whatcha reading?

[tread_tramp]

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian

 

Oh and The Whole Earth logue

[slothrop]

Hmm.. I started Soul Mountain a while back and just couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll try again someday.

 

For now, Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de St. Exupery. I picked it up on someone's recommendation from one of these threads

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

 

Got junk mail for expensive (leather bound, gold highlights) books - the top 100 classics, classics of the 20th century, etc. I realized there were too many I had never read. So I started with 1984 (seems like I'm not the only one reading about dystopia), got depressed and read Treasure Island for something light and easy. These, of course, are in between copious technical reading. Next on deck is "Heart of Darkness". I might pick up "A Farewell to Arms" after that - always liked Hemingway. Hmm, never read Brave New World though...

[chirp]

I have a retro experience of Cactus Ed "The Brave Cowboy" and Carlos "A separate reality" on the burner at the moment.

[E-rock]

Sting, by Sting.

 

He's from Wallsend, Newcastle.

 

Not as bad I thought it might be. Quite good and had a few funny bits.

 

Wow, Stink writing about his favorite subject.... Stink. How interesting. It oughta be at least a little better than I expect because I expect it to be pretty goddamn aweful.

 

Have you gotten to part about his Tantric Yogic skillz and his "4 hour (or is that "between orgasms") endurance"? It's clear why he would WRITE his book (and he even self-titled it, what a rock star). It is, however, completely unclear to me why a heterosexual male would READ it. (Or a homo for that matter, what gay man wants his ass pounded for 4 hours?)

[Dechristo]

(...what gay man wants his ass pounded for 4 hours?)

an appropriate question in a post where the subject is "corndog safety".

[selkirk]

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

 

Got junk mail for expensive (leather bound, gold highlights) books - the top 100 classics, classics of the 20th century, etc. I realized there were too many I had never read. So I started with 1984 (seems like I'm not the only one reading about dystopia), got depressed and read Treasure Island for something light and easy. These, of course, are in between copious technical reading. Next on deck is "Heart of Darkness". I might pick up "A Farewell to Arms" after that - always liked Hemingway. Hmm, never read Brave New World though...

 

Braver New World was great. Haven't read it in years though. If you want another good thought provoking read try "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". (not a whole lot to do with zen or motorcycle maintenance for that matter, but one of my all time favorites! It's dense as can be though. And a little trippy when you consider that it's semi-autobiographical, and that the main charachter/author had a previous nervous breakdown, followed by electro-shock that effectively erased his personality.)

 

Right now i'm working on the last of Stephen Kings "Dark Tower" series. It's been good so far if you like King. I think the series has been in the works for 30+ years, and almost everything he's ever written seems to revolve around it's axis.

[minx]

war and peace.....still

[Ireneo_Funes]

John Cheever. I picked up his collected short stories a couple weeks ago, then read Falconer, now I'm on to the Wapshot Chronicle. I don't know why I never read his stuff before.

 

Before that I read David Foster Wallace's short story collection Oblivion, which was great, and Sherman Alexie's The Toughest Indian in the World (another short story collection), which was downright awful.

[Dechristo]

Time In History - Views Of Time From Prehistory To The Present Day by G.J. Whitrow.

 

Then, I'll go back to the essential David Bohm edited by Lee Nichol.

[knotzen]

"Fatal Mountaineer," by Robert Roper, about Willi Unsoeld. A free climbing book I got when working at Amazon.com. Not the best, but it's a climbing book.

[knotzen]

Hmm.. I started Soul Mountain a while back and just couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll try again someday.

 

Me, too. I've heard it's really good, but couldn't get into it. Can't remember why...it's been a while.

[TeleRoss]

Teewinot by Jack Turner.

[bunglehead]

Freedom From Fear, Americans During the Great Depression and World War 2, by Joseph Kennedy.

Still.

It's like a million pages, or something.

[Billygoat]

HA HA E-Rocker

 

The book covers none of those banal topics you seem so interested in. It concerns his upbringing and family life, his take on music, and how it came to financial fruition by the formation of the Police.

 

My wife read it and was interested in my take on it. I thought it was well written and conceived. I laughed quite hard a few times and liked his honesty about his short comings and his single minded goal to make a living playing music. It was also interesting how the Police formed and the roles Stuart Copeland and his unique family played.

 

I enjoyed the Police in the early '80s. They informed, musically, some of my perception of the world at that time. He got the name Sting from a fellow musician because he showed up to a gig in a black and yellow striped shirt. It was a way to tease him that stuck. He was a jazz trained geek in the pre-Police days; not very hip, but a solid musician.

[billcoe]

Dwyaner: IMO best book ever for Japan is "The Rising Sun" by John Toland. Theres a reason it won the pulitzer.

 

 

Currently I'm reading "Lincolns Admiral". A very well done tome about David Farraday and the naval engagements during the civil war.

 

I'll read any book, as long as I can buy it for less than $2 and it's a hardcover.

[Thinker]

Current: Clash of Fundamentalisms by Tariq Ali

 

Next on the List: Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China by Mark Elvin

[thelawgoddess]

For now, Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de St. Exupery. I picked it up on someone's recommendation from one of these threads

my bf has that book. i guess it's on that list of 100 best adventure books or something ... and it's about flying. pretty good read. i recently read "one flew over the cuckoos nest" and "to kill a mockingbird" - trying to catch up on some of the classics most americans read in high school. started "electric kool aid acid test" but haven't gotten very far as i don't find it a very compelling read. the book i'm supposed to be reading is "risk financing" ... yuck!

[sobo]

Narnia Chronicles. Never read it in my younger years, and the movie's coming out this winter. My wife loved the stuff when she was younger, and wants to take me and The Boy to see it, so I need to "study up" on it so I'm not totally lost.

[billcoe]

another one worth checking out:

 

Dore Gold's new work Hatred's Kingdom : "How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism"

 

"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0895261359/qid=1123876337/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-9340335-8224100?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

 

 

As the former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, he may be a LITTLE slanted *cough* cough*, but the man lays down the facts pretty solid about Wahbiism and the underlying shift of the islamic jihadists attiude being a construct and outcome of mainstream Saudi Mahadis (schools).

 

Side note to the bored, I'll talk slow so you all undestand: AMERICANS ECXESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF GAS IS LEADING TO TERROR ATTACKS BEING FUNDED VIA TEACHING HATRED OF YOU AND ALL THE THINGS YOU STAND FOR.

 

YES YOU (THATS YOU AND ME) ARE HELPING TO FUND THIS VIA PETROLIUM USAGE AND WASTEFUL DRIVING HABITS AND GAS SUCKING SUVS.

 

Driving less means we will be less likely to have to engage the bastards militarity.

 

So the next time you see some poor bastard get his throat cut via video on Al's Jissum.com, check the mirror and reflect upon your personal fuel useage.

 

I have a 15 year old boy I want to have around for a while.

[billcoe]

That reads kind of preachy.

 

Sorry........except for the wanting to keep my kid alive, not sorry about that.

Edited August 12, 2005 by billcoe

[sobo]

billcoe,

On a related note to your recent book, I finished a book called Taliban a few months back. Although it was written before September 11, it is still interesting, illuminating, and enlightening reading for the Westerner.

 

And I agree; the worst thing a parent can ever experience is outliving their child. My parents have been doing that for almost 20 years now...

[foraker]

"Way Beyond Monochrome" by Ralph W. Lambrecht & Chris Woodhouse

Probably the best book I've ever seen on black and white film exposure and printing. Picked it up on one of Amazon's stupid 30% off sales.

[EWolfe]

 

[BASKET]

The Good Rain by Timothy Egan. very good. previous to this Lamb, or, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. Frickin hilarious!!!!