TheSkySearchers

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BT1997Q/

“Dark Skies” by Tiffany Francis-Baker.

Environmentalist author writes about her experiences traveling around the UK and Europe exploring under dark skies. Not strictly Astro oriented, but a good read IMO. A bit maudlin in places, but not too syrupy.

I'm reading 3 non science items at the moment

1) continuing a long term retraversal of Shakespeare. i always find the remedies slow going.
2) almost done rereading the major bits of Dostoevsky
3) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democracies_Die

notFritzArgelander wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 11:26 pm I'm reading 3 non science items at the moment

1) continuing a long term retraversal of Shakespeare. i always find the remedies slow going.
2) almost done rereading the major bits of Dostoevsky
3) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democracies_Die

"remedies" is an autocorrect foe "comedies", of course.

Currently reading three books off-and-on:

1. "A Desolation Called Peace" by Arkady Martine. Second in the Teixcalaan series. First in the series won the Hugo award in 2020.
2. "Fabric of the Game" History of NHL uniforms and team names, etc.
3. "Now Taking the Field" - the best players at each position for each MLB team

That's me.

Shabadoo wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 3:31 pm Egyptian Grammar
Being an Introduction to the study of heiroglyphs
By Sir Alan Gardiner,
Published 1927
Dude is a pioneer in translating Egyptian heiroglyphs.

I’m on lesson # 4.

Great. I used that book in my first year of Egyptian at Berkeley.

I also recommend Raymond O. Faulkner's "Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian", used in 2nd year Egyptian. Third year Egyptian resources include https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Sethe "Urkunden der Aegyptologie." By the third year one can translate the Pyramid texts and also the Rosetta Stone.

I also highly recommend the "Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache" by Adolf Erman and Hermann Grapow though you will need to read German.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B6rt ... en_Sprache

Ah, the good old days.

Ohh....I forgot, I am also listening to "A Bad Day at the Vulture Club" the most recent of the Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation mystery series by Vaseem Khan. I usually only listen while I am mowing the lawn though, hence the forgetting!

They are fun books.

Well, I finished Dostoevsky. Put down Brothers Karamazov last week. As a philosophical novel it poses the interesting problem, "If G-d is responsible for everything that happens, is there no sin?"

This is a long term problem. Folks who become fanatics and subscribe to the first part, behave badly in acting out the second part. Antinomian behavior becomes the norm they espouse. Acts can only happen that are permitted by the supreme authority and so anything goes. It's rather contemporary, a fit precursor to the 21st century.

So this is setting me off on a little quest. Dostoevsky's context is particularly religious and though I've read many things that were formative of his spiritual milieu it hasn't been systematic. A book was recommended to me that systematically presents (or reconstructs from secondary sources) all of the literature that formed Dostoevsky's received tradition. So one long slog leads to another.....

https://www.amazon.com/Pre-Nicene-New-T ... 8&qid=&sr=

I've finished about 10% of the 54 texts included and am getting fascinating insights into the turbulent early years of this tradition. The tensions in the early community are fascinating and explain much of the later course of history, the how and why some parts of the early tradition were pruned.

The sources include the canonical texts as well as manuscript material from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library.

"Caesar's Commentaries"

I had to read this after reading Robert Harris' three book historical series on Cicero. "Imperium" , Conspirata", and "Dictator". Harris uses Tiro, Cicero's slave and amanuensis to tell the story.
Tiro apparently invented a short hand method whereby he could take verbatim notes as fast as one could speak. This shorthand was still being used in the 6th century. Tiro's actual biography was lost but is refered to by 1st century historians.

One thing leads to another.

"Sky Vistas" by Crossen and Rhemann. Has some beautiful deep sky photography.

Sci-Fi fans you must read The Expanse Series.
8 books so far, 500+ pages each, great story.
Kills lots time if you are retired.
Liked it so much gonna read thru a 2and time.

Jones wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:08 pm Sci-Fi fans you must read The Expanse Series.
8 books so far, 500+ pages each, great story.
Kills lots time if you are retired.

eeeeyupp!

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/justinian ... m/4289475/

this thread lol .

For the past few months, I've been listening to Arsène Lupin! I wanted to hear it, and brush up on my French, so I downloaded it on Audible. I chose a rather large compendium of Leblanc's work (42 hours!). I'm at the half-way point, so it's time to take a break.
https://www.audible.ca/pd/Arsene-Lupin- ... 2821124945

For a change of pace, I picked up Theatre Of The Mind, by Jay Ingram. Enjoyable to read, and for me a needed "update" on research into the human brain.
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ ... 7350596642

Currently plowing through: The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-four Formative Texts

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ND ... k_ro_title

It is a reconstruction of the status of the early Christian texts reflecting the factionalism that existed before the council of Nicaea imposed standards at the behest of Constantine I to form a consensus. Archeology provides some texts. Reconstruction from quoting sources fills in some gaps.

This is one I have read and enjoyed years ago.
I am now listening to it in Audible.
The reader is excellent.

"Human Race: 10 Centuries of Change on Earth" by Ian Mortimer.

(An inaccurate title, as the author mainly deals with the West.) Mortimer asks the question: Which of the last ten centuries saw the greatest change? Most people would instinctively say the 20th, largely because of the many technological changes. However, the author shows that the answer is not so clear cut, and other centuries saw massive social changes.
For example the 11th. This century saw the rise in power of the Catholic Church, with the Pope appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor at the start, but appointed by its own cardinals at the end. There was also far more peace at the end of the century. Slavery came to an end. The feudal system began. At the start there were almost no castles and other large buildings, but at the end there were tens of thousands of castles in Europe, and numerous large cathedrals and abbeys. And all of these changes were inter-related.
I never learned any of this in History lessons at school, but it is absolutely fascinating!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/009 ... ative=6738

Started reading "War and Peace". After 50 pages I gave up. There was exactly 1 "page-turner" "episode" ... the rest was romantic drivel. I can see why the Russians revolted against the aristocracy.

Currently reading Larry Bond's "Fatal Thunder". India and Pakistan on the verge of nuclear war... terrorists? set off a nuke and the Russians and USA square off with China in the mix as well. There's a definite submarine-centric scenario as are many of Bond's books. A page turner.