Question What are you reading?

i am reading Brisigner by Christopher Paolini
 
"Voyage" by Stephen Baxter, an alternate-history book about what might have happened had the US government not decided that travel to Mars was apparently a waste of time.
 
Almost finished reading Night, by Elie Wiesel, in school.
We read Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, before that.
 
Currently in the middle of Stand,by Stephen King.
Longitude is a good book ,I agree.
 
"Riding Rockets" by former NASA Astronaut Mike Mullane, who flew aboard 3 Space Shuttle Missions: STS-41D, STS-27, STS-36.

Well worth a read. In places it can be hilariously funny, but also saddeningly realistic. It offers an inside view of NASA, the Space Shuttle program, and indeed space flight itself.

It's a sharp change from the always perfect image painted by NASA PR in the public eye.

More info:
www.mikemullane.com
 
Just finished "Free Flight" by Douglas Terman.
Wow, great book, finished the 300+ pages in two days. It was in a bookcase here for years, never noticed it..

The story is taking place after a 7-day nuclear war. The main character survives and, surprisingly, gets his hands on a 2 seater motorglider, which he uses to escape from the (former) United States to the north, Canada and beyond, away from the terrible new regime. In other words, for a good part the book is all about gliding (liked it, being a soaring fan myself!), but in a very unusual situation!
Also the beginning of the book describes in a very realistic way how such insane decisions for starting a total nuclear war could happen..

regards,
mcduck
 
I'm a big fan of science fiction/speculative fiction books. I've just finished the Time's Eye series by Stephen Baxter, currently reading Left Behind by Tim LaHaye.
 
I'm a big fan of science fiction/speculative fiction books. I've just finished the Time's Eye series by Stephen Baxter, currently reading Left Behind by Tim LaHaye.

The Time's Eye series had some good stuff, I especially liked the antimatter-powered warship.

Finally found a copy of Baxter's book Titan, I've been looking forward to this one for a while.
 
Just finished Palestine: Inside and Out by Saree Makdisi. Definitely NOT light reading, I learned much.

Before that I read Longitude by Dava Sobel which is the story of the man who struggled to claim the prize for finding a way to deiscern one's longitude at sea by use of an amazing new clock he built. The book also discusses other methods of finding longitude, through the use fo astronomical observations, including the Moon & tables, and the moons of Jupiter, which Galieo believed were the "clock in the sky" that anyone could read to find the time at the reference longitude. Fascinating story.
 
I'm re-reading two science fiction novels I read when I was younger and got from the Salvation Army (I'm not poor or anything, but the Salvo's are a great book source). Just finished Raft by Stephen Baxter, moving on to Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson.

I realize now that in my youthful impatience I missed so very much of the two novels, and, on re-reading it, I enjoyed Raft a lot more than I did before (but that might also be slightly due to the fact that I now understand Newtonian physics!).
 
I have just started on another astronaut autobiography: Sky Walking, by former NASA astronaut Tom Jones, Ph.D.

He has flown on four Space Shuttle missions, including STS-98 to the ISS, which delivered the Destiny laboratory. He has also performed three spacewalks outside the ISS.

The book is a good account of how the ISS came into existence. The book describes all the troubles the space station faced in the early 90's, and details how the Russians eventually came on-board the project. The US & Russia seem to co-operate fully in space exploration now, but this book tells that in the early years of the ISS, this was not always the case, as both countries battled for the majority of control over the project...

And the descriptions of working inside the ISS, and outside it on a spacewalk are simply amazing.


A good read!

www.astronauttomjones.com
 
I'm currently reading the autobiography of Slash...but I usually read things like Conrad and Woolf, honest :P
 
I read the Tom Jones book, but after reading Mike Mullane's book I found it sterile and diappointing. Mullane lays it all out there for the reader, and let's you know what was right and what was wrong, without mercy. Jones is way more reserved and keeps all of NASA's problems internal. Good ISS info, but most of it left me wondering what the real story was.
 
Just finished 'Too Far From Home' by Chris Jones - a great read about Expedition Six to the ISS who found themselves with no way of getting home after the Columbia disaster. The parts that really make it worth reading are the descriptions of day to day life on the ISS for it's three man crew and how the crew grew together during the time they spent waiting to come back.

About to start 'Twilight' by Stephenie Meyer having been told by my girlfriend to make a change for once from only reading books relating to flying or spaceflight, not too sure about a book described as a "thrilling vampire romance" though?!
 
I'm really low on some good fiction, which is what I tend to read, so right now I've been on and off reading a translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

My dad recommended The Right Stuff but we couldn't find the copy, so I plan ordering that soon and reading it Art of War.
 
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I'll finish "Green Mars" in a few hours, then move on to "Blue Mars". I'm also reading Patrick O'Brian's "The Reverse of The Medal". I've been working on his Master And Commander series for years (it seems).
 
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