What Books Are You Currently Reading?

[OmCheeto]

Pretty Shield

along with 1000 other books I've purchased and not gotten past the first 2 pages.

TIME!

The next book I will buy and probably not read is by Farley Mowat; "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float". Recommended to me by someone that saw me pumping my boat out 3 weekends ago.

Argh! I have somehow misplaced Pretty Shield and have started on Mowat's book. Mowat is a hoot. Even when describing how two children skinned their dad. Talk about savage innocents!

 

[PeteyCoco]

Nim Chimpsky, The Chimp Who Could Be Human by Elizabeth Hess. Over the last semester I forgot how it felt to read non-technical texts so it's been a good read so far.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Nim Chimpsky, The Chimp Who Could Be Human by Elizabeth Hess. Over the last semester I forgot how it felt to read non-technical texts so it's been a good read so far.

See my post #132 above. I think Preston must have studied Nim for his novel. The question of whether Jennie has actually acquired a real language figures prominently in the book.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Just finished Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson. I want to remember this author's name so I don't pick up any more of his books by accident. Slow paced, understated, murder mystery. Aimed, maybe, at very elderly readers?

 

[Enigman]

The Ellery Queen mystery series. Right now-'The Dutch Shoe mystery'- Ellery Queen.
After this 'The Cuckoo's Calling'- Robert Galbraith.

 

[Drakkith]

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.
This book is NOT what I thought it was about.

 

[Borg]

Rich Dad Poor Dad - What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not. by Robert Kiyosaki.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.
This book is NOT what I thought it was about.

Ha, we actually read that book in my British Literature class last year. I would agree, the book is not at all what I was expecting. The writing style is beautiful, and I can sympathize with the romantic ideology that the beauties of nature can both physically and mentally aid humankind, but I wasn't too impressed with it. I suppose that, for something so well known and renowned, I was expecting a bit more. I had the same issue with Catch-22, unfortunately.

Actually, Catch-22's introduction has made me vow that I will never again read the introduction to any book before reading the book itself, because the introduction of Catch-22 essentially ruined the book for me. Never before have I seen such pandering and praise towards a book, and it put me in the mood to read what I was thinking would be the greatest book of the 20th century, but it only set me up for the disappointment of a book devoid of any plot, simply stringing together random and somewhat humorous anecdotes.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

Here's the stack of books that I've recently purchased, and hope to read at some point:
- Island by Aldous Huxley
- Greenmantle by John Buchan
- 18th Brumaire of Bonaparte by none other than Karl Marx
- The Unfinished Revolution (Russia, 1917-1967) by Isaac Deutscher
- Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

Of these five books, I've begun to read two of them; Greenmantle and Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Greenmantle is just an action novel, but I would liken it to an Indiana Jones-esque adventure novel, except that instead of there being one Indiana Jones, there are four of him, teamed up together during WWI. It's been an exciting read thus far.

Amusing Ourselves to Death is an examination of modern culture (the book was written in the 80's, but its message is even more prevalent today than it was then), depicting how our desire and craving for entertainment and amusement has crept into our media, degrading our public discourse by way of turning our news, our politics, our education, and our religion into mediums of entertainment, rather than what they're truly intended to do. This has been brought about primarily through technology, which, Postman claims, is because our primary source of colloquy often determines the quality and effect of our discourse. (Discourse is different in a society where the spoken-word is the primary communicator than it is where the written word is the primary communicator, etc. etc.).

His book includes a bit too much needless philosophy, and he seems to really enjoy referencing Plato, because he do so frequently. Nevertheless, I couldn't agree more with his analysis of modern culture, and I think it's really a book worth reading.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Just finished The Cobra Event by Richard Preston. Very scary. It's a novel exploring a plausible scenario whereby an individual bioengineer gone rogue might grow and release a deadly virus into the world at large.

 

[Tobias Funke]

Currently reading Mark Twain, Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays, 1891-1910. He didn't just write about little boys' adventures in Missouri; his sarcasm cut pretty deep. Check out King Leopold's Soliloquy or The War Prayer.

Also Army Life in a Black Regiment. The first black regiment in the Civil War, but (I think) less well-known than Shaw's regiment among the general public. Shaw's was made of free men from the North, Higginson's from escaped or liberated (mostly by force) slaves from the South.

 

[nevere]

neuroscience: exploring the brain
back to eden by jethro kloss
secrets of vodoo by milo rigaud
tropical fish hobiest magizine
introduction to genetic principles by david hyde

 

[zoobyshoe]

The Litigators by John Grisham. A fairly recent one of his (2011) but up there with his best. It's kinds like Cannery Row, if all the characters in Cannery Row were practicing lawyers.

 

[Monsterboy]

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

 

[Ryan_m_b]

After capitalism by David Schweickart. An interesting exploration of economic democracy.

 

[lisab]

I want a book that is very uplifting, positive, and hopeful, but does not paint overly-rosey portraits of its characters. I like characters to have flaws and warts, just like real people!

Any suggestions?

 

[Enigman]

Have you read Erich Segal? (Except Jane Austen, that's the only name I can think of)
Love Story, Doctors, The Class are all great books which more or less fit the criteria...
(I stick with the classics when recommending books...my personal taste is a bit too morbid)

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

I want a book that is very uplifting, positive, and hopeful, but does not paint overly-rosey portraits of its characters. I like characters to have flaws and warts, just like real people!

Any suggestions?

For some reason, the book The Art of Racing in the Rain is coming to my mind. It's certainly a unique book, and I thought it was certainly positive, yet the characters still possessed your desired flaws.

 

[Hornbein]

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. It' the Great American Novel. They don't make 'em like they used to.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

I almost forgot how enjoyable of a person Mark Twain was, and how enjoyable his writing continues to be. I'm nearly done with the first of his two-volumed Following the Equator, in which he travels around the British Empire of 1895, and essentially includes his diary from his journey, along with anecdotes, and a few satirical looks at racism, colonialism, and other social behaviors.

Imagine traveling the world like he did (well, Wikipedia tells me he was forced to do so, since he was in debt and needed the money he would gain from lecturing around the English-speaking world). His descriptions of Hawaii, Tasmania (this one sounded particularly amazing), Australia, and New Zealand have only strengthened my desire to travel the world, although I'm wary of the fact that their descriptions are more than a century outdated.

 

[MrTheBard]

I am currently reading Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. It is an excellent fiction novel and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who is into fantasy books. It is part of a trilogy called "The KingKiller Chronicles", and the first book in the series is The Name of The Wind.

 

[dkotschessaa]

The Ellery Queen mystery series. Right now-'The Dutch Shoe mystery'- Ellery Queen.
After this 'The Cuckoo's Calling'- Robert Galbraith.

Ok, this is too weird.

I thought "I wonder if there's a thread in general about what people are reading now."

(Found the thread. Hi.)

And you're reading the exact same Ellery Queen novel that my wife is reading, and which I Just read over the summer. Freaky!

We are really into the Ellery queen thing now. You can watch the episodes on Hulu... They have the same idea of an intermission where he tells you "by now you should be able to solve this."

So far we haven't been successful.

When I got to page 177 in that book (the intermission) I reread the first half.

I wasn't successful.

I'd like to get more of those books though. Good luck!

-Dave K

 

[dkotschessaa]

Currently reading Mark Twain, Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays, 1891-1910. He didn't just write about little boys' adventures in Missouri; his sarcasm cut pretty deep. Check out King Leopold's Soliloquy or The War Prayer.

I read such a compilation of twain's not too long ago. It was called "The complete Essays and short stories" or somesuch, but I don't think it was really complete. Still, I took a good 3 years to read it. I would just pick it up here and again. Since then I've read Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and just finished Connecticut yankee.

All and all I think I prefer his short works and essays over Sawyer/Finn. But Connecticut yankee was actually more in line with those short satirical pieces, I thought. It's also considered one of the first sci-fi stories, since it involves time travel.

 

[dkotschessaa]

Oh, can you tell I'm so happy to have found this thread?

I just finished "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and I'm watching the 3 hour movie version now. Having been brought up with dystopic sci-fi I didn't find the ideas very novel, though the writing was excellent. I kind of found it melodramatic. Like "yes yes, I get your point, we're all turning into brain dead zombies."

Delightful switch up - I'm reading Dumas now - the Three Musketeers. I'm only 12 pages in or so and I can't recall having so much fun reading something. It was originally serialized, so each chapter is kind of a cliffhanger, leading you on to the next, but you don't have to wait a week. I don't think I'll have any trouble getting through all 600 pages. (But damn, how long did the serialization take?)

-Dave K

 

[Tobias Funke]

I read such a compilation of twain's not too long ago. It was called "The complete Essays and short stories" or somesuch, but I don't think it was really complete. Still, I took a good 3 years to read it. I would just pick it up here and again. Since then I've read Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and just finished Connecticut yankee.

All and all I think I prefer his short works and essays over Sawyer/Finn. But Connecticut yankee was actually more in line with those short satirical pieces, I thought. It's also considered one of the first sci-fi stories, since it involves time travel.

I think I have that, and I agree that it's a little strange to call it "complete", but I've somehow managed to collect a lot of incomplete collections that don't overlap too much, so I'm happy. Even when I bought the hardcover of "The Mysterious Stranger" because that complete essays book is a little paperback, it turned out to be a different version (he wrote three different versions, although it sounds like two of them are pretty similar).

His essays are generally very good and he's not given enough credit for that. A big reason is undoubtedly a kind of historical censorship by omission, considering his later anti-war, anti-imperialist, pro-union views and his brutally effective takedown of Christian hypocrisy. It's all well and good to denounce slavery after the fact in Huckleberry Finn, but speak out against systemic current issues and there's a problem. That's the reason why Martin Luther King Jr. is now synonymous with "I Have a Dream" and not his opposition to the Vietnam war and wealth inequality.

Speaking of essays and Huxley, he was also a fantastic essayist, writing on everything from art critics, to LSD and fasting as paths to the "antipodes of the mind", to the never-mentioned aspects of Pavlov's experiments, e.g. finding the breaking points of dogs subjected to physical and mental torture. He was also an upper-class, early 20th century white Englishman, so he occasionally says some pretty questionable things about eugenics and race, but I guess that's how things were then. Now we're enlightened and post-racial, or course...

 

[dkotschessaa]

I think I have that, and I agree that it's a little strange to call it "complete", but I've somehow managed to collect a lot of incomplete collections that don't overlap too much, so I'm happy. Even when I bought the hardcover of "The Mysterious Stranger" because that complete essays book is a little paperback, it turned out to be a different version (he wrote three different versions, although it sounds like two of them are pretty similar).

His essays are generally very good and he's not given enough credit for that. A big reason is undoubtedly a kind of historical censorship by omission, considering his later anti-war, anti-imperialist, pro-union views and his brutally effective takedown of Christian hypocrisy. It's all well and good to denounce slavery after the fact in Huckleberry Finn, but speak out against systemic current issues and there's a problem. That's the reason why Martin Luther King Jr. is now synonymous with "I Have a Dream" and not his opposition to the Vietnam war and wealth inequality.

Speaking of essays and Huxley, he was also a fantastic essayist, writing on everything from art critics, to LSD and fasting as paths to the "antipodes of the mind", to the never-mentioned aspects of Pavlov's experiments, e.g. finding the breaking points of dogs subjected to physical and mental torture. He was also an upper-class, early 20th century white Englishman, so he occasionally says some pretty questionable things about eugenics and race, but I guess that's how things were then. Now we're enlightened and post-racial, or course...

I read a little bit of "Brave New World Revisited" which is an essay written some time later. In it he says that he thinks the world is going in the direction of "Brave New World" faster than he thought, (and towards an Orwellian future also). I find it a bit on the alarmist side, though I agree in general principal. (It's mostly that I think it's even more complicated than he's saying). So far I haven't resonated much with him. Though I'll probably check out "Island" to see how his views evolved.

-Dave K

 

[Tobias Funke]

Yeah, something about Huxley seems like he might not be the most pleasant person to be around, but I find a lot of his insights and observations pretty interesting. Enough for me to keep going back to his essays at least.

Back to general recommendations, although I'm not currently reading them, I really enjoyed Studs Terkel's oral histories. So far I've read Hard Times, "The Good War", and Working.

 

[Enigman]

Started Cuckoo's Calling and it seems Rowling's going to make a mess of this one too...

 

[dkotschessaa]

Started Cuckoo's Calling and it seems Rowling's going to make a mess of this one too...

How'd Ellery go? Did you solve it? (I had the murderer as a top suspect, but couldn't settle on one)

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

About Huxley: Brave New World was novel and very prophetic, but the book --the plot, essentially-- was very, very bad. It's still worth reading to see that what we are witnessing today was predicted so long ago, but as for the plots of dystopian books, Orwell's 1984, in my opinion, wins, despite his foresight being less accurate.

Huxley's The Doors of Perception is a must read (the book about LSD that Tobias mentioned). Those are the only two works of his which I've read, although I do have a copy of Island sitting around. Reviews tell me that the plot of this book is more tolerable, and I think his idea of a utopian society is interesting: Western science coupled with Eastern philosophy.

Apparently a few of the anecdotes and stories and folklore that Twain wrote about in his Following the Equator, which he claims to have heard from natives of certain lands, or from a passerby on a train, or from a shipmate, etc., were included in his collections of short stories, since Twain was purportedly the first to have transitioned these stories from orations to writing. He, of course, added his own wit and style to the stories, anyway, so I have no quarrel with his rehashing of these stories being considered his original work.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

I've picked up again Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. My second browsing of his first chapter has helped me to understand it some more, and I think I'll continue with it, this time. Especially since my English class is dealing with the Romantic poets like the Williams, Blake and Wordsworth, who, especially with Wordsworth, are adamantly opposed to industrialization, and adamantly in favor of the serenity of nature and the importance of solitude. For this reason, my class read the work of yet another William, this time Deresiewicz, a Yale Professor, who wrote about The End of Solitude.

 

[Enigman]

How'd Ellery go? Did you solve it? (I had the murderer as a top suspect, but couldn't settle on one)

Got completely blind sided by this one ...did get the previous one though (The french powder mystery).

 

[dkotschessaa]

Got completely blind sided by this one ...did get the previous one though (The french powder mystery).

It was tricky, almost annoyingly so. The http://www.hulu.com/ellery-queen is tricky too, but fun. Apparently it was the predecessor for "Murder, She Wrote."

I take it you like mysteries then. This is the first I've read, aside from perhaps a short Holmes story or two. I'd like to explore the genre more. There's an Ellery Queen mystery Magazine, a sister publication of Analog (which I read religiously).

Still haven't found an Analog reader on the forums...

 

[Enigman]

http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/macdonald/errh/101_analysis_bedtime_stories_(epsilon_red_riding_hood).pdf

 

[dkotschessaa]

http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/macdonald/errh/101_analysis_bedtime_stories_(epsilon_red_riding_hood).pdf

This is awesome.