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What are you reading?

Just finished Robert Jordan's 'Crossroads of Twilight' the tenth?! book in the Wheel of time series. Great stuff, though I wish he'd finish the series soon - some of the later novels have an overpadded feel about them. Of course he can't finish on 11 (whoever heard of a series of 11 books?) so my moneys on him finishing at 12.

Also just finished Randi's 'The Faith Healers' , Dawkins 'River out of Eden' and am currently reading Martin Gardners 'Did Adam and Eve have Navels?'.
 
I recently finished "Ripley Under Ground" by Patricia Highsmith and am now reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain.[Edited to add: And I am about to read the last seven pages.]
 
I just started a book called " 'What if?s of American History" where various historians examine what might have happened had certain events in US history gone differntly, i.e What if the Mayflower hadn't made it to Plymouth Rock, What if Watergate had never happened, etc.
 
Demon-Haunted World, for the first time (yes, I am a piker!)
Just finished DaVinci Code...interesting and feh at the same time. Quick read, though. Also working on some Charles de Lint.
 
I just read The Golden Spur, by Dawn Powell.

She was a popular author in the 30's and 40's, who was then mostly forgotten. This book was her last, written shortly before her death in 1962. Powell was pretty much "rediscovered" in the last 10 years.

I really recommend the book. She was pretty unhappy about her faded standing when she wrote this book. It is cynical, bitter and biting. It is also optimistic, sweet and incredibly funny. All those things at once!
 
Finishing _Whale Rider_ today (it's not a long read). Also in the midst of Bryson's _A Short History of Nearly Everything_ (what fun stuff) and Jon Krakauer's _Under the Banner of Heaven_.

On a side note to Brown: I am hoping you could maybe tell us what were the items you questioned in _Bad Astronomy_? I read that about a year or so ago and enjoyed it, but I am no astronomer.
 
frisian said:
Probably "Brave New World" again, as I haven't read it in some time and is one of my favorites.
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Who do you think was the best prophet Huxley or Orwell?
 
Reading:
Battle Royale
The Food of Italy (again)

Recently finished:
Cod (again)
Souls in the Great Machine

Pretending to read:
Flesh in the Age of Reason
 
Reading Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces". A 1948 book being republished.

The basic concept is that the rituals and belief structures of the world serve to support various stages of 'passages' of our lives. Birth, puberty, marriage, death are all supported by various myths throughout history and culture.

I'll be impossible to live with for a while after reading this... ;)
 
Currently re-reading "Days of Grace" by Arthur Ashe, written when he was dying of AIDS after a blood transfusion. Man, was Ashe was a class act. Growing up in Richmond Va as a black man in a white man's world (tennis), he certainly could have been bitter and resentful. Instead, he showed what humanity is really capable of. (It's a difficult read for me because I look at myself in comparison, and frankly, there is none. I feel as though I'm so much less than he was.)
It's a thoughtful, inspiring book without being preachy. And the final chapter, an open letter to his daughter, always makes me cry. There, I said it.

Nigel
 
Just recently finished reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo. A work of fiction for fun and entertaining reading. Humor and drama in a small town.

Also finished The Noonday Demon - An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon. This fat non-fiction work is actually easy to read and great for the layperson. It covers topics ranging from breakdowns, treatments, and suicide to history, politics and poverty - all as they relate to clinical depression. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is attempting to understand clinical depression.

I also started to read Stupid White Men by Michael Moore but stopped because it was just "too out there". I will attempt to read it again. :D

I am now looking forward to reading Running with Scissors, a memoir by Augusten Burroughs.

I have also started reading Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World for the first time. I've barely begun, and already I love it! How can that be?? :D
 
Currently reading ‘The Pythons autobiography by the Pythons’.
This information will be subject to change in the future.
 
asthmatic camel said:
Currently re-reading "Vurt" by Jeff Noon. Weird but brilliant.
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I love that book! It's like a British b-movie take on Blade Runner as scripted by Louis Carrol. After reading it I tore through Pollen (weird and brilliant, but not quite so brilliant) and Nymphomation (weird and brilliant and weird). I really enjoyed Needle in the Groove (the one written in the style of song lyrics), and I was really looking forward to Falling Out of Cars, but found it very remote and difficult, although from reviews and interviews I've read, this was intended. But even Noon being obtuse still beats the pants off other stuff on the bookshelves currently.
 
I just finished Sharon Kay Penman's: "The Sunne in Splendour" A wonderfully intricate novel of the wars of the Roses. She effectively skewers the old Tudor libels of Richard III, and shows how the Duke of Buckingham was likely the culprit responsible for the deaths of Richard's nephews in the Tower.

Now reading: "Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam"

-z
 
BillyTK said:

I love that book! It's like a British b-movie take on Blade Runner as scripted by Louis Carrol. After reading it I tore through Pollen (weird and brilliant, but not quite so brilliant) and Nymphomation (weird and brilliant and weird). I really enjoyed Needle in the Groove (the one written in the style of song lyrics), and I was really looking forward to Falling Out of Cars, but found it very remote and difficult, although from reviews and interviews I've read, this was intended. But even Noon being obtuse still beats the pants off other stuff on the bookshelves currently.
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Signed paperback copy of "Pollen" is available for a small or large donation to JREF.

PM if interested.
 
asthmatic camel said:


Signed paperback copy of "Pollen" is available for a small or large donation to JREF.

PM if interested.
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You've got one too? And there was I thinking mine was a rare and lucky find ;) :D
 
BillyTK said:


You've got one too? And there was I thinking mine was a rare and lucky find ;) :D
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Hah ! This copy is special. It is dedicated to camels. Not to any specific camel but to camels anywhere and everywhere. Could somebody rub my twin peaks ? I'm upset again.
 
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