Started Driven to Distraction by Jeremy Clarkson. Like some of his other books I read earlier, it's a compilation of his Sunday car review columns from the mid-2000s.

Exactly what you'd expect. Enjoyable for people who liked the original Top Gear.

I remember Catch-22 being a lot of fun when I first read it (high school). Tried to reread it a few years ago and had the same “this is too repetitive” reaction as others have mentioned.

The chapter “Major Major Major Major” is a timeless classic.

Recently been in a bit of a sci-fi kick. Just knocked down the first 2 books of the Hyperion series. It’s been described as The Canterbury Tales taking place 700 years from today. I’ll add that the world the author creates is (almost) as dense as Dune, with the pacing of a Stephen King thriller.

Currently working my way through The Fifth Science by Exurb1a. Similar to Hyperion in that it’s a collection of shorter stories all taking place in the same world.

For the fourth, and probably the final time of my life, I finished Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. While a few things show their age and several sections still need deleting or editing, I was more impressed with it than with any prior read. The things Pynchon got correct keep happening, and I'm avoiding movie theaters in Los Angeles.

I've never been willing to call it TGAN, and still am not (probably because I don't like Pynchon's writing style), but it seems better than the other candidates. I can't think of any post-WW II novel that's better. Ones that I like more, yes, but better, no.

I just read celebrity chef David Chang's memoir, Eat a Peach. It wasn't bad, very readable. He definitely has something to say, a lot of strong opinions on almost everything in fact. I ended up drifting away a little midway cause I'm honestly not close to being a foodie type myself, so the actual food part left me a little cold. But I do think he's a smart interesting guy and will probably check out some of his streaming tv shows in the future.

Nah the basis of the book is how we interact with strangers and the affect that has had on history. I listened a few months ago but I remember Sandra Bland and Jerry Sandusky getting focus.

Just started Big Time by Jen Spyra. I'm listening to Mexican Gothic and not really understanding the hype so far.

I was hoping it was. I like like striking up conversations with strangers, especially immigrants or any foreigner. I love hearing about where they are from and about their families and about what kind of food they like and what kind of music they listen to. It's always a real adventure.

But lately it hasn't been working. If I ask, Hey! where are you from? their faces darken and they become wary. It's all the anti-immigrant BS. If I'm going to continue having conversational adventures, I'm going to need an instructional manual or coaching or some kind of help.

So, Mack, tell us about yourself...

I've been reading the 2006 version of the Best American Travel Writing. Like the 2000 version I came across earlier, it's not about travel in America, but travel by Americans.

Some interesting stories, some not so much. Overall good for those who like to read of others' adventures.

So, +/- 50 years ago I had a girlfriend (who was always quick to point out that she was not my girlfriend) who could best be described as a blueblood. She would strike up conversations with everybody she saw--cab drivers, bus boys, mothers in parks, millionaires in airports. It's a long story, but I ended up halfway around the world with her. I learned a lot from her, but one of the best things I learned was that you didn't have to travel halfway around the world to have adventures. Adventures are all around us, and if you wanted adventure all that you had to do was start talking to people.

Travel writing is great. The first author who turned me on to its possibilities was Paul Theroux with his The Great Railway Bazaar.

hey mack, if you liked the great railway bazaar, i highly recommend ghost train to the eastern star. thanks for reminding me to get back to theroux's recent stuff.

I’ve also enjoyed Paul’s work though a prominent relative of his, Phyllis, who has told me on several occasions that Alexander Theroux is the better writer in the family. Sooner or later I’ll have to find out,
Jonathan Meiburg’s A Most Remarkable Creature 2021–Knopf which I just read is some of the best writing I’ve read in years. There’s travel aplenty in this work about a group of birds called collectively CaraCara. Wikipedia had an uninformative few paragraphs on this crow-sized raptor which has more smarts than a third of Americans. Historical figures like Darwin and WH Hudson (Green Mansions) roam through the pages.
“This book is an evolutionary labyrinth, taking Meiburg to the end of the world following a single, curious predator. Vivid, beautiful, and scientifically rich, crawling with jungle ants, blasted by Antarctic winds his…” Craig Childs

slowly working my way through Magic Mountain still.

Started the award-winning Lenin's Kisses, very enjoyable so far, about 25% done.

If fantasy is your thing, the new Blacktongue Thief v.1 by Buehlman is highly recommended. Really nails the ending and looking forward to his next volume.

The White Russian by Bradby is an excellent, excellent murder mystery. Set immediately before the Bolshevik revolution.

Thinking about re-reading Warlight next. Loved that book.

The Roads to Sata is a book by a guy who walks the length of Japan. It has a lot of acerbic observations similar to Theroux's. I loved it.

I still haven't got around to reading Mann (except for a couple of short works: "Death in Venice” and Felix Krull) and I don’t know the next three books you mention, but I wanted to say that I’ve read all of Ondaatje’s fiction and I would strongly second your regard for Warlight. I found the voice in that book a very rich reading experience. Like listening to a pleasant conversationalist. My other personal favourite by Ondaatje is In the Skin of a Lion, but there's Anil's Ghost and a lot more by him that’s good--including the poetry.

Of possible special interest to 2+2 readers is his Divisadero which has a (somewhat odd) bit about poker in its first part. The second part of that novel, which moves back into the past, contains some of his loveliest writing.

Read I am Spock, Leonard Nimoy's autobiography.

Mostly about the various Star Trek projects, of course, but got into some other things he did (I didn't know he directed Three Men and a Baby).

It was nice. Easy to get into, almost a conversational tone, as if he was telling you his story. Got some behind-the-scenes stuff, but nothing gossipy.

Probably worth a read for Star Trek fans.

Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner with Chris Kreski.

More of a memoir than an autobiography, he doesn't write about his other projects or life outside the Trek world.

Lighter in tone than Nimoy's book mentioned above. Also quotes a lot of other people while telling the story.

Another one I'd say is worth reading for Trek fans.

Just finished Pushing Rubber Downhill by Adam Piggott, aka 2p2's own adsman (though I don't think he's around any more).

The story of his early adulthood and adventures in getting into the raft guiding industry.

A fun, fast read. He tells a good story, keeping it lively.

The Road Chose Me Volume 1 by Dan Grec.

I stumbled onto his website in the late 2000s or so, when he was doing a drive in his jeep from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.

Of course, the website was near-real-time and more detailed about his adventures along the way. The book captures some of that.

I'm glad I bought it to help him (and thus me, vicariously) go on the next adventure. The next book was spending almost three years driving around Africa. Anyone who's interested, I'd just point you to his website.

Sounds like the next expedition is Australia.

I was disappointed by Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, mainly because House of Silk and Moriarty had led me to expect better quality writing. The prose in this one is purely functional with little sense of 'voice'. The plot itself is also a bit of a letdown; despite the 'book within a book' structure, it's pretty standard murder mystery stuff. I don't read this genre all that often and was hoping for something much smarter. It compared poorly to the ingenious plotting of Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.

_________

am reading James M. Cain's novel "Serenade" for the first time
that guy was truly a master - I can't put it down
the forward includes a short bio of him
it's amazing - all of the things he did in his life

.

Can’t recall much of Cain’s life story, but have fond memories of reading Serenade (more than once). I began reading James M. Cain after discovering Jim Thompson, who I’m reading again now—he’s aged well in my mind. A Swell Looking Babe is as good as old-school crime-fiction gets.

I'm listening to an audiobook of Ian McEwan's Atonement, it's crazy good which I kinda expected after hearing so much praise for him over the years. Oh and I have a hard copy as back-up when I need it, that helps my old brain digest it all.

I haven't read that one but I plan to
I think Thompson's "The Killer Inside Me" is a completely unique novel - as far as I know there's never been anything like it

in it he writes in the first person - and that person is a vicious, sadistic killer who enjoys his work tremendously

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I loved it. But I found it a difficult book to teach.

Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia is wonderful, too. Highly recommend.

Ordered “Beyond a boundary “ and the “The last grain race “ to re-read.
I would strongly recommend “The last grain race” to anyone.
Beyond a boundary requires tolerance for cricket and Marxist dialectic, but may well be the greatest book about sport ever written.