What Book Are You Currently Reading?
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  What Book Are You Currently Reading?
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Author Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading?  (Read 396812 times)
traininthedistance
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« Reply #950 on: January 06, 2014, 06:25:18 PM »
« edited: January 08, 2014, 04:40:34 PM by traininthedistance »



For various reasons that I may elaborate on if I have time/others are interested, it's not quite up to her usual high standards, but I'm mostly enjoying it all the same.

One thing that sometimes gets glossed over in discussions of her work is just how deeply liberal Jacobs' thought is, more than she seems to realize at times.  

EDIT:  The last couple chapters actually improve her arguments significantly- but they still have more holes than I'm quite comfortable with, or used to from her.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #951 on: January 06, 2014, 10:28:47 PM »

The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer (1910 translation of the 1907 edition)

An interesting read on the development of the treatment of the historical Jesus during the 18th and 19th centuries and corresponding with it the development of Marcan priority.
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Beet
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« Reply #952 on: January 11, 2014, 01:47:42 AM »

I've been getting into throwaway fiction recently.

The Crocodile by Maurizio de Giovanni
The Clinic by Jonathan Kellerman
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Nathan
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« Reply #953 on: January 11, 2014, 02:08:10 AM »

The Tristram part of Le Morte d'Arthur is so long and getting frankly repetitive.
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TheDeadFlagBlues
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« Reply #954 on: January 11, 2014, 07:35:33 AM »

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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #955 on: January 11, 2014, 02:51:53 PM »

The Spectre of Alexander Wolf, Gaito Gazdanov.
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Paul Kemp
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« Reply #956 on: January 11, 2014, 02:56:20 PM »

I'm looking to finally get into some le Carre. Is it useful or helpful to read them in order?

I'd like to read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (love the movie) but it's le Carre's third book, which features characters from previous novels.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #957 on: January 11, 2014, 03:06:43 PM »

I'm looking to finally get into some le Carre. Is it useful or helpful to read them in order?

Tinker Tailor should be read before Smiley's People or The Honourable Schoolboy (because otherwise they won't quite make sense), but other than that, it's not really essential. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold can certainly be read stand-alone.
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Paul Kemp
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« Reply #958 on: January 11, 2014, 06:10:52 PM »

I'm looking to finally get into some le Carre. Is it useful or helpful to read them in order?

Tinker Tailor should be read before Smiley's People or The Honourable Schoolboy (because otherwise they won't quite make sense), but other than that, it's not really essential. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold can certainly be read stand-alone.

Thanks Al, appreciate it.
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Oldiesfreak1854
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« Reply #959 on: January 11, 2014, 07:40:24 PM »

Just started reading Little Women (by Louisa May Alcott).
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tmthforu94
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« Reply #960 on: January 12, 2014, 11:04:55 PM »

Just started reading Little Women (by Louisa May Alcott).
Let me know how that goes.

A while back I started reading The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan. I just completed the book. Egan gives various accounts from individuals who lived during the Great Depression in the Dust Bowl region. As a native Kansan who had family going through "the worst hard time", I felt I could relate to the book. The book was incredibly dry (lol), but it provided a good historical account of that time period.
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RogueBeaver
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« Reply #961 on: January 12, 2014, 11:12:10 PM »

Just finished Anne Applebaum's Iron Curtain.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #962 on: January 12, 2014, 11:14:45 PM »

The Gospel in Hymns by Albert Bailey

An old 1950 book I got from the library and much more interesting than I thought it would be.  It's not a telling of the gospel story in hymns as I thought from the title, but a history of the English-language church since the break with Rome as exemplified by the hymns written and sung in each period in history.  It's only real fault is that it is six decades out of date.  I'd love to have a new book done in the same style.
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Gustaf
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« Reply #963 on: January 15, 2014, 11:51:42 AM »
« Edited: January 15, 2014, 02:33:03 PM by Gustaf »

Since last post I've read:

The Human Factor
The Honorary Consul
Dubliners
Brighton Rock
The White Tiger

The Human Factor was yet another fantastic Greene and one that for once dared offer some hope to us. It also helped me realize some of his key themes with a handful of truly glorious paragraphs.

The Honorary Consul was good but a notch below, imo. Classic theme of course.

Dubliners was honestly a bit underwhelming. Maybe I didn't get it, but most of the stories didn't really engage me all that much, though some were pretty good.

Brighton Rock was again good, but good God, was it depressing. Emotionally draining and bleak without even a sliver of hope to cling on to.

The White Tiger was a fun, light read. It's sort of an introduction to India and since I already know most of the stuff it wasn't that exciting for me. It's not particularly well-written nor is the story all that engaging, but if you are new to India I guess it could be fun. Got nothing on Rushdie obviously.

--------------------------

I can look back on a year where I read 35 books, so that's a decent count. Currently I'm halfway through The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Rushdie, but I'm taking a break to launch into In Search of Lost Time (I know, right?). Our stupid book club decided, in my absence, that it was a good idea to read it. They also introduced the new rule that anyone who doesn't finish it on time gets banned from getting books from the club in the future. Total stupidity but what can I do?
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Nathan
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« Reply #964 on: January 15, 2014, 12:02:44 PM »

Gustaf, which of the stories in Dubliners did you like?
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Gustaf
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« Reply #965 on: January 15, 2014, 02:34:15 PM »

Gustaf, which of the stories in Dubliners did you like?

I liked the one with the pedophile and the one with elections (nerd am I). And the slightly longer one with the party and piano playing. The one with the prostitute was also decent.
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Atlas Has Shrugged
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« Reply #966 on: January 15, 2014, 03:37:36 PM »

Still reading the first volume of the Years of Lyndon Johnson. Robert Caro has written a hell of a biography. I plan on reading every volume of the series after this.
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Nathan
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« Reply #967 on: January 15, 2014, 05:00:38 PM »

Gustaf, which of the stories in Dubliners did you like?

I liked the one with the pedophile and the one with elections (nerd am I). And the slightly longer one with the party and piano playing. The one with the prostitute was also decent.

The one with the elections and the one with the party and piano playing are the ones that people will usually call the best (John Huston's last movie was a pretty good adaptation of the latter). My favorites are those, the one with the bazaar, and the one with the streetcar accident.
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The world will shine with light in our nightmare
Just Passion Through
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« Reply #968 on: January 16, 2014, 07:41:04 PM »
« Edited: January 16, 2014, 07:42:38 PM by Scott »




For Bible Study, believe it or not.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #969 on: January 16, 2014, 07:57:34 PM »



Picked them up from the library.  Finished the first, which was delightful, and halfway through the second which isn't as satisfying, since Hoff inserts some Eeyore-ish comments of his own into the text of his sequel.  (My impression of their relative merit appears to be generally shared by others.  On the B&N website, the first has 4.5 stars and the second but 3.5 stars.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #970 on: January 27, 2014, 07:42:33 PM »

The Spectre of Alexander Wolf, Gaito Gazdanov.

Finished this ages ago. Anyway, it's a brilliant book and I would recommend it to anyone. Some of our more fashionably radical members might balk at first, given that the author - and so also the first-person narrator - fought for the Whites in the civil war and that the whole book is set in the White Russian émigré community in Paris, but they should look beyond that.
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Rooney
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« Reply #971 on: February 03, 2014, 08:47:29 PM »

The Man who Saved the Union: Ulysses S. Grant in War and Peace by H.W. Brands. This is a full, intriguing biography of a sorely under appreciated American original.
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Хahar 🤔
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« Reply #972 on: February 13, 2014, 10:05:25 PM »
« Edited: February 13, 2014, 10:08:11 PM by Хahar »

The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760 by Richard M. Eaton. It's a fascinating book that details a lot of history about which I know embarrassingly little, but what is most personally relevant to me is its conclusion that the conversion of rural eastern Bengal to Islam in the seventeenth century took place at the same time as the province's forests were turned into arable land. The notion of Bengal (particularly its east) as a frontier region on the edge of Indian civilization is a fascinating one, and I hadn't considered it before.
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Gustaf
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« Reply #973 on: March 05, 2014, 07:38:13 PM »

Finally finished The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Great read, like most Rushdie. Unsure on where to proceed now.
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SWE
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« Reply #974 on: March 21, 2014, 03:54:54 PM »

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