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What book is everyone reading at the moment?

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"Macro Markets: Creating Institutions for Managing Society's Largest Risks", Robert J Shiller

"Free Lunch", David Smith

"Supercapitalism", Robert Reich

(read the first two, still with the third)
 
Just finished Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I liked it. A bit slow but still worth reading.

Currently re-reading Watchmen in anticipation of the movie. I tried to limit myself to one chapter a day to make the fun last but will finish it tonight way ahead of schedule.

Next up Infidel (found the hardcover edition in the B&N bargain bin for six bucks or so.)
 
Pontoon, Garrison Keillor, 2007. Re-reading, actually -- and I didn't notice until I got to the Danish Lutheran ministers stoned on champagne, at the very end. Obviously I'd read this back in '07 and utterly, completely forgotten it. Well, Keillor's like that, a sort of Kurt Vonnegut with sanctimony lite.
 
Denver said:
I often hear of people who did not like the Silmarillion. I personally loved it: I read it at a time when I was very much interested in the trivia, and also the larger backstory, of LotR.
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I like it, but it's very...different. I can't tell you the surprise I had when I started reading it years ago. I was like "so....when does it get to Gandalf and all that?" It took me awhile before I realized that, even though it's in the same universe, Tolkien doesn't really talk much about LOTR (except for the short bit at the end, and I think that was written entirely by Christopher Tolkien).
 
Denver said:
I often hear of people who did not like the Silmarillion. I personally loved it: I read it at a time when I was very much interested in the trivia, and also the larger backstory, of LotR.
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Well, it took me several times. I had to be in the right frame of mind before I could finish it the first time. Since then I've reread it several times.
 
Francesca R said:
I've mentioned it and others have. I read it on a transatlantic flight and actually found it quite fast (once you realise that it is 400 pages of Socrates saying something followed by nobody of any importance saying "Verily, that is so"). And I thought it was pretty good too. It could say more about why democracy is sometimes "bad" and rule by philosopher kings and queens better but I'll forgive it since it is 2500 years old, and because Greek city-state democracy isn't the same as the modern version.
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Sounds like you barely scratched the surface. It's worth a closer (and not quite so literal) read.
 
I might look again, but I have too many other books to read first and not enough time :)

The current queue is:

The Return of Depression Economics and the Crash of 2008--Paul Krugman
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness--Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
The Logic of Life--Tim Harford
The Great Crash 1929--J K Galbraith
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour--Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

Not sure what order I'll take these (currently I am on the first one) but it should take a week or three.
 
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Right now, the long overdue 'Demon haunted world' by Carl Sagan.

I was at Skepticamp in Atlanta a few weeks ago, and somebody did a presentation about the book and it really decided me to move it to the top of my 'to read' list.


Next on the list will probably be Eugenie Scot's 'Not in our classroom' then 'Why we love' about the brain biochemistry of love and then, I will switch back to lighter reading and finish the 'War of the spider queen' and maybe some more Vonnegut.
 
Currently reading:

-The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke
-Everything is Illuminated
-Foundation
-A Leap in the Dark
 
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes - I just finished Leo Africanus by the same author. Both of these books were given to me by my historian brother, and I've just finally gotten around to reading them. They are very good at giving a ground-level view of the particulars, and quickly providing the significant details of major events, without going overboard and becoming confusing on the players.
 
RED HUNTING in the PROMISED LAND
anticommunism and the making of america
by
JOEL KOVEL professor of Social Studies at Bard College
published by BasicBooks ISBN 0-465-00364-8

I DID NOT get this information during my stints in "public service" or any of my college courses, there were only snippits hinted at through anecdotal evidence acquired after operations.

A 1st thought of mine after finishing this historical fact filled work was, do I convert all my earthly goods to ready $ and trek to the far frozen North to spend the remainder of my paranoid days with the Innuit, whose culture has somewhat endured for thousands of years, or temporarily feel good by recleaning weapons and thus reduce the literaturical stress induced reading.

wait, I could do both . . .

This book I found to be an expose' of what became an American civil religion for aprox. 1/2 a century which became a spiritual & political phenomenon. Because it succeeded by mobilizing our fears about our own social & individual identities against a "demonized" enemy.

Apologies to Walt Kelly, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo:cool:
 
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, which has some interesting views on religion that I like very much.
 
I am currently reading and highly recommend Neal Stephenson's Anathem. I think if you spend any amount of time on this Forum, this book is probably right up your alley. It's a big book, but worth the commitment. It's entertaining, funny, exciting, but also full of interesting insights and ideas. If you like speculative fiction, I think you'll really like it (although sometimes Stephenson's dialogue gets a little too "real world," which can break the spell a bit), but even if you don't, check it out.

Also trying to read Kevin Saunders' Saving our Children from the First Amendment, but it's for school, and I've got a bad case of senioritis :( so it's slow going. But it's good - I recommend it if you're into, you know, free expression. Or children. Or especially both.

And, let's see, The Indian Child Welfare Act Handbook, a casebook on Conflict of Laws, another casebook on Business Organizations, and Delaware's Corporation Laws. None of which are recommended, unless you're into those things...
 
linusrichard said:
(although sometimes Stephenson's dialogue gets a little too "real world," which can break the spell a bit)
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What does that mean?

Also trying to read Kevin Saunders' Saving our Children from the First Amendment, but it's for school, and I've got a bad case of senioritis :( so it's slow going. But it's good - I recommend it if you're into, you know, free expression. Or children. Or especially both.
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I read the first page of that on Amazon and it's nauseating. He cites a bunch of scare-tactic statistics that have little or nothing to do with freedom of expression other than the old Jack Thompson strawman of "media influences", when the real culprits are poverty and parenting (or lack thereof). The whole thing reeks of advocating supressing that with which he is personally uncomfortable under the banner of "won't someone think of the children".
 
Piscivore said:
What does that mean?
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Well, you kind of have this environment set up on another planet in another time, and in a totally different type of society altogether, and - well, I don't really know how to describe it, but the people are how they are, and they talk how they talk, and then one of them says something like, "that's really cool!" And so I stop listening to what the character is saying, and start wondering if that character would say "cool" in that context. It's a petty petty complaint to make of someone I consider to be a pretty awesome writer.
I read the first page of that on Amazon and it's nauseating. He cites a bunch of scare-tactic statistics that have little or nothing to do with freedom of expression other than the old Jack Thompson strawman of "media influences", when the real culprits are poverty and parenting (or lack thereof). The whole thing reeks of advocating supressing that with which he is personally uncomfortable under the banner of "won't someone think of the children".
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It's better than that. I might be biased, since I've had the author for three classes, but he's a lot more careful a thinker than someone like Jack Thompson. I think if you read more of it, you would find a lot to disagree with, but I don't think you would be nauseated. Not that I blame you for getting that impression from the first page. And not that I necessarily recommend it, but if you're interested in the issue, I do recommend. Not because I think he's entirely right, of course.
 
linusrichard said:
Well, you kind of have this environment set up on another planet in another time, and in a totally different type of society altogether, and - well, I don't really know how to describe it, but the people are how they are, and they talk how they talk, and then one of them says something like, "that's really cool!" And so I stop listening to what the character is saying, and start wondering if that character would say "cool" in that context. It's a petty petty complaint to make of someone I consider to be a pretty awesome writer.
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Breaking character?
Anachronistic dialogue?
Destroying the 4th wall?
Over reliance on your willing suspension of disbelief?
 
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