What Are You Reading

[sixsexsix]

Based on a thread I saw on here, I am currently reading The Day We Bombed Utah.

 

[anon`]

The Vikings revised edition, by Else Roesdahl.

I don't laze around all summer reading Roman history. Just Nordic history. And an assortemnt of anti-Roman history

 

[rcinlv]

Just finished The House Without A Key, By Earl Derr Biggers. Published first in 1925, it is the first Charlie Chan mystery. Captures beautifully Honolulu of the early 1920's.

Cheers,

RC

 

[Charlie Noodles]

I'm reading Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' and a bunch of Hellblazer comics.

 

[RIOT]

One of the coolest books ever

I agree. Re-reading the book brings new interest to the small details in the stories I missed the first time around. Best parts are the Downed Pilot, Bronx & Waterborne Z's. Can't wait for it's movie release in 2010.

 

[deadpandiva]

I'm reading Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' and a bunch of Hellblazer comics.

I've read this countless times. It's one of my favorites.

 

[Spiffy]

I agree. Re-reading the book brings new interest to the small details in the stories I missed the first time around. Best parts are the Downed Pilot, Bronx & Waterborne Z's. Can't wait for it's movie release in 2010.

I am both anticipating and dreading the movie. I'm excited, but almost sure that something will ruin it to make it more 'marketable.'

Finished:
Choke-Chuck Palahniuk
.......a little disjointed. After finishing, I took a look at the trailer for the upcoming film, and I have no idea how all of the tangents on sex addiction and stealing rocks and artificial insemination with religious relics will somehow come together to make one coherent story.

Snuff-Chuck Palahniuk
.......I actually really, really liked this. One of the hardest things (for me) to defend about Palaniuk is that he's a bit of a misogynist. Since I'm a female reader, it's sometimes refreshing to tap into such a bitingly alien perspective. The concept of the novel itself was interesting, even if the ending lacked the somewhat trademark 'twist' that can be usually found in his books. Snuff, however, is going to the top of my Chuck books because it is, in my opinion, a girl-power-masquerading-as-porn book. I simply do not have enough of those and I'm damn proud of Palahniuk for finally writing something with a strong female character.

Started:
The Monster of Florence-Douglas Preston and Maio Spezi
......about the most famous serial killer that almost no one has heard of. I picked this up because I love Preston's cheesecake techno-monster-disaster thrillers (I know, I know) he writes with Lincoln Child. It's beautifully written in a flowing narrative style that I've never seen in another true-crime book (I once slogged all the way through Portrait of a Killer to write an essay). I'm only about a hundred pages in, but the characterization is so elegantly drawn that I feel like I'm on top of all the twists and turns the case has taken.
Here's to hoping the ending's as good as the beginning.

 

[Diamondback]

A collection of old Army field-manuals I've been downloading.

Spiffy, on Preston, I've had Tyrannosaur Canyon recommended to me recently, have you got any thoughts on it? (Besides, we all need "cheesecake" reading every now and then, something to just turn the brain off and enjoy the ride, right?)

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Mel Tormé-It Wasn't All Velvet

Mel Tormé's autobiography. I read this book every couple of years and always get something new out of it. This time around, my recent interest in the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair (a thread I've always wanted to start here) came to light as Mel Tormé auditioned for a radio show there as a child and got another boost into show business.

 

[Harp]

Nursing a cold and reading the summer issue of The Drop,
Special Forces Regiment magazine for old times' sake. :coffee:

 

[Spiffy]

Diamondback,
As for Tyrannosaur Canyon....I thought it was kinda meh. Kind of like a Die Hard for archeologists. His stuff with Lincoln Child is better, particularly their series following FBI Special Agent Pendergast. Imagine a more vicious Sherlock with unlimited power from the government, and freedom to meddle in any kind of strange crime he happens to run across. These include:
-semi mythological creatures consuming brains in a New York museum (Relic)
-the discovery of a 19th century charnel house run by his own ancestor (Cabinet of Curiosities)
-ritualistic small-town murders (Still Life with Crows)

They are great unconventional beach books.

 

[Diamondback]

Thanks, Spiffy! I think the reason TC was suggested was because of my being an amateur paleontologist with a special focus on tyrannosaurs. (I wore out 3 copies of Jurassic Park, if that tells you anything...)

Any of 'em particularly less gruesome than the others?

 

[CharlesB]

CharlesB, perhaps you should read the rules at the top of this forum stating that political posts are not allowed.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I decided to take a break from all the nonfiction I've been reading and read a good mystery.

I have five books I got in a set from eBay that are written by Josephine Tey, a Golden Age of British crime writer and one of the greatest mystery writers of all time.

To date, I've read The Singing Sands, Brat Farrar and Daughter of Time (one of the best mysteries in the world).

Am now reading A Shilling for Candles. Then, I will read The Franchise Affair.

karol

 

[John Boyer]

Simone Weil

"Simeon Weil and the Intellect of Grace" by Henry Finch

 

[Spiffy]

Thanks, Spiffy! I think the reason TC was suggested was because of my being an amateur paleontologist with a special focus on tyrannosaurs. (I wore out 3 copies of Jurassic Park, if that tells you anything...)

Any of 'em particularly less gruesome than the others?

It depends on how you like your gruesome.

 

[Diamondback]

Let's put it this way, I can talk terminal-ballistics and wound-channels from .45s/9mms/what-have-you for firearms all day, but Temple of Doom's about my limit. Seriously, I get nauseous if I see a tub of liver at the supermarket meat counter...

 

[Maguire]

A compilation called "arab history of the crusades" which is basically excerps of arab authors discussing the crusades. Very interesting counterpoint to Christian accounts.

Also I've finally started the Qu'ran, but I'm doing that only two or three pages at a time, and in English for now (although i plan on making efforts towards understanding it in arabic). Thus far i am impressed.

 

[Nighthawk]

The Pump House Gang by Tom Wolfe.

 

[Spiffy]

You'd like Relic, then. A major plot point hinges on whether or not a shotgun shell can pierce the bones of a mutant hypothalamus-eating hybrid human..