Recent Books

[Scott]

I'm usually in the middle of a number of books. Here's what I've been reading lately.

The Mountain Of Silence - Kyriacos Markides

Philokalia - Eastern Orthodox Texts

Prayer For Beginners - Peter Kreeft

Imitation Of Christ - Thomas Kempis

The Cloud Of Unknowing - Anonymous

The Way of a Pilgrim - Anonymous

[Shadow]

I've been part way through The Runelords by Dave Farland for months now.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Recently read "The Men Who Stare At Goats".  Absolutely non-fiction book about the military's crazy paranormal/parapsychic endeavors.  The title of the book comes from a special operation were soldiers were trained to make themselves invisible, hypnotize enemies, walk through walls and kill goats with the power of their mind.

It's a haunting read, and the things the military has tried and still believe in frighten the hell out of me.  The fact that the government has pushed even more funding into the research after 9/11 is very interesting.  I highly recommend the read for anyone on this board.

Also read Iwoz about Steve Wozniak, the true creator of Apple computers.  They guy is a genius and it's another fascinating read.

I'm starting to find that I'm reading more non fiction books than anything lately.

[Torgo]

I've been going back through all 3 of Clive Barker's Books of Blood lately.

[Mofo Rising]

I just finished A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin and Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell.  Not my usual genres, but that's what I read.

I'm currently reading Cosmic Banditos by A.C. Weisbecker, which is just as hilarious as I remember it being.  If you like your stories with drugs, banditos, quantum mechanics, and overarching chaos, I highly recommend it.

Also, Matriarch by Karen Traviss and Everything Bad is Good For You by Steven Johnson.  I tend to read multiple books at a time, and the time from pickup to finish can verge on months if not years.

[RCMerchant]

Recently read "The Men Who Stare At Goats".  Absolutely non-fiction book about the military's crazy paranormal/parapsychic endeavors.  The title of the book comes from a special operation were soldiers were trained to make themselves invisible, hypnotize enemies, walk through walls and kill goats with the power of their mind.

It's a haunting read, and the things the military has tried and still believe in frighten the hell out of me.  The fact that the government has pushed even more funding into the research after 9/11 is very interesting.  I highly recommend the read for anyone on this board.

Also read Iwoz about Steve Wozniak, the true creator of Apple computers.  They guy is a genius and it's another fascinating read.

I'm starting to find that I'm reading more non fiction books than anything lately.

I too enjoy non-fiction much more so than fiction. Right now...
.BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE-by Dee Brown: This book makes me ashamed to be an American. It's an account of the White man's mass slaughter, and near genocide,of the Indian nations. Hitler and the Nazis had nothing on us.
.also...OUTRAGE-by Vincent Bugolusi: Bugolusi tears into the farce that was the OJ Simpson trial.I generally don't like books written by lawyers...but this is ok.
.PHENOMENOM: Forty Years of Flying Saucers-edited by John Spencer: Various writers takes on the UFO puzzle-and ,refreashingly,not all are 'believers' in the ET theory. (Me included!)
.

[Joe the Destroyer]

I find that I can only focus on one book at a time.  Lately, I've been reading Dome in the Forest, by Paul O. Williams.  Not bad, but I really wish I would have found out it's part of a semi-series.  This is the third book, but apparently they can all stand alone. 

Before that, I was finishing up the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.  Damn good series!  I'm strangely torn between looking forward to the upcoming movie/series/miniseries/whatever it is and not wanting it to happen at all.  King sounds confident that J.J. Abrams will do a good job with it, so I guess we'll just wait and see.

[Ash]

About The Dark Tower books.

Awesome series!
I was just talking to a co-worker about them last night.

Out of the seven books, I've read the first five.
I started Song of Susannah a few months ago but didn't think it was very good so I put it down to read Different Seasons, also by King, but plan to pick it back up and force my way through it.
After that, it's on to the final book, The Dark Tower.

Out of all the Dark Tower books, which is your favorite?

For me, it is definitely Wizard and Glass.



Most Dark Tower fans seem to rip on this book as the worst of them all, but I disagree.
I personally thought it was the best so far!   

[HappyGilmore]

Right now, I'm re-reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. 

I'll probably be picking up one or two of his other books.

[CheezeFlixz]

I read boring book about history and various biographies.

[indianasmith]

You da man, Cheeze!!! 

I am just finishing Winston Groom's PATRIOTIC FIRE about Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans.  It's a great little read!

[Khaz]

Out of all the Dark Tower books, which is your favorite?

For me, it is definitely Wizard and Glass.



Most Dark Tower fans seem to rip on this book as the worst of them all, but I disagree.
I personally thought it was the best so far!   

For me it is a toss up between Wizard and Glass or The drawing of the Three. Great, now I have to dig them out and re-read them all 
Just finished the Oath of Swords series by David Webber

[RapscallionJones]

Recently read "The Men Who Stare At Goats".  Absolutely non-fiction book about the military's crazy paranormal/parapsychic endeavors.  The title of the book comes from a special operation were soldiers were trained to make themselves invisible, hypnotize enemies, walk through walls and kill goats with the power of their mind.

It's a haunting read, and the things the military has tried and still believe in frighten the hell out of me.  The fact that the government has pushed even more funding into the research after 9/11 is very interesting.  I highly recommend the read for anyone on this board.

Oh, man, I LOVE Jon Ronson.  I still have yet to read that book, but I know quite a bit about Project Jedi since I'm a conspiracy nut (mostly secret government projects, secret societies and doomsday cults).  It's absolutely hilarious and at the same time soul shattering to think about how much tax money the pentagon has flushed by funding projects like Jedi and Star Gate.

If you haven't already, you need to read Them: Adventures With Extremists by Jon Ronson.  It's another sort of tag-along journalist account of conspiracy theorists, extremists and terrorists.  Each section of the book follows guys like Randy Weaver (one of the Ruby Ridge survivors), David Icke (who believes that lizards from another dimension have infiltrated the world governments and secretly pull the strings), Big Jim Tucker (horrendous racist and the leading reporter on the Bilderberg Group) and Alex Jones (Texas-based radio DJ who is convinced that America is becoming a police state, 9-11 was an inside job and that the Bohemian Grove is evidence that the leaders of the world are satanists).

For my contribution, though, I read Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman which is unique in that it's a novel about comic book characters.  It tells two intersecting stories about Dr. Impossible and Fatale.  Dr. Impossible is a super-genius villain that is extremely smart, strong and nigh-invulnerable, fresh out of prison and struggling to get back all of his power.  Once a bad-ass villain with an island fortress, he now works out of a seedy motel room in New Jersey building giant robots and stuff.  Fatale doesn't know anything about her past except that she was in some kind of accident and most of her body has been replaced with cybernetics.  She joins the biggest team in the world (The Champions) who have been on the outs since their Superman type leader, CoreFire went missing.

The book is a sort of cross of comics like Powers and Watchmen without being quite so deadly serious.  Superheroes are deconstructed and portrayed as quite banal despite being totally awesome in the super powers department.  It's a fun read, it's funny and the characters are great.  Everyone should read it.

[Yaddo 42]

I'm kind of stuck on the same few books right now, not having much time for fun reading, struggling in an Arabic class and all.

Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief by Marice LeBlanc. A collection of stories about the French anti-hero master criminal. Fun, but quaint; I'd like to find some Fantomas stories at some point, sound more up my alley.

Twenty-One Stories by Graham Greene. Bathroom read, mixed bag as collections often are, I like his novels more, the serious ones and the entertainments.

I was working my way through some manga, mostly Jing, King of Thieves. So-so stuff, better art than story.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. Brilliant meta-fiction playing with the concepts of reading, storytelling, the nature of books themselves, and what roles the Writer and the Reader play. Highly recommended.

My back-up book at work is one of the Terry Pratchett Discworld books, Moving Pictures. I can leave his books for long periods of time and get right back into them at any time, I know his style so well, but love the dry humor and the odd angle that he looks at the things he writes about.

Next up, when I have more reading time, will probably be either A Beautiful Mind, a Flashman book, a Patrick O'Brien novel, or maybe one of the history books I have laying around the place.

I've actually come to the decision to do a book purge of most of the books I've bought that I now know I'll never have time to read and ones I have read that I have no need to hold onto. I regret it in some ways, I love to read, but life is too short, and I feel the need to declutter my house and my life of many of the things and objects that just take up space. Time to simplify, so I can focus on the next phase or two of living. Movies and music collections will probably be next to be pared down.

[CheezeFlixz]

You da man, Cheeze!!! 

I am just finishing Winston Groom's PATRIOTIC FIRE about Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans.  It's a great little read!

I'm fixin' ta reading this exciting nail biter "The Community History of Gravel Switch, KY." ... I just got it in the mail and I'm not sure just how the made it a 1500 page 9"X13" book. I have family there, I guess they used real big letters and lot's of pictures.

Then I have "Petitions of the Early Inhabitants of Kentucky to the General Assembly of Virginia" and  "Notes on Dryden's Virgil" (1698) actually written by one of my Great X9 Grandfather's son's. Long history of writers in my family going back to some guy name named Chaucer.