Read any good books lately?


PrairieKnight

PrairieKnight

Active Member
I will be going to our cottage on Lake Erie soon for vacation. My lovely wife has put her foot down and said that I cannot pull my 4 X 8 layout out of the basement and haul it across the Ohio Turnpike so that I can work on it while we are there. For God sake, I put casters on it. ;)

So I am looking for a good read while I sit on the beach and drown some worms waiting for some perch or sheephead to bend the fishing pole. Anyone have any good reading suggestions?

By the way...I hate fiction. I love anything to do with history. I was born in Youngstown, Ohio so I like to read anything I can about railroads and the steel industry. After the sun is high in the sky and the aformentioned fish go deep and laugh at my efforts that morning.... I love to make the short drive to Ashtabula, Ohio and watch the coal trains roll in from West Virginia. The lake freighters pull into the harbor and load up for ports unknown on the upper Great Lakes. It is a neat operation to watch.

I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer.
 
I thought of Mark Twain as well, pre railroad though. For non fiction I loved Allan W. Eckert, The Frontiersman. What they call a historical novel, with actual letters written as supporting documentation. His main character is my hero, Simon Kenton. From your geographic region. Sorry, no trains.

Too bad my favorite light reading is fiction, Loius Lamore. Some of his mid career westerns are tough to put down, often with historical backdrops.
 
If you love history the way I do may I suggest Shattered Sword the untold story of the battle of Midway by Jon Parshall,
This is an extremely well written book from the Japanese perspective.
 
For railroading themes read "The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman" by Murray Klein.

Harriman was one of the most honest and finest men of his era and he changed the nature of railroading forever. He was a 'man's man', an adventurer and financial and organizational genius. He was treated shabbily and ultimately hammered-flat by Teddy Roosevelt and his "Progressive" gang - to the ever-lasting shame on Teddy. Maybe because Roosevelt and Harriman were really cut from the same cloth.
 
Charles Smiley said:
For railroading themes read "The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman" by Murray Klein.

Harriman was one of the most honest and finest men of his era and he changed the nature of railroading forever. He was a 'man's man', an adventurer and financial and organizational genius. He was treated shabbily and ultimately hammered-flat by Teddy Roosevelt and his "Progressive" gang - to the ever-lasting shame on Teddy. Maybe because Roosevelt and Harriman were really cut from the same cloth.
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Charles,

This sounds like a very interesting book. I just tried looking it up on the Barnes and Noble web site and was shocked to see that the paperback version is selling for $55.00. WOW. I am going to keep looking for it online. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
As much as this is "heresy" to railroaders (especially those who grew up riding passenger trains in the 1940's- ealry '60's, I recommend David M. McCullough's "The Wright Brothers", just recently published. Very detailed about them, and containing interesting facts that even an aviation enthusiast such as myself didn't know. For great railroad history, there is Walter R. Borneman's "Iron Horses - America's race to bring the railroads west," published by Back Bay Books - Little, Brown and Company, 2010, but with a softcover version published in 2014. On p.233 there is a great photo of a stub turnout with a funnel-stacker facing the camera on a sidetrack (with the switch aligned for the locomotive)!
 
QUOTE: "
By the way...I hate fiction...."

Me too!

There are so many great and heroic stories of things that really happened -- why would anyone waste time reading junk that is made up out of 'whole-cloth'?

For example... "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" has more stories of valor and overcoming impossible odds than any stupid comic book "super-hero" tommy-rot could ever made believable. Just my "O". And there are countless books like that and ones yet to be written...
 
Charles Smiley said:
QUOTE: "
By the way...I hate fiction...."

Me too!

There are so many great and heroic stories of things that really happened -- why would anyone waste time reading junk that is made up out of 'whole-cloth'?

For example... "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" has more stories of valor and overcoming impossible odds than any stupid comic book "super-hero" tommy-rot could ever made believable. Just my "O". And there are countless books like that and ones yet to be written...
Click to expand...

The last stand of the tin can sailors is an outstanding book,well worth reading!!
 
I have a few suggestions;

At Dawn We Slept by Gordon Prange. Tells the story of Pearl Harbor, from both sides. Oftentimes this gets down almost to the minute by minute of the planning of the attack, to the attack itself and then the aftermath. At the time of it's publication was called the definitive book on Pearl Harbor.

Miracle at Midway, same author. Same format.

These two books were actually finished by 2 Naval Officers who worked closely with Mr Prange to try to finish them prior to his death. Unfortunately, he died before the books were finished. He had started on the book at the orders of Gen. MacArthur after the end of WWII, to interview as many participants on the Japanese side who had anything to do with the planning and execution of the attack. He then started interviewing as many participants on the American side as well with the intent of publishing his findings.

No Easy Day, The Autobiography of a Navy Seal. By Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer. The firsthand account of the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden. The author's name isn't his real one for security reasons. There are some great illustrations and pics in the book. I found it a great read.

I also have to agree with the others, Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, is also a great read.

I also don't like fiction that much, except for a couple of authors, and prefer books like the 3 I suggested.
 
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