the original Ludlum books is sort of like comparing campaign to lite (sic) beer, though I happen to like both authors, and neither beverage.

Well, I personally don't like any of the 4, but some of that is personal taste (the beverage part, grin). And I thought that the 'Old Men' book WAS a part of the Border Trilogy, was I mistaken?

Re the Bourne books, I personally distrust any book(s) that contain any plot lines involving any superagents and Save-The-World-From-Disaster scenarios. The closest thing to a superagent that I can 'believe' & recommend is Adam Hall's (pseud.) Quiller.

A deceased (I believe) author who wrote of an interestingly-repeating character is Donald Hamilton with his Matt Helm series. No save-the-world here, just a no-nonsense believable protagonist who uses his pragmatic, utilitarian weapons in a very competent and believable manner. Kinda formulaic, kinda not, but at least Hamilton was an outdoor man who was familiar with guns, hunting, and the actual real-world effects of knives and bullets.

Thanks to all for your suggestions, my book allowance will be prespent for the next few weeks at least!
Regards, Joe

Donald Hamilton... I still have them all. One of my favorites not a Matt Helm is "Line of Fire" the hero is a gunsmith. I think Hamilton wrote a few gun articles and other outdoor stuff like sailing.

I started him around the same time as Alistair MacLean.

This was the feeling I kept getting reading "Blood Meridian". Not to beat a dead horse, but it felt like he was bent on making art out of the most brutal story he could find. He should re-read "Politics and the English Language."

I guess I have a low level of tolerance for books that seem intent on providing instant greatness. "Lonesome Dove" felt the same way - apologies to the many fans of that novel. I don't think you can successfully set out to write an epic any more than a film maker can successfully make a famous, favorite cult movie. They just happen - they're happy accidents. You try too hard and you lose it.

Hear, hear. Without a doubt my favorite fiction, ever. Completely indispenible. I have all of them on my ipod and have heard/read them all probably 6-7 times now, and will keep listening. The writing is simply perfect - never false, never strained, always capturing the characters and events in brilliant focus. They are far more than "sea stories".

Well, enough of tearing down authors.

Here is one - written by a professor of English at the University of Chicago, that I simply dare you all to tear down.

Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It". If you saw the movie - my sympathies. But buy the correct version of the book - The one with two additional short stories published with it.

If you don't like that, then stick with spy novels...

I have 2 hard-copy sets of O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, just in case of disaster (grin).

Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series is good but he's losing focus lately and reissuing lots of his earlier, lighter works. Bah.

I like anything by Dick Francis, including the latest ones written along with his son.

Jack Whyte's Camelot series IMO is absolutely superb. I haven't tried his newer Templar series, but I have hopes there too.

For science fiction, try Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. Niven is not always my cup of tea (liberal California boy) but Pournelle is always good. Others in my library include William Dietrich, Jack Vance, A.E. van Vogt and many others whose names I can't remember and unfortunately their books are now packed up for our impending move so I can't check (grin). David Drake (another college English professor) is extremely formulaic but lots of his stuff is quite good IMO.

We've already mentioned Wilbur Smith, one of the very best. Also try Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male and The Adversary/Dance of the Dwarfs. His sequel to Rogue Male sucks so don't bother, apparently his worldview changed in his later life. Same with Leon Uris, his earlier works IMO are good but his later ones are filled with eastern-liberal politics.
Regards, Joe

Some authors change over time which can be a good or bad depending on your outlook.

Readers also change, I remember hating to be told that I HAD to read something back in school. Nothing chased me away from a book faster.

I'm not sure I would have gone the e-book route on my own but a friend bought me a Kindle, now I use it all the time and fully 50% of the fiction I read is on the Kindle.

One thing I like about the Kindle is all the books available for under a $1 or free. I now explore reading that before I would have not bought and if it not my thing I don't feel guilty hitting the delete button. So much easier than going to the library and now our local library has books for the Kindle online.

Thanks for starting this thread, it's always fun to talk about books.

And interesting rant, the offenses of Fenimore.

I especially like this one:
"A common wrought nail was driven lightly into the target, its head having been first touched with paint.

[i]The color of the paint is not stated -- an important omission, but Cooper deals freely in important omissions. No, after all, it was not an important omission; for this nail-head is a hundred yards from the marksmen, and could not be seen at that distance, no matter what its color might be. How far can the best eyes see a common housefly? A hundred yards? It is quite impossible. Very well; eyes that cannot see a house-fly that is a hundred yards away cannot see an ordinary nail-head at that distance, for the size of the two objects is the same. It takes a keen eye to see a fly or a nail-head at fifty yards -- one hundred and fifty-feet. Can the reader do it?[/i}

Indeed, to shoot a competitive score with iron sights at 1000 yds or even 200, one must often hit and X or 25-ring which cannot be seen.

I don't much care for Cooper but Twain illustrates no lack of his own fallacies as well.