@calfoxwc said:

you'd love my novel then. I just finished editing it for errors here and there, several run-on sentences. I'm ready to send in for an ISBN number, however the heck ya do that....

I really would like to read your book cal. I would not worry too much over run-on sentences. If you have ever read William Faulkner, you'd likely qualify only as an amateur compared to some of his very lengthy run-ons. BTW if you have never read "Go Down, Moses" by him I would highly recommend it. His short story in it entitled "The Old People" is a wonderful story of a boy's first successful deer hunt guided by a native American descendant. That story alone makes the book worth getting, because it's really more than a deer hunt. It's my favorite piece by Faulkner. Brings you back in time to the taming of the wilderness, which Faulkner always lamented.That book also includes the short novel "The Bear" another tale of the wilderness. You'd love them both. And BTW before you head out west read James Michener's "Centennial". It will take you back in time to the old west including the influx of the trappers into the wilds of northern Colorado. After my wife read it she told me she knew I must have either been born 150 years too late or if there is such a thing as reincarnation, then I had a past life that spilled  over from then. She knows me well.???️

@calfoxwc said:

I'll check it out for sure. Our friends really want to make that out west trip happen - and we'd love to go, too. I think we need to pick up a small camper. Tent camping is our love, but out west? Yellowstone? "I don't think, so, Tim."

About your knee - have your surgeon check for stability - lacking that, you could have surface damage to the interior of your knee. When I had my entire knee replaced, my surgeon said my knee was the second-worst he's ever seen in his career, out of thousands he'd done.

  I say that because the cartilage doesn't get repaired - I'm pretty sure - just trimmed. For a lot of decades - I had no cartilage in my knee. My artificial knee is awesome. Like bionic man. Even three years later, I get  a little amazed going up and down stairs.

I'm requesting an ortho consult tomorrow and hopefully that pays off with an MRI. Last time they just told me to live with it so I went to the Ortho surgeon in Austin who did UT knees for the football team. He shaved the bucket handle tear and took out a small bit of arthritis. I spent a year riding a bicycle 15 miles a day every good weather day before finally playing again on a regular basis. I'm kind of resigned that this may be it for RB, especially if I take the longer view of still walking for miles on the mountain trails in Colorado. That would be worth staying on a bike and/or the rowing machines from now on. Too bad. I loved playing RB on this level so long. But "life is like a box of chocolates".

BTW-I'm going rowing today. Too 'fn cold outside with the norther that blew in overnight?️. Keep that stuff up there please.?

@texasag1969 said:

I'm not sure about ISBN cal, but I can personally issue you a HASBN number?. I have a couple to spare, especially since I just injured my left knee again. Feels like a repeat of the medial meniscus tear I had repaired in the same knee around 15 years ago. I'm now doing rowing machines and stationary biking until I see my MD tomorrow. It's the side to side stuff that is painful and that's racquetball in a nutshell.

EDIT: That book I recommended will give you some good ideas for camping spots on the way through Wyoming if you take that route this summer cal.

I'll check it out for sure. Our friends really want to make that out west trip happen - and we'd love to go, too. I think we need to pick up a small camper. Tent camping is our love, but out west? Yellowstone? "I don't think, so, Tim."

About your knee - have your surgeon check for stability - lacking that, you could have surface damage to the interior of your knee. When I had my entire knee replaced, my surgeon said my knee was the second-worst he's ever seen in his career, out of thousands he'd done.

  I say that because the cartilage doesn't get repaired - I'm pretty sure - just trimmed. For a lot of decades - I had no cartilage in my knee. My artificial knee is awesome. Like bionic man. Even three years later, I get  a little amazed going up and down stairs.

@the-gipper said:

I know Angel fire well I spent my first Gipper’s discover America trip in Angelfire spend a week there

My son may be going back to Zuni, NM. His old HS football HC there told him he has won two district titles in a row, but just feels totally burnt from it. He is getting my son a HS teaching position if he will just come and be his coordinator/coach of all defensive positions. Together they had won the district and beaten much larger school Shiprock for the first time in over 30 years when my son was there 6 years ago teaching middle school and serving as a volunteer defensive coach for the HS. I love NM. Great outdoors state just like much of Colorado.

@calfoxwc said:

you'd love my novel then. I just finished editing it for errors here and there, several run-on sentences. I'm ready to send in for an ISBN number, however the heck ya do that....

I'm not sure about ISBN cal, but I can personally issue you a HASBN number?. I have a couple to spare, especially since I just injured my left knee again. Feels like a repeat of the medial meniscus tear I had repaired in the same knee around 15 years ago. I'm now doing rowing machines and stationary biking until I see my MD tomorrow. It's the side to side stuff that is painful and that's racquetball in a nutshell.

EDIT: That book I recommended will give you some good ideas for camping spots on the way through Wyoming if you take that route this summer cal.

@texasag1969 said:

Well I'm reading a novel now a friend of mine gave me a few years back called "Angel Fire". You may or may not know that Angel Fire N.M. has a Vietnam Veteran's memorial originally started by the father of a veteran killed in Vietnam and later supported and funded by the DAV. It's actually a very peaceful place to visit to the E. of Taos. Anyway this novel is about a man from a small town in Wyoming (Gillette is thinly disguised) whose brother goes to Vietnam as a correspondent and is killed under mysterious circumstances after having truthfully reported on a massacre of Vietnamese he witnessed by an American unit he was with. The novel is well written and obviously by an outdoorsman who was born and raised in Wyoming. Here is a short excerpt from the book that I think is especially lyrical and reminds me of the short novel "And A River Runs Through It." 

"Somewhere high up in the ice fields of Cloud Peak, the Crazy Woman weeps from the glacial flows of a hundred different winters. She gathers herself below the treeline, trickling across the wildflower meadows, cutting through deer trails and timberfalls, warming her icy blood in the early morning sun that paints the eastern slope of the Big Horn Mountains."

If you are familiar with the movie Jeremiah Johnson then you likely know about the legend of how Crazy Woman Creek in Wyoming got it's name from a woman whose whole family was killed by Crow Indians, leaving her to morn & wander searching for them in the wilderness for years afterwards and seen by trappers in the area from time to time.

Anyway, I love this novel so far. Very well written and especially for anyone like myself who enjoys the outdoors as much as I do.

I know Angel fire well I spent my first Gipper’s discover America trip in Angelfire spend a week there

"Somewhere high up in the ice fields of Cloud Peak, the Crazy Woman weeps from the glacial flows of a hundred different winters. She gathers herself below the treeline, trickling across the wildflower meadows, cutting through deer trails and timberfalls, warming her icy blood in the early morning sun that paints the eastern slope of the Big Horn Mountains."

If you are familiar with the movie Jeremiah Johnson then you likely know about the legend of how Crazy Woman Creek in Wyoming got it's name from a woman whose whole family was killed by Crow Indians, leaving her to morn & wander searching for them in the wilderness for years afterwards and seen by trappers in the area from time to time.

Anyway, I love this novel so far. Very well written and especially for anyone like myself who enjoys the outdoors as much as I do.

@the-gipper said:

Conan Doyle wrote, I believe  Four Sherlock Holmes Novels.  The Hound of the Baskervilles,  The Sign of Four,  A Study in Scarlet, and The Valley of Fear.

These may have "originally" been serialized in The Strand Magazine, but I am not sure about that.  Most of the other Holmes stories were "short stories" that were published in The Strand.

While there have been a few true fairly true depictions of The Hound made into Movies, and at least one faithful treatment of The Sign of Four that I know of,  I am not aware that there has ever been a true depiction of either A Study in Scarlet nor The Valley of Fear  made into movies.   And oddly these two are about the only two of the Holmes stories where a good part of the tale takes place in America. 

Also, both of these cover what could, even to this day, be considered sensitive subjects....and maybe that is why a "real"  true to the books movies have not been made.  Much of the action in A Study in Scarlet takes place in the American West, and is, to be honest, a harsh depiction of how the Mormons treated women.   The Mormon Church would without a doubt make a serious protest over any attempt to produce a film that would be true to that original story.    And,  in The Valley of Fear much of it takes place in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and centers around  the group known as The Molly Maguires, which was an organized group of Irish coal miners who essentially operated much like a Mafia family operation.  They used fear, intimidation, murder, violence to promote their aims.  I suspect that both people of Irish descent, people whose families had a history in those coal mines, and perhaps some organized labor groups would dislike having that story  depicted on film.

And for both of those reasons, I would like to see both stories made that would be truthful to the original stories.  The Hound of The Baskervilles and The Sign of Four do not come with the same potential political controversy.

great stuff, Gipper, Thanks !

@texasag1969 said:

I guess because I knew it was serialized originally I just didn't think of it as a novel. I stand corrected.

Conan Doyle wrote, I believe  Four Sherlock Holmes Novels.  The Hound of the Baskervilles,  The Sign of Four,  A Study in Scarlet, and The Valley of Fear.

These may have "originally" been serialized in The Strand Magazine, but I am not sure about that.  Most of the other Holmes stories were "short stories" that were published in The Strand.

While there have been a few true fairly true depictions of The Hound made into Movies, and at least one faithful treatment of The Sign of Four that I know of,  I am not aware that there has ever been a true depiction of either A Study in Scarlet nor The Valley of Fear  made into movies.   And oddly these two are about the only two of the Holmes stories where a good part of the tale takes place in America. 

Also, both of these cover what could, even to this day, be considered sensitive subjects....and maybe that is why a "real"  true to the books movies have not been made.  Much of the action in A Study in Scarlet takes place in the American West, and is, to be honest, a harsh depiction of how the Mormons treated women.   The Mormon Church would without a doubt make a serious protest over any attempt to produce a film that would be true to that original story.    And,  in The Valley of Fear much of it takes place in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and centers around  the group known as The Molly Maguires, which was an organized group of Irish coal miners who essentially operated much like a Mafia family operation.  They used fear, intimidation, murder, violence to promote their aims.  I suspect that both people of Irish descent, people whose families had a history in those coal mines, and perhaps some organized labor groups would dislike having that story  depicted on film.

And for both of those reasons, I would like to see both stories made that would be truthful to the original stories.  The Hound of The Baskervilles and The Sign of Four do not come with the same potential political controversy.

248 pages

@calfoxwc said:

I'll have to go look up "looking for alaska"...

right now, I'm reading "A Walk in the Woods", not a great book, but it's about a real hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Any list that doesn't have "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in it is just a dumb list. I'd rather go read my whole library of old
Hardy Boys books etc.

Well "Hound" was really a long "short story" and not really a novel, so it would be on a different list.

right now, I'm reading "A Walk in the Woods", not a great book, but it's about a real hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Any list that doesn't have "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in it is just a dumb list. I'd rather go read my whole library of old
Hardy Boys books etc.

@texasag1969 said:

Well as you saw in my original list on favorite reads thread I started, To Kill A Mockingbird was my Number 1 then and I was glad to see none of those modern "series" books were able to displace it as one of the greatest American novels ever written. And yes, the character Dill in the book was actually based on Harper Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote.

One more I read that did not make my list or this one, but was nonetheless an excellent and very readable book was The Kite Runner. Highly recommend it.

I dated a nurse ( a beautiful Irish redhead from a rich family) who was just a new nurse working at the pscyh hospital where Truman Capote would check into in CT.

https://people.com/archive/for-the-rich-and-powerful-who-cannot-cope-silver-hill-may-be-the-last-resort-vol-9-no-4/

@texasag1969 said:

I actually liked Steinbeck's Trask family saga, East of Eden, far better than I did Grapes of Wrath. But that's because I likely identified with Cal Trask (James Dean in the movie). Also not on the list was All Quiet on the Western Front, best novel to come out of WW I. I am amazzed at how many books on their list I have read and how many of the modern "Chronicles" I have not. I just can't get interested in them. I read "The Hunger Games", but as an experienced war survivor I was way too critical of how many mistakes the protagonist makes throughout that book. For that reason I just could not get interested in the followup books of that series. She was an f'n rookie.?

I actually read All Quiet on the Western Front in school but I read a lot of war themed books primarily WWII like Run Silent, Run Deep and others both novels (here) and biographies.

Books can take you in a lot of directions.

As fun books I loved Ian Fleming and the James Bond books. Fleming worked for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War and was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of the 30 Assault Unit and T-Force intelligence units. His wartime service and his career as a journalist provided much of the background, detail, and depth of the James Bond novels.

The James Bond literary franchise is a series of novels and short stories, first published in 1953 by Ian Fleming, a British author, journalist, and former naval intelligence officer. James Bond, often referred to by his code name, 007, is a British Secret Serviceagent; the character was created by journalist and author Ian Fleming, and first appeared in his 1953 novel Casino Royale; the books are set in a contemporary period, between May 1951 and February 1964. Fleming went on to write a total of twelve novels and two collections of short stories, all written at his Jamaican home Goldeneye and published annually. Two of his books were published after his death in 1964.

Oh BTW.....1964, the year Goldfinger was released in the theaters. 

Also, forgot that I did read Call of the Wild way back when. (I have even been to Jack London's home ...a shack really...in Dawson City, Yukon).

Also....I believe I have read "And Then there Were None".....which, correct me if I am wrong, but that is the Agatha Christie story,  which went through a couple of name changes.  The original title to that story as given by Agatha was "Ten Little N***ers".  Its true, look it up.  Then when that became obviously politically incorrect it ended up being called Ten Little Indians.....and then that became politically incorrect, and it ended up being called "And then there were none".

So many books and not enough time (well there might be if I didn't waste so much of it BSing with you yahoos).

I will have to go with Don Quixote, The Book Thief, Gone With the Wind and The Stand (I would have put The Shining on there-but I have not read this one).

And how come Cold Mountain didn't make the list? Loved that book. 

EDIT: And Huck Finn was far better than Tom Sawyer. Precursor to To Kill a Mockingbird in terms of addressing racism. Jim becomes a real live human being and not just some runaway slave. Far ahead of the time in which it was written.

@mjp28 said:

Well Tex first to hit three in the top 50 is pretty good remember big groups were working together to promote their likes and a lot of classic books going back even hundreds of years in some places made the list.

They're top 3 were 1, 46 and 18 on your list, not bad at all in a very subjective topic.

And the rest of you can check your own opinions against theirs there could have been 50 or 75 more considered......easily.

Good topic.

I actually liked Steinbeck's Trask family saga, East of Eden, far better than I did Grapes of Wrath. But that's because I likely identified with Cal Trask (James Dean in the movie). Also not on the list was All Quiet on the Western Front, best novel to come out of WW I. I am amazzed at how many books on their list I have read and how many of the modern "Chronicles" I have not. I just can't get interested in them. I read "The Hunger Games", but as an experienced war survivor I was way too critical of how many mistakes the protagonist makes throughout that book. For that reason I just could not get interested in the followup books of that series. She was an f'n rookie.?

@texasag1969 said:

Well as you saw in my original list on favorite reads thread I started, To Kill A Mockingbird was my Number 1 then and I was glad to see none of those modern "series" books were able to displace it as one of the greatest American novels ever written. And yes, the character Dill in the book was actually based on Harper Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote.

One more I read that did not make my list or this one, but was nonetheless an excellent and very readable book was The Kite Runner. Highly recommend it.

Well Tex first to hit three in the top 50 is pretty good remember big groups were working together to promote their likes and a lot of classic books going back even hundreds of years in some places made the list.

They're top 3 were 1, 46 and 18 on your list, not bad at all in a very subjective topic.

And the rest of you can check your own opinions against theirs there could have been 50 or 75 more considered......easily.

Good topic.

One more I read that did not make my list or this one, but was nonetheless an excellent and very readable book was The Kite Runner. Highly recommend it.

@the-gipper said:

One's that I know I have read highlighted.   I am not actually that big of a reader

Not too bad, many good books did not make the top 100 naturally but there were hundreds of candidates. And books like 53. Godfather too high or low? Do movies take away incentives to read?

Wife started watching Outlander, loved it so I bought the 8 books, 4 in a set, 4 seperate through Amazon, the thick paperbacks about $58. Liked the books MORE!

Lots of other interesting book, movie, TV stories.