What are you reading currently?

[wrangler 157]

Thanks for the rec. Just finished it -- absolutely delightful.

My local libraries don't have A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, so I'll have to keep an eye out for it at the used bookstores. This one could take a while.

[DBear 0]

Cool thread... I'm on a Michael Chabon kick just finished The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and now I'm reading Manhood for Amateurs.

Also who ever mention PG Wodehouse +1 I haven't read any of the Jeeves books in a long time. Just good stuff

[wrangler 157]

That was me, and he wrote a lot more than Jeeves. Try "Spring Fever".

[forbs02 20]

Cool thread... I'm on a Michael Chabon kick just finished The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and now I'm reading Manhood for Amateurs.

Also who ever mention PG Wodehouse +1 I haven't read any of the Jeeves books in a long time. Just good stuff

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is my favorite book by him. One of my favorite books actually.

[skyscrape 5]

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. Great historical fiction about the 300 at Thermopylae. This is my favorite.

[bigdmac 12]

Picked up Ron Maclean's biography "Cornered" last week. Haven't had the time to start it yet but I figure somebody on here must of read it, any thoughts!?

[Law Goalie 147]

Thanks for the rec. Just finished it -- absolutely delightful.

Glad to hear it!

Ordinarily, I'd suggest going back in time to T.C. Haliburton's Clockmaker, but I think Leacock's Arcadian Adventures of the Idle Rich might be the best move, then going back to his Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (which is probably the best satire of small-minded small-towns and everything parochial ever written), and then to The Clockmaker, which effectively kicked off the entire project of North American literary satire and humour. (I'm not exaggerating, by the way: Clemens/Twain carried a copy of The Clockmaker with him to read in church, and everywhere admits his debt to the Canadian. Hell, Haliburton even influenced Dickens in pretty significant and well-documented ways.)

And by the way, I wouldn't bother reading anything else De Mille wrote: one textbook of classical rhetoric (which was a bit of a propeller-head book even for its day) and a whole pile of lurid romantic pot-boilers of exactly the sort he satirised in the Strange Manuscript. There is an absolutely hysterical piece of autobiography that reads like Nietzsche's "Attempt at Self-Criticism" -- I think I have a PDF of it somewhere. Much as I think the Manuscript reads like 19th-century Swift, De Mille is probably more like Cervantes than any other author I know.

And for everyone - and I mean all of humanity - at least the first book of Don Quixote and Montaigne's Essays (which are less 'essays' than they are the first experiments in modern thought) should be required reading: you will receive your volumes, two weeks' paid vacation, and one regulation reading-hammock, from which cocoon you will emerge a happier mammal -- even happier if you're already read them.

That was me, and he wrote a lot more than Jeeves. Try "Spring Fever".

And Psmith!

[chippa13 1844]

Tell me this isn't going to turn into a philosophy thread.

[Law Goalie 147]

Not if anyone reads De Mille's Rhetoric; that's enough to turn a person off learning for life.

[wrangler 157]

Halfway through REAMDE by Neal Stephenson.

[JTully317 11]

Just started reading the book "tough guy" by Bob Probert. Great book so far.

[Katzenjammer 1]

Currently making my way through Plutarch's Lives and Caesar's Gallic War.

And I'm more or less always reading Aquinas, Augustine & G.K. Chesterton.

[Katzenjammer 1]

And for everyone - and I mean all of humanity - at least the first book of Don Quixote

Outside of David Copperfield, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard or had so much unalloyed fun as when reading Cervantes.

David Copperfield, I'm in the extreme minority of 15 year olds who like Dickens.

I loved it when I was your age - I still read it once a year. I tell people that until they get to know Mr. Micawber they're pratically wasting their lives...lol!

[RussianDangler15 0]

I loved it when I was your age - I still read it once a year. I tell people that until they get to know Mr. Micawber they're pratically wasting their lives...lol!

"Never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procastination is the theif of time. Collar him!" Might just be the greatest words ever put to paper. lol

[RiSeOnFiRe 0]

'Beyond Einstein' by Michio Kaku.

Anyone interested in theoretical physics/astronomy would like this. Its all about combining Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity) with quantum mechanics to derive a single equation that governs the universe. Very cool and exciting stuff (if you're a science nerd that is).

[mapleleafs33 0]

The Hunger Games

[Cams 7]

'Beyond Einstein' by Michio Kaku.

Anyone interested in theoretical physics/astronomy would like this. Its all about combining Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity) with quantum mechanics to derive a single equation that governs the universe. Very cool and exciting stuff (if you're a science nerd that is).

That is on my list. I loved Hyperspace by Kaku. He has a knack of presenting "out there" ideas to the everyday person. I also want to read "Physics of the Impossible" and "Physics of the future" by him as well.

I recently finished "Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11" by Syed Saleem Shahzad. Shortly after the book was published, the author was kidnapped and executed. Interesting, but at times very tedious, read on the inside workings of both organizations (if that's what you want to call them). Very detailed strategy guide would be a good way to put a quick summary on it. Kind of gives you the inside workings of both parties.

Currently, I am reading "UFOS: Generals, pilots and government officials go on the record" by Leslie Kean. Gives you actual accounts of "UFO" sightings and encounters, and presents it in an objective way. Some interesting stuff so far. I am agnostic as far as being a believer goes, but the chapters I read so far are again...interesting to say the least.

Plus I have 2 books on order from Chapters: The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes And The Deep Laws Of The Cosmos by Brian Greene and Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science by Robert L. Park

Should be an interesting couple of books.

[Cams 7]

I would like some suggestions in the horror genre. I am torn between picking up a Dean Koontz book like Phantoms (or The Voice of the Night), or Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Also, Talisman or Insomnia by Stephen King seem intriguing as well. Anyone read any of these?????

[chippa13 1844]

I've read quite a few Dean Koontz books. They're usually decent, a hint of humor and some taste of supernatural in most of them. I've enjoyed his Odd Thomas series, the couple of books that had the Chris Snow character. He also did a different twist on the Frankenstein story for a series of 4 or 5 books.

[wrangler 157]

I don't read horror, but I've got into urban fantasy like Jim Butcher and Simon R. Green. Almost forgot Charles DeLint.

Not right now, though. Now I'm mostly reading client paperwork, for doing their tax returns.

[AIREAYE 248]

Anthony Bourdain's 'Medium Raw'. Decided to pick it up after two semesters of watching No Reservations. This guy's something else!

[Chadd 916]

Reading a Jim DeFelice book now. If you like Tom Clancy-type stuff it's not bad and the latest one gets a little farther away from military and into more of a pure detective type novel. The main character is a borderline anti-social, chain smoking caffeine addict of an FBI agent. Nothing earth shattering, but entertaining and a lot of great one-liners as well.

[wrangler 157]

If you like military-type stuff, skip Clancy, try J.C. Pollock.

[jds 20]

"The Cure for Everything" by Timothy Caulfield. Non-fiction book that debunks various health and fitness myths. Similar in scope to "Which Comes FIrst, Cardio or Weights?" by Alex Hutchinson which I just finished. The Hutchinson book relies more on scientific studies on health and fitness training to offer various insights on common health and fitness myths and questions.

[Law Goalie 147]

Currently making my way through Plutarch's Lives and Caesar's Gallic War.

And I'm more or less always reading Aquinas, Augustine & G.K. Chesterton.

I like Plutarch's Parallels, but I always find myself relying on Diogenes Laertius's Lives: drier, yeah, but more useful (for my purposes, anyway) for its seriality and comprehensiveness.

Chesterton, eh?-- in with those two that's a pretty high recommendation. I haven't had the pleasure yet; I'll give him a look after I'm done with the Canadian slog.