What book is everyone reading at the moment?

[Unfit4Command]

I mainly read various online articles and documents. But lately I've been reading "Among the Heroes: United 93 & the Passengers & Crew who Fought back." Very good so far.

 

[ruach1]

"The Bourne Legacy"

I have seen the first two movies and have read none of the books previous to the 2004 "TBL." But I must say, the last installment by Lustbader IS INTENSE! I'm only half way through, and I feel as if I've just gotten off the new JASON BOURNE roller coaster ride at Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH)

Its also well written without being overly descriptive. a definite recommendation for summer movie reading.

 

[Checkmite]

"The Art of Learning", by Josh Waitzkin.

 

[The Whether Man]

Just started 'Samuel Pepys - The Man in the Making', by Arthur Bryant.

 

[Corpse Cruncher]

The Malice box. Very odd it is too. http://www.maliceboxquest.com/

 

[Oroborus]

"The Bourne Legacy"

I have seen the first two movies and have read none of the books previous to the 2004 "TBL." But I must say, the last installment by Lustbader IS INTENSE! I'm only half way through, and I feel as if I've just gotten off the new JASON BOURNE roller coaster ride at Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH)

Its also well written without being overly descriptive. a definite recommendation for summer movie reading.

I'd stay away from reading ultimatum unless it's free and you're bored. Kind of comes off as a last desperate shot to make some money. But I liked the other ones.

 

[Z]

Well, HPatDH just came out. If I can find all the other six books, I intend to sit down and re-read them, then read this one. Of course, I already know what's gonna happen, being psychic and all...

One of the kids ends up a teacher at Hogwarts.[/quote]

At least, that's the strongest impression I get...

 

[catbasket]

I should be reading Robert Rankin's new novel The Da Da De Da Da Code which was due to be published yesterday but isn't in bookshops yet.

I blame that meddlesome Potter kid.

 

[Policenaut]

Reading three books right now:

Snow Crash
Militant Islam (G. H. Jansen)
You Can't Fight Tanks with Bayonets

 

[SRW]

Undaunted Courage, Meriwether Lewis, Tomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. By Stephen E. Ambrose.

Very good so far lots of really cool stuff about these historical people and their times. I did not think I would enjoy it as much as I have.

And also Re-reading God is not Great. Just cause I love saying that.

 

[Hutch]

Reading "The Pentagon: A History" by Steve Vogel. Very interesting stuff on how and why the Pentagon was built and how it has changed over the years. Haven't got to the 9-11 period yet, but from what I've read to date, this is a very good "general history", in that it is well researched but reads very smoothly.

 

[CplFerro]

"The Pawnbroker" by Edward Lewis Wallant

A character study of an emotionally deadened Holocaust survivor who runs a pawnshop in Harlem, catering to people he detests.

 

[fuelair]

Last Potter. No major surprises - and my major assumptive about the series (founded in 2000 when I read 2nd book) turned out correct - though an important for me was not addressed.

 

[Seventhsally]

I love this question..

The Flight from Science and Reason (Paul Gross, Norman Levitt, Martin Lewis)
God- The Failed Hypothesis (Victor Stenger)
The Founding Fathers and the place of Religion in America (Frank Lambert)

And just so I don't go insane- I've rediscovered that absolutely masterful artist of the english language P.G. Wodehouse- in the form of audio books- I think they're even more fun to listen to then they were to read

 

[Spidey13]

The new Harry Potter, along with millions of other people.

 

[Chris Haynes]

The new Harry Potter, along with millions of other people.

Sigh... we only ordered that last week from Amazon, and it has not arrived. I am entertaining myself with a biography of Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron (zzzzzz), and a book about women physicists.

 

[voidx]

I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. Very interesting book. A little easier to get through than GEB (Godel, Escher, Bach). Its essentially a concise summary of what he was trying to get at in GEB as he's found over the years, people still miscontrue what exactly his main focus in GEB actually was.

Very unique look at consciousness.

 

[Tressa]

Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

I'm trying read more this year and I've got a list of books I'd like to get through. I don't think I'll get through all the books by the end of the year; mostly because I keep finding more books to add to the list!

In no particular order (*indicate already read):

*Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud by Robert Park

*Libertarianism by David Boaz

Norman Borlaug On World Hunger

The Man Who Fed The World by Leon Hesser

The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg

Eight Great Myths About Recycling by Daniel Benjamin

The Heart of Addiction by Lance Dodes

Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas by Dan Flynn

Age of Reason by Thomas Paine

Principle of Nature Elihu Palmer

On BS by Harry G Frankfurt

On Truth by Harry G Frankfurt

*The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

*Another BS Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn

*Sock by Penn Jillette

*When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours by Teller

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Urban Legends by NE Genge

Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Biggest Bombs by Steven Suskin

*Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine

*Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

*Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

The Frankenfood Myth by Henry I Miller, Gregory Conko

The Caged Virgin by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I Am Legend by Robert Matheson

*The Ghost and Mrs Muir by RA Dick

*Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer (first edition)

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

Twilight of the Idols by Friedrich Nietzsche

And by Wassily Kandinsky

Seducer's Diary by Soren Kierkegaard

What is Philosophy? by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari

*Plato And A Platypus Walk Into A Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

*Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic

*The Supremes' Greatest Hits: The 34 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life by Michael G Trachtman

*The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

The Demon Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

The Science Of Good And Evil by Michael Shermer

Value And Virtue In A Godless Universe by Erik Wietenberg

Letter To A Christian Nation by Sam Harris

Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating The World's Most Elusive Creatures by Benjamin Radford and Joe Nickell

Against All Gods: Six Polemics On Religion And An Essay On Kindness by AC Grayling

God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

Believing In Magic: The Psychology Of Superstition by Stuart A Vyse

Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks For Dear Friends

Penn & Teller's How To Play With Your Food

Nothing's Sacred by Lewis Black

Flim Flam by James Randi

 

[sackett]

Ernest Hemingway: The Short Stories. I got it for $5US on the sale table at Borders. (They call it the sale table; that’s much nicer than “ remainders pile.”)

It’s strange, re-reading these stories after so many decades. I belong to that generation Leslie Fiedler described as “born older than [Hemingway] will ever get.” But the fact is, Leslie be damned, I admired much of Heminghaw (my youthful name for him) while disparaging at least as much more.

Now? Well, his stuff is even more topsy-toopsey than years ago. “The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber,” the lead story, is creepily backassward. Hem means it to be a dead-serious coming-of-age story, but the aging trophy wife, no prize herself, utters the only sensible line: “You’re talking rot. You chased some helpless animals in a car and now you’re talking like bloody heroes.”

Other stories can be creepily homoerotic. The pretty assistant waiter, Paco, in “The Capital of the World,” has “skin that his sisters envied.” “The End of Something” reads like a gay man renouncing his attempt at a hetero relationship, complete with his boy friend arriving on-scene to console him. One of the skiing stories (I forget the title at the moment) is actually buddy-maudlin: Gee, Nick, don’t’cha wish we could just go off together?

Hemingway would swing on me for saying the above – but I’d still say it, or anyway print it if I thought he could read it. Coupled with his consistent misogyny (Mrs. McComber actually shoots her born-again-to-slaughter-animals hubby!), and with his remarkably bitchy way of ridiculing other writers, it constructs a seriously feminine persona.

My girl friend, a classicist rather than a student of Anglophone literature, saw the picture of a youngish Hem on the cover, and remarked, “He really looks swishy.” B’damned if she ain’t right: Looking now, with the insights of forty years, I see – well, not a flaming but certainly a smoldering beauty with both hands locked around the inside closet door.

Well, so what? I always recall what George Orwell said of For Whom the Bell Tolls: “You simply cannot put it down. What a wizard writer!”

 

[Spidey13]

The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden. It's like a Boy Scout Handbook on steroids!