What are you reading?

tamarakay · Post by **tamarakay** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:41 pm

there was once a thread, i went looking before I started this one but couldn't find it. ok, i didn't try too hard. if someone wants to merge this, feel free.

I started Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. My book club at work picked it.
i usually devour books, but this one is very hard to read. i have to put it down and walk away a lot. Then once i get through the chapter, go back and read it again for fluidity. Anyway, it's making me want to go hug every military person that i see. A very humbling book.

Last month was A Tale of Two Cities

Post by **Elderberry** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:44 pm

I'm reading "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston and it's just pissing me off more than usual!

http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic. ... ht=reading

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 8:07 pm

The new Mark Twain Auto-bio that he would'nt let be published till 100yrs. after his death.

maryanimal · Post by **maryanimal** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:52 pm

I wish I could read a good book. I never have the time. I have a gift card for barnes and noble too. Was thinking about going there this sunday.

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:42 pm

My current two reads by my bedside are:

The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

And no, it isn't a bullshit hippie-ass, feel-good Mayan prophecy rumination on UFOs.

Voyager by Stephen Pyne

Describes in much detail the work/science/engineering/politics that went into constructing and launching the two Voyager exploratory spacecraft that made the Grand Tour of our solar system.

Post by **Elderberry** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:13 am

maryanimal wrote:I wish I could read a good book. I never have the time. I have a gift card for barnes and noble too. Was thinking about going there this sunday.

You could always get audio versions and listen to them on your iPod while doing chores, running errands, exercising, house cleaning, whatever. There is no excuse for illiteracy in today's day and age.

goathead · Post by **goathead** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:24 am

Because I want to snort, and blow coffee through my nose.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 9:28 am

Finished Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar and moved on to the Master and Margherita. Two decades haven't made the latter any less inpenetrable to me.

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 9:37 am

How can one never find the time to read?

I suspect it has every thing to do with being able (or wanting) to prioritize even a small amount of time in one's life for one of its most elementary and simple pleasures.

Sic Pup · Post by **Sic Pup** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 10:10 am

Why ePlaya, of course, but the question does worry me.

Oh, oh, you don't mean at this very moment do you?

Lately I've been on a Klosterman kick, don't know why other than he writes well and generally there's a good dozen or so really interesting points in each book that make me think about things I wouldn't ordinarily consider. I just finished "Eating The Dinosaur" and "Killing Yourself To Live: 85% of a True Story", currently I'm in the middle of "Fargo Rock City" and I have "Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas" on deck.

lucky420 · Post by **lucky420** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 11:46 am

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

next up; 1984 by George Orwell

tamarakay · Post by **tamarakay** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 2:19 pm

lucky420 wrote:The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

next up; 1984 by George Orwell

how are you liking The Girl? We read it for book club too, and i was very excited as it was the first non-classic the group had picked. I didn't enjoy it. I really wanted too, but it didn't live up to the hype for me. The topic is hard for me to read about, but i didn't really like his writing technique.

d6 · Post by d6 » Fri Mar 04, 2011 2:24 pm

"The Robot Atheists Guide to Permanent Oblivion"

Monkeypoo · Post by **Monkeypoo** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 2:34 pm

I just finished up....
"The Accidental Buddhist" by Dinty W. Moore
"It's Always Something" by Gilda Radner
"Practical Magic" by Alice Hoffman

Now reading...
"The Art of Happiness" by His Holiness The Dalai Lama & Howard Cutler MD

lucky420 · Post by **lucky420** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 4:17 pm

tamarakay,
So far I am liking the book. I am almost half way through and I have a feeling something really bad is going to happen. It's making me nervous. When I was younger I could read all kinds of stuff (scary, creepy, etc), nowadays I don't know it seems to affect me more. I read the first book "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and really liked it. The only problem I had at first with the books is that the setting is Sweden and being ignorant of towns and cities of Sweden I googled a map so I have a better grasp of it...

Thecatman · Post by **Thecatman** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 9:03 pm

This coming Monday I'm hoping to get

"A Simple Government" by Mike Huckabee

MyDearFriend · Post by **MyDearFriend** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 9:45 pm

After searching fruitlessly through the shelves and piles and boxes of books here looking for my old copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy etc I gave up

and got another one from Amazon. About half-way through the fourth book now and convinced, once again, that Douglas Adams is spying on me from beyond the grave. Or something. It's very disconcerting.

Also in progress: Robert Graves, Steven Brust, JRR Tolkien, all repeats. I generally get through 300 pages a day but only find one or two good new (to me) writers per year.

I used to swap huge bags of books back and forth with a friend but now she has a Kindle.

Life is too short to read bad books, Tamara! And Lucky, there is enough terrible suffering in real life to satisfy me, so, I steer clear of books where lots of really bad things happen...

tamarakay · Post by **tamarakay** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 10:22 am

I agree about the bad books thing. Unbreakable is the true life story of an amazing man, and i want to honor his story and keep it alive.

we did a project at our church when the kids were jr. highers. They had to record stories from the church elders, then do an "introduction" to the sunday school class. From that project we learned that Mr. Zimmerman was a spy in germany during wwII. He was one of the first people to send back info about concentration camps and what was happening there. He spent almost the entire war in germany sending info back to the allied forces. Before that to the kids he was just this quiet old man who sat in the back. After that project the kids treated ALL of the elders with much more respect. I've been reading bios and history since.

Elorrum · Post by **Elorrum** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 10:36 am

It's hard to admit that I might be reading something I really don't like. Sometimes I get stuck in a book, and basically my reading slows way down. I know when I have one I like, It hardly lasts a weekend. Guns germs and steel stopped my reading for a while, yet I know it's a good book... So I just popped into a revisiting of the Berrybender trilogy by Larry McMurtrey and am enjoying the hell out of it, as I do anything McMurtrey.

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:30 am

Sometimes it can be tough putting a bad book down. A case in point is my friend Pat. He's a writer and I've generally enjoyed his many books but his latest book South of Broad is a dog. Painful in every way. I haven't the heart to say as much though I suspect he knows given the relatively dismal numbers. At some point you just have to retire bad books to the bookshelf or give them away.

http://www.patconroy.com/south-of-broad.php

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:40 am

Elorrum wrote:Guns germs and steel stopped my reading for a while, yet I know it's a good book...

It is a good book. A very good book. I was knocked over by it back in the nineties.
But...
...there are so many good books out there, you don't have to worry about skipping one.
I don't finish books all the time. Today, I'm not finishing a book on Peter the Great.

Roberto Dobbisano · Post by **Roberto Dobbisano** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 12:15 pm

â€œAnimal Farm,â€

Post by **AntiM** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 12:23 pm

theCryptofishist wrote:
Elorrum wrote:Guns germs and steel stopped my reading for a while, yet I know it's a good book...
It is a good book. A very good book. I was knocked over by it back in the nineties.
But...
...there are so many good books out there, you don't have to worry about skipping one.
I don't finish books all the time. Today, I'm not finishing a book on Peter the Great.

Yeah, bogged me down too. However, Honey, Mud and Maggots was fun.

I am currently not reading an entire mountain of books. Sine the Tamoxifen and the deaths in the family, when y reading fell off, I haven't been able to jump start my mind back into my old habits. I read magazines, good ones, but I can't track a book anymore. I still do alright on anthologies.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:20 pm

Grief does reshape the brain.

Thecatman · Post by **Thecatman** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:25 pm

Roberto Dobbisano wrote:â€œTo Kill A Mockingbird,

I had to read that in Junior High School. (aka "middle school") I really liked it.

Was a damn good movie too...with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Robert Duvall as Bo Bradley.

C187 · Post by **C187** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:56 pm

Right now: Triumph of the City - Edward Glaeser

montanaprometheus · Post by **montanaprometheus** » Sat Mar 05, 2011 9:02 pm

The Pack Goat

graidawg · Post by **graidawg** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 5:14 am

i've just started "the picture of dorian gray" so no telling what happens

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:54 pm

I'm on a reading aloud binge w Gonzo.
We're about to finish Alice Thru the Looking Glass

We're next going to hit the Pleistocene series by Julian May...again.

We both need a break from Sir Terry for a few months.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:23 pm

Nemesis. It's light weight, but not a bad example of its kind.