Airplane reading material

[buttafly]

Just got finished reading "Mao, the unknown story"  by Jung Chang, one of the best books I have ever read and certainly all you will ever need to know about this true nutcase!  Along with Stalin and dear ol'  Adolph,  Mao was one of the most prolific murderers of modern times and also had the most backward idea's ever thought possible on just how to run a once-proud country into the ground!

      Pick it up if you ever thought you'd like to be filled in more about his life;  just realize that at 800 pages it's not only a difficult read but hard to carry around! If you have a long flight.....say  NYC to BKK?  twice??.....  this would be perfect for you.   I started it on vacation 3 weeks ago and have been lugging it around ever since.

   Thanks to my long-time buddy M.K.  in  Austria who recommended it ...... his apartment in Vienna has a mini library in it with some great works scattered throughout; a true renaissance man, I saw a copy there of 'Mao' in German language!  jeez, and I thought the english copy was hard to get through.

       Pick up  'Ho Chi Minh'  by William Duiker also...... great stuff and both are now available in paperback.  Learn as much as you can about these 2 guys and Hitler and Stalin as well, for better or worse their respective leaderships shaped much of what happened to the world in the 20th century.

[Snick]

if you like history+finance
The house of Morgan, and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
both by Ron Chernow are very good (and long) reads

[buttafly]

(Snick @ Feb. 15 2008,01:49) if you like history+finance

I like both, actually..... unfortunately the 'finance' dept has been taking a huge hit as of late!  


  I've seen Chernow interviewed on  CNN and MSNBC a few times, seems like a decent enough chap although I've never read his printed word

[allstar88]

i read viz

[Naang Faa]

I found a copy of viz in Dr Suporns clinic..
I was trying to be all grown up and sensible..
But me,being me just couldn't resist,i just had
to read it..I was crying laughing...
x

[Dieter]

I like really small books...., an English cookbook, Italian heroic stories or Jerk Off for beginners......

May I try the Wizard of Oz...

Dieter

[allstar88]

(Dieter @ Feb. 15 2008,05:27) I like really small books...., an English cookbook, Italian heroic stories or Jerk Off for beginners......

May I try the Wizard of Oz...

Dieter

try a german joke book?

[buttafly]

what I always find amazing is the people who get on a looooong flight [and there are MANY like this] who have not one single thing to read!   These people must really not have interest in anything...... I mean, even if I am going on a 2-hour flight I have 2 magazines and a book for back-up.   These people, and as I say I have seen them on every flight from  Detroit to Tokyo or  Amsterdam to Boston or Bangkok to HK, whatever..... they have NOTHING;  they browse the Duty-Free mag, decide they don't want any over-priced perfumes or Vodka, thumb through the airline mags [ these take about 10 mins each] and now have nothing;  zippo, and the plane hasn't even pulled back yet!

   I just don't understand these people.....and it's like 1pm at the start of a 10-hour flight so they can't possibly sleep and the movies always blow.... so they sit there and stare at the seat-cushion in front of them.   wow..... I mean, even for a non-reader; can't  ye find 'something'  that will hold your interest for a while??

   errrr, what is  viz?  

[Naang Faa]

.....This
x

[Monkey]

(buttafly @ Feb. 14 2008,23:24) what I always find amazing is the people who get on a looooong flight [and there are MANY like this] who have not one single thing to read!

Hey! That's me you're talking about there

Except, I have a couple of beers in the terminal before boarding, wait for the 'meal', drink some free onboard booze and am usually asleep half way through the first movie even if I want to watch it.

I can sleep anywhere and at anytime, it's something I'm quite good at. I read that it takes the average person 12 minutes to get to sleep, it takes me about 12 seconds, if I'm tired then even less.

I don't read books anymore, well it's more a case of can't read books. I struggle to stay awake for a whole page even if I want to read something

I once slept whilst a helicopter hovered about 15-20 feet above me, my mate woke me up because he thought I was gonna get squashed. The loadmaster later told us he was looking with the night vision goggles and he thought we were sheep and was wondering why we didn't move

[Naang Faa]

I can sleep anywhere and at anytime, it's something I'm quite good at. I read that it takes the average person 12 minutes to get to sleep, it takes me about 12 seconds, if I'm tired then even less.

Well lucky you Monkey..I have trouble sleeping alone..in fact i'm gonna bunk in with one
of the girls in a mo..
x

[Monkey]

(Naang Faa @ Feb. 14 2008,23:42) I have trouble sleeping alone..

I don't have trouble but I didn't say I enjoyed it either..

[buttafly]

OK, understood..... some people may have trouble reading and flying at the same time and can get sick, now I get it!

    I was just on a flight with some couple in my row of 3..... typically misreable duo, probably been married a while..... the guy, he was next to me and like I have seen dozens of times, thumbed through the Duty-free mag and Northwest Air mag, tilted his head back and tried to nod off.   This was BEFORE the pilot even pulled away from the terminal and at 2pm! Errrr, you can't sleep if it's not your sleep cycle, you're not Asian, or you just slept a full 10 hours the night before!

  The rest of the flight was him looking bored......his wife also, for 4 hours.....   you feel like screaming "hey, why didn't you bring something to read!!??"   Viz mag looks like the tabloids I was thumbing through when I was in the UK last summer..... never seen that one, although I did pick up my share of the Sun and others!

 ya gotta love Fleet street  

[Monkey]

hahaha don't you mean The Sun is a bit like Viz?

Basically Viz is an adult (?) orientated comic book, just comic strips with silly humour and lots of swearing, great if you're 15 but some people never grow out of it (sorry if I offended anybody)

As for that guy trying to nod off before take-off, I've managed that many times, even on a 17:00 flight from the UK...

[daveduke007]

(allstar88 @ Feb. 14 2008,22:26)

(Dieter @ Feb. 15 2008,05:27) I like really small books...., an English cookbook, Italian heroic stories or Jerk Off for beginners......

May I try the Wizard of Oz...

Dieter

try a german joke book?

Is there one