What book is everyone reading at the moment?

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El_Spectre said:
Just finished Cryptonomicon... now I'm looking for something with more plot... the dictionary comes to mind.

Seriously tho, The God Delusion is up next.
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If you want more plot than any Stephenson opus, I'm halfway through Pynchon's "Against the Day". Only 513 pages to go.
 
I just finished reading two books while reading a third one in bits and pieces. They are:

The Ethical Assassin by David Liss.
He takes a few standard genres:
  • Murder/Drugs corruption story
  • Average guy caught up in larger than life events beyond his control
  • Young man coming of age
and somehow whips it up into a better than average read. As the title suggests, he works in a few opinions that don't normally get included in your average mystery novel. I've no doubt that some people will hate this and find that it detracts from a fun story, but I found the juxtaposition amusing, and a conclusion about one of the reasons that society has prisons a little startling.

Normally I suggest going to Amazon to get a better idea of what a book is about, but I can't in this case. The reviews, especially the editor's review from the Washington Post's Book World gives too much away. Even the author's web site gives too much of the plot away.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Good sci-fi by an author with a heck of an imagination. The storyline includes cloning with upgrades for being a better soldier: smartblood, built in personal computer/cell phone (BrainPal) and green skin (the chlorophyll supplies supplemental energy). Its an old man's war because earth citizens have the option to sign up when they are 75 in exchange for a new body.

Usually sci-fi with novel ideas suffers as far as characterization and story line goes. That's true for this book also, but IMHO its still worth reading. Besides not everyone wants to read War and Peace, and even if you do sometimes you still just want a quick fun read. I intend to read the author's other books also.

The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
This is the one I’m reading in bits and pieces. I'm reading it while I'm waiting for my turn at The God Delusion, which I have on hold at the public library.

It’s the first time I read Dawkins. I am in awe of his wonderful ability to explain. I like the way he builds on what we already know, and uses it to raise his reader to the next level of understanding.

I am at the very beginning of his book and I just finished reading his comparison of our visual sense to the bat's elocution sense. He explained that when we see, we are using an inner model (mostly colors) which interprets a subset of the electromagnetic waves (the visible light bandwidth) and that this is not actually the same thing as the physical properties of the electromagnetic waves themselves. He theorizes that the bat's subjective experience of elocution (which works with a different subset of the electromagnetic waves) could be similar to our subjective experience of seeing. He explains it much better of course! I think the book is worth reading just for that alone, and I look forward to discovering what else he has to say.

My only critiscm (so far) is that Dawkins doesn't use footnotes in this book. Normally I don't read non-fiction books that don't include them, but I'm making an exception for him. :)
 
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Right now I'm reading two books. "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" by Jeff Lindsay is the first one.

"Secrets" by Daniel Ellsberg is the second one. If you're not familiar with him, he's the guy who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Fascinating life. Well worth reading.
 
Finished Power's "A Problem from Hell". Now it's back to fiction as I have just started Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. Read Wind-up Bird Chronicle by him last year and was really taken with it. Anybody read him? Highly imaginative...hallucinogenic in places...a take on how history plays itself out in our dreams, fantasies, neuroses and reality. But which are which? Kafka is adrift in the same territory, yet this time relating the story of a 15-year old runaway. He's got me already.
 
Museum of Hoaxes, by Alex Boese

A trifle dated. He doesn't mention anything at all about global cooling or global warming, or the Duke Rape Case. He needs to do a second edition.
 
"Road to Serfdom" by F A Hayek

I oscillate between thinking "This is a great piece to be writing in the middle of WW2, exhibiting great detachment from populism" and thinking "He seems more than a bit paranoid about WW2 eclipsing his ideas".
 
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Currently reading "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity" by John Stossel. My dad gave it to me for Christmas. He also gave me "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Treasury." I think I'll skip that one.
 
Just started Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry. Slow going, not because there's anything wrong with the book, but because I keep rereading paragraphs just for the flavor of the prose. Doyle has always been a good writer, but he's outdone himself here.
 
The Man who Smiled- Henning Mankell
Devil in the White City- Erik Larson

Waiting for me:
The bowl is already broken
Zuravleff, Mary Kay.

The winter queen : a novel
Akunin, B. (Boris)

MirrorMask
Gaiman, Neil.
 
Mrs L said:
...is it just me and the people I know, or does everyone have a certain thing in history that they are fixated on? Mine is the spanish influenza pandemic of 1918.
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It's not just you. I went through a Civil War fascination period (and was able to read Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels while touring the Gettysburg site--rocked my world). I also have an obsession with dark periods in history--plague years, etc. Is "The Great Influenza" a good read? I've had it on my Amazon wish list forever but I think I might have to go out and buy it myself.

Also a fan of maritime disaster stories--The Perfect Storm is a good one--and Mayflower is next on my reading list.

I'm in the middle of The History of SNL, which is a terrific guilty pleasure read.
 
Splossy said:
"No Limit Hold'em: Theory & Practice" by D.Sklansky et al.

Not exactly easy going as it happens.
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Splossy, how are you liking the Sklansky book? And are you familiar with his website, 2+2? He seems like kind of a jerk in person but it's nice that he has a good internet presence and wants to educate people about the game.
 
"The Bully of Bentonville: How The High Cost Of Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices Is Hurting America" by Anthony Bianco

A very eye-opening book about the retail giant, and a somewhat frightening one, at that (Did you know, for instance, that Wal Mart employees working full time make an average of $9.68 per hour, and that a 'full time' week is well below fouty hours?).
 
I am currently reading Richard Dawkins :The God Delusion which is well written easy to read. I don't know if his book would really convert me to Atheism but I respect and like his view points.
 
Right now, I'm reading "Freaknomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

Next up is "Annals of the Former World" by John McPhee, which was a gift from my friend, Gilmar.

Then, after a short break for the new Clive Cussler novel coming out in March, I plan to tackle the three-volume "The Civil War: A Narrative" by Shelby Foote.

Of course, at work, during slow periods, I'm reading Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist." I find Dickens is best read in small bursts anyway.
 
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