Question What are you reading?

Something rather intriguing from 1982, The Black Yacht by John Baxter.

The book seems to be a case of 'shouldn't write so fast'...

Set in the lead up to the '86 Americas Cup (I know, the actual races were held in odd years, but this is fiction) the plot involves the desperate struggle to find a boat capable of beating a super-yacht created by a Japanese multi-millionaire (remember those...)

The whole thing was knocked into the bin by the events of the '83 America's Cup when the Australians took it and left an empty tinnie of Swan lager on the plinth...
 
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GEMINI Steps To The Moon by David J. Shayler and Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the National Space Transportation System - The Beginning through STS-50 by Dennis R. Jenkins. This is great book, early concepts from Dr. Sänger, the X-20, and early NASA concepts on through to an engineers’ OCD level of detail of STS. (Located a nice mint copy.)
 
Currently reading GURPS Space. Intended as a manual for Game Masters to create role-playing scenarios, it's just as helpful as a guide for a procedural everything generator (except for graphics, obviously). I wish I read it 4 years ago. Some of the stuff will probably trigger some changes in Orbiter Galaxy, and will certainly find lots of use in development of other planned features...
 
How Apollo Flew To The Moon. There's enough material to debunk even the most stout-worthy conspirators whom continue to claim the Apollo program was a hoax.

There's awesome trivia on just about every page that seemingly isn't covered elsewhere. And it's a fantastic read that takes you on a lunar voyage with perspectives from *all* the Apollo missions.
 
Still reading Harry Potter. As soon as I end with the seventh book I can't keep myself from starting again with the first :lol:.

But I finally bought some real space stuff today, which should arrive this week, Riding Rockets and Failure Is Not An Option. (Together with The Right Stuff on DVD and Red/Cyan glasses :speakcool:)
 
The Right Stuff is such a great book! I've seen the movie before reading it. The movie was already more than excellent, the book is even better. I highly recommend you to buy the book too.

I have Failure Is Not An Option, but I did not read it yet. I have way too much books to read!

I've just finished A Case of Need from Michael Crichton. I love his old books. Micro was quite good, even if it was co-written. I was not sure when I saw it, but it was pleasant to read.

I'm currently on Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software from the Gang of Four. A very great programming reference. I'll read it one time from the beginning to the end, but I'm pretty sure I'll use it often during programming. $40 well invested. And it's a beautiful printing. Not those cheap issues (like The Right Stuff...) on brownish paper and paperback that curves at the first reading...
 
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Firefox by Craig Thomas:

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I also bought Storming Intrepid by Payne Harrison from the local book swap:

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astrosammy said:
Still reading Harry Potter. As soon as I end with the seventh book I can't keep myself from starting again with the first :lol:.

But I finally bought some real space stuff today, which should arrive this week, Riding Rockets and Failure Is Not An Option. (Together with The Right Stuff on DVD and Red/Cyan glasses :speakcool:)
Click to expand...

Riding Rockets is easily the best astronaut biography I've ever read. Highly recommended.:thumbup:
 
Now Reading Oliver Twist, I think I'm going to go back in time of English Literature, well, let's see when I'll come about the Beowulf, I already have a text of The Canterbury Tales in its original Middle English version though.
 
Star Voyager said:
I also bought Storming Intrepid by Payne Harrison from the local book swap
Click to expand...

I like that book very much.
Lots of interesting and sometimes almost crazy concepts but well estabilished in 80's spaceflight tech level.

I won't give any spoilers but that thing is pretty good.
 
Right now i'm reading "Chariots of the Gods" and i'm planning to read on next "Living in Space : From Science Fiction to the International Space Station"
 
"The Day Before Midnight" by Stephen Hunter, a techno-thriller with more going on under the surface than it seems.

 
Hmmmn. Well, I just recently hit the "Free" table at the local library. This is where the donated books for the "Friends of the Library" sale go if they don't make the cut for inclusion in the sale. I came home with 2 grocery bags of paperbacks, including 35 old Ace Double SF novels, for free. Since I date from the time of chipped flint spaceships and wooden (yes, wooden) slide rules, this was like running into a bunch of old friends that I hadn't seen in years. Some of these authors have faded into the mists of history, like E. C. Tubb, and Emil Petaja.

There were also an assortment of newer SF and I am happily making the acquaintance of Lee Correy (better known by his real name G. Harry Stine, a rocket scientist). Correy wrote hard, near future tech (for the '80's), and I'm learning about real space medicine in "Space Doctor", the story of the first orbital power satellite. Also an almost complete set of H. Beam Piper, another 40's-50's writer that had a future timeline similar to Heinlein.
 
Just began reading "First on the Moon", a book (written in 1970, I think, by Life magazine employees with consultation with Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and Buzz Aldrin) detailing the events preceding and the cultural impact following the Apollo 11 lunar landing. So far, it's excellent. Also finished "Selling Peace" a month or so back. It's a memoir by Jeffrey Manber detailing his efforts, through the company MirCorp, to privatize and revitalize the Mir space station, as well as space exploration itself, in the 1990's and early 2000's
 
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Point of Impact, a book in the Net Force series by Tom Clancy.
 
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