Len's book reading list - featuring the "Bob Lee Swagger - sniper" series

[Veteran]

My Read List

1) Mitch Rapp Series - Vince Flynn

2) Dewey Andreas Series - Ben Coes

3) Scott Harvath Series- Brad Thor

4) Jericho Quinn Series - Marc Cameron

5) Dirk Pitt, Oregon Files, Isaac Bell Series - Clive Cussler

6) Joe Pickett Series - C.J. Box

7) Pike Logan Series- Brad Taylor

8) Jack Ryan Series - Tom Clancy

9) Louis L'Amour - I've read all of his books 2-3 times each, and I mean all of them.

10) Zane Gray- I've read most of them, though not all.

After you read all of these, you need to read the Holy Bible a few times too. It will give you some perspective on all of the above....

 

[West Calamus]

Fiction: C.J. Cox -series of Wyoming game warden . Autobiography of African hunting by John Taylor - Pondoro Autobiography by GERONIMO told by S.M. Barrett-Toughest man I every write of.

 

[Veteran]

My Read List

1) Mitch Rapp Series - Vince Flynn

2) Dewey Andreas Series - Ben Coes

3) Scott Harvath Series- Brad Thor

4) Jericho Quinn Series - Marc Cameron

5) Dirk Pitt, Oregon Files, Isaac Bell Series - Clive Cussler

6) Joe Pickett Series - C.J. Box

7) Pike Logan Series- Brad Taylor

8) Jack Ryan Series - Tom Clancy

9) Louis L'Amour - I've read all of his books 2-3 times each, and I mean all of them.

10) Zane Gray- I've read most of them, though not all.

After you read all of these, you need to read the Holy Bible a few times too. It will give you some perspective on all of the above....

I think my favorite Louis LAmour series is the Kilkenny series.

Kilkenny is faster even than ButterBean!
who loves speed and Louis LAmour westerns.

 

[340Wby-4-everything]

I use Kindle for digital but buy a lot of used books off the internet and from a local book store in Ft Worth (yes those still exist!!!) I read lot's of history books. Stephen Harrigan has written several books of Texas history that are incredible, his They Came from the Sky is a teaser to a much longer book on Texas history and chronicles the arrival of Spaniards to the South Texas coast.

Larry McMurtry wrote the great Thalia series that is sadly overshadowed by his much more popular Lonesome Dove series. Lonesome Dove is still a very important series to me because living in Weatherford both Oliver Loving (the inspiration for Call's repatriation of Gus' body to Texas) and Bose Ikard (the inspiration for Joshua Deets [Danny Glover's character]) are buried in the cemetery here. The epitaph on Bose Ikard's headstone was the almost word-for-word inspiration for what Call put on Deet's grave plank. McMurty's shorter books are great reads, I'm fortunate enough to live close enough to his hometown of Archer City to have been able to get a copy of Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen and read it at an actual old-style DQ, it was a very Texan experience.

John Graves's Goodbye to a River is one of the most formative novels I ever read, it honestly hurts to read the book and see how much of North Texas has been lost in the last 50 years with the explosion of the Metroplex and mass migration that has trampled over a prairie ecosystem just as beautiful as any national park in the country. The 1883 TV series glorifies North Texas along the Trinity River yet there's basically nothing left of that - just a muddy ditch you can't eat the fish from and fields of grass covering the levies that get spray pained over with advertisements. Why even pretend there's a river at this point, might as well dig a cutoff from Whisky Flats to Joe Pool and not have to deal with it anymore. Grave's wrote several more books about his time in Somervell County that are interesting if you like his writing style.

I read Point of Impact, I'll be honest that I almost gave up on it. Tough to me to get the suspension of disbelief necessary to read into a world that amounts to a young, well-known shooter (basically equivalent to a Bryan Litz or Erik Cortina level of popularity and exposure) getting into an accident and 30 years later he's willing to assassinate someone and parachuting out of airplanes with a wheelchair. It was a lot of "mysticism of the gun" lone-wolf stuff that didn't appeal to me.

I like Grisham novels, but I almost couldn't finish Grey Mountain because of his technical inaccuracies regarding the rifles they used. Was incredibly annoying for someone with that kind of a legal mind to use a case length to describe what investigators determined from bullet impacts. I enjoy A Time to Kill and re-read it fairly regularly, it's an interesting milestone to gauge how far society overall has changed in terms of how it would be received today.

James Michener's Centennial is one of my all-time favorites. My high school dumbed down our Colorado history class by letting us watch the 1979 TV mini-series instead of reading the book, but I've been carting around a beat up used hardcover for years now because the book holds up well on its own.

Two books from James D. Hornfischer are must-reads for anyone interested in the Pacific Campaign of WWII. Neptune's Inferno and The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors are both great novels, the later is actually on the CNO's reading list for 2022.

Lasty I read a lot of Stephen King. His Different Seasons gave us the movies Stand By Me and Apt Pupil (odd tie in to Grisham via the child actor who was the lead in The Client). His shorter and older novels are really good, shame he went woke and his newer stuff is derivative drivel.

Wasn't point of impact the one they made the movie shooter from? No wheelchair or parachuting or any of the other mentioneds that I recall from the book or the movie. Maybe a diff Point of Impact? I liked the book, but liked the movie better as 1 of the bad seed Congressman gets his come uppance. All of em could use a good dose.

 

[joseph singleton]

I wish I had the time as I loved to read high school, I was a Louis L'Amore fan

Wow got over 100 of his books,,,live the Sackett series ,lol my son's middle name came from one of his books...

 

[Len Backus]

I use Kindle for digital but buy a lot of used books off the internet and from a local book store in Ft Worth (yes those still exist!!!) I read lot's of history books. Stephen Harrigan has written several books of Texas history that are incredible, his They Came from the Sky is a teaser to a much longer book on Texas history and chronicles the arrival of Spaniards to the South Texas coast.

Larry McMurtry wrote the great Thalia series that is sadly overshadowed by his much more popular Lonesome Dove series. Lonesome Dove is still a very important series to me because living in Weatherford both Oliver Loving (the inspiration for Call's repatriation of Gus' body to Texas) and Bose Ikard (the inspiration for Joshua Deets [Danny Glover's character]) are buried in the cemetery here. The epitaph on Bose Ikard's headstone was the almost word-for-word inspiration for what Call put on Deet's grave plank. McMurty's shorter books are great reads, I'm fortunate enough to live close enough to his hometown of Archer City to have been able to get a copy of Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen and read it at an actual old-style DQ, it was a very Texan experience.

John Graves's Goodbye to a River is one of the most formative novels I ever read, it honestly hurts to read the book and see how much of North Texas has been lost in the last 50 years with the explosion of the Metroplex and mass migration that has trampled over a prairie ecosystem just as beautiful as any national park in the country. The 1883 TV series glorifies North Texas along the Trinity River yet there's basically nothing left of that - just a muddy ditch you can't eat the fish from and fields of grass covering the levies that get spray pained over with advertisements. Why even pretend there's a river at this point, might as well dig a cutoff from Whisky Flats to Joe Pool and not have to deal with it anymore. Grave's wrote several more books about his time in Somervell County that are interesting if you like his writing style.

I read Point of Impact, I'll be honest that I almost gave up on it. Tough to me to get the suspension of disbelief necessary to read into a world that amounts to a young, well-known shooter (basically equivalent to a Bryan Litz or Erik Cortina level of popularity and exposure) getting into an accident and 30 years later he's willing to assassinate someone and parachuting out of airplanes with a wheelchair. It was a lot of "mysticism of the gun" lone-wolf stuff that didn't appeal to me.

I like Grisham novels, but I almost couldn't finish Grey Mountain because of his technical inaccuracies regarding the rifles they used. Was incredibly annoying for someone with that kind of a legal mind to use a case length to describe what investigators determined from bullet impacts. I enjoy A Time to Kill and re-read it fairly regularly, it's an interesting milestone to gauge how far society overall has changed in terms of how it would be received today.

James Michener's Centennial is one of my all-time favorites. My high school dumbed down our Colorado history class by letting us watch the 1979 TV mini-series instead of reading the book, but I've been carting around a beat up used hardcover for years now because the book holds up well on its own.

Two books from James D. Hornfischer are must-reads for anyone interested in the Pacific Campaign of WWII. Neptune's Inferno and The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors are both great novels, the later is actually on the CNO's reading list for 2022.

Lasty I read a lot of Stephen King. His Different Seasons gave us the movies Stand By Me and Apt Pupil (odd tie in to Grisham via the child actor who was the lead in The Client). His shorter and older novels are really good, shame he went woke and his newer stuff is derivative drivel.

Michener's historical novels are in my very top tier of great books.

 

[Len Backus]

My Read List

1) Mitch Rapp Series - Vince Flynn

2) Dewey Andreas Series - Ben Coes

3) Scott Harvath Series- Brad Thor

4) Jericho Quinn Series - Marc Cameron

5) Dirk Pitt, Oregon Files, Isaac Bell Series - Clive Cussler

6) Joe Pickett Series - C.J. Box

7) Pike Logan Series- Brad Taylor

8) Jack Ryan Series - Tom Clancy

9) Louis L'Amour - I've read all of his books 2-3 times each, and I mean all of them.

10) Zane Gray- I've read most of them, though not all.

After you read all of these, you need to read the Holy Bible a few times too. It will give you some perspective on all of the above....

I read many of those

 

[Len Backus]

For the past couple of years, I have been using Amazon for my digital downloads.
Currently I have enjoyed books by: Ted Tayer, Cal Rogan, E.H. Reinhard, J.C. Ryan (The Rex Dalton series), Bruce Beckhan (DI Skelgill series), Toby Neal (Paradise Crime series - I like Hawaii) and for laughs Mike Faricy (Jack Dillon Dublin Tails as well as his other series) as well as B. Hesse Pflingger (The Jake Fonko Series).
Like you I have started a number of books that were so bad I stopped after a chapter or two.

Good suggestions. Thanks

 

[Len Backus]

I really like the Joe Pickett series by Lee Child.

C. J. Box wrote those but that's an example of how difficult it is to keep track.

 

[Rick Richard]

C. J. Box wrote those but that's an example of how difficult it is to keep track.

Yep, you are correct.

 

[carnyman]

Currently enjoying the series by Jack Carr. Second book actually has a hunting theme. As ex special forces he's good to go on guns, much like Stephan Hunter.

 

[22250imp]

I wish I had the time as I loved to read high school, I was a Louis L'Amore fan

I had a high school English teacher that had all of the Louis L'Amour books. Would borrow from him when it came time for book reports. Had to do it well because he definitely knew the book. LOL

 

[QuietTexan]

1) Mitch Rapp Series - Vince Flynn
8) Jack Ryan Series - Tom Clancy

I've read all of them several times over, but I'm not as hyped up about the Mitch Rapp books after Vince passed away. Seems to have moved in a similar direction to how Mark Greaney moved from Jack Ryan Sr to Jack Ryan Jr after Tom Clancy passed, but retained the title character. I very much wish that Vince had been able to fill in some of the time between the American Assassin/ Kill Shot arc with Stan Hurley and the original Transfer of Power novel.

I enjoy the Jack Ryan Sr series a whole lot, Red Storm Rising is a great non-JR arc book that fits in well also. Clancy kept the "everyman" thread with JR Sr all the way through, IMO the character never drifted from that core personality that defined his actions so well in Patriot Games.

Wasn't point of impact the one they made the movie shooter from? No wheelchair or parachuting or any of the other mentioneds that I recall from the book or the movie. Maybe a diff Point of Impact? I liked the book, but liked the movie better as 1 of the bad seed Congressman gets his come uppance. All of em could use a good dose.

I do believe Point of Impact was the primary source material for Shooter in terms of plot, but the movie was so updated for timeframe it was hard to retain a lot of the detail from the book other than the big strokes. I enjoyed the movie a lot, seeing "Squeal like a pig!" Ned Beatty in that kind of a villain role was very entertaining.

Re the parachuting/wheelchair bit, it was a very short blurb in the middle of a very long narrative of the two groups getting ready for and starting to move trough the woods for the climatic meeting. I guess it stuck out to me because I've spent a good deal of time in that part of Arkansas and the unbelievability of it kind of pushed me out of the book's world.

SPOILERS ALERT:
In the book Lon Scott is the injured benchrest shooter who (in the book's conspiracy timeline) assassinated Kennedy and was setting up Swagger as the fall guy for the Archbishop assassination. He survives Swagger's assault on his house/ the coincidental mercenary ambush of Swagger and in the finale he's parachuted into Hard Bargain Valley along with a merc and a 4-wheeler. Scott sets up to take the final kill shot on Swagger when he meets with Col. Schreck to retrieve Julie Fenn, which in turn sets up Memphis to take a 1000 yard shot on Scott, thus redeeming himself for crippling his wife. The Memphis sub-plot that is entirely absent in the movie, which made the movie much cleaner but wiped out the best redemptive story line of the book.

Don't get me wrong, Stephen Hunter did a very good job layering several plot lines together and tying the whole thing to the Kennedy assassination plot and Carlos Hathcock's biography, there were just some things that were hard to get in to for me, like he must have literally never fired a 12ga shotgun in his life if he thinks you can hammer pair someone with a sawed off 1187 and slugs. It was entertaining at least.

 

[Len Backus]

This thread is going to be a great resource for me...and others.