What Are You Reading Now?

[cgannon64]

Just finished Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, started For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway today.

I liked Galapagos. It was odd, because most of it seems to be anti-intelligence, saying that the human race is much better off if we were dumb animals, but the ending seems to change that, because it ends on a good and non-cynical note. Its still a great Vonnegut book, and comes with all the typical Vonnegut stuff - weird dark humor, irony, etc.

So far (30 pages ) For Whom the Bell Tolls is good too. Even 30 pages in I can tell it has my one favorite attribute of Hemingway - amazingly real characters and scenes.

So...what are you reading?

 

[Benderino]

Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews
By Melvin Konner

So far, it's just been an anthropological overview of the Jewish societies during the time of the Old Testament (Israel and Judah, and the many foreign invasions). I like it. I'm assuming the rest of it will mostly be about the Diaspora.

 

[Shadylookin]

I just finished reading forbiden city as well as "that was then this is now"

forbiden city, was about a canadian teenager goes to china with his dad who happends to be a reporter. Some of the people of Beijing are upset with coruption in the government and want more democracy so they start having protest. The government gets mad and comes in and starts killing people, luckily he escapes back to canada, but not until he loses 2 friends that help him and a bullet hole in his leg. He then becomes anti war

That was then this is now" is about 2 teenagers that live life in a bad neighborhood. there best of friends and they do everything together. They start drifting apart and then they get a bartender(which happends to be a friend) killed trying to save there lives after 2 people they hussled at a pool game get mad) which only makes them drift further apart. Another friend of theirs has a bad acid trip and one finds out that the other is dealing drugs and calls the cops on him. his friend goes to jail for 5 years and hates him for turning him in when he would have stopped had he asked. If you hate fairy tale stories that always have a happy ending then i'd say this is your book, because i found the ending depressing.

 

[Speedo]

Death Ground: Today's American Infantry in Battle - Daniel Bolger

 

[Tragdor]

Atlas Shurrged by Ayn Rand

a nice book so far but I am only on page 43 of like 1043

 

[Norlamand]

Caesar - Christian Meir
The Full House - Stephen Jay Gould

 

[Archer 007]

The Great Gatsby.
Required for english.

 

[sourboy]

The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.

Great book on super-string theory, written with examples and grammer suitable for even the average intellect.

Catcher in the Rye was my last book.

 

[Benderino]

Originally posted by archer_007
The Great Gatsby.
Required for english.

We read that last year. I didn't think it was too bad, but I've read better as well.

 

[Archer 007]

Originally posted by Benderino


We read that last year. I didn't think it was too bad, but I've read better as well.

I find it painfully boring. Like those stream of thought dudes.

 

[Benderino]

Originally posted by archer_007


I find it painfully boring. Like those stream of thought dudes.

Stream of consciousness?

Like James Joyce? Oh man, now that's schizophrenic reading, if I do say so. I don't mind it too much, since it can keep you on your toes.

What other books have you read for school this year (assuming you're in American Literature, right?).

 

[Sims2789]

Harry Turtledoves Great War: Walk in Hell, the second book in it's series. it is in the Great War/American Empire series. it is about what WWI would have been like had the South(the Confederacy) gained independence in the American Civil War.

list of books in the series

book 1. Great War: The American Front
book 2. Great War: Walk in Hell
book 3. Great War: Breakthroughs
book 4. American Empire: Blood and Iron
i forget what books 5 and 6 are called.

i strongly suggest that these books be read in order from book 1 to book 6.

 

[Syterion]

Ugh, I hate Hemingway. I find his sentence structure so...boring. Constant sentences that go like this:

I got up from the bed. I walked to Johnson's bunk. I talked to him about the war. I decided to go meet Margaret.

It puts me to sleep. I don't know why people think he is a great author. The only good book of his is The Old Man and the Sea. I forget which book of his I tried to read(because it was so boring), but I remember it was about a guy in the Italian Army who met a girl and tried to get across the border or something. I think she died in the end. Not sure.

Right now I'm reading C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. Only about 2 pages in though. Before that was 1984, Farenheit 451, and Bringing Down the House. I liked those three, but I thought Farenheit 451 could have had a better ending. Bringing Down the House was about those MIT kids who counted cards at casinos, made millions of dollars and had the casino chase them back to Boston to try kill them.

 

[Benderino]

I like much of Hemingway's work (especially A Farewell to Arms). You know, he was born right where I live. No joke.

 

[De Lorimier]

Currently I'm reading four different books for my studies. I'm reading "Histoire des États-Unis" by Jean-Michel Lacroix, "Précis d'histoire moderne" by André Corvisier, "Les premières civilisations" by Michel Guay and "Le Moyen-Age en Occident" by Michel Balard.

These books are very interesting and very usefull but I read them because I have to read them.

I'm also reading a very interesting book by famous american historian Howard Zinn. Rmsharpe is probably his biggest fan!
I'm reading his "A People's History of the United States" and I'm having a blast. Wheter you agree with him or not he makes some very good points and his vision of history is a breath of fresh air when you only read university manual all the time.

 

[titansfan216]

A Farewell to Arms

 

[Sims2789]

Turltedove is great since he often puts in little jokes inside the writing and has very intresting sentance structures and his books have a great plot. maybe next i'll read Treason by Anne Coulter[j/k]. on a related note, their is an aristocratic, ex-slave owner Confederate woman in his books named Anne Colleton. this is, however, before the real Anne Coulter became famous as a hate monger.

 

[ShiplordAtvar]

Originally posted by cgannon64
Just finished Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, started For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway today.

I liked Galapagos. It was odd, because most of it seems to be anti-intelligence, saying that the human race is much better off if we were dumb animals, but the ending seems to change that, because it ends on a good and non-cynical note. Its still a great Vonnegut book, and comes with all the typical Vonnegut stuff - weird dark humor, irony, etc.

So far (30 pages ) For Whom the Bell Tolls is good too. Even 30 pages in I can tell it has my one favorite attribute of Hemingway - amazingly real characters and scenes.

So...what are you reading?

An anthology entitled Ring of Fire , edited by Eric Flint. It is a collection of short stories set in the timeline of his novels 1632 and 1633. These stories, written by a plethora of fellow sci-fi writers, fill in the events between the two novels and advance the plot, preparing you for 1634.

 

[ShiplordAtvar]

Originally posted by sims2789
Turltedove is great since he often puts in little jokes inside the writing and has very intresting sentance structures and his books have a great plot. maybe i'll read treason by Anne Coulter[j/k].

Like the Warren Commission featured in the Colonization series?

 

[Turner]

Just read The Summons and The King of Torts, by John Grisham. Pretty good reads. Also just finished The First Horseman, by John Case. Not bad, either.

Picked up The Idiot and Crime and Punishment. After hearing people rave about them here, I wanted to check them out. C&P is going a little slow right now, but I've only read the first two pages. Didn't really have time to concentrate on it.