thanks kris.
Yup - that is in one of the courses I am taking between grad school courses. The other course we are in Norse Mythology, having just finished Greek. Busy summer. Plus I am in the middle of Cannery Row - just because I can be. :)

Just finished All Tomorrow's Parties and am about to start a sci-fi compilation book called Redshift.

1776 by David Halberstam, one of my favorite historians. George Washington was The Man.

finished Diamond Age, once again Stephenson shows he has no idea how
to finish a book, it just kind of trailed off. . .very frustrating.
Picked up Burning Chrome yesterday, have read all of it but the title story (again).
I keep coming back to the way Gibson layes the images, there is a visceral feel
to his stories that the majority of other cyberpunk writers just don't get.

Old man and the Sea is up next
then maybe Gravity's Rainbow or slog through quicksilver (but at this point I'm
so disappointed with Stephenson I'm like, why bother).

The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman

A very interesting book about the changing world. Not usually my type of reading, but I can't put the darn thing down.

Anyone read Boll Roll's new Tour book?

']thanks kris.
Plus I am in the middle of Cannery Row - just because I can be. :)

Only second to actually sitting in Monterey's Cannery Row and watching a Steinbeck play ..... sigh .....

;)

I actually picked up Thomas Dreiser's Sister Carrie again and also just received a recommended book: "Dogs of Babel" from my most favorite store, Ebay ;)

Patricia Cornwell's BLACK NOTICE

i just finished reading The Sleeping Father by Matthew Sharpe. I enjoyed the sarcasm. Also almost finished with Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance... but i tend to get tired of it

The Art of Bicycling (hence, my footer). I read it straight through twice. A few of the poems are mediocre, but most of them are quite good, really good.

The last books I took out from the library: Carol Shields "Unless", a collection of essays by renata Adler, and a copy of the 911 report.

In the meantime I have overdues and can't take out any more books until I pay!

Lance Armstrong's War | Daniel Coyle

Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero | Michael Korda

Belle Canto by Anne Patchet

Ulysses S. Grant | Josiah Bunting III

I've been sort of poldding intermittently through four right now:

The Criminal History of Mankind - Colin Wilson

Rising Up, Rising Down - William T. Vollman

Synergetics - R. Buckminster Fuller

White Noise - DeLillo

Really, I started all of these and sorta lost interest partway through, and life got busy at the same time. Anyone read the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson? I essentally took a month off of my life to read that trilogy. Best. Epic. Ever.

Post - Mortem, the first of the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.

And, yeah. I'm reading Harry. Pffffbbbbt.

Alfred Bester - The stars my destination.

Lance's War...good read too. ;)

I'm reading Mary Higgins Clark-No Place Like Home. It is really good it is a mystery surrounding a house and an indicent that happened in it about 20 years ago.

just finished ISHMAEL by daniel quinn...very cool and working on Burn Collector a kind of compilation by al burian

i just bought "the great shark hunt" by hunter s thompson. anyone here read it? how is it?

I was reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence for the second time. Awesome book, better than I remember. But then along came Potter, so that has taken the top slot.

I have this bad habbit of starting a book and then starting others
cause I get a little bored.

currently reading

The Kite Runner
The Shadow fo the Wind
The Blind Assassion

I'm not working, so I've got a lot of spare time on my hands. Concurrently:

Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond. Explanation of the development of human society based on food production, geography and germs.

Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig. How entrenched business interests affects culture and creativity.

The Beckoning Silence, Joe Simpson. About climbing and Mountaineering.

That Untravelled Road, Eric Shipton. Autobiography.

Just finished:

For Two Nights Only, Tom Holt. Comedy along the Douglas Adams lines (but not as intensely funny)

I've been trying to finish Michael Crichton's State of Fear for over a month and it's been torture, but I'm being stubborn and want to finish it at some point. Someone please stop paying this man to write books (luckily I got it used and can sell it back and get some change back). Aside from his pathetic attempt at suspense writing (gasp! a page break! what will happen next?!?!?!), he writes under the guise of a scientific, peer reviewed article (complete with footnotes just like real scientists!) and spins global warming research enough to sell a "suspensful" story. The sad thing is that Joe From the Midwest Book Reader will read his novel and take it as gospel that global warming and NOAA scientists are a farce (oh wait...I haven't finished it yet....maybe he redeems himself...don't tell me!!).

I'm saving the real gem, In Search of Captain Zero, for my bike trip next month. :)

Trying to start No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, but I just keep not having time.

I recently finished Graeme Obree's autobiography, which is an amazing read and well recommended.

Now reading Cities of Tomorrow by Peter Hall. Its a book about urban planning since the 1880's and the way modern innovations have changed our cities and the lives of those who live in them. Really interesting but not quite as 'edge of the seat' as the Obree book.

The World is Flat - Tom Friedman

My Jihad

...pretty scary so far.

"can you keep a secret" by sophie kinsella.

Eat To Live - Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Bobke II by Bob Roll (great so far) :)

Keith Ablow......The Architect

Bill Mahers latest can't remember the name full of honest humor

Halfway through No Longer Human now. I like it.

Sloane's Complete Book Of Bicycling: 25th Anniversary Edition by Eugene A. Sloane

Seems pretty basic, but in a good way, I guess. Little outdated, too, but it was a freebie from my brother who works at a printer.

Next up is A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. If you like Jordan's The Wheel Of Time series, you'll love this. Trust me.

HP: And The Half-Blood Prince

Japanese Death Poems

']Japanese Death Poems
It's been a while, but I think I've read that before. It sounds quite familiar and I've read a fair share of Asian poetry (for an American at least).

Chu Shu-chen is my favorite, though not a "big name" like Li Po or Li Yu.

rereading
Monkey by Wú Chéng'ēn translation by
Arthur Waley.
then delve into Been down so long looks like
up to me by Richard Farina.

still slogging thru quicksilver. . .

marty

Just finished Brimstone by DouglassPreston/Child. Before that, Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. I thought it was great.
Now I'm reading Devil in the Freezer by Richard Preston. Not sure what is next... maybe re-read something by Richard Ford or maybe Empire Falls. Any suggestions?

Steve

HP: LaserJet II and the Recalcitrant Toner Cartridge. Can't wait for HP: LaserJet III and the Paper Jam of Death.



still slogging thru quicksilver. . .

marty

Good God, is that dull, got thru about 100 pages until I couldn't swallow the bitter diasapponitment any longer. I've read other's swearing that it improves if you're patient, but after the thrills of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, even Zzodiac, ...

Really, I'm reading Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. What a weird chick. Helps to get her voice in your head before starting to turn the pages.

Good God, is that dull, got thru about 100 pages until I couldn't swallow the bitter diasapponitment any longer. I've read other's swearing that it improves if you're patient, but after the thrills of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, even Zzodiac, ... .

I read Cryptonomicon and enjoyed it, strange story that kind of rambled on a bit
but was ok. Snow Crash was good, but everything else I've read by stephenson has been
a dissapointment. The man just doesn't know how to finish a story. I see the next in the
baroque series is out (quicksilver being the 1st), but I don't think I'm going to bother
with it.

Currently working on:
-Concluding Unscientific Postscipt by Soren Kierkegaard, I really like it so far especially the talk about the dialectic nature of man and the impossibility of a system of existence.
-A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Just found out George RR Martin's next book for "A Song of Ice and Fire" is being published on Nov. 8th. Since I haven't read any of them in a few years, I picked up "A Game of Thrones" (the first book,)so I could catch up on everything. I despise Fantasy as a genre, and I've only read Tolkien and always considered him the last, best word, but these books are phenomenal.

Just found out George RR Martin's next book for "A Song of Ice and Fire" is being published on Nov. 8th. Since I haven't read any of them in a few years, I picked up "A Game of Thrones" (the first book,)so I could catch up on everything. I despise Fantasy as a genre, and I've only read Tolkien and always considered him the last, best word, but these books are phenomenal.

I think Martin is more about the storytelling than the genre. I read, and loved, his sci-fi long before I even knew he wrote anything else. Not to start a debate, but I wonder at despising an entire genre. Well within your rights, of course, but, as in all things, there is always good and bad, is there not?

Currently working on:

-A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

That is one of my all time favorite books. I couldn't put it down!

I think Martin is more about the storytelling than the genre. I read, and loved, his sci-fi long before I even knew he wrote anything else. Not to start a debate, but I wonder at despising an entire genre. Well within your rights, of course, but, as in all things, there is always good and bad, is there not?
Didn't quite mean to use that much hyperbole. It's much the same as say, rap or country music, in which %85 of it is crap, and you really have to scrutinize the remaining %15 to get to the good stuff. I feel the same way about most literary subgenres. horror, mystery and sci fi included.

Didn't quite mean to use that much hyperbole. It's much the same as say, rap or country music, in which %85 of it is crap, and you really have to scrutinize the remaining %15 to get to the good stuff. I feel the same way about most literary subgenres. horror, mystery and sci fi included.

Oh, okay. I think sometimes I take you too seriously.:lol: Oh, and I might bump the crap percentage up to, say, 90. My brother works at a printer and it's simply amazing some of the stuff that makes it into book stores. I wouldn't line a birdcage with some of it....

Back on topic, I'm off to read some more of A Game Of Thrones. Shweet! I'm really glad that he's decided to write until the story's done. I can hardly wait for the rest of the books! Woot!