Summer Reading List

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Summer will soon be upon us. For many of readers, that means vacations and road trips. To make your travels more enjoyable, we have put together some recommendations which we hope you will find entertaining.

The hit HBO TV show Game of Thrones (GOT) had turned us on to George Martin’s series A Song Of Ice And Fire. We binge-watched the first two seasons of GOT in three days and were left hanking for more. Unfortunately, we don’t have HBO so we will have to wait until Season 3 shows up on DVD. No matter, we can still get our fix by listening to the audiobook series from Random House Audio. The first five of the planned seven-book series are now available in audio format:

• A Game of Thrones 
• A Clash of Kings 
• A Storm of Swords
• A Feast for Crows 
• A Dance with Dragons 
• The Winds of Winter – coming in 2014?
• A Dream of Spring – coming in 2017?

The first five audiobooks consist of over 200 hours of materials on 162 CDs! We are not sure how much space is left on our iPod, but we have a feeling that we will have to make room on the 60GB unit in order to fit the entire series. And we may have to plan a road trip to and through the Dakotas to listen to it all.

Those looking for something a bit shorter may want to consider Dan Brown’s latest work, Inferno, which is now available. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, our hero, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon, battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science.

For the kids, our favorite recommendation is still His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Those looking for something new from Mr. Pullman may want to consider Two Crafty Criminals! Filled with silly sleuthing, improbable disguises, crazy ruses, and merry mayhem, these stories are action-packed romps from one of the best storytellers ever.

Of course, for some, vacation is just an opportunity to hone skills which can’t be “billed to a client” during working hours. For those folks, we have the following suggestions:

• Lensbaby:Bending Your Perspective – It will help you see the world in a slightly different way.
• The Handbook of Bird Photography – Learn photography tips from nature pros on how to capture great images of your feathery friends.
• Books on Innovation – Understand why just giving customers what they want will eventually put you out of business and what to do about it.

If we HAD to sit quietly AND enjoy ourselves, this is what we would do: we would get Karl Ludvigsen’s latest book Porsche: Origin of The Species, take a week off, and flip through it at a leisurely pace. We guarantee that no Porsche-philes will have a better time doing anything else.

We  looked at Ludvigsen’s three-volume set, Porsche: Excellence Was Expected, in 2009. Because of its breadth of coverage and its technical depth, the set is considered by most Porche enthusiasts the definitive work on Porsche history. This new book, Porsche: Origin of the Species, has a different focus. Actually, the book has a singular focus. All 356 pages, with over 400 photos and  illustrations, are devoted to the Porsche 356(356 pages, Porsche 356, geddit?).

Of course, in talking about the Porsche 356, Mr. Ludvigsen interweaves all kinds of interesting Porsche history, twists and turns, and other stories in a way unique to a historian who truly loves his subject. For anyone who is interested in how Porsche evolved to it present form, Porsche: Origin of the Species is a must-read.

There are a lot of great books out there, but as we have often stated, we only recommend items which we have checked out personally. It is one of the way we try to add value to RainyDayMagazine readers. If you have some which you think should be on the list, be all means, give us a ping! We are always happy to take a look.  Summer Reading List