Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[Borachio]

I bought this book. Seems like a very good read.

Is it? I read The Guest by Hwang Sok-Yong, a Korean author, castigated by North and South alike because he favours re-unification. An interesting read.
http://www.amazon.com/Guest-Novel-Hwang-Sok-Yong/dp/1583227512/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356281777&sr=1-1&keywords=The+guest

 

[Glassfan]

I bought this book. Seems like a very good read.

...I read it last year, and I'd definitely recommend it.

Thanks guys, I'll look it up.

With the film coming out in a few months, I thought I'd finally get World War Z by Max Brooks. It seems clear the film will be different, more of a traditional apocalypse movie, whereas the book is a kind of history. It's well thought out and a fun read (so far).

 

[Mango Elephant]

For an individual English project I chose to read The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. He's definitely my favorite American playwrite, eclipsing by miles Arthur Miller.

I got lots of books for Christmas - foremost on my list is Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner. I'm very passionate about Faulkner.

Then I got Cloud Atlas, which is definitely second on my list. I was a very big fan of the movie and I've heard it was good.

 

[Camikaze]

Just finished The Red House by Mark Haddon (Christmas present). It was engaging enough, but it's hard to say what it was actually about. It lacked direction. Haddon seems to be Tim Winton with less dysfunctional characters.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Almost done with The Road to Serfdom by Hayek. I bought my niece a book for her birthday and began to read it, and now I'm almost done with it, as well...The Hunger Games.

She may also be getting Catching Fire. I'm sure I can read it before her party on Monday.

 

[Antilogic]

Been awhile since I've posted in this thread and elsewhere (long-needed vacation), but I have made a little time for reading. Was still working on Theodore Roosevelt and Nature's Metropolis when I left, but I wanted "fresh" books for the plane that I wouldn't finish it in the airport and then be left bookless.

So, I brought David Harvey's A Brief History of Neoliberalism, which is interesting despite its dense prose (seriously, I think only Galbraith wrote more severe English). The book has a few major sections on neoliberal ideology, the neoliberal state, then goes into recent historical examples and I'm in the middle of a chapter focusing on China right now. It's not for the faint of heart, but it is earning a recommendation for the political/economic crowd.

The other book I brought which I have not gotten past the introduction in is The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party by Michael Holt. It's something like 1,200 pages so this will be a long-term read for me, I'll post some more on it once I've had the chance to get into it, might be posting more on the works by Morris and Cronon first.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Um.. Twilight. I'm reading it as a joke, sort of like when I did Left Behind. Left Behind was more entertaining though. This is a succession of pedestrian storytelling and babbling about a boy with weird eyes. I'll see how much of it I can endure...

 

[Antilogic]

You have more gut than I do: I'll watch TV shows ironically, but not read books. Life is just too short.

 

[holy king]

how can you consume art ironically????

 

[Formaldehyde]

Finished Neal Stephenson's latest novel, REAMDE (readme misspelled). It is about MMORPGs, the Russian mafia, computer viruses, the People's Republic of China, terrorists, Canada, and survivalists. It is yet another classic Stephenson which should not be missed.

 

[Smellincoffee]

You have more gut than I do: I'll watch TV shows ironically, but not read books. Life is just too short.

I'm a fast reader, and skipping through parts that are mostly descriptions of Edward's chest/eyes/etc.

That takes care of a lot of the book, actually.

 

[Lillefix]

I recently finished Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Not the easiest book in the world, but very, very good. Never read anything by the guy before.

It's one of those books that give you a good feeling afterwards. There are books you read enjoy and forget, without leaving any mark. This is not one of them. I think it leaves a certain mark. Not sure what it is.

 

[Integral]

Robert Lucas, Models of Business Cycles. This slim volume presents a rigorous yet nontechnical introduction to business cycle models. If I ever teach graduate macro, it'll be required reading.

Robert Lucas, Studies in Business Cycle Theory. This volume collects 14 of Lucas' most important papers. I just wanted it as a reference; I doubt I'll ever read it cover-to-cover. The introduction makes for fun reading.

Both were "presents to myself" for Christmas.

 

[Dachs]

Matthew Stover - Caine Black Knife, because I have an extreme weakness for well-written low fantasy.

Also some of the usual history crap about women in the so-called Chinese Enlightenment/May 4th period and Gorlice-Tarnow and zzz

 

[Smellincoffee]

Twilight was so incredibly awful. 400 pages of pathetic teenage angsting, 30 pages of action, and then more angst.

There are four of these books? Left Behind was better than this.

 

[Silurian]

Alastair Reynolds - Terminal World

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

For the Love of Physics, by Walter Lewin. The author is an astrophysicist who advanced x-ray astronomy significantly. But he is probably more well known for his engaging MIT lectures, which are on YouTube and have millions of views. The demonstrations can be quite dramatic, such as sitting horizontally on a large pendulum as it 10 periods are counted. Also he draws a mean dotted line. The book is his lectures in a written form, as informative as the original. No demonstrations though, which is unfortunate, but you can search for them online.

 

[Mango Elephant]

Twilight was so incredibly awful. 400 pages of pathetic teenage angsting, 30 pages of action, and then more angst.

There are four of these books? Left Behind was better than this.

I read it in one day, so at least it doesn't drag on.

 

[Arakhor]

There are four of [Twilight]? Left Behind was better than this.

Is that because you used to be a creationist or because the LB writers can actually write?

 

[Smellincoffee]

Is that because you used to be a creationist or because the LB writers can actually write?

It's because Twilight is spectacularly bad. Things actually happened in Left Behind. I read it for laughs, too -- I read it in the year following my exit from religion.