What are you currently reading?

[Claude_Verret]

Finished "Team of Rivals" last weekend and decided I needed a little fiction since I spend a lot of time reading history. So right now it's "Anna Karenina". Quick pace and a timely taste of Russian culture.

 

I've probably read more Civil War era history books than on any other topic, and this is one of my favorites..  I've recently started with Presidential biographies in chronological order and have a long way to go as I need to read some fiction in between.  I'm through Chernow's Washington and McCullough's Adams and I'm in the middle of Meacham's Jefferson now.

[darksabre]

I've probably read more Civil War era history books than on any other topic, and this is one of my favorites..  I've recently started with Presidential biographies in chronological order and have a long way to go as I need to read some fiction in between.  I'm through Chernow's Washington and McCullough's Adams and I'm in the middle of Meacham's Jefferson now.

Meacham's Jefferson is a tremendous piece. I liked McCullough's Truman as well. I've read more books about the two Roosevelts than anyone else. I've got part 1 of George Nash's Herbert Hoover series and part 1 of Forrest Pogue's series on George C Marshall in the cue. 

[bob_sauve28]

Finished "Team of Rivals" last weekend and decided I needed a little fiction since I spend a lot of time reading history. So right now it's "Anna Karenina". Quick pace and a timely taste of Russian culture.

Tolstoy rocks! I've actually read War and Peace, too. It's a great anti-war novel. I picked up Team of Rivals and just started reading in the middle somewhere and liked it a lot. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Bump ...

 

Found it and it was easy.

 

The Real Wild Child is reading IT, which is, IMO, the scariest book ever written.

 

=====

 

My wife and I are doing a major clean up and de-junk.  Going through our old books and donating many to a local charity for a fundraising book sale in October.

 

Found our English version of 'The Bridge on the Drina', which is one of the best books ever written, IMO.  I wish my Bosnian was better so that I could read the original.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_on_the_Drina

 

I highly recommend it, but one should read up on the history of Bosnia first, as this will help in the understanding and following of the book.

[darksabre]

Bump ...

 

Found it and it was easy.

 

The Real Wild Child is reading IT, which is, IMO, the scariest book ever written.

 

=====

 

My wife and I are doing a major clean up and de-junk.  Going through our old books and donating many to a local charity for a fundraising book sale in October.

 

Found our English version of 'The Bridge on the Drina', which is one of the best books ever written, IMO.  I wish my Bosnian was better so that I could read the original.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_on_the_Drina

 

I highly recommend it, but one should read up on the history of Bosnia first, as this will help in the understanding and following of the book.

Interesting. I will add it to my Amazon list. 

[MattPie]

Finished up The Princess Bride the other day; never really thought to read it before Amazon advertised it to me as a free for Prime members. iThe screenplay follows the flow and tone of the book very closely (which makes sense as the author wrote both), so if you liked the movie the book is worth a read.

 

Hey NS, have you read "The Judgment of Richard Richter" by Igor Stiks (accent on S omitted)? It caught my eye as it's set in Sarajevo. I haven't started it yet, and I have no idea what to expect.

[Samson's Flow]

Bump ...

 

Found it and it was easy.

 

The Real Wild Child is reading IT, which is, IMO, the scariest book ever written.

 

=====

 

My wife and I are doing a major clean up and de-junk.  Going through our old books and donating many to a local charity for a fundraising book sale in October.

 

Found our English version of 'The Bridge on the Drina', which is one of the best books ever written, IMO.  I wish my Bosnian was better so that I could read the original.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_on_the_Drina

 

I highly recommend it, but one should read up on the history of Bosnia first, as this will help in the understanding and following of the book.

I have "IT" as the next book on my list, so hopefully I will catalog that as I go much like the Wild one.

 

But first, I am a little more than halfway through "Ready Player One", which at the rate i'm going I might finish by the end of the week. I only started it on Friday, but I can't put it down. It's suuuper nerdy as it is centered around classic video games and pop culture, but in a 80's nostalgia sort of way and really compelling and enthralling concept. i know there are a few more nerds out there, so i'd recommend giving it a try :flirt:

[Eleven]

I have "IT" as the next book on my list, so hopefully I will catalog that as I go much like the Wild one.

 

But first, I am a little more than halfway through "Ready Player One", which at the rate i'm going I might finish by the end of the week. I only started it on Friday, but I can't put it down. It's suuuper nerdy as it is centered around classic video games and pop culture, but in a 80's nostalgia sort of way and really compelling and enthralling concept. i know there are a few more nerds out there, so i'd recommend giving it a try :flirt:

 

I have had Ready Player One on my shelf for about four years now.  It's time to take it down and read the thing.

[MattPie]

I have "IT" as the next book on my list, so hopefully I will catalog that as I go much like the Wild one.

 

But first, I am a little more than halfway through "Ready Player One", which at the rate i'm going I might finish by the end of the week. I only started it on Friday, but I can't put it down. It's suuuper nerdy as it is centered around classic video games and pop culture, but in a 80's nostalgia sort of way and really compelling and enthralling concept. i know there are a few more nerds out there, so i'd recommend giving it a try :flirt:

 

 

I have had Ready Player One on my shelf for about four years now.  It's time to take it down and read the ###### thing.

 

Great book, along with Armada by the same author. I think I mentioned it somewhere in this thread when I read it originally.

[darksabre]

My reading list has taken a bit of back seat this summer due to moving and generally trying to get settled in here in Buffalo. Hopefully winter will allow me to get back to my work. Currently in progress:

Christianizing the Social Order, Walter Rauschenbusch, 1912. (Christian Theology, Socialism, Capitalism)

 

From Civil Rights to Human Rights, Thomas F. Jackson, 2007 (MLK Jr Biography)

 

Oddly enough, these two intersect. It turns out Rauschenbusch was a theologian (from Rochester, NY!) that MLK Jr. studied and was influenced by as a young man (according to the Jackson book). I had a bit of an "ah ha!" moment when it turned out I was reading the same stuff King had read, completely by accident, as I had discovered and started the Rauschenbusch book long before the MLK book. 
 

Learning is fun.  B-)

[darksabre]

I've also got a copy of this arriving today after stumbling across a twitter thread about it. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18595464-the-43-group

 

 

Written by a founding member, the remarkable history of an incredibly effective anti-fascist action group that shut down thousands of fascist meetings and rallies

 

Oswald Mosley decided he could carry on where Hitler and Mussolini had left off, and on street corners his fascist speakers would proclaim "not enough Jews were burned at Belsen." Enter the 43 Group. In a ferocious, bloody, and brilliantly covert five-year campaign, they destroyed the Mosleyites. The membership of the Group was almost entirely made up of British servicemen, the original 43 members quickly swelling to more than 300 and including a Battle of Britain ace, a VC winner—and Vidal Sassoon. The Group's philosophy of the "3 D's"—Discuss, Decide and Do it—was quickly manifested on the streets of London, with literally thousands of fascist meetings and rallies sent packing. Quickly gaining a reputation, the 43 Group was organized in "wedges" of a dozen or so. These wedges would attend a British Union of Fascists rally and at a given signal would storm the speaker's platform, attacking BUF stewards and speaker. The Group's military background ensured tight discipline and brutally effective actions. This, combined with a number of spies within the fascist ranks, ensured the 43 Group almost always came out on top, closing down two-thirds of all fascist activity in the UK until its simultaneous demise with organized fascism in Britain in 1950.

[Samson's Flow]

I have had Ready Player One on my shelf for about four years now.  It's time to take it down and read the ###### thing.

Seeing as I just spent 3 hours at work finishing it instead of waiting until tonight, I can say that it was pretty kick @ss. Definitely recommend.

 

Now to tackle the monster that is "IT".

Great book, along with Armada by the same author. I think I mentioned it somewhere in this thread when I read it originally.

Maybe I will give Armada a go later this fall.

[Sabre1974]

Reading a book about Jeremy Roenick, before that i was reading one about World War one.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Finished up The Princess Bride the other day; never really thought to read it before Amazon advertised it to me as a free for Prime members. iThe screenplay follows the flow and tone of the book very closely (which makes sense as the author wrote both), so if you liked the movie the book is worth a read.

 

Hey NS, have you read "The Judgment of Richard Richter" by Igor Stiks (accent on S omitted)? It caught my eye as it's set in Sarajevo. I haven't started it yet, and I have no idea what to expect.

 

Sorry, I have not even heard of this book, yet alone read it.

 

No worries about the accent they are hard to type on a NA keyboard.   ;)

[MattPie]

Sorry, I have not even heard of this book, yet alone read it.

 

No worries about the accent they are hard to type on a NA keyboard.   ;)

 

It looks like it is originally named Eliajh's Chair, but there's another book of that name so maybe it was published in English under a new name. Strange.

[CallawaySabres]

Bump ...

 

Found it and it was easy.

 

The Real Wild Child is reading IT, which is, IMO, the scariest book ever written.

 

=====

 

My wife and I are doing a major clean up and de-junk.  Going through our old books and donating many to a local charity for a fundraising book sale in October.

 

Found our English version of 'The Bridge on the Drina', which is one of the best books ever written, IMO.  I wish my Bosnian was better so that I could read the original.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_on_the_Drina

 

I highly recommend it, but one should read up on the history of Bosnia first, as this will help in the understanding and following of the book.

 

Yup, I remember IT giving me nightmares when I read it 20 years ago. Any suggestion for something similar?

[WildCard]

The thing about IT that really annoys me so far (3/4 through) is that it's very predictable. There are 7 characters, and for each of the 3 chunks of the story so far, King has a very predictable way of telling what happens; the same thing happens 7 times in a row, just from different perspectives. Very repetitive and predictable, but still a very good book

[ubkev]

I'm reading The Lord of the Rings. Never read it before, but it was free on my tablet, so I'm reading it.

 

 

Holy is is slow!! 117 pages in and nothing has happened! If those movies were placed like this book, they'd be 19 hours long.

 

And 17 years to leave the Shire after inheriting the ring? Wow, no one was in a hurry, that's for damn sure.

[MattPie]

I'm reading The Lord of the Rings. Never read it before, but it was free on my tablet, so I'm reading it.

 

 

Holy ###### is is slow!! 117 pages in and nothing has happened! If those movies were placed like this book, they'd be 19 hours long.

 

And 17 years to leave the Shire after inheriting the ring? Wow, no one was in a hurry, that's for damn sure.

 

They are kind of slow. The incredible thing about the series is it feels like there's a whole world in there and the map isn't just a tool to move the plot along. On one hand, "this was once a watchtower during .." for a few pages that don't advance the plot can be slow, or I see it as drawing you into a story that feels like it's "real people in a real world" (as much as magical elves and monster can be). I haven't read the series since around the time the movies came out, but I'm coming around to re-reading them (it'll be my third time, first was around 12-13 in the late 80s/early 90s).

 

Read: Where in the Hell is Tesla? (Rob Dircks). I didn't know anything about this book except "oooh, Tesla" when I started it. It's a riot. Essentially, two kinda-dopes stumble onto a lost Tesla notebook and end up inter-dimension travelling as hi-jinks ensue. Absolutely worth a read if you like goofy Sci-Fi. Speaking of which, it reminds me a little of Farscape in that it pushes into the ridiculous or silly (where something like Star Trek or Wars is generally "worlds mostly like ours"), but unlike Farscape it's entirely silly.

 

Read: Master and Commander (Patrick O'Brian) (as in the Russel Crowe movie from a bunch of years ago). I'm a sucker for Age of Sail stuff, and the movie (as I've written over in the movie thread) is one of my favorites. Saw the book in at my library ebooks so I went for it and blew through it in a couple days. The movie is based on the first few books of the series, so certain parts were familiar but the rest was new old-timey sea stories. I recommend it if you're into that kind of thing. I'm just mad (or not, because I have responsibilities) that the library only has the first book in ebook and the rest I have to get paper copies.

 

Currently: The Jugdement of Richard Richter. (Igor Stiks). I mentioned this up a bit, and not that I've started it I'm still not completely sure where it's going. Basic story is an author ends up in Sarajevo in the early 90s during the war to find family. It's written in an odd style, like a confession so there's a lot of foreshadowing ("WIth what happened later, Igor probably should have...", etc.) I'm interested in it, but it's not all-consuming like some books.

[WildCard]

BJ Novak's 'One More thing: Stories and Other Stories' is one of the most entertaining and surprisingly insightful books I've ever read. It's comprised of a ton of different funny stories, each about 2-4 pages long; hilarious stories, incredibly unique, and each one actually teaches you something. Can't recommend it enough

[MattPie]

Besides Redhat's "Openstack Cloud Administration II Coursebook", I'm reading Beowulf (JRR Tolkien's translation) as a step to reading "Grendel", which is Grendel's side of the story. Beowulf is tough sledding, since it rambles. So far I've gotten "guy builds hall, Grendel tears it up, Beowulf shows up and want to wrastle Grendel" out of like 100 pages.

[WildCard]

Besides Redhat's "Openstack Cloud Administration II Coursebook", I'm reading Beowulf (JRR Tolkien's translation) as a step to reading "Grendel", which is Grendel's side of the story. Beowulf is tough sledding, since it rambles. So far I've gotten "guy builds hall, Grendel tears it up, Beowulf shows up and want to wrastle Grendel" out of like 100 pages.

I forgot who wrote that, but it is a very, very good read. Forgot all about it until you mentioned it

[Sabres Fan in NS]

I finished 'The Bridge on the Drina' a while ago.  It is one of the best books I have ever read.

 

I am reading 'The Book of Negroes' now.  It is very good and well written.  Historical fiction and will make me ashamed of the utterly horrible history of NS in terms of racism by the time the setting comes here.

[Samson's Flow]

BJ Novak's 'One More thing: Stories and Other Stories' is one of the most entertaining and surprisingly insightful books I've ever read. It's comprised of a ton of different funny stories, each about 2-4 pages long; hilarious stories, incredibly unique, and each one actually teaches you something. Can't recommend it enough

I bought that book in paperback at an airport and read the whole thing on a long flight. I remember it being pretty entertaining :thumbsup:

[Doctor of Philhousley]

Infinite Jest - Extremely challenging read but interlaced with sections that have produced tears of sadness and laughter.