Books: What book are you reading right now

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 09:01 AM

Companions, by Sheri S. Tepper.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 09:02 AM

Tom Jones.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Tweed
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 09:12 AM

"Escaping the Delta" by Elijah Wald, wherein he illustrates the versatility of black blues musicians in the pre-war blues era, explodes the Robert Johnson myth crap, and celebrates the blues women of that time. It's pretty dry reading. I believe I like Deep Blues by Robert Palmer and the Lomax book, "Land Where Blues Began" better.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 09:27 AM

Just finished (this morning before coming to work) "The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey.

How did I miss this wonderful novel for 30 years?!? It was just loaned to me by a musician friend (pressed on him by his son in Utah) who said, "You've GOT to read this!"

Anyway, the use of language, turns of phrase, etc. is a delight. It's the first book in a long time that I've read with a notebook next to me to jot down quotations and unfamiliar words. I love a novel that expands my vocabulary!

Here's a description of his plans for his funeral --

"As for graveside ceremony: He wanted gunfire, and a little music. "No formal speeches desired, though the deceased will not interfere if someone feels the urge. But keep it all simple and brief." And then a big happy raucous wake. He wanted more music, gay and lively music. He wanted bagpipes. "And a flood of beer and booze! Lots of singing, dancing, talking, hollering, laughing, and lovemaking." said the message. And meat! Beans and chilis! And corn on the cob. Only a man deeply in love with life and hopelessly soft on humanity would specify, from beyond the grave, that his mourners receive corn on the cob."

Especially -- "Only a man deeply in love with life and hopelessly soft on humanity would specify, from beyond the grave, that his mourners receive corn on the cob." Yeah!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: bobad
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 10:37 AM

"The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey.

That one's been on my mental list of books to read but I keep forgetting about it. Thanks for reminding me Bat Goddess.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Scoville
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 11:00 AM

Just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which I thought was OK but not "brilliant" or whatever the dust jacket said. Maybe writing the perspective of an autistic teenager doesn't seem that creative to an Aspie.

Before that it was To Err Is Divine by Agota Bozai, which I mostly liked although I think I missed something at the end. I thought the premise of a staunch atheist and nonseeker of publicity waking up one morning with a halo and a healing touch was imaginative.

Currently reading Cage of Stars by . . . I forget the author. Again, it's OK, but I'll have to wait until the ending to see if it's actually interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 11:15 AM

"explodes the Robert Johnson myth crap"

Seems to me that "myth crap" has been exploded more times than it's been constructed - or crapped ...

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 11:20 AM

The Man in the High Castle - by Philip K Dick.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 11:24 AM

Just finished "Alburquerque" by Rudolfo Anaya. Loved his "Bless Me, Ultima." He says of the former, that it was originally spelled with the extra "r" but when the anglo stationmaster was lettering a sign for the new RR depot, he couldn't pronounce it that way, so dropped the "r." Odd that we've always prnounced it "alber-cur-key."

Just started a new mystery..I am insatiable when it comes to them.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: number 6
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 12:03 PM

"The Unconscious Civilization" by John Ralston Saul

Kendall ... I read "The Nightingale's Song" a while back ... your post says it all ... it was an interesting read.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Scoville
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 12:06 PM

I didn't think that anyone who wasn't just scratching the surface of blues still believed the Robert Johnson myth[s], anyway. I mean, I like Robert Johnson, but there's always a lot more to the story--any story--than just one guy.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Cluin
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 12:10 PM

Read "RL's Dream" by Walter Mosley. Deals with Mr. Johnson quite a bit.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: autolycus
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 12:21 PM

Just finished The War for Children's Minds by Stephen Law, an interesting toh' inadequate defence of Kantian liberalism against religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism.

   In the midst of Closely Observed Train by Hrabal, a slender novella. And dipping into lots of books, like History's Worst Decisions. An Encyclopedia Idiotica by Stephen Weir.

   Recently read Francis Wheen's How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, a thorough recommendation.






       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: mrdux
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 01:03 AM

right now i'm reading On Stranger Tides, by Tim Powers (pirates, voodoo and zombies), and Robert Fagles' excellent new translation of the Aeneid.

just finished Carl Hiaasen's latest, Nature Girl (very funny, if not the best Hiaasen); Purity of Blood, by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Captain Alatriste faces off against the Inquisition); and All the Bells on Earth, a James Blaylock fanatsy. All three are worth reading.

and still sitting there in the stack of to-be-continueds is my trusty copy of Godel, Escher, Bach. . .

michael

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 01:33 AM

The Testament of Gideon Mack

(The purchasing of which taught me an interesting lesson: Check amazonUK before you buy at amazon.com. Long story short.)

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 09:13 AM

And then, waiting in the wings, are

Westering Women: westering women and the frontier experience, 1800-1915, by Sandra L. Myers
Faith and Betrayal: a pioneer woman's passage in the American West, by Sally Denton
The Doctor Wore Petticoats: women physicians of the Old West, by Chris Enss
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, by Isabella Bird (started, must finish)
Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1825-1915, by Glenda Riley

This is not a study of women in the American West, it just happened that way.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 09:34 AM

Rapaire, would highly recommend adding "Doc Susie: High Country Physician" to that list.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Tweed
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 11:21 AM

Re: the Robert Johnson myth crap being dead.
A Google search reveals that the crap is still going strong out there. But it's a good thing, as it draws interest to the music via the "mysterious" manner in which he gained extraordinary guitar skills in a short time. I've always figured he went out and stayed in the woodshed after Son House dissed him so bad in front of folks.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Cluin
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 05:49 PM

Yeh, but what happened in that woodshed?

Deal with the Devil?

Aliens?

Guitar steroids?



The plot thins.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Skivee
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 08:58 PM

Re-reading "Dark Sun" by Richard Rhodes. The history of the developement of the hydrogen bomb. An interesting, thick book about the military, political, and social considerations that drove The US and USSR to scramble towards Armageddon.
It's a really interesting and scarey read.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Genie
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 09:07 PM

Thom Hartmann's
Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class (and what we can do about it

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Miken
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 12:01 AM

Backwards from the present
"Essays and Sketches of Mark Twain"
"South" by Earnest Shackleton. The Antarctic explorer of the early 20th century.
"The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" by Roddy Doyle.
"Gods and Generals" by Jeff Shaara.
"A Salty Piece of Land" by Jimmy Buffet
"River Horse" by William Least Heat-Moon

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 12:22 AM

I read, like, 3 books in the last 3 to 4 years, eh? One was "Grapes" by Don Cherry. It rocked! A nother was "How To Get a Date With a Sudbury Skank!" I had high hopes for that one, but it turned out to be a total crock becoz I tried everything the idiot that wrote it sugjested and almost nothin' worked worth a bunkhouse flip in Wawa! I got slapped by at least 15 stoopid girls and yelled at by a whole lot more. I would want my money back except I stole that book, so it don't matter that much. Still, I would like to get my time back, eh? He owes me that.

I am now readin' one called "How To Marry Shania Twain and Live Happlessly Ever After". Wow, eh? I think this one is the real thing...

Shania, BABY, get ready, cos Shane is on the way!

- Shane

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Skivee
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 12:10 PM

Shane, I'm sorry to say that this won't work out for a lot of reasons.
But one right off the bat is that you would have to change your name to "Shane Twain". Then people would laugh at you.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 03:36 PM

Yeah, and you'd have to go with her and Travis Tritt to New Jersey. They're doing a tour highlighting the work of the late Conway Twitty. And you'd have to say, "The Tritt-Twain Trenton Twitty Tribute Tour" several times a night.

I don't think you can do that, drunk, stoned or sober.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 04:42 PM

I'll add another recommendation to Kat's for "Doc Susie." It's quite a story. Anyone who has an interest in the history of the Rockies or Colorado, or frontier medicine, or pioneer women, or who enjoys an adventure tale would enjoy it.

Elmer

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 05:27 PM

I just recovered from wrist surgery. While healing I re-read the entire Patrick O'Brian series, all 20 books plus the reference books written to make sense of the times featured in the stories. Whew! Now I'm reading a history of the San Francisco 1906 earthquake.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 06:08 PM

Flip ME!!! You think I am gonna change my name to "Shane Twain", do ya? Well yuo are a flippin' goof, eh? I ain't changin' my name fer no one. Ya hear that? I am a flippin' McBride till I die and that ain't gonna change. Never. They broke the flippin' mold when they made me.

- Shane

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 06:13 PM

When I was at the University of Minnesota, in the late 40's and early 50's, someone gave me a little pocket address book, "To keep the girls' phone numbers in."

Frankly, I suffered from F.A.A. (female-approach anxiety), and didn't realize that the girls were just as interested in the boys as the boys were in the girls. (Hold on, have faith! I'll get to the subject of the thread in a little bit here.) So I had no girls' telephone numbers to put in my little book.

So what did I do with the little book? I kept a list of books that I intended to read. I had Greek philosophy in there, and semantics, and Freud, and so on. Lots of 'em! Lots and lots of 'em!

Unfortunately, at some point the little book, now dirty and tattered, was lost. But thinking back, over the years I've read a large proportion, maybe even most of those classics that I'd intended to read.

AND NOW TO THE SUBJECT OF THE THREAD:

I'm about half way through Darwin's Origin of Species. I'd had a general idea of the general shape of his theory, but reading his own explication of it is enlightening. Fascinating.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Tom Hamilton frae Saltcoats Scotland
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 05:30 AM

the broons and Oor Wullie.

(Scottish Books)

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Adrianel
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 10:09 PM

"The System of the World" by Neal Stephenson, third in his Baroque Trilogy. My son turned me on to them, and they're great. I've barely read any fiction for 35 years (Douglas Adams is the big exception), but this has got me interested again.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 10:31 PM

Isabel Allende's retelling of Johnson McCully's masked hero of early California, "Zorro." It is very entertaining and accessible; quite a change from her weightier fiction.
While I am only in about 15%, I suspect that this is not Walt Disney's paragon. [Please, if you have read this don't tell me about it.]

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Wolfgang
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 03:48 PM

Reginald Scot's The discoverie of witchcraft

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: fat B****rd
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 03:59 PM

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris and after last Sunday's UK Radio 3 profile I'm descending towards H.P. Lovecraft after about 40 years.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,282RA
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 04:07 PM

Currently working on Stephen King's "Insomnia." Not really sure where it's going yet. Picked it up at the airport to kill time after missing a flight.

A couple of novels mentioned earlier I've read such as Neil Gaiden's "American Gods" which was a fun book to read. My favorite part of the account of Atsula and Nunnyanunu or however that was spelled.

Also Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" which I first encountered back around '84. That's a very strange one. I even went to and looked at various stamp books and found all the ones he mentioned and tried to imagine how WASTE altered them.

In fact, both American Gods and Lot 49 seem to be saying similar things about a subconscious and subversive (?) undercurrent in America.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: John O'L
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 04:46 PM

I've just finished Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", which had somehow managed to slip through unread so far.
Reinforces the truth in the adage "The more things change, the more they remain the same".

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Severn
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 05:27 PM

"Women & Children Of The Cut" by Wendy Freer and "Mud Blood" by K.C. Constantine.

Just finished Dave Van Ronk's autobiography.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,282RA
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 05:41 PM

If you want to read something truly weird, try Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" (sometimes called "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym").

If you read it and want to discuss it, let me know.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: John O'L
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 06:33 PM

I read Van Ronk's book just before "Grapes".

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Alice
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 10:28 AM

Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Janie
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 11:42 PM

"On Agate Hill" by Lee Smith.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 07:55 PM

An old friend of mine has been around the folk scene in Seattle for years. He's not really a performer. He doesn't play an instrument, and although he will occasionally chime in with a song or two, these are rare occasions. He's a poet and writer by trade, and recently he's been into brain research. He ran across a book that he figured would be of interest to his musician friends such me and bought a stack of them to give to the bunch of us! Thank you, Richard!!!

I'm about a quarter of the way into it now, and it's bloody fascinating! I think it would be of interest to anyone who listens to music, and of serious interest to anyone who makes music.

This Is Your Brain on Music : The Science of a Human Obsession, by Daniel J. Levitin. Info and reviews HERE.

Levitin is not some ivory-tower music professor. He was a rock musician, a sound engineer, and a record producer before he got into neuroscience. Early in the book, he gives you the basics of music theory, clearly and concisely, without getting bogged down in a lot of technical jargon (relatively painless way of learning the essential ideas). Throughout the book, he names pieces of music—some classic, but more often, rock and pop songs—as examples of what he's talking about. There is the occasional dry spot where he, of necessity, has to get a bit technical, but they only last for a paragraph or two. For the most part, it's an easy read and it breezes along like a novel.

I've had a couple of years of music theory classes in college, and I've also take a course in the physics of music, so I already knew a lot of this, but the neuroscience of music is an area that I knew was there, but never actually explored. What sneaky things do composers and arrangers do and why do they do them? And why do people respond to music the way they do? Why do you respond the way you do?

Fascinating! Highly recommended! Thanks again, Richard!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 02:06 AM

Someone's actually READING Darwin's "Origin of Species"? Dang, Dave, what are you, intelligent or something? *BG*

I'm reading Barack Obama's new book, "The Audacity of Hope.' It's a very good read, full of wisdom, and we are lucky to have him in public life.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:02 AM

Two just finished.

Dies The Fire - S M Stirling. Midchick lent me the book, which has a very interesting premise and provided a good intellectual exercise for me.

House of Spirits - Isabel Allende. There was quite a sea-change in the tenor of the book as it goes on - I ended up being loathe to put it down before reading a little more.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:22 AM

Edith Sitwell - 'English Eccentrics', and Catherine Arnold's 'Necropolis - London & it's Dead'.

When I finish them I'll start a wonderful (coffee table-like) book called 'Living with books' full of wonderful pics of people's libraries & bookshelves, and Lisa Picard's 'Elizabeth's London - Everyday Life in Elizabethan London'

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: kendall
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:40 AM

DAVE BARRY TALKS BACK by Dave Barry.
This guy is the funniest republican I have ever encountered.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 06:55 PM

Monkey Wrench Gang is a great book. We were recently unpacking boxes of books, and came across a whole box of "that era" books & our 22 year old daughter was thrilled!

Besides that one, we discovered these gems:

Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow by Dee Brown--excellent account of the building of the transcontinental railway

Creek Mary's Blood also by Dee Brown (he did Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, for those wondering why the name is familiar)

If you loved Monkey Wrench you MUST read The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols!

We also have the complete set (5 vols) of A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity by Juan Luis Segundo, SJ - the books he wrote just prior to writing The Liberation of Theology. Yes, he was one of the major Latin American priests that were central to the Liberation Theology movement.

Also in the box: my fave Peter Mathiessen book, At Play in the Fields of the Lord. God I love that book!

I'm also a huge Isabel Allende fan (actually, the whole family is). I'd love to hear how Zorro is. House of the Spirits is one of my all time faves. I still have Portraits of Sepia on my shelf unread--anyone here read it?

Just finished Moliere's The Miser & Other Plays (the Penguin Classic), because I went ans saw The Miser last weekend & will see Tartuffe this weekend.

Just started (last night) The Tree Bride by Bharti Mukherjee. First one by that author.

Waiting for winter break to start the book I just ordered from Amazon yesterday I've been meaning to read for a long time: Freethinkers A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby.

And also, I hope to great read over the holidays One Thousand White Women The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus, and The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Epona
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 07:45 PM

Just finished "Holy Cross" by Anne Cadwallader. Moving on to "Out of Order: The Political Imprisonment of Women in Northern Ireland 1972-1998" by Mary Corcoran. Nothing like a little light reading....

E

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 10:06 PM

GUEST. is Tartuffe the one with Mrs. Malaprop? Or do I have that confused with a Sheridan play?

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 10:11 PM

Robinson Crusoe