Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 549886 times)

xxxLinda

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #925 on: January 20, 2014, 02:30:51 PM »
It's January and it's dark and cold so I'm indoors comfy
and am reading lots:



xxxLinda

xxxLinda

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #926 on: January 20, 2014, 02:35:03 PM »
Also this book is just lovely:  >>>I post the review



The Art of Travel
Alain de Botton

Few things are as exciting as the idea of travelling somewhere else. But the reality of travel seldom matches our daydreams. The tragi-comic disappointments are well-known: the disorientation, the mid-afternoon despair, the lethargy before ancient ruins. And yet the reasons behind such disappointments are rarely explored.

We are inundated with advice on where to travel to; we hear little of why we should go and how we could be more fulfilled doing so. The Art of Travel  is a philosophical look at the ubiquitous but peculiar activity of travelling ‘for pleasure’, with thoughts on airports, landscapes, museums, holiday romances, photographs, exotic carpets and the contents of hotel mini-bars. The book mixes personal thought with insights drawn from some of the great figures of the past. Unlike existing guidebooks on travel, it dares to ask what the point of travel might be

xxxLinda

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #927 on: January 28, 2014, 03:32:18 PM »

temple_of_dis

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #928 on: February 05, 2014, 01:10:30 PM »
just finished flesh by richard laymon

wana read out of the crisis by deming

and darkness at diamondia by van vogt


wild willie

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #929 on: February 05, 2014, 03:43:05 PM »
JUST STARTED LISTENING TO "WINNER TAKES ALL" BY CHRISTINA BINKLEY........PRETTY DAMN GOOD AUDIO BOOK ABOUT CASINO MOGULS.

billgates

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #930 on: February 06, 2014, 02:45:35 AM »
Wilbur Smith-Vicious Circle.

CalvinH

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #931 on: February 06, 2014, 06:44:25 AM »
Wilbur Smith-Vicious Circle.



How do you like it? I read it about a month ago.

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #932 on: February 07, 2014, 12:49:19 PM »
Not getting much reading done these days - Winter blues, I guess. But one book I have finished was 'The Epicure's Lament' by Kate Christensen. Hugo Whittier is a trust fund boy, a recluse in the family estate, a boozer, a smoker, a screwer (literally and figuratively) of anyone he can, a lover of Montaigne and a gourmet cook. Into this mix we throw a sadsack brother who moves back home, an ex-wife, with a child in tow, who wants to reconcile, a gay uncle who also moves back home and Hugo's impending death from a fatal, obscure disease. Hugo is such an asshole, but slowly through his actions and his interior monologues he wheedles his way into your 'like' column with all-too recognizable frailties and foibles. This book is full of pith and arch statements, the humour is sarcastic and mordant rather than ha-ha funny, and you just might learn something about cooking. I mean, who besides TA, would know about the Roman foodstuff 'garum,' I ask?

CalvinH

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #933 on: February 07, 2014, 08:01:27 PM »
Been ripping through some books lately
Bernard Cornwells latest
Brad Taylor-The Polaris Protocol
Andrew Grant-More Harm Then Good
Mark Greaney-his latest in his Grey Man series

calfzilla

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #934 on: February 09, 2014, 09:07:00 PM »
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

CalvinH

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #935 on: March 03, 2014, 07:48:26 AM »
Re-reading a bunch of Matt Braun westerns.

Radical Plato

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #936 on: March 04, 2014, 07:05:55 AM »
Moral Landscape by Sam Harris - Great read, concise, insightful and potentially a classic that will be referred to for centuries to come as a watershed moment for science, reason and rational thinking.

Also reading on my new Sony E-Reader which I love by the way, thoroughly recommended.

Sidenote:  If you are a devout religious person you will HATE this book, you will HATE Sam Harris, and you will possibly throw a hissy fit anytime his name is mentioned in the future.

V

xxxLinda

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #937 on: March 04, 2014, 05:40:52 PM »
Oh God!  I was flicking through the Koran (a neighbour gave it to me, all nicely inscribed to me) and I put it down on top of my Bible on a massive bookshelf full of hundreds if not thousands of books then I had a birthday party and we were dancing and my friend fell over and took out the mantlepiece and the television and a vase of tulips and hit the wall and red wine went flying all over and I had the best birthday ever (she got back up and kept dancing) but my Koran is very badly stained with red wine.  

Not sure whether that's unlucky but it was a great party.

SamoanIrishman

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #938 on: March 05, 2014, 09:02:20 AM »
Oh God!  I was flicking through the Koran (a neighbour gave it to me, all nicely inscribed to me) and I put it down on top of my Bible on a massive bookshelf full of hundreds if not thousands of books then I had a birthday party and we were dancing and my friend fell over and took out the mantlepiece and the television and a vase of tulips and hit the wall and red wine went flying all over and I had the best birthday ever (she got back up and kept dancing) but my Koran is very badly stained with red wine.  

Not sure whether that's unlucky but it was a great party.


just tell people it was from a recent Jihad and the stain is the blood of the infidels. Reactions alone would be worth it if you can say it with a straight face.  ;D

James28

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #939 on: March 10, 2014, 02:19:29 PM »
The Road Home by Rose Tremain. Picked it up for 99c at a second hand book shop and it's turning out to be one of the most clear-eyed and sensitive books I've ever read. Her imagery is just wonderful. Having traveled Eastern Europe extensively I can easily see the snowy fields, grey and brooding skies and barren trees with depressing but strangely beautiful villages scattered in between.

I'll finish it today and start on 'I have lived a Thousand Years'. A book about the Nazi Death camps.
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no one

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #940 on: March 21, 2014, 11:57:47 AM »
cant believe im just finding this now- thanks calvin

highly recommend

fiction:

lee child- the jack reacher series. straight up page burners.
nelson demille, esp the john corey series
james rollins
conn iggdulens stuff

going to check out that art of travel posted above look great.
b

xxxLinda

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #941 on: March 21, 2014, 06:38:19 PM »



xxxL

xxxLinda

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #942 on: March 21, 2014, 07:05:32 PM »
noone, you'll have to forgive me for my recommendation of Alain de Botton's Art of Travel, I didn't get past the 3rd chapter and there are only maybe two other books I've ever not read cover to cover.  I always try.

That one isn't worth buying...  I'll send it to you if you want it.  The cover notes are fab and the front notes and the press coverage, all wonderful, too good.


but it turns out it's far too high-brow, too many big words.  Totally pretentious.  

He's about 20 or 30 years younger than anyone you or I would care to know, with a phD in philistine and pretends to know what he's talking about.  He's a British philosphier ()sp...   He's written other books all of which I've read and liked.


But this one I couldn't get through, so please don't bother with Art of Travel, it's crap, bin it or recycle it.  Do not donate it to the Charity Shop, noone should have to read that rubbish...  Sorry.


>>>you mustn't bother with that book, you yourself could write a better one in your sleep with your other hand.

sorry to disappoint
xL

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #943 on: March 23, 2014, 05:07:36 AM »
The Wind is not a River by Brian Payton. A love story set during WWII. Protagonist reporter gets shot down over Attu, the farthest West of the Aleutians, and his US wife's search for him. Honestly, the only thing that got me through this melodramatic pot-boiler was the info I gleaned about the war theater in the Aleutians, of which I knew almost nothing. Oh, and some good geographic/geologic bits. A book to kill some time with on a trip, but not one I'd recommend you hunt down.  5/10

no one

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #944 on: March 23, 2014, 08:07:30 AM »
noone, you'll have to forgive me for my recommendation of Alain de Botton's Art of Travel, I didn't get past the 3rd chapter and there are only maybe two other books I've ever not read cover to cover.  I always try.

That one isn't worth buying...  I'll send it to you if you want it.  The cover notes are fab and the front notes and the press coverage, all wonderful, too good.


but it turns out it's far too high-brow, too many big words.  Totally pretentious.  

He's about 20 or 30 years younger than anyone you or I would care to know, with a phD in philistine and pretends to know what he's talking about.  He's a British philosphier ()sp...   He's written other books all of which I've read and liked.


But this one I couldn't get through, so please don't bother with Art of Travel, it's crap, bin it or recycle it.  Do not donate it to the Charity Shop, noone should have to read that rubbish...  Sorry.


>>>you mustn't bother with that book, you yourself could write a better one in your sleep with your other hand.

sorry to disappoint
xL


lol, so what your saying is you didnt like it?

:D

thanks for the heads up xxxlinda i'll avoid it like anthrax.
b

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #945 on: April 06, 2014, 05:34:19 AM »
Sad news. Peter Matthiessen has died. Guy did more in one year than most will do in a lifetime: privileged upbringing; war service; inveterate traveler; CIA correspondent; Paris Review founder; trawlerman; Zen Buddhist; environmentalist; author of a ton of books, both fiction and non-fiction; lecturer and teacher. This guy did it all, and his contribution to letters and cultural life was/is astounding. He will be missed. On a personal note, I met him in '05 at his Southampton house and was impressed by him (tall and craggy) and the zendo he had on the grounds. I remember as I was leaving he remarked that the next day he was leaving for the Antarctic Seas where he would be leading a lecture group. Larger than life.

NYT obit: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/peter-matthiessen-author-and-naturalist-is-dead-at-86.html?ref=books&_r=0

Mazda323

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #946 on: April 06, 2014, 05:48:40 AM »
The Prince, by Machiavelli, translated in Greek by the famous Greek writer, Nikos Kazantzakis.

He has written the"Zorbas".

no one

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #947 on: April 06, 2014, 07:08:25 PM »

trying to grind thru the game of thrones series.

not going good. nothing makes me want to pick up the book after i have put it down, or turn the next page. im on page 160 of the first book. im going to try it one more time. if something doesnt grab me im done w it.

conversly i picked up james rollins amazonia on thursday and read it in a day.

also read an re read 'let there be range' by tri nguyen and cole south- prolly the definitive text on mid to high stakes NL holdem. not for beginners. concepts are hard to grasp at first but every concept ties into the next so thats why you constantly have to read it cause you'll never grasp it in one go. if your a recreational player you'll not need the concepts in this book. its more suited to 5/10 NL and higher stakes. it sells for $1600 on amazon :0 no, im not joking.
b

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #948 on: April 07, 2014, 03:35:38 AM »
trying to grind thru the game of thrones series.

not going good. nothing makes me want to pick up the book after i have put it down, or turn the next page. im on page 160 of the first book. im going to try it one more time. if something doesnt grab me im done w it.

conversly i picked up james rollins amazonia on thursday and read it in a day.

also read an re read 'let there be range' by tri nguyen and cole south- prolly the definitive text on mid to high stakes NL holdem. not for beginners. concepts are hard to grasp at first but every concept ties into the next so thats why you constantly have to read it cause you'll never grasp it in one go. if your a recreational player you'll not need the concepts in this book. its more suited to 5/10 NL and higher stakes. it sells for $1600 on amazon :0 no, im not joking.
Agree. I made it through the first one, but it took me about half the book to get the all the characters and events straight, then it picked up. Pretty solid book, and I see why all the fanboys get excited, but I then decided that the rest of the series could appreciate on my book shelves rather than be read. One of my better investments.

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #949 on: April 12, 2014, 06:04:42 AM »
Just finished 'From Hell,' by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Wow. I'm late the graphic novel stuff, but this book is superior. An essay of the 'Jack the Ripper' crimes that posits the responsibility for the murders on the Masonic and the Queen's personal surgeon, Sir William Gull. Terribly detailed and totally interesting - I found myself losing hours on this one. I'm not sure that Mr. Moore believes this theory  (and he wouldn't be the first unreliable narrator) but his story's arc is amazing, the historical details impeccable, and the accompanying pics by Mr. Campbell beyond reproach. 10/10. Hunt this one down. Read it, and cherish it.