Read any good books lately?

[BlueJim]

Lots of good books. I would not have guessed Tele players were so literate

I started War and Peace this month. I figure if I wait too much longer I just won't live long enough to finish it.

[13ontheB]

Police guitarist Andy Summers book One Train Later A Great Read.

[Tdub]

Currently "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto" by Chuck Klosterman.
Just finished "Brain Droppings" by George Carlin. Both are good.

I dig magazines, and non-fiction. I read good.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by garymaddox

I don't actually read much but I do listen to audiobooks during my commute to work. I am currently listening to Burglar in the Closet by Lawrence Block. It's a really good series and I recommend it.

Love L.B.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by TeleBrew

I'm finally reading The Nirvana Blues, which is the third book in John Nicholl's New Mexico Trilogy. It's a great read thus far.

I read The Milagro Beanfield War years ago, then The Magic Journey shortly thereafter. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as "Milagro," so I guess that's why I put off reading the third book for so long.

I'm also chugging my way through Fire and Blood, a history of Mexico by T.R. Fehrenbach.

They're okay, but I felt like neither Magic nor Nirvana held up to Milagro's gold standard. Seems like J.N. got depressed or something.

If you're a fan of books about Mexico, try B. Traven. He's been dead a long time, but his books are still top-shelf. The so-called Jungle Novels really put you there. They make the most sense if you read them in order.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._Traven

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by Tele-Jones

Just read Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, and am now reading Underworld by Don Delillo.

Never tried McCarthy - should. Underworld knocked my garters off. My favorite DeLillo is still White Noise. A post-modernist's manifesto and home of the original Airborne Toxic Event.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by RomanS

I finished Thomas Pynchon's latest, "Against The Day"

Yikes! Didn't know he had one! Where've I been?

To the library!....

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by BlueJim

Lots of good books. I would not have guessed Tele players were so literate

Naw. We just use 'em to stuff in the bass drum so we can hear ourselves play.

[garytelecastor]

I just started "Common Sense" and I am finishing another in the Cross series by James Patterson.

[jazztele]

Originally Posted by Tdub

Currently "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto" by Chuck Klosterman

.

did you read "fargo rock city?"
another excellent book by chuck.

[smsuryan]

Confessions of a pagan nun...

[Buckocaster51]

I slummed out a few weeks ago and read Dean Koontz's "Your Heart Belongs to Me." Everybody needs to read a Koontz book now and then.

recently I have been rummaging through biographies of General George Patton. Unfortunately, he died before he could write an autobiography.

[P Thought]

Originally Posted by BlueJim

Lots of good books. I would not have guessed Tele players were so literate

I started War and Peace this month. I figure if I wait too much longer I just won't live long enough to finish it.

I've noticed since I joined the forum that lots of posters write well. It's my theory that writing skills generally come from deep reading experience, so I kind of suspected many TDPRIers liked good books. I LOVE hearing from people about books they like, and I'm really enjoying this thread. I wish I was a faster reader; there are SO many books on my reading list, and now you're adding more!

Sometimes, "teaching" English, I feel like I'm witnessing the end of literacy in our culture. I find new hope here.

Blue Jim, War and Peace is a great book IMO, one everyone should know. If you like it, try Tolstoy's Anna Karenina; that's a top-tenner for me.

Keep 'em coming!

[urizen]

Yup.

[EdgarHF]

Originally Posted by Tele-Jones

Just read Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, and am now reading Underworld by Don Delillo.

Underworld has got to have the best beginning of any novel I have ever read.

[jh45gun]

PT Deuterman been reading his books lately he is a great author if you like Cop and Military books. (Fiction)

[EdgarHF]

Originally Posted by P Thought

I've noticed since I joined the forum that lots of posters write well. It's my theory that writing skills generally come from deep reading experience, so I kind of suspected many TDPRIers liked good books. I LOVE hearing from people about books they like, and I'm really enjoying this thread. I wish I was a faster reader; there are SO many books on my reading list, and now you're adding more!

Sometimes, "teaching" English, I feel like I'm witnessing the end of literacy in our culture. I find new hope here.

Blue Jim, War and Peace is a great book IMO, one everyone should know. If you like it, try Tolstoy's Anna Karenina; that's a top-tenner for me.

Keep 'em coming!

If it makes you feel any better. While I was talking to my eighteen year old niece today she told me she just finished reading Great Expectations. "It was creepy but cool", she says. She read the book for fun and not as a assignment. It appears civilization is not at an end after all.

[slauson slim]

Balkan Ghosts about the Balkans - former Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, etc. Fascinating history.

God's Middle Finger - travelogue about the Sierra Madre Range in Mexico and the not so very nice folk who populate it.

City of Thieves - novel about the WWII Siege of Leningrad. Well written, horrifying and funny.

[Dave Hopping]

"Here,There,and Everywhere"-Geoff Emerick.Recording engineer's-eye view of the Fabs
"Hotel California"-Barney Hoskyns.David Geffen and the California country-folkie-rockers
"Heroes and Villains"-Steven Gaines.The Beach Boys' golden throats and feet of clay.

[fordfanjpn]

Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku, and of course, The Blackguard Book!

Bill

[jjkrause84]

Originally Posted by P Thought

I've noticed since I joined the forum that lots of posters write well. It's my theory that writing skills generally come from deep reading experience, so I kind of suspected many TDPRIers liked good books. I LOVE hearing from people about books they like, and I'm really enjoying this thread. I wish I was a faster reader; there are SO many books on my reading list, and now you're adding more!

Sometimes, "teaching" English, I feel like I'm witnessing the end of literacy in our culture. I find new hope here.

Blue Jim, War and Peace is a great book IMO, one everyone should know. If you like it, try Tolstoy's Anna Karenina; that's a top-tenner for me.

Keep 'em coming!

I thought Anna Karenina was OK....Frankly, I sided with Karenin the whole time instead of her which probably ruined it for me. She gets everything she deserves in my opinion. I far preferred Resurrection and, while its not in the same class of novel, The Death of Ivan Illych was really good too.

[Nick JD]

I'm a big fan of Louis de Bernières.

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman are all great novels.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is also a great read - and predictably after hollywood mangled it - a terrible movie.

Dog lovers should read Red Dog.

Birds Without Wings is a great read with a history of the creation of Turkey after the demise of the Ottoman Empire.

[winny pooh]

The daily adventures of mixerman is back with a big publisher, got it off Amazon 2 weeks ago and finally found out what happens after the weblogs ends. Great read for any musician.

[jimd]

Here's a few. I typically like lighter stuff, no War and Peace for me.

Nick Hornby: High Fidelity, A Long Way Down, Fever Pitch

Christopher Moore: Lamb, The Stupidest Angel

Jasper FForde: The Eyre Affair, The Fourth Bear

[Biz Prof]

by John Mannock. It's a novel about a U-boat that sustains damage from a U.S. bombing attack off the coast of the Southeastern U.S. Faced with finding a means of repairing the sub or else giving themselves up, the crew meets up with a tribe of isolationist Cajuns they'd bartered with before and attempts to enlist their help. This is one of the very few novels I've read lately that I feel would translate well into cinema.

[krauser2]

Tucker Max- I hope they serve beer in hell

this book is hilarious, yet extremely graphic and gross....I like it

[Hiker]

Lieutenant Ramsey's War by Edwin Price Ramsey. Visit Ramsey's website. You've heard of the Battle of Bataan-WWII...

Available in hard copy, paperback, or 'free' online at google books.

[dean]

I was browsing through the books at the local B&N and found a copy of Special Topics in Calamity Physics on the sale table, so I grabbed it. Thanks for the heads up, Charlie. I'm just finishing The Professor and the Madman, a history of the development of the OED - very interesting (especially to an English teacher). Also recently read a bio of Mozart as well as a history of Magellan's trip around the world. Now I'm ready to get back into some fiction.

Dean

[milracing]

Just finished Killer Angels :)

[EdgarHF]

Originally Posted by dean

a history of Magellan's trip around the world.

Dean

Can I get a title and author on that book? It sounds like something I would like to read.

[Trimmed&Burnin]

I just finished reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged",,,, I read it 30 years ago,,, WOW!

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by EdgarHF

Can I get a title and author on that book? It sounds like something I would like to read.

You might also like William Manchester's A World Lit Only By Fire. Unusual spin on the Magellan voyage.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by jjkrause84

I thought Anna Karenina was OK....Frankly, I sided with Karenin the whole time instead of her which probably ruined it for me. She gets everything she deserves in my opinion.

I liked Anna. Tolstoy felt that conventional, unremarkable people like cousin Constantin (whom I also liked - he reminded me of myself, goofing off with the bubbas and taking naps in the field) and Vronsky (whom I hated, the sniveling, over-bred narcissist) float easily through life, while unusual, driven, discontent people like Anna (whom I would have run off with in a greased heart-beat, but the Vronskys of the world usually get the hotties) have to jump in front of trains.

Sort of stark, but that's Russian literature for you!

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by dean

I was browsing through the books at the local B&N and found a copy of Special Topics in Calamity Physics on the sale table, so I grabbed it. Thanks for the heads up, Charlie. I'm just finishing The Professor and the Madman, a history of the development of the OED - very interesting (especially to an English teacher). Also recently read a bio of Mozart as well as a history of Magellan's trip around the world. Now I'm ready to get back into some fiction.

Dean

I'll try The Professor and the Madman - think I've seen it in a sale bin, too. Thanks, Dean!

[jjkrause84]

Originally Posted by Trimmed&Burnin

I just finished reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged",,,, I read it 30 years ago,,, WOW!

Atlas Shrugged was ok but shoulda been 1/2 the length. I have nothing against long books IF you have something to say....after about page 600 you've heard everything Rand has to say and she just spends the last 500 pages beating a dead horse before your eyes. I was downright ANGRY at her by the time I finished and just wanted her to shut up

[jjkrause84]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

I liked Anna. Tolstoy felt that conventional, unremarkable people like cousin Constantin (whom I also liked - he reminded me of myself, goofing off with the bubbas and taking naps in the field) and Vronsky (whom I hated, the sniveling, over-bred narcissist) float easily through life, while unusual, driven, discontent people like Anna (whom I would have run off with in a greased heart-beat, but the Vronskys of the world usually get the hotties) have to jump in front of trains.

Sort of stark, but that's Russian literature for you!

ANNA KARENINA SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







I would agree with you but I don't see how Anna was different or driven. I think this might have been a failing of Tolstoy's OR (more likely) was purposefully ambiguous....you only start to hear about Anna being discontent with her marriage AFTER she meets Vronsky...anyone else notice that? Then she abandons her child and runs off with Vronsky and is a total succubus...not letting him go off and do perfectly normal things and thinking he has to centre his entire life on her 100% of the time. No. I never had the slightest bit of sympathy for her.

That said I do think you're right. The "average" people flit through life nd those that are truly gifted have to fight tooth and nail or are generally just never really happy (gawd....I'm almost getting back to Rand with, "only the super-exceptional, awesome one of a kind people are really people at all")

[Kebmel]

Originally Posted by Dababy

Reading Bernard Cornwell's Lords of the North. It's book 3 in a 4 part series about The Viking invasion of England circa 878. Historical fiction that's impossible to put down! You feel like your in some of the battles, the way he writes!

Thanks for posting these, I will definitely find and read them.


I'm reading "The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Crichton, very interesting.
In a time before electricity and during the industrial revolution in Victorian England.

[Guitarzan]

Originally Posted by Trimmed&Burnin

I just finished reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged",,,, I read it 30 years ago,,, WOW!

How does it make you feel today?

[P Thought]

Originally Posted by Kebmel

Thanks for posting these, I will definitely find and read them.


I'm reading "The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Crichton, very interesting.
In a time before electricity and during the industrial revolution in Victorian England.

I loved that one! I liked all Chrichton's work, really. He was a master at popular plot structure. He was also as tall--6'10''--as any author I ever read, I think, except maybe Thomas Wolfe!

[Darcy Hoover]

Just started "A Fraction of the Whole" by Steve Toltz - "Devastatingly funny" says the Seattle Times, must say I agree!

Just finished "Three Day Road" by Joseph Boyden, about an Oji-Cree boy growing up near my old-thrashing grounds, goes off to fight for the Canadian's in WWI, lots of Canadian history intertwined, native culture, hunting, philosophy, dealing with horrors of war, some of those he's commiting himself, struggling with his soul...great read all around.

Just off a big run of J.M. Coetzee and McCarthy, my two new (to me) favourite authors (deep and dark and the philosophical rants keep me up at nights), and I reread some Hemingway I had read out of highschool..."Snows of Kilamanjaro", "Green Hills of Africa"....the way he brings out those dark moments of the soul that we tend to let pass quickly, he just nails them and brings them to life. Wish I hadn't read it all when I was younger (or rather if he was still around writing!).