What Are You Reading

[jake431]

I'm reading The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, by Gordon Dahlquist. So far it's a great steampunk book.

-Jake

 

[Peacoat]

General Carl Steiner?
...I heard that he had died.

Yes, General Carl Stiner. Please don't let that be true. Just when I found him after all of these years. He is only in his early 70s. His brother, Tommy, lives in the same town. Guess I will have to give him a call and see what is going on. I was going to wait until I finished the book before I called him, but now there may be no need to wait.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Frykitty]

I'm rereading Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. It's always good for a laugh.

 

[CaddyKid21]

Reading "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac, and "One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey.

 

[dhermann1]

I'm reading the great British historian, George Macaulay Trevelyan's "British History in the Nineteenth Century and After, 1782 - 1919". It's a sweeping review of a great epoch in world history, and beautifully written.
I started another thread about this book, because I Googled the name in the front jacket of the original owner. It was a man named Harold Myer Fondren.
This book was apparently a text book used at Harvard University when he was there in the late 1940's. It still had an envelope tucked in with a list of his semester's class schedule, so I suspect it was never opened again after he finished the class. He was a roommate and friend of the American poet Frank O'Hara, and according to his NY Times obit was an expert on modern art.

 

[Randy]

Charles Sheeler and the Cult of the Machine

I just started reading Charles Sheeler and the Cult of the Machine. Charles Sheeler was a photographer and photo-realist painter who worked around the beginning of the machine age. The book has some very interesting insights into how society viewed the move into what we would consider the modern age. There are a lot of common criticisms of modern technology at that time that still apply to modern technology (Internet/cell phones/etc) - it's been a very interesting book so far (just covered chapter 1)

- Randy

 

[Antje]

I'm into a lot of books lately, I'm almost done with gone with the wind,
and I'm also reading the pickwick papers by charles dickens, last train to memphis by peter guralnick and an elvis biograpy by albert goldman,

I'm pushing myself to read one book at the time but that don't work for me.

 

[KY Gentleman]

Reading "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac

Are you noticing he describes characters as "having their arms akimbo" a lot in this book? He uses that descriptive phrase more than a few times as I recall. Made me wonder why he would do that. I enjoyed the book, though.

 

[Sunny]

I'm currently reading Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine. For Christmas a friend sent me 10 issues from the 1950s, 1953-1958. I've been saving them up, planning to space out the enjoyment... Didn't happen. I opened the first on Friday and last night I started the seventh. I was supposed to be studying this weekend, too. It's been really great, though. Even the "Recommended Reading" column is becoming fascinating - contemporary criticisms of Asimov's Pebble in the Sky, yet! I must admit that my favorite story so far is "Operation Afreet" by Poul Anderson. :eusa_clap

 

[sfend002]

Street Level Bureaucracy by Michael Lipsky.

 

[matt]

Bones of Contention by Marvin Lubenow

 

[Nick D]

The Book of Lost Tales, part 1.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

"The Origin of Species" - thought I'd finally start it as it's his birthday.

 

[John Boyer]

Just completed Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett: The Courtship Correspondence 1845-1846 as selected by Daniel Karlin. This is a wonderful glimpse into the personal lives and love affair of two great literaries; a greater romance could not be conceived in the imagination. Robert Browning is to be respected for his unrelenting patience and perseverence. While Elizabeth was under the control of a dominating father, making the ultimate marriage difficult, she was in my opinion, nonetheless--a flirt! In fact, I think I, too, fell in love with her and I am crushed at her passing.

Will start my Films of the Golden Age magazine that just arived today.

John

 

[maybelaughter]

i recently found a bunch of p.g. wodehouse paperbacks at a used bookstore in town - they didn't even have them on the shelves, because no one here really looks for his work. i'm glad i asked, and i bought enough that she gave me a better price on them too! so i've been reading through these - i love the short stories, perfect for pre-bedtime reading. i'm currently on 'lord emsworth and others'.

for my non-bedtime reading, i'm just starting "beloved bride: the letters of stonewall jackson to his wife" by bill potter.

also from the library this week: two books on frei otto's amazing structures, "the architecture of eden" (beautiful) and "corsets and crinolines" by norah waugh.

I'm currently reading Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine. For Christmas a friend sent me 10 issues from the 1950s, 1953-1958. I've been saving them up, planning to space out the enjoyment... Didn't happen. I opened the first on Friday and last night I started the seventh. I was supposed to be studying this weekend, too. It's been really great, though. Even the "Recommended Reading" column is becoming fascinating - contemporary criticisms of Asimov's Pebble in the Sky, yet! I must admit that my favorite story so far is "Operation Afreet" by Poul Anderson. :eusa_clap

i adore older science fiction mags! when i was in high school, there was an old bookstore in town that had a ton of older issues of them. i loved getting them, super cheap too, and reading them instead of doing my classwork...

 

[Baby Jane]

I recently finished Madame Bovary and am now reading Lolita. I compiled of list of what most people consider the greatest books ever and I hope to read them all...eventually

 

[Harp]

Just completed Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett: The Courtship Correspondence 1845-1846 as selected by Daniel Karlin. This is a wonderful glimpse into the personal lives and love affair of two great literaries; a greater romance could not be conceived in the imagination...
In fact, I think I, too, fell in love with her...
John

:eusa_clap
A singular couple, quite appropriate for Valentine's Day.
EB captivated Poe, who dedicated his Raven to her.
Cannot help but compare EB with her elegiac and enigmatic
contemporary, Emily Dickinson.

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

Shannon by Frank Delaney

 

[Kermez]

For any sci-fi fans out there, I recommend the Zachary Nixon Johnson, P.I. series by John Zakour.

I have read all 6 books in the series, and they're not too bad.

(Plus, as the last P.I. on Earth in 2070, he insists on wearing fedoras and trenchcoats, despite what people think - classic!)

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Spike Jones, Off the Record: The Man who Murdered Music by Jordan R. Young. Anniversary edition.

Don't let "Murdered Music" fool you; it's not a tear-him-apart biography. Even as varied, mysterious and multidirectional as Spike was about in describing his own life and career, it's very well researched and written. I'm enjoying it immensely.


Lee