Maybe I should start a podcast thread...
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JULY 2025 CLUB MEETING
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LOCATION: The meeting will be held at Cruisers and Company. Click here for details and directions.
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What books y'all reading?
- Thread starter bh4rnnr
- Start date
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
Hey now @subzali. Thanks for the call out but I don't feel special compared to true master readers.
FWIW, the last 3 books I read are:
"U-boom: Uranium on the Colorado Plateau" by Al Look
This is a documentary account of the prospecting and mining boom here in western Colorado and throughout the plateau mainly in the 1950s.
"Nine Dragons" by Michael Connelly
One of the Detective Bosch books, it was a quick read that was easy to start and stop traveling a couple of weeks ago.
"Rocky Mountain Mining Camps" by Duane Smith
This is about the boom and bust of mining surrounding the gold rushes in the mid and late 19th century throughout the West, focused mainly on not only the initial claims but how the 2nd and 3rd generations (well better called waves, the people who followed anywhere from weeks to years after a camp was started) of settlers came to and either stayed or moved on to new mining camps and why some camps became permanent towns.
Currently reading:
"Resilient" by Rick Hanson
This was a gift. I'd read his previous book "Buddha's Brain" about how experiences shape our brain and where consciousness comes from. It's a borderline self-help book but written by neuroscientists who study how you physically change your brain by being happy or negative.
Just starting today:
"We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves" by Karen Joy Fowler
This is an interesting story. Or so I'm told, recommended by my wife.
FWIW, the last 3 books I read are:
"U-boom: Uranium on the Colorado Plateau" by Al Look
This is a documentary account of the prospecting and mining boom here in western Colorado and throughout the plateau mainly in the 1950s.
"Nine Dragons" by Michael Connelly
One of the Detective Bosch books, it was a quick read that was easy to start and stop traveling a couple of weeks ago.
"Rocky Mountain Mining Camps" by Duane Smith
This is about the boom and bust of mining surrounding the gold rushes in the mid and late 19th century throughout the West, focused mainly on not only the initial claims but how the 2nd and 3rd generations (well better called waves, the people who followed anywhere from weeks to years after a camp was started) of settlers came to and either stayed or moved on to new mining camps and why some camps became permanent towns.
Currently reading:
"Resilient" by Rick Hanson
This was a gift. I'd read his previous book "Buddha's Brain" about how experiences shape our brain and where consciousness comes from. It's a borderline self-help book but written by neuroscientists who study how you physically change your brain by being happy or negative.
Just starting today:
"We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves" by Karen Joy Fowler
This is an interesting story. Or so I'm told, recommended by my wife.
gungriffin
Rising Sun Member
Getting an Audible subscription changed how much I was reading. I just listen to Audible instead of the radio now. Before Audible, I was probably taking in about 6 books a year. In the past 5 years since getting Audible, I have probably averaged about 35 books a year now. Not prolific, but I have been able to get some good book learnin' in.
Another place you can get audio book is the Denver Public Library. They have some awesome digital media offerings. It also comes with the bonus of being free. Another plus of the DPL is that when you put a book on hold, they will deliver it to the library closest to you . I have rarely ever found a book they didn't have. Hell, I was talking to someone the other day that said the DPL was able to help her get a book from a library in the UK.
Another place you can get audio book is the Denver Public Library. They have some awesome digital media offerings. It also comes with the bonus of being free. Another plus of the DPL is that when you put a book on hold, they will deliver it to the library closest to you . I have rarely ever found a book they didn't have. Hell, I was talking to someone the other day that said the DPL was able to help her get a book from a library in the UK.
Stuckinthe80s
Rising Sun Member
My wife reads probably 3 or 4 books a month and I've always enjoyed what she's recommended to me as well. She doesn't typically reciprocate by reading what I recommend to her though. The only author I can think of that she read on my recommendation is Michael Crichton and she's read almost everything he's written. (as have I)
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
Funny how they are usually not interested in reading about ham radios and trucks. Although she enjoyed "Who Needs A Road" of course, but that wasn't really a Cruiser book even though the truck and trailer were as much a character as any person.
Stuckinthe80s
Rising Sun Member
DanTheMan
Rising Sun Member
A Higher Call by Adam Makos
"December, 1943: A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. At the controls is twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown. Half his crew lay wounded or dead on this, their first mission. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt fighter pulls up on the bomber’s tail. The pilot is German ace Franz Stigler—and he can destroy the young American crew with the squeeze of a trigger...
What happened next would defy imagination and later be called “the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.”
The U.S. 8th Air Force would later classify what happened between them as “top secret.” It was an act that Franz could never mention for fear of facing a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search the world for each other, a last mission that could change their lives forever."
"December, 1943: A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. At the controls is twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown. Half his crew lay wounded or dead on this, their first mission. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt fighter pulls up on the bomber’s tail. The pilot is German ace Franz Stigler—and he can destroy the young American crew with the squeeze of a trigger...
What happened next would defy imagination and later be called “the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.”
The U.S. 8th Air Force would later classify what happened between them as “top secret.” It was an act that Franz could never mention for fear of facing a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search the world for each other, a last mission that could change their lives forever."
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
I just finished:
The Two-Hour Job Search
and also
Never Eat Alone
They're decent books if you're working to build your network or thinking about hopping to a new job. It's never too early to be doing these things.
The Two-Hour Job Search
and also
Never Eat Alone
They're decent books if you're working to build your network or thinking about hopping to a new job. It's never too early to be doing these things.
J Kimmel
Hard Core 4+
Mostly romance novels. This one currently it’s pretty enthralling
Stuckinthe80s
Rising Sun Member
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Just finished reading Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. It's by Ben Goldfarb who my fiancee knows through work. The book is nearly on par with Cadillac Desert. I *highly* recommend picking up a copy. It might make you think about the role of beavers in shaping the American west and what we might want to start advocating for to help prevent droughts and flooding.
I've been commuting to Colorado Springs for the last 6 months. Audible has made the commute much more enjoyable. Here are some books I'd recommend:
- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
- So, Anyway... by John Cleese
- Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography by Eric Idle
- The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian by W. Kamau Bell
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Inukshuk
Rising Sun Member
Reading it now thanks to John K's recommendation!
gungriffin
Rising Sun Member
Audible rocks. I have had it for a about 5 years and use it at least 5-10 hours a week. I don't read as much, but I have listened to about 140 books in the past 4 years thanks to Audible.
I am presently re listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear. I also just got done with Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. After finishing both of these books for the first time, I immediately started listening to them from the beginning again. I really liked them.
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Currently wrapping up Three Against the Wilderness which is the recollections of a many who homesteaded a part of interior British Columbia between around 1925 and 1950. The book needs to be read in the context of the era because if you were to judge it by modern standards, it is racist, sexist, and a few other -ist things. But for the time, I suspect it was a pretty progressive book. He talks about how his family (him, his wife who was like 1/4 or 1/8 First Nations, and their son) basically rebuilt an entire ecosystem on a 150,000 acre watershed that they ran traplines on. They did it first by mimicking how beavers build dams and then by reintroducing beavers. Now I want to go find a watershed I can claim as my own and restore to its pre-Columbus condition.
My last book before this was Eat and Run which is a book about an extremely successful ultra runner and his journey to greatness. I've been reading more about ultra runners and other ultra athletes the last year and until this whole virus business started, I was on the path to ultra distances myself. Now my training has been set back probably a year but I can still keep reading about it
One of my friends out on the western slope is an ultra runner and I've been living vicariously through her the last few months plus reading books like this one.
Before that I read Otto Mears and the San Juans which was a really interesting little book about the man who is attributed with so much of the early development work out there. The author broke the book into major thrusts of his life rather than a timeline-style book. It was really interesting reading about all of his dealings. The man was very complex and I came away from the book thinking both about the good and the bad things he did. I don't think I could really pin him with either being good or evil -- he was a bit of both. And I think that sums up most people in general.
Also in there I snuck in reading Wild which was interesting to me from the hiking perspective. It also is interesting because I've had a few friends turn into through-hikers in the last decade. Their mindsets make a lot more sense. Someday I would like to do the PCT but I don't think I would want to interact with most of the other through hikers. I guess that generally describes my feelings toward the vast majority of people who do any hobby that I'm interested in
I've got a huge stack of other books to read which never seems to get smaller. Not sure yet which one I'll pick next.
My last book before this was Eat and Run which is a book about an extremely successful ultra runner and his journey to greatness. I've been reading more about ultra runners and other ultra athletes the last year and until this whole virus business started, I was on the path to ultra distances myself. Now my training has been set back probably a year but I can still keep reading about it
One of my friends out on the western slope is an ultra runner and I've been living vicariously through her the last few months plus reading books like this one.Before that I read Otto Mears and the San Juans which was a really interesting little book about the man who is attributed with so much of the early development work out there. The author broke the book into major thrusts of his life rather than a timeline-style book. It was really interesting reading about all of his dealings. The man was very complex and I came away from the book thinking both about the good and the bad things he did. I don't think I could really pin him with either being good or evil -- he was a bit of both. And I think that sums up most people in general.
Also in there I snuck in reading Wild which was interesting to me from the hiking perspective. It also is interesting because I've had a few friends turn into through-hikers in the last decade. Their mindsets make a lot more sense. Someday I would like to do the PCT but I don't think I would want to interact with most of the other through hikers. I guess that generally describes my feelings toward the vast majority of people who do any hobby that I'm interested in
I've got a huge stack of other books to read which never seems to get smaller. Not sure yet which one I'll pick next.
Jenny Cruiser
Hard Core 4+
Looking for good book suggestions on American politics. Any opinions of Schweizer’s past works or other authors worth noting?
WVU fan
Rising Sun Member
this kept me pretty captivated
This is a good one for me. It has lots of pictures 
But lots of good images of Georgetown loop, Colorado central up Argentine and McClellan, alpine tunnel, Marshall pass. Narrow gauge in clear creek canyon. Rotary snow plows. So much good stuff.
But lots of good images of Georgetown loop, Colorado central up Argentine and McClellan, alpine tunnel, Marshall pass. Narrow gauge in clear creek canyon. Rotary snow plows. So much good stuff.
3rdGen4R
Hard Core 4+
This is a good one for me. It has lots of pictures
But lots of good images of Georgetown loop, Colorado central up Argentine and McClellan, alpine tunnel, Marshall pass. Narrow gauge in clear creek canyon. Rotary snow plows. So much good stuff.
Here is a trivia question. What were the two towns competing to be the capital of Colorado. And why did Denver win the contest?