DVD Talk Forum - What are you reading? (November 2008)

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- - What are you reading? (November 2008) (https://forum.dvdtalk.com/book-talk/542926-what-you-reading-november-2008-a.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by kakistos (Post 9065076)

It's possible... There are the books that are just too good to put down, and some authors who write in such quick, simple sentences, it doesn't take much to read them. James Patterson is the obvious example, Harlan Coben is another whose last book I finished in one day.

You can sniff a James Patterson book these days and get the gist of the plot.

I'm reading Your Money or Your Life.

Quote:

You can sniff a James Patterson book these days and get the gist of the plot.

rotfl I'm going to have to use that the next time someone asks me about James Patterson and why I don't read his books any more.

I'm reading Just Past Sunset now.

After taking a couple of months to finally finish The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle, I started reading Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas.
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Just started The Gunslinger from the Dark Tower series... based on the positive feedback at this forum I decided to make my next 7 books this series.

Currently reading Growing Up Absurd by Paul Goodman.

Finished:

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Starting:

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

so far so good...

Oh, how the on-going stresses of work get me to start a new book :)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by mlemmond (Post 9076888)

Currently Reading

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Finished this.

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I don't know how fun this will be. It starts with a woman divorcing her husband as brutally as she can.

Couldn't help picking this up last night, thanks to the thread in Other I am thoroughly fascinated by this phenomenon.

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Just got finished with Stephen King's new collection of short stories, Just After Sunset and just started the first of The Dark Tower series The Gunslinger.

Finished Just After Sunset, and moved on to Jeffery Deaver's The Bodies Left Behind.

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Didn't realize Stephen King had a new short story book out, I'll have to pick up that next.

I FINISHED A BOOK :banana: :banana: :D :banana: :banana:

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First one finished since the last Harry Potter came out, and I started quite a few in that period.

Which brings me back to if I like a book, I'll read it. It just takes a lot for me to like a book. 368 sweet pages. I read only when I had complete silence because I loved the book so much, I wanted to savor each word all by myself, like if I were eating a chocolate cake and didn't want to share.

The book is part two, first one being The Chosen (another awesome book).

Next up:
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Trying this again, reading this time instead of audiobook.

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Finished:
13 Bullets (David Wellington)

Starting Up Soon:
Twlight (Stephanie Meyer)
(or)
Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer (Jimmy McDonough)

Diggin' the hell out of Angsten's Night-Sea Trilogy, very much looking foward to the final book.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by B.A. (Post 9092167)

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That sounds interesting.

Domini-canus.

Now: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Larsson)
Next: Your Heart Belongs to Me (Koontz)

Finished Sisterhood of the traveling pants
reading The Road

I ended up really liking Clans of the Alphane Moon.
Now reading Subspace Explorers and Subspace Encounter by E.E. Doc Smith.

Finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Larsson
and Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
Started both The King of Swords by Nick Stone
and rereading Collected Stories by Borges

Halfway through Bleachers by John Grisham, which is a very short book that I've had kicking around for a while. Also halfway through The Fifth Horseman by James Patterson, but I accidentally left it in Ottawa when I visited my sister.

I've read a few Elmore Leonard books in the last few weeks, like Pagan Babies and Glitz. Really liked Pagan Babies, but Glitz didn't do it for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Mabuse (Post 9060690)

(Ripples of Battle image)

It's excellent.[/CENTER]

Read this one a couple years ago. Really enjoyed the Shiloh and Okinawa sections. Delium seemed to produce the same conclusions that all studies of the period have produced.

I'm trying once more to read A Natural History of Rape. I'm really having trouble with the academic writing style and the frequent use of ten-dollar words.

Quote:

Originally Posted by B.A. (Post 9092167)

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Great book as was Warriors of God.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Danger (Post 9100211)

I'm trying once more to read A Natural History of Rape. I'm really having trouble with the academic writing style and the frequent use of ten-dollar words.

I hear you, I tried reading The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt and I felt the same way. As a matter of fact I felt stupid just trying to read the book. The national Review ranked the book #15 in its 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century but I'm never going to know as I will never finish reading that stupid book.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lateralus (Post 9101188)

Seven words for you. Natural Right and History by Leo Strauss, which I'm reading right now. I feel like a complete idiot. It's not so much obscure or overly-academic words (though he did teach me acroamatic and coeval), but odd sentence structure, apparent repetition, and a habit of presenting others' arguments in their absolute totality before refuting them. (And refuting them somewhat within that presentation.) I've had to reread so much just to see which arguments are actually Strauss's.

Of course, Strauss has also written extensively about how (political and philosophical) writers hide meaning in their books, so you can't take anything he says at face value.

Average times reading one paragraph before I think I understand it: 4.

Dr. Mabuse,

To take a break from Strauss, I've started rereading Hanson's Carnage and Culture. I think it's better than Ripples of Battle. Part of the thesis can be summed up in this sentence from the first chapter: "There is...a cultural crystallization in battle, in which the insidious and more subtle institutions that heretofore were murky and undefined become stark and unforgiving in the finality of organized killing." Basically, cultural differences become eminently apparent through the study of battles. The argument this leads to is that battles between east and west have shown consistently that Western culture is better suited to warmaking. Though Hanson claims not to make value judgments, he occasionally lapses into a nonacademic West-worship. Which isn't all bad because he's usually right, if somewhat overbearing.

Definitely check it out, if you haven't already.