Read Any Good Books Lately?

[TimmyBoston]

I've noticed on a lot of people's bio's, they are avid readers. I, too, and a bookworm, okay I'm really a nerd.
I just wanted to know what all of you have your bookmarks in right now, some of your favorites and books you may want to read.

I just finished reading, It's Superman by Tom De Haven. It's a retelling of the classic tale of Superman, set in the 1930's and it follows a 17 year old Clark Kent, along with the other classic characters from the saga, Lex Luthor, Perry White, Lois Lane. It begins in Smallville Kansas and ends up New York City with the powerful Lex Luthor planning and evil scheme and a fledging Superman forging his way into the fabric of society. Everyone knows how the story ends we've all seen it a hundred times, but it's a great story of the most recognizable American hero. I enjoyed it, if I wasn't a superhero nut, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much though. I saw it at Barnes and Noble and couldn't resist picking it up. If you're a Superman fan, it's a worthwhile read.
I'm also working my through the Best American Short Story Series: Vol. 2005, edited by Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitizer Prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which is an outstanding read. It's the best collection of short stories I've read in years and has some of the best stories I've ever read, period.
What I'm working my way through now is Thomas Mann's A Death in Venice and Other Tales which is very well written, but I'm only through one story thusfar so I can't draw adequate conclusions just yet. I'm also reading Augusten Burrough's Possible Side Effects another outstanding memoir from the so sad he's hilarious author. And finally I'm rereading Richard Russo's Empire Falls, which may be the finest, grandest novel I've ever read. Everyone who hasn't read it needs to buy or check out a copy immediately.
I haven't decided what I'll get to next. Any suggestions?

I hope many of you will chime in on this topic, books are some of my best friends and I'm always looking for more.

Thanks

 

[Stauff]

I've noticed on a lot of people's bio's, they are avid readers. I, too, and a bookworm, okay I'm really a nerd.
I just wanted to know what all of you have your bookmarks in right now, some of your favorites and books you may want to read.

I just finished reading, It's Superman by Tom De Haven. It's a retelling of the classic tale of Superman, set in the 1930's and it follows a 17 year old Clark Kent, along with the other classic characters from the saga, Lex Luthor, Perry White, Lois Lane. It begins in Smallville Kansas and ends up New York City with the powerful Lex Luthor planning and evil scheme and a fledging Superman forging his way into the fabric of society. Everyone knows how the story ends we've all seen it a hundred times, but it's a great story of the most recognizable American hero. I enjoyed it, if I wasn't a superhero nut, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much though. I saw it at Barnes and Noble and couldn't resist picking it up. If you're a Superman fan, it's a worthwhile read.
I'm also working my through the Best American Short Story Series: Vol. 2005, edited by Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitizer Prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which is an outstanding read. It's the best collection of short stories I've read in years and has some of the best stories I've ever read, period.
What I'm working my way through now is Thomas Mann's A Death in Venice and Other Tales which is very well written, but I'm only through one story thusfar so I can't draw adequate conclusions just yet. I'm also reading Augusten Burrough's Possible Side Effects another outstanding memoir from the so sad he's hilarious author. And finally I'm rereading Richard Russo's Empire Falls, which may be the finest, grandest novel I've ever read. Everyone who hasn't read it needs to buy or check out a copy immediately.
I haven't decided what I'll get to next. Any suggestions?

I hope many of you will chime in on this topic, books are some of my best friends and I'm always looking for more.

Thanks

Death in Venice is one of my all-time favorite books. Thomas Mann is the greatest writer in history -period. If you like it, you should read his 'Buddenbrooks' and 'The Magic Mountain' (the best book EVER).
Enjoy!

 

[TimmyBoston]

This is my first forray into Mann, I'm surprised I never read him in college, well not that suprised, I don't know I've ever had to read anything worthwhile for class.

 

[Raj]

Just finished reading "Two Lives" by Vikram Seth. Great biography! Great book. I am now on to "Lawrence, the uncrowned king of Arabia", by Michael Asher. What a mysterious and an odd man Lawrence was! After this I have lined up my next book allready, " A tale of love and darkness" by Amos Oz. Oz struck me as being a very clever and intelligent author. Saw a TV programme of him sometime ago and that sort of got me in to buying his book. That's all for now fellas, take care.

 

[fuerein]

When I went on vacation several weeks ago I read half-way through the first volume (of two) of the collected Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I have trouble getting myself to read during the times that I work, since my job is about 75% reading and when I get home I really do not feel like looking at more text on paper, and thus haven't finished it yet. When I do finish it the next book on my shelf to read is The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevski <sp?>.

 

[ada8356]

While living in Ghana I managed to do quite a bit of reading. The following were some of my favorites:

I've linked these to Amazon so you can check them out. Easier than me fumbling for lousy descriptions!

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and Richard Leigh

See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism by Robert Baer

 

[FriscoSoxFan]

Here's some of my reads this year:

A fan's case for baseball - Bob Costas - A quick, light read. It convinced me the wild card is just a bad idea.

Mind Game - Steve Goldman - How the Sox won the series. Great read for stat heads

Game of shadows - Mark Fainaru - Bonds is a juicer, no questions after this read.

The meaning of Ichiro - Robert Whiting - Fascinating book. Must be a hard core baseball fan to appreciate. Great insight into the Japanese game of Baseball.

Freakonomics - Steven Dubner - Cannot recommend highly enough. Wow. Read it tomorrow in one sitting. Seriously.

The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis Excellent. Of course.

Mere Christianity - CS Lewis A great read if that is yor thing. If it isn't, try it anyway.

Those were all mostly beginning of te year reads. I'm back getting my MBA now, so I have converted over to case studies and textbooks. Ugh.

Can you tell I like baseball???

 

[jbasl]

Peter J. Bowler's "Evolution: The History of an Idea" is an amazing book that I read recently. It traces the steps and disputes in the scientific community that lead up to Dawin's theory. It is piece of history of science work and keeps you very interested to see the theoretical paradigms in place at the time and what Darwin's theory really entailed for the then current worldview.

I haven't really read anything but philosophy in awhile so unless you are into probability theory, epistemology, or metaethics, I don't have much else to recommend.

I do enjoy Steinbeck and think "East of Eden" is top notch.

Keep the books coming its nice to see what people are reading.

-John

 

[Quagmire]

The last couple of books I read:

Cell by Stephen King
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz

 

[FriscoSoxFan]

The last couple of books I read:

Cell by Stephen King
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz

That reminds me of the Family Guy episode where Peter runs over a guy in the road in Maine and says "Oh my god, I just ran over Steven King!" Then the victim says "No I'm not, I'm Dean Koontz" So Peter backs up and runs over him again.

Classic.

 

[drP]

What's this crap you guys are reading for heaven's sake; this is a SHAVING FORUM remember????

As a XXX hardcore shavegeek i read: "King C. Gillette, the man and his wonderful shaving device" by Russel B. Adams and the Krumholz' book.....

Now these are the right books at this place

dr P

 

[kozulich]

Just finished two classic by C.S. Lewis:
The Great Divorce
The Abolition of Man

 

[moses]

Ah, yes, that is one of my hobbies.... At the moment I'm in the middle of Rainbow Six, by Clancy. Clancy, and his ilk (Ludlum, MC, etc.) are sort of my guilty pleasure - what I read where I just want something that drags me in, and takes no real mental effort.

I recently finished The Brothers Karamotzov, by Dostoyevsky. I read it the first time in college, and have been meaning to reread for a long time. It is brilliant. A philisophical/theological masterpiece, that actually is a decent read. There are a couple of spots where it dries out, or at least requires a little mental exertion to appreciate, but it really is good. At least I think so. Adam, I'll be curious to hear what you think of it.

Other things I've read in the last few months:
The Bostonians by Henry James (strange book, especially for a victorian novel. You can tell you are reading something by a master, but maybe something he just kind of tossed off as an interesting exercise).

Also The Razor's Edge and Then and Now by Somerset Maugham. Both good. The Razor's Edge is a really really fascinating comination of characters, and exploration of what ultimately motivates people. Then and Now is a rather amusing fictional account of Macchiavelli's encounters with the man who became the inspiration for The Prince. I really enjoy the way Maugham rights. It is not quite as relaxing to read his books as, say Clancy, but more entertaining, and Clancy, and actually almost every recent written I've read (don't get me started on Dan Brown), could take serious lessons in use of the english language from this man, James, and Hemingway. All very different, but all masterful in their use of words.

I read Pudd'nhead Wilson by Twain recently. A lot lesser known than, say, Huck Finn, but I like it a lot. Twain's only crime thriller, as far as I know. Also part of his almost obsession with the meaning of the distinctions drawn according to race, and the impact of societal moldings based characteristics of race and class (the story revolves around two boys, who look similar, but one of whom is the legitmate son of a very weathy and respected man, and the other of whom is the son of the first's slave nanny. The nanny/mother switches them, so that her son can have all the privileges, and it goes from there....).

Also, Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner. A very western book in feel, although not at all a western in the traditional sense. Wonderfully written (I think it won a pulitzer, but not sure). The only downside is that there is somehow a bit of an air of meloncholy through the whole thing.

Forge of Heaven by Cherryh. Not bad sifi. I liked the one fantasy book that I read by her slightly better, but this was pretty good.

I think I read Rising Sun by M.C. early this year too. Interesting picture of what people were thinking during the "Japan is taking over America" scare of the eighties and early nineties. Amazing the ideas put forward that aren't even critically examined.

That's about it for recent reads. That I can remember.

Aaron, what did you think of Holy Blood, Holy Grail? (For anyone too lazy to click on Aaron's link, this is the book, from the 70s, in which two people lay out the theory's about the the cruxification, Mary Magdalene, Jesus having a child, the templars, etc., that Dan Brown bases The DaVinci Code on). Personally, all I could think reading it, was "how do these nuts call themselves researchers? Or Historians?" If they thought it was an interesting theory, fine. But if they seriously convinced themselves of all this, as they claimed to have, they were the least criticaly thinking people I've ever read.

 

[ada8356]

Aaron, what did you think of Holy Blood, Holy Grail? (For anyone too lazy to click on Aaron's link, this is the book, from the 70s, in which two people lay out the theory's about the the cruxification, Mary Magdalene, Jesus having a child, the templars, etc., that Dan Brown bases The DaVinci Code on). Personally, all I could think reading it, was "how do these nuts call themselves researchers? Or Historians?" If they thought it was an interesting theory, fine. But if they seriously convinced themselves of all this, as they claimed to have, they were the least criticaly thinking people I've ever read.

I really enjoyed it. I think it wouldn't be a bad idea for any Christian to read this, mainly because I think asking questions is healthy for everyone.

And I don't think that the guys convinced themselves of anything, they merely go through the research steps:

Make a hypothesis and then try to disprove it... I think all they show is that there are some of their hypothesis that can not be disproved... that doesn't necessarily make them true, just not necessarily wrong either.

 

[fuerein]

I recently finished The Brothers Karamotzov, by Dostoyevsky. I read it the first time in college, and have been meaning to reread for a long time. It is brilliant. A philisophical/theological masterpiece, that actually is a decent read. There are a couple of spots where it dries out, or at least requires a little mental exertion to appreciate, but it really is good. At least I think so. Adam, I'll be curious to hear what you think of it.

Well, I've read War & Peace by Tolstoy and that required a bit of mential exertion to fully appriciate, so I think I'm pretty much up to the task of The Brothers Karamazov. The only issue is when I read War and Peace (end of junior year of college - beginning of summer of that year) it took me about 5 months to fully read it and understand it. All because the Russian names were too similar and my not being familiar with Russian names I had to keep going back to figure out who was who and Tolstoy just got so into details. I really loved the book though.

To put that in perspective. The book of Holmes mysteries I mentioned that I am in the middle of right now, well it is the same approx. size of copy of War and Peace and it only took me a week to get about 1/2 way through. Russian Lit is so complex!

 

[jmhUT]

Well, I've read War & Peace by Tolstoy and that required a bit of mential exertion to fully appriciate, so I think I'm pretty much up to the task of The Brothers Karamazov. The only issue is when I read War and Peace (end of junior year of college - beginning of summer of that year) it took me about 5 months to fully read it and understand it. All because the Russian names were too similar and my not being familiar with Russian names I had to keep going back to figure out who was who and Tolstoy just got so into details. I really loved the book though.

To put that in perspective. The book of Holmes mysteries I mentioned that I am in the middle of right now, well it is the same approx. size of copy of War and Peace and it only took me a week to get about 1/2 way through. Russian Lit is so complex!

Adam,
I can relate to the pain of wading through War and Peace. It took me 7 months. 5 of those were the constant re-reading of the first 300 pages where we were introduced to the entire population of Russia by individual names. I was glad to have read it but will not likely re-read. The Brothers Karamazov is far and away my favorite by a Russian author and a much easier read. This tome would likely get my vote of best novel written if I were pressed to choose just one. Crime and Punishment was well written but incredibly depressing, which was it's point but it left me feeling pretty unhappy. I came away from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle with a similar feeling of nausea (On that note I also read Fast Food Nation this year. Similar point but more accurate and less dramatically written. A good read) I did not care for Anna Karenina.

I share Shane's guilty pleasure for the mindless thriller. Clancy, Ludlum, Patterson, Crichton and even the occasional Grisham. For those of you who also share a fondness for easy, exciting reads I would also suggest Jeffrey Archer.

As for my current reads, I've been travelling a bunch this year so I've been sticking mostly to the easy reads. James Patterson published 3 this year, Honeymoon, Beach Road and Judge & Jury. Honeymoon was exceptional and is probably his best work. The other two were enjoyable but did not stand out in any major way. Jeffrey Archer published his first novel since being released from prison this year titled False Impression. It isn't as good as his earlier works (similar to the Clancy library) but an average book by an exceptional author still is a great read. The only title of intellectual merit I've read this year was Hemmingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. It's Hemmingway so I won't even bother expressing an opinion regarding it's worth. My Favoriate Hemmingway is still The Old Man and the Sea. It was perfect for what it was. To Have and Have Not is a close second for me. I'm also about halfway through Atlas Shrugged for the second time and am likely to remain so for some time.
Cheers,
Jeff

 

[kozulich]

And I don't think that the guys convinced themselves of anything, they merely go through the research steps:

Make a hypothesis and then try to disprove it... I think all they show is that there are some of their hypothesis that can not be disproved... that doesn't necessarily make them true, just not necessarily wrong either.

That might work for operational science, but it doesn't work for history. By definition, history is a series of one-time events that are not reproducible. Attempting to "prove" or "disprove" something that is not reproducible is futile.

For example, I could posit a hypothesis that Lenin suffered from indigestion with resulting flatulence throughout 1917. This cannot be proven or disproven. By the authors method, then, it would be OK to write a book suggesting that Lenin did have flatulence, and that it possibly affected his politics and eventually the formation of the Soviet Union, because we cannot prove that he didn't. Lack of substantiating evidence could be attributed to Stalin and Trotsky's embarrassment about Lenin's flatulence problem, which led them to purge all records which mentioned it. "After all", would be the quote, "the winners get to write the history".

 

[fuerein]

"After all", would be the quote, "the winners get to write the history".

Actually anymore, since it seems that most wars (at least major ones) in the last say 50-100 years, haven't actually resulted in the formation of larger nations, if anything they have helped fragment nations. Both the winners and losers have gotten to write the history. You just end up with debates like the one between Japan/China as to whether Japan is accurately portraying it's past and China is overreacting or if Japan is whitewashing it's past and China remembers it accurately (on a side note I don't believe history actually happened the way either of them would like it to be portrayed).

 

[mmp13]

I used to not read a whole lot because I was not good at it. Not illiterate just not fast at all. About 150 words a minute. Reading was actually painful sometimes, but I read at 100% compreshension (This is somewhat neccessary being an engineer).

Well I got a computer program that trained my eyes and started doing word searches. Awesome, love to read. (Edit: Almost forgot, I am up to anywhere between 300 and 450 WPM.)

My favorite book of all time:
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexadre Dumas

Freakonomics was good too.

Anything by Carl Haisen except Hoot which was meant for younger readers.

Antyhing by John Grisham.

I also read books on negotiation. These are usually just interesting.
"Getting to Yes" and "Getting Past No" are both really good.

I also like one by a fellow named Robert Cialdini, while not really negoatiation it had hints of it. The book is called "Power and Influence".

 

[Scorpio]

Recent reads include:

Plato's Republic
Summer of '49 and October 1964 by David Halberstam(baseball related)
The Frontier World of Doc Holliday
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
Texas Criminal and Traffic Laws...I'm studying to challenge state peace officer licensing test to reactivate my license.

Rafael