ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
I tell them in English and in Spanish "I am a Catholic, I do not want to change my reiligion," and they resoectfully go away. It never fails. Especially if you speak Spanish firsst and they don' t speak it at all.
What are you reading?
- Thread starter Mouthwash
- Start date
Making JWs go away is easy; getting into a decent argument with them is a trickier proposition.
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
My step sister is a JW, not interested in an argument...we agree to disagree.
Agreeing to disagree is boring. 
Now, to get back on topic, I'm currently reading:
El Narco by Joan Grillo
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Weaning Made Easy by Dr Rana Conway
Now, to get back on topic, I'm currently reading:
El Narco by Joan Grillo
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Weaning Made Easy by Dr Rana Conway
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
One of those is not like the others. 
All play and no work makes Jack a bad father.
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
I'm reading Nick Engler's Woodworking Wisdom -- for reference as I am makingg some oak cabinets.
Aye, all the others are fiction.
Finished Hobsbawm's The age of revolution 1789-1848, The Age of Empire 1875-1914, The Age of Extremes.
Since I skipped The Age of Capital, I'm now rereading J. Joll's Europe since 1870.
In between I waded through Alan L. Kolata's Ancient Inca, an anthropological view at the Inca empire and Enrico Ascalone's Mesopotamia, a "dictionary" of Assyria/Sumeria/Babylonia and reread Ian Shaw's The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, following a weird discussion concerning the "blackness" of ancient Egyptians (a blackness never noticed by any of their neighbours, oddly).
Being of a polite nature, I had several of those coming back to my home. I guess eventually they realized I was merely being polite and not really interested. I don't think confronting people who dont know how to spell the name JHWH right with science will do much good, B.
Since I skipped The Age of Capital, I'm now rereading J. Joll's Europe since 1870.
In between I waded through Alan L. Kolata's Ancient Inca, an anthropological view at the Inca empire and Enrico Ascalone's Mesopotamia, a "dictionary" of Assyria/Sumeria/Babylonia and reread Ian Shaw's The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, following a weird discussion concerning the "blackness" of ancient Egyptians (a blackness never noticed by any of their neighbours, oddly).
Being of a polite nature, I had several of those coming back to my home. I guess eventually they realized I was merely being polite and not really interested. I don't think confronting people who dont know how to spell the name JHWH right with science will do much good, B.
sophie
Break My Heart
Just read all of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game in basically one sitting. An absolutely brilliant read.
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
Film with Brad Pitt not so bad, either. Great understated performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman...
sophie
Break My Heart
Loved that film. Appreciate Pitt and Hill's performance 100000000000000x more after reading the book. They are dead ringers for Beane and Paul from the book.
But the movie missed some crucial points and made some critical omissions in the interest of basically turning the movie into your run-of-the-mill Major League/The Natural rip-off. Also it gave flak to typical sabermetric-critics to say "Well you can do whatever you want when starting with Hudson, Mulder, and Zito as you big 3 rotation" while forgetting 2 of those three actually fit better into the Moneyball formula even than Hatteburg and Justice.
That being said the trade scene is absolutely perfect.
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
@Owen: I totally wanna read that book now.
Arctic Daishi
Warlord
I've been reading Watchmen by DC Comics, after a friend recommended it to me. It's my first real experience with American comics and so far I like it. They're much less confusing than Japanese manga, in my opinion anyway.
ReindeerThistle
Zimmerwald Left
Well, Alan Moore, who wrote it, is English. But you are right, it is one of the finer examples of graphic novel. If you like that, try also " V for Vendetta," and "The Killing Joke," also by Alan Moore. Then do "Ex Machina," about a retired superhero who becomes mayot of New York City.
I was given a Guardian style guide a few years ago for my birthday: not only do I have no desire to write like a Guardian journalist, but the entry for 'hoi polloi', which alleged that 'the hoi polloi' was acceptable, made this amateur classicist want to cry.
I liked the book a lot too, and I think Michael Lewis is one of the best non-fiction writers I've ever read, but I do think it's impact has been overemphasized just a tiny bit.
I just finished Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren and am looking for my next book.
If you want to stick with the Chicago theme, I found Nature's Metropolis by Cronon to be fascinating. Part of it is not exclusive to Chicago (there's a section on the general history of urbanization and booster theory on how cities are organized), but plenty of specifics as to how the local industries developed, how the grain elevator system and railroads, etc. revolutionized the city, how it competed with other Midwestern cities to become the preeminent city in the region, and so on. It's mostly pre-20th century history.
sophie
Break My Heart
Certainly. Sabermetrics has come a loooooooooong way even since 2002/3, but it nevertheless remains one of the best primers to the field. And I agree Lewis is an absolutely sensational writer. I love his tone. That trade chapter was even more entertaining in print than it was on the big screen.
