doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com A Book Thread?

Mr. Krakow & JD, I am a major Nevil Shute fan. My Nevil Shute library is almost as large as my gun library. I even have bound photocopies of all of his unpublished manuscripts. Shute enthusiasts are every bit as serious about their passion as we are about fine rifles. A few have tried to follow Kieth Stewart's route from Honolulu to Tahiti & the Marquesas in their sailing craft. Many others have repeated the Flying Doctor flights from Alice Springs to Cairns in Australia in their Cessnas. We held a "Nevil Shute's 100th birthday" party in Albuquerque in January 1999 and about 400 people came from all over the world. It's sort of a literary equivalent of what MP is doing with this forum.

Richard LaVen aka Waterman

That sounds great! The world just got a bit more interesting.

Many Thanks - Marc

I think Shute's books about England in WWII are extremely revealing about the mood(s) and society of that time and place. As much realism as the censors would allow; I found myself very moved by them, in spite of the rather clunky writing (he didn't have time "grind up all the welds" and "polish off all the tool marks," just like other artifacts of those years...).

My favorite modern sailing stories are by Tristan Jones, the one-legged Welshman sailed 'round the world, across South America and across Europe.
His childhood memoirs "A Steady Trade" is a look at the last days of commercial sailing rigs, just prior to WW II.

Nevil Shute Norway was very much a part-time hobbyist writer & story-teller in his early years & during WWII. He was an aeronautical engineer specializing in structures & stress. He was also a senior officer in the Royal Navy's Department of Miscellaneous Weapon Development, the "Wheezers and Dodgers". Shute wrote a novel about the work in "Most Secret". Gerald Pawle wrote a history of the projects in "The Secret War". Both are interesting reads.

Shute is one of my favorite authors not so much for the excitement of his storytelling as much as for his socio-political opinions and spiritual insights. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things and doing them in such a clear-headed, practical and splendidly ordinary way that IMO even the clunky parts truly resonate with the reader in a MOST pleasant manner!

His brilliantly visionary multiple-vote idea remains one of my dreams, but unfortunately it's not achievable.
Regards, Joe

Thor Heyerdahl.

Like many of you (I suspect) his seminal work Kon-Tiki fascinated me as a teen. I've just begun re-reading some of his other works and have become fascinated once again, and fascinated even more strongly if that's possible.

I've begun, this time, with Fatu Hiva (Back to Nature), one of his earliest works when he first became interested in anthropology.

This guy walks the walk as well as talking the talk. He has truly been there and done that, in spades! Plus his prose flows well and is quite interesting as well as informative. He's written a number of monographs and articles as well as a half-dozen or so books.

No rifles but there's a picture of Paul Gaugin's self-carved Winchester SRC buttstock (grin).
Regards, Joe

For you Kindle owners I just learned that my local library is setting up to loan books through Kindle. With just my library card number I will be able to check out books that on the Kindle format.