What book is everyone reading at the moment?

[canadarocks]

I'm trying to read "Moral Minds" now for a book club, but I am not finding the writing style to my liking and thus am not enjoying the read so far...

 

[humhead440]

The Courtier & the Heretic By Matthew Stewart. Next up Ghosts of Vesuvius By Charles Pellegrino.

 

[BPSCG]

Comanches: The Destruction of a People, by T.R. Fehrenbach. A history of the Comanches from pre-Columbian times. Impressive, since the Comanches were very much a nomadic tribe with very little in the way of any kind of government; their social behavior was a matter of customs, not rules, and since customs are much harder to break than rules, they were very much a static culture for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years, until the introduction of the horse in the 17th century. The horse enabled them to transform from a struggling, weak tribe always on the edge of starvation, living in the mountains and waiting for the bison to pass by so they could eat well for a few months, to a major force in the Great Plains, that could follow the bison herds year round. But the horse was strictly a technological change for them; it brought no significant social change; their social structure remained very much as it had been for hundreds of years before, and with no written language, there was little knowledge of what had happened a few generations before. Apparently the same held true when they discovered the flintlock; Fehrenbach says that while the flintlock enabled them to be more efficient hunters, it wrought no significant change in their society.

He lays to rest some "noble savage" myths. Far from being peaceful peoples who only discovered warfare when the white man showed up, the Amerinds (as Fehrenbach calls them) had always carried on warfare, though, for cultural reasons, their warfare was far less bloody than European war. Scalping was not something the Amerinds were taught by French settlers; it was a common practice (called "counting coups") long before the white arrival; trying to kill an enemy when you had to get very close to him was a very risky undertaking, so a scalp was regarded as a mark of courage - it proved that you had fought hand to hand with your enemy and won.

And, contrary to the common knowledge, the Comanches did kill more bison than they needed. In a culture where (before the horse) food was scarce, it was better to kill more than you needed than not enough, because you did not know if the herd would still be there tomorrow. Of course, with, at most, five or ten thousand Comanches roaming the plains, and sixty million bison, there was never any chance they would kill them all.

And that was part of the reason Comanche society was so static. The bison provided almost everything they needed - food, clothing, and shelter - and the Comanches couldn't conceive of them ever vanishing, so the y saw little reason to try to change the way they lived.

I'm only about a third through, but it's fascinating reading about a world most of us really know very little about. When I'm done, it's nine hundred pages of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, as recommended by Luke T.

 

[Corpse Cruncher]

I was reading Hybrid by Shaun Hutson- I would recommended you don't bother. I was put off by the to and fro-ing between the writer writing the book and what he was experiencing. The language got to me as well. swearing has its place but there is a fine line between using it for the sake of it.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/shaun-hutson/hybrid.htm

 

[Corpse Cruncher]

Now started on "Chorus of Phantoms" by Clare Layton. Phycolgical suspense.

I've already read 28 pages and off to continue with it.
http://www.twbooks.co.uk/authors/clarelayton.html

Cass Evesham, female trader, has a shocking weekend. Her lover ends their affaire particularly brutally and the press besiege her with the news that the grandmother she thought dead is a famous murderess, just paroled.
Livia Claughton, now in a safe house under an assumed name, won't accept help from those who can't imagine the horror of 25 years in prison - long punishment for a very different crime from the one for which she was convicted.
Julia, actress daughter of a famous singer killed in her prime, is determined to restart her flagging career - and feed her hatred - by starring in a well publicised season of revenge plays.
All three women must come to terms with their pasts, their families and their future - and Cass above all must discover if violence is her genetic inheritance

 

[sackett]

The Pirate Wars, by Peter Earle. A good read, although his style editor drowsed now and then. Now I want to read up on modern piracy. Maybe somebody can help me with references?

 

[Blutarsky]

The Nasty Bits, by Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain is a chef/traveler/writer. This book is an interesting discussion on his perspectives of the intersection of food and culture.

 

[lionking]

lol, that made me laugh out loud.

But have started on my third semester now, so back to business. Now it's "Chemistry - Principles and reactions", "Introduction to organic chemistry", "Essentials of ecology", "Økologi og biodiversitet" and of course a 120 page compendium. Wish I had the opportunity to read "normal" books again.

First post on this forum, but your comments brought back memories. I studied part-time, while holding down a full-time job, for many years and was tied to textbooks even during semester breaks. The most enduring memory of completing my studies (gee, 20 years ago!) was not the sense of achievement or the relief, but the fact that I could now read a "normal" book. You don't realise the satisfaction of reading for pleasure until you have been deprived of it.

BTW I am reading The Tyrannicide Brief by Geoffrey Robertson. If anyone is interested in the English Civil war, it's a great read.

 

[lionking]

The Nasty Bits, by Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain is a chef/traveler/writer. This book is an interesting discussion on his perspectives of the intersection of food and culture.

Bourdain is regularly on the pay TV Travel Channel in Oz. I will check out the book.

 

[Francesca R]

"The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups" by Mancur Olson

 

[Panhead56]

The answer is yes, as asked in another recent thread here. Are you reading more than one book at a time?
Currently I am reading "State of Denial" about how Rumsfeld messed up the planning and invasion of Iraq. I just finished "The God Delusion", and "Agincourt" by Juliet Barker on how the french lost that battle. An eminent book for all interested in (military) history. I also try to finish "Myrrens Gift" , a standard fantasy novel.

 

[jimbob]

Derren Brown: "Tricks of the Mind"

Recommended, especi;ally for British, as I suspect it *might* be a little aglocentric

Edit:

"especially", "Anglocentric" for British posters.

SNAFU on my typing (left in place for my own humiliation...)
He is a magician, with a mentalist bent. So far has dicsussed magic, belief (and quoted Dawkins approvingly) memory, sugestability (and NLP, which he is amused by, after attending a seminar, and getting the certificate without any testing) bad reasoning,

Good all round book

JIm

 

[sackett]

A nice old student-quality collection of Thomas Mallory, published ca. 1965. It cost $.75 then, and $.75 when I picked it up at the VERY used book store. Thing about Tom Mallory, he moves a story along like galloping horses. And that wierd guy Merlin? Keep him out of my neighborhood!

Sit down and listen, Mr. Tolkien. Take notes.

 

[Bododio]

I'm currently reading 4 books:

1066 by Andrew Bridgeford. He purports to having discovered a hidden history in the Bayeux Tapestry, a quite different and controversial, and possibly blasphemous, account of the final years of Anglo-Saxon Blighty than that told by the conquering Normans and their historical pundits. It's a fun read and a very interesting history lesson.

1491 by Charles C. Mann. Another revisionist history seeking to dispel the myths that pre-Columbian indigenous Americans were a bunch of dirty and uncivilized savages. We all know to some extent about the Aztecs, Mayans, Incans and other developed civilizations, but what about all the rest?It's fascinating stuff and Mann pens a convincing tale. Like Bridgeford, he's done his homework very well.

The Truth Will Out by Brenda James and William D. Rubenstein. The authors contend that the works we attribute to Shakespeare weren't written by him at all, instead written by Sir Henry Neville. I recall an earlier "debunking" of the Shakespeare myth in which the Earl of Oxford was supposed to have written the works and Shakespeare was an invented character. But in the James/Rubenstein work, Shakespeare was a real person, merely a second-rate actor while Neville was the bard. I haven't gotten to the part yet why Neville felt it necessary to hide the fact that he was the true author.

Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez-Reverte. The second of his Captain Alatriste series. He's written a few more in the series, but they have yet to be translated into English from the original Spanish. Perez-Reverte is one of my favorite authors. His book The Queen of the South is a marvelous read, as are all his books, IMO.

 

[Aurelian]

I just finished Moby Dick, and am here to troll for other books because I can now peek over the "To Be Read" pile. And now I have added "SEE a whale..." on my lifetime to-do list!

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk. I'm a third of the way in, and it's about the best-paced novel I've ever read. In second person, which is a bit jarring, but he does it well.

Just finished Survivor by the same author. Recommended.

 

[RationalReverend]

Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis

 

[Spidey13]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

 

[cgallaga]

Blink _ Gladwell
End of Faith - Harris
Audio book: Even Cowgirls Get The Blues - Robbins

 

[kmortis]

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk. I'm a third of the way in, and it's about the best-paced novel I've ever read. In second person, which is a bit jarring, but he does it well.

Just finished Survivor by the same author. Recommended.

I've read both Fight Club and Choke from him. I'll have to check those out.

I'm currently reading Ringworld, A Blank Slate and AFSC DH 1-4. I've recently finshed Breaking the Spell, Lucifer's Hammer, Mote in God's Eye and Testing for EMC Compliance.