What book is everyone reading at the moment?

[Jon.]

Right now, I am reading "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris... a must read imo.

Jen

You must still be in the first 3 or 4 chapters! I thought they were brilliant, but he kind of goes woo after that with all his meditation/consciousness junk.

 

[Marker]

Anyone ever read anything by Haruki Murakami? I just finished "Kafka on the Shore" and was very impressed.

I read the "Windup Bird Chronicle" recently and found it strangley compulsive - I'm not sure why yet.

My current list:

Darwinia: Robert Charles Wilson
The Island of Lost Maps (A true story of Cartographic crime) : Miles Harvey
Collected Short Stories of Richard Yates
The Man with a Nose : H. G. Wells
Danny, The Champion of the World: Roald Dahl (outloud to my two children at bedtime):

 

[bob_kark]

Guns, Germs, and Steel.

I've heard so many good things about it, apparently for good reason.

 

[Orangutango]

You must still be in the first 3 or 4 chapters! I thought they were brilliant, but he kind of goes woo after that with all his meditation/consciousness junk.

...which is exactly what happened.

I'm trying to muddle through the rest of the book in the hope that there is still some good points to be learned...

 

[T'ai Chi]

Oh, I forgot, one....Science Friiction by Shermer

I liked parts of it, but I've been bored with the Gould and Sagan literary comparison in what seems like every book of his.

 

[Temporal Renegade]

The Truth (with jokes), by Al Franken

So far, the best of the books he's written; had to wait over a month to get it from the library, but worth it!

Next is On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson. Seems to be a VERY interesting character study of Jacko.

 

[Smart_Cookie]

Just finished:
Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss
The End of Faith by Sam Harris
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen. (interesting short novel about a young Jewish girl who goes back in time and gets sent to an internment camp in WWII)

Working on:
Why People Believe Weird Stuff by Michael Shermer
Flim Flam by our own James Randi
The Bible (Feel a need to find out what it really says. 3 books in...what a crock!)

 

[TruthSeeker]

Just started Headhunter by Timothy Findley

And then must read Good Earth by Pearl S Buck for my book club.

 

[Jmasley1]

Parellel Worlds by Michio Kaku. Awesome book.

 

[cgordon]

Still wading through Dawkins' "Ancestor's Tale", also reading Garrison Keillor's "Love Me" ...

 

[TimmyBerry]

"Trench warfare 1914-1918" by Ashworth. Reccommended by someone on these forums, actually!

 

[TriangleMan]

Still wading through Dawkins' "Ancestor's Tale",

I just finished it, I took it with me to read on some long flights. Although it is a big book most of the chapters are short and it was easy to read which made it great for travel.

 

[CriticalThanking]

Current reading list, not including half a dozen periodicals. Did I mention I read too much?

Road to Reality - Roger Penrose. Good, heavy science reading, but also good for curing insomnia.

Good Omens - Gaimen/Pratchet.

Lies My Teacher Told Me - Lowen. Excellent for mythbusting the way US History is taught. Makes my blood boil at the lost opportunities.

Data Mining with SQL Server 2005 - Tang/MacLennan. I know these guys. Good book for exactly what the title says.

The Beaver Papers: The Story of the Lost Season - Jacobs/Jones. What if famous authors and playwrites penned scripts for Leave it to Beaver? Kerouac, Steinbeck, Beckett, etc. Funny stuff, light reading.

CriticalThanking

 

[Jon.]

I'm just starting Fast Food Nation. Will post a quick review here when I finish it.

Okay, I finished it a few days ago.

I really liked it. I thought it was well-written and well-supported. I wasn't really surprised by much of the stuff that is in it; I always had a pretty negative view of the fast food industry. I was a bit surprised to read about the really sh*tty conditions that meat-packing workers are subjected to, and it made me wonder what conditions are like here in Canada. Some future research I guess...

I was a bit disappointed that the focus was so heavily on the production side: meat-packing, potato-growing, etc., and there wasn't as much emphasis on the cultural side (there was some, but I would have liked to see more) or on the health effects (there was a bit, but it could have used lots more).

Anyway, continuing my pattern of alternating fiction with non-fiction, I have started Yann Martel's Life Of Pi. Only about 50 pages in, but it's interesting enough to make me look forward to the rest.

 

[ZirconBlue]

Guns, Germs, and Steel.

I've heard so many good things about it, apparently for good reason.

I found the first half of it quite intriguing, but kind of lost interest and didn't finish it. I think that's more a reflection of my interest in the later topics than a fault of the book, though.


I'm currently reading The Davinci Code. I'm not sure why.

 

[bob_kark]

I found the first half of it quite intriguing, but kind of lost interest and didn't finish it. I think that's more a reflection of my interest in the later topics than a fault of the book, though.


I'm currently reading The Davinci Code. I'm not sure why.

Its going to be OK Zircon, just put the book down slowly and step away. It takes at least 100 pages before it causes irreparable damage. Now, get in your car, drive to the bookstore, and pick up Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Doesn't that feel much better?

Oh, and about GG&S, it does get a bit repetitive towards the middle, but its picking back up towards the end.

 

[Spidey13]

I'm currently reading The Davinci Code. I'm not sure why.

The same reason I did. Because you're asking yourself, "So, what's the big deal about this book?" When you are finished, you will then ask yourself, "So, what's the big deal about this book?"

 

[voidx]

Parellel Worlds by Michio Kaku. Awesome book.

I've got that at home, sitting on a shelf as part of my "To Read" list.

I'm currently working through Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter. I just finished Godel's Proof by Nagel (foreword by Hofstadter) to supplement it with.

Very interesting stuff, even if my math deficient brain sometimes hangs while reading it .

Speaking of Guns, Germs and Steel (which I enjoyed a lot) I also am about half way through Diamond's newest book, Collapse. Good so far.

 

[Mr Clingford]

I've just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; it was rather good, first HP I have read, interesting and reasonably written.

Now on "Single and Single" by John le Carre; it's the first book of his I have read and it requires some concentration but is good so far.

I have no desire to read Dan Brown.

 

[ZirconBlue]

I've just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; it was rather good, first HP I have read, interesting and reasonably written.

Now on "Single and Single" by John le Carre; it's the first book of his I have read and it requires some concentration but is good so far.

I have no desire to read Dan Brown.

I think it's more so that when people ask me if I've read it, I can say, "Yes. Yes, I have." So far, it's not too bad. Mediocre to poor writing style, but fast-paced enough to maintain interest. What I keep wondering is how many of the interesting trivia items in it are real vs made up?