"Death is Lighter than a Feather" by David Westheimer. It's written in a style similar to Cornelius Ryan's classic histories (Longest Day, Bridge too Far, Last Battle), but follows the invasion of Kyushu in November 1945. Very well researched and plausible.

"Computed Tomography: Physical Principles and Clinical Applications"

by Euclid Seeram

Copyright is 2001, but the basic principles can still be applied to modern equipment. Clinical applications have advanced beyond the scope of the book, but its still nice reading.

It's every nerds dream to learn the physics and principles of a 32/64/128 slice CT scanner. Good on ya.

I'm reading a great book by Charles Ferguson called : No End In Sight. Iraq's Descent Into Chaos.

It's the follow up to Ferguson's 2007 documentary of the same name about how the administration literally lost the peace after winning the war. Very detailed and a must read for anybody wanting to understand why this conflict will not be resolved any time soon.
Just recently finished The Assassin's Gate: America In Iraq by George Packer. It's another book that details how poor the post war planning was by the administration during the pre-war buildup. Incredible book.

How is it?

Faking It.

It has some laughs in it. (7/10)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...A240_SH20_.jpg
for my art 323 class

I just started reading The Rift by Walter Williams. It's about a modern New Madrid quake and what would happen in the aftermath. One review compared it to The Stand, and about 60 pages in it certainly has that vibe - introducing numerous unrelated characters before disaster strikes. Also like The Stand, it's needlessly wordy but interesting enough to overcome it. I'm liking it so far.

Currently juggling:

The Game - Neil Strauss
Wisdom of the Ages - Wayne Dyer
Pushing the Envelope All the Way to the Top - Harvey Mackay

Arthur Conan Doyle -- every novel and story collection featuring Sherlock Holmes

I just read a book written by a guy named Chris Jericho. His story about getting into pro wrestling and the struggle to get to the top. It was a good book and IMO the best one written by a wrestler.

So far, very good.

Read 3 of the Alvin Maker series from Orson Scott Card before deciding I didn't want to go any further.

I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver at the moment.

A month later, and I'm still reading A Song of Ice and Fire, on the last one now, but jesus they're long (and great...) books. Haven't had much time for audiobooks with work, so I'm only about halfway through Children of Dune.

Trying to figure out what I'm going to read after I finish A Feast for Crows.

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through this, and it is fantastic. Extremely reminiscent of The Stand, obviously minus the supernatural stuff. Very well reasoned, and the horrible, horrible things depicted in this book seem very plausible.

We should all hope that we don't live to see the next Midwestern quake. It won't be pretty.

I read Heat by Bill Buford last week. Good writing and subject, but not the most focused book overall.

Inspired by the Kansas City Literary Festival last weekend, I picked up some novels by Kansas City fiction writers.

I read Matthew Eck's (a creative writing teacher at UCM) buzz-generating novel[la], The Farther Shore, in one sitting. It was excellent, and increasingly relevant given the state of modern warfare where all sides are only loosely adhering to the rules of engagement.

I'm currently halfway through Whitney Terrell's (a creative writing teacher at UMKC) 2001 debut novel, The Hunstman. Damn, can this dude craft a sentence. Excellent writing. After I finish this, I'll move on to Terrell's second novel, The King of King's County.

After reading Odd I am now starting Forever Odd by Dean Koontz

Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

Just started in on Stephen King's Duma Key. So far, it's nothing what I expected (although I wasn't sure what to expect).

ripped through some phillip k dick

"Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" - good
"Ubik" - better
"A Scanner Darkly" - best (his best, most personal writing by far on a sentence to sentence level, but "Do Androids Dream..." is the best story)...best depiction of addicts I've read, I think, (although David Foster Wallace writes about addiction in amazing, wierd, moving ways in "Infinite Jest")...and the dedication to his lost friends at the end really hammers it home...this guy was so far beyond all the pieties, politics, and sloganeering...

anyone who's read Scanner Darkly have an opinion on the movie? I wanted to read the book first...not to hi-jack...

I finally finished SHOOTER...good stuff. Poor bastard went home and his wife wanted a divorce immediately for his trouble.

Now I'm starting on the Close Encounters conference at MIT book.

I love barbara kingsolver's writings....

Right now I'm reading, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.....so far, it's awesome

Yes, yes it is.

Finished The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Currently reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

I guess I'm in a dystopian mood.

My wife tried to get me to read it, but it sounded a little girly for my tastes. I am a foodie, though, so I should probably give it a whirl for the Italy section if nothing else.

It's excellent. The quality of the prose itself warrants a read, regardless of subject matter.

Yeah, it sounds girly and Oprah-y and all, but it's a memior of someone shattered by a divorce, and her subsequent journey to find herself. Gilbert reconnects first with pleasure, then spirituality, then finds balance. It's pretty universal.

The movie kept reminding me of Natural Born Killers for some reason, minus the gratuitous sex and violence, of course. It just had a real "surreal" feel to it - probably the way the movie was shot then animated over. Strange story.

I recently finished James Rollins The Judas Strain. Loved it, as I did Black Order too. And he's got a new one coming out in July sometime.

Grey Eagles, by Duane Unkefer.

That guy sure can pump out books. I read a couple a few years ago. Subterranean and something else. Hopefully we got some Rollins movies eventually.

Right now I'm reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, published in '05, Hugo winner two years ago.

Really good.

I actually contacted the publisher about securing the rights. If only I had the $$, I think I could make a killer movie with Black Order.

I assume you guys know he is a Kansas Citian...

has anyone read that new Anne Rice book about Jesus? I was curious if it was any good or if it was just another Jesus book

I've read Darwinia and The Chronoliths by him, but wasn't very impressed by the latter one. If he won a Hugo for this one, I'll have to give it a look.

Ok what the hell is a hugo? RNR trying to do some learnin.

Go read The Road by the guy that wrote No Country For Old Men.

Awesome read.

I've recently been trying to re-read Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany. I still don't get it.


A "Hugo" is the literary award given for the best Science Fiction or Fantasy work published in a particular year. Past winners include Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, etc.

It's named for an influential 1920's-1930's author, Hugo Gernsback.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel

For people that like a great piece of fiction, but don't generally care for Sci-Fi, I recommend A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter Miller, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, Dune by Frank Herbert, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, or American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Thanks as I had no clue.

Happy to help. The only dumb question is the one that remains unasked. Unless it's asked by Nick Athan.

Cormac McCarthy, and yeah, it's a great piece of post-apocalyptic fiction.

If you liked that one, you might try Earth Abides by George Stewart, or Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. They are both excellent books with solid variations on the theme, if a bit dated.

This has to be the most dignified response to a Midnight_Vulture post ever.

I've been on a Michael Crichton kick:
Just read "Sphere" - never saw the movie - Great book.
I'm halfway through "Jurassic Park" now.

If you haven't read them, I highly recommend:

The Andromeda Strain
Eaters of the Dead (Beowulf made interesting and fun)
The Great Train Robbery
Congo (much better than the film)
Rising Sun

Last Crichton book I read was Next. I enjoyed it, all the way until the end.

I haven't read Next. I was very disappointed by State of Fear and Prey was just horrible. Prey started well, but about 3/4 of the way through it felt like he just got bored and wanted to find a quick ending.

Picked up "The Andromeda Strain" from Bargain Books on Saturday.

How is "The Lost World"?

Snuff-The guy who wrote fight club Chuck Palahniuk .

It's about a 600 person gang bang w/ an aging pornstart and from the perspective of #72, 137 and 600.


#72 believes he is the pornstars long lost son.


Yeah...it's ****ed up.

I'd recommend "Choke" by the same author.

Congo was a great book the movie sucked!

Just picked up Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon after finishing Brave New World.

IMNSHO, disappointing. I loved Jurassic Park, but Lost World didn't do much for me. Granted, I'm very jaded when it comes to Sci-Fi, so I may not be the best person to ask.

I'd suggest "Eaters of the Dead". It's a short read, but very well done.

The Andromeda Strain scared the crap out of me the first time I read it. Plausible "Real Life" can be much scarier than Stephen King, IMO.

It was a lot of fun. The way they changed the main character in the movie was criminal. That, and you knew it was going to be horrible when Ernie Hudson delivered the howler: "My name is Dougal Monroe. I'll be your Great White Hunter, though I happen to be black". As if we couldn't figure that out for ourselves. :shake:

The gorillas used paddles in the book and not in a sick way added to the story, that also was left out of the movie. I read the book and was looking forward to the movie, walked out shaking my head.

I'm reading "By The Light Of The Moon" by Dean Koontz at the moment, about half way through and it's pretty damn good so far. Kinda sci-fi, suspense

Its probably just me but i couldn't get into to reading Michael Crichton.

Seemed to commercial in his writing.

Done did read it.

I'm....a fan.....

I picked up The Tippng Point and Blink about a month ago to have something to read at the airport, and finished The Tipping Point within a couple of flights.... very good, very fast read. I really liked how in-depth he got on some of the issues... who knew you could learn so much from the differences between Sesame Street and Blue's Clues. I liked the part on smoking, too; kids don't smoke to be cool, they smoke because they're already cool. :)

Haven't had much time for Blink, but I'm about halfway through it. I'm a HUGE information gatherer. I will do everything I can to gather facts, learn about a process, and explain what I've done and what I'm thinking about doing next; all before even asking someone else. Hell, when I couldn't find the book at Barnes and Noble, I was ready to tell the guy "Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote the Tipping Point... I couldn't find it in Psychology and it wasn't with the Tipping Point in Business........"; and about two words into my information dump the guy was like "StFU, follow me." LMAO So, some of the things he talks about have been pretty enlightening.

Also, I'm not huge on marketing and advertising... I think it's interesting in terms of technology (getting the right information to the right people), but it's a classic prisoner's dillemma (everyone would be better off if no one advertised, but once one company does, they all have to). I've had a couple of marketing classes, but I was pretty surprised when I read about not just the importance of packaging, but how it actually changes the outcome of taste tests.

Speaking of Crichton, one of my favorites of his is Timeline. I notice it was not mentioned in the earlier responses but I would highly recommend it. Again, book is much, much better than the movie they tried to make.

Currently I am just about done with a book on the Lincoln-Douglas debates. (http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Dougla...5479144&sr=1-1) It has been a very interesting read about a subject I knew very little about.

Herman Hesse - The Glass Bead Game

i read steppenwolf and siddhartha in college lit classes, but man, i don't think that i gave this man his due when i read those classics.

i reread steppenwolf and picked up narcissus and goldmund a few months ago and i've been on a hesse kick ever since. something profound to me about man's struggle with self.

The high brow on Pot planet
can read

Finished this book, and I loved it. It's hard to describe, really. It's a tribute to detective noir set in an alternate Jewish state in Sitka, AK. Basically, imagine if instead of Israel, the Jews had been provided some land in Alaska as their refuge. Tons and tons of yiddish slang that's pretty hilarious, and this weird alternate reality allows Chabon to really flex his creative muscles. Good stuff.


Currently reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Planning on reading Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson next.

I am currently reading "How To Make Love Like A Pornstar", the Jenna Jameson autobiography. Its actually pretty good.

I'm nearly finished with The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. Like Kite Runner, it's not one I would have picked myself, but I got it as a birthday present. Basically this is the story of an obnoxious middle-aged guy from Iowa driving around the country in his mom's Chevette, offering commentary (generally unfavorable) on the places and people he encounters along the way. I've been to many of the places the author visits along the way, and he does frequently hit the nail on the head when he described places. Light reading, but not a bad book. It is about 20 years old, so I hope now Bill gets himself a GPS unit so he won't blame his inability to read maps on others.

You sound like me (info gatherer). Both those books are superb. I learned a lot from The Tipping Point, especially.

In fact, I'm reading Omnivore's Dilemma which, I've been told, has been discussed somewhere in this mammoth thread.

I actually read that a couple years back. While parts are interesting...it's like reading the life about someone who wants to be deep. But they're not.

So it can get pretty boring.

However it could be argued that Jameson only know how to take it deep.

And have the pictures/vids to prove it!

I am reading "SEO Mindset" by Brad Callen

At the moment, the new issue of Golf Digest.

Just a heads-up I thought I would share with the fans of Gene Wolfe on the Planet. I know from past conversations there are a few of you fellow literary masochists out there.

Years ago, Michael Andrussi wrote the Lexicon Urthus, which was a dictionary/essay collection for many of the wonderful and extremely obscure words and ideas that populate his Urth cycle aka The Book of the New Sun. The Lexicon has been out of print since about 2002, and usually goes for around $150-$200 due to it's scarcity.

However, Andrussi has finished the Second Edition (just got the email today) which will be released on August 1st by Sirius Publishing. It's a print-on-demand book $20 Paperback and $40 Hardback.

http://www.siriusfiction.com/lexicon.html

Also, for those who are serious about teasing out the "hidden" parts of Wolfe's Magnum Opus, I'd also suggest the following books:

Solar Labyrinth and The Long and Short of it, collections of essays by Robert Borski.

Shadows of the New Sun by Peter Wright, another collection of essays by Wolfe and Wright.

The Castle of the Otter by Gene Wolfe, essays on the New Sun and writing in general.

Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the Reader by Peter Wright.

I envy anyone who has time to read. I miss it. I enjoy all of Milan Kundera's novels ... have read a lot of them more than once.

I am now reading "Groundswell"

http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/images/cover.jpgCorporate executives are struggling with a new trend: people using online social technologies (blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasts) to discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals. This groundswell is global, it s unstoppable, it affects every industry and it s utterly foreign to the powerful companies running things now.

When consumers you ve never met are rating your company s products in public forums with which you have no experience or influence, your company is vulnerable. In Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester, Inc. explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity.

Time to bump the book thread.

I'm a sucker for any Band of Brothers stuff, and recently picked up Call of Duty, an autobiography by Buck Compton. It's pretty clear that Buck has some issues with the way he was portrayed in the miniseries, especially the whole combat fatigue thing (he's shown wigging out after his buddies get their legs blown off at Bastogne); he says he really was hurt, and implies he was removed from the company because of his outspoken criticism of Company CO Dike. He also hated Lewis Nixon's guts (Winters' buddy), which I found interesting. It seems pretty clear that these two things were his primary motivation for writing the book, the rest reads pretty much like an old man telling you his life story in middling detail. But it's an interesting life, and a good read.

"Fan Born Every Minute" by Carl Delano Peterson & Rufus Dawes

I am mostly reading Curious George - Curious George Goes to the Library, the hospital, the movies, the circus, the zoo, etc. When I'm not reading Curious George I'm usually reading Dr. Seuss or some books about a little girl named Fancy Nancy.

I've also been trying to read Omnivore's Dilemma but there doesn't seem to be much time for that.

Got a couple going right now -

Inspired by the badass movie preview, I picked up the Watchmen graphic novel. Not that far into it yet, but it isn't what I expected. I am enjoying it, though.

The Devil You Know by Mike Carey. It's his first novel, and it has a ton of promise, but it's kind of a herky-jerky read so far.

Naked Lunch by Burroughs. Never have read it, and am looing forward to starting it.

I just started reading "Dreamcatcher" by Stephen King.

My wife LOVED Omnivore's Dilemma. She refuses to buy meat from anywhere other than local farmer's markets now. Heh.

The book is definitely better than the movie.

Definitely a good read. I posted about it in the DC.

Currently, I'm reading the follow up to OD which is In Defense of Food. After that, I'm going to try to get the latest James Rollins book The Last Oracle.

I'm also considering the Stephen King Dark Tower series. I read Duma Key and LOVED it. And I heard some good things about it, especially from the co-creator of LOST who wants to do (or someone at any rate) an adaptation.

Have you read graphic novels before?

I was considering buying it to read it before the movie. I just don't read graphic novels much nor did I read comics, so I don't know that I'll like it.

Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Neffenegger.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
Word War Z by Max Brooks
Peace Like a River by LL Enger
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

I would highly recommend any of the above except Ella Minnow Pea.

A few, not many. I was a comicbook nerd in my early days, though. The only other graphic novels I've read is Kingdom Come and The Dark Knight Returns, and I enjoyed them both (which is funny, because I was always more of a Marvel guy than DC).