I finally got around to reading Huxley’s Brave New World and it was hands down my favorite read in 2018. The scene with the riot police showing up and deploying a chemical that turned the riot into a virtual love fest was wild. Brave New World really made me look at things differently. I enjoyed Huxley’s unique dystopian world where compliance is forced not by pain but rather by pleasure. There was so much going on in that book that I found fascinating.

A very close second place goes to Ready Player One. Also somewhat dystopian I enjoyed the world created in that book and being a vintage video game nerd made it even better. The book was quite a bit different from the movie. I don’t think the movie was bad, I loved seeing Kaneada’s red bike from Akira in the move but all in all the book was darker and a bit better. The vending machine Glock purchase part was pretty damn cool.

What was the best book you read this year?

Persepolis Rising.
Latest of the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey.

Second on the Expanse series, got up to speed on all of those in 2018. Also read Ready Player 1. Being of appropriate age to check the cultural boxes helped for that one. The book is quite a bit deeper than the movie, though the movie wasn’t awful.... just it had little in common with the book as far as many details and character development.

I read constantly, so even remembering all the books I read is difficult. I liked “On Desperate Ground; The Marines at the Reservoir,” Hampton Sides. I thought that was great.

Recently finished “Leaving Cheyenne,” McMurtry. Another great book.

I thought “The Perfect Horse” was really good. It’s WWII history about a U.S. mission to rescue the Royal Lippizaners from the Nazis.

I read a lot of Hemingway. “The Sun Also Rises” is probably my favorite.

Almost finished with “The Night Stalkers; Top Secret Missions of the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Aviation Regiment.” Michael Durant, Robert L Johnson, and Steve Hartov. Really good

I enjoyed "Loon"

I haven't read a book that wasn't required for work or certifications in a long time, but Brave New World is a hell of a book and I can't believe how well he guessed at both technological advances and the path of society.

Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged".

I won it in a Karma here on the forum, sad to say but I cannot remember who gave it, I have looked back in my posts, but I cannot find the thread.

Thanks again whomever you are, it was a great read, rather long and involved, but definitely worth the effort.

For Country and Corps The Life Of General Oliver P Smith, Naval Institute Press 2009. Perhaps the finest general officer in the history of the USMC but apparently the least known thus acclaimed.

I try to read two or three books a week, mostly for entertainment, but once in a while a "serious" book. "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman stands out among the latter. Very enlightening, without being too difficult. I will probably read it again in 2019.

Like TMats, I read constantly, but the serious book that made the greatest impression on me was one I finished recently, Not a Good Day to Die, by Sean Naylor concerning Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. Although it’s 12 years old at this time, it was a good backdrop to the Roberts Ridge story that recently came back into the news with the award of the Medal of Honor to Air Force Combat Controller Technical Sergeant John Chapman.

quote:

Originally posted by lowflash:
For Country and Corps The Life Of General Oliver P Smith, Naval Institute Press 2009. Perhaps the finest general officer in the history of the USMC but apparently the least known thus acclaimed.

Hampton Sides gives him his due in “On Desperate Ground,” General Smith commanded the 1st Marines in Korea.

I am now halfway through Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", it too is a great book. It's another book that I have tried to read many times since it was printed in 1975.

Exodus by Dennis Prager, but I haven't finished it yet.

I started reading The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

As an old, retired guy, I managed to read 55 books this year.

The ones that I enjoyed most was the Mr. Mercedes 3-book series by Stephen King. These included "Mr Mercedes", "Finders Keepers" and "End of Watch".

King morphed Holly into "The Outsider" that was also very good.

"The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War" by Ben Macintyre

One of the finest tales, nonfiction, that I have ever read, written by an author of immense talent and skills. It is so engaging that everyone I know who has read it could barely put it down, even for a few moments. Offhand I cannot think of another that approaches it and I have read many thousands.

Next in the queue is the very positively reviewed: “The Night Stalkers; Top Secret Missions of the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Aviation Regiment.”

"Endurance" by Alfred Lansing, about the Shackleton Expedition to Antarctica. It was recommended by SF members CoolRich50 and RedLeg06.

https://www.amazon.com/Enduran...id=1541728966&sr=8-1

The Forgotten 500.

Untold story of the greatest rescue mission of World War 2.

I've read all of Mark Greaney's series of The Gray Man. Very entertaining. Another one worth mentioning is Leon Uris's Exodus. I hadn't re-read it in 40 years and I'm glad I did. A great read.

Jim

The autobiography of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.