Books: What Are You Reading?

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 03:54 PM

MG - I'm not sure that I would want to meet Stephen King. I love the books but wonder about someone who can dream up plots like that.....

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 04:14 PM

I'm currently re-reading old issues of "Fantasy & Science Fiction", preparatory to trying to off-load some on e-bay

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Pogo
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 04:15 PM

I have read his book " On Writing " which is a very good and informative read. The rest of his stuff I really don't care too much for.

darkriver :) " I buy books and when I have money left over I buy food "

MAG: Gaw...they are making the lead roles whitebread in Earthsea??? Boo! philistines...

Cool Beans: No I'm pretty sure it was a Jane Yolen book. I'll check out that one too though

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: open mike
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 06:20 PM

Firestorm by Nevada Barr...
about a crew fighting a fire near here
in Lassen National Park

before that i read a murder mystery
set in Pennsylvania Amish community.

it was filled with recipes...

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Scoville
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 08:47 PM

Harder than Hardscrabble, a collection of anecdotes from people who grew up in East Texas during the 1920's through 1940's. Very interesting, but it makes me really thankful for my indoor plumbing and health insurance.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: GUEST,ragdall
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 08:55 PM

Uncle Manta and the Children of Pride
"A story of courage, faith and perseverance; of a boy's escape from slavery; being forced to walk from Georgia to Virginia; his journey to Bermuda."
It's a very good read.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 08:57 PM

I just finished reading: The Birth Of Venus by Sarah Dunant. The story is set during the 1400s in Italy and the focus is on a young woman who wants to be a painter, to paint the inside of the chapels...this of course, is unheard of. There is a lot of religious history in this book as well as a look at the daily life of a woman and how it drastically changed when new religious views (something other than the Pope) were put into place. The author also shares about life in the convent during those times....very interesting community of women....not what you would think, either! Interesting start...slow going, but interesting.....EXCELLENT book, EXCELLENT!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Peace
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 09:11 PM

Teresa, I know you are blind, and I wonder at your temperament and personality because in a world set up for sighted people, if what I read in your posts is any indication, you see further than most.

Bruce

PS Love Kingsolver's work. Have you tried "The Bean Trees" and "Pigs in Heaven"? I don't think you'll be disappointed.

BM

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 09:15 PM

Ahhhh, I'm reading Mudcat posts...

Jus' funnin'....

But realy, I'm reading "Escaping thr Delta, Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues" by Elijah Wald...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 09:21 PM

Currently? Right now, this thread. Otherwise I have the book Flyboys going, along with Grant Palmer's Insider's View Of Mormon Origins, several books which I hope will help me with a presentation I have to do on the first on "Vision and Leadership", Hoig's The Humor of the American Cowboy, Fitzgerald's classic Papa Married A Mormon, and some others.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Pogo
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 09:41 PM

hehe...flipped through that last book some years ago...a very good read. Two copies of it on the shelf :)

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 09:48 PM

Read Fitzgerald's other books, too -- Momma's Boarding House, etc. He also wrote the "Great Brain" series for kids.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Teresa
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 10:30 PM

Brucie, I have read those Kingsolver, and also "The Poisonwood Bible" ... love the way the disabled girl plays with language, spelling things backwards, etc. :)

Well, life gave me a combination of blindness and patience and humility (I hope) :) and that is it. Never known anything other than blindness, so can't complain, except when it comes to folks not wanting to understand or condescending. (No one here, of course.) :)

Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: number 6
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 11:34 PM

Reading Herman Melville's Moby Dick for the 2nd time.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: John O'L
Date: 13 Jan 06 - 10:00 PM

'Everything Is Illuminated' by Jonathan Safran Foer.

I don't know if that's been mentioned yet, but it's the funniest thing I've read in years. I'm cackling constrantly. I'm about 60 pages into it and there are at least three very interesting narratives unfolding through all the humour. I see signs that parts of these stories will become quite moving before much longer.

So far, an excellent read.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Jan 06 - 11:15 PM

"...before that i read a murder mystery set in Pennsylvania Amish community. it was filled with recipes... Open Mike

lol, Mike. I wonder if there have been any Amish murders? Or Amish murderers? That would be an interesting bit to research. In the span of 250 plus years, there's bound to be some.

I just finished a novel by Anna Qundlen called 'Blessing'. Picked it up at the local Salvation Army thrift store for $.25 on my way to lunch. It was interesting; the premise is that a young man who had never quite accomplished anything but eventually landed a job as THE maintenance person at the home and grounds of an wealthy elderly widow. When he finds a newborn baby deposited on his doorstep, he keeps it.

I'm also reading 'The Disappearance of the Universe' by Gary Renard. Its subtitle tells you what it's about: Straight Talk about Illusions, Past Lives, Religion, Sex, Politics, and the Miracles of Forgiveness.' It is one of those I dip into in bed.

There are also a couple of others I'm reading. (Like many other people I keep a bunch of books opened; I figure that just like sometimes I go to a meeting on politics and sometimes I go to music to play and sometimes I go to a concert and sometimes I take my dog for a walk - you get the idea - it is possible to keep books and their subjects separate in my mind.)

One of those I'm reading that I'm taking my time on is 'Truth and Duty, The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power' by Mary Mapes, the producer at CBS who broke the little bush's National Guard story - and lost her job for it. It's fascinating. Someday (I hope) this country will be amazed that we let the bloggers, neocons and the president get away with their lies and obfuscations.

Last night I started a fun one, 'The Know-It-All, One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World' by A.J. Jacobs. He's reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from start to finish. The equivalent, if I remember correctly, of 673 books. He's reached the early Cs so far. Fun.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jan 06 - 09:45 AM

The Great Influenza, the author of which I forget. Scarier than all hell, especially the parts about the US governement. And, I fear, prescient.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 14 Jan 06 - 10:45 AM

The Great Hunger-Cecil Woodham-Smith.The eighteen-forties potato famine in Ireland.Blundering stupidity,tragedy and of course,courage.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Jan 06 - 10:10 PM

an article about lowden guitars in Guitarist magazine, but its not engrossing and I keep going back to Ian Rankin. I've started it three times.

if anybody has read the article all the way through and thinks it has something in there, I should know - let me know.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Deda
Date: 15 Jan 06 - 07:32 PM

Just finished a wonderful historical novel by Iain Pears called "An instance of the fingerpost" (set in 17th century Oxford, and includes John Locke among its cast of characters, a sort of mystery involving various conspiracies, the religious biases in England after the death of Oliver Cromwell and the restoration of the monarchy) and have started a more contemporary fictionalized memoir called "The Color of Water" -- which starts off well. I'm also reading "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, which I have to go find a copy of (I started reading someone else's & want to continue it). It's a fast read and full of interesting information and interpretations. I was also reading "the Way," about kabbalistic Judaism, but put it aside months ago and haven't gotten back to it. I think the kabbalah is very interesting, but this is a pretty superficial treatment of the subject.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Jan 06 - 08:43 PM

Eyes Of Discovery... a book I go back to read every once in awhile... don't know if it's even in print in more... was published by Dover. It's a collection of the earliest known written descriptions of American as it was discovered and explored. From memory. one of my favorite sections of the book is a description of the discovery of the Grand Canyon. The discoverer had no concept of scale, and started climbing down into the canyon to refill his canteen. It was a longer haul than he counted on.

The book fascinates me as a first-hand account of American in its pristine state.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Amos
Date: 15 Jan 06 - 10:43 PM

"The World is FLat", essays on the changes wrought in our civilization in the current century and where they might be leading, by Thomas Friedman.

Good read.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 15 Jan 06 - 11:00 PM

Hostage To Fortune by Amanda Smith. She's a granddaughter of Joseph P Kennedy; the book is letters to and from him--to his family, businesssmen, political figures and others. What an amazing person--and a worm. Anti-Semetic, bosom buddy of Joe McCarthy, stock manipulator, philanderer (book seems to gloss over this last one), clearly a defeatist as US Ambassador to the UK-- (seemed to look for reasons to retreat to Fortress America and let England sink or swim without even Lend-Lease. Blamed FDR for the death of his first-born--after supporting him in 3 campaigns, in 1944 called him a bastard. And this is all in letters he himself wrote, as collected by his granddaughter.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 15 Jan 06 - 11:08 PM

Oh yes--bootlegger-- is also glossed over, it appears--I'm reading between the lines to see how much of that comes out here.

And the developments leading up to the 1960 election are also fascinating--and complex.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: GUEST,Noddy
Date: 16 Jan 06 - 04:04 AM

Just finished "learning to Breath " by Andy Cave and two books by C. F. Dutton.
Andy cave's book is an easy read about his life coming from a miner to become a top class climber. My copy is signed by the author and a friend of mine gets a mention in it.

Dutton' books were a collection of short stories about the Doctor, the Apprentice and the author and their climbing adventures or should that be misadventures. Very funny. He also wrote "The Ascent of Rum Doodle" which is more of the same and is a must!

Currently reading about treking in NZ for my trip their next year and hoping to get a few gigs for my lady wife while we are there.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 16 Jan 06 - 04:13 AM

I tell lies W.E. Bowman wrote "The Ascent of Rum Doodle"

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: GUEST,Noddy
Date: 16 Jan 06 - 04:20 AM

it was G.J.F. Dutton and the book was/were "the ridiculous mountains" and "nothing so simple a climbing"
Next time I will pay more attention.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 06 - 07:52 AM

I am trying to read the books on the "Canada Reads"list. So far I have read two and both are just wonderful books, especially The Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. The best novel about World War 1 that I have ever read. The other book I am reading also has to do with the Great War, Deafening by Frances Itani is also a beautifully written boo. I also just finished A hilarious book called "Cooking With Frenet Branca" by James Hamilton Paterson.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 16 Jan 06 - 05:04 PM

just finished Ride of the Second Horseman, by Robert O'Connell
(about the birth and death of war)

specifically how war began with the split between agriculturalists and pastoralists (who began to raid agricultural settlements apprx 4000 bc)
which led to building walls around cities and later developed into warfare between agricultural states.. and how war served a kind of function that may be becoming irelevant in the modern world..

last nights fun.. which Ive just started and am enjoying.

also reading the Collapse of Globalism by John Ralston Saul.

(Amos, you may enjoy Jared Diamonds 'Collapse' if you like Guns Germs Steel)

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 17 Jan 06 - 01:14 PM

'Sail like a champion' by Dennis Connor (I suspect ghost-written by the erudite Michael Levitt). It gives me a lot of scientific background about stuff I've worked out for myself over the years, and a lot of new stuff I want to try.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jan 06 - 01:19 PM

I recently finished hearing "Collapse" on CD, during my commute time. I enjoyed it very much, and admire Diamond's analyses of elements. I wish Bush would listen to it, maybe while cutting brush in Texas.


A

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 17 Jan 06 - 11:43 PM

Correspondence, 1964-1966, with an admirable man, now dead.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: The business of politicians is not leadership but compromise. Leadership is the business of martyrs. :||

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: DougR
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 02:35 PM

Ebbie: "Truth and Duty"? You primarily favor fiction? :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Arne
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 02:39 PM

"Flight of the Iguana", by David Quammen.

Just finished "The Kite Runner", by Khaled Hosseini. That's an incredible book.

After that, back to James Bamford's "Body of Secrets" (about the NSA), and A. Zee's "Fearful Symmetry"....

Cheers,

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: alanabit
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 03:14 PM

I finished "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" about a week ago. A friend had sent it to me just before Christmas. I loved it. It is possibly the best love story I have ever read. I am told the film is ghastly kitsch, so I had better stay away from it. I don't usually like love stories anyway. They generally make me cringe.
I am now reading "In Sheep's Clothing", by George K. Simon Junior. He thinks he has some strategies for recognising and dealing with manipulative people. We shall have to see!

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 03:24 PM

Currently, "Team of Rivals", Doris Kearns Goodwins' biography of Lincoln and his cabinet. Fascinating view of a great man who surrounded himself with powerful, intelligent men of dissenting opinions. Very ironic in comparison with the current occupant of the White House. I am simultaneously reading "Tales of the Alhambra" by Washington Irving. I don't mean I'm reading both at exactly the same time, by the way.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Wesley S
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 04:46 PM

"The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon. It's a murder mystery written from the viewpoint of a 15 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrom.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Deda
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 10:52 PM

I enjoyed "The curious case of the dog in the night-time" a LOT, and also "The Kite-Runner." Highly recommend them both. One of the great joys of my last year is that I've gotten back into reading a steady stream of good fiction, and I'm very impressed with the quality of fiction that's being written & read currently. (I got my late-life BA just over 10 years ago, and did some graduate work, and reading gradually kind of became "work" -- and sometimes about as dry as eating sand. Then I started selling a few books on-line, and re-discovered reading for FUN, FUN, FUN!)

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: autolycus
Date: 19 Jan 06 - 06:52 PM

Always got any number started.
Finished Waugh's Scoop and Haddon Curious Incident..., both enjoyable, both rather overrated in my opinion.
Nearly finished Fritz Perls Gestalt Therapy Verbatim (fascinating).
Recently started Lao Tse's Tao Te King (now that's a revolutionary one),The Therapist's Use of the Self (Rowan & Jacobs) and Academy Zappa (Proceedings of a Zappa Conference, edd. Watson & Leslie).

If this is a thread drift too far, forget it, but I'd be very interested in how people decide what to read, given the indigestibly vast amount to choose from. With me , it's work-related, been-meaning-to-for-....,serendipity, recommendation,feeling like it, it's the first one I see, duty,etc.etc.

On the other hand, sometimes I just can't decide, as tho' I've never read a book and don't know to begin.

Auto.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: number 6
Date: 19 Jan 06 - 08:39 PM

"On a clear Day you can see General Motors" .. by Jack Wright

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Jan 06 - 08:57 PM

Autobiography of Donovan, a Christmas gift. A bit of self indulgent nonsense but a fun trip thru the 60s and 70s.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Gurney
Date: 20 Jan 06 - 12:12 AM

'Sarum', by Edward Rutherford. It is a historical novel, but stretching from the earliest settlers to 1985. That is, the earliest settlers in what became Salisbury, which means that England is still connected to Europe when it starts. It follows families. I'm up to the year 1553, and there are more than 1300 pages!
I've read his 'Forest', about the New Forest (planted in the 11c), and 'London', which have the same format. They are sort of history books, but not as we learned at school!

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: kindaloupehackenweez
Date: 20 Jan 06 - 02:25 PM

:"A million Little Piece". Which Opera has been given the highest of recommendation. First chapter starts with a poor dude at the lowest of rock bottom, on a plane, not knowing how he got there or where he's going. Only to find his parents at the airport. They drive him to there cabin in/or around Niagra Falls, New York. Am looking forward to the next chapter of this possible, "Hollywood Horror".
Does he over come his additive ways and past.?????

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 20 Jan 06 - 02:31 PM

Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce who actually worked on a road gang and got himself a part in the film.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: em gunyou halaas
Date: 20 Jan 06 - 03:30 PM

'Drop City' by T.C. Boyle

A novel about Alaska, hippies, communes and woods living. Sucks you right in.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jan 06 - 12:42 PM

Unless I missed it, no one is reading "State of War," by James Risen. I'm shocked! Bush haters might find some more crap to throw at Bush if they read this book. So far, though, Risen seems to be "after" the CIA.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: ranger1
Date: 21 Jan 06 - 01:22 PM

Just finished "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs and "Sleeping at the Starlite Motel" by Bailey White. I seem to be in a non-fiction period at the moment, subject to change without notice, though.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: Charmion
Date: 21 Jan 06 - 02:33 PM

Just finished "The Lighthouse" by P.D. James, a Christmas prezzie from my brother. Odd how the murder victim in her books is generally somebody who needs killin', but the murderer is almost worse. And the Great Detective's subordinates are much more interesting than he is!

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: bobad
Date: 21 Jan 06 - 02:42 PM

'they can't hide us anymore' by Richie Havens

Reliving the 60s and 70s U.S. music scene.

Subject: RE: BS: What Are You Reading?
From: open mike
Date: 21 Jan 06 - 03:01 PM

the mud cat light bulb changing thread...
200!