What are you reading?

[+susieice]

39 minutes ago, kmt_sesh said:

I agree, all of their books are good. I believe I have read all of them, the joint works and the independent efforts. I really like the Jeremy Logan stories. And I was really enjoying the Gideon Crew books until this last and final one, which was still a good read but not on par with earlier efforts.

But nothing beats good ol' Pendergast. I've been reading them in order again, too. Right now I'm in the middle of the Helen Pendergast saga.

I agree. The Pharaoh Key needs a sequel. I'm dying to know what they found in that temple. Gideon's buddy is chief now. This is like the Ice Limit. It needs to be revisited. I don't think they'll kill off Gideon yet.

Pendergast is just the best! Ever!! 

[rashore]

Been working through some freebie bag books. I read through them at work on breaks.

Just finished this one: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2529447.Worldstone

It was light and fun. Interesting play with the hand-power and mind-power concepts. Looked up the author after reading and there are a couple other books in the series, but the others weren't in the free book bag.

Just cracked open Blood Crazy by Simon Clark yesterday afternoon. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/906024.Blood_Crazy

Only about 35 pages in, written in first person perspective so far. A person sitting down and writing up an account of what's been happening since the opener.

[quiXilver]

Few weeks back I took my time with Robert Saltzman's The Ten Thousand Things.   woof!   Not many books come along often that feel that close to home.

The many potent and stunningly simple manners he has of describing his various realizations will be percolating for some time.  It was like he had reached into my mind and recalled much of my own path in his sharing.  I'm still stunned.

 

I also burned through a couple books last weekend on the history of the Sami Nomadic/Tribal people (Northern Scandanavia), which I am related to on my Father's side.  They recently won a long standing legal struggle in Swedish courts that goes a long way toward granting acknowledgement of their ways, lands and identities as their own people.

 

And spent a powerful afternoon reading the Five Levels of Attachment.  Follow up book to The Four Agreements.  Toltec Wisdom in all its powerful simplicity. 

[rashore]

Finished Blood Crazy last night. Started out as more of a teenagers face the apocalypse of adult crazy that was still involved enough to keep reading. It’s in first person, and by the time the storyteller is through the whole story gets turned on end in some interesting ways I didn’t expect. Gets onto some mind trip notions and a bit of evolution of human species by the time the book is done. It was good enough that it will get put back on the shelf for now and I would recommend it to folks that are into the genre. 

 

 

[Regi]

I just finished In Pieces, which is a memoir by Sally Field.

http://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/In-Pieces/Sally-Field/9781471175756

[quiXilver]

I'll be spending the next few months working with a half dozen books on the elder Futhark Runes and the Havamal.  I've been drawn to carry my set with me daily; even though I've no impulse to actively consult them for input, I'm drawn to carry them and have them close and handle them on occasion.  I've also been keying in on branches that seem to be offering themselves on trees.  Might be making another set in the near future.

 

Mostly though, I'm drawn to delve into considering them again, each in their own right, distinctly with no dead line, or hurry.  I've got a month or so off at the end of the year and I'm really anticipating spending time reinvestigating the notions of their origins, the many interpretations of those who've written of their experiences and my own insights as I spend time in silence and contemplation with them.

[Orphalesion]

On 8/13/2018 at 11:40 AM, ouija ouija said:

I couldn't get on with them either; mainly for the reasons you mention. But I did enjoy the television series, many years ago. I guess they are the exception that proves the rule 'books are better than the films made of them'.

Hey, just wanted to come back to this. I have managed to track down the series and finished watching it.

And yeop, it's not perfect (the Castle is a bit too bright when compared to the book, imho) but it's really a huge improvement over the books. Now I finally know how the story ends.

[+susieice]

I'm re-reading Keith Richards, Life at the moment and impatiently waiting for my copy of Verses For The Dead to get here. Love Preston and Child.

[kmt_sesh]

I'm reading the new Preston and Child, Verses for the Dead, the latest Agent Pendergast adventure. Not only is Pendergast in Miami, he's been forced to take on a partner: Special Agent Coldmoon. There's nothing like a Pendergast novel. 

[+susieice]

44 minutes ago, kmt_sesh said:

I'm reading the new Preston and Child, Verses for the Dead, the latest Agent Pendergast adventure. Not only is Pendergast in Miami, he's been forced to take on a partner: Special Agent Coldmoon. There's nothing like a Pendergast novel. 

I heard it's really good. I ordered mine but it hasn't gotten here yet. I hope it hurries! 

[kmt_sesh]

26 minutes ago, susieice said:

I heard it's really good. I ordered mine but it hasn't gotten here yet. I hope it hurries! 

They moved up the publishing date somewhat. So the day it came out I grabbed a copy. 

[+Pettytalk]

I'm reading everyone's mind, and I don't mind what I read. I'm also reading Morton White, The Age of Analysis.

[+Pettytalk]

Reading the English translation of Montaigne's Apology for Raymond Sebond.

[+susieice]

Yes!! It's here!!

[+Pettytalk]

Currently reading; The Career of Philosophy, Vol 1  'from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment' by John Herman Randall, Jr

The gist I'm taking so far from the read, is that philosophy has been shamed, scorned, raped, and made into something that it is not by modern standards and understanding. Today philosophy is reflective of what it was never meant to be, as true philosophy was meant to be absolute truth. Today it's made into a fad, something anyone can make it to be what one wishes, as she has become the measure of mankind's whimsies and a fashionable apparel that is personally worn to keep up with the Jones and the times. True philosophy is being compromised by opinions that are taken as facts, and applied to make ends meet. Personal needs and ends towards materialism, showing off the false glitter which is not gold. True philosophy is golden, truly. 

The career of true philosophers is one that results in the acquisition of ridicule, scorn, rejection, and for those few really true and uncompromising philosophers, death! As true philosophy is the practice of dying, and the willingness to never compromise the truth. Truth, when compromised by opinion, is the death of truth. Only lies live on, and rarely, a correct opinion that may be a shadow of truth.

Wrong opinions go on living as pretenders of truth, immortally bound to ignorance.

[+Pettytalk]

Reading science fiction, a later works of Robert Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks and talks "Through" Walls. Which is considered as a sequel to his Number of the Beast novel. 

The Book's background, as given on the internet.

During a meeting of the Council of the Time Scouts, representatives from every major time line and setting written by Heinlein appear, including Glory Road, and Starship Troopers, and references are made to other authors' works as well. The title of the book refers to a cat by the name of Pixel, who has an inexplicable tendency to be wherever the narrator happens to be. In one scene Pixel does, in fact, walk through a wall, and it is explained that Pixel is too young to know that such behavior is impossible.

[Oniomancer]

Currently reading Catacombs, by John Ferris, an adventure thriller in the tradition of Cussler and Crichton involving a politically earth-shattering ancient archeological find in the depths of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  A bit dated since it's set in the middle of the cold war and apartheid and I was horrified to see it mentioning famous ooparts casually in connection with an ancient civilization as if they were established facts.

[+Pettytalk]

Reading, For the New Intellectual by Ayn Rand

[+Pettytalk]

With all this talk on the news about Trump wanting to instate emergency measures for the USA, due to his childish whimsies of getting a wall at all costs, I felt a need to reread Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra."

 

[Auntyseptic]

I used to be a real book worm but I haven't read a book for years, I was in HMV and they had a 2 books for £5.00 offer so I picked up The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton and Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman.

Loved them both, took me 2 days to read them both, I love reading again now! This thread will keep me awake most of the night I expect.

Think Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman is next on my list, I love him.

Edited February 2, 2019 by Cat_From_Hell

[Orphalesion]

Never read anything by Isaac Asimov. Started reading the Foundation Series.

If all his books are like that I will never read anything by Asimov again. I understand it originated many scifi concepts.....but god is that book bad! The plot jumps through the centuries without giving the reader even the chance to get to know anything, there's  not a single likeable character and, sorry, but that 1940s society in Space is seriously cringey...

So after stopping that I starting reading the Handmaidens Tale. So far it's a bit frustrating as it's a bit sparse on details right now, but it's also good and what has been shown of the world so far is equal parts frightening and interesting and scarily plausible. I usually don't like characters who whine or lament a lot, but....well.... that poor woman has a right to complain about her situation.

Edited February 23, 2019 by Orphalesion

[+Pettytalk]

I bought this book at a second-hand book/music store on just inner feelings and the reading the title, since I had just purchased a motorcycle, and never really owned one all of my life, except for owning a small 150CC cycle for just a couple of months. However that was many decades ago. At home, upon a closer look I see that the book is really a philosophical work, and only using the title as an analogy. I'm finding it interesting, to say the least.

The title: Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig.   

[ant0n]

"Quand Est-ce Qu'on Biaise?" ("When Do We Bias?"), by Thomas C. Durand (2019).

[Orphalesion]

Finished the Handmaiden's Tale... without giving away too much, it feels a bit like the author spend a lot of time talking about philosophy, (gender) politics and world building....and then it almost arguably ends before it starts... but there is an interesting twist at the end...
 

On 3/3/2019 at 2:28 PM, anton00 said:

"Quand Est-ce Qu'on Biaise?" ("When Do We Bias?"), by Thomas C. Durand (2019).

What is it about? And do you enjoy it so far?

[ant0n]

6 hours ago, Orphalesion said:

What is it about? And do you enjoy it so far?

Oh... I can't believe I didn't explain what that book was about...

 

"Quand Est-ce Qu'on Biaise?" ("When Do We Bias?"), by Thomas C. Durand (2019).

It's about how not to be manipulated.

It's about zetetics, the art of doubting fed by the scientific method.

It's about refusing all dogmatic affirmations, common preconceptions, distorted truths, sensorial illusions, flawed reasonings, ... anyone's and our own ones.

 

In substance, I enjoy the content but in form, I find that book pretty badly written, I take it on myself to read that book and learn/improve thanks to it.

Edited March 16, 2019 by anton00