So....What Are You Reading?

[dearprudence]

Originally posted by bungadiri

Please post an update later. I read a copy of The Devil Drives, a bio of Sir Richard Francis Burton, a long time ago and found it very enjoyable.
Will do. I've read a lot about Thomas Jefferson and his relationship (however you wish to define it) with Sally Hemmings. This is supposed to be fairly inaccurate, but I figured that I was more the fool for taking someone else's pov than for reading it for myself.

I always prefer biographies!

[carolinab]

Tony Adams Addicted

[MadSirAlexxx]

Richard Paul Russo's "Ship of Fools"...

dark science fiction...quite disturbing...

[JenM9]

The Count of Monte Cristo

[Doctor Stamen]

I've finished reading Billy, Pamela Stephenson's biography of her husband (Billy Connolly). Now I'm going to start on the Hannibal Lector omnibus.

[markdickson]

Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go by George P. Pelecanos

[el hefe]

"In a Van Down By the River:The Matt Foley Story" ghostwritten by Lorne Green.

Sorry,couldnt resist.

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by el hefe
"In a Van Down By the River:The Matt Foley Story" ghostwritten by Lorne Green.

Sorry,couldnt resist.

Lorne Michaels, maybe? ;)

Just finished Koba the Dread: Laughter and the 20 Million by Martin Amis. Pretty good. It's a meditation on Evil, Joseph Stalin, and some of those in the West who overlooked his crimes for a variety of reasons (including, for a few years, Amis' father Kingsley). Next up: I'm not sure, but it's going to be a lot lighter than that.

[LiverpoolFanatic]

Thing's Fall Apart by Chenua Achebe. Great book.

[NER_MCFC]

Just started re-reading Raymond Chandler's 'The Long Goodbye' after 6 or 7 years. I'm liking it a lot more than I remember from the 1st time, maybe because I'm not reading it while crocked to the gils.

[carolinab]

Ian Rankin Hide & Seek

and

Diana Vreeland D.V.

[togneter]

Double Down: On Gambling and Loss by Frederick and Stephen Barthelme

Sutree by Cormac McCarthy

[Michael K.]

The Good Soldier Schweik, by Jaroslav Hasek

[monster]

Tunnel Vision by Keith Lang (or Long, I forgt).

Guy has to visit every Tube station in London in one day for a bet. The stakes - his passport and the train ticket he needs to get to his wedding.

Just finished "The Wishbones" by Tom Perrotta and "E" by Matt beaumont.

I am posting 100-word reviews of stuff on my Web site www.regularguycolumn.com Anyone who wants to join in is welcome.

[carolinab]

Originally posted by monster
"E" by Matt beaumont.

Loved that book. Kind of suspicious about the gimmicky format, but it really worked.

[whirlwind]

Neil Gaiman's "Coraline" and Tad Williams' "To Green Angel Tower"

[nicodemus]

I'm reading Nation and Commemoration : Creating National Identities in the United States and Australia by Lyn Spillman. It is about how two young "settler nations" used their centennials and bicentennials to help forge their national identities.

[caddisfly]

I'm just about finished with Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon. It's a collection of short stories and it's been a great read. Some of the stories miss the mark but the the ones that hit it are excellent.

[phats_away]

just finished fast food nation

wow, i didn't realize how political and sleezy the fast food industry is, or how much mcdonalds has power over our food system




reading choke by the guy who wrote fight club

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by phats_away
just finished fast food nation

wow, i didn't realize how political and sleezy the fast food industry is, or how much mcdonalds has power over our food system

Damn, that's a great book. Read it this summer. Part of what was cool, I thought, was the way the author would single out good companies, like a chain in California that uses fresh, not frozen, meat, and which pays their cooks $10 per hour and their managers something like $75,000 - $80,000 after a few years... how do they do it? Unlike McDonald's, they don't have an immense turnover expense. I just assumed that the "Now Hiring" signs outside of McDonald's had to do with their steady growth: turns out it has to do with the fact that they are constantly losing employees, and that gets expensive.

Speaking of McDonalds I'm about halfway through Elaine Pagel's The Origin of Satan, discussing the changing notions of Satan from his early appearances in Hebrew scripture to his key role as Prince of Darkness in the Christian world view. Some great stuff on the political/cultural backdrop of the 1st hundred years of Christianity. And she writes so well that the book is never dry or ponderous.