What are you reading right now?

[JiriHrdina]

This is one of my favourite threads from the old site as it provided some great book recommendations, so let's start it up on the new site shall we?

What I'm reading:

Just finished Stephen King's Song of Susannah - the lastest (and 2nd last) in the Dark Tower series. Great stuff but no point reading it unless you've read the other Dark Tower books.

Now I've got two new books on the go:

Words on Ice - A collection of Hockey Prose - great series of short essays and stories about hockey. Very enjoyable for any hockey fan.

and...

The Road to Hell by Julian Sher and William Marsden - a fascinating novel chroniciling the rise of the Hell's Angels and other biker gangs in Canada. I'm fascinated about these sub-cultures that exist outside of most of our lives. Interesting and frightening stuff to learn about how much power these gangs have and the number of murders they have been responsible for. Highly recommended.

[kermitology]

Stalingrad by Antony Beevor.. I should really get back to reading it, I haven't had the time as of late. It's quite good!

[300spartans]

Just finished Age of Reason by Paine. Excellent material for my growing Deist beliefs.

Picked up the paperback version of Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them today. About halfway through it and I love it. I already know most of the information but Franken's humour makes it interesting.

Also picked up a book on German grammar, I love learning languages.

Doubt anyone would be interested in these books so I will throw out The Count of Monte Cristo as a book that everyone should read. And NOT the abridged version. Get the full version of 1500 pages. What an awesome book!

300S

[Jaybo]

As the person who started it originally <pats self on back>, I'm glad to see this topic re-started as well...

1. Just finished "Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man" written by two guys who have web sites devoted to debunking Moore's work (www.moorelies.com and www.mooreexposed.com.) I'm a Moore fan for the most part but it's good to read other viewpoints and this book was on the New Releases shelf at the CPL last time I stopped there so I grabbbed it.

As far as I can tell though, this book was slapped together pretty quickly (typos and grammar errors in books *really* bug me!) and re-hashes much of what is available for free on their web sites (they even re-print a few anti-Moore articles from other sources to pad the book). They include a pre-emptive strike (sound familiar?) against the as-yet-unreleased *Fahrenheit 911* as well. Of course many of their criticisms are valid - Moore is as much a propagandist as anyone on the right. He stretches the truth often and outright lies at other times. He can be hypocritical ("he's for the common man but lives in a $2 million Manhattan penthouse.") And so on.

Still, they didn't tell me anything I didn't know from visiting sites like theirs (or watching/reading Moore's work with a critical eye) but they also didn't manage to sway me that Michael Moore's a complete fraud or that his work isn't important - especially in times like these.

2. "Curious Incident of the Dog In The Nighttime"
Just finished this bestselling novel which is written from the emotionless, rational viewpoint of a 15 year old autistic boy trying to solve a murder mystery. The book is a pretty major accomplishment - it made me think of a movie like *The Sixth Sense* where, once you know the secret (not that it's hidden here), you keep waiting for the author/director to trip up. And like *The Sixth Sense*, I didn't really catch any mistakes or where he "broke character". Great how the author, a first-time novelist who worked with autistics in his earlier life, captures how autistics must see the world - order, routine, detail.

3. "Magic Circles: The Beatles In Dream and History"
As someone who combines two of my major loves by collecting books about the Beatles, I'm always excited when a new Beatle book is released. This book, which I'm halfway through, is no exception - a very academic, slightly random look at some of the lesser-studied themes in the Beatles' music (and their cultural impact in general.) It felt like I was back in college when the author puts forth a thesis like "The Beatles music symbolically and literally springs from the toilets." (They started out playing dank, dirty underground clubs and Lennon embraced this, sometimes wearing a toilet seat around his neck while playing.) Some other topics that are touched on - the leap they made with "Tomorrow Never Knows", the religious impact of John's "Bigger Than Jesus" comment, the Beatles relationship with their audiences, the "Butcher" album cover and more. I'm not done yet so I can't say if this book is successful or not. But just by taking a different viewpoint/tactic after so much has already been covered about the Beatles, the author is already part-way there.

[RougeUnderoos]

I'm trying to slog through Underworld by Don Delillo. Anyone ever read this book? It's certainly well written but it just, I don't know, doesn't really get me.

As for the books listed above... I recently read the Ralph "Sonny" Barger autobiography (he was the big man of the Hell's Angels for a long time) and while it has the typical "I'm the greatest person in history" stench of all Alpha-Male autobiographies, it's still a good read. Hunter S. Thompson's "Hell's Angels" is kind of good in a naïve sort of a way. It was written in 1965 when all they did was not bathe often and they beat people up and that was apparently really all they did in those days. It's fun to look back and see what they considered crazy criminal behavior 40 years ago compared to what we hear about now.

I also recently read "The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin" which isn't an autobiography at all and is actually fiction (it's historical fiction I guess) and that's an alright book. He really hated Trotsky (which is obvious since he had him clipped) and it kinda focusses too much on that and the writer can't quite pull off the "shocking part of the book" part but still it's alright.

[Cowboy]

Monster...on the Bloods in Crips in the late seventies...

The Wealthy Barber

[duncan]

Billionaire Boys Club

true crime story about a bunch of young, rich kids who start a club initially to find ways to get rich, but ends up as murder for hire/profit

[Flame Of Liberty]

Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code

Awesome book, full of conspiracies, templars, holy grail...

Something Cowperson should read!

[Inferno]

Justice For All,...The Truth About Metallica

Right now I have about 100 pages left. So far it's been good though some of the author's opinions in the chapter on the Loads had me shaking my head.

The author calls some of the best songs on the Loads crap and calls some of the songs that I wish Metallica would have never made good. He also makes some rants that if he would have did some more research would have found out arnt true. When bringing up the song "Ronnie" from Load he complains about how Hetfield's singing another song about his troubled childhood when it's obvious it's about a school shooting and is actually based on a 1995 shooting in Washington.

But I did learn alot of stuff about their history that I never did know before. The book is unauthorized so everything that the author wanted in is in the book without any influence from Metallica. All the facts that are in the book are based off of interviews with people who either know/knew the band well or people who who were close to the heavy metal scene when Metallica was first starting out.

[Trojan97]

Lions Game by Nelson Demille

Very interesting novel about American Feds trying to hunt down a terrorist in the USA. I reccomend it to anyone looking for a interesting,witty, fairly easy read.

I also just finished rereading Mick Foley's original autobiography. Just as good as the first time I read it.

[scottie]

The Malazan Empire 'saga' by Stephen Erikson.
Hands down the best Fantasy (my main genre) I've ever read. Kind of combines all the things I like about a bunch of other authors into a read that, while challenging (complex sentance structures, massive scope, massive character list), rewards with that "can't put it down" feeling (that contributed to the delay on this new board by a couple ofweeks!) that will have you DESPARATE for the next book.

There will be around 10 books in all with the first five already published -- each at around the 1000 page mark -- and I thoroughly recommend checking the series out.

[Scrambler]

Escape from Sobibor by Richard Rashke. Amazing book documenting a heroic escape from a nazi death camp. It can be very graphic, but I highly recommend it to anyone!

[Frank the Tank]

The DaVinci Code - just awesome
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Stupid White Men - great book

[Captain Sensible]

Just finished Palm Sunday by Kurt Vonnegut and am currently reading The Water Method Man by John Irving.

Jaybo, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is an absolutely great book, I read that one this summer too!

[Resolute 14]

Originally posted by scottie@Aug 9 2004, 08:42 AM
The Malazan Empire 'saga' by Stephen Erikson.
Hands down the best Fantasy (my main genre) I've ever read. Kind of combines all the things I like about a bunch of other authors into a read that, while challenging (complex sentance structures, massive scope, massive character list), rewards with that "can't put it down" feeling (that contributed to the delay on this new board by a couple ofweeks!) that will have you DESPARATE for the next book.

There will be around 10 books in all with the first five already published -- each at around the 1000 page mark -- and I thoroughly recommend checking the series out.

I might have to. Sounds interesting. The 'can't put it down' effect seems a lot like the series I am reading...

Right now, I'm waiting - very impatiently - for The Grand Crusade to come out on paperback, the fourth book of Michael Stackpole's DragonCrown War Saga, and one of the best fantasy series I've ever read. The world he invented for this series very well defined, and features a remarkable storyline.

[Cowperson]

I'm into Sue Grafton's"R Is For Ricochet" right now and I'm also reading PD James "The Murder Room." Yes, not uncommon for me to be reading a few books at the same time, depending on where I happen to be sitting. I enjoy "bodice-rippers" more often than not.

Just finished Isaac Asimov's "Robot Visions" - a series of his earlier science fiction short stories. I'd already seen a few of them in various other science fiction collections throught the years.

Had also just finished another collection of recent Sci Fi short stories - don't have the title off the top of my head right now. I'll edit later.

Cowperson

[snowdude]

I'm reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson and have to say that it is an awesome book. Its funny and informative. It's pretty much a history of science and discovery and is well worth picking up.

[looooob]

well it's summer time so I've been doing some baseball reading

just finished Moneyball

I'm half way through 2 books at the moment:
1. Neil Young biography
2. Teammates, about Ted Williams, Dom Dimaggio, Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky

with 2 kids I barely ever read actually, but I'm taking a few flights in the next few weeks, so plan on catching up then....

[sbailey924]

I've been trudging through "A Death In The Family" by James Agee for a while. I haven't gotten through it because it hits a little close to home, since the day I read about the guy dying in a car accident, my grandfather died in a car accident. I never start a book until I finish the one I am currently reading, so hence the long time.

Just a little side note in case anyone else has read it; I lived on the street (Forest Ave.) last year on which most of the book takes place. That's actually why I started it.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally posted by looooob@Aug 9 2004, 04:42 PM
well it's summer time so I've been doing some baseball reading

just finished Moneyball

I'm half way through 2 books at the moment:
1. Neil Young biography
2. Teammates, about Ted Williams, Dom Dimaggio, Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky

with 2 kids I barely ever read actually, but I'm taking a few flights in the next few weeks, so plan on catching up then....

Is that Neil Young biography shakey by any chance? I purchased it but haven't got around to reading it. But to answer the question I am doing some light summer reading at the current time (reading heavy stuff is more winter material) so I am re-reading the Bourne Identity, fahrenheit 451, and also the book about a boy by Nick Hornby.

I have all these books before but I find myself catching new stuff up all the time when I re-read them. Oh and I have been reading cryto something or other the title is long and hard to spell for a while I find it is a read which is the equivilant of quicksand, hard to get into, but hard to get out of.
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