What are you reading this week?

Now this was a truly fascinating book. In short, the story of the rediscovery of the first great masterpiece of world literature: the ancient epic of the legendary Sumerian king Gilgamesh who possibly lived around 2,700BC. Several copies of a largely complete version of the 4,000-year-old poem were part of the great library of the palace of Nineveh collected there by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who ruled from 669 B.C. After Nineveh was sacked in 612 B.C., the Gilgamesh epic was forgotten for more than 2,000 years until archaeologists uncovered the library and shipped 100,000 clay tablets and fragments to the British Museum in the 1840s and '50s where the Akkadian was deciphered and the ancient account of Noah's Flood found.

It's the oldest book in the world and I find it quite fascinating to read about the life of a king who lived possibly 5,000 years ago and is still remembered. Must have been quite the guy. It's a really readable book, not at all dry and the author is a Prof of literature or something, not an archaeologist so in the last half of the book there's far more emphasis on looking at the story itself. The epic was covered in a way that was interesting and I really appreciated the authors views on the similarities in themes and plots with both the Old Testament and other works such as the Odyssey.

"The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh"

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I'll have to note that; related to this is when Capt. Picard recounts a partial story of Gilgamesh in The Next Generation episode "Darmok (great ep by the way)."
 
I'm reading Melville in Love: The Hidden Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick by Michael Shelden

It's a bit sensationalistic but I'm enjoying it.
 

Now that's a book I've read a couple of times. Quite the classic and heavy going at times but an interesting look at how our social perceptions, interactions and expectations are shaped by our ideas about gender.

Now I've just finished Legend: The Genesis of Civilisation by David Rohl - this really kept me reading all the way thru - Rohl follws the earliest civilizations from the Garden of Eden in the Zagros Mountains to Sumer and then through to the earliest dynasty of Egypt. Ancient legends, migrations and colonizations are all discussed with evidence that spans archeology, myth and linguistics and postulates a link between the Sumerians and the earliest Egyptian kings.

And lastly, Eden in the East by by Stephen Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer blends evidence from geology, genetics, linguistics, archaeology, and anthropology to argue persuasively that civilization existed on a submerged land mass in Southeast Asia, which geologists call the Sunda shelf. Pointing to geological evidence for the submersion of the shelf by abrupt rises in the sea level about 8,000 years ago, Oppenheimer contends that the coastal cultures of Southeast Asia were drowned by a great flood, reflected in flood mythologies scattered from the ancient Middle East (such as the biblical story of Noah) to Australia and the Americas. According to the author, tantalizing archaeological evidence exists of settlements under a ``silt curtain'' left by the sea floods in drowned coastal regions from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, while linguistic markers indicate that languages spread from Southeast Asia to Australia and the Pacific. The shared flood story is one striking example of similar Eurasian myths according to the author; the ancient Middle East and Asia share other myth typologies, conspicuously including creation and Cain and Abel myths, which point to common origins in a progenitor culture. He ties this in with the end of the last Ice Age and the rapid rise in sea levels which flooded huge areas of the continental shelfs. He also looks at local variations of the flood myths (in North America, these are "land rising" myths, reflecting the effect of the loss of weight of the the Hudson Bay ice sheet). Another fascinating book on the early origins of human civilization.

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Not Wanted On Voyage - Timothy Findley

A Canadian guy on the plane complimented me on my choice. Honestly I'm not quite sure what to think of it. I feel like I appreciate it but it doesn't attract me like some books do.
 
Behind the Gates of Gomorrah: A Year with the Criminally Insane – by Stephen Seager - this true insider's account delivers an eye-opening look into the nation’s largest state-run forensic hospital, a facility that houses the real-life Hannibal Lecters of the world. Psychiatrist Stephen Seager was no stranger to locked psych wards when he accepted a job at California’s Gorman State hospital, known locally as “Gomorrah,” but nothing could have prepared him for what he encountered when he stepped through its gates, a triple sally port behind the twenty-foot walls topped with shining coils of razor wire. Gorman State is one of the nation’s largest forensic mental hospitals, dedicated to treating the criminally insane. Unit C, where Seager was assigned, was reserved for the “bad actors,” the mass murderers, serial killers, and the real-life Hannibal Lecters of the world.

Started reading and couldn't stop. One of the guys I went thru nursing with works as a psych nurse and every now and then I hear these stories, so I thought I'd read up on it a bit more and what an eye opener. That's one job I wouldn't do regardless of how much they paid me. Really interesting book.

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Finally on the third book of the Mistborn Trilogy The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson.
 
I came across a series by Timothy Zhan: Quadrail.
I'm presently reading the second book: The Third Lynx.
 
Can't remember the name, a sci fi written by Christopher Nuttal.
 
The Goddaughter, by Adrian Reid - speaking of underage sex in mainstream literature, this is definitely it. A middle-aged author in his 50's, having an affair with is fourteen year old goddaughter. The sex isn't graphic but it's certainly there. It's an old book from the late 1970's. This version was published by Avon Books, and from the cover, they published it as a romance. Rather shows how social mores have changed somewhat over the intervening 40 years doesn't it. It's actually rather beautifully written for all that some might find the subject matter offensive. I rather enjoyed it.

One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed by Melissa P - 176 pages of underage sex that was a bestseller and supposedly its erotica and of course it's happily sold by Amazon. Written as a diary of a 15 or 16 year old girl. Personally I didn't find it erotic in the slightest and it was boring. There was nothing about the author's writing that appealed to me and if it's autobiographical, well, she has issues. Big issues. And I'd rather not read about them, Not at all recommended.

Lollipops and Lovers - by Brian Black - Tippie Parish was halfway through high school. She had a teenager's sweet look of innocence. She had natural beauty. Her body was full and ripe and it seemed to blossom through her tight-fitting clothes. She was popular with her classmates--especially the boys. And she had been intimate with enough boys to fill the yearbook.... (total marketing bs. She hadn't - she slept with her middle-aged next door neighbor and no-one else). Anyhow, what can I say. 14 year old girl, middle-aged married man, and another underage sex novel happily sold by Amazon. One of those Softcover Library books like all the Orrie Hit ones, and a great addition to my collection of erotic novels. The sex is actually rather well done and there's - gasp - a plot of sorts.:eek: And if the cover shows a 14 year old girls boobs, I'm the Queen of Sheba, or whatever the expression is. Actually, I love the cover. "Timely ... and Acutely Significant" - they had marketing morons back then to. I mean, why not be honest. How about "Want to imagine pumping your fourteen year old nest door neighbor - go for it guys..." - now that would be honesty in marketing. ROTFLMAO.

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I read two fuck books attributed to Donald C.Westlake circa 1959. Westlake was famous for violent hardcrime thrillers. He couldn't write sex for shit. I believe he wrote MAN HYNGRY, because it sux so bad. VIOLENT VIXEN is too good to be anything Westlake wrote. Its as good aL :awrence Block wrote circa 1970, but in 1959 he sucked, because he was 19 or 20.
 
Just finished Tom Perrota's Mrs. Fletcher; a really fast and fun read.

Just starting Time Will Darken It by William Maxwell.
 
Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen

A reasonably well written bit of non-fiction, alternately telling the history of Marconi's wireless and Dr. Crippen's murder of his wife until the two tales intersect.
 
Well, after totally traumatizing myself writing my Summer Lovin competition story I need to go for a total change coz I'm just sitting here shaking and I had no idea writing a story could do that to me ... so Science Fiction it is. I can't handle romance right now - so I'm going back to one of my all time favorite SF novels and reading it sitting on someone's lap... :heart::heart: while he reads bloodthirsty Micheal Z Williamson stuff (The Weapon, I believe it is and yes....confirmation...)

The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - In the year 3016, the Second Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to the faster-than-light Alderson Drive. No other intelligent beings have ever been encountered, not until a light sail probe enters a human system carrying a dead alien. The probe is traced to the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud, and an expedition is dispatched. In the Mote the humans find an ancient civilization--at least one million years old--that has always been bottled up in their cloistered solar system for lack of a star drive. The Moties are welcoming and kind, yet rather evasive about certain aspects of their society. It seems the Moties have a dark problem, one they've been unable to solve in over a million years.

The Weapon - Michael Z Williamson - Kenneth Chinran was a disaffected youth who joined the military and was recruited for an elite deep cover unit, shrugging off training and exercises so tough that several of the recruits did not survive. Then he was sent by his star nation to infiltrate a fascistic, militaristic planet¿Earth. He lived in deep cover for years, marrying and having a daughter. Then the Earth forces attacked his home system, and he and his team came out of hiding, attacking and destroying the infrastructure of the crowded planet, disabling transportation and communications in city after city. As a result of his attacks, billions died for lack of the food, water and power which the ravaged system could no longer supply. His sabotage was successful, but the deaths of so many weighs heavily on his mind, making him wonder if he can stay sane. Then the secret police discovered his identity. With his daughter, the only thing in his life that had so far kept him human, he was on the run, while the resources of a planetwide police state were tracking him down. He could see no way to escape from the planet, no way to keep hiding, and if he and his daughter were caught, death was the very least that they could expect. But Chinran is a warrior to the core, and even if he loses this last battle, he won¿t go down without a fight that his pursuers¿the ones who survive¿will never forget

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The Pride of Chanur by C H Cherryh - an old SF novel I found in my guy's SF bookcase. Interstellar disruption, war looming, a spaceship and her crew caught in the middle. This is the start of a series that's really readable. Took a look at the next two in the series ("Chanur's Venture" and "The Kif Strike Back" and I'm hooked.

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The Pride of Chanur by C H Cherryh - an old SF novel I found in my guy's SF bookcase. Interstellar disruption, war looming, a spaceship and her crew caught in the middle. This is the start of a series that's really readable.

Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy and her Morgaine books are favorites of mine. Paladin was pretty good too. Didn't like the Downbelow station book.
 
The Promise - Harlan Coben

Hoping to finish Lords of the North by Bernard Cromwell this weekend...
 
Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy and her Morgaine books are favorites of mine. Paladin was pretty good too. Didn't like the Downbelow station book.

I liked Paladin. Downbelow Station is the same universe as the Chanur series, I had a quick look at it and didn't like it that much compared to "The Pride of Chanur."

Hoping to finish Lords of the North by Bernard Cromwell this weekend...


I haven't read "Lords of the North" but I really enjoyed a lot of the Sharpe series and Agincourt was great.
 
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I bought and read a ton of porn lately. I look for authentic dialog in its correct vernacular. Much is bull shit. Lotsa imposters writing black porn.

Prolly the best ear fpr black voice was Joel Chandler Harris. He said blacks in one place couldn't understand blacks from other nearby places.
 
I bought and read a ton of porn lately. I look for authentic dialog in its correct vernacular. Much is bull shit. Lotsa imposters writing black porn.

Prolly the best ear fpr black voice was Joel Chandler Harris. He said blacks in one place couldn't understand blacks from other nearby places.

Uncle Remus? That Joel Chandler Harris? Interesting article on Uncle Remus and on why everything you’ve heard about Uncle Remus is wrong,
 
Faded Sun is an interesting series covering coming of age, assimilation of human into a prideful alien race and genocide.

And as for what I'm reading, I'm working my way through The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov again. It's the story of a war hero exiled by the Soviet Union to the Central Asian Steppes because he had the audacity to be captured during the war and spent time in a prisoner of war camp.
 
I haven't read "Lords of the North" but I really enjoyed a lot of the Sharpe series and Agincourt was great.


I haven't gotten to that series yet, but I enjoyed the first book in his King Arthur series...and I found it hard to put Agincourt down.

They style of his writing suits me. :)
 
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