OT: What Are You Reading?

@cstokes4 - just finished Zone One by Colson Whitehead. Slightly hard going because of large amounts of purple prose, but a great story idea. The couple I read before that by JL Bourne - Day by Day Armageddon and Beyond Exile were far better in my view. He’s a serving US military man and the writing has a lot more snap. I just don’t read that type of stuff for the writing, if I want writing I pick up a Dostoevski or sumtin. I’m constantly on the look out for Zed lit btw.

Does audio book count? I just finished listening to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This is a cliché, but the book is so much better than the movie~

I’m going to pick up that book. I have not seen the movie, but the themes it conveys I’ve gathered from the trailers seem like sound sci-fi material, which is essentially an allegory of the here and now. Clearly the author “gets it” and is hoping to teach a younger audience. I did borrow the soundtrack from the library. Great stuff there: The Decembrists, Arcade Fire, etc: bands who also “get it.”

Ken Follett The Pillars of The Earth. A great read and Gives some very interesting insight into medieval europe.

For pleasure: “Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West” by Cormac McCarthy. 25% complete. Great description and atmosphere of times and places in South America, XIX century. The story of characters may be related or compared with problems of contemporary person lifes. Audiobook: “The Sound of Waves” by Yukio Mishima. Nuff said, just for “v” as I like Mishima and japanese authors of XX century.

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House of leaves. By Mark Z Danielewski

I am currently reading “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” by Tom Robbins. I laugh myself stupid with nearly every page. “Jitterbug Perfume,” also by T. Robbins is excellent as well. I am also reading an erotic novel called “Batch 17 - The Ciego Diaries,” which is in truth a send-up/mockery of the hard-boiled detective genre. Love erotica with snuff taking. Favorite reading beverage: Strong black coffee.

the second game of thrones one, plus one about zombies and one by the donnie brasco cop. clearly, high literature is important to me

I am just finishing re-reading A Game of Thrones…bought the rest of the series on Kindle finally and needed to refresh my memory since it had been awhile since I read the first book. I have to say this book is brilliant. I had forgotten how good it actually was. Should be starting the second book by the end of the weekend.

Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow (Peter Høeg) awesome

Gavin Menzies - 1421 the Year the Chinese Discovered America. A very interesting and informative read.

@BigSnoot McSnuff - ‘thrones’ is awesome. What a series, I mean each one is about the size of the LOTR, for heavens sake! Anyone writing anything? I’m 30,000 words in to a project I’ve been kicking around for a while. Writing certainly increases your respect of published authors.

A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich

Starting to read Gunfighters, Highwaymen and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier by Roger D. McGrath and a bunch of Chinese academic papers on various historical topics of Chinese history (those written in Simplified Chinese are killing my eyes…)

@itsuke, I’ve heard a lot of good things about McGrath though I’ve only read short articles by him in Chronicles magazine. What do you think of him? I’m studying good old-fashioned liberalism. I just finished Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government”, J.S. Mill’s “On Liberty”, and am now reading “German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century”.

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

Still on my Stephen King kick. Christine currently.

Just finished reading: Singing to the Plants, A guide to Shamanism in the upper amazon. Stephen V. Beyer I have to say this is THE best book I have ever read on the subject of Shamanism. It was interesting to learn that the Shaman isn’t always a loved and cherished member of the tribe. It is scholarly yet very accessible to read. Very entertaining and educational. Current read: Liber Null & Psychonaut, an intro to Chaos Magic. Peter J. Carroll I have studied the Occult for many years and Peter Carroll is always a good read. Next up: DMT: The Spirit Molecule

@Dunnyveg McGrath’s writing is highly readable, and the book is packed with quite a few vivid descriptions of gunfights, Indian fights, brutal beatings (with or without the aid of alcohol) and lynchings…exactly the kind of violent stuff one expected to find in the Old West. Since McGrath’s book is an academic study, it offers to explain how this image of frontier life as violent and brutal might not be always the case. In fact, he said life in 1980s Amercia (that was the time when he wrote the book) was more lawless and violent.

@itsuke, thanks. Since I live in what was the old west (Texas), I can attest that some areas were very violent, and then became safe and remain that way to this day. Before the Civil War, my county was a no man’s land for outlaws and desperados, and so dangerous it took the Texas Rangers several years to clean the criminals out once this area was opened for settlement. Today it’s mostly ranches, and so safe most people don’t even lock their doors (there aren’t many places left like this). I will have to get the book.