books: what are you currently reading?

Started by Caleb, June 21, 2006, 11:58:08 PM

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Quote from: Daysailer on October 29, 2009, 09:32:42 PM
Jimmy Buffet's, " Tales from Margaritaville" and "A Salty Piece of Land"

The second is a sequel and continuation of the first. 
Fun, Light fiction that reeks of Buffet's laid back style and imagination.

Also "Kayaks you can build"
everyone needs a second hobby when the fingertips are too abused from excessive playing.  :doh
I read a Salty piece of land , very cool book,
I didnt know it was the sequel,
I will read tales from margaritaville.
Dave

I've been dabbling a bit in short stories while other books are going. I just read The Gift of the Magi yesterday by O. Henry. It had been grade school since I'd read it. Very much enjoyed it.

Quote from: jbrummer on December 18, 2009, 08:22:46 PM
Reading a memoir called The Glass Castle which I find remarkable -- the grace and love with which the narrator writes about what, from on outsider's perspective, was a horrific childhood is astonishing.  Also, rereading Yann Martel's Life of Pi . . . sort of a Christmas tradition with me.  It's hard to find quality literature that isn't' laden with cynicism and irony (which at other times of the year I can appreciate), but Martel's novel operates without either, and is brilliant.

Jeanette Walls, right?  The Glass Castle is high on my very long "must read" list.  Now it's a notch higher. 

I just came home with a copy of "Dangerously Funny, The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" by David Bianculli. Lots of great black and white photos with Tom Smothers playing three dirfferent sunburst finish guitars (Two Martins and a Guild) as well as Joan Baez and her old Martin, John Hartford playing a (audible gasp) Ovation, Pete Seeger and his 12 string, Mason Williams (Classical Gas), Steve Martin and Glen Campbell.  Quite a treasure trove of talented acoustic musicians there.

It's kind of hard to believe that my dad (who was really a pretty conservative guy) would actually let me watch The Smothers Brothers and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in back in the late 60s when I was in my early teens. Thanks for allowing me to broaden my horizons dad.

I started "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" for my first venture into the world of James Joyce.

Ahh Uncle James - the dirty ol Man
Larrivee Electrics - My Dream then and Now!!!!!<br /><br />Forum IV     00-03MT       #4      (Treasured)

The Amish In Their Own Words - Brad Igou (editor)

This is a pretty large volume of collected essays and articles written by Amish folk about Amish life. I've been interested in these folks for years and on a recent trip to Lancaster County, PA I picked this one up in a gift shop. It's already solved many of my Amish questions within the first few pages.

I'm also reading a 500-page volume called The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. Very good stuff. It'll take me all year to work through this one, but that's how I read poetry books -- just a bit at a time.

Just picked up "Failure is not an Option" by Gene Krantz who was NASA's flight director for Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldin and Michael Collins) and Apollo 13 (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert).

After landing on the moon: "I held up my thumb and blotted out the Earth and I didn't feel very big at all. I felt very small." Neil Armstrong

Francis Schaeffer - "The God Who is There", "Escape From Reason", and "He is There and He is Not Silent" - These are part of the first volume of a six volume series of all of Francis Schaeffer's writing.  If you are interested in art, music, philosophy, history and how they all fit in with a Christian worldview, then these books are absolutely life changing.  This is one of the most brilliant men of the 20th century, and these first three books have had a huge impact on how I view the world around me.  He brings so many aspects of art and culture together to show what Truth (with a capital "T") is and how modern man has fallen into despair in a search for meaning and purpose in life through all the wrong means.  Even if you are not Christian or even remotely interested in it, these books will open your eyes to why, as a culture, we are so messed up.  I have never read anything like this and I read A LOT.  This is some of the best reading I've found in a long time.  I'm finishing up "He is There and He is not Silent" right now and I can't wait to get back to it.  I'll likely read them again in a few months once it's had time to sink in.  Very good stuff!

Justin 
OM-03 MT Custom (Cree Studios "Fish Guitar")

Great thread. Hope to read all of it someday, but there won't be time left for books. I'm a big fan of Mark Twain--especially his autobiographical stuff and essays--and O.Henry.
Read some great books recently. Girls Like Us, a great book about Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon, Four Kings, about Marvin Hagler, Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran, and I'm Dying Up Here, about the Comedy Store strike in LA the late 70s.

Quote from: leftync on January 02, 2010, 01:44:58 PM
Great thread. Hope to read all of it someday, but there won't be time left for books. I'm a big fan of Mark Twain--especially his autobiographical stuff and essays--and O.Henry.
Read some great books recently. Girls Like Us, a great book about Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon, Four Kings, about Marvin Hagler, Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran, and I'm Dying Up Here, about the Comedy Store strike in LA the late 70s.

Nice suggestions I will be seeking them for sure!!! Thanks
Larrivee Electrics - My Dream then and Now!!!!!<br /><br />Forum IV     00-03MT       #4      (Treasured)

Quote from: jwb on December 31, 2009, 08:51:51 PM
Francis Schaeffer - "The God Who is There", "Escape From Reason", and "He is There and He is Not Silent" - These are part of the first volume of a six volume series of all of Francis Schaeffer's writing.  If you are interested in art, music, philosophy, history and how they all fit in with a Christian worldview, then these books are absolutely life changing.  This is one of the most brilliant men of the 20th century, and these first three books have had a huge impact on how I view the world around me.  He brings so many aspects of art and culture together to show what Truth (with a capital "T") is and how modern man has fallen into despair in a search for meaning and purpose in life through all the wrong means.  Even if you are not Christian or even remotely interested in it, these books will open your eyes to why, as a culture, we are so messed up.  I have never read anything like this and I read A LOT.  This is some of the best reading I've found in a long time.  I'm finishing up "He is There and He is not Silent" right now and I can't wait to get back to it.  I'll likely read them again in a few months once it's had time to sink in.  Very good stuff!

Justin 
I just got a copy of He Is There And He Is Not Silent in the mail yesterday. It's next on my reading list.  I like what you wrote about Schaeffer, and I agree with it.  He was an intellectual GIANT that has gone largely unnoticed in Christian (and non-Christian, obviously) circles.  I am a Christian, and I am very interested in art; the knee-jerk reactions from those in the evangelical world when it comes to art sadden me, and they only help the head-in-the-sand, unenlightened reputation many believers hold in the eyes of those outside the faith.

There's a suspicion of art in Christian circles that even those holding it seem to not fully understand; but try and discuss it and help them get past it and you're usually labeled too "worldly."  Oh well, I'm enjoying art and Schaeffer and will continue to do so.  I took a 2-semester course by Jerram Barrs about Schaeffer and the roots of L'Abri last year via iTunesU that was great. It taught me much about the work they did (and are still doing) at L'Abri.

I'm with the "expat Canuck". Moore is hilarious. Favourite recent read? The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. What a blast! Even has a cool blues player in it.
Peter
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Reading the last in a series of Murder Mysteries by David Dickinson "Death of a Chancellor" which features as a sleuth: Lord Francis Powerscourt.
Set in about 1900's England - maybe a bit fluffy, but enjoyable on a cold Minnesota night.
L-03,  Forum-IV 003-Hog, RS-4 Hogtop HB's, Logan Custom Tele Rescue - (Aka used) (neck P-90)

Just finished Stephen King's newest, "Under The Dome"...great read, immediately started over with page on after I finished, just to catch more of the characters story now that I really had them all organized in my head. I've picked up some great song ideas from reading his books.

Cheers,

S
Scott Southworth
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Gotta get that Smothers Brothers book. I loved them way back when I was in HS. Have many of their shows on 7" reel to reel audio. Now I get to watch their great clips on Youtube. Meet Dick Smothers in Vegas; nice guy.
Just started reading another boxing book, Sweet Thunder, about Sugar Ray Robinson. I'm finding it interesting and well written; a book about the times as well as an interesting man. Also read another good sports book last year, Larry Tye's book Satchel, on Satchel Paige. I know Larry a little, and highly recommend any of his books for non-fiction fans.

Considering the holidays, hockey, guitar playing, two feet of snow and work I haven't gtten as much reading in as I normally would.

Just finished the "Dangerously Funny the uncensored story of the Smothers Brothers." These guys, their writing staff and their guests were truly groundbreakers. Tom Smothers even played guitar on "Give Peace a Chance" with John Lennon at the "Bed-in" with Yoko Ono in Montreal. What's more they are coming to my area later this year to perform. I'm there.

"Embrace the Wide Sky" by Daniel Tammet
"London" by JEdward Rutherfurd

Lots more in the queue
2000 L-03-E
2012 Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue
1985 Peavey Milestone
2004 SX SPJ-62 Bass
2008 Valencia Solid Cedar Top Classical
2015 Taylor 414ce - won in drawing
2016 Ibanez SR655BBF
???? Mitchell MDJ-10 3/4 scale dread
???? Squier Danocaster

My Sound Cloud

   Finished  "Citizen Soldiers" by Stephen E. Ambrose.

A very excellent book on The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany                                                                     June 7, 1944-May, 1945

                                  I have such a great appreciation for GI's after reading this.

Here is the last paragraph;
          "At the core, the American citizen soldiers knew the difference between right and wrong, and they didn't want to live in a world in which wrong prevailed. So they fought, and won, and we all of us, living and yet to be born, must be forever profoundly grateful."

                If you read what they did and how they sacrificed, you will be grateful.

I finished Neil Stephenson's "Anathem".  I think I'm up to date with his books and this is his best one. 

I'm about halfway through "Galileo's Dream" by Kim Stanley Robinson.  I don't remember much about his life story and am not sure how much is fiction.  I thought I'd wait until I'm done to do some research.

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