Book recommendations and why?

[Cyril Haearn]

I always have a notebook with me to collect my thoughts and copy quotes from the newspaper

A famous actress said: *keep a diary, and one day it will keep you*

[rmurphy195]

"Mindful Thoughts for Cyclists" by Nick Moore

"Amazing and Extraordinary Facts of the Steam Age" by Julian Holland. Includes samples of artifacts and where to find them -useful if you are touring local to some of the locations.

[al_yrpal]

"Sailing Alone around the world" by Captain Joshua Slocumb. Out of copyright so a few pence on the Kindle.

A retired sea captain documents the rescue and rebuilding of the the sloop Spray and his solo voyage in her around the world, probably the first person to document such a voyage. No radio, no GPS, just a man against the elements.

An uplifting and humourous true tale of adventure at the start of the 20th century. His prose is that of a sailor, you can almost feel the motion of the seas as they slip under the Spray's keel. His encounters with pirates, hostile Indians, terrible storns and kindly fellow mariners.

Highly recommended, read it from end to end three times (so far) !

Al

Eventually, the Captain disapeared in the Bermuda Triangle....

[Sweep]

To read in your tent of an evening on your kindle and glory in being disconnected from the internet.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Machine-Stops- ... B01N0BI0LM

It's on my kindle and i thought i had got it from project gutenberg for free but can't see it on their site at the mo.

There is an online freebie of it which i suppose you could cut and paste while thankfully disconnected.

[Cyril Haearn]

The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz

Apparently simple short stories from the life of a psychoanalyst, the best one so far is *On losing a wallet*, it was found again but that was not the end of the trouble

BTW, can anyone explain why we have such complicated psyches and brains, full of too many thoughts? I thought we had evolved to be hunter-gatherers or subsistence farmers, or have our minds changed faster than our bodies?

Diolch

[Cyril Haearn]

Is it good to read 50 books a year? Or should one go out and get talking to people instead?

Or both?

[Des49]

A very entertaining and well written cycling book of the author following the 1914 Giro route, on a bike from the same era:-

Gironimo! Riding the very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy

by Tim Moore

The ending is something special.

[Cyril Haearn]

I often read a book a second time, usually after a few years

Should I read a new book instead?

[fausto copy]

I've recently started re-reading a few of my old books.
After all, if you've kept hold of them, what's the point in not reading them again.
Especially as you must have enjoyed them in order to have kept them.

My very favourite book is Waterlife by Graham Swift and I certainly intend to read that for a third time.

Another favourite was Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, which I have read a couple of times, but having read the following books in the Saga, I'm finding his style slightly tedious and feel I've gone off him for now.

And lastly, my other fave author is Sebastian Faulks and I've read a couple of his books twice too.

fausto.

[Patrickpioneer]

My most re read books are the naval series by Patrick Obrian, but at the moment I have a craze for Dervla Murphy's books
I cant imagine a life without books
Patrick

[Cyril Haearn]

My most re read books are the naval series by Patrick Obrian, but at the moment I have a craze for Dervla Murphy's books
I cant imagine a life without books
Patrick

Showell Styles might interest you, I have "The Mountains of North Wales", +1, he also wrote sea adventures etc etc
He climbed Cnicht 900+ times

[Cugel]

.......
BTW, can anyone explain why we have such complicated psyches and brains, full of too many thoughts? I thought we had evolved to be hunter-gatherers or subsistence farmers, or have our minds changed faster than our bodies?

Diolch

The human is infested with that second evolving replicator, the meme. Well, that's what Dawkins called it but there's plenty of controversy about the definition of these metaphysical entities or even about their existence.

You can find a lot of writings about memes and memetics. A nice simple description of the notion and it's consequences for our self-conception is contained within:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Meme-Machine-P ... me+machine

The fundamental thing about memes is that they are separate metaphysical entities (organised and dynamic patterns of information, with real world effects) possessing evolved "intents" of their own, using we humans and our brains as substrates for their existence but not necessarily acting symbiotically; sometimes they are parasitic instead. For example, many religions and ideologies will sacrifice the singular substrates (me & you) hosting their memeplexes in order to further the survival and opportunities for the memes. Thus we have ideological and religious wars in which we sacrifice ourselves to promote the dominance of various ideas.

The self-sacrifice of humans occurs in many degrees and fashions. Them memes can be thought of as rather like the physical parasites that direct animal brains into behaviours that benefit the parasite at the cost of it's host's life or well-being.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior- ... g_parasite

The thing is, those memes have inveigled us to invent new physical substrates to host them (books, computers and, soon, self-governing AIs). They evolve far, far more rapidly than do physical genetic entities. Wither humans when the AIs take off?

Cugel, badly meme-infested hisself.

[reohn2]

The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz

Apparently simple short stories from the life of a psychoanalyst, the best one so far is *On losing a wallet*, it was found again but that was not the end of the trouble

BTW, can anyone explain why we have such complicated psyches and brains, full of too many thoughts? I thought we had evolved to be hunter-gatherers or subsistence farmers, or have our minds changed faster than our bodies?

Diolch

We're collector's of things and we have the ability to store "stuff" both internally and externally,some of it quite useless but we still like to know for knowing sake.
A complicated species we are.

[Cyril Haearn]

The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz

Apparently simple short stories from the life of a psychoanalyst, the best one so far is *On losing a wallet*, it was found again but that was not the end of the trouble

BTW, can anyone explain why we have such complicated psyches and brains, full of too many thoughts? I thought we had evolved to be hunter-gatherers or subsistence farmers, or have our minds changed faster than our bodies?

Diolch

We're collector's of things and we have the ability to store "stuff" both internally and externally,some of it quite useless but we still like to know for knowing sake.
A complicated species we are.

Just occurred to me:
We still have the brains of hunter-gatherers but society and technology have changed enormously in the last thousand years, our brains have not changed so fast. So we have the Wrong Brains
Someone said: I spend half my time trying to remember things and the other half trying to forget [other] things

BTW R2, I have a newspaper with police views and figures on e-bike "accidents", I will post it soon for your convenience. Just have to translate it first

[reohn2]

Just occurred to me:
We still have the brains of hunter-gatherers but society and technology have changed enormously in the last thousand years, our brains have not changed so fast. So we have the Wrong Brains

But it's us(collectively)with the "wrong" brains that have developed that technological society.

Someone said: I spend half my time trying to remember things and the other half trying to forget [other] things

I suggest they take a course in Mindfulness meditation.

BTW R2, I have a newspaper with police views and figures on e-bike "accidents", I will post it soon for your convenience. Just have to translate it first

Look forward to reading it