Off-Topic Forum

Currently I am reading , Have a Nice Day, By Mick Foley, For the 3rd time. And just finished Quinn: The Life of a Hockey Legend. I enjoy Biographies

Currently I'm reading We Want Fish Sticks which is about when the New York Islanders changed their logo to the infamous fisherman logo.

Robert Ludlum is the greatest writer ever for me.  The Bourne Series is spectacular.  I also highly recommend the Matarese Circle.  Those 2 sit firmly on my top 5 of all time.  I must quantify that I am an avid Spy/ Espionage reader who up until last year read 2 books a week while traveling for my job. I also like mystery, war and dectective thrillers as well.  I'd like to see a top five book and author list even though it has not a damn thing to do with collecting cards. LOL

I've got a few books going on. I'm reading Good to Great by Jim Collins (a study of companies that outperformed their sector), the Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathan Stroud (a YA series about ghost hunters), and We Hold These Truths by Mortimer Adler (about the foundational principles behind the Constitution.) Up next, I have a book my principal gave me called Think Again by Adam Grant and I'll continue the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card.

My 5 Favorite Books

The Bourne Identity  by Robert Ludlum

The Brotherhood of the Rose  by David Morrell

The Charm School by Nelson Demille

The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

I've really tried, but I've never been able to finish anything by Dostoevsky. Maybe I'd be able to do a novella.

I'm reading Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind. It is about the history of LSD and psilosibin (a chemical found  in certain mushrooms) and how those chemicals have historically been used for therapeutic and spiritual purposes. Highly recommend.

Great thread.  I read a lot, but recently baseball cards have taken my time away from reading...not sure if that is a good idea.

I read a lot of non-fiction.  Currently I just started Triumph and Tragedy, part 5 of Winston Churhill's history of World War II.

If you haven't read it before Pollan's book, try Timothy Leary's High Priest. A fascinating read about the LSD testing and culture before LSD became illegal. It might have become part of why LSD was outlawed by the US Government. There was another book about LSD that I forget the name of right now. Something like Electric Kool-Aid Experiment.

I made a note to check out your Pollan book. I'm still curious about LSD and psilosybin and the effects they have on the human body and mind. I'm too old to want to mess with them now, but I did test LSD quite a few times in my teens. I didn't really mess with the mushrooms though. I wouldn't do either now at 42 years old. Muscles get quite tense on LSD and that is not good for older bodies! If anyone wonders why the "Hulk" is green - it's LSD!!!     Everyone I've ever known to take LSD turned some level of green in skin color. I'm serious! My face would turn green under my eyes and in the cheeks every time I took it. But Hulk had that Gamma radiation to make it spread to his entire body. Still serious about this reply though.

It can't be a big surprise that "spazmatastic" did acid during the mid-to-late 90's! But I also read about it while experimenting with it. Illegal or not did not matter then. I also smoked marijuana back then on a regular basis. That is now legal in a bunch of the 50 states, but I haven't done it in over a decade. I would say that LSD is more on the spiritual level IF guided by the right person. Marijuana would fall in the therapeutic catagory as it is usually a calming sensation mentally, even though the physical effects are actually the opposite. Cigarettes are the exact same sensation with the exact same physical effects. The mind thinks it is calming down but it is actually activating just the same as if drinking a cup of coffee.

Oops!!! Back to what books we should all read. Sorry for the tangent.

I'm an avid reader and I'm currently plugging away at "The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McClain, and the fall of baseball's Golden Age".  I was expecting it to focus more on the Cardinals v Tigers 68 World Series, but it's more about baseball's place in the world during the late sixties.  I read "The MVP Machine" last fall and it was a very interesting look into what is driving player performamance and team strategy of today's game.  Other than baseball, I like to read Ken Follett, Nelson Demille, and John Lescroat.