What are we all reading now?

[FogBat]

34 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

And who cares since it’s all preordained anyway, lol. 

 

Thats a little predestination humor, lol 

Clever humor! 😁

Some were much more plainspoken than he was. If he had lived in our time and was a hockey man, he would have been a supreme analyticist.

As for plainspoken, John Bunyan certainly had a way of communicating with the average person back in his day. It is no wonder that The Pilgrim's Progress has never gone out of print and is one of the most purchased books in history.

1 minute ago, Norcal said:

A Concise History of Kentucky...in anticipation of a cross country move in 2023. Already counting the days. 

Beautiful state! I hope you enjoy it once you get there.

[Norcal]

2 minutes ago, Crosschecking said:

Clever humor! 😁

Some were much more plainspoken than he was. If he had lived in our time and was a hockey man, he would have been a supreme analyticist.

As for plainspoken, John Bunyan certainly had a way of communicating with the average person back in his day. It is no wonder that The Pilgrim's Progress has never gone out of print and is one of the most purchased books in history.

Beautiful state! I hope you enjoy it once you get there.

Thank you. I agree, and the family is excited for the move. Now, the humidity. That will take some getting used to for sure.  

[Eleven]

52 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

And who cares since it’s all preordained anyway, lol. 

 

Thats a little predestination humor, lol 

Freaking Calvinists...

[Sabres Fan in NS]

14 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Freaking Calvinists...

Not a fan of the 30th President?

[FogBat]

20 hours ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

Not a fan of the 30th President?

His full name was John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., and he was a Congregationalist (not a Presbyterian).

[FogBat]

Reading Where is God in a Coronavirus World? by John C. Lennox, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Oxford University. As brilliant and as distinguished as his career was, he writes with in mostly layman's terms. It is short, and, so far, to the point.

[Tony P]

"3 Body Problem" trilogy by Cixin Liu.

Hard sci-fi with a lot of Chinese cultural references. I'm halfway through the 3rd book. They're all good and I have to say that each one is better than the previous, IMO.

[FogBat]

On 7/4/2021 at 10:56 AM, Norcal said:

Thank you. I agree, and the family is excited for the move. Now, the humidity. That will take some getting used to for sure.  

They also get tornadoes, although not nearly as bad as Oklahoma and Kansas.

[Spun]

These are books 41, 42 and 43 since the beginning of the pandemic.  No work means lots of books, push-ups and cheap food!

Of the three, Planet of the Umps is the funniest!  The book was written by the late MLB umpire Ken Kaiser who was from Rochester.  I was laughing out loud just from reading comments on the book jacket.

American Kompromat makes the case of Soviet and Russian interactions with our last prez, the Donald.  I am just getting started on this one.  The coverage of KGB activities in the US is very interesting. 

The last book, No Option But North is about the migration from south of the US border.  So far, the book discusses migration from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Thanks for posting this topic!  I see a lot of new books to add to me list!

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Spun

[Rasmus_]

The Skyward Series by Brandon Sanderson.  

[Spun]

On 6/14/2021 at 9:37 PM, Doohickie said:

When I'm done with SPQR I might read Moby Dick again.  Everyone says I'm nuts but I think it's one of the finest works of literature ever.  There are chapters that are several words long, and passages that are some of the most elegant prose I've ever read.  Told in the voice of Ishmael, in the form, really, of his journal.  When at sea, there are periods of downtime and periods of crazy activity.  You get the sense of that in the writing.

If required to read Moby Dick as a student most likely I would have grumbled.  It is a strenuous read.  Much technical jargon.  I found myself rooting against the whale.

There is a Buffalo character in the story!

http://www.melville.org/diCurcio/54.htm

[FogBat]

The Death notices on Wikipedia.

[Hoss]

Reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri which was made into a movie years ago. I really enjoyed The Lowland by her so I figured I'd give her another try but not enjoying this one as much.

Some recent reads I do recommend:

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Nix by Nathan Hill

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

[CallawaySabres]

It only took me until I was 51 but I am finally VERY interested in history. I have been watching a lot on PBS recently on the Victorian Age with railroads and Royal Navy. Now that I have the bug, I would love to start off with some all encompassing American history books. I have A LOT to brush up on so any suggestions that cover periods of time from 1700s - 1940s would be welcomed.

[That Aud Smell]

My last three (which were the first three in a while):

I think this may be high brow chick lit? I dunno. I found the writing exquisite and the main characters compelling. It's apparently being made into a show of some kind.

So good. Sorta blew my mind when I realized what the premise was. Another wonderfully written book about a star-crossed couple, of sorts. Plenty of veiled socio-political commentary there as well - artfully delivered. I read this, and then immediately re-read it. I found it "easy reading," but not in the way that true "pulp" is easy reading.

I struggled with this one initially. Maybe because I didn't realize it was a memoir? I think it starts off choppily, struggles to find its footing. But now that I'm half-way through, I see what the fuss is all about. What a well-told, personal story this is - one that everyone in American would do well to hear/read.

 

[FogBat]

4 hours ago, CallawaySabres said:

It only took me until I was 51 but I am finally VERY interested in history. I have been watching a lot on PBS recently on the Victorian Age with railroads and Royal Navy. Now that I have the bug, I would love to start off with some all encompassing American history books. I have A LOT to brush up on so any suggestions that cover periods of time from 1700s - 1940s would be welcomed.

If you read anything about American history, make sure you take Howard Zinn's material with a HUGE grain of salt. He does not hide his bias by any means. Also, I think you're smart enough to avoid hagiographies. And, depending on who you ask, Doris Kearns Goodwin is either a top-notch presidential historian or a "court historian" - the latter being a derisive term for someone who is paid by their ruler to shill for them (like Granma is for the Cuban Communist Party).

[FogBat]

The bad thing about our current state of technology and society is that it is easier to pull most people away from a book than from a smartphone (what an oxymoron) when we are trying to get someone else's attention. I've come to that realization in my own life, and I am hoping to reverse that to a happy medium.

Having said that, I'm still plugging away with The Romanov Sisters, but things are starting to get interesting since I've come to the point of Nicholas II's abdication. (The regicide will come later.) I've been dragging myself through the book for a few years, and I want to finish it in earnest.

Up next: The Christian in Complete Armour by WilliamGurnall in 3 volumes. I received this after I tagged my wife in a Facebook post about them since they were being advertised on the Truth For Life ministry page on there. She said Done, and ordered them. Now they're here, and I can't wait to dig into them.

A few months ago, I started reading Earth's Final Empire: The Final Game of Thrones by John Hagee. I knew what I was getting myself into when I bought a copy of this book at a liquidation store (Ollie's). I knew it would be a horrible book with an obvious slant, given what I know about the guy. I just wanted to see with my own eyes what he was shilling and pushing for his narrative.

[Eleven]

41 minutes ago, FogBat said:

The bad thing about our current state of technology and society is that it is easier to pull most people away from a book than from a smartphone (what an oxymoron) when we are trying to get someone else's attention.

I read on my phone/iPad so you're not pulling me away from it!

[FogBat]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

I read on my phone/iPad so you're not pulling me away from it!

I totally understand. More power to you.

While Kindle technology has been great for some people, I still prefer to have an actual book in my hands.

[Andrew Amerk]

The Autobiography of Blackhawk

[Billznut]

[Eleven]

11 hours ago, FogBat said:

I totally understand. More power to you.

While Kindle technology has been great for some people, I still prefer to have an actual book in my hands.

As do I.  But if I'm out and about, the phone and iPad are with me.  My library, not so much.

[ubkev]

Pimp by Iceberg Slim

[FogBat]

On 8/1/2021 at 11:31 PM, Eleven said:

As do I.  But if I'm out and about, the phone and iPad are with me.  My library, not so much.

I hear ya.

So, this may not qualify as actual reading, but it'll do since I drive but need something to listen to. LibriVox has become quite a help when I want to listen to a book when I don't have time to read. Having said that, I have been listening to Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. I've always wanted to read it, but the overall length can be intimidating to me - regardless of subject matter.

Speaking of LibriVox, I think I found some material by John Owen on there (or maybe it was YouTube). I've always found him to be hard to read on paper - and other readers of his oeuvre have said the same thing. He's hard to listen to and follow along as well. I had no idea that anyone out there could be such an extremely technical writer!

[FogBat]

The wife and I took a day trip to Carlisle, PA to visit our favorite bookstore. Given that there were so many books and not enough money to buy what we wanted, we managed to buy a few.

As I finish one, I decided to start with one of my new purchases. My Beloved Russia: A Story of God's Love for a Persecuted People by Dimitry Mustafin with Irene Howat.