The Steel Guitar Forum

McCullaugh became a big name because of the quality,
and large, consistent output of his work.
But he was cut from the academic researcher mold,
more than the historical novela crowd.

A man of facts who also writes clearly and entertainingly. While generally escewing the
hagiographic urges of many biographers.

Makes for a more humble book-wormish type.
Not to say there are not academics who are
also press-hounds of the highest water.
Often big case lawyers like Dershowitz.

He is a decent piano player warranting regular tunings.
My friend would know. He got to the point on tuning day,
there'd be a envelope note on the door
with a check, and 'walk in and get to it' note.
whether they were on island or not.

Dershowitz is a perfect example.

Ditto.

I forgot to add Alison Weir
Queen Isabella.
Wife of Edward III
and daughter of one of the most adroit,
maladict and powerful french kings ever.

Another great, and bloody, read

Some of the crimes of royalty are both horrifying and hilarious. They're as wild as today's detective fiction, but they're true.

Edward III had a habit of getting his boyfriends killed
for letting them control his business.
And that essential got him killed in the long run.

While Isabela was a child bride who grew into the role,
of power broker, long before it was normal for
women to control countries. She still had to have a protector, Mortimer.
He himself over reached, and got himself topped
for arrogance and greed. A familiar theme back then.

Another great read of that period is:
Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman

It centers around Engeurand De Coucy, but is much wider ranging.
He built the tallest castle tower keep ever,
at Chateau De Coucy in northern France.
It existed until the tail end of WW 1 when a
German field marshal was asked, by his own man,
to spare it as historically important.

He'd been ignoring it till the request,
and not being one to told what to do, he blew it up.
You can see pictures, but now the tower is a pile
of stones, inside a HUGE courtyard.

In 1998 I went there and shot the total eclipse of the sun,
The blue Grains of Bailey picture as my avatar is one of those shots.

I went around the region with this book and saw several
of the Chateau and places of this era first hand.

David,

Torture was very common until somewhat recent ages. I'm afraid we're going back to it, now that they're inflicting Kathie Lee Gifford on us again.

German field marshal

Probably a not-so-distant relative of mine.

I just did a bums rush through Bangkok and it's electronics areas.
Sitting in or waiting for planes and taxis,
and a 12 hour bus ride south with WAY too much
stuff to take on a plane... like an upright bass.

Janet Evanovich just put out another Stephanie Plum,
Plum Lovin', blasted through that in 48 hours.
A guilty pleasure, and perfect travel fare.

Going to start on 'Bangkok Haunts', book three of a
unusual detective series from here. Got a cold,
and that's NOT the time to start anything deep.

Likely to start; 'The Black Swan;
The Impact of The Highly Improbable',
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
and
'The Prince', by Machiavelli shortly.

One of my favorite books of all time is Far Tortuga by Peter Matthiessen. It's a very unconventional book in that the story of an ill-fated fishing voyage in the Bahamas is told through the most incredibly vivid and poetic "word paintings" of the natural world and the colloquial speech and verbal rhythms of the men on the boat. Some pages may have just a few words that perfectly sum up the plot and the characters. I recently re-read the book after 25 years and found it just as powerful, just as beautiful, and just as deeply moving. A masterpiece.

Made me think of 'Filth',
but the same writer as 'Train Spotting'.
About a VERY bad copper in Scotland, where the equivalent of our 'Pig' is 'Filth'.

One of the recurring characters/narrators
is his tapeworm. It has not the highest level of dialog.
But a discernable proto-personality.

This is No Inspector Rebus. Speaking of whom,
I have read much of Ian Rankin's work,
fine writer in that genre.

Glad this thread is moving along.
Lots of great reading ideas.
And many from varied and unexpected places.

Just added my friends two books :
sort of being read in parallel.
'Guitar Amplifier Pre Amps'
and
'The Fender Bassman 5F6a'
Both by Richard Kuehnel
The bassman book is DEEP theory,
the preamp book is accecable and clear so far.

I read his 'Guitar Amplifier Power Amps'
and learned a TON. They written in realtion
to how guitarists NOW use amps with distortion
and what that means to the circuits. As opposed to
the Radiotron handbooks CLEAN attitdue.

The light reading in parallel is:
Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett.
I read the two previous; Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tatoo...
None are for the faint of heart, but excellent reads.