What Are You Reading

[Nathan Dodge]

About Time 5: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who
by Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood.

This volume covers in amazing analytical detail, seasons 18-21 of Classic Dr. Who. Essential reading for anyone who loves the show. The often-humorous barbs on the show's continuity, budget, acting, and influences--among many things--makes for fascinating reading. The authors assume that you're familiar with the show. I bought this to complete the Tom Baker years, but look forward to exploring his successor, Peter Davison, whose run on this show I completely ignored back then. There are also some great essays on various aspects of the program, such as "How Does Regeration Work?" Yes, this series is for the fanatic...

 

[Harp]

Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics by Eleanor Herman

...a real Royal Flush of a title.

 

[vonwotan]

I nearly forgot my subway reading... Beacon Hill Confidential, A Francis Fallon Mystery by William F. McLaughlin.

 

[Diamondback]

...a real Royal Flush of a title.

Very punny, Harp.

Current read: Tom Madden's compiled Excel spreadsheet of Pullman Car Construction Records. Everything you could ever want to know about any single car from the vast Pullman fleet but were afraid to ask... in short, if it's not in the chart there probably isn't an answer to be found anymore.

 

[pretty faythe]

I'm reading like 3 different cheesy dime store romances.
I really should just stop reading. No matter the characters I see a bit of me in them and they make me cry.

 

[carebear]

Just finished "The Reluctant Fundamentalist".

Short novel, good thinker.

 

[JoeNiblick]

Just finished: Revolutionary Road. Highly recommend the movie (although the book is great, too!)

Just starting: In Defense of Food.

 

[Akubra]

I just finished Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, I had not read it since high school and I think I got a lot more out of it this time.

I just had a big binge of Africana, I read Harry Manners book KAMBAKU and Gordon Cundihill's book, LIONS I HAVE KNOWN. I recomend both highly if you love African hunting stories.

I am now on to King Leupold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. It is about colonial exploitation in the Belgan Congo (non fiction)

After that I will start THE DAUGHTERS OF JUAREZ

 

[ladybrettashley]

Just starting: In Defense of Food.

Excellent choice! I rather preferred The Omnivore's Dilemma, i think because it is a bit more in-depth, but In Defense of Food is likely more practically important for most folks. Then, i'm rather a food nerd!

 

[FinalVestige79]

The Indispensable Guide to Classic Men's Clothing and Esquire's The Handbook of Style. I prefer Esquires over the other...it seems more interactive.

 

[Dewhurst]

Just started reading the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation of Dostoevsky's Demons (The Possessed) day before yesterday.

 

[Laura Chase]

I just started The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Wow! Will end up being a favorite, I'm sure...

 

[Rhian]

Yesterday I started The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, and today, stuck in bed with a cold, I find myself unable to put it down. As someone who has belatedly discovered that she would very much like to be a historian, I find it fascinating and resonant. As far as the supernatural elements go, I'm enjoying it as much as, if not more than, Stoker's Dracula. I can't tell if it will become a favourite yet, but it's going the right way about it!

 

[Darhling]

Yesterday I started The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, and today, stuck in bed with a cold, I find myself unable to put it down. As someone who has belatedly discovered that she would very much like to be a historian, I find it fascinating and resonant. As far as the supernatural elements go, I'm enjoying it as much as, if not more than, Stoker's Dracula. I can't tell if it will become a favourite yet, but it's going the right way about it!

I read this a few years back and I really enjoyed it aswell!!

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Casino Royale- I'm determined to re-read the Ian Fleming Bond books--in publication order. I still have several holes to fill in the olde collection to do that.

 

[Laura Chase]

Can anyone recommend other Cormac McCarthy books? I just finished The Road and I need more.

 

[Harp]

On order: The Whole Five Feet;
What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death and Pretty Much
Everything Else by Christopher Beha.

Caught the New York Times review last week.
Beha, a Princeton alum decided to read through the entire
Harvard Classics collection, a five-foot shelf stack,
following his cancer diagnosis.

 

[John Boyer]

Caught the New York Times review last week.
Beha, a Princeton alum decided to read through the entire
Harvard Classics collection, a five-foot shelf stack,
following his cancer diagnosis.

Harp,

The Harvard Classics remain one of my favorite collection of books. The Editor's Introduction: Readers Guide included in the collection make this a much more approachable lifetime reading program. Without this guide, it is difficult to know where to start. I must check out Behas' book on his experience.

Currently rereading Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Perhaps, my favorite collection of poems.

John

 

[Aureliano]

Obama's The audacity of hope.

 

[Harp]

Harp,

The Harvard Classics remain one of my favorite collection of books. The Editor's Introduction: Readers Guide included in the collection make this a much more approachable lifetime reading program. Without this guide, it is difficult to know where to start. I must check out Behas' book on his experience.

Currently rereading Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Perhaps, my favorite collection of poems.

John

John:

My summer reading has been on hold for the past few weeks--
working on a '94 Jaguar XJS convertible I picked up for a song--
but Beha's book review sparked my interest.

Whitman's Ode to Death from Leaves is a favorite.
His revisions and the inherent reasons for such are almost as intriguing.