Books, Movies, Music & Entertainment - What Books are you reading?

I found it downhill from there, except for the shining description of the Poisson distribution. Cool book but I didn't finish. On the same shelf w/ Sometimes A Great Notion. Someday I will go back...

It took me 8 weeks to read, and I have read fluff since. I was having strange dreams for about a week after I finished. This attempt at Gravity's Rainbow was my fourth! And now that I finished, I know I will reread it in about 10 years. Once you are about 300pages into it, you get used to the style!:lol:

I'm reading The Constant Gardener now. It's surprisingly good.

I'm presently split between two:

At work, I'm nursing The Holcroft Covenant, by Robert Ludlum. 2nd reading, and I've caught nuances I missed the first time.

Just got the other in the mail two nights ago, and I'm reading it at home -- Man O' War -- A Legend Like Lightning. A historical account of the famous racehorse, whose 'fictionized biography' by Walter Farley was the first of his books I ever read.

Finished listening to The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.

Finished listening to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Fascinating story about the source of the Hela cells that were the first human cells that could thrive in the laboratory and have been reproducing and used for scientific/medical research for 60 years. The story of the ethical battles and the Lacks family search for answers to their mother's cells living forever is quite a journey. More details/reviews at: http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052173

Started listening to Funny Boys by Warren Adler.

I'm reading the Hobbit w/ my 8 yr old. 2 chapters to go, probably finish tonight. It's weird, it starts out with this amazing cadence designed to be read out loud, like the Little Bear books (which I know postdate it although I think they are way older than the tv show). Then past the halfway point somewhere it transitions into that Tolkien old-testament-by-way-of-Norse-saga that is a real slog for me. My son was thoroughly hooked by then though so it's no problem for him. Probably wouldn't be for me either but I've been here before so...

Now reading Tree of Smoke by Dennis Johnson. Really interesting novel about the Vietnam war from the POV of an intelligence agent.

Just finished Ring of Hell by Matthew Randazzo. About Chris Benoit the wrestler and the massive drug scene in wrestling. I am not a fan of wrestling but this book was really good and a fast read. Right now I am reading By Way of Deception by Victor Ostrovsky.

Now reading Tree of Smoke by Dennis Johnson. Really interesting novel about the Vietnam war from the POV of an intelligence agent.
I liked Tree of Smoke too though it seemed to get off track on occasion.

Finished listening to Funny Boys by Warren Adler.
Finished listening to Hazel Scott: The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist from Cafe Society to Hollywood to HUAC by Karen Chilton.

Started listening to Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
Will start to read tomorrow on a plane trip, Gas City by Loren Estleman

Re-reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke

I just finished INFERNO and then the sequel Escape from Hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle . The fist book was written 40 years ago and the second last year. It is a neat take on Dante's Divine Comedy seen through the eyes of a modern day man in this case a Sci-fi Writer who finds himself in Hell. The exact Hell that Dante and Virgil explored many centuries earlier.
an easy and fun read from two of Sci-Fi's masters.

Finished listening to Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Audio book included bonus interview with the author. Good stuff.
Finished listening to The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
Started to listen to Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The rise and Fall of Phil Spector by Mick Brown.


Finished reading Gas City by Loren Estleman.
Started to read Edsel by Loren Estleman.

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.
A bit slow at first but starting to pick up.

Finished listening to Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector by Mick Brown.
Finished listening to Nobody Move by Denis Johnson, a short noir crime novel by the author of Tree of Smoke.

Started listening to Texas Vendetta, a Western novel by Elmer Kelton.

Re-reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke

That's a good one. I've read it and watched more times than is probably considered healthy.

But me? Still working through Infinite Jest. At least I made past the halfway point.

Gunther Koschorrek--Blood Red Snow

Sailing Alone Around The World by Joshua Slocum - an old favorite. Alas, have only taken my copy across the Pacific....

Patrick Agte--Michael Wittmann Volume One

Finished listening to Texas Vendetta, a Western novel by Elmer Kelton.

Finished listening to Breakthoughs, The Great War, by Harry Turtledovethe fifth book in the alternative history series that started with Confederacy victorious in the Civil War. This one is set during WW1 when the US is allied with Germany and is battling the Confederacy and the British on Battlefields in Canada, Texas, Va, Ky and in the Atlantic.

Finished listening to Sleeping Beauty a Lew Archer Noir crime novel by Ross McDonald.

Started listening to Driving Like Crazy by PJ O'Rourke.

Finally getting back to the 3rd book of Shelby Foote's Civil War trilogy.

Dude thats one of my favorite books but for some reason i cant stop reading The Firm and The Outsiders ( my 5th grade book lol )

"Drood" by Dan Simmons.

Finished listening to Driving Like Crazy by PJ O'Rourke.

Started listening to Silence by Thomas Perry, author of The Butcher's Boy and Pursuit.

currently reading:

Need for the Bike - Paul Fournel
Racing Weight - Matt Fitzgerald

need for the bike is fantastic, non-technical and poetic. i love it.
racing weight i'm only a few chapters in but it's chock full of info for athletes that are looking to get even more lean and get down to what fitzgerald calls "racing weight" -- it's not cycling specific, as it covers all forms of endurance sports, but cycling is one of the sports covered.

Just started
The Last King of Texas by Rick Riordin (yes the author of the Last Olympian series). He writes a
pretty good adult mystery.

Chasm City by Alister Reynolds. follow up to Revelation Space is next up

Cornelius Ryan...The Longest Day

Just finished reading "The Kindness of Strangers" by Katrina Kittle. Very good book, but the last chapter was uneven. The book as a whole was VERY disturbing (it is loosely about a kid who's parents were pedophiles)

just started Clan of the Cave Bear

It took me 8 weeks to read, and I have read fluff since. I was having strange dreams for about a week after I finished. This attempt at Gravity's Rainbow was my fourth! And now that I finished, I know I will reread it in about 10 years. Once you are about 300pages into it, you get used to the style!:lol:

I'm reading The Constant Gardener now. It's surprisingly good.


It's great that you perservered! Not my favourite "postmodern" epic, but definitely a gooder, and Pynchon's best IMO.

Just finished:
Easton Ellis - Less than Zer0
Easton Ellis - The Informers
McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Currently reading:
Bonhoeffer - Creation and Fall
Proust -Swann's Way

Finished listening to Silence by Thomas Perry.

Started listening to Hit Parade by Lawrence Block.

Finished listening to Hit Parade by Lawrence Block.

Started listening to Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.

The Vikings, by Robert Ferguson. Also, Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow. A few others that I'm not making progress on, one on taxidermy, another is Willie Mays' autobio. Can't keep the mood going for those, for whatever reason. The taxidermy one is cool but not compelling. Willie's ... well, the Red Sox and Mariners are both keeping me from being too into baseball right now.

Manxome Foe John Ringo and Travis S Taylor

The perfect blend of shoot-em-up military Sci Fi and hard Quantum physics.
I'm not sure why but Ringo's style suits me to a tee, and his story lines
ain't half bad. . .(insert smiley thingy here).
Marty

tried reading asphalt nation by jane holtz kay, i really did. read about 80-90 pages in all
from different sections of the book but just couldn't get past the author's tone. it felt
like an endless reprimand from childhood. shifted into the big ring and dropped it for
the geography of nowhere by james kunstler. we'll see how that rides...

I have just finished reading Boy racer the autobiography of Mark Cavendish. And now have started reading a book by John Wilcockson called Lance Armstrong the world`s greatest champion.

How the Irish Saved Civilization (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385418493) by Thomas Cahill. Highly recommended. (And the first of a series, the second of which seems to be a history of the Jews.)

In it I found what may become my new favorite little poem, found in the margin of a Latin commentary on Virgil, presumably by the Irish monk who copied it (c. 850):


I and Pangur Ban my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

'Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye,
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Ban my cat and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Finished listening to Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.
Finished listening to Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age by Matthew Brzezinski.
Finished listening to Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre.


Started listening to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson.

Another? So soon?

Yep. Took less than 4 hours to consume Celestine Sibley's Dire Happenings at Scratch Ankle (http://www.amazon.com/Happenings-Scratch-Ankle-Mulcay-Mystery/dp/0061090506/ref=sr_1_1). It's a modern murder mystery set at the Georgia foot of Lookout Mountain. Lots of local flavor.

Btw, to update the old saw, "The butler did it", replace "butler" with "developer". :twitchy:



Now off for that literarily delayed bike ride.

Armoured Guardsmen by Robert Boscowen. Not bad, if you enjoy English soldiers' humor. I mean, humour.

Just finished Donald Miller's "A million miles in a thousand years", and "Same kind of different as me" now reading Donald Miller's "Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road"

These have both been very good, a creative writing style

Applying Psychology: Individual and Organizational Effectiveness

SIXTH EDITION
Andrew J. DuBrin

Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River

Finished Started listening to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. . Definitely worthy of all the hype.
Started listening to Cafe on the Nile, by Bartle Bull.

(http://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/landing/ref=ntt_atc_dp_pel_1)

Moscow 1941:A City and its People at War by Rodric Braithwaite. Only a few chapters in, and very, very good. My first experience with this author, and will not be my last.

This was an outstanding book! I just started reading the other two books in the series.

Currently Reading:
- Millennium Series Book Set
- Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling and Production
- The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead


Finished Started listening to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. . Definitely worthy of all the hype.
Started listening to Cafe on the Nile, by Bartle Bull.

(http://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/landing/ref=ntt_atc_dp_pel_1)

Around the World in Eighty Days

reading again The Source by james michnener

I am reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, saw movie first then decided to read book, I never do that, but made an exception. Very good so far, I will probably watch movie again after finishing book.

Soldat by Freidrich Knappe. Entertaining, for a war story.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.
Very engrossing book about one of the most repressive regimes in history. Little pathos in the book, which I appreciate; she lays out everything in a dry, matter-of-fact way that I find more effective than overwrought descriptions of atrocities.

There are lots of books that are very nice to read. Search on the net, who is your favorite authors and their books. Some authors are good in their writing job (http://www.prospectsolution.com/). You better choose a good author.

Just finished
"Await Your Reply" by Dan Chaon. Very cool, unpretentious art, where concept and narrative are neatly wound throughout. Like Harvey Pekar, another Clevelander, life just looks different from here.

"Child of God" by Cormac McCarthy- McCarthy pokes the corpse of humanity like no one else can, except maybe the protagonist of this early effort.

Now reading
"The Orchard Keeper" by Cormac McCarthy- His first published work. Like watching the Babe at batting practice, Miles diddling a mute, or Pollock dribbling his first latex.

finally got around to reading slaughterhouse five by vonnegut. def worth reading
but imho, not even close to catch-22 by joseph heller for ww2 fiction.