What Are You Reading, Again?

[Plotinus]

I'm ploughing through "Paradise Lost" by John Milton. It's actually very good (despite Milton's apparent belief that using Latin sentence structures makes English more poetic), but the middle part is extremely tedious: Satan is an interesting character, but the good guys are not: the Father and the Son are consubstantially dull, and Adam and Eve are almost too sickeningly luvvy-duvvy to read. Fortunately the Fall is now happening, so I'm hoping they will become more interesting as well.

 

[Marla_Singer]

I'm currently reading a geostrategy book named "How Europe will save America" written by the American Charles A. Kupchnan with a preface from Henry A. Kissinger.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'm currently reading a geostrategy book named "How Europe will save America" written by the American Charles A. Kupchnan with a preface from Henry A. Kissinger.

If it involves replacig GW an Carl Rove, I'm all for a little European intervention even if it doesn't have the support of the UN.

 

[FredLC]

I'm on technical books right now. Both "Complete Discourse of Civil Law" by César Fiuza, and "Theory of Criminal Law - first volume" by Fernando Capez.

A bit too technical and Brazil-specific to raise general interest, i suppose...

Regards .

 

[cgannon64]

I just finished Farenheit 451 for school...I think I'm going to look through A Collection of Essays by Orwell, and try to find some books of Yeats poetry. I read a poem by him the other day, it was pretty cool.

 

[Fifty]

I will never stop reviving this thread whenever I start a new (series of) reading.

Just finished my last lineup:
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman
The Roaring Nineties by Joseph Stiglitz (Actually i'm only about 2/3 through)


Starting on:
The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom

Personal Adjustment: An Approach Through the Study of Healthy Personality by Sidney Jourard (not a self-help book, more of a psychology theory book)


Those two I found yesterday while rummaging through our basement closet looking for Xmas stuff.

 

[newfangle]

Great book choices Monk!

I'm currently finishing the final book in the Dune series: Chapterhouse Dune.

I'm not sure what I will read next. I'm thinking maybe some non-fiction. I've been interested in cognitive science, so I'll probably dig around for something related to that.

 

[Sims2789]

I am currently reading Les Misérables. I'm currently on Marius (the third part of five).

 

[MattE]

I've recently finished reading "The Bourne Identity" by Robert Ludlum for the third time and I'm about to start reading "Red Storm Rising" by Tom Clancy again.

 

[Thadlerian]

Finished The Scar by China Miéville. Excellent fantasy from a new master.

Reading Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett.

Will read The Sirian Experiments by Doris Lessing. Sci-Fi done right!

 

[Ayatollah So]

I'll add my enthusiastic endorsements to Bloom and The Amulet of Samarkand and A Deepness in the Sky. Also anything by Pratchett and George R.R. Martin. On the Paradise/Purgatory/Inferno theme, try the science fiction books by those three names, written by Mike Resnick.

Just finished The Watch by Dennis Danvers. A time traveling performance-artist resurrects Peter Kropotkin and sends him to Virginia in 1999. A great excuse to view modern America through Kropotkin's (and Danvers's) eyes.

 

[cgannon64]

The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton. This guy is a genius; I cannot understand why he is not a Christian writer you always hear about. He is the guy who inspired C.S. Lewis to convert to Christianity, and is a much better theologian. And a writer. Initially I found him confusing, becuase he is an essayist, and should be looked at that way. He uses many examples for what he is trying to say, which when you get into them, are very enjoyable. He has some pretty subtle imagery that you don't notice at first either. Plus he makes some great quotes.

I also picked up Orthodoxy by him, and Confessions and The City of God, by St. Augustine. I don't know if I'll read those, because they seem pretty heavy. Especially the City of God. The copy I have is enormous and its pretty heavily abridged too, with whole chapters cut out. Its disappointing and enticing to open to a random section and see it say:

Chapter 9-11

These chapter discuss the precise moment of death, whether it belongs to the living or the dead - and further, whether throughout his mortal life man is dying.

Argh! Why is that deleted?

 

[Immortal]

I finished Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr. and watched the movie last night. Its incredible.

Next up: Barricades and Borders

 

[Taliesin]

The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton. This guy is a genius; I cannot understand why he is not a Christian writer you always hear about. He is the guy who inspired C.S. Lewis to convert to Christianity, and is a much better theologian. And a writer. Initially I found him confusing, becuase he is an essayist, and should be looked at that way. He uses many examples for what he is trying to say, which when you get into them, are very enjoyable. He has some pretty subtle imagery that you don't notice at first either. Plus he makes some great quotes.

I highly recommend the Father Brown stories, if you haven't read them already. There is something incredibly appealing and engaging about a humble Catholic priest who always manages to solve the most bizarre of crimes. Not to mention that every one is beautifully written and doubles as some kind of moral parable. Great reading!

 

[cgannon64]

I've looked him up and the fiction didn't really appeal to me, although those sound nice. There was one exception: The Man Who Was Thursday. That book looks awesome.

 

[Mario Feldberg]

"How to fight the French plague"
"Communists aren't people"
"Jesus sucks (Muhammed's ****)"
"WMD construction for dummies or how to kill off all the consumerist f*ckt*rds"
"The biggest atrocity in the history of mankind: Rap music"
"What would Freud say about the Japanese?"

Of course all these books are only available in my private library of hate

 

[JohnRM]

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

 

[Thadlerian]

Reading My Century by Günther Grass. 100 little stories, one for each year in the 20th century.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Patrick Smith's Japan; A Reinterpretation

 

[Specialist290]

Currently, two at once:

-The Annals of Eternal Rome, by Tacitus
-The Once and Future King, by T. H. White

I'll see which one I finish first.