books: what are you currently reading?

[Riverbend]

Too many good books and too little time to waste on bad books, in my opinion.

My sentiments exactly! Can't explain it either...this thing is weirder by the page. Funny thing is, I can usually tell pretty quickly if a book is worth reading, and this one started out decently. About the middle pages it fell flat on it's face. I'll be done with it soon and promise not to tell anyone how it didn't turn out. Fire starter as Danny suggested!
I have gotten some great book suggestions here...that's for sure! You could've just as easily stated "too many good posts and too little time to waste on stupid posts!"       

[cke]

I'm reading a book right now that is SO BAD that I can't bring myself to share the name or the author! I've threatened to stop reading it several times but now I just have to find out how the author ties all the nonsense together. My wife got it in a cheap bag of books at a second hand store. There's too many rabbits coming out of far too many hats...can't believe this thing made it into print. Pretty much just speeding through it for 20 minutes before falling asleep at night. 

must be anything by James Patterson

[Danny]

       I want another good history book, but I've read most of the good ones that interest me. I have started rereading some, but would like to find some I haven't read yet. American history has been my favorite but world history, especially about why we got into world wide conflict and the results interests me as well.
       The current news headlines seem a bit ominous.

[Riverbend]

Danny; it's fictional and you've probably read it and it's most likely been mentioned on this thread, but Centennial by James Michener is a great American history type novel...if'n ya haven't...

[JOYCEfromNS]

So they say.

http://www.amazon.ca/Tune-Beatles-All-These-Years/dp/1400083052/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386310887&sr=1-1&keywords=Beatles+in+tune

Would expect nothing less from They. Awaiting your say

[Danny]

Danny; it's fictional and you've probably read it and it's most likely been mentioned on this thread, but Centennial by James Michener is a great American history type novel...if'n ya haven't...

I would rather study true history, but thanks. Calvin and Hobbes, Hank the Cowdog,  that's my kinda ficton.

[ducktrapper]

       I want another good history book, but I've read most of the good ones that interest me. I have started rereading some, but would like to find some I haven't read yet. American history has been my favorite but world history, especially about why we got into world wide conflict and the results interests me as well.
       The current news headlines seem a bit ominous.

The book I mentioned last, Iron Curtain, is a great piece of (missing) history. A story not often told, anyway. It helped put the cold war into some perspective, at least for me.   

[Danny]

The book I mentioned last, Iron Curtain, is a great piece of (missing) history. A story not often told, anyway. It helped put the cold war into some perspective, at least for me.   

Thanks, I will check that one out.

[Riverbend]

"The Berkut" by Joseph Heywood is another good book, fictional, but essentially about Hitler and WWII. He has a new one out about the Vietnam war that I'm hoping to read soon.

[Riverbend]

I would rather study true history, but thanks. Calvin and Hobbes, Hank the Cowdog,  that's my kinda ficton.

Wait!!! Are you telling me Calvin and Hobbes is fictional??? Oh boy, am I in trouble...all these years....

[Danny]

"The Berkut" by Joseph Heywood is another good book, fictional, but essentially about Hitler and WWII. He has a new one out about the Vietnam war that I'm hoping to read soon.

             I REALLY don't care for fictional war books, there is enough fiction in some of the Non-Fiction ones as is.
    And I have read all I care to about Vietnam, it just depresses me too much....what a total waste of young men and civilian casualty's.

[ducktrapper]

             I REALLY don't care for fictional war books, there is enough fiction in some of the Non-Fiction ones as is.
    And I have read all I care to about Vietnam, it just depresses me too much....what a total waste of young men and civilian casualty's.

Try any of Antony Beevor's books. D-Day, Stalingrad, The Fall of Berlin etc. The last one was especially interesting to me, because again, it's a story that hasn't been told that much. The march of the Red Army on Germany after Stalingrad. Horrifying. 

[Danny]

Try any of Antony Beevor's books. D-Day, Stalingrad, The Fall of Berlin etc. The last one was especially interesting to me, because again, it's a story that hasn't been told that much. The march of the Red Army on Germany after Stalingrad. Horrifying.  

I have read books on all these events. I don't recall this author. My friend who is retired airborne has a huge military/world history library so next time I'm at his house I'll ask if he has some of these. My bet is that he does and I'm allowed to borrow all I want.

[ducktrapper]

I have read books on all these events. I don't recall this author. My friend who is retired airborne has a huge military/world history library so next time I'm at his house I'll ask if he has some of these. My bet is that he does and I'm allowed to borrow all I want.

Beevor is British and very readable. That's the only criticism of his work that I'm aware of. I guess reading history is supposed to be a slog. 

[Danny]

Beevor is British and very readable. That's the only criticism of his work that I'm aware of. I guess reading history is supposed to be a slog. 

Stephen Ambrose wrote some of the easiest reads on WWII etc. "UNDAUNTED COURAGE" however was tough at the beginning, but that is the best book I've ever read about Jefferson, Lewis and Clark and the whole culture of North America at that time.

[rockstar_not]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - once again.  I think this is round three for me.  I leave a good 10 years in between reads to forget the solutions to each case so it's like it's reading it new each time.

[hodagg]

Finally getting around to reading the Steve Jobs bio by Walter Isaacson. Fascinating portrait of a very interesting guy.

[Riverbend]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - once again.  I think this is round three for me.  I leave a good 10 years in between reads to forget the solutions to each case so it's like it's reading it new each time.

The older you get, the less time you need between reads to forget...

[Caleb]

I've never read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I'm not sure why they've never interested me.  Maybe someday.  But I did read Conan Doyle's "Through the Magic Door" earlier this year and loved it.  It's basically his book about his love of books.  Pretty obscure, and I can't even remember how I heard about it: maybe via Alan Jacobs' "The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction"? - another book about reading.  You know you're a real dork when you spend time reading ABOUT reading.  Ha. 

Speaking of re-reading....  What are some of your regular re-reads?

Mine?  I read Lewis's Narnia stories every year, and also his "The Great Divorce" and "Screwtape Letters."  I used to re-read Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" every year but it has dropped off in recent years.  I also re-read Dickens' "Christmas Carol" every year.  Short stories I re-read each year are Henry Van Dyke's "The Mansion" and Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and "Beneath and Umbrella." 

 

[Caleb]

Narnia was a regular re-read til all the kids could read it themselves. The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast are frequent consolations when the political world gets too weird. I always get portions of The Great Divorce mixed up with parts of A Wrinkle in Time, another that I read out loud so many times I thought I'd never be able to read it again, but then I discovered a re-work in graphic novel format . . .

Short stories -  Joyce Dubliners, LeGuin The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Pynchon Slow Learner.

There's a book of Hesse essays called My Belief that I'm on my second or third copy of.

I'm a little different than most lovers of Narnia.  I didn't read it till I was in my 30s; hadn't even heard of it till my late 20s.  And it struck me like almost nothing ever has.  The Bible is the only other book that's impacted me as much.  

I also liked "A Wrinkle in Time."  I didn't read it till a couple years ago and remember balling my eyes out during the scene where the older sister keeps saying "I love you, I love you, I love you" as she tries to reach the little brother who's been taken over by the enemy.  That's one of the most powerful moments I've ever encountered in literature.  

This decal is on the back of my car. Wave if you ever see me in traffic.