books: what are you currently reading?

[Queequeg]

Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium 1997 by Carl Sagan.
In this book, his last, Carl Sagan shows once again his extraordinary ability to interpret the mysteries of life and the majesty of the universe for the general reader. Brilliant, eloquent, and imbued with Sagan's uniquely childlike sense of awe, this entertaining collection of essays captures the authors spirit at its best.

Sagan claims he never actually said that: "billions & billions", and it was Johnny Carson who would say it when spoofing the astrophysicist due to his 26 appearances on the program.
Here's a 59 second video of Carl Sagan on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson

[Silence Dogood]

And if you haven't done so, also Voyage to Venus and Out of the Silent Planet.

I have read the entire trilogy several times.  Great stuff filled with wisdom. 

[StringPicker6]

I went to my local library yesterday and started Stolen Focus by Johann Hari.

[Silence Dogood]

I went to my local library yesterday and started Stolen Focus by Johann Hari.

I love the library and don't go enough.  I do use their online catalog a lot though.

[Silence Dogood]

I just read via audiobook FINAL SPIN by Jocko Willink, retired Navy SEAL and overall cool dude.  He did the reading and it was great.  Jocko seems like a really neat guy. 

[StringPicker6]

I'm halfway through a book called The Art of Happiness, co-written by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler.

 It's written based on a series of interviews and lectures with the Dalai Lama. Interesting ideas about how we are all just humans trying to find happiness, and if you can see that in people, then it helps you to empathize and understand their motives.

[Silence Dogood]

I'm halfway through a book called The Art of Happiness, co-written by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler.

 It's written based on a series of interviews and lectures with the Dalai Lama. Interesting ideas about how we are all just humans trying to find happiness, and if you can see that in people, then it helps you to empathize and understand their motives.

I didn't begin to be "happy" until I got over the pursuit and stopped trying to be happy.  Wish I'd have learned it a long time ago.

I just finished THE DARK TOWER by CS Lewis, unfinished story of his that honestly probably would've been better left unpublished. 

[Queequeg]

I love the library and don't go enough.  I do use their online catalog a lot though.

Local newspapers have disappeared and local libraries are in danger of following.

[Silence Dogood]

Local newspapers have disappeared...

Hopefully the big papers will disappear too. 

[ducktrapper]

Hopefully the big papers will disappear too. 

What? You want to rely on the TV media to do all the lying?   

[Silence Dogood]

I'm reading a wonderful old novel called THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH by Charles Reade.  I haven't enjoyed anything this much in a long time. 

[ryler]

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R Tolkien.  Can't believe that I haven't read this at some point during these decades.  I'm learning for the first time what hobbits are.  Never watched the movie, either.

[Silence Dogood]

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R Tolkien.  Can't believe that I haven't read this at some point during these decades.  I'm learning for the first time what hobbits are.  Never watched the movie, either.

Wow, that will be an amazing experience!  Oh, to go back and discover it all again for the first time.  I somewhat envy you!

[Silence Dogood]

I'm rereading John Steinbeck's EAST OF EDEN.  My God, what a novel...

[Myopic Squirrel]

Just finished Antony Beevor's "D Day: the Battle for Normandy". Not just a WW2 historian, he's a former British soldier, so his perspective is not just as a scholar. Took him 8 years to write, his access to previously classified Allied and German materials enabled him to present very interesting takes from all sides. One thing that really surprised me, having a superficial knowledge of the battle for Normandy, was the amount of civilians killed by Allied bombing & artillery. Not a short read (600+ pages) but if you're into WW2, very informative.

[Queequeg]

Over The Edge of The World
Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of The Globe
Just starting this (again).

[Silence Dogood]

I'm just about done with JAYBER CROW by Wendell Berry.  Moves along at a slowish, steady pace. I'm going to read more of his novels. 

[ducktrapper]

I'm re-reading Larry McMurtry's "Duane's Depressed", the third book in the Thalia series (it was supposed to be the last but he wrote two more). I have to say that this is one of the best books of philosophy I've ever come across especially for a "normal" person with "normal" modern problems. 

[StringPicker6]

I've tried "normal".  I don't do normal.   

[ducktrapper]

I've tried "normal".  I don't do normal.   

The trouble with normal is it always gets worse. - Bruce Cockburn