Books: What book are you reading right now

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: freda underhill
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 02:43 AM

"Inside the Kingdom" by Carmen Bin Laden

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Cool Beans
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 10:21 AM

Poul Anderson is still alive?!

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: gnomad
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 10:49 AM

A Testament of Youth - until it gets too much, then Jonah & Co (Dornford Yates) to cheer me up again.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 11:11 AM

I've dipped into Das Kapital again. Most of it is dreadfully dull, but some good stuff. Loathe seedy old Marx, but it's one of the most influential books written.

Strange and Norrell is terrific. I guess I'm one of the few people that actualy liked the ending.

Not a new book or a summer one, but stay away from Howard's Bonaparte's Warriors. Applingly bad novel with a lame plot and the most one-dimensional cardboard cutouts imaginable.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 11:17 AM

'Ace of spades' by Motorhead.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Pseudolus
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 11:45 AM

1st to Die by James Patterson.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 02:09 PM

"Poul Anderson is still alive?!"

Sorry to hear about the misfortune...

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: sixtieschick
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 02:37 PM

"They Can't Hide Us Any More" by Richie Havens. A lovely autobiography with wonderful descriptions of starting out singing doo-wop in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, singing in Greenwich Village in the sixties, opening the Woodstock festival, and other landmarks along his musical journey. Havens gives refreshingly equal appreciation to famous and lesser-known musicians and singer-songwriters. The man's passion and compassion for the human spirit shines through his observations, and he describes his own processes of writing songs, playing guitar and performing in detail.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 02:55 PM

"A Testament of Youth - until it gets too much, then Jonah & Co (Dornford Yates) to cheer me up again." gnomad

Although I haven't read that particular book, I know what you mean, gnomad. Years ago when I was dating a German (formerly American POW) I read everything I could find on WWII. I'd take huge stacks of books home from the library. At the same time I took home stacks of sci fi books. When WWII got too stomach turning, I turned to science fiction. I spent four years doing that.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 12:27 PM

White Slave of the Nootka,
a true story by John Jewitt, an armourer on the unlucky ship the Boston
whose crew of 22 were slaughtered by the Nootka, on the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1803. Jewitt and one other were the only survivors. Since Jewitt was a blacksmith he was spared by CHief Maquinna
and kept as a slave. He took on a Nootka wife and lived among the tribe for a few years. The journal that he kept is a remarkable record of the people of the westcoast of the time.
Petr

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 12:58 PM

Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton
Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

... among others.

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: beardedbruce
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 03:08 PM

OK, finished The Spirit of Dorsai, by Dickson. Now reading

Planet Run, by Laumer and Dickson

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

An 1886 textbook on poetry, Poetry as a Representative Art, by G L Raymond, Prof. of Aesthetics in Princeton University

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 04:42 PM

"A Testament of Youth" is great, but don't get sucked into reading the sequel (yawn).

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: *Laura*
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 05:31 PM

It was Harry Potter - now Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell.

after that, college requests I read 'Down and out in Paris and London' (another Orwell) and Jane Austin's 'Emma' (which I have tried, and failed, to read before)

After that I shall read 'The Time Traveller's Wife' because I bought it a while ago but need to read my college books first.
Then I think I will have a bash at Les Miserables.
And if that fails - well I haven't read Lord of the Rings in a while.

Ooh and someone gave me The Count of Monte Cristo for christmas - this is opening up a world of possibilities now I start to think about it!

xLx
p.s.
I also recommend to everyone and anyone a book called 'Lorelli's Secret' by Carolyn Parkhurst - it is lovely but it might make you cry.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,B
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 06:24 PM

from the ever-increasing stack:
"The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri -- detailed renderings of Bengali immigrant experience, and way excellent prose.

"Die 13 1/2 Leben des Kaept'n Blaubaer" by Walter Moers -- a long story which begins in a nutshell :-)

B

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: gnomad
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 08:34 PM

Ebbie - re Testament of Youth

A tremendous work, relating to WW1 rather than 2. If it were fiction it would be in a high rank, but it is autobiography and that promotes it a good bit in my reckoning, right alongside All Quiet, and Goodbye to All That, imo.

Of course I've slipped a bit in my "high minded reader" rating, I'm now looking into The Scots Kitchen (F Marian McNeill) re the haggis thread, plus Paperweight by Stephen Fry.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 08:34 PM

The Knockout Artist - Harry Crews. So-so read.

If anyone has ever made it through Joyce's Ulysses or Sarte's Being and Nothingness and understood it, I'd appreciate some insight on how you did it.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 08:59 PM

Just started "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle...and...WOW!

Amos, you have got to read this one.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 09:27 PM

What book are you reading right now?
The Mother of all BS threads!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 09:29 PM

I read Ulysses many times, and walked through Dublin with it in my mitts. What do you want to know? (It really helps to get one of the recent guides).

The Count of Monte Cristo is really one of the great reads of all time (BUT NOT THE ABRIDGED VERSIONS!!!!). I must read it again. It is the source for many subsequent books, including James Bond.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Amos
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 10:14 PM

I did, LH -- I thought he was loverly.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,615
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 10:35 PM

I saw someone reading "A Seperate Peace" the other day. I hated it when I was forced to read it in school - but I'm tempted to pick it up again to see if it's as bad as I thought.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,kirsten anderberg
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 11:07 PM

I just finished reading Crimethinc's new Anarchy Cookbook/Recipes for disaster...I just published a review of it at http://resist.ca/~kirstena/pagerecipesfordisaster.html

Now I am reading The Layers of Magazine Editing by MREvans

People send me books to read and review often...another one I read not long ago that was good was The Flowers of Dinh Ba - the review of that one is at http://resist.ca/~kirstena/pageflowersofdinhba.html - The author of that one wrote me to thank me for that review, I was sent the book by a NYC magazine to review.

I am also reading a TON of zines right now...people have been sending me packages of zines from around the world and I now have a huge zine library...I review zines too at http://resist.ca/~kirstena/pagezinereviews.html

Zines are really my favorite reading material lately. Most cutting edge stuff in those zines...

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 04:44 AM

The Count, one of my favourite books and one of the best ever written.
Still waiting for the Musketeers to arrive by post, haven't read in ages.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 06:06 AM

The Bible According to Spike Milligan.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 07:20 AM

Just finished )and thoroughly enjoyed) The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss (of The League of Gentlemen)

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: van lingle
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 09:12 AM

Spring Creeks by Mike Lawson which should be of great interest to anyone who's into throwing flies to finicky trout and just finishing 1776 by David McCullough which is an easy, informative read and A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn which is an alternative view of US history.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Tam the man
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 09:23 AM

Oor Wullie and the Broons,

I bought Harry Potter the reason is I ran out of toilet paper, (Only Kidding)

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 02:51 PM

Currently residing on my music stand are....

Tommy by Richard Holmes.

Some cuban bongo rhythms

And a classical guitar piece - Asturias by Albeniz

My music stand is 3 foot wide!

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 03:07 PM

I'd like to know how you got through Ulysses - preferably an explanation that doesn't involve prerequisites like obtaining PhDs in Greek Mythology, Irish history, and intimate knowledge of the underpinnings, past and present, of Catholicism. Every other word had me referencing the dictionary or encyclopedia.

A Separate Peace was recommended to me after I'd read Catcher In The Rye. The person who'd recommended it said I'd like it better. I didn't, but then again I was about 11 years old when I read it. I read it again after I got out of high school, and liked it much better, especially the ending, or more specifically, the last line.

Recently, I've thought about going back and reading it again, just because it is such a well written book.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: beardedbruce
Date: 18 Aug 05 - 02:28 PM

"Virtue and Happiness: The manual of Epictetus"

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 18 Aug 05 - 02:31 PM

A nice black leather-bound 1940 edition of Gilbert and Sullivans operettas. Delightful line-drawings by Gilbert.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: open mike
Date: 19 Aug 05 - 01:35 AM

Jitter Bug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Aug 05 - 12:08 PM

I'd just about to re-read Chad Carpenter's "Really Big Book Of Tundra." And Urquhart's "Eye of the Husky" will follow. I'm also finishing a book on the Inuit testimony about the Franklin expedition disaster by Woodward. And I have several more waiting in the wings.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Aug 05 - 12:12 PM

If a magazine is a "zine", then is a piano a "no"? And a banjo a "jo"? And an encyclopedia, a "pedia"? And a woman, a "'man"? ;-)

Do you get that I do not much like the latest slang that has emerged off the streets of ghetto Amerika?

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: radriano
Date: 19 Aug 05 - 01:32 PM

For any mystery fans out there:

I've watched the PBS mystery series "Wire in the Blood" but the original books are much better. Right now I'm reading "The Wire in the Blood" - the author is Val McDermid. She grew up in a Scottish mining community and then went to Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years and now writes full time, living in South Manchester.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: RangerSteve
Date: 20 Aug 05 - 10:10 AM

Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin. The kind of murder mystery that Agatha Christie used to write, impossible but highly entertaining with no modern technology to help the detectives out. There are a lot more in the series, but only two in English. As they have to be tranlated from Russian, I imagine they'll be slow in coming.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 20 Aug 05 - 10:30 AM

Boris Akunin is a wonderful writer. This series is a runaway success in Russia. He decided to write it because he loves murder mysteries, but there aren't really any in Russian.

A friend just returned the copy of Scaramouche I lent him, so I think will tackle that again. Vive le Sabatini!

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Aug 05 - 10:46 AM

I have noted that of the reading public it goes about this way...

Interested in entertainment: 99%

Interested in facts: 5-10%

Interested in self/development or, dare I say, enlightenment: 1/2 of 1 percent!

There is some overlap, of course...some like all of the above.

Given the general situation, though, it's not surprising that a casino or a really stupid action movie will attract 30 million people, while a spiritual centre will attract 35! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: John Hardly
Date: 20 Aug 05 - 02:51 PM

Velocity - Dean Koontz

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 07:10 AM

The Knocker on Death's Door - Ellis Peters.

It's one of her 'Detective Inspector Felse' series she wrote years before Brother Cadfael got popular. As with all her work, it's beautifully written and an incredible testament to the habit of people watching..... She's even written one about a folk music seminar!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 07:40 AM

Aren't they also a bit on the low end of the body-count? Aggie kills them off in droves (I'm surprised anyone was left alive in the English countryside), but both are very soothing.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: MAG
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 11:14 AM

Harry Potter #6 was a professional requirement. I then read it again to see the many obvious clues I missed the first time.

I just finished rereadingDiana Wynne Jones' *Fire and Hemlock* for a discussion group next month. If you are into faery and tons of literary references, you would like it. I have time to read (or reread) some of the many books which make it understandable.

I started *Collapse,* realized he wasn't saying anything I didn't already believe, and put it down as too much of a downer.

I'll try some of the more philosophical stuff; thanks.

MAG

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: open mike
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 12:21 PM

The Great Taos Bank Robbery and
Other Indian Country Affairs
by Tony Hillerman

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 03:09 PM

A good mystery doesn't need to have a high, or any body count.... but yes, I see your point. There are certain areas of Britain where it would do you well to walk softly and carry a big stick. St Marymead & Midsomer Norton and its environs springs to mind, where last series, the body count was in the 20's over 8 episodes. An average of 3& a bit per programme.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 03:35 PM

Of course not, the emphasis should be on mystery.
I think in one episode of Midsomer they completely lost count about the bodies and one of them lay there unexplained.
This G. K. Chesterton quote is a good description of a mystery formula:

"I like detective stories; I read them, I write them; but I do not believe them. The bones and structure of a good detective story are so old and well known that it may seem banal to state them even in outline. A policeman, stupid but sweet-tempered, and always weakly erring on the side of mercy, walks along the street; and in the course of his ordinary business finds a man in Bulgarian uniform killed with an Australian boomerang in a Brompton milk-shop. Having set free all the most suspicious persons in the story, he then appeals to the bull-dog professional detective, who appeals to the hawk-like amateur detective. The latter finds near the corpse a boot-lace, a button-boot, a French newspaper, and a return ticket from the Hebrides; and so, relentlessly, link by link, brings the crime home to the Archbishop of Canterbury."

Some good essays here

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: fat B****rd
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 03:40 PM

Deliverance by James Dickey while waiting for the latest from Kathy Reichs.

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

I've run out of books to read !! Perhaps i ought to bite the bullet and pay full price for a couple , instead of depending on the charity shops . The Library here has a lousy selection !!

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Aug 05 - 08:12 AM

Snow Squall, about the last Clipper Ship built in Maine, sunk in the Falklands, and restored- a direct result of the Falklands War.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 05 - 08:44 AM

If your library has a lousy selection, make some suggestions. If they're ignored, be a bit forceful. If they're still ignored, ask why -- first to the Head Librarian and then, if necessary, in the local newspaper. THAT gambit is bound to get some attention. And if it still doesn't work, get yourself appointed to the Board that oversees the library....