What are you reading?

[PygmyPlaidGiraffe]

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: a search for who we are


A lot of speculation contained within but a good read. The speculation is understandable as the disciplines the writers draw on are relatively new disciplines.

 

[Bikewer]

I'll just tack this on; heard the guy on NPR a couple of weeks ago.

Greg Nagan, "The 5-Minute Illiad" (and other instant classics)

Nagan sends up many of the great classics, including the title work, Dante (rendered in limericks) Moby Dick, Dracula, Ulysses, and so forth. All hilariously done; his take on Wilde (Dorian Gray) is terrific.

"Another thing that happened to Western Civilization during this period was the discovery of the first completely Christian country, Hell."

A quick read (as the title implies) and good for a lot of laughs.

 

[Brown]

I read Julia Sweeney's "God Said Ha!" on the flight back from Las Vegas. I have just finished "Who Wrote the Gospels?" by Randall Helms and "Prey" by Michael Crichton. I'm nearly through "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. I am working my way through Ian Rowland's "Cold Reading." I am also slowly plodding through the "Two Towers," but I regret that I find it to be rather dull. After Ian Rowland's book come Phil Plait's "Bad Astronomy" and Michael Shermer's "How We Believe."

 

[Bottle or the Gun]

Gateways - F. Paul Wilson

Repairman Jack rules! My only complaint with the Adversary Cycle is that Wilson wrote the finale to the story line back in the 80's or 90's (Nightworld) and every Repairman Jack story since then are about the events leading up to the big ending.

 

[bug_girl]

last night i checked out, and read in one sitting, lauryl hamilton's latest book, seduced by moonlight. radically different from the anita blake books.
and yes, i'm still in the "light reading" phase. i won't be taking on any nonfiction until the days are at least 14 hours long.

 

[Jaan]

Probably "Brave New World" again, as I haven't read it in some time and is one of my favorites.

I just re-read it too ... it's available on-line:

Brave New World

I also just downloaded the BBC audio books version for my friend (her work is boring and that's all she listens too) and listened to that and now that I think about it, I just re-watched the made for TV movie the other night. Leonard Nimoy makes a great world controller.

I'm in the middle of "The War of the Flowers" by Tad Williams, and "The Dream Master" by Roger Zelazny. They're my two favorite authors so I have to give them props (yo). Good books.

 

[varwoche]

I have been reading The Magus, by John Fowles. It's quite good.

One of my all time faves.
I spent some time on the real island (Spetse), unaware it was the basis. (Unique and beautiful.) I remember walking by the schoolhouse and telling my buddy "this looks like in The Magus" and he said I was hallucinating.

varwoche

 

[Cleopatra]

One of my all time faves.
I spent some time on the real island (Spetse), unaware it was the basis. (Unique and beautiful.) I remember walking by the schoolhouse and telling my buddy "this looks like in The Magus" and he said I was hallucinating.

varwoche

You are the first person I meet that says that "Magus" is one of his favorites. This book is one of my favorites too because I consider it an example of what the word " honest writing" means. You cannot compare Fowles with Hemingway and yet the later takes all the glory. "The Magus" made me stop talking badly of Spetses, not that I will ever like this place...

 

[El Greco]

"The Magus" made me stop talking badly of Spetses, not that I will ever like this place...

What's wrong with this place ?

 

[Cleopatra]

What's wrong with this place ?

I don't wish to derail the thread but I don't like at all, I find that it lacks local color, also, too many people of those that I am obliged to socialize with in my everyday professional life go there, so, this is a good reason for me to avoid the place.

 

[varwoche]

"The Magus" made me stop talking badly of Spetses, not that I will ever like this place...

Cleo, I was on Spetses as a teenager, forever ago, and was hugely enchanted. Especially in contrast to the atrocious tourist destinations like Mikinos (sp?). I'm curious why you don't like Spetses?

varwoche

 

[varwoche]

Re-reading The Fermata by Baker. AWESOME!

I wonder if it's possible for a woman not to find this book offensive...

varwoche

 

[Cleopatra]

Cleo, I was on Spetses as a teenager, forever ago, and was hugely enchanted. Especially in contrast to the atrocious tourist destinations like Mikinos (sp?). I'm curious why you don't like Spetses?

varwoche

Mykonos. I like Mykonos just because I follow the opposite program the masses do. I wake up when they go to bed and I am alone in one of the 12 different amazing beaches it has. I don't know why I don't like Spetses,maybe because it's too flat. Go figure.

Why did you like "The Magus"? Do you like the books of Lawrence Durrel as well? Are you American? Sorry for the questions that you might ignore but you don't find many people who have read such books. I just got home and the first thing I did was to find the book. I will start reading it again in bed and for a while I will leave aside the book I am reading .

 

[El Greco]

I find that it lacks local color

In fact it is a lordly place with picturesque houses, especially if you walk to the right of the harbor, all the way up to the hill. Granted, not an island with beautiful beaches, but its style is completely different. Here is one particularly good web site among the many ones about Spetses.

 

[varwoche]

Why did you like "The Magus"? Do you like the books of Lawrence Durrel as well? Are you American? Sorry for the questions that you might ignore but you don't find many people who have read such books. I just got home and the first thing I did was to find the book. I will start reading it again in bed and for a while I will leave aside the book I am reading .

Cleo, you're gonna get me to pick it up again and I don't have time!

Brilliant writing, totally captivating, all those fun twists, and deals with the topic of free will in a most powerful way.

Not familiar w/Durrel. Yes, I'm American.

varwoche

 

[Cleopatra]

varwoche Thanks for replying to my questions, while I was posting you have already posted that you read this book of N.Baker. I realized that you must be an American. Sometimes, somebody mentions a book that finds AWESOME! and you feel like you have read his half bio.

El Greco, this is a great site but you know, some times there is no reason for not liking something.

 

[ASRomatifoso]

Right now I am reading Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War by TJ Stiles. I have to read it for one of my classes, it's an interesting book, though, so I don't mind.

It's very good. I finished it about 6 months ago. I thought it was very well-researched. I love anything that debunks myths about historical figures. I wish we could see all historical figures as they really were, not how they appear to us now, with all the accretion of myth, conjecture, and apochrypha clinging to them.

 

[sorgoth]

Right now, I'm reading Stupid White Men, by Micheal Moore.

It's good, but a little over-the-top.

I haven't read any good fiction for a while .

 

[Sandy M]

Constantine's Sword (The Church and the Jews) by James Carroll. Heh! Odd that I chose to pick it up and start it just as The Passion of the Christ was released (A movie I have no intention of seeing, nor any desire to see).

I'm finding it interesting, but a bit slow going. Also, since Mr. Carroll writes from a believer's point of view, I have to adjust MY (non-believer's) attitude to grasp some of his points (and I have had 14 years of parochial school! LOL) I believe I expected something a bit more straight-forwardly historical and objective, but considering the subject, that probably is neither possible nor likely.

 

[Brown]

I'm in the final pages of "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, and will shortly start Michael Shermer's "How We Believe." I am still working my way through Ian Rowland's "Cold Reading," but I am reading Phil Plait's "Bad Astronomy" at the same time.

In the course of reading "Bad Astronomy," I wondered whether or not it might have some bad astronomy in it. So far I have flagged two items that are questionable, and I might drop Phil Plait a line about them.