What are you reading at the moment?

[TE999]

The First World War John Keegan. He does a good job of encapsulating that whole bloody mess, plus unearthing some obscure aspects of the conflict. A good read.

 

[Bebeslut]

Candide, by Voltaire

 

[sellthecookie]

Gahd, I miss this place.

Reading Tom Robbins' Villa Incognito and Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.

 

[Obsequium]

One I can't seem to put down "Autobiography of Mark Twain" by Mark Twain, a new release. I keep laughing while I read it. Filled with the humor as only Mark Twain could write. Before his death he left instructions that his autobiography he was penning was to be left unpublished for a 100 years. That time up and the folks at UCLA's Mark Twain Project have done such a magnificent job with his notes for this presentation, it flows almost seamless. I am in total agreement that Mark Twain, himself, is the greatest character he ever created. This book is the first of three that will be published. Well worth the read...

Ciao, Obsequium
"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."
Mark Twain

 

[Obsequium]

Still on Umberto Eco's The Infinity of Lists

Thumbing through the thread to see what others read, in hopes of running across a gem in the rough and instead I find another fan of this post modern theorist. I just purchased this book today. His take on the Louvre Museum should make for an interesting read. I love Ecos works, been a big fan since I first read "The Name of Rose" back in the 80's. Just finish "History of Beauty" his take on the philosophy, history and art of human forms was a great read. Have "Baudolino" almost finished to, writing in a language that Eco himself devised as a practical joke, his attention to historical detail and deliciously vulgar sense of humor. What's not to love...

Ciao, Obsequium
"But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth." Umberto Eco

 

[litfan10]

Gahd, I miss this place.

Reading Tom Robbins' Villa Incognito and Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Love Something Wicked This Way Comes!! Great book! I just found at my annual library sale a Bradbury I don't recall Halloween Tree that I can't wait to read.

Also being a literature geek, I always have an urge to read Agatha Christie's By the Pricking of my Thumb after Something Wicked even though it should be before... I'm such a dork!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Love Something Wicked This Way Comes!! Great book! I just found at my annual library sale a Bradbury I don't recall Halloween Tree that I can't wait to read.

Also being a literature geek, I always have an urge to read Agatha Christie's By the Pricking of my Thumb after Something Wicked even though it should be before... I'm such a dork!

It bored me to tears.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

THE COMPLETE STORIES OF ROBERT BLOCH by Robert Bloch
THE DEMON UNDER THE MICROSCOPE by Thomas Hager
CLASS by Paul Fussell
THE KNIFE MAN by Wendy Moore
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE 3RD REICH by William Shirer

THE KNIFE MAN is a biography of Scottish surgeon John Hunter.

 

[Bebeslut]

The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins, as well as The Pirate Devlin and Candide.

 

[cleverdevil76]

One I can't seem to put down "Autobiography of Mark Twain" by Mark Twain, a new release. I keep laughing while I read it. Filled with the humor as only Mark Twain could write. Before his death he left instructions that his autobiography he was penning was to be left unpublished for a 100 years. That time up and the folks at UCLA's Mark Twain Project have done such a magnificent job with his notes for this presentation, it flows almost seamless. I am in total agreement that Mark Twain, himself, is the greatest character he ever created. This book is the first of three that will be published. Well worth the read...

Ciao, Obsequium
"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."
Mark Twain

I wasn't aware of this and am now officially stoked.

After my Tom Waits bio though.

 

[Obsequium]

I wasn't aware of this and am now officially stoked.

After my Tom Waits bio though.

Can't wait for the next one. You will enjoy this if you like Mark Twain, his humor flows through the book. Enjoy...

Ciao, Obsequium
"Blonde with brains and no instruction booklet"

 

[Handley_Page]

"Without Remorse"

 

[bashfullyshameless]

"Band of Brothers" By Stephen Ambrose. For the second time. Such an amazing story about guys deciding to do their BEST in a horrible situation as a way to survive, rather than just trying to do the bare minimums. Virtually everything you see in the miniseries actually happened...except they whupped MORE ASS than the miniseries shows.

When I'm done with it, I'm on to "The Lions of Al-Rassan" by Guy Gavriel Kay, whom I cannot recommend highly enough. Dude's amazing.

 

[scriptordelecto]

"Without Remorse"

That was my favorite of the Ryan series. I read it three times. Hmmm.....maybe I'll give that one another read. It's been a few years.

 

[Obsequium]

Three door the week...

Full Dark, No Stars by Steven King
Like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight he offers a grouping of short stories the raise the chills. King is becoming "the king" of the short stories. My favorite, Fair Exchange, written with humor that makes one laugh out loud, strange considering the subject. Good stuff...

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
What a gem... Got it passed to me by a stranger at the airport while waiting for a delayed flight, bless him. I never cared much for war stories, but man, this is some read. Based on the true life story of Louis Zamperini. The story flows, never dull or lagging. She truly captures the life, redemption and forgiveness of a true American Hero, who I never would have met in print if not for a perfect stranger. As I said, a real gem not to be overlooked.

Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Ragged leather cover, yellowing pages, but sometimes life calls for familiarity of an old friend. So I open to the Knights Tale and lose myself in ancient Athens for a while. Visiting Arcite and Paloman still chasing after the lovely Emily... Ahhhh... Comfort food for the mind. **
*
*Ciao, Obsequium

 

[Bebeslut]

Sailor Song by Ken Kesey

 

[SeaCat]

I'm reading two books right now. Both are quite interesting.

The first is "No Angel" by Jay Dobyns. This is the story of the first federal agent, (ATF) to infiltrate the "Hells Angels".

The second is "It never snows in September" by Robert J. Kershaw. This is the German view of Operation Market Garden.

Cat

 

[EmeraldKitten]

A Time to Kill ~ John Grisham
Interesting. I've never seen the movie all the way through.
I bought it last weekend.. but I'm not gonna watch it til I'm done with the book.

 

[TE999]

'First Contacts: The Essential Murray Leinster', Joe Rico, Editor. This is one of the many publications produced by the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA).

 

[trysail]

"This is why Rocket's moment in history is unique. That soot-blackened locomotive sits squarely at the deflection point where a line describing human productivity (and therefore human welfare) that had been as flat as Kansas for a hundred centuries made a turn like the business end of a hockey stick. Rocket is when humanity finally learned to run twice as fast.

It's still running today. If you examined the years since 1800 in twenty year-increments, and charted every way that human welfare can be expressed in numbers— not just annual per capita GDP, which climbed to more than $6,000 by 2000, but mortality at birth (in fact, mortality at any age); calories consumed; prevalence of disease; average height of adults; percentage of lifetime spent disabled; percentage of population enrolled in primary, secondary, and postsecondary education; illiteracy; and annual hours of leisure time— the chart will show every measure better at the end of the period than it was at the beginning. And the phenomenon isn't restricted to Europe and North America; the same improvements have occurred in every region of the world. A baby born in France in 1800 could expect to live thirty years— twenty-five years less than a baby born in the Republic of the Congo in 2000. The nineteenth century French infant would be at a significant risk of starvation, infectious disease, and violence, and even if he or she were to survive into adulthood, would be far less likely to learn how to read..."
​

-William Rosen
The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention
New York, New York 2010.​

​

Wow! I don't know where William Rosen has been hiding all these years (the dust jacket blurb says Rosen is: "the author of the award-winning history Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe, was an editor and publisher at Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and the Free Press for nearly twenty-five years" ) but this book is a riveting, tour-de-force recounting of the Industrial Revolution that is beautifully written and thoroughly researched. Rosen is very clearly a bit of a polymath; he moves easily from the chemistry of iron and combustion to the geology of England's Midlands to the physics of Newcomen's steam engine to the inventions of John Smeaton.


I do not recall why I became aware of this book but in one of those incidents of pure serendipity, I espied it on the shelf of my library. I'm luckier for it. Libraries and bookstores have an awful effect on me; after fifteen minutes in one, I inevitably end up feeling stupid. This is a book that ought to be read by every person who purports to be educated.


This book has made me all too well aware of my near total ignorance of the events and persons responsible for the miracle of the Industrial Revolution. Silly me! I thought I knew something about it.




​

 

[sr71plt]

The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri and Secret Maps of the Ancient World by Charlotte Harris Rees.

 

[EmeraldKitten]

'The Help' ~ Kathryn Stockett.

I cannot put the damn thing down. I go to do something, then I have to come back to read some more.
I just need to know what happens!! lol.
Interesting book. I it.

 

[lookintomyeyes]

And what is the book about so far?

 

[EmeraldKitten]

And what is the book about so far?

..I'm assuming you're talking to me, lol.

It's written from three different perspectives... set in the early 1960's in Mississippi.
Two of the perspectives are from black women who work for the 'white folk'. The third is one of the white women- she wonders how things would be if color didn't matter.
Which sets her on a journey of writing a book of interviews from these maids- about life in general; being treated like you're less than you are.

I ended up finishing it a few hours ago. Started it yesterday.
It was one of those books that you don't want to end, but want to hurry and finish it.
Very good book.. made me laugh several times, hurt my feelings quite a bit, and I got teary-eyed a couple times.
I almost want to read it again.

 

[begcil]

The Power by Rhonda Byrne