Yet another multiple book reader:
** A Guide for the Perplexed ** by Jonathan Levi, which has slowed down in the beginning of part two.
** Empire Falls ** by Richard Russo, which I picked up to distract myself from ** A Guide for the Perplexed.**
and ** Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York** by Kathy Peiss.
Lincoln by Gore Vidal
The Wisdom of the West by Bertrand Russell
Some old textbooks on logic, chemistry, and calculus, although the logic book is the only one I really understand. I have a really technical book on set theory a friend loaned me and I’m trying to get back up to speed so I can keep up with it.
Just finshed, for the second time, Memories fo Ice by Steven Erikson. Superb.
Currently reading The First World War by John Keegan
Have got The Structure of Evolutionary Theory by Stephen Jay Gould lined up next.
I have just dicovered the Richard Shapre series and so am figihting the Naoleonic Wars. (I peeked, I know who wins.)
Right now I’m reading Roy Hoppes’ “Our Man in Washington” It’s a historical mystery novel. H.L. Mencken and James Cain undercover the Teapot Dome scandal.
The Histories by that wacky funster Herodotus. Next: East of Eden.
Currently on Le Guin’s The Other Wind… reserving judgement until I finish it.
Next up:… ummm… something off my alarmingly huge Unread Pile… possibly that copy of An Experiment with Time that I picked up in a second-hand shop. Or possibly something else.
Red RABBIT you moron. :smack: idiot.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Good book so far, I’m about half way through. I get the feeling that if you read it for entertainment, it succeeds for the same reasons Harry Potter does, but it’s quite a lot deeper too.
Arthur C. Clarke - The space trilogy
Thamks, Minty Green!
I don’t know how I felt about The Other Wind, either. It was odd. Very odd. And it certainly lacked the sheer elegance and beauty of, say, Tombs of Atuan, my clear favorite in the series.
And Uke, I take all the credit for passing on Saragossa to delphica. I was crazy about it, and figured she would enjoy it as well. And you are just going to have to suffer through the number theory, the dueling, and the odd religiosity to find out whether Alphonse hooks up with the Kabbalah chick.
I am a chronic multiple book reader. My attention span has suffered dramatically in the past year or so, hence I sometimes have difficulty sticking to one serious book.
To help prepare for the Foreign Service Exam, I am rereading Henry Kissinger’s seminal brick, Diplomacy. If I am going to get trained by the government to be a war criminal, I might as well start now on my own dime.
For moral gratification, there’s Plutarch’s Lives.
Slowly but surely I am working my way through Lorna Doone, just so I can pretend to be a highwayman.
Then there’s The Dao of Jeet Kune Do, since much of what Bruce Lee discusses is both applicable to and derived from western martial arts.
I started Bernard Lewis’ History of the Middle East, but I think that’s going to go on the back burner until I am through with Kissinger, that roly-poly German parakeet.
I am sure I started some other stuff, too, but I can’t recall it now.
I am in middle of a few books. I just finished the Saga of Eildeg from the Sagas of the Icelanders but have a lot more in that book to read. I finished the Mabinogean Tetralogy by Evenageline Walton right before which was pretty interesting. I like the novelization of old myths. I am also currently reading Redemption and the Cryptonomicon both of which I started the other night. I think the former is by Carol Berg but I just can’t seem to get into it. I can’t seem to get into the Cryptonomicon either. It is interesting but so far it isn’t as exciting or as funny as the reviews have led me to believe.
Just for a refreshing break from the highbrow reading listed here, I would also like to note that I’ve been enjoying Reader’s Digest in the bathroom, and I’ve bought several of the last few People magazine issues (which I read with great relish, as always).
Just finished My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki. Funny, yet serious fiction about a Japanese cooking show being filmed in America’s heartland. Deals with women’s issues, cultural misunderstanding, and growth hormones in beef.
Next, I’m starting Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health by Marion Nestle, nutrition chair at New York University and editor of the 1988 Surgeon General Report. Title is self-explanatory.
After that, The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Any Tan.
Best,
TGD
Library reads over the past month, most being recommendations from this board …
Guns, Germs & Steel (Jared Diamond) – I must not be in the mood for heavy reading at this time - I keep picking it up, reading about a chapter & then letting it sit for a while. Will try it again when I’m in a more studious frame of mind.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers) - this, on the other hand, I read almost straight thru this weekend. A bit precious/precocious at times, and I really hope it’s not as autobiographical as it seems. NOTE: some sections not for the weak of stomach/heart.
The Earth Abides (George R. Stewart)- a VERY good post-apocalypse novel. A bit dated in some respects (written in 1949), but almost prescient in others. I do kinda wonder if San Francisco would REALLY hold together that well!
I Am Legend (Richard Matheson) - the title novella was quite engrossing; in fact, I was halfway through the following story before I realized the first one was finished. An interesting contrast to The Earth Abides.
American Tabloid (James Ellroy) - the seamy side of the early 60’s - the Mob, Howard Hughes & The Kennedys intertwined in what (I’d like to believe) is a largely fictionalized novel. Reminded me of Carter Beats the Devil (Glen David Gold) in terms of blending historical fact & fiction.
Also finished **Man-Kzin Wars ** I & II - ed Larry Niven & have started Thief of Time (Terry Pratchett) - I’ve listened to about 2/3 of it on tape on plane trips a few months apart & have pretty much lost the thread.
I like how “So What Are You Reading?” always turns into “So What Are You Reading, What Have You Just Finished Reading, And What Will You Read Next?” 
I’m currently reading Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. I will post what I have recently read and what I will read in the future some other time.
Yeah, I forgot, I read the first 150 pages of Cryptonomicon, and I found it extremely disappointing. I am not sure if I am even going to finish it.
Cranky, if you’re talking about Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon, yay! I loved it, even though I don’t know all that much about Paris or France, for that matter. But he’s got a great, congenial voice and I liked the way he wrote about his wife and baby.
I’m currently working through the Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, Forbes, the first part of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, Tim Severin’s In Search of Moby Dick, and re-browsing through Jonathan Ames’s My Less Than Secret Life on the side.
Politzania, I read that Eggers has a new book coming out soon. I thought he might be kind of a one trick pony, but after reading a new short story of his in the New Yorker I have revised my opinion.
I usually read just about anything that is science fiction and/or fantasy. But, I recently started driving about 1-1/2 hours each way on my commute and to keep awake I have taken to the audio books. Some recent favorites are: Smoke by Donald Westlake - a hilarious story about a small time thief that gets turned invisible by a tobacco research facility; ** John Adams** - the biagraphy; Adirft-this poor schmuck gets starnded in a rubber lifeboat in the Atlantic for over 100 days. I am currently readinf ** Kon-Tiki** by Thor Heyerdahl, which I was able to locate a first edition in a used book store, and I am throughly enjoying it.
Also, a big thanks to Sivalensis, I heard about the ** The days of Rice and Salt **, but I could not remember the title.