Ready Player One
Ernest Cline, 2011
385 pgs

Let the 1980’s nerd come flooding out!  This was the first novel since Dune that I honestly did not want to put down until I finished devouring it’s every little morsel.  I couldn’t stop smiling at all the 80’s video games/Dungeons and Dragons references.  I would recommend this book to anyone that is in their 40’s.  Also, even if you don’t get the references, it still is a good story.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
1872

This novel has graced my too-read list for many years.  Alas, I downloaded the entire Jules Verne collection to my Kindel and devoured this from page to page.  Sadly, the book wasn’t exciting as I was hoping it to be.   Much of the book is Professor Aronnax describing in absolute nauseating detail all the observations of the sea life while he is aboard the Nautilus.

Understanding that at the time this was written, that would have been very fascinating for many people since they would have never seen any of the fish nor the lands/sea’s that Verne describes in the book.

Still, the novel is a fun read if you are a fan of Jules Verne.  If you have never read any of his books, I would start with Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Cattales by Win Stites 82 pages

As a history aficionado, I do enjoy a good read that explores more than what happened. I also love to dive into the why. However, every now and then, the best stories are not the ones that are researched, categorized, and written by historians. The great ones are written by those that were there. The “first hand’ accounts.

Some of these stories can be embellished for entertainment. Just like a fisherman, these stories can stretch the imagination of the one that got lost. Those are the qualities that make these stories an enjoyable read.

Cattales is one of those reads. The book is a collection of stories from PBY-5 Catalina fliers in the days of WWII. They range from accounts from the Aleutians to training on the east coast. I personally got a good chuckle from some, especially the first one about the weather report for Adak. Since I have a first-hand account of the weather on the island.

This book was an easy and fast read that just allows the mind to relax and laugh.

This book was a gift from a friend who also enjoyed the James Bond books as I have.  This was a fun and fast read.  At only 226 pages, I finished it in about 1 day.  A very pleasurable story for one of America’s great writers.  I would recommend it to anyone for just a fun read.  It is similar to the James Bond books, just no government involvement.  Although a lawman that does things different than what the law allows is defiantly a James Bond style writing.

Lopaka

To go back into time and read about events and why they happened, history.  After reading a few fiction novels, it was time to start a novel, again, the I started almost 20 years ago; however, never finished.

Six Armies In Normandy by John Keegan is a very detailed account of what happened at the invasion of Normandy on 6 June ’44 until the liberation of Paris in August of ’44.  He doesn’t talk about each army and what happened at each beach.  However, he did pick specific units and gave a reach detail of their history and what they contributed to Normandy.  For example, the 101th and 82nd Airborne for the United States.  The significant contribution of Admiral Sir Ramsay had on the invasion fleet.  This book is a great read.  For me, it took about a week and a half to finish.  It is very detailed and I know that I won’t remember everything from the book.  In the end, my knowledge of the invasion and the overall complexity has expanded.

Lopaka

Dune by Frank Herbert is a 793 pg (Story only)/878 pg (including 4 Appendix’s).  This is a science fiction classic, originally published in 1965.

This book was absolutely a delicious book to read.  I’m not even close to a fast reader and I read this in 2 days.  From the start, you are hooked and I just didn’t want to put it down.  The story is great.  If you have seen the movies, then the story line is the same.  However, many of the details really change the meaning of the story.  The ending is different from the movies.  Religion and politics play deep in the book.  It’s the depth of the book that makes it wonderful.  I would absolutely recommend this to any reader.  Currently, I’m asking myself “why didn’t I read this when I was younger”.

Octopussy and the Living Daylights, Book 14 and the last James Bond book by Ian Fleming.  This is collection of short stories that several of the movies get their titles from. Octopussy, The Living Daylights.  In the short story, Property of a Lady, the film Octopussy auction scene is based on this short story.

Overall, the stories are fun to read.  However, they are short.  The last one 007 in New York is only 7 pages long.  Again, this was published posthumously.

Nice to complete the collection and move on.  I will miss some of the Bond stories.

Now up, Dune.

Lopaka