What book are you reading right now?

[skiaholik]

Recently finished The Confessions of an Economic Hitman and another book on the stock market who's title eludes me right now.

Currently 2/3 of the way through Jim Cramer's Real Money. Then on to more Cramer and some Peter Lynch.


I prefer nonfiction.

[snow_slider]

To those of you wondering whether or not to read Atlad Shrugged. It is big (Rand is verbose), but it's a pretty easy read and very engaging. I finished it in three days.

At least you will know who John Galt is....

[MeatPuppet]

Rereading The Logic of Failure by Dietrich Dorner.

[hutash]

Wow...I didn't know so many maggots could read Judging by the quality of some posts, one has to wonder.

Some great books on your reading lists, Two Steinbeck's, i am impressed, add me for a third, East of Eden. I last read it nearly 30 years ago.

Also on my reading table:

"The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins (I just finished "The God Delusion", so I have his first and last books covered.)

"On the Origin of Species" first ed. by Charles Darwin. I have read the 6th ed. several times, so I thought I would see how different the 1st ed. is (not very).

Plus a couple books on avalanche safety, but cannot remember the titles.

[leroy jenkins]

One Man's West by David Sievert Lavender:

http://tinyurl.com/26tj8z

Highly recommended for the coloraggots.

Nice, his son teaches at CRMS (in carbondale if you don't know). Good guy.

[focus]

re: Atlas Shrugged - don't feel bad if you get bogged down into one of the 50 page monologues and skip ahead. Really, she says everything in the first 3 or 4 paragraphs and just says it a bunch of different ways for the next 48 pages. It's actually an interesting story.

[~mikey b]

The Utes Must Go by Peter Decker

[SkiBrain]

Recently read the Glass Castle also. Not reading any books for pleasure right now, only research articles, but the next one on the list is Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero. Anyone read it? What did you think?

[focus]

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King.

Its the fifth book in the seven book series The Dark Tower.

I regret ever reading the first one. I ended up reading the entire series but felt a little silly doing it.

[A. Wahoo]

I just finished The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It's good survival fiction beach reading.
My two cents on the Atlas Shrugged question is that you should read The Fountainhead first. I started with that one. It's less of a philosophy book than Atlas, more interesting and less repetitive, but still gets the main ideas across. Then, if you like that, it will be easier to appreciate Atlas.

[AKA]

Just finished "Independence Day" by Richard Ford.

Its not about aliens.

[iceman]

Fighting my way through "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. Interesting material for the most part but man he's a boring writer. I literally can not read this book lying down, I fall right asleep.

[doughboyshredder]

Recently finished:

Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales ----A really gripping insight into survival stories. But, since when has there been a Gondola in Washington State?

The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum ------Suspense from the master.

Currently reading:

Red Lightning by John Varley ------ The visual of a massive tsunami hitting the east coast of the US is intense.

Looking forward to with unnerving anticipation------

The conclusion to the Sword of Truth series.

Sprite, I read Veronika Decides to Die a few months ago. As is true with most of Coelho's writing I also thought it was outstanding. For some reason I am stalled a few chapters in to the Zahir, though.

[AKbruin]

Fighting my way through "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. Interesting material for the most part but man he's a boring writer. I literally can not read this book lying down, I fall right asleep.

I concur. It felt like a 75-page thesis thinly spread over 400+ pages.

Me: Moby Dick.

[concretejungle]

"Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll. "The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition," good short stories.

[IE]

Awesome thread! I've been trying to read more lately - really got away from reading a ton when I was younger, with college, drinking, working, watching too much tv, etc. Thanks to this thread, just bought:

Big Sky
Life of Pi
In Evil Hour
Autumn of the Patriarch
Quicksilver

All looked good, and for $23.04 shipped from Amazon, how could I go wrong? Will definitely be checking back in here weekly.

Btw, just re-read Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions last week - , and currently reading The Great Shark Hunt - the most fun I've had reading in awhile.

[MeatPuppet]

Fighting my way through "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. Interesting material for the most part but man he's a boring writer. I literally can not read this book lying down, I fall right asleep.

I have started and stopped this book three times. At I type this, it is underneath my monitor to raise it a few inches higher. I want to read it, I'm interested in the subject matter, I just can't bring myself to make a fourth attempt.

[irul&ublo]

Truman, bt David Mcollough. Good stuff. I wish we still had leaders like him.

[altagirl]

re: Atlas Shrugged - don't feel bad if you get bogged down into one of the 50 page monologues and skip ahead. Really, she says everything in the first 3 or 4 paragraphs and just says it a bunch of different ways for the next 48 pages. It's actually an interesting story.

I was going to say, it's been... like 15 years since I read it, but I really liked it. And I also read a bunch of Ayn Rand, though I can't remember what I started with.

Anyway, back on topic - I just finished two "airport" books: Snowflower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See) and Bitter is the New Black (Jen Lancaster). For some reason while choosing books to read on a plane I aim for fluff that requires no thought process on my part.

And I have one more - My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult) that was recommended to me. Haven't started that one yet.


BTW - I LOVED Life of Pi. Really creative idea. (Also -probably the best book I've ever picked up at an airport bookstore.)

[akrdubbs]

Fighting my way through "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. Interesting material for the most part but man he's a boring writer. I literally can not read this book lying down, I fall right asleep.

I actually thought this was a really well-written, interesting book. It really changed how I think about human history. "Collapse" did put me to sleep, though - it was written as an academic book, not a general history.

"Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll. "The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition," good short stories.

"Ghost Wars" is great. I read it as part of a "US Foreign Policy in the Middle East after 1945" class. Still one of my favorites, although I haven't had a chance to re-read it. If you're interested in terrorism and US foreign policy, check out Lawrence Pintak's "Seeds of Hate", too.

I'm currently working my way through an Iran reading list - "Blood & Oil" and "The Mantle of the Prophet" have recently been finished. I'm working on "The Blindfold Horse" now.

[jonski]

Recently finished: The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie
Just finished: After Dark Haruki Murakami
Currently reading: Midnights Children Salman Rushdie

Or Sir Salman Rushdie as he is now...

I've read every Murakami book that is readily available in English. There are also a few that were translated to English to help Japanese school kids learn, whilst reading a story written by one of the country's most eminent authors. I want them, but at a couple of thousand bucks a pop due to the small print run, I'll have to go without!

Salman, I read The S.V.s just because of the whole death threat thing around it. I guess it's hard to portray religion as anything other than pure to a lot of people and not expect an extreme response. However, although his use of unconventional language and grammar can be distracting at times (like reading an AKPM post! ), once you get into it, the multiple storylines do become entrancing enough for you to want to push on and finish the book.

Midnights Children is the winner of the Booker of Booker's - the best of the booker prize winners from the first 25 years of the competition. Too early to pass judgement, but similarly 'awkward' grammar and punctuatation.

Oh, recently finished The Powder Road by Stephan Drake too. Good book, awesome photos!!!

[hutash]

I read both Collapsed and Guns, Germs and Steel, and did not find them boring. I took my time, and did not try to read them cover to cover, but mixed them up with several other books, (which is my usual style of reading.) They are both interesting ideas, but far from accepted scholarship. In fact the anthropology field consider him a bit of a loose cannon. He is a smart bio-geographer, and a brilliant physiologist, but his knowledge of human history and development is sketchy at best.

[iceman]

Well I agree with AKBruin, above. By page 200 I was basically screaming "I GET IT!!".

And his obsessive love for New Guineans is a bit disturbing.

[AKbruin]

Recently finished: The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie
Just finished: After Dark Haruki Murakami
Currently reading: Midnights Children Salman Rushdie

Or Sir Salman Rushdie as he is now...

I've read every Murakami book that is readily available in English. There are also a few that were translated to English to help Japanese school kids learn, whilst reading a story written by one of the country's most eminent authors. I want them, but at a couple of thousand bucks a pop due to the small print run, I'll have to go without!

Salman, I read The S.V.s just because of the whole death threat thing around it. I guess it's hard to portray religion as anything other than pure to a lot of people and not expect an extreme response. However, although his use of unconventional language and grammar can be distracting at times (like reading an AKPM post! ), once you get into it, the multiple storylines do become entrancing enough for you to want to push on and finish the book.

Midnights Children is the winner of the Booker of Booker's - the best of the booker prize winners from the first 25 years of the competition. Too early to pass judgement, but similarly 'awkward' grammar and punctuatation.

What did you think of After Dark? I thought it was okay (Murakami's okay = everybody else's great), but not as entertaining as most of his novels. Like you, I've read everything of his that has been translated into English. I'm a little sad that I'll probably have to wait another couple years for the next translation to come out.

Read Midnight's Children and was duly impressed. IMHO, both Murakami and Rushdie do magical realism better than Marquez.

[noodles]

Iron Council by China Mieville. I read Perdido Street Station and thought enough of it to buy another book by him. Dark creepy sci-fi, top of the line escapist trash Very entertaining read actually. The dude has a big vocabulary, very graceful prose at times. Sometimes a big word gets stuck in his head, he'll use it too often in a paragraph and it sticks out like a sore thumb.