What book is everyone reading at the moment?

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I read "Who Moved My Blackberry" by Lucy Kellaway (quite brilliant) and "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury (dire--deserves burning). Currently "Capitalism and Freedom" by Milton Friedman
 
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Children of the Ice Age: How a Global Catastrophe Allowed Humans to Evolve, by Steven M. Stanley
 
Storm Warning said:
Just started Spandau Phoenix by Greg Iles. 60 pages in and it's so far, so good.
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Well I finally finished this book, and I have to say that it was a lot like sex for me. By the time I was halfway through, I was so confused about who was doing what to whom that I just wanted it to be over as quickly as possible. :boxedin:
 
The Hitler Book -- an English translation of a German translation of a secret Russian book prepared from interviews of high ranking German POWs who were close to Hitler for Stalin immediately after WW II to let him sleep at night and not imagining Hitler jumping out of the shadows and attacking him again.

A
 
Piscivore said:
What didn't you like about it?
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The thesis seemed lame and unimaginative and the book itself somewhat badly written. It seemed limiting too since all I was aware of was being in Montag's house or the street outside or the fire station. There was nothing much to learn about the dystopian world in it beyond "no books", soma-style institutionalised stupor, and lightning quick wars. Montag's dissidency arose out of nowhere in a "regular-as-clockwork" fashion (how come nobody else questioned the system / what triggered it), and/or the appearance of Clarisse McWhatever was too immediate.

I like dystopian fiction but have read much better. This just seemed like a high school essay bulked out to 200 pages. Thankfully it is still short. I felt that the reviews on LibraryThing raised expectations my too much.

Anyway

Just finished "Unjust Rewards" by Polly Toynbee and David Walker, which argues for higher taxes (especially inheritance tax) and more social spending and redistribution to reduce inequality. Unfortunately it does not argue its case very well. Many very good points are made--prinicpally the central eschewing of individualistic orientation--but almost all of them can be made better IMO so I don't rate it highly.
 
Yeah, I read reference books from page 1. Ya gotta problem wid dat?

Fleets of Wordl War II, Richard Worth, Da Capo Press, 2001.

Packed with information, salty terminology, and tart opinions. Fascinating. I never realized how maddeningly difficult naval architecture is. Mix in politics and -- Man!
 
I'm currently reading God's Terrorists by Charles Allen, which is about the history of the Wahhabi Cult. Only just started it, but so far very interesting. It all begins, oddly enough, in India.
 
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