What Book Are You Reading? Volume 9

[Smellincoffee]

Wow...that must be....thorough (!!!)

In parts: I finished it a couple of days ago and found it worth my while, although the 20th century gets minimal mention.

.

Now I'm on to A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. I don't think I'm going to finish it, I'm not too far in, and the purple prose is extremely thick.

I couldn't stand Dickens' style of writing. His sentences are too winding and run on and his choice of words was often poor.

I'm reading A Tale of Two Cities, too, and am trekking through at a slow but steady pace. The introduction to my copy says it's the most "unadorned" of Dickens' works, so I can't imagine what Great Expectations must be like. I know the story, though, so my progress isn't as bad as it might be if I were reading it blind.


Right now I am reading Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, which is proving to be fun. I'm reading it alongside Tale of Two Cities, having just finished John Reader's Africa and Michael Jan Friedman's Death in Winter, a Star Trek novel.

 

[Masada]

Great Power Diplomacy 1814-1914 - Norman Rich: A good broad read. Somewhat dated now (but I'm aware of that so no harm done).
How Rome Fell - Adrian Goldsworthy: Takes a knife to Peter Heather (well mostly him) and seemingly brings some reality into a fairly lively debate. That said, it's not as well written, interesting or authoritative as Heather's work. Thesis is still strong even if he can't quite seem to carry it through all that well. Whatever teh case, it should still be read as a counter-point to Heather (apparently Ward-Pearkins is well regarded as well but I haven't read it yet).
Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250 - 1350 - Janet L. Abu-Lughod : A solid work of economic history. That said, the specialist in me cried every-time she handled Southeast Asia. Still widely taught and deservedly so. Its also a credit to my own area that research has managed to supersede many of her conclusions since it was first published in 1989.
History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives: Revised Editions - O.W. Wolters: Effectively the only text-book analogue in early Southeast Asian history by one of the foremost scholars of the regions early history. Dude, practically wrote the book on Srivijaya (twice). The book would be best read after reading Osbornes most current edition of his Southeast Asia: An Introductionary History and could also be complimented with the Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia by Chandler et. al. That would give a sound methodological understanding of the region to the reader. And I guess if you were feeling particularity game you could read Van Luers Trade and Society in Indonesia as well.
A History of Australia Volume V: The People Make Laws 1888-1915 - Manning Clark: A solid work of the Marxist bent which unfortunately (and perhaps fortunately) is what passes as the most authoritative text on Australian history yet completed. Interesting, if long, and somewhat boring read. This conclusion isn't because of his Marxist predictions. Its just something that happened to his writing style (and this is widely acknowledged) that makes for boring reading at times. Everything before volume V is considered to be fine.

 

[oagersnap]

The White Tiger, and I'm really loving it. Having been to India a few times myself, I can really recognize a lot of the things that are described in the book, and besides that, it's extraordinarily well-written. The author has a very elegant way of connecting the different small stories of the main character's life, which makes the book flow very well and makes you read through it fast.

 

[Godwynn]

Der kleine Prinz - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[in German]

 

[Mango Elephant]

Memoirs of Geisha - really good book

Anne Karenina made me want to :suicide: - I picked up the book to learn about the consequences of cheating on your spouse, not about how muziks like to gather wheat.

 

[Smellincoffee]

The Roving Mind, a collection of essays on science, skepticism, overpopulation, and the like by Isaac Asimov.

I say "and the like" because I've only read a fourth of the book and am not sure what other topics he's going to address.

 

[Ansar]

Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States by Harvey Wasserman

Not bad. Short but informative

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Memoirs of Geisha - really good book

Anne Karenina made me want to :suicide: - I picked up the book to learn about the consequences of cheating on your spouse, not about how muziks like to gather wheat.

Makes you realize why they're called Muzhiks, right?

If you want something on the topic of how unfettered lust can ruin your effing life, go for Wuthering Heights.

 

[Mango Elephant]

Haha, I almost picked that up from the bookstore just because of the song named after it, but I got Catcher In The Rye instead. It's really good, not offesive at all. Sophie's Choice had much worse language, and I read that when I was 12.

 

[Azale]

Got a packet full of readings for a class in the Fall semester. Need to start now so I can finish the research paper early on. Within the packet is:

Utopia by Thomas More
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
The State of Nature and the Basis of Obligation by Thomas Hobbes
The Second Treatise of Government by John Locke
The Spirit of Laws by Montesquieu
Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
On the Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
Perpetual Peace by Immanuel Kant
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
Anarchism: What It Really Stands For by Emma Goldman
The Case for Animal Rights by Tom Regan
Islamic Government by Imam Khomeini

 

[Godwynn]

Twelve Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World - Carl J. Richard

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Got a packet full of readings for a class in the Fall semester. Need to start now so I can finish the research paper early on. Within the packet is:

Utopia by Thomas More

Interesting.

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Fascinating.

The State of Nature and the Basis of Obligation by Thomas Hobbes

Never read it.

The Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

Pretty good.

The Spirit of Laws by Montesquieu

Never read it.

Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Truly superb.

On the Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Also quite superb.

Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke

Blargh.

Perpetual Peace by Immanuel Kant

Never read it.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

Very thickly written. Boring.

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

Pretty good.

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

Never read it.

Anarchism: What It Really Stands For by Emma Goldman

Not a fan of Miss Goldman, but whatevs.

The Case for Animal Rights by Tom Regan

An odd inclusion. Never read it.

QUOTE]Islamic Government by Imam Khomeini[/QUOTE]

Sounds awesome.

 

[LightFang]

Cheezy, weren't you the one who recommended Castles of Steel? About seven hundred pages and a year or two later, I'm finally almost done with it. Just, wow. This guy is really good, my slow pace of reading notwithstanding.

And after this I have plans to begin either Godel, Escher, Bach or Infinite Jest. I haven't decided yet.

 

[Masada]

... and I thought I was slow reading my last post in two weeks.

 

[Godwynn]

Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History - Simon Winder

I just have to say that this book was awful.

Not only was it awful, it was God awful. I don't even know why the guy wrote a book on Germany when all he does is complain about the gloominess of castles and the monotony of going into every museum in every small town.

A wasted 440 pages.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Finished...
The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which is Harry Potter-ish for college students. At first it's charming and funny, but as the main characters grow up and try to find meaning in sex, booze, drugs, and the like, things get dark. Imagine if JK Rowling was morbidly depressed and like to torture her characters...

Weapons of Satire, a collection of anti-imperialist writings by Mark Twain criticizing American expansion following the Spanish civil war, particularly its invasion of the Phillipines.

About to start CS Forester's Hornblower and the Hotspur, set at the start of the Napoleonic wars....after that I've got a biography of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir (Elizabeth the Queen or something like that) and a alt-history novel set following WW2 that depicts a German insurrection led by a hardline Wehrmacht officer who won't admit defeat.

 

[Moss]

I just finished reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Excellent novel.

 

[Mango Elephant]

I just finished reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Excellent novel.

That's kinda weird because that book is literally right next to me on my desk. I've never read it, though.

And I'm now reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

 

[Godwynn]

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

 

[madviking]

My summer reading list for school next year. Tell if any of these are great.

The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman
It's a Flat World, After All by Thomas Friedman
The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz
The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
State of Fear by Michael Crichton

And one of these three:
The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez