Books: What book are you reading right now

Subject: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: DavidHannam
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 07:59 AM

Dosteyvsky's White Nights and Notes from the Underground.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 08:11 AM

Black Beauty.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 08:18 AM

History

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: el_punkoid_nouveau
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 08:22 AM

Jack Aubrey's Navy (I think that's the title); The Rise and Fall of Brtish Naval Mastery.

I finished The Half Blood Prince on holiday, and now I'm desperately waiting for the last Harry Potter book, because I want to know what happens to ... (I'm not going ot spoil it for those who haven't got that far yet!)

epn

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: jacqui.c
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 08:56 AM

The Mists of Avalon

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Wesley S
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 09:02 AM

I've just finished the Half Blood Prince too. Now I'm on Owen Parry's "Shadows of Glory" - a mystery set in the American Civil War.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 09:10 AM

The Complete Works of George Orwell, Vol. 18 (two more to go).

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts. :||

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 09:33 AM

"A Course In Miracles" (and that's a lengthy read...)

Also "Everyday Grace" by Marianne Williamson.

Recently finished: "The Disappearance of the Universe" by Gary Renard. It's a marvelous book. Also, "Many Lives, Many Masters", which has to do with a psychiatrist's investigation of the possibilities of reincarnation...via one of his patients. Another very good book.

They're all essentially about the same thing: spiritual evolution and the development of higher consciousness.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Amos
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 09:43 AM

"The Blind Watchmaker" by RIchard Dawkins
"The Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins
"First Democracy", recommended by Don Firth.
"Designing GeoDatabases" by David Arctur.

..and "In Search of Albion" which my Limey pal sent me.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 09:53 AM

Hey, I am reading The Ancestor's Tale too! (There is a great DVD series called The Shape of Life which I am working through forwards, rather than backwards! as I go). I expect them to meet in the middle, somewhere around the lungfish).

Just finished John Gribbin's "Deep Simplicity", which is a great book, packed with material.

For fun I have been rereading the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (the rumour that there is finally going to be a movie got me going). I had forgotten how quirky they are, mostly because as a 13 year old I had Dejah Thoris on the brain (well, not exactly the brain, but.....)

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 09:54 AM

The Jungle Book by Kipling.
Captain Blood (still waiting for the Marquis of Carabas to arrive in the post) by Sabatini.
The Complete Jeeves (it's an omnibus) by Wodehouse.
The Penguin edition of Hakluyt.
Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard stories.
Oh, and several Russian folktales.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Emma B
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 10:55 AM

Portugese Irregular Verbs - McCall-Smith    (humour)
Madame de Pompadour - Sex, culture and power - Margaret Crosland (biog)
Emotionally Wierd - Kate Atkinson (fiction)
The Skein of Lament (Book 2 of The Braided Path) - Chris Wooding (fantasy)
Children's Games with Things - Iona and Peter Opie (pure nostalgia!)

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: mack/misophist
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 11:25 AM

Just finished The Phantom of The Opera which was a disappointment.
Now reading No Man's Land by G M Ford, a guilty pleasure.
Comming up, the latest Harry Potter.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 11:35 AM

The Minstrel of the Appalachians", the story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford.

He was a monumental figure in preserving (as best could be) the culture of the Appalachians, and was the organizer and for years the soul, so to speak, of the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, in Asheville, North Carolina which is now in about its 78th year running.   A really admirable man. Not without his feet of clay, but admirable nonetheless.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 11:35 AM

"As much as I dare" Arnold Wesker

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: jeffp
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 11:39 AM

"Harpy Thyme" Piers Anthony

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 12:03 PM

"Learning to Breathe"
by Andy Cave.

Half way through and only stared yesterday . Very good read.
True story of miner in 1980s turned mountaineer who climbs hardest route on Changabang a major Himalayan peak. Major epic ensues.

Mine is a signed copy. A birthday present from a fellow climber.

Just finished Harry Potter and Half blood Prince but still working my way through Barry Trotter.

Also reading a Maria Coffey " A Fragile Edge" a book relating to being married to or in a relation with a top climber and what happens to the partner when left behind when the climber goes off on long dangerous expeditions and sometimes does not return. As happened to her when Joe Tasker died on Everest.

Looking forward to reading "The Villan" about the late great Don Willance another top British climber. It is a bit hard going I heard but well worth the effort.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 12:27 PM

I finished First Democracy by Paul Woodruff a few weeks ago. Then I mowed my way through Collapse by Jared Diamond (civilizations in the past that committed suicide by trying to maintain a life-style and destroyed their environment in the process—it's likely to happen again!). Soon on the list is God's Politics by Jim Wallis (a pastor, Wallis is not real happy about how fundamentalist Christians are trying to usurp "moral values"). But before I get into that, I gotta relax a bit first.

After all the heavy-duty stuff, I decided to let my brain go slack for a bit and I'm taking a shot at The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley (1919). I've seen the movies, but never read the book, so I thought it was about time. I'm only a few chapters into it, but unless things improve, I may give it up (Nancy Pearl's 50 page rule:   "If I read 50 pages and a book still hasn't grabbed me, I toss it aside.   There's too much good stuff to read, so why waste my time?"). So far, it's kinda dumb. The 1940 movie with Tyrone Power, Basil Rathbone, and a young, lusciously demure Linda Darnell was probably the best realization of the Zorro character.

I just got notice from the library that Singing for Dummies, which I put on hold, is in. I figure if I keep pluggin' away at it, I may get the hang of it someday.

Apart from reading, but related to it:   I have all the videotapes of the Lord of the Rings movies (I've read the books several times), but I haven't seen the third one yet. In a couple of days I'm going to pig out and watch all three movies in a row.

I also have The Mayor of McDougal Street (the bio/autobio of Dave Van Ronk) on hold at the library, but I'm way down the list. I figure I want it in my personal library anyway, so I think I'll just haul off and buy it.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Janie
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 12:41 PM

"The Amateur Marriage" by Anne Tyler
"Geronimo" a biography and I'm blanking on the author just now.

just finished "Blood done Sign My Name" Timothy Tyson (powerful book on racismin the American South) and "HP and the Half Blood Prince."

Just bought a John LeCarre book but can't think of title right now--a newer one.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 12:50 PM

I too am reading God's Politics, Don. In fact, for the first time in my life I am participating in a forum based on a book. GP is being dissected every two weeks by a local group of about 15 people.

I'm also reading Our Dreaming Mind by Robert Van de Castle, "a sweeping exploration of the role that dreams have played in politics, art, religion, and psychology from ancient civilizations to the present day." It's very interesting, actually. And it's BIG. I love big books.

And I'm reading Bush on the Couch by Justin Frank, MD. As one reviewer said, "An eminent and courageous psychotherapist offers us a penetrating account of the psychological makeup of the most powerful man in the world. It is compelling and persuasive and downright frightening. Most readers will end this book stunned, asking themselves how it has come about that we have chosen a leader so ill-equipped for the job."

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Cool Beans
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 12:51 PM

"The Bridge of San Luis Rey," by Thornton Wilder. I read it quickly in high school, now find it a tough slog, even though it's short. There's a movie coming out, thaty's why I'm revisiting the novel.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Amos
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 12:55 PM

Don:

So far, it's kinda dumb. The 1940 movie with Tyrone Power, Basil Rathbone, and a young, lusciously demure Linda Darnell was probably the best realization of the Zorro character.


Read Isabel Allende's novel, Zorro. A remarkable job of really recreating the situation behind the fabled masked fencer.


A

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Firecat
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 01:09 PM

I finished the latest Harry Potter about a week ago. My current reading is "Is It Me?" by Terry Wogan (his autobiography) and "Jo of the Chalet School" by Elinor M Brent-Dyer.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 01:20 PM

Right, Amos, I'll give Allende's Zorro a shot.

Ebbie, I just googled "Bush on the Couch" and came up with lots of reviews and commentaries on Frank's book. SCARY!! But it sure seems to hit close to the mark.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 01:31 PM

Wow! A lot of good books here. Ebbie, I like your taste in reading. Peter, Dejah Thoris affected me exactly the same way as a young teenager. (grin) It must be fun reading that stuff again.

A lot of you are reading books which I was reading back in the 70's or whatever. Lately I just read the spiritual self-development stuff, although I did go through a cowboy novel period a year ago and finally read a bunch of Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey novels and some by the guy who wrote "Get Shorty", etc. They were all very entertaining.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 02:11 PM

Not reading anything because I can't find my copy of 'The Dead Zone' which has gone walkabout... if anyone sees it, please tell me where it is!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 02:18 PM

The Spirit of Dorsai, by Dickson

Poetry: A modern guide to its understanding and enjoyment, by Drew

An 1886 textbook on poetry (at home, so don't have excat title and author)

various manuals on UltraSparc 10 and 30 workstations

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 02:31 PM

"Good Omens"... for the 4th or 5th (And last) time... One last re-read to see if I could put my finger on why I think this book sucks...

After that I donno... Half Bood Prince I guess... but I really wanna revisit both Tigana and American Gods...

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Cluin
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 02:47 PM

Several books at once, as usual...
just finished Walter Mosley's Fearless Jones;
just finishing up Geoffrey Ashe's The Discovery of King Arthur;
and the rest, well it seems I'm on a rereading binge this week:
moving back through the Harry Potter books (3/4 through Chamber of Secrets);
thick into The Portable Jung;
a chapter into Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces;
and most of the way through Dudley Young's Origins of the Sacred;
The Golden Bough always has a dog-ear left in it too; and
Barry Trotter and the Unnecessary Sequel sits by the bedside waiting for a start.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: moongoddess
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 03:01 PM

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: moongoddess
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 03:05 PM

I must remember NOT to hit the TAB button when posting a message. OOPS!
    I am currently reading "The Jack Tales" - Folk Tales from the Southern Appalachians, collected and retold by Richard Chase. I started these last week with my grandchildren and find them absolutely wonderful.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Amos
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 03:20 PM

In addition I just saved from disposal by the library near me The Revised Golden Bough, a think book by Bronowski, several Fodor's guides to places I'd love to go to, and several other gems, all for free.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 03:25 PM

Amos,

Bring them to the Getaway- Somebody will want them.

Maybe we should all bring books we don't need, and see who does ( need them).

B

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 03:43 PM

I heard about this on NPR some time back. What an absolutely brilliant idea!!

Turn the world into a library. Release a book.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 04:16 PM

Clinton, I would never have guessed you to be the patient kind. Glad to hear it. *G* I rarely give up on a book but I once started reading something with 'Purple' in the title (no, it wasn't 'The Color Purple - more like Purple Plush or maybe it was Red Plush)and flung the book (it was a paperback) across the room after realizing I had read 100 pages and still didn't care about any of the characters. Giving up on it was a guilt-producing thing for me but I feel freer now. LOL

As for 'Good Omens' here are some things people have said about it:

Review:
"What's so funny about Armageddon? More than you'd think...Good Omens has arrived just in time!" Detroit Free Press
Review:
"The Apocalypse has never been funnier." Clive Barker
Review:
"An utter delight — fresh, exciting, uproariously funny." Poul Anderson
Review:
"A steamroller of silliness that made me giggle out loud." San Diego Tribune
Review:
"Outrageous...read it for a riotous good laugh!" Orlando Sentinel
Review:
"Wacky and irreverent." Booklist

Obviously, the fault lies within you, Clinton. *G*

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 04:35 PM

Perhaps we should start a thread on summer books to stay away from.   Someone lent me the bestseller The Mermaid Chair ("You'll like this, you're spiritual!"). Aaaaargggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: lady penelope
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 04:37 PM

Gotta agree, that's way patient Clint. I'm impressed, or sorry for you........ now I'm not sure.......

Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell can't remember the author' name (bad girl...)
and my comfort series at the moment is the Marcus Didius Falco books by Lindsey Davis (working my way back through them before I read the latest one)

Little Hawk's right - there's a lovely big spread of books being read out there.....

TTFN Lady P.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peace
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 04:38 PM

"Empire of the Stars"

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 04:45 PM

Everybody I know and love are ASTOUNDED whenever conversation turns to Good Omens and I get up and leave the room....

"What? YOU didn't LOVE this book!?!?!?" they ask, as if I just said I was giving up Guinness....

"I've got more laughs outa reading stereo specs... or shampoo instructions... ", and then I shrug, pour another pint, wait for them to finish and vear the conversation to Smoke And Mirrors or American Gods...   You know... GOOD books...

Heh

And well, I finished Good Omens on the can a few hours ago... It can go I think... I won't miss it off my bookshelf...

I'm getting as signed, leather bound edition of Tigana off an online Guy-Kay-Fan chum of mine... She's selling cause her rent went up, and I'm a little more flush than I've been lately... An RL chum of mine just got a copy of it for his B-day, so I should refresh myself on it so we can yack about it...

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 07:32 PM

Like I said, Clinton, you're full of surprises. Must admit though, I hadn't heard of Good Omens.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Amos
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 08:21 PM

BB:
You dinna unnerstan', mon -- I gitted 'em on account o' I wanted 'em!! :D


A

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 08:43 PM

A,

So, what else would you like? I can bring some to the Getaway, along with the tenor banjo and lots of sleeping bags...

B

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Amos
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 09:55 PM

SHuck, I dunno, BB!! All the books on this thread sound so interesting, and there was one like it a while back. It was just the luck o' the draw I found that lot. I guess you'll have to bring what strikes you the best and we can wade through 'em!

And by the way, I love this collection of old standards you are performing in the Tavern!


A

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 10:07 PM

boxes of books, bags of ginger, as many instruments as I can fit in, and a half dozen sleeping bags...


8-{E

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 10:09 PM

but I would like to get somebody else singing along...

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 10:11 PM

Jung Chang's Mao and John Le Carre's Constant Gardner.

It will be intersting to see if the Chinese print version of Mao gets into China. It will certainly upset the old gits in Beijing as it utterly refutes many of the myths surrounding the man and lays bare a rather nasty and underhand person who was both dihonest with his poilticos and held the Chinese people in contempt.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: open mike
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 01:03 AM

just finished number one ladie's detective agency
am in the middle of jJOe Merchant..by Jimmy buffet
and before that read a few Nevada Barr books.

i have read everything Tony Hillerman has written (i think)
unless there is one recent one i have missed.

my next one wil be about Belle Starr...i think she was a
female bandit or something in the wild west...so don't
tell the library, but i took it without checking it out
i will bring it back and turn it in, but sort of felt
like doing a "steal this book" like who was it? Abbie Hoffman
wrote...i wonder how many of those titles actually were
ripped off?

oh yes and i read a couple of kid's books on meteors asteroids
and comets today on the book mobile...getting ready for the
peak of the Perseid Meteor shower tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Metchosin
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 01:28 AM

I've got a problem with disappearing books too, I was reading How The Scots Invented the World, but it seems to have gone AWOL.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peace
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 01:30 AM

It's lookin' for the title: "How the Scots Invented the WER-uld".

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 02:42 AM

"The Soul of a Chef," by Michael Ruhlman. Ruhlman follows some chefs through a very rigorous trial by fire "master chef' course at the Culinary Institute of America (known as "the other CIA"), and then in other chapters shows how several other chefs strive to achieve excellence. There's a very special work ethic and drive among these chefs that shines through in this book. It is obviously an extremely physically and mentally demanding profession. I haven't yet read Ruhlman's first book, "The Making of a Chef,' about the schooling of new chefs at the "CIA," but if it's as good a read as this one...

Also re-read my sister's (sixtieschick) chapter on legumes in her cookbook Heaven's Banquet, the page entitled "The Ten Commandments of Bean Cookery." She spills the beans on what to do and not do with them.

I just ordered through Amazon "Down and Out In Paris and London", by George Orwell, and look forward to reading it.

Chanteyranger