What are you currently reading?

zoobyshoe

Just finished Tyranosaur Canyon also by Douglas Preston. Murder and intrigue in the desert Southwest as corrupt forces converge to snatch a remarkable treasure uncovered by a lone prospector. Very entertaining!

Just started Best American Mystery Stories of 1997. Have read 3 so far and they're all top notch. (Strangely, though, none are mysteries. They're essentially murder/revenge stories, and there's never a mystery to solve. So, I don't get the title, but it's worth reading.)

dydxforsn

I just bought this and started reading it and I'm pretty impressed! It seems very well researched, but what I feel is equally impressive to the sheer amount of unique biographical information in this book is the lack of aversion to actual physics! I love that there's actual physics in the book. More "popular books" should be like this!

zoobyshoe

The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat, by Eric Lax.

Really awesome subject, the development of penicillin into a viable form by a British team, rendered into a real yawner by boring writing. I'm not sure I'm going to finish it.

k!rl

Gödel, Escher, Bach (GEB), the quote on the cover describes it best: A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Caroll. It's an oldie but quite relevant and totally awesome!

The last fiction book is worth mentioning too: House of Leaves. A thriller of sorts written in a wildy creative style about a house who's dimensions appear bigger inside then it is on the outside. Another very cool and creative, inspirational book.

Good thread! =)

Jimmy Snyder

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I'm halfway through so you can ask me anything about mice.

AnTiFreeze3

Zooby, I think you would love An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears.

It's essentially a story that takes in England in the 1600s, and uses Francis Bacon's Novum Organum loosely as it changes between four narrators each recounting their experience of the same murder, all of whom are lead to different conclusions as to who the murderer is.

It's an extremely well researched book (the author is an historian who has extensively researched English history) and it's amazing because you're completely enveloped in the atmosphere of 17th century England. Nearly all of the characters are real, with frequent ocurrences of Robert Boyle, John Locke, Richard Lower, etc, and the few characters who aren't real are based off of the stories of real people as well.

Now, I'll warn you that it does slightly include religion as part of the story, but here is why: Iain Pears was attempting to juxtapose the medieval thinking and learning that was still prevelant in the 1600s to the new scientific way of thinking that was emerging in the time period. So, while some narrators will enexplicably seem very religious, it's not because the author is trying to push religion, but merely compare it with science.

AnTiFreeze3

I'm currently reading through:

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo, which examines what turns good people evil, and the social phenomona and group dynamics that heavily contribute to evil moral standards.

I also have about 15 other books on standby, because I'm abusing my new Kindle Fire, and the ability to get any book pre-1900 for free. Those include Voltaire's Candide, several of Friedrich Nietzche's writings, The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, and some others that I don't remember.

zoobyshoe

Sounds like something I'd enjoy. Thanks!

OmCheeto

Hmm... That looks interesting. The last book I read was Jim Clifton's "The Coming Jobs War", which I thoroughly enjoyed. It might be fun to read them side by side. Restakis sounds like a lefty, and Clifton is definitely right.

Current fiction: Joseph Heller's "Something Happened".

Please don't ask me anything about the book. I've had it since February and have not gotten past the intro. All I can recall is "sex, sex, sex." Not that I have anything against sex, mind you. I've just been too busy to read.

KiwiKid

Currently reading Engines of Creation, by Eric Drexler.

And the MITECS. *smiles innocently*

Lord_Sidious

Fuzzy Thinking: The New Science of Fuzzy Logic by Bart Kosko

rootX

I am about to finish 1Q84, the first part.

It's an interesting novel keep you continue to read to see what will happen in the next chapter. However, nothing seems too deep.

SpaceTiger

Been working my way through some ancient literature. Currently in the middle of:

The Golden åss - Apuleius
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Chattering Courtesans - Lucian

This is all written around the 2nd century AD. Needless to say, conversations with people about what I've been reading lately tend not to last long.

AnTiFreeze3

I'm currently reading Friedrich Nieztsche's thoughts on religion and education. Two hundred years is already creating a barrier of difficulty with regards to the different syntax of the times. I couldn't imagine reading something from 200 A.D.

One thing that I have noticed from reading his works though, is that, even after the translation from German to English, the writing is far superior and intellectually stimulating than what I read today. Writing today seems bland, and today's writers seem to ignore the magnitude and power of the vocabulary that they have at their expense. There are obvious exceptions, but what I read today is nowhere near as elegant as what literature used to be.

When you say "working my way through" are you implying that you've learned both Latin and Greek and intend to "work" through the texts, or are you reading through a translated version of them?

SpaceTiger

I'm not quite that dedicated about it, I'm afraid, I'm just reading translations. I thought about teaching myself classical Latin, but decided the return probably wouldn't equal the effort required. By "working my way through," I meant that I'm reading the classics forward in time, starting with Homer (~850 BCE). I've read ~50 texts across a wide range of subjects, including history, poetry, philosophy, religion, and fiction.

The difficulty in reading them varies wildly, depending I think more on the translator than the original author. Some translators try to keep as closely as possible to the original text, while others just go for the general idea. Many ancient authors, particularly the historians, tended to write in very long sentences (would probably be called run-ons in modern English) and their prose tended to be less structured than in modern texts. But it's not too bad once you get used to it.

As for the poetry, that's another beast entirely. I stick primarily with the epic poems, famed as much for their story as their rhyming and meter. The latter can't truly be translated, only mimicked.


Nieztsche was a fascinating thinker. He tended to be less abstract than many of the other great philosophers, so I found him very accessible as a student. He's not very close to my personal philosophy, of course, but he said a lot of things that needed to be said.

OmCheeto

wb ST.
Two years seems like a long time to read 3 books.
But I can relate.

The titles look interesting, and I'm tempted to ask you what the books are about. But, times being the way they are, I guess I'll jfgi.......

SpaceTiger

Thanks! I probably won't be around very much (my 4-month old son keeps me very busy), but I thought I'd stop by and say hello.


Fiction, philosophy, and theater (in that order). The first one is my favorite -- it's about a guy that gets turned into a donkey and is dragged around from owner to owner, witnessing all manner of debauchery.