The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on April 23, 2006

Previous post was here

Both added to and removed from the stack in the intervening time:
The ABC's of Reloading, 7th Edition, Edited By Bill Chevalier
Modern Reloading, Second Edition, by Richard Lee

Mini Review:
The first book (ABC of R) is a VERY good resource for the beginning reloader, and I highly recommend it. It lays out what you need to get started, what you need to do to load a round and potential pitfalls along the way. Even if you're not looking to start reloading, but just want to learn about how it is done, I highly recommend this book.

The second book (Modern Reloading) is Mr. Lee (the elder)'s load book. The first half is an introduction to loading and is written in a very familiar manner, albeit riddled with grammatical gaffe's and colloquialisms, plus layed out in Word and therefore the page layout looks like crap. Surprisingly, however, it didn't really trigger my “this is improper english” radar and thus annoy me. Perhaps this is because the style of writing is so similar to that of many dialects of rural spoken english to which I am accustomed that it “flies under the radar” so to speak. The second half of the book is load data, which is merely various powder companies' load data collated and organized by velocity. You can get this information directly from the powder company and, if using a powder not in the tables, absolutely should. Indeed, it's probably a good idea to use the load data published online by the powder company, since it might have changed since the printing of the book. However, this book has proven invaluable in comparing different powders in terms of volume and velocity which led me to select a powder. In addition, it has dimensions for the various cartridges, which is good if you're checking and sizing your brass.

Just Finished:
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), Ann Coulter

Mini Review:
This was quite a good read, though given my libertarian bent, I'm almost certainly biased toward her conservative Republican point of view. The interesting and noteworthy portions of this book were not, ironically enough, her punditry, but rather the other sources which she quotes (I've dogeared the pages and will discuss them in a subsequent post). These sources cause me to be interested in tracking down some of the original sources and reading them as well.

Currently reading:
People's History of the United States : 1492 to Present, Howard Zinn

Added to the stack since my last book post:
Nothing, except the stuff that was added and removed. mentioned at the top.

Currently on the stack:
We Were Soldiers Once… and Young, Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway
Great Issues in American History, Volume II – From the Revolution to the Civil War, 1765-1865, Richard Hofstadter.
Great Issues in American History, Volume III – From Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1864-1981, Richard Hofstadter and Beatrice K. Hofstadter
Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, Stephen King
SAS Survival Handbook, John “Lofty” Wiseman
The Underground History of American Education, John Taylor Gatto
On Killing : The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, Dave Grossman
On Combat, Dave Grossman
Serenity: The Official Visual Companion, Joss Whedon; Paperback
Serenity Role Playing Game, Jamie Chambers

Category: LJ Import
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