What book is everyone reading at the moment?

[Skeptic]

Just finished in the last two months:

1). DEAD SOULS, by Nikolai Gogol. Very different than both Tosltoy and Dostoyevsky, being much earlier, but great in its own peculiar way.

2). GREAT EXPECTATIONS, by Charles Dickens. Great fun to read, with his usual magnificent characters. The conclusion has a bit of a deus ex machina feel to it, but it is done so well you don't mind.

3). The SHORT STORIES OF SAKI, by Saki (H. H. Munro). People were looking at me oddly, since I was walking in the street, reading this book, and laughing out loud. On a more serious note, his short essays about World War I (he was killed at the front in 1916), are as good as anything Orwell or Hashek ("The Good Soldier Schweik") ever wrote.

READING NOW:

1). ART: A NEW HISTORY by Paul Johnson. The good: Johnson concentrates on the art itself, not its theory. Clear writing, no technical jargon where it isn't needed. The bad: uses too many superlatives and often goes on about works that are not illustrated in the book, which defeats his purpose.

2). THE PLAGUE, by Albert Camus. Should be required reading these days, for reasons that those who read it understand.

 

[TragicMonkey]

3). The SHORT STORIES OF SAKI, by Saki (H. H. Munro). People were looking at me oddly, since I was walking in the street, reading this book, and laughing out loud. On a more serious note, his short essays about World War I (he was killed at the front in 1916), are as good as anything Orwell or Hashek ("The Good Soldier Schweik") ever wrote.

I love Saki. He's what you'd get if PG Wodehouse and Oscar Wilde had a baby.

 

[Piscivore]

3). The SHORT STORIES OF SAKI, by Saki (H. H. Munro). People were looking at me oddly, since I was walking in the street, reading this book, and laughing out loud. On a more serious note, his short essays about World War I (he was killed at the front in 1916), are as good as anything Orwell or Hashek ("The Good Soldier Schweik") ever wrote.

I recently shared "The Open Window" with my daughter. We both would like to have the niece over for tea. She's our kind of people.

2). THE PLAGUE, by Albert Camus. Should be required reading these days, for reasons that those who read it understand.

I read that so long ago I barely remember it. I'll have to read it again.

I just started on Justine, another book I read a really long time ago and mostly forgot.

 

[uruk]

H.S. Thompson's Fear and loathing in America II.

 

[Mr Clingford]

I love Saki. He's what you'd get if PG Wodehouse and Oscar Wilde had a baby.

Sounds like a fantastic combination; I will go and see if the local library has him (here's hoping)

 

[Mr Clingford]

Funny. I thought it was just long enough. More of the same would have started to become torturous.

RE The Dog in the Night-time. I enjoyed the world of the boy. Why would it have been torturous?

 

[Jim Bowen]

I'm now reading the Military Revolution - military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500 - 1800 by G Parker. Very readable.

Jim Bowen

 

[Giz]

I'm now reading the Military Revolution - military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500 - 1800 by G Parker. Very readable.

Jim Bowen

Then you might also like:

Why the West Has Won: Carnage and Culture from Salamis to Vietnam
~Victor Davis Hanson

A rather good read...

 

[hgc]

RE The Dog in the Night-time. I enjoyed the world of the boy. Why would it have been torturous?

I enjoyed it too, as a learning experience and as entertainment. But I guess being inside the head of an autistic person, as portrayed by the author, is just not a pleasant long-term prospect for me. It was a novelty that was about to wear thin as the book wrapped up. I couldn't imagine any more value to be mined from the experience. I think the length was appropriate.

 

[Skeptic]

Sounds like a fantastic combination; I will go and see if the local library has him (here's hoping)

Just to give you a tiny sample of his writing style...

"The cook was a rather good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go she went."

"The motor-car you call 'The Envy of Sysiphus', because it actually rolls uphill quite nicely when pushed."

"Youth should suggest innocence."
"But it never acts on that suggestion."

"But the man is a common murderer!"
"A common murderer, possibly; but a very uncommon cook."

"Clear soup is more important than a clear consciousness."

"Waldo is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death".

"Never be a pioneer. It's the early Christian that gets the fattest lion."

"A little inaccuracy often saves a ton of explanation."

 

[TragicMonkey]

Just to give you a tiny sample of his writing style...

My favorite is his description "her temper began to shine through her grief."

 

[Mr Clingford]

Stupid library had no Saki but I have ordered a collection of short stories from Amazon so later this month I should have some fun reading.
Looking forward to some entertainment over the holiday

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim by Anton Gill

About half way through, but pretty good so far.

 

[bPer]

I've got a couple of books on the go at the moment:

Astronomy through the Ages: The story of the human attempt to understand the Universe by Robert Wilson.

This is a British book written by a university lecturer, but aimed at a non-academic audience. I'm about 40% of the way through it, and enjoying it immensely.

The John Varley Reader: Thirty Years of Science Fiction by John Varley.

This is a collection of some of my favorite Varley short stories. Each one has an introduction by the author, and so far, it seems that he is presenting the stories in chronological order, and using the intros to tell his life story. I've only just started this book, having finished two stories. For those who like Varley, this is a good read and a trip down memory lane. For those who have never read Varley, this is a good sampler.

bPer

 

[Jim Bowen]

Then you might also like:

Why the West Has Won: Carnage and Culture from Salamis to Vietnam
~Victor Davis Hanson

A rather good read...

Cheers for the tip - I'll keep an eye out for that one.

Jim Bowen

 

[c4ts]

Been reading Typee lately. An excellent critique of the social contract. Inspired me to write about people who were outside it.

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

America (The Book), by the good people at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which is quickly replacing 'poking Iacchus with a sharp stick' as my favourite free time activity,

and

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein, because I will read anything with even a tenuous link to hockey.

Also re-reading How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God by Michael Shermer because it's there.

 

[Lothian]

How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen which in America is titled 'Idiot Proof: Deluded Celebrities, Irrational Power Brokers, Media Morons, and the Erosion of Common Sense'

 

[Kimpatsu]

How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen which in America is titled 'Idiot Proof: Deluded Celebrities, Irrational Power Brokers, Media Morons, and the Erosion of Common Sense'

Francis Wheen, the Guardian journalist? I'll have to get a copy of that!

 

[Lothian]

Francis Wheen, the Guardian journalist? I'll have to get a copy of that!

That's him, and from what I have read so far, Yes, you should !