Chilling the debate for a second, I thought it would be fun to just talk about books. My high school Senior English teacher, the late Mrs. Theibert, insisted that we should read three books at a time - a play in class, a book on our own to be discussed in class, and a third book of our…
In addition to SwingKid's read- I just read Street Gang: A Complete History of Sesame Street and enjoyed it. Could have skipped the first hundred pages but otherwise was fun.
I'm now reading The Gift of Fear as recommended to me by many of you. I'm not too far into it but am surprised I waited this long to get to it. I think it's the only book I've ever borrowed that had more than a weeks wait after putting it on hold at the library.
Originally posted Thursday, May 27, 2010 (2 years ago)
I am now full into the Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin. In the last two weeks I have finished A Clash of Kings which chronicled the Westeros Civil War (based loosely on the 100 years war for those of you paying attention) and I am over 450 pages into A Storm of Swords, where the war continues between the Starks and the Lannisters.
I have to confess (and I feel like a total tool for doing so but) when I was an English major, getting burned out on both American and English classics, I came to cast a rather elitist eye down on the fantasy genre. Outside Tolkein, I was used to just playing D & D and associating that type of novel with overwrought cliches.
Martin, for all his almost over-obsessively descriptive medieval prose, has humbled me. This series is addictive and as it has continued, I have enjoyed a medieval fantasy where magic takes a back seat to political intrigue (though it is not completely gone). I am eagerly awaiting HBO adaption of A Game of Thrones and will no doubt revel in the geekery of the threads on it to follow.
If any of you haven't yet read the series, now is the perfect time to start, in preparation what I hope will be a successful series.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Originally posted Saturday, July 10, 2010 (2 years ago)
Recently finished A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin. This hereby completes my intense reading of the The Song of Ice and Fire series and I will now pine for both the long-overdue fifth volume A Dance With Dragons (which still doesn't have a release date) as well as the HBO television series set to premier in March, 2011. I will pine for these things because I am a big nerd.
Meanwhile, I have returned to non-fiction and am now engrossed in The Gamble by Thomas Ricks. The book covers the surge in the Iraq War from 2007-2009. Ricks, himself a Vietnam veteran covers military affairs for WaPo and whose skepticism brings a ballanced view to now almost accepted narrative regarding the surge and its various military planners.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Originally posted Thursday, September 2, 2010 (2 years ago)
Bought a Kindle first week in July. Since then I've read:
Shadow of the Hegemon - Orson Scott Card
Shadow Puppets - Orson Scott Card
Shadow of the Giant - Orson Scott Card
Grey - John Armstrong
Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
Ariel - Steven R. Boyett
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
Currently reading: The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman
Originally posted Friday, September 3, 2010 (2 years ago)
In the first 100 pages of Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell, which in some respects thus far, covers his more superior work Vision of the Anointed while filtering it through purely the flow of people "whose final product is an idea" v.s. the practical applications of those ideas and their respective critics.
I read Vision of the Anointed in college and it made an impression, but the re-hash of some of that background is less earth shattering, though no less relevant.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Originally posted Tuesday, November 16, 2010 (1 year ago)
Finally started GCHQ by Richard J. Aldrich. GCHQ is one of the most secretive signal intelligence (SIGINT) organizations in the world. The UK has used its SIGINT stations across the world to great success and this is a comprehensive history from WWII, through the Cold War, to 9/11 and the Iraq War.
This is such a dense and detailed history, I might shelve it in favor of the somewhat more current Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Originally posted Monday, January 31, 2011 (1 year ago)
I am finally reading God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley. It's an admission that should have my conservative credentials revoked, but I never fully read this classic during college. It has been slow going thus far and I am struck as to just how much has changed in the movement Buckley himself began in founding in the 1950's.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Originally posted Tuesday, February 1, 2011 (1 year ago)
Just picked up THE ASCENT OF MONEY - A FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD which has talked a lot about the recent financial problems and recession in the intro. (By Naill Ferguson)
Also bought DEATH BY BLACK HOLE which is sort of a collection of essays about space stuff, particularly how Hollywood screws up what it would be like to get sucked into a black hole. (By Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Originally posted Monday, February 21, 2011 (1 year ago)
Guns, Germs, and Steel - It's been interesting slogging through this - I won't say the book reads quickly, and it's gone even slower since I've known the basic argument Diamond makes for 8 or 9 years now... but Diamond's treatment of the development and eventual clashes of civilizations is as thorough as it probably can be for a book of under 500 pages.
The Man in the High Castle - Alternate history novel with a familiar premise: in this timeline, FDR was assassinated in 1933 and the subsequent presidents continue to pursue isolationism. The Axis win World War 2, and the US is divided into the East Coast/Midwest which are a Nazi puppet state, Alaska/Hawaii/Pacific states which are a puppet of Japan, and the Mountain/Plains states which are independent. The book begins in 1962 after all of that has taken place. Unlike most stories of alternative WWII histories, this isn't focused around the idea of restoring the timeline where the Allies win and America/Russia become cold war superpowers. It's mostly about the lives of a few characters in this alternative reality.
Originally posted Sunday, February 27, 2011 (1 year ago)
I just read a lovely 'fluffy' book, Water for Elephants. About an old man in a nursing home remembering about his days working for the circus in 1931. The ending was so fantastic, I giggled for an hour, after which I wanted to cry because the book was over.
Also, anyone else have an Amazon Kindle? I got it 6 months ago so that I could get books in English (almost impossible to come by in small-town Italia), and am utterly addicted to the thing. I've heard that they have also added a new feature where we can finally 'lend' books to others, for 2 weeks at a time. However, I don't know anyone else with a Kindle, and am burning through books at a crazy rate.
Any other Kindle owners want to share libraries? I have mostly historical and science fiction, autobiographies, and random how-to books on mine.
follow my adventures at www.AppalachianToAlpine.blogspot.com!
Originally posted Friday, April 22, 2011 (1 year ago)
Edited on Saturday, April 23, 2011 4:48 pm (1 year ago)
Just acquired a stack of classics (10 for £5!). Starting with The Scarlet Letter.
I read Water for Elephants a couple of years ago. Don't think I'd call it fluffy. I worked for an actual 1930s style carnival later that year and used it quite a lot for information/inspiration.
Originally posted Wednesday, July 6, 2011 (10 months ago)
Slogging through the pain, anguish, and almost gutwrenching tragi-comedy of The Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.
Arguably the most emotional part of the book thus far was when the sometime reformist Soviet writer Gorky tours a camp in Solovki. The authorities at the camp are terrified and even try to paper over the attrocious conditions there. Gorky goes to the children's colony in the camp, where he encounters a boy who tells him everything he has seen there is a lie.
The camp authorities order everyone except the boy and Gorky out, allowing the two to talk for hours, as if all is normal. Gorky left the camp shaken. No sooner was he on his outbound ship than the camp authorities have the boy shot. Absolutely heartbreaking.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
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Chilling the debate for a second, I thought it would be fun to just talk about books. My high school Senior English teacher, the late Mrs. Theibert, insisted that we should read three books at a time - a play in class, a book on our own to be discussed in class, and a third book of our…
Page(s): < Previous 1 2 ... 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Next > (762 items total)
In addition to SwingKid's read- I just read Street Gang: A Complete History of Sesame Street and enjoyed it. Could have skipped the first hundred pages but otherwise was fun.
I'm now reading The Gift of Fear as recommended to me by many of you. I'm not too far into it but am surprised I waited this long to get to it. I think it's the only book I've ever borrowed that had more than a weeks wait after putting it on hold at the library.
just finished "The 19th Wife" by David Ebershoff. Loved it. Awesome historical fiction/mystery/polygamy. If you're into that sort of thing.
I am now full into the Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin. In the last two weeks I have finished A Clash of Kings which chronicled the Westeros Civil War (based loosely on the 100 years war for those of you paying attention) and I am over 450 pages into A Storm of Swords, where the war continues between the Starks and the Lannisters.
I have to confess (and I feel like a total tool for doing so but) when I was an English major, getting burned out on both American and English classics, I came to cast a rather elitist eye down on the fantasy genre. Outside Tolkein, I was used to just playing D & D and associating that type of novel with overwrought cliches.
Martin, for all his almost over-obsessively descriptive medieval prose, has humbled me. This series is addictive and as it has continued, I have enjoyed a medieval fantasy where magic takes a back seat to political intrigue (though it is not completely gone). I am eagerly awaiting HBO adaption of A Game of Thrones and will no doubt revel in the geekery of the threads on it to follow.
If any of you haven't yet read the series, now is the perfect time to start, in preparation what I hope will be a successful series.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Rich Dad's Conspiracy of The Rich (2009) The 8 New Rules of Money By Robert T. Kiyosaki
This book is a must read! Each chapter is more intense than the next. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 will get your attention and you'll be hooked until the end.
http://www.conspiracyoftherich.com/
Recently finished A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin. This hereby completes my intense reading of the The Song of Ice and Fire series and I will now pine for both the long-overdue fifth volume A Dance With Dragons (which still doesn't have a release date) as well as the HBO television series set to premier in March, 2011. I will pine for these things because I am a big nerd.
Meanwhile, I have returned to non-fiction and am now engrossed in The Gamble by Thomas Ricks. The book covers the surge in the Iraq War from 2007-2009. Ricks, himself a Vietnam veteran covers military affairs for WaPo and whose skepticism brings a ballanced view to now almost accepted narrative regarding the surge and its various military planners.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Have recently started Eclipse of the Sunnis by Deborah Amos.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Mad Men Unbuttoned (2010): A Romp Through 1960"s America By Natasha Vargas-Cooper
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Mad-Men-Unbuttoned-Natasha-Vargas-Cooper/?isbn=9780061991004
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Wilderness-Warrior-Douglas-Brinkley/?isbn=9780060565282
Bought a Kindle first week in July. Since then I've read:
Shadow of the Hegemon - Orson Scott Card Shadow Puppets - Orson Scott Card Shadow of the Giant - Orson Scott Card Grey - John Armstrong Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld Ariel - Steven R. Boyett Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
Currently reading: The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman
The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin
Crooked Little Vein.
Again.
I forgot where that went!
In the first 100 pages of Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell, which in some respects thus far, covers his more superior work Vision of the Anointed while filtering it through purely the flow of people "whose final product is an idea" v.s. the practical applications of those ideas and their respective critics.
I read Vision of the Anointed in college and it made an impression, but the re-hash of some of that background is less earth shattering, though no less relevant.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Finally started GCHQ by Richard J. Aldrich. GCHQ is one of the most secretive signal intelligence (SIGINT) organizations in the world. The UK has used its SIGINT stations across the world to great success and this is a comprehensive history from WWII, through the Cold War, to 9/11 and the Iraq War.
This is such a dense and detailed history, I might shelve it in favor of the somewhat more current Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
They Call Me Baba Booey (2010)
By Gary Dell' Abate
Really enjoyed "Sandman Slim" by Richard Kadrey. Bloody tale of a magician back from hell who's looking to kick ass... in contemporary LA.
Why It Took Me 13 Years to Learn the Big Apple • My hiphop crew Freeplay performing at the Dance-a-Rama (video).
I am finally reading God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley. It's an admission that should have my conservative credentials revoked, but I never fully read this classic during college. It has been slow going thus far and I am struck as to just how much has changed in the movement Buckley himself began in founding in the 1950's.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larson.
Why It Took Me 13 Years to Learn the Big Apple • My hiphop crew Freeplay performing at the Dance-a-Rama (video).
Recently finished The Tipping Point by Gladwell and am close to the middle of The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky.
Pretty good, considering I haven't been reading much outside of textbooks in awhile.
Tearing my way through the Flashman Papers.
Just picked up THE ASCENT OF MONEY - A FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD which has talked a lot about the recent financial problems and recession in the intro. (By Naill Ferguson)
Also bought DEATH BY BLACK HOLE which is sort of a collection of essays about space stuff, particularly how Hollywood screws up what it would be like to get sucked into a black hole. (By Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Surviving A Shark Attack (On Land)
By Dr. Laura Schlessinger (2011)
Guns, Germs, and Steel - It's been interesting slogging through this - I won't say the book reads quickly, and it's gone even slower since I've known the basic argument Diamond makes for 8 or 9 years now... but Diamond's treatment of the development and eventual clashes of civilizations is as thorough as it probably can be for a book of under 500 pages.
The Man in the High Castle - Alternate history novel with a familiar premise: in this timeline, FDR was assassinated in 1933 and the subsequent presidents continue to pursue isolationism. The Axis win World War 2, and the US is divided into the East Coast/Midwest which are a Nazi puppet state, Alaska/Hawaii/Pacific states which are a puppet of Japan, and the Mountain/Plains states which are independent. The book begins in 1962 after all of that has taken place. Unlike most stories of alternative WWII histories, this isn't focused around the idea of restoring the timeline where the Allies win and America/Russia become cold war superpowers. It's mostly about the lives of a few characters in this alternative reality.
- James
I just read a lovely 'fluffy' book, Water for Elephants. About an old man in a nursing home remembering about his days working for the circus in 1931. The ending was so fantastic, I giggled for an hour, after which I wanted to cry because the book was over.
Also, anyone else have an Amazon Kindle? I got it 6 months ago so that I could get books in English (almost impossible to come by in small-town Italia), and am utterly addicted to the thing. I've heard that they have also added a new feature where we can finally 'lend' books to others, for 2 weeks at a time. However, I don't know anyone else with a Kindle, and am burning through books at a crazy rate.
Any other Kindle owners want to share libraries? I have mostly historical and science fiction, autobiographies, and random how-to books on mine.
follow my adventures at www.AppalachianToAlpine.blogspot.com!
The Money Class (2011) By Suze Orman
Just acquired a stack of classics (10 for £5!). Starting with The Scarlet Letter.
I read Water for Elephants a couple of years ago. Don't think I'd call it fluffy. I worked for an actual 1930s style carnival later that year and used it quite a lot for information/inspiration.
IN FIFTY YEARS WE'LL ALL BE CHICKS (2010) By Adam Carolla
Slogging through the pain, anguish, and almost gutwrenching tragi-comedy of The Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.
Arguably the most emotional part of the book thus far was when the sometime reformist Soviet writer Gorky tours a camp in Solovki. The authorities at the camp are terrified and even try to paper over the attrocious conditions there. Gorky goes to the children's colony in the camp, where he encounters a boy who tells him everything he has seen there is a lie.
The camp authorities order everyone except the boy and Gorky out, allowing the two to talk for hours, as if all is normal. Gorky left the camp shaken. No sooner was he on his outbound ship than the camp authorities have the boy shot. Absolutely heartbreaking.
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley Jr.
Billionaire's Vinegar.
Page(s): < Previous 1 2 ... 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Next > (762 items total)
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