What book are you currently reading?

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Finally finally finally finished Capital, Volume 1. I've been reading it off and on since October. I'm split between Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism and History and Class Consciousness next.

Going After Cacciato - Tim O'Brien. About 100 pages in and really loving it so far.

Excellent book. O'Brien is a great writer.

Anyhoo, just finished Hobsbawm's Age of Empire and started Insurgent Mexico by John Reed. That Pancho Villa is one interesting chap!

Excellent books also! Check out Reed's account of October 1917 in Ten Days That Shook the World, one of my absolute favorites.

 

[Traitorfish]

Excellent books also! Check out Reed's account of October 1917 in Ten Days That Shook the World, one of my absolute favorites.

Ahead of you on that one! A brilliant work indeed!

 

[carmen510]

Finished up In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, followed up by The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze.

Right now, I'm reading FDR by Jean Edward Smith; I plan to move onto Truman by David McCullough in about a week.

 

[Azale]

I plan to move onto Truman by David McCullough in about a week.

Why would you waste your time? From what I've heard, he barely even covers Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs in his bajillion page tome.

 

[carmen510]

Why would you waste your time? From what I've heard, he barely even covers Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs in his bajillion page tome.

...School mandated summer reading for United States History. Our Social Studies Department sometimes has... "interesting" choices for reading recommendations, like Stephen E. Ambrose, despite our school's hard line on plagiarism.

 

[Red Door]

Excellent book. O'Brien is a great writer.

Tim O'Brien is quickly becoming my favorite author after the last 2 books I have read by him.

 

[Kyriakos]

I got a collection of short stories by Stephen King.
I was relluctant to read them, read two now, and i cannot say they were utterly pitiful but on the other hand they are quite epidermic. I am used to reading deeper stories, but i think one can find something of note almost everywhere.
That said i do not think i will get anything else by King.

 

[Truthy]

Finished my book and need something new to read.

 

[NovaKart]

I got a collection of short stories by Stephen King.
I was relluctant to read them, read two now, and i cannot say they were utterly pitiful but on the other hand they are quite epidermic. I am used to reading deeper stories, but i think one can find something of note almost everywhere.
That said i do not think i will get anything else by King.

Have you read any of his novels? My favorite would be It although it's really way too long and a great deal could have been edited out of it without any loss to the story. It is a really scary book and a pretty good story. Pet Semetary is good too (the misspelling is intentional). King does have a tendency to go into way too much backstory, at least in his novels. I mean pages about a minor character's childhood kind of thing.

I guess some appreciation for 1950s America would help with a lot of King's books.

Anyway I'm reading the Hunger by Whitley Strieber after having watched the movie with David Bowie and Catherine Denevue. It's different enough from the movie that the movie didn't really spoil it.

 

[Dachs]

I'm violating a personal rule and reading Matt Stover's Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle on the grounds that I really wanted some metafictional fiction.

Incidentally, these were both really good books; I've been turning over the idea of typing up a post about them, but decided that it would take too long and that not enough people would care. So instead it gets to be a talking point in conversations, when I can rely on a captive audience, muwahahahaha

 

[Masada]

Read a bunch of F. Fitzgerald Scott short stories: Benediction, The Ice Palace, May Day, The Jelly Bean, Winter Dreams, Absolution, Head and Shoulders, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, The Offshore Pirate and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz. The latter five were the most enjoyable.

I also read a bunch of Ian M. Banks Culture stuff: Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, The State of the Art and Excession. I liked Use of Weapons the most even though the narrative was juddery to the point of annoyance and the 'earth-shattering' reveal kind of obvious. Still a good all-around read.

I've also polished off some Orwell: Animal Farm (formerly a dim High School memory) and A Clergyman's Daughter (which wasn't stellar) and now I'm on to Coming up for Air and Keep the Aspirdistra Flying.

I also read: Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist which is one of the few examples I can think off where the movie was better than the book. I'd be interested to know if people arrived at the same conclusion...

just started the third book of Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy: "Renegade's Magic"

God, I couldn't make it through the first. Utterly terrible (and I've read everything else she's written).

 

[sophie]

Well, I finished Azincourt, and now I shall grudgingly pick up Cien años and try my darndest to power through the last 170 pages

 

[Atticus]

Most people I know thought it was a page turner. I liked it too, but it does get tired at the half way.

 

[Kyriakos]

Have you read any of his novels? My favorite would be It although it's really way too long and a great deal could have been edited out of it without any loss to the story. It is a really scary book and a pretty good story. Pet Semetary is good too (the misspelling is intentional). King does have a tendency to go into way too much backstory, at least in his novels. I mean pages about a minor character's childhood kind of thing.

I guess some appreciation for 1950s America would help with a lot of King's books.

Anyway I'm reading the Hunger by Whitley Strieber after having watched the movie with David Bowie and Catherine Denevue. It's different enough from the movie that the movie didn't really spoil it.

No i have not read his novels, nor do i plan to tbh. I do not really like what i read, although it was considerably better than i expected I am way too much into more analytical styles though. I did like his short story "the final step" (not sure if that is what the original title is).

 

[sophie]

Most people I know thought it was a page turner. I liked it too, but it does get tired at the half way.

Were you reading it in Spanish?

 

[Atticus]

Oh, no.

I rarely read literature in any other language than Finnish. I prefer the language to be the most familiar one to reading the exact words of author. I'm not that much word orientated reader anyway. If that makes any sense.

Hope it doesn't ruin the book for you, because the first half was superb!

 

[SuperJay]

I got a collection of short stories by Stephen King.
I was relluctant to read them, read two now, and i cannot say they were utterly pitiful but on the other hand they are quite epidermic. I am used to reading deeper stories, but i think one can find something of note almost everywhere.
That said i do not think i will get anything else by King.

Of course they weren't "utterly pitiful," the man isn't one of the most widely-read authors in recent history purely by accident. You're right that it's not deep literature rife with scathing social commentary and insight into the human condition... because it's not trying to be. Stephen King would be the first to agree with you there.

Really, some of you guys could climb down from your towers once in a while and read what the commoners enjoy. You might be surprised, some if it is actually decent storytelling.

 

[Dachs]

Really, some of you guys could climb down from your towers once in a while and read what the commoners enjoy. You might be surprised, some if it is actually decent storytelling.

/me looks up from rereading The Cardinal of the Kremlin

you're not talking about me there, are you?

 

[SuperJay]

Nope. I'm proud of you for being able to slum it, at least once in a while.

 

[Dachs]

man

why you gotta be so condescending man