Commie.

"Ghost Story" by Jim Butcher, 13th book in the Dresden Files series.

The worst book ever. Laura Ingraham is scum.

http://www.amazon.com/Of-Thee-Zing-A.../dp/1451642059

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...4,203,200_.jpg

"Berlin" by David Clay Large

I'll be starting R.K. Narayan's "The Guide" tomorrow.

Right now... The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare: Col, T.N. Dupuy.

Its not just a bunch of war stories, but the men and ideas behind the major scientific, strategic and technological developments that brought us to where we are.

From Alexander, to Genghis Khan, Caesar, Napoleon, Wellington and beyond... this book breaks each achievement and victory or loss down into basic, easily understood blocks of learning.

Betcha didn't know Swiss halbeard/pikemen were the scourge of Europe for a while, didja?

Or maybe how the Japanese DOMINATED the Russians in the early 20th century thanks to better tactics A, and better equipment B.

Its the kind of stuff military officers read in school, awesome, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Got several fumbling around my brain right now.

Just finished King's Joyland pulp novel. Breezy nostalgic read.

Midway through McGuire's Son of a Witch, book two in The Wicked Years.

Just started King's Dr. Sleep, the followup to The Shining.

Worst scourge uniforms, ever.

http://s2.hubimg.com/u/6579701_f520.jpg

LAUGH AT THE CLOWNSUITS AS THEY DRAG YOU FROM YOUR MOUNT AND DISEMBOWEL YOU!

Books I've finished the last month or so:

"The Sound of the Mountain" by Yasunari Kawabata (1949)
- Beautiful, subtle introspection and individualization of an aging Japanese businessman, Ogata Shingo, and how he sees and interacts with his family where his own memories begin to take on increased materialization in his daily life and thoughts. Longing, passion, desire, acceptance and resignation flow delicately throughout the book, which comes to life through Kawabata's intricate, but nuanced characterizations.

"The Guide" by R.K. Nayaran (1958)
- Nayaran creates a wonderful protagonist in "Railway" Raju, who quickly goes from an innocent but clever student and son of a loquacious shopkeeper to a savvy travel guide to a self-deceptive, head-over-heels in-love talent manager to a resigned but fully satisfied prison inmate to a reluctant but willing prophet. While originally written in 1958, the story, characters and scenarios are fresh and relevant.

"Lenny Bruce is Dead" by Jonathan Goldstein (2006)
- Goldstein's Freudian poetic manifesto of shticky loneristic hipness. Burgers, Rebbe's Love Lotion and a constant stream of jerking it off give an initial mirthful debasement to what is, in actuality, an introspective look into love and desire for family, friends and one's self.

Currently reading:

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz (2007)

Oscar Wao is ****ing excellent.

It's been almost two years since I graduated college and I haven't picked up a book since.

I'm thinking my first might be In Cold Blood. Thoughts?

[QUOTE=Saccopoo;10463335]Books I've finished the last month or so:


"The Guide" by R.K. Nayaran (1958)
- Nayaran creates a wonderful protagonist in "Railway" Raju, who quickly goes from an innocent but clever student and son of a loquacious shopkeeper to a savvy travel guide to a self-deceptive, head-over-heels in-love talent manager to a resigned but fully satisfied prison inmate to a reluctant but willing prophet. While originally written in 1958, the story, characters and scenarios are fresh and relevant.

QUOTE]

In. I just finished The Ramayana last week, and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Good to hear his other books are well written.

Currently reading Soldiers Alive by Ishikawa Tatsuzo. It's a fictionalized account of Japan's second war in China as observed at the front by the author. Just started, but highly recommended to me by a friend.

I don't know man...

There is something forced about it that's really bugging me. I'm only on page 100 or something, but it seems that Diaz is really trying way too hard with his characterizations.

As of right now, it's coming off as a combination of a poor man's John Kennedy Toole's "Confederacy of Dunces" and a mid-level Elmore Leonard novel.

I have enjoyed the copius interpretive historical footnotes in the book however.

I'm hoping it gets better.

Currently reading Run by Blake Crouch

Finished Donna Tart's The Goldfinch, and onto The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Turned out better than it started. Good read.

Let's see...I just finished the following:

Carolyn See's "Golden Days"
- Absolute garbage. One of, if not the worst book I've ever read. I don't really know how I ended up with this book. Thought it was a loaner from a friend, and figured I'd read it and give it back. It wasn't. Tragically. Based on mid-80's California before/during/after a nuclear war. Characters are poorly fleshed out and utterly unbelievable. I seriously could not finish this book fast enough.

Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken"
- Pretty good, quick read from the author of "Seabiscuit." Story about Louie Zamperini, a former Olympic runner and WWII POW. Well written with good flow. The one thing is, she picked a guy who's story was already told a number of times and was extremely well documented. That doesn't discount the quality of her writing, which is very good, but it was a very easy book to research in terms of a biographical novel.

Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael"
- The philosophical musings and teachings of the potential destruction or salvation of the planet by a sentient gorilla to an inquisitive 20-something aspiring writer looking for the meaning of life. Brings up some interesting, but basic societal mores relating to the human race and it's global impact. The plot becomes quite repetitious and a bit annoying due to that until the very end. Spurred me to once again pick up J.M. Roberts "A Short History of the World," which I'm currently about 1/4 of the way through.

This is pretty much my life.

The Jacksonian Promise: America 1815-1840, by Daniel Feller
American Slavery 1619-1877, by Peter Kolchin
A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837, by Paul E. Johnson
Cosmos Crumbling: American Reform and the Religious Imagination, by Robert Abzug
The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (with a new Afterword!), by Charles E. Rosenberg

There are more, but I wouldn't want to bore you.

Sinister Entity by Hunter Shea

I recently listened to the audiobooks on both of those recently while getting some exercise and they were really enjoyable in that format.

Adding this to the top of the queue.

Next up I have been reading good things about is The Martian by Andy Weir.

I just finished two rock and roll memoirs that I really enjoyed.

The first was Things The Grandchildren Should Know by Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) of the Eels. The second was It's So Easy... And Other Lies by Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver among others. Both were fairly easy reads but surprisingly well written. Both guys led pretty fascinating lives and experienced great tragedy. They don't have a lot in common beyond the fact that each of them moved to LA with almost nothing but he clothes on their back and a car to make the trip in but somehow found a way to make a living by making music. One guy came from a highly dysfunctional family while the other came from a tight-knit, supportive one. One guy largely left drink and drug behind as he got into music while the other developed some serious substance abuse problems as he found more and more musical success. One guy was a loner while the other guy was very social and made friends easily.

Both are worth the read if you have any interest in this kind of thing.

I heard McKagan on Jim Rome a year or so ago and he was pretty engaging. It's kind of funny because athletes say almost nothing in interviews, but McKagan was just kind of like, "I'll talk about anything. I don't care."
He was an interesting interview.

Still reading the Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.

These are some long books...

I liked Run a lot; I've liked most of Crouchs work that I've read. I have book 3 of the Wayward Pines series on pre-order. The pines series is coming to TV on Fox soon.. I'm sure they'll muck it up.

I just finished reading A.G. Riddle's Atlantis Plague. It's the second book in this series (and his career I believe). I liked the books quite a bit. It showed up in my "You might be interested in" area on Amazon and had a lot of positive reviews for somebody I'd never heard of so I gave it a shot.

Reading Dr. Sleep by King about 350ish pages in. Pretty good so far

"We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It's an early dystopian novel that provided some inspiration for 1984 and brave new world.

Still still reading them. Yep. Long books.

Just finished I Am Jennie. Autobiography of Jennie Ketcham, AKA porn star Penny Flame and her exit from the business.

Other recent reads (or re-reads) include:

The Agent - Leigh Steinberg

Columbine - Dave Cullen

Galveston - Nic Pizzolatto

The Hot House - Pete Earley

No Angel - Jay Dobyns

Yeah I liked it. Haven't started the Pines series yet but will soon.

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War, by Thomas G. Andrews.

I don't know if this book has been mentioned in the thread as of yet, but John Irving's "The World According to Garp" is solely responsible for getting me back into reading as a young adult.

When I was a kid, I loved reading. I was one of those kids who went to sleep everynight with a flashlight and a book under his pillow so that I could read when I was supposed to be sleeping.

During my teenage years I did what most teenage boys do, I gave up reading and started chasing girls.

Fast forward to the age of 19, I'm in AIT for the army, and my roomate had just graduated. He's clearing out his wall locker and I'm laying on my bed. He takes a book out of his locker tosses it at me and says "Do yourself a favor and read this." Then he walked out of the room without another word. I looked at the title and it was "The World According to Garp" by John Irving.

I don't know if he was joking or sincerely thought the book was worth reading, but I immediately started reading it, and quickly fell in love with the book. It's wondefully written, tells a wonderful story, and has all the drama and comedy you can handle. Within a year of that day, I had read everything John Irving had ever written. Lots of good books, but none ever touched me quite as much as "The World According to Garp."

So, do yourself a favor, read that book.

I am almost done with this book. It's like Apollo 13 on steroids. If you are an engineer nerd you will love it. It is being made into a movie staring Matt Damon and is being directed by Ridley Scott.

I'm considering Infinite Jest. I've read DFW's shorter pieces before, but never an undertaking this large. Anyone else tried it? Should I get a hard copy to help slog through the voluminous footnotes?

I read The Glory of Their Times. I really enjoyed it. Gives you a view of what it was like to play baseball in the early 1900's.

Also read Bang the Drum Slowly again. Great book.

I've read it twice. Still don't really get it, but love the experience.

Reading "The Circle" by Dave Eggers. What a darkly possible dystopian book. Wow.

Thought I'd read some African-American literature while I sit in airports, ride planes and be on long car rides. I'm really enjoying Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Hafta' admit I stopped a few months ago, as I had a travel hiatus, and need to finish it. Because I want to get back to Heart of Darkness and start Great Expectations.

In the last couple of months I've read:

Leslie Jamison - The Empathy Exams
M.F.K. Fisher - The Gastronomical Me
Jesmyn Ward - Men We Reaped
David Shields - How Literature Saved My Life
Roxane Gay - An Untamed State
David Shoemaker - The Squared Circle
Brian Oliu - Leave Luck to Heaven

Just finished Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

It's an extremely terrible read. It's a brilliant plot, but there are so many problems with the book it's difficult to withstand.

Right now I'm reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. It's a fairly fascinating read, as a great introspection into an interesting character's mind, with just enough weird fantasy and gay porn thrown in. LMAO

Debated getting Infinite Jest.

Then realized I don't have a job or in schoool and reading a novel is a ginormous waste of time.

The Ape and the Sushi Master by Frans De Waal.

Smonk by Tom Franklin: crazy ass "Western" set in Alabama. Cormac McCarthy meets Quentin Tarantino or something.

Hell at the Breech by Tom Franklin: great historical fiction (based very loosely on an actual historical incident) about some land wars in the rural south.

Scar Lover by Harry Crews: very strange book that I'm not far enough into to decide what to make of it.

My daughter, the English/Creative Writing major's favorite book.

I just started working through a strange collection recommended to me by a work colleague - The Instrumentality of Mankind by Cordwainer Smith. It's all classic scifi from the 50s and 60s and very... strange. But interesting.

Just finished Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock. Pretty fun to read with an open mind. Theory/evidence of ancient lost civilization.

And Illusions by Richard Bach, wish I would have read that much earlier.

I wanna read Behold A Pale Horse by William Cooper.

Best American Short Stories 2010. Some years are better than others, probably has a lot to do with the guest editor for that year, but 2010 seems very good. I like the stories he chose.

Here's the last 4 books I have read:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._The_Woods.jpghttp://www.writtenword.com/wp-conten...ey-201x300.jpghttps://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/574051-M.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...wnTheRiver.jpg

I need nature ASAP.

I'm about to start Stephen Kings "Bag of Bones".


Is this any good? Thoughts please. Thanks.

I enjoyed it. Def in my top 10 favorites of Stephen King.

Is that the year with "Donkey Greedy, Donkey Get Punched" with Richard Russo as guest editor?

At the very least, read "Backbone" and watch his commencement speech "This is Water."

If that isn't appealing, you could always take up cutting.

Why did you find EG to be a terrible read? It's certainly not poetic, and the dimensions of the war room are hard to visualize via Card's description, but it's not hackneyed.

My daughter loved Ender's Game. I think it's her favorite book.

I abandoned Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston because I bought it during a snowstorm at an airport to kill time. Any tips for getting back into a novel again after being away from it for awhile. It's half done.

I just watched his "This is Water" commencement speech for an Informal Logic class. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Didn't know anything about him prior to that. Checked the book store, and he's written quite a bit. Are his novels any good? Anything I should definitely read? Anything to stay away from? I prefer fiction over nonfiction.

While I'm in the thread, I should mention that I'm looking for some recommendations. Author recommendations, really. I tend to get attached to authors. If I read a book and really enjoy it, then I tend to work my way through that author's works trying to find another gem. Anybody have an author in which you've loved most of their books? Fiction, please. Anything that's not Sci-Fi or courtroom related. Other than that, I'm game. As it stands, I've read nost everything from guys like John Irving, Carl Hiaasen, Jonothan Tropper, Larry McMurtry, and Chad Klutgen.

Contemporary or classic?

Contemporary:
Frank McCourt start with Angela's Ashes. You will cry but you will also laugh. Incredible storyteller.

Classics:
Jane Austen start with Pride and Prejudice. :p

Frank McCourt's next one is T'Is . Also very good and will also have you laughing.

Infinite Jest is considered by some to be the best American novel since Gravity's Rainbow but it's a notoriously difficult read. I have it on my nook, but I haven't started it, and probably won't in that format, because it makes copious use of endnotes, which would be a huge pain in the ass on an e-reader.

I wouldn't recommend jumping into that right away. A lot of graduate students are going to struggle with a postmodern, allusion-heavy text like that.

Start with some of his short stories and see if you like those. I've had students in a contemporary lit class read this one before:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/12/14/all-that-2

I personally love transgressive fiction, so my tastes are a little more risque than most. Aside from that, my literature preferences are more of a mile wide and an inch deep.

I still cannot make it through this without lying down.

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/features/shorts/guts

I've read the majority of his other novels, but that is by far the hardest for me to stomach.

Try out Barbara Kingsolver. I really like Prodigal Summer, then I'd move to Poisonwood Bible. If you like Hiaasen, you might like Kurt Vonnegut, though it borders on sci-fi, sort of.

I just got Dayton Moore's book. Plan to start reading it in five minute sittings in my "porcelain library."

Would you go as far as saying top 5?

Hamas I think Tim is looking for a read to enjoy as he stated.

No,wouldn't go that high but its still an enjoyable read.

'Tis, ;)

Hate to see Frank recounting this guy's journey.

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG...er=allrovi.com

You don't need to read Dean Koontz genre fiction to enjoy a read, dumbass.

Right on, I'll definitely give it a shot. What Stephen King book would you say is hands down the best?

For me it would be IT. I also love The Gunslinger,which is the first book of the Dark Tower series

I'm sure I've recommended Chuck in this very thread, albeit long ago. But if Hamas needs a voucher, I'll be his Huckleberry. It's dark, seamy stuff, but breezily written so it comes off more as 'scandalous!!' reading than a slog.

TimBone mentioned McMurtry, which would have been my next choice to pick up a long line of books. But if he liked that, I'd recommend Cormac McCarthy and Elmore Leonard. Both deal with sparse American settings and terse characters with wit.

This is about what I figured it would be with David Foster Wallace. I'll definitely look into the short stories to see if I can read him without hurting my brain too much. Thank's man.

I love these baseball themed books by Mark Harris: "The Southpaw" and "Bang the Drum Slowly."

That's why I didn't recommend him you condescending snob. Not everyone is into postmodern, allusion-heavy text, transgressive fiction about society's misfits or notoriously difficult reads. Not everyone is a hi-brow lit snob or seeking Gertrude Stein etc. He used the word "enjoy" or was it "enjoyable. "

That is....interesting.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed it. But it was...different. I'm gonna look for more from this dude.



God forbid my folks see my dick.

I'll look into both of those folks. Thanks, bud.

Thanks for the recommendation. I don't recall reading too many baseball themed novels. I'll see if I dig it or not.

Just saw your posts, BEP. I can do the classics if they're not too old school with the language. I'm not sure how to describe what I mean. John Irving mentioned in his auto-biography that Graham Greene was the author that inspired him to read, so I searched out some Graham Greene novels figuring they'd be up my alley as well. Problem being, Graham was a writer from the old days, when people spoke (and wrote) differently. It was a hassle because the language of the book just seemed outdated and not very smooth. I hope I'm explaining that correctly.

I found out about McCarthy after both No Country and The Road became movies. I've went back and forth on whether to read something from him because I loved No Country but hated The Road.

Got a book recommendation for me?