Random books from IslandDave's library

What Do You Care What Other People Think: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Phillips Feynman

The Buffalo Creek Disaster: How the survivors of one of the worst disasters in coal-mining history brought suit against the coal company--and won by Gerald M. Stern

DogPerfect, Second Edition by Sarah Hodgson

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman

The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Greatest Scientific Discoveries of the Century Reveal God by Hugh Ross

Special Edition Using Linux (5th Edition) by Jack Tackett

Custer's Fall: The Native American Side of the Story (Meridian) by David Miller

Members with IslandDave's books

Member connections

Friends: Aerrin99, eaglehawk, MichelleZ

Interesting libraries: Ammianus, AsYouKnow_Bob, Atomicmutant, br0k3nglass, davesmind, fpagan, guyalice, mjsmoose, monado, mrccos, neilgodfrey, PaulAndAna, RobertMosher

LibraryThing authors: Sharon Kay Penman (Sharonkay), Carl Zimmer (cwzimmer), Andy Mabbett (pigsonthewing), William Lobdell (williamlobdell)

RSS feeds

Recently-added books

IslandDave's reviews

Reviews of IslandDave's books, not including IslandDave's

Helper badges

view larger

Member: IslandDave

CollectionsYour library (1,560), Currently reading (2), Read (201), Read in 2009 (109), Read in 2008 (12), To Be Read: Priority (15), To Be Read: Secondary (82), To Be Read: Ternary (186), To Be Read: At Leisure (57), To Be Read: At Some Point (332), All collections (1,560)

Reviews97 reviews

TagsNon-Fiction (1,246), History (628), Science (342), Fiction (303), US History (210), War (202), Military History (197), Military (196), 20th Century (192), Biography (174) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Groups999 Challenge, American History, Ancient History, Atheists review books, Banned Books, Build the Open Shelves Classification, Evolution, Evolve!, Faith and Reason, FantasyFans — show all groups

Favorite authorsDouglas Adams, Stephen E. Ambrose, Rick Atkinson, Terry Brooks, Sean B. Carroll, Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Hans Delbrück, Daniel C. Dennett, Jared Diamond, Bart D. Ehrman, Tim Ferris, Brian Greene, Sam Harris, Robert A. Heinlein, Michio Kaku, Martin Luther King, Jr., Carl Sagan, Lee Smolin, Hunter S. Thompson, J. R. R. Tolkien, Neil deGrasse Tyson (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstoresBetter World Books, Book Shop New & Used, Emerald Isle Books & Toys

Favorite librariesCraven-Pamlico-Carteret Public Library System - Western Carteret Public Library

Other favoritesHem of His Garment

About meI'm a married technical developer and business owner. My personal website is at http://davenichols.net. I enjoy living at the beach, travelling, kayaking, debate, music, college basketball, science, history, philosophy, comparative religion, and reading (duh).

About my libraryMy interests are generally non-fiction, centered around physics/astronomy, biology, religion, skepticism, history, military history, history of science, philosophy, mind, and mathematics. When I read fiction, it is nearly always fantasy or sci-fi.

All the books in my LT library I (and my wife) own personally.

An outline of my ratings:

No Stars: Means nothing, haven't entered it yet.

1/2 Star: Terrible. The worst of the worst. Not enjoyable, poorly written, poorly sourced, and/or just plain sucks. Waste of time to even consider reading. Avoid.

1 Star: Very Bad. Almost certainly not worth the time to read. Avoid.

1 1/2 Stars: Bad. On the whole not worth reading, though possibly of some interest if the author/subject matter are important enough. For non-fiction, there may be highly flawed theories or logic, misleading narrative, or other such sins. Avoid.

2 stars: Fair. Generally not worth the time to read, and suffers some serious problems of narrative, sourcing, argument, and/or just plain bland and uninteresting. Not recommended.

2 1/2 stars: OK. Not a positive experience for the time spent, but has some minor value and may offer some interesting reading if the author/subject are sought after. Not recommended.

3 stars: Average. Nothing wrong with an average book. Generally worth the time to read, but temper expectations. Suffers from some minor problems such as narrative, misleading info, construction, but not enough to avoid reading the book. Recommended to specific readers.

3 1/2: Above average. Worth the time spent reading, and despite having some minor flaws (or being somewhat bland and/or underwhelming), offers enough value/enjoyment for most readers. Some books may have 4-5 star ratings but suffer from major problems that keep the rating lower. Recommended to most.

4 stars: Very Good. Well worth the time to read and (for non-fiction) an excellent source of information. It takes something special to get above 4 stars from me, so this is the top of the line for 'normal' books. Recommended to all.

4 1/2 stars: Outstanding. Book offers more value than just being a good read. Narrative is excellent and sourcing/argument (for non-fiction) are well above-average. Subject matter of great interest to me, or subject matter became interesting as a result of reading this book. Highly Recommended.

5 stars: Favorites. The very best of the best. Very Highly Recommended, you can't go wrong with these.