What Are You Reading

[Akubra Man]

I am reading Damage Them All You Can by: George Walsh. It is a history of the Southern Army during the Civil War and deals with the battles from the perspective of Southern Officer Corps. It is a very interesting read. I picked it off the shelf at the book store knowing little about this period of U.S. history other than the little bit I learned in High School and from assorted movies. It has been an enlightening and enjoyable read so far.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Right now I'm trying to find the time to read Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions by James Randi. It's a fun book in which Randi debunks a lot of superstitions and pseudoscience. I listen to the podcast "The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe" (http://www.theskepticsguide.org/) and they mention Randi a lot.

"The Amazing Randi" is great -- he used to do an all-night radio talk show on WOR in New York where he took the air out of UFO/conspiracy theorists and such. Good to know he's still on the job!

My current book is "Illegal Tender," by David Tripp -- the story of the most valuable US coin ever minted, the 1933 $20 gold piece, auctioned some years ago for over $7 million as the only legitimately-issued example extant. The twisty turny story of how this particular coin survived the melting vats reads like it ought to be called "The Maltese Double-Eagle."

 

[DavidVillaJr]

I've put off reading the "new" Arturo Perez-Reverte book "The Sun Over Breda" for a while.

I've been hankering to read something about REAL people, so...

Straight Life - The Story of Art Pepper

It's an unflinching look at the saxophonist's life, from the highest highs to the lowest lows.

Reading it while listening to his albums....


dv

 

[vonwotan]

I have just received a copy of The Impossible Virgin a Modesty Blaise novel by Peter O'Donnell. I really enjoy the Modesty Blaise novels. I was surprised at how difficult it has been to find a copy of The Impossible Virgin without breaking the bank...

 

[LocktownDog]

Halfway through ANATHEM by Neal Stephenson. 1000 pages of mathematical monestary fiction. Its OK, but the author could have cut 300 pages out and gotten to the same points. Who knows? Maybe the last few hundred pages will surprise me.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I'm reading "The History of Venice," by John Julus Norwich who is the director of the Save Venice Fund in the UK. He is also an MP and commentator, I believe. Anyway, it's an interesting read and will provide a nice suppliment to my studies and I dive deeper than ever before into Venice's treasures next month.

 

[mannySpaghetti]

I just started in on a new read, Murder Inc. - The Story Of The Syndicate. As always for me, tales of organized crime fascinates, but what's even more so is that it was written/copyrighted in '51 and mentions such notables as Albert Anastasia while he's still alive, Meyer Lansky while in Cuba and the "recent" assasination of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel as he sat reading the newspaper. This book has enabled me to warp back to '51, seventeen years before I was born and does so, quite well.

 

[StaceFace]

I still have like, 4 stacks of "to read" books near my bed... so I wont go into what I'm currently reading at the moment.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one! My stacks, which are more like small mountains, have finally had to go back home to the bookcase until a later time lol

 

[russa11]

right now I am reading Witness to Power - The Nixon years By John Ehrlichman

 

[Nighthawk]

Without Remorse. I am planning on reading all of Tom Clancy's 'Ryanverse' novels in the order in which they take place, not publication date, and WO is the first one.

I can't wait until I re-read Clear and Present Danger, its one of my favorite novels.

NH

 

[Diamondback]

FM 3-24/MCWP 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency, along with the latest issues of Journal of Counterterror and Homeland Security International and SWAT Magazine.

----------------
Now playing: Carlo Siliotto - About Your Family - Setting the Trap
via FoxyTunes

 

[Corto]

Just finished James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific". A little more raw and gritty than the musical...Full of the social, sexual and racial mores of the 1940's. I wasn't totally in love with it, but it's probably a faithful snapshot of the period.

After all that waiting around in "South Pacific", I wanted something with a little more intensity, so I'm currently reading "Strong Men Armed" by Robert Leckie. (The subtitle is "The Marines vs. Japan").

 

[Nighthawk]

FM 3-24/MCWP 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency, along with the latest issues of Journal of Counterterror and Homeland Security International and SWAT Magazine.

Do you also read Soldier of Fortune? Any opinions on it?

NH

 

[St.Ignatz]

very retro............but maybe not

"The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk". Religious "scandal" from 1850's. Senate (British) version 1969 is the absolute sexiest cover I've ever seen.

 

[Mike1939]

I'm reading Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty & Wilderness Journals, edited by W.L. Rusho. It's the letters and journals of a young artist and wilderness wanderer that disappeared with hardly trace in the canyon lands of Utah in 1934. His wonderful writing gives you a glimpse of the American west of the early 1930's. This is the second book I've read on Everatt Ruess and my own love of the outdoors as well as the mystery of his disappearance has me looking for more.

 

[Akubra Man]

I am re-reading now for the third time a book that inspired me to make significant changes to the way I live my life. The book is: The Lazy Person's Guide To Success: How to get what you want without killing yourself for it By: Ernie J. Zelinski. Prior to finding this book I had just gone through a life threatening illness 3 1/2 years ago and came out the other side weakened and having to rebuild my health. I took a long look at how I lived my life and decided to move off the fast pace and slow down. Well they say when the student is ready the teacher will appear. I literally picked this book off the shelf at the local mega book store while looking for a book on eating healthy. Somebody had misplaced it in the health and fitness section.

The title is a little misleading in that it refers to Lazy and Success together. What this book is about is re-defining your life in the terms you want and providing a framework to getting there. It is fine if big money and all work is what you really want but if you desire less work and more leisure this is a good reference on how to get there.

In short the book provides and alternative to the work until you drop philosophy of America the alternative being to work on those things that make a difference the quality of life. I have found that only a few things in life really matter for me and pursuing these things on an onging basis is a recipe for true happiness and success in my life.

 

[vitanola]

I am re-reading John Maynard Keynes' "The Economic Consequences of the Peace"m and for light reading am assaying "Theater", by W. Somerset Maugham.

 

[carter]

This thread keeps me in reading material!

I'm reading Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty & Wilderness Journals, edited by W.L. Rusho. It's the letters and journals of a young artist and wilderness wanderer that disappeared with hardly trace in the canyon lands of Utah in 1934. His wonderful writing gives you a glimpse of the American west of the early 1930's. This is the second book I've read on Everatt Ruess and my own love of the outdoors as well as the mystery of his disappearance has me looking for more.

Thanks for posting this, Mike1939. I just found a seller at abebooks.com who is selling 1st editions [of this volume] for 1/2 the normal price for a limited time.

Lately, this thread is helping me help Abebooks sell more books!

 

[Mike1939]

Thanks for posting this, Mike1939. I just found a seller at abebooks.com who is selling 1st editions [of this volume] for 1/2 the normal price for a limited time.

Lately, this thread is helping me help Abebooks sell more books!

You're welcome Carter. Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

 

[Feraud]

Just received American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work and added it to my list of books to read.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Launched in 1935, at the bottom of the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) served as a linchpin of FDR's New Deal. Through the WPA, Roosevelt put millions of unemployed Americans to work on public construction projects, from dams and courthouses to parks and roads. The WPA's Federal Writers Project employed a host of artists and writers (among them Jackson Pollock, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston and Studs Terkel); theater and musical artists also received funding. Taylor (Ordinary Miracles: Life in a Small Church) vividly and painstakingly paints the full story of the WPA from its inception to its shutdown by Congress in 1943, at which point the war boom in manufacturing had made it unnecessary. In an eloquent and balanced appraisal, Taylor not only chronicles the WPA's numerous triumphs (including New York's LaGuardia Airport) but also its failures, most notably graft and other chicanery at the local level. Taylor details as well the dicey intramural politics in Congress over which states and districts would get the largest slice of the WPA pie. All told, Taylor's volume makes for a splendid appreciation of the WPA with which to celebrate the upcoming 75th anniversary of the New Deal's beginnings in 1933. (Mar. 4)
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