What book is everyone reading at the moment?

[crimresearch]

This was a great weekend for yard sales...

I picked up a hardbound copy of John Kenneth Galbraith's 'Anatomy of Power' for 50cents.

 

[hgc]

Oracle Night by Paul Auster

Now I've finished it, I can tell you all: READ THIS BOOK. It is definitely the most enjoyable book I've read in the last year. It's a real quick read too.

 

[Cleopatra]

Feh. Women have never really understood Roth, especially Claire Bloom. Cleo, I would bet you didn't really appreciate "the monkey" in Portnoy. Right?

Are you a mind reader? The truth is that I never really got that book and it was one of those few moments I realized what cultural differences mean. Portnoy was the first book of P.Roth I have read. You must admit that I am a very devoted reader for reading Roth again after this experience.

 

[hgc]

Are you a mind reader? The truth is that I never really got that book and it was one of those few moments I realized what cultural differences mean. Portnoy was the first book of P.Roth I have read. You must admit that I am a very devoted reader for reading Roth again after this experience.

I've always prescribed Portnoy (half jokingly) for any woman who wanted to understand Jewish men, but then that would apply to the North American variety perhaps. The Israeli men you grew up around are a whole other animal.

I mainly recommend the book because it's very funny. But then there's a lot of cultural insider jokes.

 

[Dermanus]

Just finished 'Billions & Billions' by Carl Sagan. Still have to decide what to start tomorrow: Heinlein or Randi.

Man, I love the library.

 

[LW]

Richard Fletcher, The Cross and the Crescent -- The dramatic story of the earliest encounters between Christians and Muslims. It has been a long time since I read a book with as misleading title as this. When the word "earliest" is used in context of Christianity and Islam, I take it to mean the 7th and 8th centuries, perhaps up to the 9th or so. The book extends this to the siege of Vienna in 1529.

The book has only 169 text pages which combined with the long time period covered means that most subjects in it are given only a very cursory treatment. The book is a rather well-written general introduction for the relations between Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages, but it isn't what the title claims it is. And since I'm right now interested in early Islam, it left me disappointed.

 

[hgc]

San Remo Drive by Leslie Epstein

 

[sackett]

The Unconsoled, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Well -- I started the first page, so I guess that counts as "reading at the moment." Then this cursed work! got in the way, and I had to put the book aside. Talk about skewed priorities -- the world should make a place for indolent goofoffs!

But I'll take Ishiguro up again tonight. I trust him to produce literature.

 

[Chaos]

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

I saw the movie in high school history classes, so when I noticed the book in a "20th century classics" edition at 5 bucks for a hardcover, I got curious and bought it.
I have only read the introduction so far, though.

 

[Temporal Renegade]

Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan
by Irwin Porges

A monster two-volume set; they're paperbacks, and they're oversized, so I'll be into these for probably a while!

Just got done with A Guide To Barsoom: The Mars Of Edgar Rice Burroughs by John Flint Roy. I've had this paperback since 1976; it's a glossary of words & terms (people, places and things) used in his Mars books, along with quotes and conversion tables for the measurements used.

Can you see a pattern here?

 

[hgc]

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

I saw the movie in high school history classes, so when I noticed the book in a "20th century classics" edition at 5 bucks for a hardcover, I got curious and bought it.
I have only read the introduction so far, though.

I hope you love it as much as I did. The intellectual scope is large and challenging, and it's a damn fine murder mystery to boot. A real fun read.

 

[LW]

I hope you love it as much as I did. The intellectual scope is large and challenging, and it's a damn fine murder mystery to boot. A real fun read.

Yup, Name of the Rose is a very good book. Its only weakness is that Eco can't write endings for his books and I guessed in the first chapter how it will end.

Particularly nice thing about the book is how Eco inserted material from real Medieval sources into it. For example, the interrogation scene went right by the book. (The book being in this case a 14th century manual for handling those situations, I don't want to reveal more spoilers).

 

[wahrheit]

"Thank you," it said, "for making a simple door very happy."

You guessed it:

 

[Cleopatra]

I've always prescribed Portnoy (half jokingly) for any woman who wanted to understand Jewish men, but then that would apply to the North American variety perhaps. The Israeli men you grew up around are a whole other animal.

I mainly recommend the book because it's very funny. But then there's a lot of cultural insider jokes.

Well. I quoted you and I sent this post to a friend of mine who has the opposite history of mine. He is a Jew, born in Greece and now living in Israel, I have met him in Cambridge where we both were studying.

You wouldn't want to know what he said about Portnoy So you are right. Israeli men I grew up with are really different ( Israelis smell sweat) although in East Jerusalem I was born I was in contact with Arabs mostly. It's amazing how luck determines an individual's life and perception of life. .

 

[spectacle]

just bough 1984 and animal farm

going to read animal farm tomorrow, then ive got like 20 books i havent started and about 10 im into a little

 

[Walter Wayne]

Reading Shake Hand With The Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda

by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire with Major Brent Beardsley

It is an account of Lt. Gen. Dallaire's experience as the UN Force Commander for United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). Not the type of book to read if you aren't in the mood to handle depressing stuff. According to Dallaire the mission was basically ignored by the UN and the worlds powers until deep into the genocide. Once the world did take notice bureaucracy and politics prevented a quick response and UNAMIR was basically under-manned and under-equiped to accomplish its mandate. For most of the genocide he felt they were only there to act as witnesses, as they was little they were able to do.

A great book, though I wouldn't call it a light read.

Walt

 

[Skeptic]

Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness

The problem with Oz is that he is uneven. Some of his books are simply poor.

But his best books--"A Tale of Love and Darkness", "Black Box" (in my view; many people hate it); "My Michael"; "A Proper Rest" ("Menu'cha Nechona"--there is no exact tanslation for the title), etc.--are wonderful. He deserves the nobel prize.

He's not AS great a writer as Agnon was, but he has one great advantage of being "translatable" into English for those intersted in reading him. You simply cannot translate, for instance, S. Y. Agnon's "Tmol Shilshom" (literally, "the day before yesterday") without losing 90% of the work in the process.

Tell me, Cleo: I am reading the Greek classics in English translation. I am thinking of learning Greek solely for the purpose of being able to read them in the original. If they are as better in the original as, say, the bible is, it would be worth it.

 

[Mycroft]

Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness

The problem with Oz is that he is uneven. Some of his books are simply poor.

But his best books--"A Tale of Love and Darkness", "Black Box" (in my view; many people hate it); "My Michael"; "A Proper Rest" ("Menu'cha Nechona"--there is no exact tanslation for the title), etc.--are wonderful. He deserves the nobel prize.

I'm halfway through "In the Land of Israel" and it's my first Oz book. Of those four you list, which would you recomend I read next?

 

[Jono]

Byron Katie "Loving What Is".

 

[tim]

just bough 1984 and animal farm

going to read animal farm tomorrow, then ive got like 20 books i havent started and about 10 im into a little

Orwell can be a bit depressing. However, "Down and Out in Paris and London" makes a strong impression. If you think you have ever been poor, read it - and learn what poor is.
I'm reading "The Myth of Repressed Memory" by Loftus and Ketchum.