What book(s) are you reading?

[firefox_fan]

Right now I'm reading "Night Watch" (I mean, a few pages a day since I'm superbusy).

[GenDem]

1. 'Wicked'

Same here -- just a few pages a day. I have 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' in the wings.

[MysticalChicken]

67. I read that book...

...in literally less than two days. Got it for Christmas 2004 and finished it on the afternoon of the 26th. I could not put it down. I spent all of Christmas day reading it until around 4 am ("Man, I should go to sleep... but just one more page..." which of course turned into one more page, and so on and so on...).

I've read it twice more since then, but not as fast. I also have Mirror, Mirror, which isn't quite as good but it was good enough for me to read twice. I want Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.

[Kali]

2. some weird old biography of Pancho Villa

but I am so beat by the time I hit the bed I rarely get past half a page. Gonna take a while.

[lost-in-nj]

3. a few

Not just friends....
by Shirley Glass

Lisseys story
by Stephen King
who by the way has the mind of a genius.....
one by James Patterson
the Wailing Wind
by Tony Hillerman....
I am going to finish the Paterson one
and the Hillerman one on vacation


lost

[mainegreen]

4. Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia

http://www.amazon.com/Macrolife-Mobile-Utopia-George-Zebrowski/dp/1591023416

[firefox_fan]

6. I read the summary... This sounds very interesting! :)

[RetroLounge]

5. Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Also have started "We were the Mulvaneys" by Joyce Carole Oates.

and a friend and I are reading "Parnassus on Wheels" by Christopher Morley to each other on the phone each night before bed...

"Wonder Boys" by Chabon is on deck...

RL

[Connonym]

7. The Omnivore's Dilemma

and a biography on Einstein

[BrotherBuzz]

8. Whale Season....

The Darwin Conspiracy, The Voyage of the Beagle, and Long Walk to Mulegé. The first two are novels, the last two are true accounts of great expeditions; the first one by an explorer, the latter by an adventurer.

[WinkyDink]

9. "Seriously Funny" (about great comedians). Just got today "A Tragic Legacy", about Bush.

Recently finished Camille Paglia's work on Hitchcock's "The Birds".

And off and on I'll read from "Animal Miracles", to feel good. :)

[mitchum]

18. "Seriously Funny" is really good (n/t)

[Pendrench]

10. Currently reading two sports biographies:

Koufax by Edward Gruver

Rocky Marciano: The Rock of His Times by Russell Sullivan

Both are library books, so I need to finish them by next week!

Tim

[WinkyDink]

12. Oooh, I have "Koufax", but haven't read it yet! Is it wrong I bought it for the cover? ;)

[Pendrench]

40. Not at all - sometimes the cover is the best part of the book!

In this case, though, the book is pretty good, too. :)

I read the Jane Leavey's book about Sandy Koufax about a year ago, so it's interesting to see how they differ. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to see Koufax pitch...I was only a year old when he retired.

Tim

[MonkeyFunk]

11. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

and then A Thousand Splendid Suns on deck.

[hellbound-liberal]

20. That was a great book! A real page turner!

Everyone should read that book!

[steelemagnolia]

71. Loved it! And the documentary film too.

[steelemagnolia]

72. The Mermaid's Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

[Zavulon]

13. Night Watch?

You mean the Russian novel (later a movie) that my username and signature line pic / quote is based on? I was told there was an English version (unless you're reading the original Russian) - is this the same book?

[firefox_fan]

14. Hey, Zavulon! you're in the book :)

Yup, the trilogy has been translated into English. I got all 3 from Amazon last week and watched both movies (the third one has not been made yet).

[Zavulon]

17. I watched both as well.

I liked the first movie better than the second, but that effect in the second that had Zhanne Friske's character (can't remember her name right now) driving on the side of the building was stunning.

Do you speak Russian, and if so, did you watch the original Russian version of Night Watch? The American version omits an important scene: after the jet's rivet dropped into Svetlana's cup of coffee, she had to go shop for more, and ran into a Light Other whose special ability was to seduce women. He took a stab at seducing Svetlana but failed. In the American version of the movie, that scene is eliminated, which basically makes the "rivet falling in the coffee cup" scene pointless.

:hi:

[firefox_fan]

21. Oh..... Actually, I saw Day Watch first, in Russian with subs

in the movie theater. Then I saw Night Watch on DVD, English version... Right, I was not sure about the rivet's scene... I'll have to get the Russian version now...

[Zavulon]

23. You'll need a PAL player for that.

I actually bought one on eBay specifically for Night Watch. Christ, I need to get a life. :(

[firefox_fan]

24. You mean it's not on DVD???

I assume you speak Russian...

[Zavulon]

26. It is, but...

...it is on PAL DVD if you have a Russian source. If you buy it here, you get the American version which omits the scene I described.

I do speak Russian, yes. My mother is a native speaker, so I spoke Russian more than English until about the age of eight. As a fortysomething adult I don't speak it as well as a Moscow native, but I still understand it as well as I understand English because Mom reverts to Russian when she gets lazy, which is rather often.

I got a copy mailed to me from St. Pete, but there are sources here in the States to buy the original Russian version. I simply haven't found one on NTSC, it's all PAL - which means standard DVD players over here can't handle it. I believe PAL is "Zone 3," it might be "Zone 5."

[firefox_fan]

27. Does it play on a computer?

I mean, I can play DVDs of any zone on my computer... Sigh... Why do you think they cut that scene? Was there any nudity in it?...

Fascinating, regarding your background... Well, I'm Italian, actually... Wish I could understand Russian :) But at least I can read Dante in the original...!

[Zavulon]

30. I'm guessing that it does.

The girl who sent me the DVD doesn't even own a TV, she watches both her zone 3/5/whatever DVDs and the ones I send her (our NTSC stuff) on her laptop. I've never tried watching any of these movies on a computer, but if she can do it I assume you can as well.

Dante in the original? Well, your wishing you could understand Russian is countered by my wishing I knew Italian. I can say "nice to meet you" and "I'm sorry" in Italian, I can order a beer, I can say "Scusi," but that's the extent of it. My German is passable because my father grew up there, but he's actually Irish. So I have Russian and Irish parents who grew up in Ukraine and Germany, and I spent half of my childhood in Canada. Some version of the melting pot I am, eh?

[Zavulon]

32. Delete.

This was supposed to be a repsonse to the OP.

[firefox_fan]

36. Well, it's cool to meet such variety of people online.

Hey, did you see "Stalker" and the other Tarkovsky movies? Love those...

[Greyskye]

76. Universal (PAL enabled) DVD players getting more common

If you watch a lot of foreign made DVD's, you might want to get a universal dvd player. They're getting more common. I highly recommend this one:

OPPO DV-970HD 720p/1080i High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI

At www.oppodigital.com for $149.00. Not bad at all for an up-converting universal player.

[Ikonoklast]

15. 'The White Lantern', and 'Deus Lo Volt!'

by Evan S. Connell.

'Augustus' by Anthony Everitt. Just finished 'Cicero' by the same author.

[firefox_fan]

I finished "ALtered Carbon" last week

Have the other ones of the Kovacs series on my desk, but it'll take a while to get to them...

[Alenne]

16. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra nt

[likesmountains 52]

73. and how are you liking it? It's sitting on my coffee table waiting for me get started...

[unsavedtrash]

19. Rereading HP 6 so I can be up on the story when 7 comes out.

I also have Wicked by my chair so I hope to start it tomorrow.

[SCDem]

22. The Assault on Reason - and a light fiction read that

I'm ashamed to say the title of!

[firefox_fan]

25. That's fine! I read many of those because I start them on a plane trip

and then get hooked afterwards... :)

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. Goblet of Fire; Our Endangered Values; Einstein; Tender is the Night; Gospel according to Tolkien

and a few other sundry books like Assault on Reason, and Untangling My Chopsticks.

[femmocrat]

29. Just finished "The Audacity of Hope" and...

I thought I'd try something a little lighter for summer reading, so I just started The Glass Castle. I rarely read fiction, but it's a quick read. Then I'm going to read Gred Palast's new book next week.

[bluethruandthru]

31. Just finished "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

by Khaled Hosseini..author of The Kite Runner. I liked Kite Runner but I think this one is better!

[Zavulon]

33. After all of our posts, I forgot the original question...

...I'm reading a novel heartily recommended by my girlfriend, "Burn" by Sean Doolittle. It's billed as dark humor noir mystery in the style of Elmore Leonard, but I can't really recommend it at all.

[SPKrazy]

34. GEez NoThInG FuN!

well i shouldn't say that, i mean no just mindless reading

Under Saturn's Shadow
The Four Agreements

and sometimes a little Castaneda when I am not doing something

:hi:

[Fox Mulder]

35. "Death Masks," book five of The Dresden Files series.

[opiate69]

37. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock..

[stuntcat]

38. The Plague by Camus

:headbang:

[no name no slogan]

39. Lots of trashy rock-n-roll bios

Here's my most recent reads:

"Let It Blurt" by Jim DeRogitas (bio of late rock critic Lester Bangs)
"White Bicycles" by Joe Boyd (60s record producer of Nick Drake and others)
"Open Up And Bleed" by Paul Trynka (Iggy Pop biography)
"Redemption Song" by Chris Salewicz (Joe Strummer biography)

I also got a biography of Mustafa Kemal Attaturk which I haven't started yet, but will be starting soon

[firefox_fan]

41. Lotsa people reading good books!

Glad to be in good company! :)

[Montauk6]

42. Oswald's Tale by Norman Mailer

[SeattleGirl]

43. The Assault on Reason (Gore), and Armed Madhouse (Palast)

Both great books!

[Wetzelbill]

51. Armed Madhouse is great

Palast is a true original.

[Neoma]

44. Hannibal Rising, by Thomas Harris.

I'm just starting it.

[Fire Walk With Me]

45. Yet another Nikolai Gogol compilation. Yay! Makes everything else seem bland.

"Twilight Watch" has just come out, BTW.

[Heidi]

46. "Jackson Pollack: An American Saga" by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith

:hi:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

47. Four

Assault on Reason - Al Gore

Teacher Man - Frank McCourt

Einstein - Walter Isaacson

George Gershwin - Howard Pollack

(I got mad reading it because he talked about modulating into the minor submediant. I went WTF??? I looked it up and he could have said "relative minor" and I would have understood it.) But nooooo, he's a music professor and has to use obscure words.

[Greyskye]

78. How's Einstein?

I'm loving Isaacson's biography of Ben Franklin!

[WindRavenX]

48. "Assault on Reason"

While Gore's prose is overly, er, dry, he still presents an excellent treatise on the current political climate and a call for change.

[u4ic]

49. I'm attempting to read Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

but the phone keeps on ringing...

[Wetzelbill]

50. "How To Make Love Like A Porn Star" by Jenna Jameson

by way of some ghostwriter.

What? Don't all look at me that way! It's interesting!!!!!! Truly, it is!!! :) :evilgrin:

[mwb970]

52. David Copperfield by Dickens. /nt

[bleedingheart]

53. The Good War by Studs Terkel and Gore's latest book

[terrya]

54. "The House of Mirth" by Edith Wharton.

[Roon]

55. Before the internet...I wouldn't be caught dead without a book

but now with the net, i can read, read, read to my hearts content....before the net, my favorite author would be king.

[deepthought42]

56. You want me to list them all???

I'll try...:rofl:

The Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglass
Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey
Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
Chainfire by Terry Goodkind
god is not Great by Christopher Hitchens
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
Life, the Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams


I think that's it for now... :freak:

[firefox_fan]

57. You're reading ALL of them at the same time???

[deepthought42]

59. Can you say "bookworm"? LOL The first 4 I'm working on now...

the other ones I've started, but put them aside til I finish one of the first 4...and then there are others that have been on the back burner for awhile now... :rofl:

:freak:

[Rising Phoenix]

58. I'm reading Bitch and Fresh Lipstick

[trackfan]

60. The Beautiful Jim Key

[tonkatoy57]

61. My last two reads

Three thumbs up to both of these books. I highly recommend both.

A Thousand Splendid Suns/Khaled Hosseini
It's the second book from the author of The Kite Runner. Also about the Afghan experience from pre-Soviet invasion through the Taliban. This time the main characters are women.

Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography/John Dominic Crossan
Crossan, a participant in the Jesus Seminar, attempts to strip away the myth of Jesus and present a historical look at his life and his followers. Lot's of side trips into Late Temple Judaism and the history and sociology of first century Roman imperialism but worth the time. He spends lots of time arguing that the virgin birth and the resurection are later additions. The virgin birth to attract Hellenized people of the first century who expected their gods to be divine and the latter as a way for Paul and his followers to impose order,control and discipline in the early church. After he chops away a lot of religious cant he spends a lot of time on the two things he considers important about the message of Jesus; open commensality (the table open to all, regardless of class or station) and radical egalitarianism.
My favorite quote from the book, "The astonishing thing is not that Jesus was made DIVINE, it's that JESUS was made divine".

[seemunkee]

62. Facing the Frozen Ocean by Bear Grylls

about crossing the North Atlantic in a rigid inflatable boat.

[firefox_fan]

63. Wow, cool title...

Sounds like ice-9 in action
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-nine

[MysticalChicken]

68. Bear Grylls wrote a book?

Man, I love Man Vs Wild. I might have to check the book out.

[seemunkee]

77. He has a couple

I read his Everest book and it was OK. He's not a great writer but he puts a lot of himself into it.

[LSK]

64. Fiasco, Assault on Reason, Armed Madhouse

[Arkansas Granny]

65. Funny you should ask, but I'm re-reading the Foxfire books. I

found the series of 9 on ebay a short time ago and I am reading them and passing them on to my boss, who has gotten hooked on them.

[MysticalChicken]

66. America: The Book

This is my third time reading it and it's still hilarious (especially the 24-Hour News Network section, which makes me laugh so hard I can't breathe). Although the corrections by the "real-life bearded college professor"* tend to get a little distracting. However, if the textbooks in highschool had been written like this, I would have paid a LOT more attention in history class.

I love Jon Stewart so very, very much.

*In the paperback ("Teacher's Edition") version.

[Rob H.]

69. Just two (I'm a slacker at the moment)

God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
The Two-Minute Rule by Robert Crais

Thinking about picking up Sense and Goodness Without God by Richard Carrier to read next.

[LiberalHeart]

70. Gag Rule by Lewis Lapham.

So far, so good.

[Greyskye]

74. Three Cups of Tea...

...One Man's Mission to Promote Peace -- One School at a Time

By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zAim4XO-L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg

Lost after failing to climb K2, Mortenson was sheltered and nursed in a remote Pakistani village; he promised to return and build them a school. Keeping that promise led to his heading a charitable institute that provides impoverished children in Pakistan and Afghanistan with an education. He ended up building 55 schools in the area that gave birth to the Taliban. More info at www.threecupsoftea.com. It's currently 40% off at Amazon, but if you buy it there through the www.threecupsoftea.com site, you will be giving part of the proceeds to build more schools. The school my wife teaches at donates to them through their "Pennies for Peace" program. http://www.penniesforpeace.org/home.html

Amazing book, well written and very inspirational. Highly recommended!


Oh, I'm also reading Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, by Walter Isaacson. Really great book as well.

[Critters2]

75. _The Scapegoat_ by Rene Girard

and _Moby Dick_.