doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Any Good Books Lately?

Winter is a good time for reading, and I thought it would be good to hear about books forum members have found interesting lately. I'd say books of all types - guns, shooting, hunting, golf, history, nature, DIY projects. I know there are a lot of varied interests in the members here. I always enjoy hearing about what other find interesting. I'll start by sharing that I recently read the book below -- No Beast So Fierce. This is a modern book about Jim Corbett hunting the Tiger of Champawat. I had never read any of Corbett's books, but now I plan to. This book is a mix of Corbett biography, tiger natural history, cultural change in India, and hunting adventure. I really enjoyed it. It would be great to hear other books members have enjoyed recently.

https://a.co/d/94al3Bc

Any book by Thomas Sowell.
2 of Sowells “must reads”:
Black red necks and white liberals
Migrations and cultures

The Devil and Karl Marx by Paul Kengor
Excellent read.

Just finishing up “Kill the Boer”. By Ernst Roets

I reread “”My Health is better in November”, by Havilah Babcock before heading up to LOWs, and left it with Lloyd. I’m doing that with more books, reading them, and getting them off my shelf and into, hopefully, new hands. Can’t take ‘em with me.

I’ll reread “In the Gravest Extreme” by Massod Ayoob tonight. Excellent quick read.

Best,
Ted

I'm reading something a bit different for me, "Chris Beat Cancer", the true story of Chris Wark, the author, who refused chemotherapy and took his treatment into his own hands, and beat cancer.

It not only outlines a "non-medical" approach to beating cancer, but exposes much that has been hidden about big pharma and the medical community.

Fascinating read thus far.I will save my final opinion until I finish the book.

"The Sixteen Trees Of The Somme" by Lars Mytting. Set between Norway, The Shetland Islands and France its a story of history,discovery and gun stocks. A good read.

Highly recommend longtime writer for Road & Track magazine Peter Egan's new book "Landings In America", Two People, One Summer, And A Piper Cub".
JR

Really enjoyed Egan’s stories when he worked for Cycle World.

nothing recently...

but two perpetual favorites are:

"A Hunter's Road", by Jim Fergus...

and

"A Rough Shooting Dog", by Charles Fergus...

Both written in the 1990's...

Both about bird dogs, bird guns and people and places...

Anyone remember Gordon Jennings, when he wrote for Motorcyclist Magazine? He was an engineer, who came to write at the magazine, and should have really been a teacher.

He died far too young.

Best,
Ted

A used book son gave for Christmas: A Dance Called America by James Hunter. It addresses Scottish emigrations from the Highlands to North Carolina, New York, Ontario, Nova Scotia and the highlands clearances from the 1750's to 1850's. Horrendous story but interesting - most Southerners have a lot of Scottish DNA - turns out I'm over 70%. I didn't know for instance that no Scots were allowed into the Colonies until 1707 and almost none came until after the '45 - actually French and Indian War time when the crown decided Highlanders would be good canon fodder. It's written in journalistic style but is a great story.

And Ted, a favor. Could you please keep your Minnesota weather to yourself and quit exporting it. (Photo today - 6 days after the storm and the snow has turned to solid ice with temps not rising above 32 for at least another week).

Sorry, Gene, but, we have been assured by the usual suspects that the climate is changing, and cold weather isn’t real anymore. The ‘chirens will no longer know and understand snow or ice.

So, it is just your imagination that it is cold.

We hit 25 or so, today. We had a run of subzero high temperature days with -10, down to -20 degree nights. I don’t actually need a whole lot of that in my world.

Hope it warms up for you, Gene. Hope it warms up for me, too.

Best,
Ted

Gene & Ted, absolutely!
Karl

Just be thankful it wasn’t a horde of Somalis opening learing centers.


_____________________________________
Palm Springs

Learing centers? 🤣🤣🤣

It's leering, dude.

Try to keep up, Stan.

https://babylonbee.com/news/is-this-minnesota-daycare-actually-a-fake-somali-front-know-the-signs


_____________________________
Macbeth

Ain't having to keep up. I'm already two steps ahead of U.

Don't drop the "n" next time, Lo--y.

As for me, just magazine articles mainly. Don't have much time to sit and read. I guess I gave up reading years ago.

Cannery Row, short and quite enjoyable.

Very interesting book on the re-introduction of the grey partridge on a Sussex estate. Readable, lots about clever habitat building and getting our indigenous English game bird back into our countryside.

"The Return of the Grey Partridge" by Roger Morgan-Grenville.

And one further good read for those interested in English sporting game guns, which I notified on here last year, is Stephen Grist's book on the Wilkes gunmaking firm. 15 years ago this would have found a ready audience on both sides of the Atlantic and have been printed beautifully, much like the Donald Dallas books on gunmakers. Now, as Stephen writes in his forward, there is a realisation that the readership for this specialised subject is getting ever smaller, such that the economics of publishing a book do not make it worthwhile. His answer, one I suspect we shall see used increasingly, is to self-publish online. Not everyone's favourite way to read an excellent coverage of his subject, but nonetheless a very well researched and written work.

Here is a link to it, which I found on the Craig Whitsey website: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.craigwhitseygunmakers.co.uk/John_Wilkes_Gun___Rifle_Manufacturer_March_2023.pdf Craig used to work for the Wilkes brothers at their iconic Beak Street workshop before it closed.

Tim

Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano".

I wanted to reread it since the world has became much more dominated by machines, computers, automation, and now Artificial Intelligence. I last read it when I was in college, and it seems more relevant now.

I'm also rereading Robert Elliot's "Uncle Dan Lefever; Master Gunmaker". I recently got out my copy to look for a photo of barrel maker A.O. Zischang for another member here.



^^^^^^^^^ DimmyW, who is now pretending to IGNORE me ^^^^^^^^^ will hopefully stay warm by burning his dog-eared collection of Al Gore Global Warming books! Quit peeking now DimmyW.

The Perfect Storm. (The book, not the movie!) Riveting.


To honor the Lily Jean, and remember the Amanda Gale.

A Shooting Man's Creed, by Sir Joseph Nickerson (1914-1989), is a fascinating read about a modern day "Big Shot", from the Lincolnshire Wolds.

His accomplishments in country sports, animal husbandry and agriculture are more than noteworthy, they are at times legendary. He surpassed Lord Ripon's daily bags over and over, most of it done with 20 and 28 bore guns, yet so little is known of him outside his home country.

I would have loved to have known "JN", as he was known by his countrymen. The book is just a wealth of firsthand, modern day information on owning, running, and supplying driven shoots on estates in England and other countries.

edited to add : I just looked for a link to some for sale on Amazon and was shocked to find that the book has evidently become a classic work, and highly sought after. They are available from $259 dollars to upwards of $1200. I bought mine in 2007, through Amazon, and paid the equivalent of twenty pounds, which is the price printed inside the front dustcover.

The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley

[. Horrendous story but interesting - most Southerners have a lot of Scottish DNA - turns out I'm over 70%. I didn't know for instance that no Scots were allowed into the Colonies until 1707 and almost none came until after the '45 - actually French and Indian War time when the crown decided Highlanders would be good canon fodder. It's written in journalistic style but is a great story.

You have to remember that Scotland was a foreign country until the Act of Union in 1707, when a bankrupt Scotland had to be baled out by a rich England.

HB

By chance I have just begun "Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck.

I was in Maine in 1956 so it is interesting.

HB

Pretty sure Travels with Charlie was 1961 or 1962. It mentions 1960 Hurricane Donna which I remember from fall 1960 ripping up central Florida before heading out to sea, hitting the cape in NC and on to NY. Great book. The only thing about it is that Steinbeck actually stayed most of the time in motels rather than in his camper. He also carried an arsenal with him. My wife in particular connects to the story because she too can't read a map.

Just finished A Shooting Man’s Creed by Joe Nickerson. I agree with Stan, an excellent read about a very accomplished gentleman. He was one of those people who succeeded at about everything he set out to do. The last of the Victorianesque game shots. A trio of Purdey 20 gauge guns of his are up for auction now.

I hope you got your copy at a better price than I just saw them advertised! 🫣

$63.00 delivered from Amazon. Hardcover

have reread a couple african hunting books; the reprint of african hunter, by bror von blixen-finecke - had the opportunity to visit the home he established in the karen district in 2015...the film with redford and streep was filming in and around that house. and capstick's death in the dark continent.

particularly enjoyed bill mauldin's the brass ring, a sort of a memoir - he was born a couple of miles away in karr cyn, on the western edge of the sacramento mtns.

presently rereading j.k. galbraith's financial euphoria, financial genius is before the fall - i suspect we will be lucky if there is not a bubble formed around artificial intelligence in the near term...