Books you're currently reading???

[jaguar]

I bought my copy at the wonderful Foyles in London, hardback. It's been sitting on the pile ever since..

I do find that massive mess of ideas facinating, bits of so many ideas and concepts floating around. As someone that's worked with the kind of individuals in Cryptonomicon (loved the guy with the house with the whireboard-walls) it hit a real chord with me, that feeling of riding this incredible wave of innovation, living in a swirl of ideas.

[AnonyMsB]

Did you read them all yet? If you liked them, try The Talisman and Black House.

[Griff]

I knocked off Engine City last week by Ken MacLeod. It was weaker than the first two in the series but not bad. He must have gotten some feedback from his publisher that folks wern't getting it because he was much more explicit about his vision of gods etc.. I don't think it was necessary. I still like Star Fraction the first book I read by him the best.

[DanaC]

I had had my head pretty deep into some historical analysis of 11th century Britain for a while when my Ex loaned me a little fiction. I hadnt read any fiction for about two years and was kind of pleased at having a little light relief in my reading.

I didnt expect much of the book.....Its won literary prizes which I am ashamed to say generally turns me right off :P I love literature but I get myself quite wound up at the tight definition in some circles of what exactly constitutes great literature and theres always that Schoolroom worthiness to be ware of hehe

So.....I started reading and am currently halfway through one of the best books I have read in a decade or more.

"Life of Pi"

I can highly recommend it. Beautiful. whimsical, laugh out loud funny, dark in places.... a heady mix of philosophy, theology, zoology and humour. Bravo

[DanaC]

QUOTE].[/I'm getting desperate.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude". Supposed to be this literary masterpiece. Nobel prize winning author.

I'm over 300 pages in, and I don't get it.

The names are mostly the same, which gets very confusing after the first 3 generations, and the writing style is jumbled and goes from present to future to past with very little segue.

This is supposed to be the best book he's written. And I still don't get it.

Has someone else read this? Can you tell me what I'm missing?
[quote]

I remember reading that on the recommendation of a total Marquez fanatic. ...I loved it, but I could no more explain it than you. I think I liked the fabric of it. It almost doesnt matter what the detail is.....its the smell and the feel of the endless rain, its the grief that underlies the economic realities of oppression and its the hybridised culture born of previous culture clashes, magical realism at its finest though I know many object to that term. Its a fantasy woven by a storyteller poet to while away the hot hours of political frustration

[wolf]

I just finished (yeah, I'm a latecomer sometimes) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Yeah, the Steve Covey corporate rah-rah book. I'd actually been meaning to read this for some time ... The hospital went all TQM-y about the time I started there. I had studiously avoided reading any of the indoctrination manuals or becoming too actively involved.

It's interesting to see how far, over a 12 year span, you can stray from the original intent (Having a megalomaniacal Executive Director makes that a lot easier, of course).

My coworkers were becoming a bit frustrated with my attempts to apply what I have learned from this fine tome ... but they realized I was going to be all right when I yelled at the office manager, "Give me a fucking break, I'm trying to be proactive and think win/win here, BITCH."

(That's a real quote, not one made up for the purposes of your amusement. After all, I don't work in a normal office.)

[DanaC]

*chuckles*

[Crimson Ghost]

It seems to me that almost everyone reads one book at a time. My wife does that. She can't stand the fact that I read several books at once and can follow each one.

What I'm reading now:

1) The Templars' Secret Island - The Knights, the Priest and the Treasure - Erling Haagensen and Henry Lincoln

2) The Man Of Mt. Moriah - Clarence Miles Boutelle

3) The A to Z of Serial Killers - Harold Schechter and David Everitt

4) The Secret History Of Rock - The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard - Roni Sarig

5) UFOs, JFK, and Elvis - Conspiracies You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Believe - Richard Belzer

I would suggest "UFOs, JFK, and Elvis" to anyone.

[DanaC]

I often have several books on the go. Right now i am reading the "Life of Pi" , "Harold:The Last Anglo Saxon King" and "Bede's Hitoria Ecclesiastica"( though that last one is actually a printed out copy of translation I found online

I have great difficulty with crossover if the books I am reading are too similar though.....so....If I am reading fiction ( seemingly rare these last couple years ) I might have a humourous contemporary novel on the go at the same time as some high fantasy....Usually always have at least one piece of historical analysis on the go....I found though that I had to give up reading any historical fiction set in the middle ages when I have historical research/study to do as that tends to confuse matters.....

[SteveDallas]

I just completed "Pandora's Star" by Peter F. Hamilton. Has anybody else read stuff by this guy?? I think I'm more impressed by this than I have been by any other new-to-me author I've come across lately. It's an extremely complicated story, with several seeming disjointed threads coming together as the book closes. (I don't say end, because it's a cliffhanger as we await the next volume.) In fact, it took me a really long time to read it by my standards (4 weeks for 750 pages)--I read most normal fiction pretty quickly. But I never felt like it was dragging at all.

Oh, and I just started Neal Stephenson's "The Confusion" on Wednesday. I like it so far.

[DanaC]

One of my all time favourite book titles was "Gun, with Occassional music" cant recall the author now, but it was a hell of a good book. Same guy did one called Amnesia Moon, he's an Australian sci fi writer...which reminds me, has anybody else noticed that Australia has produced some damned classy Sci Fi authors?

[lookout123]

"On Killing" by Lt Col, USA (ret.) Dave Grossman.

excellent booking examining the psychology behind making an ordinary citizen into a soldier capable of pulling the trigger on another person.

before that "Company Commander" by Charles McDonald. again excellent memoir of WWII replacement officer. he went on to become chief historian for the army.

[wolf]

Whooeee ... Lt. Col Dave!!

He's a very cool guy, great speaker. Good fun at a conference.

I've been meaning to read his book. Thanks for bringing it back to my attention.

[lookout123]

it is a very easy read wolf, you could blow through it in a weekend if you wanted.

[DanaC]

Lt Col, USA (ret.) Dave Grossman.

Oh.....Does he lecture at Sandhurst? Is he a surprisingly young looking chap for that rank and designation? If so he was the fella I saw on a documentary recently "The Truth about killing" He was fascinating

Not Sandhurst thats the english place, whats the US military academy?