I like finding out what other people are reading. I’m always on the look out for a good read so here’s the place to have a chat about what you’re reading at the moment.
I’m reading "A Bridge Too Far" by Cornelius Ryan.
I love this book and have read it at least 6 times before. It’s about the disastrous attempt of the Allies during WWII to capture the bridges on the Rhine in Holland. This plan called “Operation Market Garden” led to a huge loss of soldiers.
The book goes into great detail and really brings home to you what it was like to be involved in those fateful events around Arnham.
Another great read from the same author is “The Longest Day” which is about D-Day.
Watership Down by Richard Adams. My dad has suggested it to me for months after I kept raving about the Harry Potter books. He said that if I liked fantasy, I should give this book a try and so I am.
“The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, by William L Shirer.
“Battle Born”, by Dale Brown.
Plato’s Republic.
“The Crystal Cave”, by Mary Stewart.
And the list goes on and on… that’s just what’s right in front of me. I usually read anywhere from 10 to 15 books at a time. I just spread them around the house and pick up whichever one is closest.
I’m currently reading The Green Mile by Steven King. I’m on a bit of a King/Koontz kick at the moment and I haven’t seen the film so i bought as a concession to myself for not yet caving and buying “On Writing” until it comes out in paperback.
I also, as ever, have a John Irving novel on the go. At the moment it’s Hotel New Hampshire (again) but it’ll soon be time to give A Prayer for Owen Meany (my favourite) another go.
Also thinking of picking up Catcher in the Rye again. It’s been almost a year and a half since my last read of it. I love that book.
My SO always has at least 5 books on the go, but i like to concentrate on just a few at a time.
Plato’s Republic
A collection of stories by H.P. Lovecraft
The Camel Book (you know, the PERL programming book published by O’Reilly)
Re-reading “Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid”
Chester Himes’s Cotton Comes to Harlem. It’s not really very good.
Well, it’s OKAY, writingwise, but if it was a 1965 cop/crime novel written by a WHITE guy, it would have been out of print and completely forgotten by, oh, 1966.
There’s a sort of self-congratulatory air about the blurbs and review excerpts printed in it: “SLASHING GENIUS FICTION BY AN ACTUAL BLACK GUY WHO ACTUALLY SPENT TIME IN AN ACTUAL JAIL! IT’S TH’ VOICE OF TH’ STREETS, MAN!!!” – Thumbass Journal
I’m also trying to finish that immense tome, Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley by Lawrence Sutin. Started it last year, put it down about page 380, but picked it up again yesterday. It’s 1933 and Uncle Al’s just lost a libel suit against Nina Hamnett, the woman who won renown as the model for the sculpture “Laughing Torso” by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. It really is more than anyone needs to know about Aleister Crowley.
I have hit a dry spell and and currently reading pure tripe. As much as I would like to say, "oh, well, I am on my 3rd re-read of Steven Hawkings “History of the Universe”, I am actually slogging thru Mary Higgins Clark’s latest, and “The Princess Bride” when I can get it away from my daughter, Caleb Carr’s “Killing Time”, finished Jude Deveraux’s “A Knight In Shining Armour” (yeah, yeah, I know) and Orson Scott Card’s “Speaker for the Dead” (NOT tripe) on Tuesday.
I usually have several books going at once. Right now, I’m reading Unweaving The Rainbow; a debunking of pseudoscience by Richard Dawkins, Wide As The Waters, a history of attempts at translating the Bible into English leading up to the King James Bible, by Benson Bobrick; The Dark Valley, a history of the 1930s by Piers Brendon; and Black Lotus, a mystery novel set in 17th century Japan by Laura Joh Rowland.
Right now I am reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (fantasy, and pretty damn good, too!), Undaunted Courage, by Stephen E. Ambrose (histoy: the story of Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American West. Pretty dry so far, but I just started it…), and the Bible (an on-going project… takes me forever to make sense of a paragraph! But I swear I’ll get through it!).
Whoa, Zebra, freaky… I opened this thread to add that I was re-reading The Mists of Avalon yet again. I wanted to have it fresh in my mind for when the mini-series hits TNT in July. There’s a couple of prequels, in case you didn’t know (ignore me if you did!): The Forest House and Lady of Avalon. And another prequel coming out in May, finished by Diana Paxton after Bradley died.
I’m also reading Witchcraft: The Old Religion by Leo Martello, and Tales From the Couch, an anthology of pieces by writers who’ve been in therapy. Me in a nutshell!
Hey, Ike, I think my school’s library subscribes to the Thumbass Journal.
I just got my Christmas bonus from work (I work in a satellite office 50 miles away from the main office, and my boss kept forgetting to give it to me, and I didn’t know I got one, so I didn’t ask about it.)
Anyway, it was gift certificates that had to be used at a downtown merchant down where the main office is, so I bought a couple of books at the bookstore:
You are Being Lied To - "This book acts as a battering ram against the distortions, myths and outright lies that have been shoved down our throat by the government, the media, corporations, organized religion, the scientific establishment and others who want to keep the truth from us.
An unprecedented group of researchers - investigative reporters, political dissidents, academics, media watchdogs, scientist-philosophers, social critics and rogue scholars - paints a picture of a world where crucial stories are ignored or actively suppressed and the official version of events has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. A world where real dangers are downplayed and nonexistant dangers are trumpeted. In short, a world where you are being lied to."
I figure I’ll either come back to the SDMB loaded for bear, or I’ll make a helluva caller for the Art Bell show. Either way, the book should be entertaining.
I also got Desire of the Everlasting Hills - by Thomas Cahill. It’s about the life of Jesus, the world before him and after him, using not only the Bible but historical context. I have an interest in the history of religion, and Cahill is damn good.
Lyllyan, don’t be so hard on yourself. “Princess Bride” and “Knight in Shining Armour” are pretty darned good. In fact, “Princess Bride” is classic! “Knight in Shining Armor” is really a good on in the romance/fiction/fantasy type category.
I am reading (and just dying to finish) The Empty Chair" by Jeffrey Deaver. It’s the third book with Lincoln Rhyme as the main character (The first was “The Bone Collector” and the second was “The Coffin Dancer”) and I’m just pages from the end and hope to finish it at lunch.
I’m also currently re-reading the “Wheel of Time” series from Robert Jordan, as a refresher to what happened 7 books ago :rolleyes:.
A lot of research-related books, as usual, and (as seen in another thread), I am chafing at the bit waiting for “Double Fold.”
But for pleasure reading, I am just starting Joe Laurie Jr.'s “Vaudeville” (1953), a chatty personal history of same. Just read about a wire-walker named Kartella who stood on his head on a slack wire while playing the clarinet.
Would you believe I just read Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead for the first time? At age 28 - I could practically be the parent of the usual readers… I finished Speaker on the way to my destination last night and I didn’t have a backup book for the way back. Argh!
This morning I started a collection of recent stories by Ray Bradbury (Quicker than the Eye) but the first one stunk. Next up for my book group is J. Robert Janes’ Sandman. Next up for me is The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass.
I’m reading Peter Ackroyd’s ‘London: The Biography’. I really, really got into his biography of William Blake (beautiful) and enjoyed ‘The Life of Thomas More’ but I approached this with a little trepidation. As an outrageously insightful biographer with a beautiful turn of phrase (and, also, as a native Londoner), this was set to be Ackroyd’s Big One. I hoped he would pull off the not insignificant job of encapsulating 1,000 years of history and character with his usual aplomb.
The detailed knowledge is wonderful and I like the treatment of London as a living entity – from childhood to maturity - but…well, it’s early days.
