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 396948 times)
Oldiesfreak1854
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« Reply #1125 on: December 07, 2014, 09:36:24 PM »

Just started reading Little Women (by Louisa May Alcott).
Let me know how that goes.
I finished it at the end of August; I loved every minute of it.  I don't care if it's a "girls' book"; it's a classic for a reason.
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Tetro Kornbluth
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« Reply #1126 on: December 08, 2014, 07:31:46 PM »

Here's my big fat current reading list - busy till at least the end of January I suspect

Currently Reading: Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold: Europe's Conquest of Indigenous People - Mark Cocker
The Mammoth Book of Native Americans - various (pretty much finished this except for a long captivity narrative which I'd rather read when I have a lot of time free)

On the list:
Debt: The First 5,000 Years - David Graeber
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat - Oliver Sacks
Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East - Mary Laven
Europe and the People Without History - Eric Wolf
Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche - Ethan Watters
The Race Gallery: The Return of Racial Science - Marek Kohn
Talking to the Enemy: Violent Extremism, Sacred Values, and What It Means to be Human - Scott Atran
The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 - Robert Bickers

I'm going to have to move onto Debt soon as it is a library book, but after that I'm not sure what order I should read them in. Any suggestions/recommendations?
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checkers
Not Great Bob
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« Reply #1127 on: December 09, 2014, 07:40:56 AM »

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. After that I'll be working through a big stack of books that I accumulated as birthday presents recently.
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Rooney
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« Reply #1128 on: December 10, 2014, 08:56:19 PM »

The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On by John Stauffer. A wonderful treatment of a great American song.
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H. Ross Peron
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« Reply #1129 on: December 10, 2014, 09:58:49 PM »

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TNF
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« Reply #1130 on: December 15, 2014, 12:40:24 AM »

Finished a few days ago:



Finishing up now:



Next up:



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OSR stands with Israel
Computer89
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« Reply #1131 on: December 16, 2014, 12:24:51 AM »

The NAtional Debt by Robert Kelly
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Gustaf
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« Reply #1132 on: December 20, 2014, 10:25:56 AM »

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. After that I'll be working through a big stack of books that I accumulated as birthday presents recently.

What did you think? I'm a big Rushdie fan but that wasn't one of my favourites.
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Murica!
whyshouldigiveyoumyname?
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« Reply #1133 on: December 22, 2014, 11:25:10 PM »

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Earnest Hemingway. And Yes I somehow haven't read it yet.
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Nathan
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« Reply #1134 on: December 26, 2014, 07:45:00 AM »

I've just started Froth on the Daydream by Boris Vian, one of my Christmas presents. It sure is...something. 'The kitchen mice liked to dance to the sounds made by the rays of the sun as they bounced off the taps, and then run after the little bubbles that the rays burst into when they hit the ground like sprays of golden mercury.' 'He decorated the centre of the table with a pharmaceutical jar in which a pair of embryonic chickens seemed to be dancing Nijinsky's choreography for The Spectre of the Rose.' 'But you know I never read anything but Jean Pulse Heartre.' (Biographical note: Apparently the author's wife cheated on him with Sartre.) Those sentences happened. And I'm only in the first chapter!
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TNF
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« Reply #1135 on: December 26, 2014, 09:33:04 AM »

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Libertarian Socialist Dem
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« Reply #1136 on: December 27, 2014, 07:49:44 PM »

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
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politicus
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« Reply #1137 on: December 28, 2014, 10:37:15 AM »


Good one. Do you enjoy it?
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anvi
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« Reply #1138 on: December 28, 2014, 11:23:21 AM »


I loved this book too.  Hilarious and revealing.  I didn't like the follow-up 'Tis very much, but, especially given what I do for a living, really appreciated Teacher Man that came next.
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checkers
Not Great Bob
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« Reply #1139 on: December 29, 2014, 04:00:14 AM »
« Edited: December 29, 2014, 04:07:29 AM by beatrice »

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. After that I'll be working through a big stack of books that I accumulated as birthday presents recently.

What did you think? I'm a big Rushdie fan but that wasn't one of my favourites.

Loved it. It was my first of his books though, so I imagine that a lot of what I liked so much about it - the prose, the imaginativeness of the magic realism and how that integrated with the politics of the region - are general Rushdie, so maybe it would have been more disappointing had I come to it after reading his other works. What didn't you like about it?
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Mopsus
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« Reply #1140 on: December 30, 2014, 12:07:26 PM »

I recently picked up a translation of P. Boissonnade's Life and Work in Medieval Europe from a Salvation Army store (it seemed interesting enough to invest $.65 in). Has anyone here read it?
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Hash
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« Reply #1141 on: December 30, 2014, 02:27:38 PM »

I bought Halperin and Heilemann's Double Down book on the 2012 election a few weeks ago, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Game Change was excellent in 2008, so I definitely wanted to read their latest one.
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Libertarian Socialist Dem
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« Reply #1142 on: December 30, 2014, 03:52:52 PM »


Loving every page of it, it's a classic tragicomedy.
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TNF
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« Reply #1143 on: December 31, 2014, 11:19:28 AM »

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afleitch
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« Reply #1144 on: January 02, 2015, 04:44:40 PM »

Just read the very short Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru by Kenji Miyazawa.
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Nathan
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« Reply #1145 on: January 02, 2015, 04:50:22 PM »

Just read the very short Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru by Kenji Miyazawa.

!!!!!!!

What did you think? Miyazawa is one of my favorites.
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H. Ross Peron
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« Reply #1146 on: January 02, 2015, 05:21:56 PM »

Speaking of Japanese literature currently reading Botchan by Umeji Soseki.
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Nathan
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« Reply #1147 on: January 02, 2015, 05:37:32 PM »

Speaking of Japanese literature currently reading Botchan by Umeji Soseki.

Nastume Soseki. Umeji Sasaki is the translator. (Botchan's an absolute delight. If you like it maybe also try Wagahai wa neko de aru.)
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Vega
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« Reply #1148 on: January 02, 2015, 05:40:01 PM »

Thanks to Mikado, I'm reading Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain by John Darwin.
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afleitch
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« Reply #1149 on: January 02, 2015, 05:46:02 PM »

Just read the very short Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru by Kenji Miyazawa.

!!!!!!!

What did you think? Miyazawa is one of my favorites.

It was lovely. I was sent it by e-mail; it's a 'good' translation as I don't know Japanese and I trust the opinion of the person who sent it to me!

I didn't read it to discern what are obviously multiple syncretic metaphors. That takes the fun out of reading the story. So I read it at face value, then read it again. I think there are a number of different  ways to look at the story and I think that's wonderful. I suppose I do get a bit of free thought and humanism from it and I suppose I should outline why.

Campanella (which must surely be a nod to the Campanella who 'inadvertently' (wink wink) made one of the greatest cases for free thought of his era) is beautifully written, even if there's very little we know about him other than his immense kindness. Given the name, we seem to be looking at two sides of the same person in Campanella and Giovanni. I see a bit of 'free thinking' within Giovanni, especially when he is awed by the fossil hunter. The 'Christians' seem to depart the train at the 'Northern Cross' and the Southern Cross which is interesting because the Southern Cross was imposed as a sign by a Christian west and Cygnus has at various times been co-opted but deep down is linked to the story of Phaethon and Cycnus; the themes of drowning and brotherly devotion coming through there. That might just be me though.

The exchange between Giovanni and Kaoru on the nature of god is very curt. I laughed as it's essentially a shortened but word for word version of what I talked about on the forum a few weeks ago. Giovanni seems more interested in the journey rather than what each stop is, but he was sorry to say goodbye to them. Campanella does not have the same ticket, but he never get's off the train. He never takes any of the stops. He's happy for the company and he vanishes, blissfully it seems in the 'nothingness' of the coal sack. Every end, every happiness, every 'duty' is on that train and it keeps going.

So it is what it is. And it was beautiful.
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