So...what are you reading (Vol VI)

Discussion in 'Books' started by chazsoccer, Feb 20, 2009.

  1. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    That's Margeret Bourke White, the first female war correspondant and great photo-journalist.

    Just finished volume two:

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    If you're interested in "the first draft of history" by some great reporters, these books are awesome.

    Moved onto The Portable Dante, edited and translated by Mark Musa. Can't find a decent image that would fit on the page, but it's basically "The Divine Comedy" plus "La Vita Nuova." It's a really good, readable translation. Just got around Satan yesterday and I'm about halfway up the first floor of purgatory.
     
  2. Atouk

    Atouk BigSoccer Supporter

    DC United
    Apr 16, 2001
    Arlington, VA
    Club:
    Queens Park Rangers FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just finished Promises To Keep by Joe Biden

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  3. Shaman

    Shaman New Member

    Dec 18, 2011
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    The Arabian Nights by Sir Richard Burton
    wonderful book..especially the way these stories are woven altogether..
     
  4. guignol

    guignol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 28, 2005
    mermoz-les-boss
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    something no one should die without reading.

    a curious chance led me to reading burton's personal narrative of a pilgrimage to medinah and meccah: dover books sent it to me by mistake when i had ordered stevens incidents of travel in yucatan. a very good company dover; they let me keep burton and sent me stevens straightaway with a signed letter of apology for the inconvenience. i always meant to get around to reading more of burton, one of the great travellers of his or any age.

    the 1001 nights i read in the galland translation, which may still be the best going, but there are certainly points in favor of burton's: first, more... exhaustive; these tales come from multiple sources so the word complete doesn't properly signify. second, they are almost certainly the most licentious. other european translations were watered down to some extent; burton probably went beyond the eroticism of the arabic original. very much porté sur la chose sir richard!
     
  5. bungadiri

    bungadiri Super Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 25, 2002
    Acnestia
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Totally agree with your comments about Nights and Personal Narrative. There are some good biographies of Burton out there, too. (Which I think you and I have talked about, haven't we?) Fawn Brodie's The Devil Drives is a lot of fun to read.

    Also, if you like reading about restless souls, Stewart Gordon's When Asia Was the World has a lot of them.
     
  6. usscouse

    usscouse BigSoccer Supporter

    May 3, 2002
    Orygun coast
    Yes, that photo perfectly captures a moment in time.

    I'm going to have to find copies of those books. It looks like I can find plenty of reading for the new year just on this page alone.

    "The Arabian Nights" by Sir Richard Burton. One I keep forgetting about. I read his bio way back when and enjoyed the movie (a lot) they made about him looking for the source of the Nile. Brilliant mind and spoke 29 languages. I can barely ask for a beer in 2 languages.

    His bio states: He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information. Sounds, to me, like he may have kept true to the stories.
     
  7. Black.White&Red

    Sep 9, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
  8. Atouk

    Atouk BigSoccer Supporter

    DC United
    Apr 16, 2001
    Arlington, VA
    Club:
    Queens Park Rangers FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    White House Diary by Jimmy Carter

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  9. Norsk Troll

    Norsk Troll Member+

    Sep 7, 2000
    Central NJ
    Using my son (i.e. helping him pick out books) as an excuse to catch up on some classics I missed as a youth.

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  10. Shaman

    Shaman New Member

    Dec 18, 2011
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    [​IMG]

    This book is my favourite book of all time! :)
     
  11. Atouk

    Atouk BigSoccer Supporter

    DC United
    Apr 16, 2001
    Arlington, VA
    Club:
    Queens Park Rangers FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View by Stephen Breyer

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  12. guignol

    guignol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 28, 2005
    mermoz-les-boss
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    breyer was interviewed at length on french radio a few months ago; you may or not be surprised to know he speaks excellent french.
     
  13. usscouse

    usscouse BigSoccer Supporter

    May 3, 2002
    Orygun coast
    Well done. I will always contend that Brice Courtenay's "The Power of One" is a book for all boys to read. A young boy growing up and coming of age in the years leading to WWII
    I bought some used and gave them to the kids in the team I coached. Great reception.

    [​IMG]
     
  14. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Still working my way through Mark Twain's autobiography, and really enjoying it. If the next 400 pages are as fun as the first 200, I will be grateful.

    Also reading:

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    Vernor Vinge's Hugo winner A Fire Upon the Deep. I very much like the nature of the intelligent lupine race that features on the plante-based portions of the book. It's a clever adaptation to the pack mentality of wolves.
     
  15. The Jitty Slitter

    The Jitty Slitter Moderator
    Staff Member

    Bayern München
    Germany
    Jul 23, 2004
    Fascist Hellscape
    Club:
    FC Sankt Pauli
    Nat'l Team:
    Belgium
    Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

    What can you really say about this book?
     
  16. usscouse

    usscouse BigSoccer Supporter

    May 3, 2002
    Orygun coast
    A lot of people got killed..? :)
     
  17. Bluto11

    Bluto11 The sky is falling!

    May 16, 2003
    Chicago, IL
    Picked up "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" at a used book store today and finished it in a few hours, loved it. Got a $25 Kindle gift card, so I just purchased The Karla Trilogy books on it as well as "The River War" (for free!) by Winston Churchill after catching the last half of the movie "The Four Feathers" and getting caught in a wikipedia loop until I came upon Churchill's account of the real events in the movie. Also, got The Mauritius Command at the used book store along with The African Queen. I still have to read HMS Surprise before I get to the Mauritius Command. I should read Post Captain as well, since I've only read Master and Commander! Lot of reading for me to do, which is fine by me. Traveling for work a few times in the next few weeks.
     
  18. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    [​IMG]

    Dostoevsky's The Idiot in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. So far, better than the older translation I tried to read way back.
     
  19. usscouse

    usscouse BigSoccer Supporter

    May 3, 2002
    Orygun coast
    Some fun stuff to read there. I got into the Churchill stuff a few years back. He had to really push some buttons to get up the nile with Kitchener, or his mother, the American did. Churchills account of the Battle of Omdurman is really good. He was in what was the last real cavalry charge of the British Army there. The 'modern' british Army just about wiped out the Dervishes.
     
  20. Minnman

    Minnman Member+

    Feb 11, 2000
    Columbus, OH, USA
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    And, in preparation for trip to Paris this winter:

    [​IMG]
     
  21. NER_MCFC

    NER_MCFC Member

    May 23, 2001
    Cambridge, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]
    Guy Gavriel Kay Sailing to Sarantium
    Continuing a full author revisit.
     
  22. VincentVega

    VincentVega Member

    May 11, 2011
    San Diego, CA
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    Dostoyevsky is a beast!
     
  23. usscouse

    usscouse BigSoccer Supporter

    May 3, 2002
    Orygun coast
    I was touting "The Power of One" last week as a great book. Today I found the follow up book "Tandia" Both are from South Africa's apartheid period.
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    I'm only a couple of chapters into it but already it's gripping and compelling reading. I'm going to enjoy this one.

    Anyone who is interested in boxing would enjoy these two books.
     
  24. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Hey @Bluto11 - try Colin Cotterill's series on Siri Paiboun. They are set in Laos, have great characters, and good stories too. Siri is a 70-something coroner.
     

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