What Are You Reading, Again?

[puglover]

Pug - Have you checked out the Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist? The first book is Magician, sometimes broken into two books, Magician:Apprentice & Magician:Master. Check them out, if you haven't.

Thanks. I'll look into it.

I just finished the fourth book in the Hitchhiker's series btw. So Long and Thanks For All the Fish. Douglas Adams is a brilliant comedian. I don't think I'll read Mostly Harmless though, I've heard bad reviews of it.

 

[Ansar]

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

annoying Advanced Placement summer reads...

 

[Turner]

Mostly Harmless is....different. Even for Adams it's different.

Not a bad book, per se, but not up to his HGTTG books.

 

[FredLC]

Mostly harmless is the one book from THGTTG series which I didn't read. I feel that since the 4th book the series got worse, but I plan to read MH just so that I finish the collection.

There is a version to be relased here in Brazil in a few months.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Robinson Crusoe - Defoe

 

[Till]

History of the crusades - Steven Runciman

Only started, but it is good so far. I only wish it offered a little more background on the theological controversies of that time, other than just naming them. Nestorianism, Arianism, Monophysitism, ...

 

[Ciceronian]

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. So far I'm finding his argument quite convincing and have had own thoughts along the same lines previously also.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

History of the crusades - Steven Runciman

Only started, but it is good so far. I only wish it offered a little more background on the theological controversies of that time, other than just naming them. Nestorianism, Arianism, Monophysitism, ...

Nestorianism: heresy started in the east by some dude called Nestor(ius) in the 5th century. They believe that Jesus is 2 separated entities: the human jesus and the divine jesus. Of course the eastern church got pissed and condemned this movement.
Being condemned in the former roman empire where christianity was popular the nestorians spread where the church had little and no authority. It spread to the middle-east and far-east reaching as far as China. (IIRC this was the first contact the chinese had with christianity - i might be wrong about this ...) Mohammed's first contact with christianity was with the nestorians.

Anyway, IIRC during the crusades the nestorians facilitated the link between the Mongolian Empire (wich included China) and the Templars who were seeking an alliance against the turks.



Arianism - yet another major heresy, this one was started by a guy called Arius in Alexandria in the 4th century.
I don't remember exactly what they preached, but as it was common those days it conflicted with the churches' trinitarianism.
Arianism got very popular with barbarian tribes north of the roman empire . IIRC the goths, vandals and longobards were adepts of it.
But as i recall, arianism dissapeared (mostly) quite quickly. What is the link with the crusades ?



Monophysitism - mono= one ; physic=nature
Yet ANOTHER dispute on the nature of christ (just like the previous 2). This one says he only had 1 nature.
I don't recall anything else about these guys.


Any other questions ?

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

I finished Fatherland, it's near-identical to 1984, but was still a good read.

Now I've returned to my historian ways, and am reading Moscow 1941 - A City and it's People at War by Rodric Braithwaite.

 

[Till]

Thanks Heretic_Cata!

I also read a bit about it on wikipedia.
Arianism doesn't seem to have a direct link with the crusades (at least none is pointed out in the book thus far). It was only mentioned in the preamble as part of a short rundown of Byzantine history.
Monophysitism was a counter movement to the Nestorian movement. Where Nestorians overstressed the human nature of Christ, followers of Monophysitism (especially followers of Eutyches) focused on the divine nature of Christ too much.

That's very likely a gross oversimplification, but it works for me.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Thanks Heretic_Cata!

I also read a bit about it on wikipedia.
Arianism doesn't seem to have a direct link with the crusades (at least none is pointed out in the book thus far). It was only mentioned in the preamble as part of a short rundown of Byzantine history.
Monophysitism was a counter movement to the Nestorian movement. Where Nestorians overstressed the human nature of Christ, followers of Monophysitism (especially followers of Eutyches) focused on the divine nature of Christ too much.

That's very likely a gross oversimplification, but it works for me.

Oh and btw if you want to read posts longer than wiki articles about this kinds of stuff just ask ma' man Plotinus the Big Guy. He will probably be glad to post really long posts about your stuff.

I only write what i can remember from Mircea Eliade's book. (nowadays i only remember the cooler stuff in it)

 

[Sidhe]

Mostly harmless is the one book from THGTTG series which I didn't read. I feel that since the 4th book the series got worse, but I plan to read MH just so that I finish the collection.

There is a version to be relased here in Brazil in a few months.

I enjoyed it personally, it does tie up a few loose ends and the new version of the HHGTG is awesome IMO. IIRC correctly sandwich maker becomes a religous title(akin to a shaman) as well as a full time job in this one, that's good for a giggle even if it isn't as funny as the innacurately named trilogy.

 

[Dionysius]

Annals of Imperial Rome- by Tacitus
i never get tired of this. Tacitus is excelent.

 

[tomsnowman123]

Finsihed reading Ranger's Apprentice Book One by John Flanagan, which has become on of my favorite fantasy books (and hey, it's got five stars on Amazon). I really want to get book two.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman.
"Two arms. Two legs. A head. Yes, I guess you could call them 'men'".

Gaiman is brilliant.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

I just finnished Valerio Evangelisti's book. He is trully an awsome SF writer .
Whenever i read a SF book i think about how the authors thought of those ideas. Most of the time it's preety obvious ... but this guy is just leaving me so . His first book of the series "Nicholas Eymerich the Inquisitor" took place on 3 temporal story-lines (past, present-ish, future) that converged to one point explaining everything.
In this book there are 4 temporal story-lines that explain things (eventually). But i bet Sardinians got pissed about it.


Anyway i started reading : Charles Diehl's - Theodora, Emperess of Byzantium

 

[Narz]

Just reread Interstellar Pig by William Sleator (I'd read it as a kid). Still pretty good. There's a sequal now too, I have it on order from the library.

 

[sanabas]

Mostly Harmless is....different. Even for Adams it's different.

Not a bad book, per se, but not up to his HGTTG books.

Yeah, certainly my least favourite Adams book. Have you read The Salmon of Doubt yet?

Gaiman is brilliant.

Seconded.

As for what I'm reading, Paperweight by Stephen Fry, and Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Finished Moscow 1941 - A City and it's People at War, very good. It was kinda Stalingrad-lite. Easier to read, I found, though maybe I'm just getting used to Second World War stuff on the Eastern Front.

A good read, though now I'm out of book!

 

[Dionysius]

Tyrant- by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, good, ending a little abrupt.