What are you reading?

[Tony M]

Finished 20k leagues under the sea and went to find another by Verne but don't have one in this big collection.

But I found some Mark Twain classics and read some comments about him in the additional literature put into the Verne stories. Twain was highly reguarded after his "Innocents abroad" novel and my wife just happened to have it along with a couple other Twain novels. I started the "Innocents abroad" book and it sure reads alot slower than the Verne's books because the words are smaller on each page. Still, I'm touring the world on top of the water and going onto land at alot of ports. Going on land where the "Nautilus" only passed is quite the perfect book to follow the "20K leagues..." tale.

The two authors even write very similar and it's like the same narator is telling the new story now. Very cool.
This book has funny moments written into it also. Just like the former two by Verne.

I do want to read "To the moon and back" by Verne this year or next and also "The Time Machine" and the recommended H.G.Wells books.

[eeagle]

The Classics like Twain, Verne, and Steinbeck are great reads, many of which are available for eReaders like Kindle for free.

I just finished The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins and found it quite enlightening. Several quotations by Mark Twain and of course folks like Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Dawkins has a great command of language, an excellent vocabulary, and pulls lot of examples explaining why humans believe, see, and perceive the world like we do.

If you are a science person you will truly enjoy his command of that subject as well.

[Tour2ma]

Just had Stephen King's "11/22/63" come in. Gonna crack it open this weekend.

Curious as to your thoughts on this one, SB....

It may be the other way around. "Red Skies of Montana" was filmed in 1952 and "Young Men and Fire" was published in 1993. Of course trhey both are based on the same event. When I read your post I was thinking Richard Widmark would have been too old to play a fire jumper post 1993. However he was only 33 in 1952.

There you go getting all chronological on me... Yup... I skimmed the imbd link and and inferred the wrong thing from the "based upon" phrase.

On the other hand I'd maintain that Widmark could have smoke-jumped at 80. He was that badass...

[shack]

[Tour2ma]

Now halfway through Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. While I thought I might like it, I did not expect it to be this good. Traces "money" through seven innovations from Coin thru Bonds then Bond Trading/ Markets and on... It's an absolutely fascinating read.

The second half of Ferguson's book fizzled some. He got away from the genesis of money and markets, opting to attempt explanations of the '08 meltdown that was happening as he was writing. Pretty weak stuff compared to the rest of the book and several other excellent accounts of the crisis I've mentioned in this thread. Still this is worthwhile for the first half of the book.

The latest "I've run out of renewals" read has been Ron Suskind's Confidence Men : Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President . The first third of this one has been a really good read. It is going on my "Recheck" list.

On deck reads:
- David Brooks' Bobos in Paradise : The New Upper Class and How They Got there
- Arguably : Essays by Christopher Hitchens

[Tony M]

Well,

I finished The Innocents abroad rather quickly and really, really enjoyed his observation of all the tourist sites in and around the HOLY LAND. He said it very descreetly about how artifacts and spots of historical occurences bring big bucks if presented with the right flair and appointments.

I then hear the Tom Sawer books were fun reading and all I had was "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and quickly read through that. Laughed alot in that read!!! what an author.What an adventure down the mississippi on a raft. The included (on the adventure)tale of the floating barrel was very well written. It had me glued for a while! :-)

I then read "Life on the Mississipi" and enjoyed that one very much also.

I then went and picked out "Moby Dick" and the first 40 pages were tough reading since it was a kind of historical factual events in history surrounding whales and whaling. Quite and repetitavely boring BUT then the adventure begins.

It was a fantastic story of revenge and what it can do to a man of even outstanding stature and poise. I loved reading that book. It will put you through a whaling excursion just like you really had gone on it. I learned the end of the movie was NOT how the end of the book is. Oh well, this is number 3 that's been that way.

I then looked around our collection again and " To kill a mocking bird" stood out.

After reading that one, one word sums it up....WOW.

That was a fast read also and what a great auther she was in how this story weaved together and told exactly how humanity can be or should I say was and still is in many parts of the world. Racism, income class levels, the judicial systems and reality.

All told through a little girls eyes and ears and thoughts. EXCELENT reading that touches even sensitive subjects around us today. The author won a Pulitzer Prize for literature(sp) for this book. That tells you something right there.

Oh, and in this book or story, there are many FUNNY moments in almost every chapter!
Read it if you haven't.

I'm now reading about angels among us. Real stories of people whove have been contacted from the other side in one way or another. I had one when I snaped my neck 30 years ago. From what I've read so far, my contact is just like some others have had. This is a small but pretty good little book so far. It's reconnected me spiritually to my special very rare moments in my tramatic but very blessed life so far. :-)

I will read some other big books in a while but I've slowed down just very recently since YARD WORK :-( has come back into our lives...:-)

[Tony M]

I thought auther looked wrong....I should have wrote author. Editing time ran out since I took a shower. I now know how to spell it correctly..:-)

[Shizelbs]

Just finished The Hunger Games. Cute book. Was expecting a little more considering all the frenzy around it. I kept thinking that I should buy a copy so my kids can read it when they become teenagers.

[zombie boy 2000]

I read The Hunger Games recently and was considerably non-plussed by it. I know it's for young adults, but I feel the likes of Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book), Clive Barker (the Abarat series) and even Rowling's Harry Potter series have tackled the genre with much more success. Something that really bothered me with The Hunger Games was its tendency to restrain itself in its descriptions of settings and visuals in general. I know we're not talking Melville here, but I figured its target audience would be painted a much, more lush picture of such a foreign time and place. As such, I found myself "painting the picture" far too often myself - which essentially means lazy storytelling unless it's a full-on character study (which this is not).

Maybe that's what the movie is for....

[Tour2ma]

My attempt at David Brooks' Bobos book lasted all of about ten minutes... sometimes you just know when a book is not for you.

Hitch is still on deck. He got leap-frogged by Howard Finneman's excellent effort The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country. This one is keeping me up nights...

I then went and picked out "Moby Dick" and the first 40 pages were tough reading since it was a kind of historical factual events in history surrounding whales and whaling. Quite and repetitavely boring BUT then the adventure begins.

I then looked around our collection again and " To kill a mocking bird" stood out.

After reading that one, one word sums it up....WOW.

Melville is a challenge and a half to be sure... Lord Jim has all Moby's tedium with none of its excitement.

Harper Lee's ...Mockingbird is a personal fav. If you haven't seen it, check out the excellent B&W movie starring Gregory Peck sometime. I think you'll chuckle when you see who pops up in the Boo Radley role...

[Tony M]

My attempt at David Brooks' Bobos book lasted all of about ten minutes... sometimes you just know when a book is not for you.

Hitch is still on deck. He got leap-frogged by Howard Finneman's excellent effort The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country. This one is keeping me up nights...

Melville is a challenge and a half to be sure... Lord Jim has all Moby's tedium with none of its excitement.

Harper Lee's ...Mockingbird is a personal fav. If you haven't seen it, check out the excellent B&W movie starring Gregory Peck sometime. I think you'll chuckle when you see who pops up in the Boo Radley role...

I don't think I could read politically inspired books at this time. I never liked history classes even though I know the phrase " If you don't know about history, you doomed to repeat it" or something like that. I know it matters a great deal, I'm just not wired for it. I'm more of an artist, science type.

"Lord Jim" might get a read later in my life for sure. Thanks

About the movie...I'm 54 so I know it well and have loved watching it every time it ever came on TV and I of course own the DVD of it. About a year ago, it came on TV and I had some stuff to do in the man cave and went out and turned the 50" plasma on and wow. It seemed to be a whole new awakening to how it was filmed. It seemed like a different movie in that I could study shadows and lighting in a grander scale. I missed the theatrical movie of course but the 50"er did make a considerable impact visually.

I know who Boo turned out to be and he matched the books description pretty well. He played his small part with attention to his characters demeaner with detail to his shyness and innocence in that short few minutes. All charactors were perfectly cast I think. A very rare movie when all involved make up the whole. The color purple was another that comes to mind. Secondhand Lions is another..hint hint.

[shack]

I don't think I could read politically inspired books at this time. I never liked history classes even though I know the phrase " If you don't know about history, you doomed to repeat it" or something like that. I know it matters a great deal, I'm just not wired for it. I'm more of an artist, science type.

I simply would quit reading before I sat down with a "political" history book. While I enjoy history per se....I despise politics...even though I am well aware of it's impact on history. I find the results interesting...but not the whys or hows. Through several years of education I read enough to understand the basics of what took place and the impact it may or may not have had. I don't need another "viewpoint" to enlighten me further. Anything since then is widely broadcast either on the news or internet...and I simply don't care about the so-called backstory or behind the scenes info that many of these books want to expose.

Additionally, I know my friend Bruce enjoys books about finance and economics... Again, I will read an article in the WSJ, Forbes, or on the internet as I think it may be relevant to what I need to know, but 40+ of undergrad and grad school and day to day dealings is more than enough finance and econ for me. I don't find anything about it "interesting" and if I need information, I know where to find it.

[Tour2ma]

I don't think I could read politically inspired books at this time. I never liked history classes even though I know the phrase " If you don't know about history, you doomed to repeat it" or something like that. I know it matters a great deal, I'm just not wired for it. I'm more of an artist, science type.

"Lord Jim" might get a read later in my life for sure. Thanks

First, just so we're clear, I was not recommending Lord Jim. Read it if you like... just don't blame me young fella...

I simply would quit reading before I sat down with a "political" history book. While I enjoy history per se....I despise politics... and I simply don't care about the so-called backstory or behind the scenes info that many of these books want to expose.

Additionally, I know my friend Bruce enjoys books about finance and economics... Again, I will read an article in the WSJ, Forbes, or on the internet as I think it may be relevant to what I need to know, but 40+ of undergrad and grad school and day to day dealings is more than enough finance and econ for me. I don't find anything about it "interesting" and if I need information, I know where to find it.

Yup, that's me, but when a book like Lewis' The Big Short or Sorkin's Too Big to Fail or even Lewis' Liar's Poker come along that are "stranger than fiction" entertaining as well as enlightening, there's no effort required to get interested... at least not for me. On the other hand, if I made my living in Banking and Finance, like some people, any of these books might come perilously close to taking my work home with me...

On Pol books... agree to some extent. I may read Game Change someday, but have no burning desire to do so. Suskind's Confidence Men is definitely in that "behind the scenes" vein, and I was surprised how it grabbed me. Strong novelist style as was the case with Too Big to Fail.

Finneman's ... Arguments... could not be farther from being a behind the scenes book and, if anything, it's apolitical. It is a thought-provoking, distillation of the iterations of topics such as Chapter 1's "What is a Person?" through the history of our nation.

Just another different strokes thang...

[Vuroth]

Just finished The Right Stuff. Not sure what's next....

[george daniel]

"The Rum Diary"

[shack]

Back to some sci-fi....



This novel was the next one after Haldeman's most famous book..."The Forever War".

[Tony M]

First, just so we're clear, I was not recommending Lord Jim. Read it if you like... just don't blame me young fella...


...

I hear ya..:-)
I'll read the dust jacket first and flip through the pages to check it out when I get my hands on it.

I just finished "Touched by Angels" and I guess my "near death experience" was visited by a supernatural presence of the angelic kind. I also as a younger boy witnessed what others have claimed was a "Holy spirit" entering the room in my vision as a whiteish cloud that quickly came and after my Aunt spoke in tounges, it quickly left. I've yet to read about Holy spirit visions.

Today at a church yard sale I found a book "I am with you always". A compilation of people who believe they were visited by Jesus himself. This should be interesting to see why Jesus had to personally interact with these people.

I read some cool theories as to what Angels normaly do in that last book which made perfect scence and one of the 4 (things they do or don't) coincided with my own encounter during that diving off of a bank and snaping my neck with a huge explosion in my head and subsequent unconsiousness.

The previous author talked about angels doing what Jesus or God would want done. To have the main creator send his son has got to be in question I would think. But I'm going to give this a read since it fell into my sight one day after I finished the angel encounter stories. I'll still give this new book an open minded reading and if it seems ligit, I'll read it to the end.

[obieone]

^reported^

[fatchowmein]

I concur with Zombie Boy 2000's review of The Hunger Games even though I enjoyed it. I felt like I was reading a violent Judy Blume book or a 15 year old's diary. I will finish the series one day.

I'm about 1/4 of the way through Moby Dick. Tough read, laborious, but I love how Melville describes things. One day, I will finish this book!

To Kill a Mockingbird is leaning against it. One day I'll crack it open. Somehow I managed to escape school without having to read it.

Speaking of school, way back when, we had the choice of reading Fahrenheit 451 or Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. The girls read the former while the boys chose the later except me. I went with Rebecca because it was much thicker and I'm glad I did. One of my favorite books and I will go find a copy of the movie one day. A hard back sits on my shelf ready for another go.

I do have Fahrenheit and have attempted to read it several times but I get distracted with other projects. It sits on my desk.

Currently reading, The Butcher's Guide to Well-Raised Meat.

[decal]

^^^^ post #170 scumbag spammer reported ^^^^

[andyszabler]

I have a read The Alchemist, it is a my favorite book. It is a very interesting and beautiful book. The Alchemist auther's name has a paulo coehlo. It has sold millions and is the translated into many different languages. It is a wonderful story.

[Tour2ma]

shack,
What did you think of the Bill Bryson book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself? It looked kinda interesting...

[shack]

shack,
What did you think of the Bill Bryson book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself? It looked kinda interesting...

It was ok...good...not great. It is a series of about 70 articles he wrote after returning to the US written primarily for the British reader. It was an easy read and easy to pick it up...read a few of them and put it down. A lot was the typical Bryson whining/bitching/moaning in his usual sarcastic style of writing. Most were funny...but a few were lame. I can recommend it as I tend to like Bryson...but he has better works like "A Walk in the Woods".

[Tour2ma]

Wrapped up Moneyball last week. Nice, light, good read and my 4th or 5th Michael Lewis book.

Moved onto something just a tad less light.... Rachael Maddow's Drift The Unmooring of American Military Power.

[kappclark]

Do audio books count ? Now going through Ana Karenina (8.5 hours!)

[shack]

A book by the late adventure photographer whose work (photography) I greatly admire. It is about an ascent of K2 in 1975 that failed. The photography is stunning and so far the story is captivating.

[Rivrrat]

I just finished rereading "1984", now I'm into 'Liars and Thieves" by Stephen Coonts, and my daughter is lobbying hard for me to read "The Hunger Games" next.

[Fongolio]

Jean Auel's The Land of Painted Caves. The latest in her Earth's Children series of books that started with Clan Of The Cave Bear.

[kappclark]

I just finished rereading "1984", now I'm into 'Liars and Thieves" by Stephen Coonts, and my daughter is lobbying hard for me to read "The Hunger Games" next.

Ditto here w/ my daughter and HG -- she insists that I cannot watch the movie until I read the book !

[Tony M]

Well I read "I am with you always" and this book read like "Touched by angels". The author even mentioned the other book and author with refrences and circumstances as to why there is a difference between angels and Jesus encounters.

I like the previous book because it had more "life encounter stories" in it and this newer book had fewer encounters with more of the authors reasonings. It's wierd that my 2nd and final encounter with a spiritual nature was similar to this new books' authors encounter with whom he believed to be Jesus. He saw a bright light and a robed outline of a man after he went out a door from an auditorium. The image asked him "are you ready to leave earth?". He said no and and I think the image said something else and that was that. That moment is burned into his memory forever as most encounters usually are.

I snapped my neck and after I heard the explosion, I was in space (no stars were visible) above the earth I believe( I didn't see earth but felt it was close), no body, just a soul or thought of knowing my existance for about 15 seconds and a then a question came to me in a voice neither male or femal but kind of both..." are you ready to leave earth? ". I said no and then I remember a million lights starting to apear all around me from a great distance and they closed in on me and when the light got bright all around me, I poped up out onto the surface of the lake. No paralysis, thank God but 30 years later, I'm feeling it severly now.

You can imagine after reading the authors experience and knowing my own, I was moved and wonder why I didn't see any glowing figure like alot do. I still know what happened to me like it was yesterday and all encounters will do that to people.

The book was good reading but I still wonder about Jesus coming to individuals but the bible says he did it back then so and that's what the author tries to convea. This author did (I believe mention in his words or a story that was told, that Jesus told somebody what to do. Now after reading "touched by angels" I believe in the free will that God and Jesus pretty much makes clear we all have, and that they would only suggest or ask anybody to do something. I know , the 10 comandments and Jesus's newer recomendations but that is done. We get free will and pretty much have from day one. Adam and eve scenario...LOL

I told my dentist of my new readings of classic stories and the touched by angels and Jesus book readings and she and her mother have started reading more than watching TV and I thought that was kind of cool too. The receptionist heard us talking and at check out, she recomended that I read a book (a true story ) about what happened to a preacher and his family after they moved into a little town just south of Whiteville, which is about 45 miles from me. She said wait a minute, she had the book in her car, since her mother had just returned it to her to pass on to somebody else. She got it and gave it to me to read about forgiveness. Remember, I was a victom of a drug addict just a few months ago and that's why I was reading so much. To get my mind off of what I wanted to do to get revenge on the punk/s.

The book is tiltled " THE DEVIL IN PEW NUMBER 7 "

I read 120 pages the first night! There was a man ( not the devil from the title) briefly mentioned in the begining of the book and I delivered dock building materials to his son years later really made it hit close to home. The son was a great person, but I could relate to the area very, very well. Even a NC. Congressman, who was a lawyer back then was envolved in this ordeal.

If you're having a hard time because of what somebody did to you or your family, check this story out and see if you can forgive your enemy like this little girls' family and later on, her and her brother after they grew up enough to realize just what their parents did to forgive their enemy.

I'm not a religous Bible thumper at all and Obieone, I don't get your " reported " statement. Is it because I mentioned a religion? I know gun stuff isn't allowed but mentioning reading about some spiritual experiences shouldn't be a reportable issue. Unless your offended by anybody mentioning religious content and just have to state that you are, or I broke a rule and need to know it. If so I appologize to the forum.