books: what are you currently reading?

[Dru Edwards]

Stephen King's Everything's Eventual. I prefer King's novels over his short story collections though.

[quitobuc]

A Confederacy of Dunces written by John Kennedy Toole   

[old folky]

Almost through with "A Dark Matter" by Peter Straub.  I figured as he had done a book with Stephen King a few years back that the writing would be similar. 

[GA-ME]

I'm only about 1/3 of the way through Freedom and I fully expect to finish it soon. 

I'm about 500 pages in on Freedom and I'll probably finiush it off this afternoon. It is an easy one to start reading and glance at the clock and realize you are about 90 minutes late in pre-heating the oven so ya can roast that chicken! Also, I just finisned another guilty pleasure: Fanny Flagg's I Still Dream Of You. I can't seem to help myself. The woman's, character's, voices remind me of being about six, or so, and hearing all the Great Aunt's gossiping away while they were busy preparing and canning veggies from my Grandfather's huge and wonderful garden.

[tuffythepug]

I'm about 500 pages in on Freedom and I'll probably finiush it off this afternoon. It is an easy one to start reading and glance at the clock and realize you are about 90 minutes late in pre-heating the oven so ya can roast that chicken! Also, I just finisned another guilty pleasure: Fanny Flagg's I Still Dream Of You. I can't seem to help myself. The woman's, character's, voices remind me of being about six, or so, and hearing all the Great Aunt's gossiping away while they were busy preparing and canning veggies from my Grandfather's huge and wonderful garden.

"Home" is, indeed, an easy book to get caught up in.   Interesting characters, for sure.   I've read a couple of Fannie Flagg's books:   Fried Green Tomatoes and Can't Wait To Get To Heaven.     I'll have to check out the one you mentioned.

[ryler]

GA-ME and tuffy,

I picked up Freedom again after talking to tuffy about it, and oh yeah, it's good.  So I'm headed toward the finish line with that.  Fannie Flagg is a great, engaging writer.  And just as you said, it's the characters, the homespun feel, etc.  You just care about them.  I read Fried Green and Welcome to the World, Baby Girl.  Both were quite good.  I'll have to take a look at I Still Dream of You.  

I think I'm ditching Effortless Mastery.  It kind of bordered on the obvious in perspective.  A lot of different ways of saying, "Be still, thy inner critic," but I just didn't connect with it. In it's stead is The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green, a similar perspective, I'd say, but based on the advice of the author of The Inner Game of Tennis.  It's about freeing yourself musically.  For whatever reason, I find this more readable.

[tuffythepug]

Is it just me or did anyone else have difficulty getting through "The Shack" ?    Seems like there is so much hype about this book and everyone raving how it changed their lives.   I found it to be so boring and trite that I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.      Someone who has read it and liked it needs to tell me what I was missing.

[rockstar_not]

Is it just me or did anyone else have difficulty getting through "The Shack" ?    Seems like there is so much hype about this book and everyone raving how it changed their lives.   I found it to be so boring and trite that I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.      Someone who has read it and liked it needs to tell me what I was missing.

Tuffy - I read it and came to a similar conclusion.  Except I read it through to the end.  I really don't understand the hype.  For most it supposedly expanded their horizons as to what God could be like, for me, I kept asking myself - why does God have to go through the bother of cooking when He spoke the world into existence?  Sorry, if I'm going to believe in God (which I do), He is bigger than that.  Bigger than I can imagine.

The ending of the book happens without any thought as to thorough criminal investigation that it was a disappointment upon the general disappointment of the theme of the book in general.

For a more refreshing and expansive view on the nature of God, read Creature's recommendation from pages back:  "Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl" .  I do reviews on my LinkedIn account and I reviewed both of these, amongst a hundred or so other books I've read recently (past 10 years).  Send me a LinkedIn invite and you can read those reviews.  Unfortunately, Amazon tells me there's no way to export the reviews from the Amazon LinkedIn section to Amazon in general.  I wish I would have known that 2 years ago!

-Scott

[Caleb]

For a more refreshing and expansive view on the nature of God, read Creature's recommendation from pages back:  "Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl" .  I do reviews on my LinkedIn account and I reviewed both of these, amongst a hundred or so other books I've read recently (past 10 years).  Send me a LinkedIn invite and you can read those reviews.  Unfortunately, Amazon tells me there's no way to export the reviews from the Amazon LinkedIn section to Amazon in general.  I wish I would have known that 2 years ago!

-Scott

I'd like to read your review of this book and others.  As far as getting your reviews on Amazon, I suppose you could just cut and paste, though it would take some time if you wanted to give reviews for all those books.  I happen to really enjoy book reviews and find myself reading them a lot on Amazon.  I've bought many books based on the reviews, and avoided some for the same reason.

[Caleb]

I just finished AN EXPERIMENT IN CRITICISM by C.S. Lewis, a book about reading books. (Side note: this is not in any way one of Lewis' religious works. In fact I don't think he even mentions the subject at all.)  It can get heady at times, as anything written by Lewis can, but he really makes a great case for reading well and shows you what that means.  None of the snobbery about reading the "right books" like you might expect to find from a scholar either.  In the epilogue he gives the best defense for reading good fiction that I've ever seen.  If you've ever felt the need to apologize for reading good fiction, or stumble when trying to put into words what it means to you, you should read this book. From page 137:

"What then is the good of -- what is even the defense for -- occupying our hearts with stories of what never happened and entering vicariously into feelings which we should try to avoid having in our own person? ... The nearest I have yet got to an answer is that we seek an enlargement of our being.  We want to be more than ourselves.  Each of us by nature sees the whole world from one point of view with a perspective and a selectiveness peculiar to himself.  And even when we build disinterested fantasies, they are saturated with, and limited by, our own psychology. ... We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own."

The bottom line is that reading well makes our world larger and gets us outside of ourselves.  It reminds me of something L'Amour said in his memoirs, that people think they only have one life to live but they can really live ten thousand lives in books.  

In this book Lewis urges us to "surrender to the text" and be willing to be "taken in."  I particularly like what he says on the matter, especially since the tendency to deconstruct everything we read and look behind or too far into it has taken over.  Good reading is surrender and seeking to enter the author's world.  I also like this attitude because it battles the "what does it mean to YOU" aspect of so much of art today.  I want to know what the artist meant, not what I think it means. If I stay there I will never grow and I will continue to inhabit the smaller world of myself. These ideas are huge and the implications for personal growth are titanic if one captures them to the full.  

If you like to read, not just pass your eyes over pages and say Hmm at a few ideas, but if you really like to READ, then read this book.  It will also help you understand your own tendencies in reading, and you'll get to see if you fall into what Lewis calls the literary or the unliterary.  That part was fun. 

[WillRoland]

Man of Consant Sorrow, Dr. Ralph Stanley's memoir.

[ryler]

creature,

That book sounds intriguing. 

I particularly liked your assessment of interpreting literature, where you said, "I also like this attitude because it battles the "what does it mean to YOU" aspect of so much of art today.  I want to know what the artist meant, not what I think it means. If I stay there I will never grow and I will continue to inhabit the smaller world of myself."  Interesting idea.

I am reading The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer.    I've read a few things by him before.  But in truth, I dislike his arrogance as a person.  His memoir was condescending and self-aggrandizing, but his fiction writing is good.  (Though he would call it exceptional and "superlative to what passes as literature in contemporary writing," I suppose.)   I really loathe liking his writing because I don't like the man.  Too early to assess this particular novel which is about Hitler's youth.  He can write very well on a ghastly premise, and that's how the book opens.  If overindulged, it could be the turn off that has me close the book early.  We'll see.

[Caleb]

creature,

That book sounds intriguing.  

I particularly liked your assessment of interpreting literature, where you said, "I also like this attitude because it battles the "what does it mean to YOU" aspect of so much of art today.  I want to know what the artist meant, not what I think it means. If I stay there I will never grow and I will continue to inhabit the smaller world of myself."  Interesting idea.

ryler, this idea was lifted directly from Lewis via the book.  Like many things in my mind, I know I lean in a certain direction and believe a thing, but I find Lewis able to pull the thoughts out of me and help me form clear ideas for expression.  This is part of his genius, the fact that he can do this for the masses and not just for the erudite and especially learned on their lofty perches.  This idea is a good example of that.  I always knew that art has a definitive meaning, and that the artist always has something in mind when creating anything (even the alleged absence of meaning is a meaning).  The idea of "taking what I will" from a piece has always seemed so wrong to me.  If I'm only going to take what I will from a thing, there can be no growth because all I'm doing is churning over the same ideas in my mind. I always knew this to be true on some level but Lewis hammered it home.

I consider myself a pretty serious reader, and I thought I had been "surrendering to the text" pretty well before this book.  But I think this book will change my reading for the better from here on out.  Lewis is known not only for his intellect but also for the capacity of his memory.  I think part of this was not just him being able to remember better than the average man, but that he did immerse himself in any given work he read.  It seems like a book for him was like a vacation is for most people.  When you go to a city you don't have to strain and stretch to remember details: you were there, tasted the air and drank in the scenery; you can spout the experience off at any given moment and talk of it for hours.  Lewis did this in books, and seeks to teach others to do it in this book.  I think that's how he remembered so well, by surrendering to the text and taking the risk of being taken in.  Full surrender allows for a full experience.  

Experiment in Criticism is the best non-fiction book I've read all year.  

[rockstar_not]

Just finished '100 Cupboards' by N.D. Wilson (see previous reviews of 'Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl'.

This is a kid's book, but with a challenging topic.  I didn't actually read it, listened to it on CDs in the car for a couple of weeks back and forth to work.  Definitely written as part of a series as there were several 'hanging chads' that need finishing off.  It is part of a series, so I understand.

[Caleb]

Just finished '100 Cupboards' by N.D. Wilson (see previous reviews of 'Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl'.

This is a kid's book, but with a challenging topic.  I didn't actually read it, listened to it on CDs in the car for a couple of weeks back and forth to work.  Definitely written as part of a series as there were several 'hanging chads' that need finishing off.  It is part of a series, so I understand.

I absolutely love this book. Haven't made it through the series yet but will by the end of the year.  Wilson also has a new series started called Ashtown Burials.  Check out the book trailer (book trailer, you say? I know, but check it out: very cool stuff): http://www.ashtownburials.com/
This is a bold statement, but I think Wilson will end up writing some of the best work of our generation.  I recommend his other book Leepike Ridge if you like Cupboards.  Nothing like it but a very good story.  It's on the reread list. 

[Danny]

 Just started PEGASUS BRIDGE by Stephen E.Ambrose. I went to half price books with my wife and grandson and wound up leaving with 7 books for myself, one for the little lady and one for our grandson. Six of mine are historical military related books. History is very interesting to me and it seems that war shows the true condition and nature of men and the countries they represent much more so than peacetime years. (Whether we like that or not)

  I also just finished 2 books by Dr. James Dobson, the second one was WHAT WIVES WANT THEIR HUSBANDS TO KNOW ABOUT WOMEN. I am going to re-read that book starting in a few days. I wish I had read it ten, twenty or thirty years ago. I guess when you are in your 60th year on this earth you finally gain a tiny bit of wisdom.

[Caleb]

Reading:

The Letters of C.S. Lewis - ed. Warren Lewis (his brother)
The Christian Imagination - ed. Leland Ryken - Essays on Imagination via Christian thinkers through the ages.
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (Annual reread)

[ryler]

Recently finished and loved The Mosquito Coast by Paul Thereaux.   Now I'm reading The Historian.  Not as heartily recommendable so far.  I'll pick up another Thereaux book if this one doesn't do it for me.  In Spanish I'm reading La Familia de Pascual Duarte.  Chock full of challenging vocabulary and phraseology. 

[rockstar_not]

Just finished 'The 39 Steps' by John Buchan.  Also finished a very light 'Corduroy Mansions' by Alexander McCall-Smith (this is the guy who wrote the very popular #1 Ladies Detective Agency series).  Also recently finished 'The Club of Queer Trades' by G.K. Chesterton.

Right now reading 'The Girl Who Married A Lion' by Alexander McCall-Smith. 

[Caleb]

Just finished:

SHE - H. Rider Haggard (one of the best books I've ever read; will be reading more of him in '12)
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH - Charles Dickens (he blows my mind every time: a true master of the language)

Currently reading:

THE CHIMES - Dickens
SMOKE FROM THIS ALTER, poetry of Louis L'Amour (I've not enjoyed poetry this much in a very long time)


It's been such a wonderful year for books.  If anyone keeps track, I'd love to see some reading logs from 2011.