What Are You Reading

[farnham54]

Miss Queenie, Mr. O'Brien should be paying you royalties. Your enthusiasm for the books comes through and you've certainly sold them to me (Obviously not 'sold' YOUR copy to me as I imagine, based on the review, you'll never part with them ). I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers
Craig

 

[Rosie]

For pleasure, I'm reading May Summer Never End (written by a friend of mine, I don't normally read books like that) and The Way Foward is with a Broken Heart.

For work: Diagnostic Reading Inventory for Primary and Secondary Grades

With my class: Charlotte's Web

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I am reading Caesar: Life of a Colossus. It is an excellent biography full of detail of life in Roman Times. I am enjoying it greatly.

 

[Sunny]

Currently, Clive Cussler's Valhalla Rising. Given to me by one of my carpool buddies, since I'd never even heard of him.

I'm also reading Dickens's Bleak House in the car, since it's much easier to carry around. So far the first 4 chapters were a little ominous/sad/grim, but the next couple have been quite upbeat. This is untypical Dickens, so I'm wondering when the blow will fall.

I just finished a terrific collection of Dashiell Hammett Continental Op stories. The book was 500+ pages and I didn't want it to end.

 

[moustache]

Samuel Barber

Being a classical music freak(emphasis on latter word),i just started a biography of Samuel Barber.After that i shall be undertaking a splendid read of the Boer campaign in 1902.
Not sure past that.Perhaps Bill O'Reilly's new book "Culture Warrior".

JD

 

[Mojave Jack]

About 50 pages into Aldous Huxley's Crome Yellow.

A very satisfying read. Wonderfully written. Hilarious, in its own way.

bk

Baron, have you read The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Huxley? A truly fascinating alternate view of the world. I particularly liked his theory on the "mind at large" and the function of the human brain as a "reducing valve" to limit the distraction of the supernatural and allow us to concentrate on survival. I was inspired to read them after I read No One Here Gets Out Alive and learned that Huxley was the inspiration for the name of the band, The Doors.

On another note, it fascinates me that so many Loungers are reading multiple books simultaneously. I've always thought I was a bit odd for doing that, so I am glad to find I am in good company.

Lately I've finished Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger, and started re-reading Sabertooth: The Rip Roaring Adventures of a Legendary Game Warden and started Pogue's War: Diaries of a WWII Combat Historian. I've already started looking for Pogue's other works, which is just stacking up behind everything else, including Kipling's Life's Handicap and Willa Cather's Shadows on the Rock.

For those of you that like the Patrick O'Brian books, you might like to read Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Dana. An absolutely fascinating autobiography, of his adventures when he left Harvard seeking adventure in the early 19th century.

 

[Strider]

V For Vendetta.

 

[Polka Dot]

I've been on a Marguerite Duras kick as of late. I'm currently reading La Douleur.

 

[Harp]

WSC

Being a classical music freak(emphasis on latter word),i just started a biography of Samuel Barber.After that i shall be undertaking a splendid read of the Boer campaign in 1902.
Not sure past that.Perhaps Bill O'Reilly's new book "Culture Warrior".

JD

Moustache:
Have you ever read Winston Churchill's The Malakand Field Force?

 

[Harp]

Ragtop

A cozy book about a Harvard dorm group and their coming of age
during WWII: Anton Myrer's The Last Convertible.

 

[The Duke]

 

[rcinlv]

I'm reading...

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Alice in Wonderland. I haven't read it in a very long time. Next is King Arthur and His Knights

 

[Jay]

"Hatless Jack" was an interesting read, but at the end, I felt the true answer wasn't really identified, just left as mysterious as when I began the book. But I learned some cool stuff along the way, so i still enjoyed it.

 

[Etienne]

The Gift of Pain--by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey

As someone who has had 17 surgeries and is going in for 2 additional back surgeries soon, this title has an almost tongue-in-cheek name to me. But it is an incredible book and it puts pain in a framework that one rarely considers. I LOVED this book!

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Sidetracked on research I was supposed to be doing on cinematographer Harold Rosson, I just read Harlow: an Intimate Biography, in one sitting.

Not exactly literature and not exactly canonized nonfiction, but quite the escape. And quite the soap opera. Jean Harlot Harlow the Blond Bombshell / Sex Goddess didn't disappoint.

I think the most interesting fact gained from the read was this:
During the Great Depression, movie's biggest sex icon was marketed as the rich girl. (Jean Harlow)
During our greatest economic boon, the biggest sex icon was marketed as having risen from rags to riches. (Marylin Monroe)
Social opposites attract.

+ William Powell.

 

[Phil]

The Maltese Falcon
By Dashiell Hammett

 

[Nashoba]

Lately, mostly my bible and posts here in the lounge....though my dad sent me a pretty cool origami book on dinasors, I should sit down with that...

 

[Riposte3]

Just finished "Farnham's Freehold" by Robert Heinlein. Very good book, and apparantly very controversial when it was originally published.

Just started "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman. I only picked it up because he co-authored "Good Omens" with Terry Pratchett (of "Discworld" fame) and that was a good read. Their styles meshed well together.

-Jake

 

[carebear]

Just finished "Farnham's Freehold" by Robert Heinlein. Very good book, and apparantly very controversial when it was originally published.


-Jake

When it came out? It's controversial today. Setting aside the false accusations of racism, the concept of individual responsibility and the inevitable result (slavery) of the monopolization of power by a ruling class/government are the same trenchant warnings against statism as they were when Heinlein wrote it.

On a less strident note, I really like Gaiman's novels. Anansi Boys is next on my list.

If you aren't against comic books in theory I can recommend the graphic novels of his Sandman series (DC) as well.