books: what are you currently reading?

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

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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.  Always interesting to teach this novel to high school boys . . .
". . . if I only had a brain . . ."
___________________________
'08 L-03 Silver Oak

Wow. Been a while since I've looked at all the comments since I started this thread. Cool :ph34r: Let's see... I'm starting to read "Who Moved My Cheese?" which is a book required by my job, and it deals with dealing with change in your life and the workplace. I'm currently in the second half of Genesis in the bible. AND! I'm working through The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia)

Quote from: RyGuy on July 23, 2010, 11:08:21 PM
Wow. Been a while since I've looked at all the comments since I started this thread. Cool :ph34r: Let's see... I'm starting to read "Who Moved My Cheese?" which is a book required by my job, and it deals with dealing with change in your life and the workplace. I'm currently in the second half of Genesis in the bible. AND! I'm working through The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia)
Thanks for starting such a cool thread.   :bowdown:

I just finished the Narnia series a couple weeks ago.  I read it once a year and seem to like it better each year. 

Currently reading:  The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins.  This is an old book; the story is set in Boston about a young orphan girl who gets adopted by the town lamplighter.  He dies and she goes to another family.  I'm only half-way through it and am enjoying it as much as anything I've read this year.  I'd say it's a semi-girl book, but good writing is good writing. 

I'll make a note of The Lamplighter, creature.  I'm just delving into The Fable by Wm. Faulkner.  I love his writing and realized there ar still a number of his I haven't read.  Also on order from the library is The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.   I started it at Barnes and Noble and it seemed good. 

Quote from: ryler on July 25, 2010, 10:49:02 AM
I'll make a note of The Lamplighter, creature.  I'm just delving into The Fable by Wm. Faulkner. 
He's on the list. I've just not gotten to him yet.  Tell me, are his works dark and cynical on the whole? 

  
Quote from: RyGuy on July 23, 2010, 11:08:21 PM
Wow. Been a while since I've looked at all the comments since I started this thread. Cool :ph34r: Let's see... I'm starting to read "Who Moved My Cheese?" which is a book required by my job, and it deals with dealing with change in your life and the workplace. I'm currently in the second half of Genesis in the bible. AND! I'm working through The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia)
Since the creature is the first post and also the one who post's most often here I assumed he had started this thread, he definitely is the "caretaker", so to speak.

Quote from: the creature on July 25, 2010, 11:56:51 AM
He's on the list. I've just not gotten to him yet.  Tell me, are his works dark and cynical on the whole? 

Dark and cynical?  I'd say no, even though almost all of them are tragedies.  He depicts the deepest of social problems and the existential angst of pre/post Civil War South, but does so in a highly symbolic way, and such that a portrayal of the ugly doesn't carry authorial judgment.  It's simply a tapestry of what was.  Linguistically, he is genius.  I do have to embrace the stream of consciousness style, which, for me, means not getting mired in the equation of the sentence structure and just absorbing the essence of what is said.  (Some pages are comprised entirely of 3 or 4 sentences embedded in a maze of transitions.)  It's not daunting if you go with the flow.  He's the anti-Hemingway in that regard.

Quote from: ryler on July 27, 2010, 08:58:29 PM
Dark and cynical?  I'd say no, even though almost all of them are tragedies.  He depicts the deepest of social problems and the existential angst of pre/post Civil War South, but does so in a highly symbolic way, and such that a portrayal of the ugly doesn't carry authorial judgment.  It's simply a tapestry of what was.  Linguistically, he is genius.  I do have to embrace the stream of consciousness style, which, for me, means not getting mired in the equation of the sentence structure and just absorbing the essence of what is said.  (Some pages are comprised entirely of 3 or 4 sentences embedded in a maze of transitions.)  It's not daunting if you go with the flow.  He's the anti-Hemingway in that regard.
Very well put; this makes me want to dig deeper.  Thank you.

I'm reading "Newton and the Counterfeiter" right now:  http://www.amazon.com/Newton-Counterfeiter-Detective-Greatest-Scientist/dp/0151012784

Hard to believe, but after Isaac Newton made physics discovery history, he became the warden of the Mint.  Fascinating read on Isaac Newton's 3rd career (2nd was an alchemist - of course that didn't work out too well).

-Scott
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The Education of a Wandering Man - Louis L'Amour's memoirs.  I underlined a sentence from almost every paragraph in the first chapter alone.  This guy was a fascinating character.  If you think he only was a teller of Western tales, you're missing a wealth of knowledge.  I can tell this will be a great book. 

creature,

When you finish it, let us know if you maintain your high regard for the book.  Louis L'amour is one I've never felt the inclination to pick up because of what you said;  I thought they were all Westerns.  But now I'm interested.

Along with my last read, which I'm still in the middle of, I'm reading The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten.  It was recommended on AGF and discusses the mindset of the musician, the life of music and some of the obstacles to allowing true musicality to flow through you.  Written in story form.  So far, so good.

Quote from: ryler on August 04, 2010, 02:38:04 PM
creature,

When you finish it, let us know if you maintain your high regard for the book.  Louis L'amour is one I've never felt the inclination to pick up because of what you said;  I thought they were all Westerns.  But now I'm interested.

I inherited his entire catalog from my grandfather.  I waited for years, but finally decided to get into them, mainly as a way to connect with my grandfather on an intellectual level, and see what all the fuss was about.  I wasn't sure where to begin so I chose a title at random.  It was ok, but I felt that I needed to understand the man behind the story a bit more before moving on, so I grabbed this one off the shelf next.  Also, I watched some YouTube videos of old interviews. It turns out that L'Amour was quite the intellectual giant, his own library consisting of over 10,000 titles.  I think after reading this one I might make the connection my grandfather made all those years ago.  I miss my grandfather a lot, as I loved him dearly.  His old books are a way to hang on, if only a little. 

      "Gruhn's guide to Vintage Guitars" 3rd edition updated and released this year.

It is full of descriptive information, but also has history and the time lines of a lot of companies. One thing that seems very odd is there is not one mention of Jean Larrivee or Bob Taylor. Yet he highly praises Bill Collings. (Of course Gruhn designed a guitar that Collings built)

     Just started Stephen Kings "Under the Dome" and being that it has 1074 pages, I'll probably be a while before I come back and say what else I've started. 

Old folky
'74 Martin D35S
Larrivee SD 50 TSB
Unplayed Vega and Harmony banjos

"All For Poor Jack" by British singer/songwriter/guitarist Steve Tilston. A cracking read!
Larrivée Limited Edition Rosewood Parlor (2003)
plus various other acoustic guitars and one ukulele

At the risk of appearing overly enthusiastic about this L'Amour memoir, I just want to add one more thing in case some of you ever decide to read it.  It's not really a traditional autobiography at all; rather it's more a chronicle of how he self-educated himself simply by reading books.  I thought it a fitting point to this thread, which is about books.  L'Amour chronicles the books he's read and tells of how they impacted him.  I had no idea this was the focal point of the book, as I thought it was more of a traditional memoir; but this is exactly the kind of thing that floats my boat.  If you're a reader, and I mean a real reader, and not just the casual book-peeker, you will enjoy reading about one of the most serious readers I've ever encountered. 

Okay, okay, I'll stop now. 

"One Square Mile of Hell. The Battle for Tarawa" by John Wukovits about the 2nd Marine Division landing on Betio Island in November, 1943. It makes me appreciate those who were here before us.

"A people that values it's privileges over it's principles soon loses both." Dwight D. Eisenhower

The girl with the Dragon Tattoo,by Stieg Larsson.
This book is the first of a 3 set thriller  series. The author was Swedish,therefore the book was originally published  in Sweden. It takes awhile getting used to all the different names and places in Sweden.
I found that once you got into the story it was a nail biter.
The sad thing about the author was he turned in the 3 manuscripts to the publisher,and died a short time later at the age of 52.
He never knew his books got published, and all three of them are in the top 10 selling book charts, 6 years after his death.
I am definitely going to read the other 2 books.
At our library you would be either 107th, 63rd , or 30th  on the waiting list,depending on what book you wanted.

Finished L'Amour's memoirs.  Totally blew me away. 

Right now I'm reading an old book called Stepping Heavenward by E. Prentiss. 

Hello Gents. I stopped by to have a listen at what's going on here. Very interesting. You guys ARE readers. I read very little these days but Ryler said something that caught my attention so I'll add my comment. Ryler, L'amour is a great story teller, and if you wanted a sample of his work that is not western, check out The Walking Drum, which is set in the 1100's in the near east. Or for a more modern setting, The Last of the Breed, which is set in the 1950's - 60's about a fighter pilot shot down and imprisoned in Russia. Both are typical L'amour, but fun reading.
Ken
A Hebrew, under the Spell
Pain is a good thing

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