I just finished The Star Diaries and Why People Believe Weird Things. I’m about to start on Ellison’s The Invisible Man, which I’ve been meaning to read for a long time.
Well, I read Sci-Fi/Fantasy mostly and lately I’ve been trying to catch up on some missed classics. I just finished Ringworld by Niven which I thought was pretty good. I’m currently reading I, Robot and while I don’t always agree with Asimov’s style of writing, his ideas and concepts always make me think.
Recently I’ve finished a collection of short stories called Will the last person to leave the planet please shut off the sun? by Mike Resnick. I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of the guy until I picked it up (and that was just because the title was cool). Some of his humor is hit and miss, but he has some absolutely amazing stories in there. “For I have touched the sky” is one of the best short stories I’ve read.
Right now I’m biding my time until either the third book in George R.R. Martin’s or David Farland’s series hits softbound. Hopefully that’ll be this fall.
One non SF/F book I’m interested in is Guns, Germs and Steel, a history book by Jared Diamond. Anyone ever read this?
I’m finishing Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque.
Have nobody to discuss it with, whatsoever 
How sappy is that book? It’s on my summer reading list for English and I really don’t want to read it. I’m not a huge fan of romance novels. Pride and Prejudice flashes romance in big neon letters to me. How much am I exaggerating?
As for what I’m reading, it’s mostly just my summer reading for English. I’m halfway through Hamlet (would be farther if I didn’t have to stop after every scene and write a summary…ugh…). I finished up Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot a few weeks ago. That play sounds utterly fantastic read aloud. I was impressed. 
I’m also working my way through Stranger in a Strange Land and the rest of my dad’s science fiction books. I’ll probably pick up LOTR soon, mostly because one of my friends intends to drag me off to the first movie in December.
jessica
Enderw24: Re: Jared Diamond - Yep . Recommended. In fact with the regularity it gets cited in GQ and GD, I would almost think it could be considered an SDMB requirement 
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- Tamerlane
Absolutely. I’ve been a big fan of Jared Diamond since reading The Third Chimpanzee several years ago. Guns, Germs, and Steel offers a series of fairly convincing hypotheses about the reasons for the different fates of human societies over the last 13,000 years – reasons that have a lot more to do with accidents of geography, climate, flora and fauna, and other factors than with any inherent advantages on the part of the successful cultures. If Diamond has a flaw, it’s that he’s a little too eager to push a conventional environmentalist viewpoint; readers of a conservative mindset may find this somewhat offputting, but it doesn’t really affect the main thrust of his arguments.
If I may be so bold, however, I’d suggest reading The Third Chimpanzee first. It does an excellent job of presenting a description of humanity that is solidly based in evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, clearly explaining what makes humans distinct from our nearest primate relatives (not a lot, genetically speaking), how those distinctions may have come about, and what that means. It’s an excellent foundation for the very different issues raised in Guns, Germs, and Steel.
As a counterbalance to Guns, Germs, and Steel, I also recommend The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation, by Matt Ridley. Ridley used to be Washington editor of The Economist, which should give you some idea of his political viewpoint, and the last third of The Origins of Virtue makes a strong libertarian argument concerning the nature of private property and the deleterious effect of government. I’m not sure I’m prepared to go all the way with him, but his argument is pretty persuasive; in any case, I learned more about why humans interact with each other as they do from this book than from any two others I’ve read.
Current book club reading:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Other titles recently read and enjoyed, leaving out the books I didn’t appreciate as much:
Cry, the Beloved Country
Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love
Longitude : The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
~sob~ NOTHING! I moved & I packed my books & I can’t find them!!! ~sob~
I just finished ‘Newton’s Cannon’ by J. Gregory Keyes. I picked it up in a used book store. It was okay, but I’m not fired up to get the rest of the series (of course it’s a series - it’s impossible for sci-fi or fantasy books to not be at least part of a trilogy.)
Now I’m reading a book on Buddhism. I don’t know what will be next. I went through a long spell of pop science books and I’m now mostly reading fluffy stuff, so the Dark Elf Trilogy might be next. What do you know, it’s a trilogy!
Whoever mentioned Lemony Snicket - my wife loves those books. I have only read the first one, but I thought it was really funny.
I’m reading A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving again. I love this book so much. I think this is my fifth reading, and it gets better every time. No one builds characters like John Irving.
I am also wading through Philosopher: A Kind of Life by Ted Honderich. It’s his autobiography and he was my professor at university. I feel proud to know him.
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young: Ia Drang: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam by Harold G. Moore
If Chins Could Kill, Confessions of a B-Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
and
Maybe (Maybe Not) : Second Thoughts from a Secret Life by Robert Fulghum
I’ve been working away at them at random, reading each as the mood hits.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by rackensack *
**
Sorry, I just found the phrasing kinda humorous.
Thanks rackensack, I’ll look into The Third Chimpanzee and see if it looks interesting. I wish I had done this all BEFORE school starts because heavy books and textbooks don’t mix too well.
It’s so rare for me to get a few uninterrupted hours. I started The Accidental Tourist last weekend when the inlaws were here and everyone else was playing cards (I hate playing cards) - I hope to finish it within a couple of weeks.
For shorter reads, I’m enjoying Uncle Rue’s story guy threads…
I’ve just recently read:
P Is For Peril by Sue Grafton
Seven Up by Janet Evanovich
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Weight Of Water by Anita Shreve
The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve
Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
And I am currently reading:
Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
A Painted House by John Grisham
Just Finished: The Feast of Love, by Charles Baxter. First rate new fiction. Excellent.
Just started: A Month in the Country, by James Lloyd Carr. Short novel published in 1980. The Guardian Fiction Prize winner. I think I’m going to like it.
Next two: This Band Could be Your Life, Michael Azerrad, which I found out about here on this board. That was my time. Looking forward to it.
and: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families - Stories from Rwanda, Philip Gourevitch. It’s been on my list for a long time, finally getting around to it.
Some of my summertime reads –
The Weight Of Water by Anita Shreve (disappointing)
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur S. Golden (luxurious)
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (engrossing)
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (masterful!)
Philip K. Dick short stories, vols. 1 and 2 (amazing)
As well as re-reading some favorites, when I’m between trips to the library and bookstore –
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (perfect)
The Lost World by Michael Crichton (stimulating)
To Kill a Mockingbird (annual)
The World According to Garp (memorized)
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading a bizarre mixture of Bruce Catton (Mr. Lincoln’s Army right now) and Terry Pratchett (four of the Discworld novels, plus Strata).
I’m also reading Louie, Louie, a book about how the song came to be a cultural icon; and I recently re-read Dune for the first time in 25 years. Dune is, of course, the well-known (and very well-written) book about a would-be messiah trying to find a path between two opposing evils. I’m just as unsatisfied with the ending as I was in 1976.
Enderw24, let me add my voice to those praising GG&S. I think its fans on this board number into the hundreds, and deservedly so. He asks a big question - how come civilization developed so much faster and further in some places than in others - and comes up with some fairly persuasive answers.
My father and I see the world very differently, and it’s one of the few nonfiction books we both praise highly.
A couple of threads here about a month ago prompted me to go back and re-read some of my Hal Clement books. I read Cycle of Fire, Fossil, and Mission of Gravity. Then, for comparison, I re-read Robert L. Forwards Dragon’s Egg. Although I still love Hal Clement, I’m going to have to give R.L. Forward a slight edge for clarity. I know he has a better editor.
Last week I spent the week reading * Specifications for Filing Form 1098, 1099, 5498, and W-2G Magnetically or Electronically* by IRS, Dept. of the Treasury, (don’t ask) and to clear my palate, over the weekend I read How to Speak Minnesotan by Howard Mohr.
Incidentally, I just ordered The Golden Compass from Amazon a few days ago. Looking forward to a good read there.
Shadow, by Bob Woodward. Concerns the changes in the Presidency brought on by the investigative reporting style borne of Watergate. A scandal by scandal accounting of the Presidency since Nixon. It also gives a very clear, concise analysis of how a penny-ante land deal gone bad in a podunk state like Arkansas almost resulted in the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, being convicted of lying about getting a blow job from a moonstruck, coweyed intern in a blue dress. Fascinating stuff.
Also re-reading A Tale of Two Cities. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” That whole introductory paragraph is just about the best damn thing ever written, period.
I cannot do this. I am a serially monogomous girl, even unto literature. I read one book, finish it, then start another. I’m intrigued by all you guys with multiple books going at once (the bus book, the bedside book, the lunch book); I tote around a single book until I’m done with it, then pick up another. Maybe I’m just not bright enough to keep multiple plots/subjects straight, but I’ve never enjoyed reading more than one book at once.
ZYADA, if you like regencies, do you read Joan Wolf? She’s my favorite of the throwaway bodice-ripper genre.