Xmas reads.

[Motu]

What did you read over the holdays?...apart from this bloody forum.

One book was very special and I gave it to myself,talking to a friend about bikes he mentioned he had just proof read and printed it in his home print shop.He gave me the authors number and I rang him for a copy - only 250 printed but the author says he's nearly out and will do another batch.

Ralph Watson Special Engineer by Trevor Sheffield,actualy he doesn't list himself as author,just reshearch,editing,supporting text,design and production - it's Ralph's book really,but he would never write a book about himself of course.So who is Ralph Watson you ask? I doubt many here have heard the name,but some older members may remember one of his most famous cars - The Lycoming Special.I watched the Lycoming race as a boy and into my teens,with Jim Boyd driving it was unbeatable,our favorite car of the era.What was it?? A flat 4 cyl Lycoming aircraft engine,air cooled and turned upside down,driving through a 1941 Studebaker gearbox,input through the layshaft to step up the gearing,mated to a Ford V8 diff to make a transaxle with inboard brakes and de dion suspn,housed in a space frame and covered in an alloy body.A truly amazing car and one of the most successful to race in this country,the list of it's competition records is over more than 4 pages in the A4 book.The car was never trailered,it was driven to every event as far south as Invergagil,driven to the NZGPs to compete against Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham,then driven home again.

An earlier car of Ralph Watson's was a 3 wheeled BSA powered by a Vtwin.He turned it into a 4 wheeler and constantly developed the car over many years,it was quite succesful in it's day.Many years later he aquired the wreck and rebuilt it,not stopping with just putting it back together he did more improvements to it.Still later he converted it to a rotary valve,utimatly doing over 30,000kms and racing too - most likely the only sucessful rotary valve engine in the world.The BSA ended up with Ralph Watson built crankcase,crankshaft,con rods,pistons,barrels and rotary valve heads.

Ralph Watson has Parkinsons Disease and at this moment is in Aucland Hospital with a broken hip,they are hoping to make his last project - a rotary 7 cyl aircraft engine,built from scratch - a runner before he dies,lets hope he get's to see it running....

Another book I have been reading is Karl Ludvigsen's Classic Racing Engines,which has an indepth look at the most famous racing car engines ever built,the BRM V and H 16s,all of them up to the Mecedes 3.4ltr pushrod V8 they for Indy in 1994.Specialy interesting in light of Ralph Watson,he rebuilt Bugatti's and Alfa's for Ron Roycroft amoungst others.

The last book that I just finished today was The Trekka Dynasty by Todd Niall.The Trekka has the distintion of being the only car designed and produce in New Zealand,some were even exported,never done before,and probably won't be again.They were a nasty piece of crap,a localy made boxy body on an old out of date Skoda Octavia chassis and running gear.They were cheap,that's about all.The book is more a look at the Turner family that built them,kept me interested the whole way through,not what I expected.

We tried to take one up Liverpool st,the steepest hill in Auckland at the time...it was summer and we had the roof off,we took a run from way back down an ally,then charged at the hill in 2nd at valve bounce....half way up my mate tries to get it into 1st...grrrr,grrrrr,grrrrr.....soon we are going backward fast,the brakes won't pull it up,so he spins the wheel and we are sideways on the hill,damn near falling over,then he spins the wheel the other way and we roll down the bottom...phweeew! that was close,bloody close!

[Blakamin]

shit.... i've read a novel.... Patricia Cornwall - blow fly
and a book on serial killers

[6Chris6]

I'm currently reading, Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Great opening

My name is Odd Thomas, though in this age when fame is the alter at which most people worship, I am not sure why you should care who I am or that I exist.
I am not a celebrity. I am not the child of a celebrity. I have never been married to, never been abused by, and never provided a kidney for transplantation into any celebrity. Furthermore, I have no desire to be a celebrity.
In fact I am such a nonentity by the standards of our culture that People magazine not only will never feature a piece about me but might also reject my attempts to subscribe to their publication on the grounds that the black-hole gravity of my noncelebrity is powerful enough to suck their entire enterprise into oblivion.

Oh well, I liked it.

[Hitcher]

Just finished the Darwin Awards III (A very fast read and highly unrecommended. It's not very funny either. Trust the Americans to make a book out of a bumper sticker...) and about to start Joe Bennett's Land of two halves.

[Posh Tourer :P]

Over the past 2 months I've read The Skeptical Environmentalist (Bjorn Lomborg), What Is This Thing Called Science (by some australian) and parts of "An Introduction to Social Research" (many authors)

Lomborg was a good read, if you can handle being bombarded by statistics for 300 pages. Good, comprehensive analysis of the so-called "Litany" which tells us the world is turning to shit. Basically he comes up with a picture of how it isnt so bad after all....I'm not sure it'd be very exciting for anyone who wasnt interested (even vaguely) in statistics, but for the cynic in me it was fun watching the "litany" being blown apart.

WITTCS was a nice easy read, but kinda only relevant for anyone in science or with an interest in it. Was a good simple overview of the philosophical perspective on science, which helps you get a handle on how to treat those ads that claim "this product is scientifically proven to be xyz". Food for thought and your perspective on science will be changed a little....

Introduction to Social Research was partly written by a pompous professor who was incredibly hard to read (hence I only read bits of it), and it was very 50's in its syntax and diction. Horrible book to read really. That and I'm not interested in social research, I was only interested in the philosophy of science part of it.

I'm probably going to get into Belgarath the (whatever he was) and Polgara the Sorceress (by David Eddings) again while I'm away....

[Posh Tourer :P]

I'm currently reading, Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Great opening

My name is Odd Thomas, though in this age when fame is the alter at which most people worship, I am not sure why you should care who I am or that I exist.
I am not a celebrity. I am not the child of a celebrity. I have never been married to, never been abused by, and never provided a kidney for transplantation into any celebrity. Furthermore, I have no desire to be a celebrity.
In fact I am such a nonentity by the standards of our culture that People magazine not only will never feature a piece about me but might also reject my attempts to subscribe to their publication on the grounds that the black-hole gravity of my noncelebrity is powerful enough to suck their entire enterprise into oblivion.

Oh well, I liked it.


Thats a serious complex to start a book with.....

[Pwalo]

Not a lot of reading, but have been playing with my excellent Xmas pressie, Scalextric MotoGP set (Rossi/Biaggi).

[Indiana_Jones]

GEOFFREY REGAN'S BOOK OF NAVAL BLUNDERS

Bloody great laugh, even for those who arn't into the natuical stuff :D

-Indy

[k14]

Read about 4 books in the last month, three in the last week.

Firstly was "foggy and bikes", basically a book about how good carl fogarty was at racing and how is was the best at everything and how lucky all the other racers are that he has retired, if he was still around it would be rossi who. Quite alot of bullshit, but I still read it, cause it was a bit interesting.

Secondly was "you don't know the half of it", aaron slights autobiography. Really good read, very inspirational etc.

Thirdly was "between a rock and a hard place", by that guy (cant remember his name, aaron someone) that had to cut his arm off when it got wedged in the canyon. Quite good, photos are nice aswell, lol.

Also at the start of the month i read "bringing down the house", another awesome and intriging book about these uni student from the states who worked out a system to legally rip off casinos (mainly in las vegas) through applying maths (mainly statistics) to blackjack, counting the cards etc. Very interesting.

Now I need to find another book to read.

[jrandom]

Before Christmas, I finished Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle - Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World.

Highly recommended to geeks, or anyone who can bring themselves to read a 3,000-page novel (they're really just one book, LOTR style).

And I just realised that there was a Terry Pratchett book I'd missed (Interesting Times) so I read it yesterday.

Dunno what I'll read next. Anyone got anything by Sartre they wouldn't mind lending me?

[moko]

The Long Way Round by Ewan MacGregor and John Boorman about their epic bike ride.Good read,very funny in places,touching in others and very honest,both guys admit to being total arseholes at some point during the journey.My favourite bit is the description of the American Border Guard freaking out,confirms everything you suspected about Americans and the "terrorist threat".Apparently Sky have shown the t.v. series and the DVDs out over here as well.
Those Trekka things,I`m positive that`s featured on Billy Connelly`s world tour Of New Zealand.Connelly`s not particularly popular over here because he thought saying some guy being held hostage by Iraqis should be shot because it was getting boring was funny.Well they did shoot him a couple of days later and big-shot Connelly wasn`t man enough to apologise to the family,in fact he lashed out at reporters who asked him if he would do so,wanker.

[Coyote]

I'm reading 'Lemon! 60 heroic failures of motoring' by Tony Davis. Very funny book that everyone should read, whether you hate cages or not.

'When an owner stood by his Triumph Stag, it was usually because he couldn't get the door open.'

'If you required a sudden burst of acceleration in the Goggomobil Dart, it was best to jump out and run'

[vifferman]

... about to start Joe Bennett's Land of two halves.Let me know how it is. I've read a couple of his other books.

I'm probably going to get into Belgarath the (whatever he was) and Polgara the Sorceress (by David Eddings) again while I'm away....Excellent books. :niceone:

And I just realised that there was a Terry Pratchett book I'd missed (Interesting Times) so I read it yesterday.My son has all the Terry Pratchett books, including a couple of autographed ones. I read Going Postal (very good) over the break, but haven't read all the others. My favourites of those I have read were A Hat Full of Sky and The Wee Brave Men (or whatever it's called).
My sister (New Age weirdo) gave me a small book for my birthday called Don't Sweat the Small Things ... and they're all small things. It's very superficial and lacking in pith (pith is good, as is occasionally getting pithed).
Because I'm mental, my family think I need stuff like this. Some of it has been good (Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain and The Artist's Way), but I think I'll put this latest one away with The Sayings of the Dalai Lama or whatever the fook it's called....:blank:

Apart from anything else, it really pithes my wife off when I get stuff like this. She had a browse of the aformentioned tome and promptly scribbled up her own version ( a dig at me, and my lack of doing stuff) called "Don't sweat the Small Stuff .... Just get on with Tackling the Big Stuff!" :eek:

[Hitcher]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm currently reading the Honda STX1300 Owner's Manual... Rivetting stuff. I now know how to set the clock and the nine-way adjustable seat...

[vifferman]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm currently reading the Honda STX1300 Owner's Manual... Rivetting stuff. I now know how to set the clock and the nine-way adjustable seat...Is it really 9-way adjustable?
At least you've got a manual. I had one for the VTR, but had to guess things on the VFR (like clock-setting.) Luckily, a few years spent on the US VFR forum meant that a few things like "How do I set the clock?" stuck in the dim, dark recesses of my reptilian brain. :confused:

[Yokai]

Since Christmas I've read:

Long Way Round - Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman... Good book - I wanna meet Igor (sort of)

The Songs of Distant Earth - Arthur C. Clarke .... Surprisingly I had never read this! Really liked it, and there's no real ending - just a good ideas based story

I am currently reading "The Algebraist" by Iain M. Banks. I'm a Banks fan, but this is his latest and most referential so far. It's got some good bits in it, and I don't quite know (as per normal) where he is taking me. I recommend Mr. Banks to all and any who like science fiction writing and don't mind non-endings.

Still to come are:
Kiwi's might fly
The Illearth War
I, Robot (again - primarily I'm collecting the Voyager Classics covers...)
A French Magazine about language processing
KnR
and I'm STILL WAITING FOR MY KNUTH!
Can I borrow your Stroustrup in a bit, JR?

[manuboy]

the "saftey warning" stickers on the bike (all 4,600) of them as i was peeling them off.

And i would've read anything by Tad Williams, cos he's freakish. But he hasn't had time to write another one - good things take time?

[jrandom]

Can I borrow your Stroustrup in a bit, JR?

Yeah, sure, just gimme a yell when you want it, although it's more of a reference than a tutorial. But if you have the patience to slog through all of it you'll have a better understanding of the ANSI C++ standard's support for type-agnostic templates and generic programming than I do...

[Yokai]

Yeah, sure, just gimme a yell when you want it, although it's more of a reference than a tutorial. But if you have the patience to slog through all of it you'll have a better understanding of the ANSI C++ standard's support for type-agnostic templates and generic programming than I do...

Oh - and I forgot to say that I am still reading "The New Science" (Stephen Wolfram) .... - now THAT'S a slog.....

[jrandom]

Oh - and I forgot to say that I am still reading "The New Science" (Stephen Wolfram) .... - now THAT'S a slog.....

Well, we'll be expecting a summary of cellular automata theory in the Rave On section when you're finished.

(That *is* what it's about, isn't it? My memory could be faulty, and I haven't actually read it.)