What Are You Currently Reading?

I finished the following in the past 2 weeks:
Rogue Heroes - Ben Macintyre
Left of Boom - Douglas Laux and Ralph Pezzullo
Currently Reading:
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Aiming for 1/week this year.
 
Viper1 said:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was a Christmas gift. Any feedback?
Click to expand...


From speaking with friends it's either you love it and consider it one of the greatest works in American Literature in the 20th century. Or, you despise it because it's nonsensical and vapid.

Personally I enjoyed it, the story involving the father and his son is very good and by far my favorite part of the book. However I feel like that part can be drowned out by the author hamfisting his philosophical beliefs into the book, but then again that's sort of the point for the whole book.

I'd recommend it but go in with an open mind about it.
 
Viper1 said:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was a Christmas gift. Any feedback?
Click to expand...

I read "Zen and the Art of Archery" by Herrigel many years ago and found it enlightening in many respects and would recommend it. I never read the "Motorcycle" one...it was a popular philosophical road-trip book among the counter-culture of the 70's.

Herrigel's book was based on his study of Japanese archery in the 1920s and is largely responsible for introducing Zen Buddhism to the Western World. The lessons from the book can be incorporated into other facets of life. For me, marksmanship and other things.
 
Viper1 said:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was a Christmas gift. Any feedback?
Click to expand...

I like to read it every few years, seems like every time, I pick up on something new. Which I don't really, it's the reader's perspective which changes over time and makes this personally enriching. I always found a lot in it to relate to.
Years ago, Robert Redford bought the rights to it, but like most works of literature, it's extremely difficult to adapt. So thankfully, they haven't yet tried to "reduce" it.
Every time I read this book, I'm on the best roads I ever traveled or dreamed about, is the best way I can put it.
 
Just started to re-read "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer

From Amazon

"Forgotten Soldier recounts the horror of World War II on the eastern front, as seen through the eyes of a teenaged German soldier. At first an exciting adventure, young Guy Sajer’s war becomes, as the German invasion falters in the icy vastness of the Ukraine, a simple, desperate struggle for survival against cold, hunger, and above all the terrifying Soviet artillery. As a member of the elite Gross Deutschland Division, he fought in all the great battles from Kursk to Kharkov."

It's a good read.
 
I just started The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh. Great read about the Kennedy's, and JFK in particular. If anything, politicians seem to have been worse before. The lack of technology and social media meant a lack of accountability that doesn't exist anymore.
 
Really great, I loved it & it's intense but valuable. I used it as a reference for a paper I had to write regarding remote access. Similarly if you have an inclination to that particular vein of security try Security in Computing by Pfleeger as is well worth it. He's up to a 4th edition now and I had that as mandatory text the second ed. some years ago now.
 
Last edited:
CQB said:
Really great, I loved it & it's intense but valuable. I used it as a reference for a paper I had to write regarding remote access. Similarly if you have an inclination to that particular vein of security try Security in Computing by Pfleeger as is well worth it. He's up to a 4th edition now and I had that as mandatory text the second ed. some years ago now.
Click to expand...

I'll have to see about picking it up then, I've been looking for an intro into cryptography since it's piqued my interest lately. Do you have any other recommendations for the field as a whole?
 
There’s an old text called Handbook of Applied Cryptography by Menezes, van Oorshot & Vanstone & Ch. 1 can give you an overview of the goals of crypto, some basic concepts, encryption, digital signatures & public keys and more.
 
Blood Year is about the rise of IS in 2014, hence the title & is a preview of the depravity that the world came to see. The syntax changes here and there as IMO it's looks to be a mixture of his contemporary writing with a little lifted from prior reports of his.

He's also shouldered some of the blame for COIN for it not working as it should & he does have a sound reason why.
 

Similar threads

AWP
Review Multiple Book Reviews
Replies
1
Views
651
Kaldak
Kaldak
Ooh-Rah
Enlistment to SOF - The ShadowSpear Way
Replies
1
Views
3K
Ooh-Rah
Ooh-Rah
SOML72
Professional Oscar Retriever
Replies
13
Views
2K
“The Old Man”
“The Old Man”
Q
18x Introduction
Replies
5
Views
950
Kaldak
Kaldak
N
Introduction
Replies
8
Views
1K
Deleted member 11415
D
Back
Top