What is everyone reading at the moment?

I had been craving a good adventure read so my 13yo son suggested I pick something from Rick Riordan.  When I looked at his Bio I noticed he primarily writes for teens, so I was hesitant.  I looked in Kindle Unlimited and found a story I thought I would like and I'll be darned if I didn't read the entire series!! The Heroes of Olympus is geared toward young readers, but if you keep those expectations it really is a great set of books.  For me it was a page turner and being not to difficult to read I finished them all within a weeks time.  I bet with effort I could have finished them in a few days, but I mainly read while traveling as I'm all over the place every week.

What are you all reading?  I'm shopping now for something more like a nice historical account of early American Colonialism would be best.

Any Ideas?

I like historical/historical fiction as well - I don't have any Colonial period books  in mind, however, I can recommend The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, if you haven't read it its excellent Civil War reading.  

If you like science fiction I recommend the Altered Carbon trilogy and the stand alone Thirteen (aka Black Man) by Richard Morgan.  Really excellent and I wouldn't judge it by the Netflix series Altered Carbon that came out a year or two ago, the books are better.

In the fun science fiction/fantasy line there's the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher - good fun.

Your comments about teen/juvenile fiction are good - I find a lot of the genre to be well written and just good, clean fun and what's wrong with that?

Thanks everyone...I think I have enough suggestions to last at least through the next few flights!  I'm excited as a bunch of these are available on Kindle, as that's what I choose to read on.  You guys are awesome!

Some light reading for the Holiday's

--
John

All good luck to you in that endeavor, Brian.  Perhaps if you have any good books or pamphlets on the subject you'd consider mentioning them here as they might help others.  Take care.

Since writing about my heart disease experience I've done a great deal of research on the subject. Most of which is just regurgitated info that frankly was fraudulent from day 1 on it's release. I thought my research was just common sense, my Drs all tell me that I'm unusual. Whatever.

An excellent book on the subject, "Food:WTF should I eat?" by Mark Hyman. Dr. Hyman (no he isn't a gynecologist) cuts through the BS of competing "studies" and recommendations and gives the straight info on the latest studies and results that can be duplicated. Oh, and he makes no friends of anyone but the reader in the book. He steps on lots of toes and if you look into him on the 'net he's called many names. That tells me that he's telling the truth by the folks who can't stand him. One can tell what a person is like by the friends they have and those they don't have. Folks who make $ off of the misery (and death) of others don't like him very much.

There was another book also, loaned to me by a retired nurse, something about eating for ones body type. That tied in with what Dr. Hyman wrote and each book bouyed the other up. I wish I could remember the name better. Here it is >>>>>Click here<<<<<<<

I'm not going to write either book here though it may seem when I'm done that I did just that, but as a result of Dr Hymans expose of the fraudulent research, I decided to look into it personally and turned myself into a test animal. My blood tests for the previous year told me that my LDL/HDL was under control since I was (and am) taking a statin to control what my liver was doing. The liver was my problem. The latest research states that dietary fats and cholesterol in a normal diet don't significantly affect LDL/HDL in the blood. I was having more tests coming up in a few months, and wanted to lose weight anyway. So using the new found knowledge I dropped back to the days when our ancestors were hunter gatherers and what would be the worst diet possible if fats were the problem. I put myself into ketosis by cutting out all carbs and eating protein (meats, eggs, and cheese mostly), fats, and green veggies. I previously wrote that I had lost 20#, well, I'm down a total of 40# now and want to lose another 30. If there is a worst diet for LDL/HDH I was the poster boy for it. Months later my blood tests confirmed what Dr. Hyman stated that the latest research showed. Dietary fats do NOT cause serum LDL/HDL problems. Many top cardiologists today also know this. Many still don't and continue to push low fats for heart disease. But I have my body and you don't so don't assume "Dr. Brian" is giving this as medical advice. Ask your Dr and do your research. My medical condition might be completely different than yours. Since carbs are the problem with heart disease and I'm already doing "Keto" I plan to stay on it for awhile even after I reach my weight goal. Hunter gatherers had carbs available during harvest season, and then went into ketosis for the rest of the year. That's my plan also if I come out of ketosis... Eat carbs for a short time then go back onto meat, fats, and green veggies for 3/4 of the year. But that's only if I want to get out of ketosis at all. There is no need to do so.

Let's boil it down, OK, so in my research this is what I've found, and I didn't find it plainly written out anywhere. One day what I'd been reading just coalesced and I understood.  Background: The body will always burn carbs as the first source of fuel. All carbs no matter what form is sugar. The slice of bread you just ate gets turned to sugar, absorbed, and burned. If carbs are available that's what you're burning for fuel. Any fats consumed get stored for later use. The human body does a poor job of storing carbs and runs out of them fairly rapidly. Ever wonder why you get hungry every few hours? Fats are by far the better fuel, it's really not even close, but fats get stored easily and efficiently for later use so that's what the body does with them. This worked great when we were hunter/gatherers but today when we have fats and carbs at every meal it works against us. The carbs are burned immediately for fuel and the fats are stored for later, leading to obesity. OK, one rule of thumb... pick a lane and stay in it. Either choose to eat carbs, meat, veggies, and fruit and no fats; or eat meat, fats, and green veggies; grains, fruit, potatoes, carrots are all carbs and can't be eaten to stay in ketosis. What is ketosis? When sugar isn't available as a fuel the body taps into the stored fat reserves as fuel. The liver converts fat into ketones which the bodies cells burn instead of sugar. Eat carbs though and the body immediately goes back to burning them and kicking oneself out of ketosis. So eat carbs which can't be stored and you function fine and without fats in the diet you can't gain significant weight. Same goes for ketosis, without carbs present the body is forced to burn fat for fuel and weight is lost if not enough fat that was used for fuel was consumed through the day. One byproduct of ketosis, one just doesn't get hungry in the same way that one does when burning sugar. It's not unusual for me to just not be hungry so I don't eat and that's perfectly OK. Other advantages? The A1C comes down if one is borderline diabetic. Too, since carbs are implicated in heart disease it removes them from being a  problem. It's not an easy diet. I miss fruit and bread more than you can know. I didn't get to be a great baker by not loving fresh bread. But there are ways around that and getting fresh bread. There are also ways around not getting sweets. There are sugar substitutes that are low or no carb. Too, I allow myself a few carbs per day. I think I might be able to go as high as 40g/carbs/day but I stay well below that. Every night I have a small amount of 1 carb butter pecan ice cream (delicious BTW) and every night I get a few squares of 70% cacao (or higher) chocolate. Both foods have their calories in the form of fats and fat is definitely on my diet. Want a marbled rib eye steak? Go for it! Just don't have the fries or baked potato. Salad is OK especially if you bring your own dressing, as are all green veggies that I can think of. Don't even think of taking a slice of bread from the bread basket. Put the bread down and eat a pat of healthy butter instead. OK I jest but the butter is better for you than the bread.

Alcohol? Alcohol isn't a carb, and it won't kick you out of ketosis, but for me at this time I want weight loss and the liver will process the ethyl and burn it for fuel instead of fat, so I severely restrict consumption of it. One finger of scotch (any low carb alcohol), and not regularly, is fine. So too is just a tablespoon to coat the tongue for the taste and to skip the euphoria.

My GI Dr told me when I told her that I was in ketosis that she tried it but it's not an easy diet to stay on. I agree. I know my way around a kitchen but all those decades of learning how to cook were worthless once I decided to go into ketosis. For quite awhile I ate a lot of sausage and cheese while I learned. But I made a keto Thanksgiving dinner for the wife and I and she pronounced it delicious, so cooking keto with good results can be done. If she had insisted on white and sweet potato it would have been impossible, but for years we have pared down T'day dinner to just the few things we really must have so it worked.

Merry Christmas everybody!

This thread merits reviving, so many great books, intellects and perspectives. Have enjoyed following and living vicariously thru you.

This thread merits reviving, so many great books, intellects and perspectives.  Have enjoyed following and living vicariously thru you.

Are you reading anything right now?  I do enjoy seeing what others are interested in.

Not very intellectual by comparison to others on this thread. Rereading 4 of my favourites at the moment - so many favourites really: Razor's Edge (huge Maugham fan, maybe only person left in the world still enjoying his writing style but hey, like Porgy & Bess too), Frankenstein, Fight Club (no book more captures male anomie as Western civilization collapses) and Quixote. All germane to the life I have led albeit on a decidedly lesser scale of significance.

Since we're reviving this thread, here's what I'm reading at the moment:



It's a really engaging read about a canoe trip on the Churchill river. It has some wonderful descriptions of the land, and the adventures these guys had along the way.

I recently finished this book:



Some of you may have watched the documentaries of his life in Alaska on PBS (based on footage he filmed himself). I never saw the series, but I love this book. He was a really good diarist and photographer (and cinematographer, apparently). This describes the first year or so of his life in Alaska. The skill and resourcefulness of this man is amazing.

Rereading The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People

I'm currently reading "A Warning," by Anonymous. Next up is "Ohio," by Stephen Markley. Then "A Very Stable Genius," by Rucker and Leonnig. I'm enjoying my books these days.