What are you reading now - and then

[Prospero]

I know - another arty-farty thread. But hey we've had movies and music and stuff so why not let us know what your choice of reading is? What papers do you read - if any? What is the book you are presently reading? What type of books do you like and why? And what book perhaps most changed your life or had the greatest impact on you?

I'll kick-off by saying I'm presently reading Orlando Figes' history of the Crimean War "Crimea" and this morning spent an hour reading the Guardian, The Independent and the Telegraph.

[LibertyHarkness]

i am reading all of the horus heresy novels from the black library and just got my Grey Knights omnibus book .. i mostly read warhammer 40k stuff these days ...

[Anubis1779]

I'm almost finished with the third book from "A Song of Ice and Fire" (The HBO series Game of Thrones got me into it). It's a great series, although frustrating. The protagonists' family cannot catch a break, for every good thing that happens to them, a dozen horrible things go against them.

I don't read papers much except USA Today from time to time. I do read a lot of magazines, mostly car related (Car and Driver, Road & Track, Motortrend) and have recently started reading some gun mags to get some more info on my new hobby.

As far as a book changing my life.....I would have to go for The DaVinci Code, simply because before I read that book I hadn't read a book for several years and it really got me interested in them again. Since then (around 2005-2006), I've read hundreds of books!

[Intrepid]

"Andrew Jackson - American Lion" by Jon Meacham

[runningdownthatdream]

Recently finished The Heptameron by Margueritte de Navarre and now on the Decameron by Boccaccio.

My reading is inconsistent - sometimes dozens of books in a few months and then nothing for months. Stacked beside my bed are Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, The Red and The Black by Stendahl, and 1434 by Gavin Menzies which continues his theory that the Chinese influenced the burst in European navigation that resulted in the colonization of the 'New World', the european Renaissance period, etc.

[Jericho]

Currently reading "Squadie" by Steven McLaughlin.
Passed the CIC at 31 = Respect!

[Prospero]

I'm impressed that The Da Vinci Code made you want to read again - and that you've since read hundreds of books. That's brilliant. Have to admit it was a compelling read - so much so i was reading it one day walking down the street and went straight into a lamp post.

My most recent fiction was a book called "Alma Cogan" by Gordon Burn (about a british singer from the 1950s).

[runningdownthatdream]

As far as a book changing my life.....I would have to go for The DaVinci Code, simply because before I read that book I hadn't read a book for several years and it really got me interested in them again. Since then (around 2005-2006), I've read hundreds of books!

Given that you liked the DaVinci Code, I'd like to recommend Umberto Eco's book Foucault's Pendulum which is one of my all-time favourite books. Conspiracies, the Catholic Church, the Templars, the Merovingians, satanic cults.............it's in there!

[Prospero]

Foucoult's Pendulum is brilliant. Gotta read it again. Friend of mine even made a trek to that french village where all the secrets are supposed to be.

[BigDF]

For the last several days, I've mainly been reading the posts on here, most of which are highly entertaining. Later today I'll probably be reading a novel by Stephen Coonts who wrote Flight of the Intruder which subsequently became a movie starring Brad Johnson. I've been reading a lot of erotic fiction lately, mainly at Literotica.

I will read the Sunday edition of my local paper as well as the daily news digest on Yahoo, if I'm feeling pretty good on a given day, but my real passion is reading about history, particularly of the industrial culture.

[PomonaCA]

I mostly read words and sentences... Occasionally a paragraph.

[runningdownthatdream]

Foucoult's Pendulum is brilliant. Gotta read it again. Friend of mine even made a trek to that french village where all the secrets are supposed to be.

If I recall that's Renne le Chateau?

I've read it three - i think the only book I've ever read three times. The Name of the Rose and Baudolino are also fantastic. As someone who is very into history and culture, his writing fulfills my need for titillation and knowledge at the same time - LOL!

[Prospero]

Yep - Name of the Rose i liked but couldn't get on with Baudalino. Yes it was Rennes le Chateau. TI went there once also - just passing through. Had a strange atmosphere.

Eco wrote a factual book about medieval ideas - useful background to The Name of The Rose and has written lots of other great books of essays. Also two wonderful illustrated art books - On Beauty and On Ugliness. Very fitting for this place!

[trish]

Loved Name of the Rose, but, sorry to admit, I never got all the way through Foucault's Pendulum.

Currently reading Galore by Michael Crummey. It spans three or four generations of Newfoundlanders (known to themselves as livyers). It's got some very strong women characters and is peppered with Newfoundland's own special brand of magical realism. It's a good read. Hope to finish it this weekend.

[Nashvegas]

I'm almost finished with the third book from "A Song of Ice and Fire" (The HBO series Game of Thrones got me into it). It's a great series, although frustrating. The protagonists' family cannot catch a break, for every good thing that happens to them, a dozen horrible things go against them.



Dude I am just past halfway through the exact same book, thats pretty funny. I got into it for the same reason even. That show on HBO was awesome and that led me to the books. I bought the 4th one already so I can start right up after I finish this one.

[Anubis1779]

Dude I am just past halfway through the exact same book, thats pretty funny. I got into it for the same reason even. That show on HBO was awesome and that led me to the books. I bought the 4th one already so I can start right up after I finish this one.

I just bought the box set of the first 4 and the 5th one got here last week. Based on my friend who has read them all, he needs to hurry up and finish the last two.....

[Nashvegas]

I am already sad that I have to wait for the last 2 books. If you look at when they were written, it's something like 4-5 years between each edition so far too. I almost got the boxed set when I was like 3/4 done the first book, but I didn't want to wait for it to get here, and walmart had each book for 33% off so I just got them there. I can't wait for season 2 of the show too.

[Stavros]

Every day I 'read' the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times, and BBC News -and check them on a regular basis if I am free during the day -but by 'read' I mean selectively. The advantage of the internet versions is that I don't have to pay for the hard copy of something of which I only have an interest in a half, if that -I don't buy a Sunday paper precisely because I would throw away more than two-thirds of it.

Nostromo is one of the finest novels in English; I used to read it every summer but haven't read it in recent years, but I did go back to Under Western Eyes, one of my favourites; and read The Shadow-Line when a tv series loosely based on it was broadcast earlier this year on the BBC. Currently reading White Mule by William Carlos Williams.

I should put in a good word for the late WG Sebald, who was killed in a road accident a few years ago. He taught translation studies at the Universty of East Anglia, and wrote four novels which deal with the experience of being German in the 20th century -The Emigrants, Vertigo, The Rings of Saturn, and Austerlitz. He has a special way of interposing real documents (photos, bills from hotels and cafes) with his narrative, some of which seems to be drawn from his own life (his portrait is on the cover of Austerlitz) so that there are times when its hard to know what is real and what is fiction.

[NaughtyJane]

I'm reading a book been out a few years... "The Ethical Slut - A guide to infinite sexual possibilities" By Easton and Liszt... Living an interesting single life, Andy Warhol's quote "Sex is messy..." often rings true. My attempts at grown up conscientious interpersonal life has at times blown up in my face.... ouch, and "messy"! Trying to figure my place, boundaries, transparencies, and being good to those I allow close... while letting them be good to me. Time will tell...

[robertlouis]

Foucoult's Pendulum is brilliant. Gotta read it again. Friend of mine even made a trek to that french village where all the secrets are supposed to be.

I'd also echo that, and The Name of the Rose was in its own way every bit as brilliant.

I take The Guardian on a daily basis - as an annual subscriber it saves 33% - and The Observer on Sundays. I also subscribe to BBC History Magazine and Acoustic, a UK specialist guitar mag to keep me up to date with new acoustic guitars, amps, accessories etc.

I tend to have several books on the go at any one time. Right now I'm re-reading A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, just for the pleasure of the prose, plus John Keegan's military history of The American Civil War, Hart and Steel's Passchendaele and for fiction, the current Booker winner, The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson.

Influential books would include almost anything by Dickens, and for inspiration, always poetry - Burns, Hughes, TS Eliot, Yeats, Hardy, Whitman, Heaney, Larkin - the list goes on for ever. In the factual sphere it would have to be E F Schumacher's Small is Beautiful, published in the 70s and imo pretty much the ur-text for the green and environmentally aware world we now live in.

[tsnajwa]

As of now I am been reading texnologiya vlasti by abduraxman avtorxanov and re-reading pillars of salt by fadia faqir

[runningdownthatdream]

I have John Keegan's The Illustrated Face of Battle - a great read!

[robertlouis]

I have John Keegan's The Illustrated Face of Battle - a great read!

:iagree: It certainly is. He is without peer imo as a military historian with a gift for explaining tactics for the layman.

[Prospero]

And i read Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts and Between The Woods and the water a few years ago. Wonderful writing. Wonder if the trilogy will ever be completed since he is now dead (a manuscript on his computer or in his desk hopefully!)

His other travel books are also great

[runningdownthatdream]

:iagree: It certainly is. He is without peer imo as a military historian with a gift for explaining tactics for the layman.

Even better than Liddell Hart!?!?

[robertlouis]

And i read Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts and Between The Woods and the water a few years ago. Wonderful writing. Wonder if the trilogy will ever be completed since he is now dead (a manuscript on his computer or in his desk hopefully!)

His other travel books are also great

His powers of description are wonderful, and the evocation of a world about to vanish forever (the books are about a walk he made as a young man all the way from England to Istanbul in the 1930s) is somehow very moving.

[robertlouis]

Even better than Liddell Hart!?!?

Now that's a tough one, but I think that I prefer the liveliness of Keegan to Hart's strictly accurate but rather dry accounts.

Maybe we should take our discussion about the relative merits of military historians offline and into PMs before we bore everyone else rigid! :)

[Prospero]

Naaahhhh.... it's all good. Keep it in the open.

[lisaparadise]

I know - another arty-farty thread. But hey we've had movies and music and stuff so why not let us know what your choice of reading is? What papers do you read - if any? What is the book you are presently reading? What type of books do you like and why? And what book perhaps most changed your life or had the greatest impact on you?

I'll kick-off by saying I'm presently reading Orlando Figes' history of the Crimean War "Crimea" and this morning spent an hour reading the Guardian, The Independent and the Telegraph.im reading this thread like everyone else lol what r ya new?

[Prospero]

Well I am done with the Crimea and am now reading two 9/11 associated books.
"The 9/11 Wars" by Jason Burke - quite possibly the best "from the ground' look at the overall impacts internationally of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. Burke is a reporter for the Observer and Guardian in London (if you have a Kindle you can sample the opening chapters on that). It sits comfortably alongside "The Looming Tower" by Laurence Wright, a majestic study of the birth and rise of al-Queda.

And also a fiction about the creation of a memorial to the 9/11 victims "The Submission" by Amy Waldman.

[runningdownthatdream]

Just finished The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima. I probably missed all the nuances but it was an enjoyable read and something that would have been even better read under a palm tree on a tropical beach. Back to Gavin Menzies!

[You Love Us]

I've just finished reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. One of it's main themes is sexual idenity so I'd be interested to hear from other HA members what they thought of the book.

[Prospero]

Conundrum by Jan Morris - a wonderful exploration of transexuality by a brilliant writer. Ill post an extract later.

[Stavros]

Daniel Yergin: The Quest....

[Prospero]

Is it as good as his earlier book, "The Prize" Stavros?

[SirCumsAlot]

art of war is a book everybody should read. Read the cover so far

[maaarc]

Zen Enlightenment: Origins and Meaning
by Heinrich Dumoulin

[ed_jaxon]

Just discovered a copy of "Last Exit to Brooklyn" in my library and will start it tonight.

[Jericho]

Trainspotting.
Great film, irritating to get through, book.

[lancecd]

Just finished "Reamde" by Neal Stephenson....

[robertlouis]

I've just finished reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. One of it's main themes is sexual idenity so I'd be interested to hear from other HA members what they thought of the book.

I'm lucky enough to have been drinking with Iain Banks a few times. He really knows his malt scotch! Great guy as well as an intriguing author. "The Crow Road" has the greatest personal resonance for me. Apart from the dark mystery at its heart, it reminds me so much of growing up in Scotland around the same time.

[Stavros]

Is it as good as his earlier book, "The Prize" Stavros?

In a word, no. The Prize was originally published in 1991, so The Quest begins around that time -end of the USSR, Desert Storm, Globalization, and its latest stats on the history of oil prices are from this year, so its bang up to date. At 800 pages it looks daunting but its really a sequence of longish essays on various energy topics, some badly written and over-written prose in Yergin's style (he hasn't improved on this since his first book on the NSA) but always well informed and acutely in tune with the issues, coal, oil and gas, shale, nuclear, renewables, climate change, et al -it can be superficial but that's Yergin.

His argument: The mixed-energy future is already here; conventional fossil fuels are helping the existing rich states maintain their energy security, while bringing in a new cohort of previously underdeveloped states (India and China most obviously) into urban environments at a higher level of consumption, which means he sees global peak oil set around 2030 -but, with more conservation, unconventional fossil fuels (shale), and renewables, demand will be met; the real quest for energy security longer term, is going to be met through knowledge and innovation.

It is a topical rather than an intellctual study, far too long, and like The Prize it covers a lot of politics and science, but Yergin never gets into the business history or the business issues; even in The Prize the seven sisters were not considered in the context of modern capitalism.

Yergin is a clever guy, he published his Cambridge [UK] thesis on the National Security Agency in a crowded field and must have realised if he wanted a career it lay somewhere else, and The Prize is a major improvement on Sampson, in what was at that time a neglected subject. He has cornered the market and added the think-tank element through Cambridge Energy Research Associates (now IHS) so his industry covers the history and politics as well as detailed policy. Another American, Joe Pratt writes interesting books on the petroleum industry but doesn't have the Grade A status of Yergin, who charges the earth for public appearances.

[Prospero]

I'm reading the latest three part novel by Haruki Murakami "IQ84" - a wonderfully strange and haunting novel set in two different (it seems) worlds in Japan in the 1980s. A really great and original writer.

[iago_delgado]

I'm reading tons of books at the minute. Just finished Winter In Madrid by C J Sansom. An odd book around the Spanish Civil War. But very readable.

[runningdownthatdream]

I'm reading the latest three part novel by Haruki Murakami "IQ84" - a wonderfully strange and haunting novel set in two different (it seems) worlds in Japan in the 1980s. A really great and original writer.

I read The Wind-up Bird Chronicle......................i found it similar to looking at a Dali painting: not quite sure what to make of it!

I just finished Ian McCalman's The Last Alchemist (a somewhat irreverent and highly enjoyable biography of Giuseppe Balsamo AKA Count Cagliostro). Right now I'm reading Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (which is far more philosophical and engaging than I thought it would be) as well as Orhan Pamuk's The New Life (which i find dense yet whimsical, contrived and mysterious all at the same time)

[Prospero]

Yes - there is a very surreal quality to Murakami. Experimental writing in some ways and yet woven into an exceedingly compelling narrative. I have the Wind-Up Bird as my next notional read- though Umberto Eco's new book "The Prague Cemetary" is also on my Kindle.

Pamuk is a great writer. If you've not read them I can recommend "Snow" and "My Name is Red."

So many books, so many girls, so many films, so much... and so little time.

[MatiasTz]

Well, I recently finished the entire d'Artagnan cycle (which comes to either 6 or 7 novels depending on the publisher and translation) by Dumas pere and now I'm bouncing between Thoughts on Life and Art by Da Vinci and Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf (which is darker and funnier than the movie loosely adapted from it).

Though the thought occurs that I probably should have balanced Da Vinci with George Carlin.

Maybe I'll do Plato-Carlin alternate read next, that should make my head explode.

[Prospero]

Plato and Carlin - lol

How about Da Vinci and the Da Vinci Code.....

or Aristotle and stephen King etc

[Stavros]

Although it was published in 1998, the best book that I read this year was Tony Judt's The Burden of Responsiblity, in which he examines the lives of three Frenchmen: Leon Blum, Albert Camus and Raymond Aron. The book is short by today's standards, and offers an incisive analysis of anti-semitism in France, and the bitter conflict between and within the left-wing and right-wing intelligentsia -in which Sartre comes off very badly indeed, as is inevitable when the facts about this pseudo-political acrobat are set in their proper context.

I also recommend Archie Brown's The Rise and Fall of Communism (2009), focused for the most part on the USSR and Eastern Europe.

Paul Donnelley's Fade to Black, A Book of Movie Obituaries has been a favourite for years; I also read Eileen Chang's Lust, Caution before seeng the film for a second time -it is a powerful and explicit film and adds a lot more than is in the story, which is a minor classic.

[Prospero]

I like Tony Judt a lot (or should that be in the past tense) but haven't read that one Stavros. Gonna order it today.

[trish]

The best thing I read over the last six months is Galore by Michael Crummey. It's a kind of Newfoundland version of one hundred years of solitude. I highly recommend it.

Currently I'm about a fourth of the way into Luminarium by Alex Shaker. It was slow getting into but it's getting interesting. It's an excursion into cyber-Hindu-cosmology! Also in the middle of David bellos's Is That A Fish In Your Ear? An personal look at the philosophy of language translation. [Also thoroughly involved in Stability and Chaos in Celestial Mechanics by Alessandra Celletti, but it's not for everyone]

[trish]

Just finished "Reamde" by Neal Stephenson....
Got that on my Kindle but haven't opened it yet. Without spilling any beans can you recommend it? I loved his Cryptonomicon, couldn't get through Quicksilver. Couldn't even make myself start Anathem. I do love all his early cyberpunk stuff, especially Snow Crash.

[Stavros]

Trish do you now read most of your books on a kindle? It's odd because I read so much on the web on this screen, but can't imagine ever using a kindle to read a book -I wonder how many people use them--?

[Prospero]

I us a Kindle for novels - books that I figure I'll not read again. (But never for books I plan to keep) Saves cluttering the house and very portable. Great for reading on trains and planes (though they tell you to turn your book off during landing and take off. You don't have that problem with a paperback) Plus one drawback to a Kindle is you can't pass your book on to anyone else. And I've not cracked anyway to copy from a kindle to m computer so i can let someone else can have the book. But then they cost a third of the cost of the hardback.

[trish]

To be precise, I use the Kindle App on my iPad. The nearest bookstore really good book store is more than an hour away (I live in a rural college town). When I read a good review or hear an author being interviewed, the temptation to just download the book and not have to wait for next trip to my favorite bookstore is just too tempting. I can read professional books on the iPad. When reading math or science I need to stare and contemplate a page for what may be hours at a time. It's too much of a drain on the battery.

The big drawbacks of reading books on the iPad are:
1) you need an electric charge just to read a fucking book!!!!
2) you can't lend or give away your book (there is a limited loaning policy but it's so constraint it sucks royally).
3) you can't admire the cover whenever your book is just sitting on the counter or desktop. i tend to forget the titles and authors of minor works without those frequent reinforcements.

The pluses are:

1) you can take a whole library of books with you where ever you go and read whatever you're in the mood to read.
2) you can make notations no margin could ever hold and not have them clutter up the page.
3) at present, Kindle books are a tad cheaper than book books.

I think you mentioned all of the above pros and cons in one form or another.

Reading on the iPad is kinda new to me and so I'm a bit enamored by the experience. I'm sure it'll wear thin within a few more months.

[Stavros]

Hmmm....I see the point about storage, I sold 500 books about 10 years ago but I still have at least a thousand or more and I know from the last time I moved I am dreading the next move when it comes; but though I do like to sit in a room that looks like a library I wonder if I had to choose how many I would keep -then I could have them in hard copy and the rest on a kindle, only I have so many obscure books I doubt they exist electronically. And one of the trends in publishing I am getting quite grumpy about is the length of books -700-800 pages now seems normal for biographies and histories, it is beyond a joke. Soon people will have to have the foundations of their houses reinforced because of all that extra weight. And what can be said in 700 pages that can't be said in 200? One of the best books on colonialism, Kenneth Robinson's The Dilemmas of Trusteeship is 95 pages long -a lifetime of wisdom distilled into a pocket book that says more than most books five times as long. end of rant.

[runningdownthatdream]

The best thing I read over the last six months is Galore by Michael Crummey. It's a kind of Newfoundland version of one hundred years of solitude. I highly recommend it.

Currently I'm about a fourth of the way into Luminarium by Alex Shaker. It was slow getting into but it's getting interesting. It's an excursion into cyber-Hindu-cosmology! Also in the middle of David bellos's Is That A Fish In Your Ear? An personal look at the philosophy of language translation. [Also thoroughly involved in Stability and Chaos in Celestial Mechanics by Alessandra Celletti, but it's not for everyone]

So what you're saying is that you're into light reading? ;)

[runningdownthatdream]

Hmmm....I see the point about storage, I sold 500 books about 10 years ago but I still have at least a thousand or more and I know from the last time I moved I am dreading the next move when it comes; but though I do like to sit in a room that looks like a library I wonder if I had to choose how many I would keep -then I could have them in hard copy and the rest on a kindle, only I have so many obscure books I doubt they exist electronically. And one of the trends in publishing I am getting quite grumpy about is the length of books -700-800 pages now seems normal for biographies and histories, it is beyond a joke. Soon people will have to have the foundations of their houses reinforced because of all that extra weight. And what can be said in 700 pages that can't be said in 200? One of the best books on colonialism, Kenneth Robinson's The Dilemmas of Trusteeship is 95 pages long -a lifetime of wisdom distilled into a pocket book that says more than most books five times as long. end of rant.

Agreed about these biographies....seems everybody these days feel the need to divulge the details of their sordid but banal lives and opt to take 'the more due to less' path wherein they substitute the lack of anything interesting with long rambling chapters filled with meaningless bullshit which is somehow meant to deceive the masses into thinking the thing is worth reading.....kinda like reality TV shows.

Books filled with extraneous words may have their roots in Gibbons' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in which he carefully uses 100 words where 6 would have sufficed. So I lay some of the blame at the feet of the British.

If you need a home for your books.................I'd be happy to provide one!

[trish]

So what you're saying is that you're into light reading? ;)
Well it might not sound like it, but the Luminarium is light reading...sorta science fictiony so far. Stability and Chaos...not so much.

[trish]

And one of the trends in publishing I am getting quite grumpy about is the length of books -700-800 pages now seems normal for biographies and histories, it is beyond a joke. Soon people will have to have the foundations of their houses reinforced because of all that extra weight. Putting all that weight in the "cloud" doesn't sound quite right either. It must be a black, precipitous thunder cloud.

And what can be said in 700 pages that can't be said in 200? One of the best books on colonialism, Kenneth Robinson's The Dilemmas of Trusteeship is 95 pages long -a lifetime of wisdom distilled into a pocket book that says more than most books five times as long. end of rant.
I agree. For me the length of a book can be quite off-putting. I need to know I can read it within one lifespan.

Hmmm....I see the point about storage, I sold 500 books about 10 years ago but I still have at least a thousand or more and I know from the last time I moved I am dreading the next move when it comes; but though I do like to sit in a room that looks like a library I wonder if I had to choose how many I would keep -then I could have them in hard copy and the rest on a kindle, only I have so many obscure books I doubt they exist electronically.There are a lot of books, even recent publications, that haven't made it to Kindle yet and may never be. Victor Pelevin's Hall of Singing Caryatids is on my list of books to buy at the book store, because it's not available in Kindle format.

[Stavros]

Agreed about these biographies....seems everybody these days feel the need to divulge the details of their sordid but banal lives and opt to take 'the more due to less' path wherein they substitute the lack of anything interesting with long rambling chapters filled with meaningless bullshit which is somehow meant to deceive the masses into thinking the thing is worth reading.....kinda like reality TV shows.

Books filled with extraneous words may have their roots in Gibbons' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in which he carefully uses 100 words where 6 would have sufficed. So I lay some of the blame at the feet of the British.

If you need a home for your books.................I'd be happy to provide one!

1) The development of word processors and then laptops/PCs has been cited as a cause -in the days when a writer sat at a desk with pen and paper, the physical act of writing determined length -now one can sit for hours, days, weeks without stop, so a 250 page book becomes 750 -but where are the editors in the publishing houses on this?

2) Biographies -you now really do need to know how many women Byron slept with (or JFK if they can count them all); how many children -in secret- the Duchess of Tinseltown gave birth to (and by whom); yet you rarely get told that King Charles I was five foot tall when Peter the Great of Russia was six foot eight, and just how big was Cromwell's -or Lincoln's- cock? Also, the only time Louis XIV took a bath was when he was ordered to by his physician who though it might be good for him...and William the Conqueror was the scion of Viking immigrants to Normandy.

3) You blame the British for lots of things, because you are Canadian (I have been to Canada, I know about these things) -maybe you should be more specific and blame the Scots...

[Stavros]

There are a lot of books, even recent publications, that haven't made it to Kindle yet and may never be. Victor Pelevin's Hall of Singing Caryatids is on my list of books to buy at the book store, because it's not available in Kindle format

Description:
After auditioning for the part as a singing geisha at a dubious bar, Lena and eleven other “lucky” girls are sent to work at a posh underground nightclub reserved exclusively for Russia’s upper-crust elite. They are to be a sideshow attraction to the rest of the club’s entertainment, and are billed as the “famous singing caryatids.” Things only get weirder from there. Secret ointments, praying mantises, sexual escapades, and grotesque murder are quickly ushered into the plot. The Russian literary master Victor Pelevin holds nothing back, and The Hall of the Singing Caryatids, his most recent story to be translated into English, is sure to make you squirm in your seat with utter delight.

Trish, I am concerned for your health and well-being....

[Helvis2012]

Gogol.

[runningdownthatdream]

1) The development of word processors and then laptops/PCs has been cited as a cause -in the days when a writer sat at a desk with pen and paper, the physical act of writing determined length -now one can sit for hours, days, weeks without stop, so a 250 page book becomes 750 -but where are the editors in the publishing houses on this?

2) Biographies -you now really do need to know how many women Byron slept with (or JFK if they can count them all); how many children -in secret- the Duchess of Tinseltown gave birth to (and by whom); yet you rarely get told that King Charles I was five foot tall when Peter the Great of Russia was six foot eight, and just how big was Cromwell's -or Lincoln's- cock? Also, the only time Louis XIV took a bath was when he was ordered to by his physician who though it might be good for him...and William the Conqueror was the scion of Viking immigrants to Normandy.

3) You blame the British for lots of things, because you are Canadian (I have been to Canada, I know about these things) -maybe you should be more specific and blame the Scots...

In general, our world has become more prone to over-run - in literature pleonasm (great word!) seems to have become the norm.

Indeed, us Canadians should be blaming the Scots and their predilection for wanting to get everything right regardless of the physical/mental/spiritual consequences. Are they really still so anal in Scotland? Though without their efficiencies the Empire would likely never have accomplished as much as it did.

[trish]

There are a lot of books, even recent publications, that haven't made it to Kindle yet and may never be. Victor Pelevin's Hall of Singing Caryatids is on my list of books to buy at the book store, because it's not available in Kindle format

Description:
After auditioning for the part as a singing geisha at a dubious bar, Lena and eleven other “lucky” girls are sent to work at a posh underground nightclub reserved exclusively for Russia’s upper-crust elite. They are to be a sideshow attraction to the rest of the club’s entertainment, and are billed as the “famous singing caryatids.” Things only get weirder from there. Secret ointments, praying mantises, sexual escapades, and grotesque murder are quickly ushered into the plot. The Russian literary master Victor Pelevin holds nothing back, and The Hall of the Singing Caryatids, his most recent story to be translated into English, is sure to make you squirm in your seat with utter delight.

Trish, I am concerned for your health and well-being....Of course "Things get weirder from there" got my attention. But I think is was the word "squirm" appearing in the same sentence with "utter delight" that assured its place in my list of books to read. Besides I love caryatids and was previously delighted by Pelevin's Sacred Book of the Werewolf.

[russtafa]

My lady is currently reading The blood countess,the first Pandora English novel series by Tara Moss and is thoroughly enjoying it.It's got that real supernatural theme feel,similar to the true blood series by Charlaine Harris.

[russtafa]

i am reading the Black Company by Glen Cook its about a mercenary company hired by warlocks to fight in a war against rebel warlocks and their soldiers .a great book!

[MatiasTz]

Plato and Carlin - lol

How about Da Vinci and the Da Vinci Code.....

or Aristotle and stephen King etc
Hah! I hadn't thought of Da Vinci and the Da vinci Code!

But I think if you go by sheer volume of sales it should be the Bible and Stephen King. Though I venture to guess more people have actually read King.

How about Machiavelli and Milton Friedman?

[Prospero]

But I think if you go by sheer volume of sales it should be the Bible and Stephen King. Though I venture to guess more people have actually read King.




By now King has written far more words than are in the Bible. He must have have outpaced it tenfold. But I'd argue with the idea that he is more read. The Bible and the Qur'an must be the most read books surely.

[russtafa]

By now King has written far more words than are in the Bible. He must have have outpaced it tenfold. But I'd argue with the idea that he is more read. The Bible and the Qur'an must be the most read books surely.yeah both a pain in the ass:hide-1:

[Stavros]

By now King has written far more words than are in the Bible. He must have have outpaced it tenfold. But I'd argue with the idea that he is more read. The Bible and the Qur'an must be the most read books surely.

Would you agree that people read Stephen King for diversions and entertainment, but 'consult' the Bible and the Qu'ran for anything but diversion and entertainment -indeed, if they read it properly or understand it; but seek comfort, or guidance or worse- an excuse to behave in a way that those religious texts do not condone? I think this is why they are both controversial, quite apart from the issues of who wrote it, what was intended, and for whom -none of which are problems with Stephen King.

[Prospero]

Can't disagree with what you say Stavros, but I also don't see how this conflicts with my point that both these sacred texts are 'read" more than King's entertainments. Understanding, misusing, using it for solace or guidance or comfort etc are not the point.

[deangamble1967]

Just had a few days at home due to a small op and have just re read 2 books from a very crouded bookshelf. On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins.

Just started La Sombra Del Veinto in Spanish just to try and keep up my rapidly diminishing Spanish!

D

[ValerieNelson]

Starting to read the George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 4 pack bundle that I got for the Kindle.

[MatiasTz]

By now King has written far more words than are in the Bible. He must have have outpaced it tenfold. But I'd argue with the idea that he is more read. The Bible and the Qur'an must be the most read books surely.
Well, I was being facetious, but that said, I'm not so sure about that. Many, many people own the Bible (and the Koran) but have not read them beginning to end. (I own both and have read them more than once, but I'm the only person I know that has done so) In my overall experience most people do not read the Bible, they let others, like their preists, pastors, etc., read and interpret it for them.

I'll do some research and see if there's been a study about those that own the Bible as opposed to those that actually read it. And I don't mean finding a few sections and reading them -- I mean cover to cover.

[MatiasTz]

Starting to read the George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 4 pack bundle that I got for the Kindle.
I hope you'll give a review ...

[ValerieNelson]

I hope you'll give a review ...

Will do :)

[Paladin]

I'm reading the manual to my NorthStar V8 STS :) Damn thing requires a PHD to figure out.

[Odelay]

Just had a few days at home due to a small op and have just re read 2 books from a very crouded bookshelf. On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins.

Just started La Sombra Del Veinto in Spanish just to try and keep up my rapidly diminishing Spanish!

D

I loved "Fierce Invalids". I feel like I'm one of the few who think Robbins is getting better all the time.

Currently reading a couple of posthumous Vonnegut short story collections, starting with While Mortals Sleep.

[amberskyi]

i was reading lullaby by chuck palahniuk but have moved on to a more interesting novel about elizabeth bathory

[runningdownthatdream]

i was reading lullaby by chuck palahniuk but have moved on to a more interesting novel about elizabeth bathory

fiction or biography?

[Ben]

Read an interesting -- and fairly short -- book by John Bellamy Foster called What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism. He's a professor of sociology. (Capitalism is a misnomer. Capitalism, pure capitalism, means no state/government intervention. We radically violate free market principles all the time by building roads, highways, schools, employing cops, firefighters etc., etc.) But it focuses on the vast destruction of the natural world by state capitalism.... And what we have to do to live in harmony, as it were, with nature. Our economic system treats the natural world as an externality. Something we can exploit and not concern ourselves with. And, too, future generations have no bearing in our economic calculations.

[amberskyi]

fiction or biography?

fictional biography is what i guess you can call it

----------------
Now playing: Mudvayne - Cradle (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/mudvayne/track/cradle)
via FoxyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/)

[runningdownthatdream]

fictional biography is what i guess you can call it

----------------
Now playing: Mudvayne - Cradle (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/mudvayne/track/cradle)
via FoxyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/)

Author and name of book?

[doctor screw]

Guns,Germs,and Steel

[Miss Aeryn]

Guns,Germs,and Steel

Sounds epic!

Me, now reading "Octonauts and the Ghost Reef". It's a long story :)

Before that, finished "I Don't Know How She Does It."

[russtafa]

WITHOUT WARNING=JOHN bIRMINGHAM a fictional series about a world nuclear war

[buttslinger]

The Newspaper
LIFETIME FAVES-
Glass Bead Game - Hesse
Picasso-A Life - Richardson
The Bible -Asst authors

I wish I could say I understand Shakespeare.
The Classics are all classics.

Lately I've been using my...wait for it....LIBRARY CARD. Biography Section
Lincoln by Sandburg. best by far:geek:

[russtafa]

WITHOUT WARNING=JOHN bIRMINGHAM a fictional series about a world nuclear warthis guy is an Aussie and one of the best writers i have read =no shit sherlock:Bowdown::Bowdown::Bowdown::Bowdown::Bowdo wn::Bowdown::Bowdown:

[Ben]

Interesting thread.
I'm reading a book called A Language Older than Words by Derrick Jensen. It's about the natural world. Deeply philosophical.

[robertlouis]

I'm reading This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust, a historical exploration of how US society at every level tried to come to terms with the carnage of the Civil War and how that response resonates in every war up to modern times.

[trish]

1. Collapse by Jared Diamond,
2. Is That a Fish in Your Ear by David Bellos,
3. American Nietschze by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen and
4. Playing with Planets by Gerard't Hooft.

(reading chapter at time in rotation on my new touch screen kindle)

Highly recommend the Diamond. He's a freak for detail but never gets boring. I'm just about half-way through (reading about the Viking colonies in Greenland). The Bellos is a quirky book with loads of insight on the nature and influence of translations. I'm also about halfway through it and so far it gets a thumbs up. The Rosenhagen, not so much. Only read two chapters of the Gerard't Hooft so it's a little early to judge, but it's has my attention.

[hippifried]

I'm reading this thread.

Welcome back, Trish. How was the break?

[robertlouis]

1. Collapse by Jared Diamond,
2. Is That a Fish in Your Ear by David Bellos,
3. American Nietschze by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen and
4. Playing with Planets by Gerard't Hooft.

(reading chapter at time in rotation on my new touch screen kindle)

Highly recommend the Diamond. He's a freak for detail but never gets boring. I'm just about half-way through (reading about the Viking colonies in Greenland). The Bellos is a quirky book with loads of insight on the nature and influence of translations. I'm also about halfway through it and so far it gets a thumbs up. The Rosenhagen, not so much. Only read two chapters of the Gerard't Hooft so it's a little early to judge, but it's has my attention.

I see you're another one that reads books three or four at a time, Trish!

I'm also re-reading Dickens, currently Our Mutual Friend, Cannery Row by Steinbeck and The Guns of August by Barbara W Tuchman.

[Prospero]

I read the Jared Diamond book when it came out. Twas brilliant. Easter island. What a object lesson that is.

Just finished reading Christ Stopped At Eboli by Carlo Levi. Wonderful look at 1930s peasant society in Italy. Beautfully written. Levi was an internal exile sent to the Abruzzi by Mussolini. Also just read 1Q84 - a trilogy by Harumi Murakami. The best living Japanese novelist. Fantastically inventive and also The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht - a fantasy on the Balkans conflict by a very young but clearly gifted writer.

Gerard't Hooft. that is a challenge. I am trying to read a book on parallel universes at present. Fascinating stuff.

[trish]

Welcome back, Trish. How was the break? Like all breaks...way too short. Hi hippiefried ;)


I see you're another one that reads books three or four at a time, Trish!
I'm like a little girl with a ten dollar bill in an ice-cream shop. I gotta have all the flavors I can afford. Too bad a person has to work for a living. If I could just sit outside and read all day (and have an espresso and a gelato every once in a while) it would be heavenly bliss. Some time ago I read Tuchman's Distant Mirror, but for some reason never got back to her.

A friend of mine is reading Tiger's Wife right now for her book club. I'm wondering if it would spoil the book if I quietly attended the discussion.

Have a great Sunday afternoon all.

[Prospero]

I think you could safely attend the discussion. it's not like its a triller with a suspenseful outcome. Just a charmingly written book.

[jedthejew]

Reading Watership Down by Richard Adams and The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard.
Up next will be Bleak House by Dickens and probably some re-reads in the Malazan Series by Steven Erikson.

[Prospero]

The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach. It's setting is the world of baseball - so much of the technical jargon is lost on this Brit - but it's a darn good read.

[LibertyHarkness]

the primarchs from the horus heresy series :)

[Ecstatic]

I'm currently reading To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, a fun time travel romp. Been on an SF jag lately, reading or re-reading classic 40s and 50s short SF by Asimov, Heinlein and others. Fascinating to see what they got right and what they got wrong 50-60 years ago.

[Prospero]

If time travel really worked you could visit tour future self and find out what books and films etc were a waste of time and then not read or watch them. (Except of course......)

[CORVETTEDUDE]

Shadow Warriors by Tom Clancy

[Stavros]

Just back from the bookshop with my copy of Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai...

[Wendy Summers]

Started on the Hunger Games - I'm about 1/4 of the way through so far... digging it.

[Wendy Summers]

If time travel really worked you could visit tour future self and find out what books and films etc were a waste of time and then not read or watch them. (Except of course......)

Um... paradox much?

[MdR Dave]

I've been reading crime/noir lately. Jim Thompson, Richard Stark (Westlake), Elroy, Leonard . . .light stuff to help me get to sleep at night.

Any suggestions?

[Stavros]

Satantango, by Laszlo Krasznahorkai.
First published in 1984 this has just been translated into English. I have seen the film of the book by Bela Tarr (twice), and the author collaborated with Tarr on the 7 hour film and in the process there are some changes, for example in the book the charismatic figure Irimiaz wears yellow shoes, but not in the film. The book is concentrated and an easy read, taking less than 7 hours, whereas the film employs the static camera and long takes associated with Tarr (and directors like Antonioni, Angelopoulos and Tarkovsky); but I prefer the film which succeeds in displaying the mind-numbing experience of living on a remote communal farm in the extended and deeply miserable winters that Hungary seems to experience. This is neither light nor popular entertainment, but worth the effort.

Sátántango: Amazon.co.uk: László Krasznahorkai, George Szirtes: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vedjrcy%2BL.@@AMEPARAM@@51vedjrcy%2BL (http://www.amazon.co.uk/S%C3%A1t%C3%A1ntango-L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3-Krasznahorkai/dp/1848877641/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336563198&sr=8-1)

[robertlouis]

Two very different things.

Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse (the intelligent one, not the model). It's a ghost story novella about her primary subject, southern France in the time of the Cathars. The pace is breathless and I read it in a sitting.

Jubilee Lines, a poetry anthology edited by Carole Anne Duffy, the poet Laureate, featuring specially commissioned poems by different British and Commonwealth poets for each year of the present Queen's reign. It's thankfully free of any knee-bending royal crap, and if you've lived your life while Liz has been on the throne, it's an entertaining and occasionally provocative as well as sideways look at her reign. And of course, as with most poetry, each poem is worth reading again and again.

[south ov da border]

What I usually read crime novels and mysteries. Jonathan Kellerman, Donald Goines, Stuart Woods, Tim Dorsey.

Lately been catching up on music history mostly hip hop. The Big Payback, The Anthology of Rap, The plot against hip hop...

[Prospero]

Just finishing The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach and about to read The New Religious Intolerance by Martha Nussbaum.

[LibertyHarkness]

just ordered some more horus heresy novels ... :) cant wait for the one about the blood angels to come out :)

[robertlouis]

Waiting for Max Hastings' one volume history of WW2 to arrive - All Hell Let Loose.

[biberkopf]

Just finished reading Fast Food Nation.

[Prospero]

is that an easy book to digest, biberkopf?

[Wendy Summers]

is that an easy book to digest, biberkopf?

lolz.

Just finished Hunger Games a few days ago... trying to find a good deal on the other two books

[Quiet Reflections]

The Dark Tower: The Wind Through The Keyhole

[Lovecox]

"Consciousness Explained" by Daniel Dennett

[hf]

There is always time for Charles Bukowski!

[Prospero]

Lovecox - the trouble with that book is that it doesn't really explain consciousness - any more than dozens of other books on the same topic. Many scientists - in neuroscience and in physics - believe that we may never really be able to explain consciousness. There are, of course, many reductionists who see it simply as a function of our brains. More interesting thinkers connect the world of quantum physics to consciousness in some intriguing ways eg Sir Roger Penrose. But then here is a great chllenge to his notions.

http://www.sustainedaction.org/Explorations/problem_with_quantum_mind_theory.htm

Francis Crick and Christof Koch (with whom he worked for many years) also did a lot of work w on consciousness which broke the consensus. Koch's new book is good.

Consciousness eBook: Christof Koch: Amazon.co.uk: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kn6WNs3fL.@@AMEPARAM@@51kn6WNs3fL (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Consciousness-ebook/dp/B007D58OM6/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336832474&sr=1-2)

[jfk84000]

el zorro by isabelle alende

[hippifried]

Then: Dick & Jane.


Now: Jane & Dick.

[Absarokah]

:geek:

[Helvis2012]

Etgar Keret's new one.

[Stavros]

A few days ago I finished reading Jennifer Egan's novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. The book was nominated by numerous people as their favourite novel of 2011; I don't know why. The book is well written but has no distinctive style, although it tries to diversify this with a power point presentation towards the end that doesn't work. Time is a Goon, a phrase that occurs twice in the book, indicates that the book concerns a group of people over 20 odd years, all of whom have known each other at various levels of intimacy, and mostly involved in the punk rock/music industry, therefore allowing scenes in low-rent apartments on the lower-east side, or California. The characters are not interesting, their antics are not interesting, their marriages, sex-lives, dope habits, musical tastes etc etc are not interesting. I bought the book in a charity shop; the most charitable thing I can do with it, is take it back, and give it away for free.

A Visit From the Goon Squad: Amazon.co.uk: Jennifer Egan: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UTRRK2zQL.@@AMEPARAM@@51UTRRK2zQL (http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Visit-From-Goon-Squad/dp/1780330960/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338987217&sr=8-1)

[Prospero]

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement by David Brooks.

A rather light account of some of the contemporary scientific theories about the nature of the self.

[south ov da border]

right now- The Road by Cormac Mcarthy

[goliath_91710]

I'm just finishing up Crime & Punishment. But my nine day vacation begins today, going to Zion National Park in Utah. I'm thinking about bringing Even Cowgirls get the Blues by Tom Robbins and Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski.

[south ov da border]

next up Naked Lunch

[Ben]

A book on ol' Ayn Rand....

[trish]

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Bird Sense by Tim Birkead

Just finished Jared Diamond's Collapse, Ratner-Rosenhagen's American Nietzsche and David Bellos' Is that a Fish in Your Ear?

[runningdownthatdream]

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Bird Sense by Tim Birkead

Just finished Jared Diamond's Collapse, Ratner-Rosenhagen's American Nietzsche and David Bellos' Is that a Fish in Your Ear?

When do you sleep?

[trish]

I always have my kindle with me. So I read in line, on the bus, at the coffee shop...I'm a reader...when I'm not thinking about mathematics or physics or checking out what people around me are wearing. I usually work on two to four books at a time...finish a chapter in one and start a new chapter in another. It's just like following several different tv-series through a season; and if you're lucky enough to have picked a good set of books, it's better than tv. To be fair it takes me a month or two or three to finish a set.

[Prospero]

Mathematics... now tell me this then Trish. I've run across the claim in many places that there are more synaptic connections to neurons in the human brain than there are particles in the known universe.' This clim was first made to me by Professor (now Baroness) Susan Greenfield (not a physicist but a neuroscientist) and I've seen it repeated ad nauseum. It doesn't make sense. For surely synaptic connections must be composed of the very particles they're meant to outnumber.

[Stavros]

right now- The Road by Cormac Mcarthy

Took me a few hours to read that rubbish, prose so brittle it falls apart at the slightest pressure. Now, the Naked Lunch -that to me is the kind of outrageous, inventive, sarcastic, erotic, even informative prose that doesn't get published these days. Together with Selby's Last Exit to Brooklyn and John Rechy' City of Night Burroughs has this genre licked, as it were.

[trish]

Mathematics... now tell me this then Trish. I've run across the claim in many places that there are more synaptic connections to neurons in the human brain than there are particles in the known universe.' This clim was first made to me by Professor (now Baroness) Susan Greenfield (not a physicist but a neuroscientist) and I've seen it repeated ad nauseum. It doesn't make sense. For surely synaptic connections must be composed of the very particles they're meant to outnumber.Lovely argument. I think you’ve got a proof there.

It’s hard to know what the authors of the claim may have meant. Maybe they meant the observable universe and the average brain extends into reaches beyond the resolving powers of modern telescopes :)

I recall reading the brain had 10^11 (100 000 000 000 = one hundred billion) neurons. If each one was connected to each of the others by a single connection there would be about 5 x 10^21 connections (5 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 connections. The formula is n(n-1)/2 connections if there are n neurons). That’s still less than the number of hydrogen atoms in a gram of hydrogen (Avogadro’s number is about 6 x 10^23). So there're still way more particles in the universe.

Perhaps the authors meant the number of possible brains one could obtain by various wirings. For example suppose each of the 10^11 neurons can be connected to each of the others by one connection or no connection. Then there are 2^(5x10^21) possible brains or possible wirings of a single brain. That’s a one followed by five septillion zeros. It’s probably greater than the number of anything in the universe.

On the other hand if two neurons can share more than one connection then the number of possible connections would climb economically. (I think it was Feynman who once commented that economical numbers have gotten way bigger than astronomical ones).

Still I think you have an airtight objection. The number of actual physical connections cannot exceed the total number of molecules that constitute the connections.

I believe Eddington estimated the number protons in the observable universe to be less than 10^80. It’s worth noting too that Richard Feynman observed a consistent interpretation of quantum field theory allows that there is only one, albeit very busy, electron in the entire universe.

[buttslinger]

Good one, Trish.

[Prospero]

Trish - thank you for that. It is odd how this statistic is bandied about by even great experts in the field of Neuroscience as a wow gosh fact when it is clearly spurious. (Im afraid I'm culpable on this too for including it in a film I made a few years ago about the search to understand consciousness. The claim has bugged me ever since - but was in a quote from a scientist.)

[Stavros]

Larissa Taylor The Virgin Warrior, The Life and Death of Joan of Arc (2009)

A relatively short and concise history of 'the Maid' which goes beyond the mystery of her 'voices' and shows what a truly extraordinary woman Joan/Jeanne/Jehanne was. The book also sets her in the context of a 'France' that was still being formed (Jeanne was born in the Lorraine which at the time was not part of France), and also as one of many female mystics and savants (some of them frauds) who emerged in the middle ages and who were often taken seriously by people. Taylor explains Joan's rise to power as a figure who emerged when the French were so disorganised and demoralised after waves of English victories that anyone with a positive view was encouraged, whatever their gender. She also received counselling from members of the King's circle and was trained how to use weapons. If her success on the battlefield is one thing, he ability to outwit her interrogators, after her arrest and incarceration in Rouen, and her impacable belief she was visited by the Angels is undeniable. One of those figures from history I would like to meet...or at least see from a distance, preferably not tied to the stake....

The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc: Amazon.co.uk: Larissa Juliet Taylor: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517mEOf4clL.@@AMEPARAM@@517mEOf4clL (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Virgin-Warrior-Life-Death/dp/0300114583/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1340700800&sr=8-3)

[Prospero]

Just finished The Enchanter by Lila Azam Zanganeh, a short confection inspired by her passion for the writing of Vladimir Nabokov - a wonderful reminder of why I found him so inpsiring in my 20s.

And am now reading the new book by Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi called "The Great Partnership" on the relationship between Religion and Science. He writes beautifully though, so far, I am not persuaded by his arguments for God.

[LibertyHarkness]

ian banks - use of weapons

[Absarokah]

:cheers:

[ed_jaxon]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Shit was as depressing a read as I have ever had.

[MdR Dave]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Shit was as depressing a read as I have ever had.

For the most part I like his prose- every once in awhile he goes into a paragraph where you can tell he is really indulgent with himself- but in general he seems ok.

If you like his style try "All the Pretty Horses"- I read that a week or so ago and enjoyed it more than "The Road". Still pretty dark, but no looming apocalypse to consider.

[Odelay]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Shit was as depressing a read as I have ever had.

Like MdrDave, I've enjoyed Cormac McCarthy, too, a couple of times but I haven't read The Road. And I agree, his prose can be challenging at times.

[Odelay]

Currently, I'm about 100 pages into John Irving's, In One Person. Although Irving has had transgender characters in several of his novels, this one seems to be a deeper dive into the topic. I haven't gotten that far yet, but Irving seems to be focusing on the bisexual nature of transgenders and the people who like them.

[Stavros]

Thanks for the tip, Odelay, as I have never heard of Irving. I cant believe you find Cormac McCathy's prose challenging, though, his books often sound to me like Hemingway on steroids; yes, it really is that bad.

I am reading an English classic, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, for the first time in my life. The fluency of the writing makes one realise how insipid and dreary so many other novels are in comparison.

[Odelay]

I've seen the movie versions of Jane Eyre, but haven't read the novel. Recently read Wuthering Heights by her sister. That's a trippy book.

Irving's an odd duck and his work is not consistent. Some of his books are such a hard slog that I can't finish them. But then Cider House Rules and Prayer for Owen Meany I found to be very good. World According to Garp is probably his most popular - which had a couple of transgender characters.

[Stavros]

Thanks -I recognise the Irving titles from the films, The World According to Garp being the only one I have seen, although I thought John Linlithgow was miscast as the transexual; but at some point I will investigate the books further. Wuthering Heights is such an odd book when compared to the one her sister wrote -very bleak, rough, crabbed writing style, in effect the record of a form of child abuse, I detested it which is why it was such a pleasure to begin reading Jane Eyre.

[Prospero]

Just finished The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson - a slight but beautifully written little tale about the witch trials in Lancashire during the reign of James the 1st of England.
And reading....The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman a wonderful book of history about the latter part of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century preceding WW1... and The Great Partnership by Jonathan Sacks, the UK's chief Rabbi about the conflict and possibllity of harmony between science and religion.

[danthepoetman]

Right now, a collection of texts by Konrad Lorenz, one of the most underrated and unsung thinkers of the 20th century, founder amongst a few of ethology. He basically establishes a link between animal and human behaviour. Just before, Jean-Pierre Changeux, on the brain and neurology. Also in the process of reading once more the whole of ancient Greek theatre we have, and satirist-philosopher Lucian…

[trish]

Religion and the Decline of Magic-Keith Thomas
(A study of religion and magic in England. Thorough, but a bit dry. Try it with a nice Riesling)

Hedy's Folly-Richard Rhodes (A quick and fun read. Who would've guessed Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil shared such a bizarre passion?)

The Sisters Brothers (Short and arresting, a western reminiscent of Cormac MacCarthy.)

[JenniferParisHusband]

I kept seeing the "What songs are you listening to right now," and "what was the last movie you watched" threads. But didn't see one for reading material. I tend to read a lot of classic lit. I'm currently finishing up "The Knight of Maison-Rouge" by Alexandre Dumas, and am hesitant about jumping into "The History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides without something lighter inbetween. So let me know what you've been reading, and what you like about it to help give me some suggestions.

[Jack59]

Interesting you should mention Alexandre Dumas. I just finished reading The Three Musketeers last week.

Right now I'm not reading anything, but I'm sure that will change soon.

[runningdownthatdream]

http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=59107&highlight=reading

[JenniferParisHusband]

http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=59107&highlight=reading


Well screw it, this one's here now. Sorry for repeating the thread.



Interesting you should mention Alexandre Dumas. I just finished reading The Three Musketeers last week.

Right now I'm not reading anything, but I'm sure that will change soon.

My favorite Dumas is still The Counte of Monte Cristo, but I really liked Knight of the Maison-Rouge a lot more than Three Musketeers. Although, it's been a few years since I last read it. I might have to go back and look at it again.

[Ben]

The Power Elite. By C. Wright Mills. It's shaping my thinking at the present moment -- :)
The premise, and nobody knows this -- ha ha! --, is that America is run by the White House, the Pentagon and Wall Street. And throw in sports and entertainment. For good measure. (Even George Carlin said that America is run by about 800 people. These people make all the important decisions. They decide public policy.
But, again, nobody knows this -- ha ha!)

Charles Wright Mills documentary - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE7t9UlGWUk)

[Dino Velvet]

Wut err them thangs?

[GrimFusion]

Mine was Sam's "Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours".
http://freecomputerbooks.com/covers/Sams_Teach_Yourself_SQL_in_24_Hours.jpg

I found it boring, but I did learn some SQL database authoring techniques.
Technical books also double as sleeping aids.

[JenniferParisHusband]

Mine was Sam's "Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours".
http://freecomputerbooks.com/covers/Sams_Teach_Yourself_SQL_in_24_Hours.jpg

I found it boring, but I did learn some SQL database authoring techniques.
Technical books also double as sleeping aids.

If you're ever looking for some high quality sleep, I've got a Basic Real Estate Transactions textbook left over from law school...

[danthepoetman]

Just finished a couple of books on animal sexuality.
Pretty recent and way too politically correct “Sex, Man and Evolution”, by Pascal Picq and Philippe Brenot. The second one is a psychoanalyst, and should never have commented the first part, which was written by the former, a biologist. Older (1979) and more biology oriented “Sex and Innovation”, by André Langaney, a relatively technical account on the evolutionary development of sexuality from the first mono cellular beings, and its importance to life.
I am in the process of reading a few texts by XVIIth century classical philosopher Leibniz, and think of re-reading his “Monadology” after.

There's an other thread indeed, but where is it when you need it? A second one will help fill the need. I appreciate it, JPH!

[Baron Of Hell]

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobbs. Part of a trilogy. She has a interesting style in this book. The book is told from the point of view of the character. I liked the book but can't recommend it.

[Prospero]

"Parade's End" - heavy going, but the TV adaptation of the Ford Maddox Ford inspired me to give it a go. It is a fascinating portrait of the end of an era and of the way class structures and strictures malform human relationships.

[buttslinger]

THEN- Ultra goes to War

About the Allies capturing a german Enigma code machine and the cat and mouse game they had to play to convince the nazis they didn't have one.

[Prospero]

Also reading Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan. A young writer from the South of the US. (Born in Kentucky) These are essays on a wide range of American topics - reportage of the very highest qualty. Great observational pices about such things as the Creation Christian festival, the Tea Party and other less politically loaded subjects. It is not all politically correct in the least but written with real perception and compassion. The essay on the Christian festival makes you fully understand the evangelical impulse.

[JenniferParisHusband]

THEN- Ultra goes to War

About the Allies capturing a german Enigma code machine and the cat and mouse game they had to play to convince the nazis they didn't have one.

That sounds like a good read! Who is the author?

[buttslinger]

That sounds like a good read! Who is the author?

http://spyinggame.me/2011/05/15/ultra-goes-to-war-by-ronald-lewin-1978/


This was my Dad's book. Read to the bottom of this article to find newer books on the subject. The British are so good at codes at Bletchly Park that an American has to learn Cricket and other British Prep School games to understand the lingo in their codebooks. Enjoy. Should be cheap on Amazon

[Prospero]

A good insight into the british love of codes is for you to try and do the Times crossword puzzle. (not the NY Times - the Times of London).

[Paige]

"The Middle East Under Rome"-no choice-i tutor Latin, so have to keep up with the context. And besides, it's fascinating! The eastern Roman Empire is much more intriguing than the western-wish i knew more about it.

[Prospero]

Sounds intriguing Paige. who is the author?

[Amdukias]

The Forest Laird by Jack Whyte http://www.theguardianstrilogy.ca/

[iswallowdeep]

"Unbroken". By Laura Hillenbrand. (Seabiscuit)

It's an absolutely incredible story of bravery, survival, and resilience.




Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption:Amazon:Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517gOImApNL.@@AMEPARAM@@517gOImApNL (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1400064163)

[danthepoetman]

Back digging the incredible The History of Religious Ideas, by Mircea Eliade, in 3 volumes. A history of religions from the Palaeolithic to Mohamed. The first two volumes are particularly rich.

[robertlouis]

A good insight into the british love of codes is for you to try and do the Times crossword puzzle. (not the NY Times - the Times of London).

The Times crossword is for pussies. Try The Guardian, especially when the fiendish Araucaria is the setter.

Knowledge of cricket and London postcodes is essential.

[robertlouis]

I'm reading Sons of Vulcan by Robert Duncan, a history of the Scottish steel industry and the men who worked in it - part of the research for a new song.

My music is laugh a minute stuff, as you can probably tell.

[Chase_Mcthirsty]

When it comes to books, I dabble in a bit of everything.

I bought the 4 book set of A Song of Fire and Ice novels from Amazon earily this year, read the first 3 and loved them but "It is known" that George R. R. Martin reached his peak with Storm of Swords. The 4th and 5th novel are not so good. Plus it makes it harder to follow the HBO show knowing all that's been cut out.

Not big on Erotica but Marlene Sexton changed my mind about that. She know her Tgirls. I've also got a book on Sexual Astrology call "Sexual Astrology"

Ever since I got my Kindle Fire, I've been racking up on Horror since e-books on Amazon tend to be dirt cheap or even free. I'm half way through Zombie Fallout 3 after breezing through the first 2, Just finished reading Monster Hunters Legion, read the first few chapters of Darkhouse (Experiment of terror). Finished "Assassin's Code: A Joe Ledger Novel" I've also got a book called "Nocturnal" by Scott Sigler, but it was boring me dispite all the great reviews it got.

I'm an advid Transfromers fan (coincidence?) So I resently downloaded a non official Transformers novel by Jame Roberts called "Eugenesis" I also pick up the 2 monthly IDW ongoing comics "More Than Meets the Eye" and "Robots In Disguise".

There's more but I'm tired.

[Jack59]

I'm just finishing up Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Trafalgar. Enjoying it very much. I think I'll be sticking with Sharpe for while longer.

[Chaos]

Gauntylgrym- R.A. Salvatore

[TS Evelyn Summers]

* Sigh.....


Bentley Repair Manual For The E38 Chassis.


http://i47.tinypic.com/mh7c76.jpg

[GoddessAthena85]

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1440&bih=756&tbm=isch&tbnid=QJQC2zGCfYAPTM:&imgrefurl=http://www.heropress.net/2010/11/review-round-up-hackslash-omnibus.html&docid=e8m1kayEn_L8LM&imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jvBFHkK2ZXc/TNPQuxNLxfI/AAAAAAAAJAU/pHHSXEotg-0/s1600/hack%252Bslash%252Bv2.jpg&w=200&h=315&ei=CNJ0UPG-HuaNyAGW54DQDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1031&vpy=177&dur=1416&hovh=252&hovw=160&tx=80&ty=118&sig=103183851385599958490&page=1&tbnh=161&tbnw=100&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0,i:91Hack/Slash Volume 2

[danthepoetman]

Leibnitz “Monadology”. Small book, yet I can’t get it read, can’t concentrate enough. Interesting, but so far from our preoccupations today… A classical fairy tale foreshadowing Kant, criticism and even modern psychology. I’m almost done, but with pain.

Nice site, Athena. Seems to be really nice stuff in these.

[Chaos]

Also reading Dante's Inferno and a collected edition of H.P.Lovecraft at the moment...

[GoddessAthena85]

Also reading Dante's Inferno and a collected edition of H.P.Lovecraft at the moment...
you seem to have good taste in books. but how many are you reading at once or did i read your previous post wrong?

[Chaos]

I'm a bit of a speed reader so I tend to read 3 or 4 at a time...
Finishing a 300+ page book in a few hours is normal for me.
By reading more than one at a time I slow down a little.
My 3rd time reading Dante and 2nd reading H.P.

[GoddessAthena85]

I'm a bit of a speed reader so I tend to read 3 or 4 at a time...
Finishing a 300+ page book in a few hours is normal for me.
By reading more than one at a time I slow down a little.
My 3rd time reading Dante and 2nd reading H.P.

ADD & Nerd Points. weather you want them or not. :geek: I think that's amazing

[RallyCola]

well, the last "book" i read for pleasure was Larson's The Devil In The White City.

i say "book" because it was the kindle version. i actually can't remember what the last physical book i read was that wasn't a text book or for a course in school

[Chaos]

ADD & Nerd Points. weather you want them or not. :geek: I think that's amazing
I was never diagnosed with ADD but I probably do have it...There are very few things I can focus on and stay focused on....Games,Reading,Art and music being pretty much it...Which is fine by me...the 4 things I love most!
Proud to be a :geek: !!

[Stavros]

Frogs, by Mo Yan, the translated text via Granta is here.

I have to admit that, though I did not make it public, I was personally opposed to my Aunty’s marriage plans. My father, my brothers and their wives shared my feelings. It simply wasn’t a good match in our view. Ever since we were small we’d looked forward to seeing Aunty find a husband. Her relationship with Wang Xiaoti had brought immense glory to the family, only to end ingloriously. Yang Lin was next, and while not nearly the ideal match that Wang would have provided, he was, after all, an official, which made him a passable candidate for marriage. Hell, she could have married Qin He, who was obsessed with her, and be better off than with Hao Dashou . . . we were by then assuming she’d wind up an old maid, and had made appropriate plans. We’d even discussed who would be her caregiver when she reached old age. But then, with no prior indication, she’d married Hao Dashou. Little Lion and I were living in Beijing then, and when we heard the news, we could hardly believe our ears. Once the preposterous reality set in, we were overcome by sadness.
Years later, Aunty starred in a TV program titled ‘Moon Child,’ which was supposed to be about the sculptor Hao Dashou, though the camera was always on her, talking and gesturing as she welcomed journalists into Hao’s yard and gave them a guided If you want to know why I married Hao Dashou, I have to start with the frogs. tour of his workshop and the storeroom where he kept all his clay figurines, while he sat quietly at his workbench, eyes glazed over and a blank look on his face, like a dreamy old horse. Did all master artists turn into dreamy old horses once they became famous? I wondered. The name Hao Dashou resounded in my ears, though I’d only met him a few times. After seeing him late on the night my nephew Xianquan hosted a dinner to celebrate his acceptance as a pilot, years passed before I saw him again, and this time it was on TV. His hair and beard had turned white, but his complexion was ruddy as ever; composed and serene, he was a nearly transcendent figure. It was during that program that we learned why Aunty had married Hao Dashou.
Aunty lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and began to speak, sadness creeping into her voice. ‘Marriages,’ she said, ‘are made in Heaven. By this, I’m not promoting the cause of idealism for you youngsters, for there was a time when I was an ardent materialist, but where marriage is concerned, you must trust in fate. Just ask him,’ she said, pointing to Hao Dashou. ‘Do you think he ever dreamed of one day getting me as his wife?’
‘In 1997, when I was sixty,’ she said, ‘my superiors told me to retire, whether I wanted to or not. I was already five years past the retirement age, and nothing I said would have made any difference. You know the hospital director, that ungrateful bastard Huang Jun, the son of Huang Pi from Hexi Village. Just who do you think dragged that little shit – they called him Melon Huang – out of his mother’s belly? Well, he spent a couple of days in a medical school, and when he came out, almost as stupid as the day he went in, he couldn’t find a vein with a syringe, couldn’t locate a heart with a stethoscope, and had never heard the terms ‘inch, bar, and cubit’ when checking a patient’s pulse. So who better to appoint as hospital director! He was admitted into the school thanks to my personal recommendation to Director Shen of the Bureau of Health. Only to be ignored by him when he was the man in charge. The wretched creature has limited talents: playing the host, giving gifts, kissing ass and seducing women.’
At this point, Aunty thumped her breast and stomped her foot. ‘What a fool I was,’ she said angrily, ‘letting the wolf in my door. I made it easy for him to have his way with all the girls in the hospital. Wang Xiaomei, a seventeen-year-old girl from Wang Village, had nice, thick braids, a pretty oval face, and skin like ivory. Her lashes danced like butterfly wings, her eyes could talk, and anyone who saw her would believe that if film director Zhang Yimou discovered her, she’d be a hotter commodity than Gong Li or Zhang Ziyi ever were. Sadly, Melon Huang, the sex fiend, discovered her first. He rushed off to Wang Village, where, with a glib tongue that could bring back the dead, he talked Xiaomei’s parents into sending her to his hospital to learn from me how to treat women’s problems. He said she’d be my student, but she never spent a single day with me. Instead, the lecher kept her to himself, his daily companion and nightly lover. If that weren’t bad enough, he even took her during the daytime; people had seen them. Then once he’d had enough fun with her, he was off to the county seat, where he hosted banquets for high officials with public funds, in hopes of being transferred to the big city. Maybe you haven’t seen what he looks like: a long, donkey face with dark lips, bloody gums, and toxic breath. Even with a face like that, he figured he had a chance of becoming assistant director at the Bureau of Health! Each time he dragged Wang Xiaomei along to drink and eat and entertain the officials, probably even offering her up as a gift for their pleasure. Evil! That’s what he was, pure evil!
‘One day the little wretch called me to his office. Other women who worked in the hospital were afraid to be in his office. But not me. I kept a little dagger handy, and wouldn’t have hesitated to use it on the bastard. Well, he poured tea, smiled, and laid it on thick. “What did you want to see me about, Director Huang? Let’s get to the point.” “Heh-heh.” He grinned. “Great Aunt” – damned if he didn’t call me “Great Aunt” – “you delivered me the day I was born, and you’ve watched me grow into adulthood. Why, I could be your own son. Heh-heh” . . . The croaking of frogs is often described in terms of drumbeats. But that night it sounded to her like human cries, almost as if thousands of newborn infants were crying. “I don’t deserve such an honour,” I said. “You’re the director of a big hospital, while I’m just an ordinary woman’s doctor. If you were my son I’d die from the honour. So, please, tell me what you have in mind.” More heh-heh-heh, before he got around to revealing the shameless reason he’d summoned me. “I’ve made the mistake all leading cadres make sooner or later – through my own carelessness Wang Xiaomei got pregnant.” “Congratulations!” I said. “Now that Xiaomei is carrying your dragon seed, the hospital is guaranteed leadership continuity.” “Don’t mock me, Great Aunt, I’ve been so upset the past few days I can’t eat or sleep.” Can you believe the bastard actually said he had trouble eating and sleeping? “She’s demanding that I divorce my wife, and if I won’t she’s threatened to report me to the County Discipline Commission.” “Really?” I said. “I thought having ‘second wives’ was popular among you officials these days. Buy a villa, install her in it, and you’ve got it made.” “I asked you not to make fun of me, Great Aunt,” he said. “I couldn’t go public with a ‘second’ or a ‘third’ wife, even if I had the money to buy a villa.” “Then go ahead and get a divorce,” I said. He pulled that donkey face longer than ever and said, “Great Aunt, you know full well that my father-in-law and those pig-butcher brothers-in-law of mine are violent thugs. My life wouldn’t be worth a thing if they found out about this.” “But you’re the Director, an official!” “All right, that’s enough, Great Aunt. In your old eyes the director of a hospital in a piddling, out-of-the-way town is about as important as a loud fart, so instead of mocking me, why don’t you help me come up with something!” “What in the world could I come up with?” “Wang Xiaomei admires you,” he said. “She’s told me that many, many times. You’re the only person she’ll listen to.” “What do you want me to do?” “Talk her into having an abortion.” “Melon Huang,” I complained through clenched teeth, “I will never again soil my hands with that atrocious act! Over the course of my life I’ve already been responsible for more than two thousand aborted births, and I’ll never do it again. Just wait her out until you’re a father. Xiaomei is such a pretty girl, she’s bound to present you with a lovely boy or girl, and that should make you happy. You go tell her that when the time comes, I’ll be there to deliver the child.”’
‘With that, I turned on my heel and walked out of the office pleased with myself. But that feeling lasted only till I was back in my own office and had drunk a glass of water. My mood turned dark. No one as bad as Melon Huang deserved to have an heir, and what a shame that Wang Xiaomei was carrying his child. I’d learned enough delivering all those children to know that a person’s core – good or bad – is determined more by nature than nurture. You can criticize hereditary laws all you want, but this is knowledge based on experience. You could place a son of that evil Melon Huang in a Buddhist temple, and he’d grow up to be a lascivious monk. No matter how sorry I felt for Wang Xiaomei or how unwilling I was to put ideas in her head, I simply couldn’t let that fiend find an easy way out of his predicament. If the world had another lascivious monk, so be it.
‘But Xiaomei herself came to me, wrapped her arms around my legs, and dirtied my trousers with her tears and snivel. “Aunty,” she sobbed, “dear Aunty, he tricked me, he lied to me. I wouldn’t marry that bastard if he sent an eight-man sedan chair for me. Help me do it, Aunty, I don’t want that evil seed in me.”’
‘So that’s how it was.’ Aunty lit another cigarette and puffed away savagely, until I couldn’t see her face for all the smoke. ‘I helped rid her of the fetus. Once a rose about to bloom, Wang Xiaomei was now a ruined, fallen woman.’ Aunty reached up and dried her tears. ‘I vowed to never do that procedure again, I couldn’t take it any longer, not for anyone, not even if the woman was carrying the offspring of a chimpanzee. I wouldn’t do it. The slurping sound as it was sucked into the vacuum bottle was like a monstrous hand squeezing my heart, harder and harder, until I broke out in a cold sweat and began to see stars. The moment I finished I crumpled to the floor.
‘You’re right, I do digress when I’m talking – I’m old. After all that chatter, I still haven’t told you why I married Hao Dashou. Well, I announced my retirement on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, but that bastard Melon Huang wanted to keep me around and urged me to formally retire but remain on the payroll at eight hundred Yuan a month. I spat in his face. “I’ve slaved away enough for you, you bastard. You have me to thank for eight out of every ten Yuan this hospital has earned all these years. When women and girls come to the hospital from all around, it’s me they’ve come to see. If money was what I was after, I could have made at least a thousand a day on my own. Do you really think you can buy my labour for eight hundred a month, Melon Huang? A migrant worker is worth more than that. I’ve slaved away half my life, and now it’s time for me to rest, to go back home to Northeast Gaomi Township.” He was upset with me and has spent much of the past two years trying to make me suffer. Me, suffer? I’m a woman who’s seen it all. As a little girl I wasn’t scared of the Jap devils, so what made him think I was scared of a little bastard like him now that I was in my seventies? Right, right, back to what I was saying.
‘If you want to know why I married Hao Dashou, I have to start with the frogs. Some old friends got together for dinner on the night I announced my retirement, and I wound up drunk – I hadn’t drunk much, less than a bowlful, but it was cheap liquor. Xie Xiaoque, the son of the restaurant owner, Xie Baizhua, one of those sweet-potato kids of the ‘63 famine, took out a bottle of ultra-strong Wuliangye – to honour me, he said – but it was counterfeit, and my head was reeling. Everyone at the table was wobbly, barely able to stand, and Xie Xiaoque himself foamed at the mouth till his eyes rolled up into his head.’
Aunty said she staggered out of the restaurant, headed to the hospital dormitory, but wound up in a marshy area on a narrow, winding path bordered on both sides by head-high reeds. Moonlight reflected on the water around her shimmered like glass. The croaks of toads and frogs sounded first on one side and then on the other, back and forth, like an antiphonal chorus. Then the croaks came at her from all sides at the same time, waves and waves of them merging to fill the sky. Suddenly, there was total silence, broken only by the chirping of insects. Aunty said that in all her years as a medical provider, traveling up and down remote paths late at night, she’d never once felt afraid. But that night she was terror-stricken. The croaking of frogs is often described in terms of drumbeats. But that night it sounded to her like human cries, almost as if thousands of newborn infants were crying. That had always been one of her favorite sounds, she said. For an obstetrician, no sound in the world approaches the soul-stirring music of a newborn baby’s cries. The liquor she’d drunk that night, she said, left her body as cold sweat. ‘Don’t assume I was drunk and hallucinating, because as soon as the liquor oozed out through my pores, leaving me with a slight headache, my mind was clear.’ As she walked down the muddy path, all she wanted was to escape that croaking. But how? No matter how hard she tried to get away, the chilling croak – croak – croak – sounds of aggrieved crying ensnared her from all sides. She tried to run, but couldn’t; the gummy surface of the path stuck to the soles of her shoes, and it was a chore even to lift up a foot, snapping the silvery threads that held her shoes to the surface of the path. But as They came upon her like ocean waves, enshrouding her with their angry croaks, and it felt as if all those mouths were pecking at her skin, that they had grown nails to scrape her skin. soon as she stepped down, more threads were formed. So she took off her shoes to walk in her bare feet, but that actually increased the grip of the mud. Aunty said she got down on her hands and knees, like an enormous frog, and began to crawl. Now the mud stuck to her knees and calves and hands, but she didn’t care, she just kept crawling. It was at that moment, she said, when an incalculable number of frogs hopped out of the dense curtain of reeds and from lily pads that shimmered in the moonlight. Some were jade green, others were golden yellow; some were as big as an electric iron, others as small as dates. The eyes of some were like nuggets of gold, those of others, red beans. They came upon her like ocean waves, enshrouding her with their angry croaks, and it felt as if all those mouths were pecking at her skin, that they had grown nails to scrape her skin. When they hopped onto her back, her neck, and her head, their weight sent her sprawling onto the muddy path. Her greatest fear, she said, came not from the constant pecking and scratching, but from the disgusting, unbearable sensation of their cold, slimy skin brushing against hers. ‘They covered me with urine, or maybe it was semen.’ She said she was suddenly reminded of a legend her grandmother had told her about a seducing frog: a maiden cooling herself on a riverbank one night fell asleep and dreamed of a liaison with a young man dressed in green. When she awoke she was pregnant and eventually gave birth to a nest of frogs. Given an explosion of energy by that terrifying image, she jumped to her feet and shed the frogs on her body like mud clods. But not all – some clung to her clothes and to her hair; two even hung by their mouths from the lobes of her ears, a pair of horrific earrings. As she took off running, she sensed that somehow the mud was losing its sucking power, and as she ran she shook her body and tore at her clothes and skin with both hands. She shrieked each time she caught one of the frogs, which she flung away. The two attached to her ears like suckling infants took some of the skin with them when she pulled them off.
Aunty screamed and she ran, but she couldn’t break free of the reptilian horde. And when she turned to look, the sight nearly drove the soul out of her body. Thousands, tens of thousands of frogs had formed a mighty army behind her, croaking, hopping, colliding, crowding together, like a murky torrent rushing madly toward her. As she ran, roadside frogs hopped into the path forming barriers to block her progress, while others leaped out of the reedy curtain in individual assaults. She told us that the loose-fitting black silk dress she was wearing that night was being shredded by the assault. Attacking frogs swallowed the strips of silk, and were thrown into a frenzy of cheek scraping before they rolled on the ground and exposed their white undersides.
She ran all the way to a riverbank, where she spotted a little stone bridge washed by silvery moonlight. By then hardly anything remained of her dress, and when she reached the bridge, stark naked, she ran into Hao Dashou.
Thoughts of modesty did not enter her mind at that moment, nor was she aware that she had been stripped naked. She spotted a man in a palm-bark rain cape and a bamboo coned hat sitting in the middle of the bridge kneading something in his hands. ‘I later learned that he was kneading a lump of clay. A moon child can only be made from clay bathed in moonlight. I didn’t know who he was, but I didn’t care. Whoever he was, he was bound to be my salvation.’ She rushed into the man’s arms and crawled under his rain cape, and when her breasts came into contact with the warmth of his chest, in contrast to the damp, foul-smelling chill of the frogs on her back, she cried out, ‘Help, Big Brother, save me!’ She promptly passed out.
Aunty’s extended narration called up images of frog hordes in our minds and sent chills up and down our spines. The camera cut to Hao Dashou, who still sat there like a statue; the next scenes were close-ups of clay figures and of the little stone bridge, before returning to Aunty’s face, focusing on her mouth. She said:
‘I awoke to find myself on Hao Dashou’s brick bed, dressed in men’s clothes. With both hands he handed me a bowl of mung bean soup, the simple fragrance of which cleared my head. I was sweating after a single bowlful, and was suddenly aware of how much I hurt and how hot my skin felt. But that cold, slimy feeling that had made me scream was already fading. I had itchy, painful blisters all over my body, I spiked a fever, and I was delirious. But I had passed an ordeal by drinking Hao Dashou’s mung bean soup; I’d shed a layer of skin, and my bones had begun to ache. I’d heard a legend about rebirth, and I knew I’d become a new person. When I regained my health, I said to Hao Dashou: “Big Brother, let’s get married.”’ ■
Extracted from Frogs by Mo Yan. Translated by Howard Goldblatt.


http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/Frogs

[Prospero]

You have read Mo Yan, Stavros? Before today's announcement that he had won the Nobel prize? Impressed.

[Prospero]

Presently reading (nearly finished) Pity The Billionaire by Thomas frank. Required reading, imho, to understand the bizarre turn to the radical right in contemporary US politics and the manner in which the super rich have hijacked the ideals of the poor and the middle classes.

Also still reading Parades End (it is very very long) - a five novel sequence by Ford Maddox Ford.

And sampling Alif The Unseen- new novel by G Willow Wilson.

And I think reading a book on Kindle or one of the other electronic devises is still reading a book. Though reading a "real" book is still preferable. But the Kindle et al are great for travelling and portability.

[RallyCola]

my sister dropped off that new jk rowling book yesterday. 1) its not a kindle version so i'm not reading it and 2) its jk rowling...it won't be a very sophisticated read so i'll pass

[trish]

Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 (a riveting read so far).
Caleb Scharf's Gravity's Engines (in the words of Spock, "fascinating").

Now that Summer's over and I'm working on umpteen projects, teaching and have committee meeting coming out my wazzoo, my reading time has taken a hit :(

[Prospero]

The new JK Rowling to generally lukewarm reviews in the UK - except for one well respected critic (Melvyn Bragg) who thought it was a masterpiece. Not on my reading list.

[Stavros]

You have read Mo Yan, Stavros? Before today's announcement that he had won the Nobel prize? Impressed.

Thanks to the hit and miss approach of Granta, actually, although I have Big Breasts and Wide Hips but as with Trish recent commitments have severely reduced my non-profesisonal reading to almost zero. Contemporary Chinese literature doesn't excite me in the way I want; Yan writes well -or rather the English translation reads well- but I am not sure about the 'magical realism' tag and the associations with Marquez, not least because there are few writers who can make magical realism believable, if that isn't a contradiction in terms -in fact just Marquez and Borges. Others, like Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie use it as a cover for their obvious literary inadequacies. I used to know a Chinese person and spent some time in China about ten years ago, read Ha Jin, for example, but while it passed the time I wasn't overwhelmed -as with Eileen Chang, a lapidary tone to much Chinese writing may mean that in the original there are nuances and subtleties that don't translate into English. There is more bad language and emotional hysterics in Yan than the other Chinese writers mentioned.

The Nobel Prize, though lucrative, is a worthless literary accolade, as are all literary prizes.

[GroobySteven]

Still reading and very much enjoying Burmese Days by George Orwell.

[buttslinger]

Now that Summer's over and I'm working on umpteen projects, teaching and have committee meeting coming out my wazzoo, my reading time has taken a hit :(

You're a teacher? Like a SCHOOL teacher? Hmm, does this mean I'm going to be graded on grammer?

[Deimos]

just finished reading marvel zombies 2,3, and 4... started on the batman- battle for the cowl story arc. also going to check out avengers vs. x-men once it is released in trade form.

[trish]

You're a teacher? Like a SCHOOL teacher? Hmm, does this mean I'm going to be graded on grammer?This term I'm teaching general relativity, cosmology and mathematics for physicists. Expect a rigorous workout :)

[Jericho]

Born to Be Riled.
Pretty much like i thought...Clarkson's a cunt! :shrug

[buttslinger]

This term I'm teaching general relativity, cosmology and mathematics for physicists. Expect a rigorous workout :)

Whoa! I now picture Trish in six inch stilettos, seamed nylon stockings, a super-skintight slit-skirt, .....and glasses.

[Winkle]

http://insightsblog.oecdcode.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/stewart-lansley-cost-inequality1.jpg?w=192

[Lovecox]

A Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. Just a little light reading.

[danthepoetman]

A Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. Just a little light reading.
One of the most fascinating book(s) I’ve ever read that was simultaneously so immensely boring… I still have a hard time not having nightmares about the 25 straight pages descriptions of flowers, for instance. Yet, in many instances about the constitution of self, memory and identity, much better than Freud ever could be…

[trish]

I read Swan's Way but never went through the rest of series and from what I can remember Proust loves single sentences that run on for pages and pages so that in fact whenever I now encounter a run-on sentence it reminds of those crisp days in fall when I sat out under the brilliant oranges and blushing reds reading my brand new copy of Swan's Way, the smell of the fresh pages mingling with the sour scents of the mowed grasses and urine of last night's passing drunks....

[Prospero]

For weeks and weeks i meandered on about why my mother would not come and kiss me good night, or if she would, as i lay i my bed, tossing and turning, thinking about my mother (and on for another 67 pages).

[Stavros]

It took me three months to read Proust, one of the memorable literary experiences of my adult life. I think that Proust has one of those styles of writing that, like Joyce, Conrad and the other modernists, has its own internal logic. If you cannot develop a relationship to that kind of writing, its quality and purpose will pass you by. There is a lot of storytelling in Proust but it is dictated by the author's obsessions, with words, with feelings, with tastes, with colours, and with music. I can understand why people fnd it difficult in the same way that some people do not find it easy to sit through a film by Antonioni, Tarkovsky or Bela Tarr. What Proust also produced is a social document in which class is the pivot on which so much of the book's relationships turn and is, in this way a First World War book, as that War is often used to mark a shift in world politics, signified by the collapse of Empire. It is also a book written by a Jew about a society in which Jews are not completely accepted, which is also how Marcel depicts homosexuality -there is plenty of it about, but nobody admits to it, just as that crushing moment during the Dreyfus affair when suddenly, Swann being a Jew becomes a vocalised problem that would otherwise never have been mentioned, because he was a friend of the Prince of Wales; the horror and the embarrassment is in the sudden absence of decorum, but one that exposes the attitudes of class that permeate this book. There is a deep sense in the late volumes, of the world that Marcel was born into having crashed and burned on the battlefields of Europe. It may seem odd that an elegy to snobbery could have such power, but that is the magic of Proust's writing. He also had an insight into music, as Pierre Boulez once realised after reading the passage on Wagner in The Captive (La Prisonniere) on the way the shepherd's lament at the opening of Act III of Tristan becomes the joyful fanfare at the end when Isolde arrives. There are also precise uses of colour throughout the book. But I admit, as with Joyce, reading Proust requires a degree of dedication many readers are not prepared to give.

[Cecil Rhodes]

I am reading the november 2012 issue of BIG UNS Magazine

[danthepoetman]

I read Swan's Way but never went through the rest of series and from what I can remember Proust loves single sentences that run on for pages and pages so that in fact whenever I now encounter a run-on sentence it reminds of those crisp days in fall when I sat out under the brilliant oranges and blushing reds reading my brand new copy of Swan's Way, the smell of the fresh pages mingling with the sour scents of the mowed grasses and urine of last night's passing drunks....


For weeks and weeks i meandered on about why my mother would not come and kiss me good night, or if she would, as i lay i my bed, tossing and turning, thinking about my mother (and on for another 67 pages).
Trish, Prospero, I love this. You're both so clever! lol lol!
Stavros, brilliant anlysis as usual! No one ever seem to thank you for these. I do.

[Prospero]

Thanks Dan. Stavros's analysis is truly very perceptive and persuasive. It's my plan to embark on it again soon. I set off on that journey years ago - and after long hours got past Swan's Way (with its brilliant evocation of obsession) only to see the prospect of the same sort of story... an the realisation that there were several more volumes. Life seemed too short then. It is even shorter now, but Proust is still THE mountain to climb. Everyone I know who has got through it says there are a lot of laughs to be had enroute to the Medelaine Biscuit.

[Stavros]

Prospero, a madeleine is not a biscuit! It is a cake. He dips it into some tea and it provokes what becomes known as an involuntary memory -the memory that leads Marcel through the subsequent volumes. There is another one two-thirds of the way through when he slips on a paving stone in Venice and it provokes memories of his dead grandmother, but more importantly enables him to resurrect his belief in art that in the intervening years he felt had lost, mostly through an obsessional love for Albertine, who dominates the later volumes as Gilberte and her her mother Odette dominated the earlier volumes: thus, at the beginning, the Madeleine releases the power, the possibility of art, but in the intervening years he loses focus, so that it is only at the end of the book when he realises that time passing will also take his life with it, that his dedication to art becomes both possible and practical -in effect, the writing of the book that will become in A La Recherche du temps perdu, begins at the end: it becomes like Finnegan's Wake, a circular book that encourages you to end the last page by turning to the first. Or it could be that it will be another book...

However, you must be willing to accept that Proust plays with language as well as painting with it, and does not concentrate description into a sentence, he is the polar opposite of Borges, who can suggest great things in small words -that mirror troubling the depths of a corridor in a country house on Gaona street...for what it's worth, I have never read War and Peace, but would still like to have a go at it.

[BellaBellucci]

I'm not a reader for pleasure, and I prefer articles over books in the non-fiction realm, but my favorite book is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. If you've never heard of it, you will... when the movie comes out next year. ;)

~BB~

[Nicola]

From Last to First by Charlie Spedding, bout a marathon runner from the North of England

[MdR Dave]

I'm not a reader for pleasure, and I prefer articles over books in the non-fiction realm, but my favorite book is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. If you've never heard of it, you will... when the movie comes out next year. ;)

~BB~

Wasn't his work heavily influenced by the Book of Mormon?

[MdR Dave]

I just re-read ""Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K Jerome.

I read it about once or twice a year. Slim volume, funny stuff.

[trish]

I'm not a reader for pleasure, and I prefer articles over books in the non-fiction realm, but my favorite book is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. If you've never heard of it, you will... when the movie comes out next year. ;)

~BB~
Read that a fews years back. It's a solid read.

Just started, "Cloud Atlas," also soon to be a movie.

[Lovecox]

One of the most fascinating book(s) I’ve ever read that was simultaneously so immensely boring… I still have a hard time not having nightmares about the 25 straight pages descriptions of flowers, for instance. Yet, in many instances about the constitution of self, memory and identity, much better than Freud ever could be…

It is absorbing. I am absorbed in it. I often feel like I am reading it in a trance. I think Alain Robbe Grillet owes more to Proust than he would care to admit.

[sukumvit boy]

The book lovers among us ,I would assume , have been able to catch up on some reading over these holidays . Any recommendations?
I have been on holiday for the last month and managed to squeeze in a lot of reading between squeezing into Bangkok bargirls .
So here's some:
"An Appetite For Wonder" The Making Of A Scientist , A Memoir. Richard Dawkins
"Cooked", A Natural history Of Transformation. Michael Pollan.
"The Tell" The Little Clues That Reveal The Big Truths About Who We Are. Matthew Hertenstein .
"From Strange Simplicity To Complex Familiarity" A Treatise On Matter ,Information , Life And Thought. Manfred Eigen.
The math is a bit challenging , probably better appreciated by someone like Trish , (forgive my presumption ,Trish).
"The Better Angels Of Our Nature" A History Of Violence And Humanity. Steven Pinker
See in the 'Great Bible verses' thread #8 under Politics and Religion.

[bluesoul]

http://tulsabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/new_earth.jpg

this book got a lot of shit when it came out because it falls into a lot of the cliches of western storytelling- but i'm really enjoying it. it's a little long winded (to be expected from bova) and at times it's like "i wish we can just get on with the story rather than this romance crap" so either bova's editor is in love with him or is just incapable of actually doing some editing.

[Dino Velvet]

I cracked open The Thomas Guide fairly recent.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6121/6012652877_011ee7d98e_o.jpg

[Prospero]

The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante... A stunning modern novel by a reclusive writer widely considered the greatest living Italian novelist. This is an incredible narrative about a wife's descent into near madness as her personality splinters when her husband of fifteen years leaves her for a younger woman. A truly remarkable and terrifying piece of writing. Before that Americanah by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which looks are race in America from a female African perspective. It is also intriguing for its portrait of modern Nigeria. It is honest and funny and moving.

[Prospero]

And just started Reflections of a Metaphysical Flaneur by Raymond Tallis a series of essays on issues to do with neuroscience and consciousness.

[tsmirandameadows]

I'm currently rereading Harley Hahn's Guide to Unix and Linux, which is easily my favorite book on computing -- yes, more that Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs or K&R C. While ostensibly a beginner's course in the *nix family of operating systems, it is really a general introduction to scientific computing, the ideas and concepts that underlie it, and the historical contexts in which these principles and technologies developed, all of which is told with a very distinct and funny authorial voice. I've been getting back into programming a bit, and felt the need to brush up on the tools with which to do so -- with Unix/Linux, the OS itself is basically an IDE for the C programming language, and the command line environment and its programs work just as well for other languages. Plus, it's quite an enjoyable read, and even at 800 pages, it goes fast enough that you never mind going through it again.

[Stavros]

The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante... A stunning modern novel by a reclusive writer widely considered the greatest living Italian novelist. This is an incredible narrative about a wife's descent into near madness as her personality splinters when her husband of fifteen years leaves her for a younger woman. A truly remarkable and terrifying piece of writing.

Better than Marta Morazzoni? A matter of taste I suggest.

[Stavros]

This year:
I read Anatoly Rybakov's Children of the Arbat (1987) before my Russian trip and also stayed in the building in the Arbat where he wrote it. It is the first of a trilogy and although it is a good read on the experience of living under Stalin in the 1930s (and Stalin is one of the characters in the book) it stands or falls by any interest you can muster in two of the main characters, and on that the score is 5/10.

Mark Forsyth The Etymologicon (2011) is a witty, entertaining, informative and often hilarious tour through the origin of English words and phrases with some asides in other languages notably the Chinese poem consisting of one word which is an extreme form of Antanaclasis...

Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre (1847) -attributed to Currer Bell -I had not read this English masterpiece before and was pleased to encounter such delightful and elegant prose after the crabbed and hideous essay in cruelty penned by her sister aka Wuthering Heights (also 1847 and this time attributed to Ellis Bell).

Matthew Parris and Andrew Bryson The Spanish Ambassador's Suitcase (2012) is an occasionally hilarious compendium of despatches from British ambassadors around the globe, from the gruesome eyewitness account of hara-kiri in Japan in the mid-19th century through to the rain-soaked event in Brasil and some lapidary comments on other countries.

Christopher Clark The Sleepwalkers. How Europe Went to War in 1914 (2012). Clark says 25,000 books have been published on the First World War, and none of them offer a definitive view of its causes because there is no single cause. This undermines the tendency to blame Germany which emerged from the Versailles peace conferences, and deflects the arguments of Fritz Fischer's seminal work which, nevertheless, Clark argues is really motivated by the Second rather than the First war. He manages to establish beyond doubt that the gradual erosion of Ottoman imperial rule in the Balkans and Bulgaria created a vacuum of power into which the contending forces of imperialism -Austria-Hungary- and nationalism -Serbian, collided with devastating results. Indeed, he sees the First World War as an extension of the Third Balkan War, while its link to the 'Greater Serbia' of Milosovic is chilling, as if the events of the 1990s were but another chapter in the Serbian obsession to realise an impossible dream. He also brings out the extent to which deeply felt hostilities between individuals in politics and the military in Vienna, Paris, Berlin and St Petersburg turned the assassination of Franz Ferdinand into a World War. I haven't finished it yet so I don't yet know how he explains the involvement of the British Empire in this event. A long book but worth investigating if you want to get ahead of the curve next year.

[Prospero]

Re Marta Morazzoni... Not read her but will investigate. I was simply reporting the critical overview I've encountered. Best is a slippery word in this context.

[Jericho]

Rogers Profanasaurus.

I had to do her up the arse, she had a face like an abandoned shit farm!

[ILuvGurls]

Sure is a lot of heavy reading going on at this site, I mainly read for enjoyment.

At present reading James Patterson newest Cross My Heart

[Stavros]

Re Marta Morazzoni... Not read her but will investigate. I was simply reporting the critical overview I've encountered. Best is a slippery word in this context.

As short stories are in vogue at the moment she is highly recommended; her novels are barely 100 pages long too, and her story La ragazza col Turbante (The Girl in a Turban) pre-dates The Girl with a Pearl Earring and is in its brevity more exquisite and subtle than Chevalier.

[effigyc]

Just finished The Kite Runner. Going to start Blood Meridian or As I Lay Dying today, depending on which one the library has.

[trish]

Half way through The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. It's an eight hundred and some page mystery and a superb reproduction of life in the gold towns of nineteenth century New Zealand.

[Stavros]

Just finished The Kite Runner. Going to start Blood Meridian or As I Lay Dying today, depending on which one the library has.

As I Lay Dying, surely one of the greatest examples of writing in English and one of the finest American novels -go for that one. There is also a film of it coming out soon with James Franco.

[Stavros]

Half way through The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. It's an eight hundred and some page mystery and a superb reproduction of life in the gold towns of nineteenth century New Zealand.

May be a daft question but do you think books are too long these days? Is length a guarantee of epic grandeur?

[trish]

I have to admit that I think more than twice before attacking anything much over 500 pages. Movies too are way too long these days. The Wolf of Wall Street ( which I didn't see yet) is three hours long! Then again, listeners who were familiar with Mozart complained about the length of young Beethoven's symphonies.

[broncofan]

I haven't read anything too deep.
A Purple Place For Dying John Macdonald
The Lonely Silver Rain John Macdonald
Two or three Richard Stark books
The Killer Inside Me Jim Thompson
Barack Obama and the New America by Larry Sabato
Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine Stephen Braun
Thoughts Without a Thinker Mark Epstein

[Falling]

The Divine Comedy

[Prospero]

I think some books are too long for sure. A great writer tells his or her tale at just the necessary length. But the length of some otherwise appealing books is just too much of a commitment. Eg the accumulating biography of LBJ said to be a masterpiece but now three volumes long and only just at the start of his presidency

[goatman]

The Sunday Washington Post "If you don't get it, you don't get it...." But football is on now[Washington @ NY Giants], so.....

[Stavros]

The Divine Comedy

May I ask, if in translation, whose?

[fab]

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/images/4948/108028.jpg

[buttslinger]

Just got the third installment of Richardson's Picasso Quadrilogy, for Christmas.
Great Reading.
I wanted a Kafka torture machine, but I guess Santa decided I haven't been bad enough this year.

[Stavros]

At the moment it doesn't look like Richardson will live or find the money to complete volume 4 which is a pity as it is a magisterial achievement in a crowded field. I have read all three and there is also a dvd on Picasso with Richardson's help by Waldemar Januszczak worth seeking out.

[Ben]

Two books:

[Prospero]

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami...hjaunting and odd Japanese novel that is stories within stories. Highly recommended.

[boredtryst]

@Prespero- Murakami is always good


Why Marx Was Right- Terry Eagleton

[Prospero]

I agree boredtryst... last of his i read was the very long IQ84

[francisfkudrow]

Doctor Sleep by Steven King, the sequel to the Shining.

[boredtryst]

i still havent made up my mind if i enjoyed 1q84

im on the last book and its more bizarre than anything else hes written

i enjoyed kafka on the shore

[Chaos]

What do I read.....
R.A Salvatore,Stephen King,Dean Koontz,Michael Moorcock (I have all but one of the original Elric novels),just to name a few....Mostly anything sci-fi or fantasy that I think is good.

[maaarc]

Dead Mountain - The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
by Donnie Eichar

[jertox]

Alice in Wonderland