What are you reading now?

[RIP]

You don't read a good book, you live in it for a while

Anonymous

I like that. Even better if you can lock the door behind you and close the curtains.....

[AndyTheBikeGuy]

Does anyone else have those things that you vividly remember from a book? I’ve got a few, but oddly the one that’s comes up most often is [paraphrased] ‘put your outside foot forwards on berms’ from OCCD. It must pop into my head once or twice a week when on the MTB and it genuinely revolutionised my riding shortly after I started taking MTB seriously. Cheers Dave

[Taylor]

Hungry by Grace Dent

I'm finding it really entertaining, it's describing her childhood growing up in Carlisle at the same time as me.
She also lived 2 doors from my godfather's house so I probably knocked about with her at some point whilst my dad was visiting. (My godfather's kids get a mention within the first half a dozen pages)
The first 1/4 is very much aimed at growing up in the north during the late 70's, early 80's.

[AndreR]

Just finished this and found it really interesting and thought provoking. Taking wild camping to the nth degree.

https://g.co/kgs/Py5bSv

[shutupthepunx]

im currently enjoying journey to the centre of the earth, thanks to recommendations on here

[Dave Barter]

Does anyone else have those things that you vividly remember from a book? I’ve got a few, but oddly the one that’s comes up most often is [paraphrased] ‘put your outside foot forwards on berms’ from OCCD. It must pop into my head once or twice a week when on the MTB and it genuinely revolutionised my riding shortly after I started taking MTB seriously. Cheers Dave

I never thought anyone would take anything seriously from the book ;-)

[AndyTheBikeGuy]

I never thought anyone would take anything seriously from the book ;-)

I think you’re being modest, there’s a meeting every Tuesday at my local village hall that reads the “Gospel according to Dave” and try to interpret your teachings. There phrase “he must mean something more profound with his profanity” comes up a lot.

[AndreR]

Just flown through Anna McNuff's 50 shades of the USA and really enjoyed it. Great writing, funny and insightful at the same time. Would recommend

[Loki]

Battle of the Narrow Seas by Peter Scott, I have been reading quite a few books like this recently, the book is based on the mission logs of the MTB's and MGB's of Coastal Command during WW2 from the fjords of Norway to the Mediterranean, quite an exciting book.

[AndreR]

Battle of the Narrow Seas by Peter Scott, I have been reading quite a few books like this recently, the book is based on the mission logs of the MTB's and MGB's of Coastal Command during WW2 from the fjords of Norway to the Mediterranean, quite an exciting book.

That sound really interesting! Read a book called UBoats Attack - The barrel for the Atlantic also pulled together from the shins log the captains logs and German high command documents now available to the public. Those guys were tough!

[Loki]

They were bonkers tough, I saw a modern review of an old 70ft Vosper motor torpedo boat, incredibly hard to steer on calm seas let alone under fire and in less than ideal conditions, I have up next the operational history of the German S boats, another good book to rear is D-Day through German eyes, report from troops on the Axis side.

[Alpinum]

Nothing new (after having read through multiple biographies of Mr. Humboldt over the years), but this was really good fun (just finished reading it a day ago):
http://www.lillianmelcher.com/humboldt
Lovely drawings and his South America expedition told in a comical way.
Some links to his brother, Goethe, Darwin, Muir and more which may surprise those who wonder why Humboldt is a name given to so many things, from animals to mountain ranges, from plants to sea currents.
Fun and accurate.

Currently reading this
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-lagoon-9781408836200/
Really enjoying it too so far.
Right from the beginning there's quite some food for thought.

Does anyone else have those things that you vividly remember from a book?

I'm proper rubbish at quoting, but I often think back to this:

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
Henry David Thoreau, from Nature and Other Essays.

Also that Newton invented (well, there's a dispute about this; the Leibniz-Newton dispute) infinitesimal calculus only to explain planetary motion, tides and many other phenomena.
From Welcome to the Universe. Fantastic read and weirdly, I often think of it.

But mainly that the testicles of honeybees explode with an audible noise (bang?) for mating.
From some book full of unnecessary knowledge from the animal kingdom (can't remember the name).

[RIP]

But mainly that the testicles of honeybees explode with an audible noise (bang?) for mating.

And I thought it was just me that did that

[Escape Goat]

I picked up Tough Women Adventure Stories edited by Jenny Tough.

[PaulB2]

Does anyone else accumulate books quicker than they read them? I don’t think my buying habits have ever adjusted to the fact that I have so many other demands on my time these days and it’s even easier now most of the books don’t take up any space.

[faustus]

Always have a rolling amount of unread books!

Partly in anticipation of long awaited (and who knows when it'll be made/finished) Spielberg/Hanks adaptation of Masters of the Air by Donald Miller, I've got the book on kindle and the first chapter is very gripping and equally harrowing.

[thenorthwind]

But mainly that the testicles of honeybees explode with an audible noise (bang?) for mating.
From some book full of unnecessary knowledge from the animal kingdom (can't remember the name).

I learnt from an ecologist friend the other day that queen bees (unsure which species, or all) are able to store the male's semen after mating, and release it to inseminate her eggs whenever she chooses (though I assume it has a best before date). Such a great fact that I only need the smallest excuse, like this thread, to share it.

Does anyone else accumulate books quicker than they read them? I don’t think my buying habits have ever adjusted to the fact that I have so many other demands on my time these days and it’s even easier now most of the books don’t take up any space.

Guilty, as charged

[AndreR]

Does anyone else accumulate books quicker than they read them? I don’t think my buying habits have ever adjusted to the fact that I have so many other demands on my time these days and it’s even easier now most of the books don’t take up any space.

Currently got 9 to read and 2 part read! This thread isn't helping

[Alpinum]

I learnt from an ecologist friend the other day that queen bees (unsure which species, or all) are able to store the male's semen after mating, and release it to inseminate her eggs whenever she chooses (though I assume it has a best before date). Such a great fact that I only need the smallest excuse, like this thread, to share it.

Yeah, it's bees, wasps and some ants.
I thought they collect the sperm only during a brief time after become fertile and keep using the sperm collected from this one mating flight during which she mates with many drones (and in the bees' cases with their exploding genitals).

Nature is bloody fascinating.

[Mart]

Just starting High Endeavours about Scottish climber Robin Smith
I’ve done a few of his routes and It’s a story I’ve wanted to read for ages but never got round to it

[RIP]

Perhaps more along the lines of mental challenges rather than physical ones (although, plainly, physical challenges entail some measure of mental contortionism themselves), my breakfast today is accompanied by Richard Feynman the renowned physicist.

Have got all his various books and am re-reading The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out. Which on reflection is very appropriate to why I bikepack. TPOFTO bikepacking. One of his main aphorisms is that we must always doubt, without that there can be no progress. Obviously this goes against the philosophy of those who believe they know an 'eternal truth' or similar, or that a supposed fact stated in the past is forever fixed and true.

I'm going to draw a parallel with bikepacking. The 'scientific' approach is not actually to plan exactly what you will do, or to blindly follow the herd or indeed a route in our case. It's the opposite. Start your ride with an open mind and a massive dose of doubt - I will follow my nose not a line on a gizmo, I will doubt where I'm going to kip, I will question my choices, I will head off at random tangents, etc etc. To fix everything beforehand is to hinder progress not to advance it.

Feynman put forward the oft-recounted battle between Galileo Galilei and the Church - 'the constituted authorities who had a fixed solution to every problem', with no room for doubt or discussion. Galileo should be the 'patron saint' of two-wheeled tramps!

Feynman again: "to decide upon the answer is not scientific.... It is our responsibility not to give the answer today... Because then we will be chained to the limits of our imagination.... We will only be able to do those things that we think today are the things to do".

There you go, that's Reg's bit of half-baked philosophy (although Feynman had little time for philosophers!) for the day.

[RIP]

Does anyone else accumulate books quicker than they read them?

Much of the time yes. Worse than that, I often read several in parallel. My reading habits are a big mess, rather like my bikepacking.

[Verena]

Does anyone else accumulate books quicker than they read them?

Much of the time yes. Worst than that, I often read several in parallel. My reading habits are a big mess, rather like my bikepacking.

Same here...

[techno]

I learnt from an ecologist friend the other day that queen bees (unsure which species, or all) are able to store the male's semen after mating, and release it to inseminate her eggs whenever she chooses (though I assume it has a best before date). Such a great fact that I only need the smallest excuse, like this thread, to share it.

Yeah, it's bees, wasps and some ants.
I thought they collect the sperm only during a brief time after become fertile and keep using the sperm collected from this one mating flight during which she mates with many drones (and in the bees' cases with their exploding genitals).

Nature is bloody fascinating.

echidnas also do this. Also, the females have a twin branched reproductive tract and the males a four headed penis.

[RIP]

the males a four headed penis.

Just about to set off on a ride. I shall maintain this image for the duration. Not doing much for my inferiority complex though.