OT: What Are You Reading?

bob - William Burroughs is pretty good. I’ve read The Western Lands, Junky, and Naked Lunch. I tend to think of him as someone who paints with words rather than a writer. Today I’m reading Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald for American Lit Class.

Indian history :o) And I recently finished the trilogy by Stieg Larsson, and Saturday went to see the first volume, which has been made a film “Men who hates women” - absolutely awesome movie!!

On my bedside table is of course - “A Pinch of Snuff” - a Dalziel & Pascoe novel. :o)

Groo the Wanderer

The 12 Caesars by Seutonius

Groo is awesome.

This discussion.

Glad someone knows Groo. Thom Hartmann is pretty good too.

If by reading you mean ‘in the middle of’ … I’m reading David Copperfield, by Dickens, ‘girls’ by nic helman, The Wizard by Gene Wolfe, and… probably a couple other ones. My tendency is to read a hundred pages or so of a book, switch to another and read some of that, then another, and then maybe read a whole book, and then a month later come back to what I read a hundred pages of. As far as actively reading, The Knight of the Maison-Rouge by Alexander Dumas (my three favorite authors are D’s: Dickens, Dostoevsky, Dumas).

Know what you mean gilgawulf, I tend to have about four on the go at any given time, usually three history books and a modern novel. The novel at the moment is ‘Under enemy colours’ by Sean Thomas Russell - Napoleonic era along the C.S Forrester lines. Dickens, try as I might, is an author I just can’t get into. The only one I’ve finished is, rather predictably, ‘A Christmas Carol’. I do however love ‘Crime and Punishment’. The bleak Russian spirit has always appealed to me.

You know, I don’t think I got into Dickens all that much until I found out that Dostoevsky liked him. I think after that I started to see a bit more of the humor in Dickens, a similar humor to what I find in Dostoevsky (albeit perhaps a bit less bipolar and/or prone to fits of despair). How is C.S. Forrester? Is it all swashbuckling and the like, or more focused on historicity? Because, as my interest in Dumas should attest, I’m a sucker for swashbuckling tales of adventures on the high seas &tc.

Forrester - good. I’m also in the middle of the 4th Horatio Hornblower novel (finished Groo last night). Yes, very swashbuckling type stuff, but a bit more character too. If you get a chance there was a series of TV movies a few years ago based on these books. All good.

Hunter S. thompson Fear and loathing in america

Brisngr --Paolini Effective Speaking --course text

I’m currently Re-reading a short western by Louis Lamour.

I’m also reading ‘The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao’ by Junot Diaz - great book; probably even better if I spoke Spanish, but what the hey.

Didn’t Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons write & draw a lot of the old Doctor Who comics in the '70s? I have a bunch of those.

I loved V for Vendetta. That’s what got me into Alan Moore a couple years ago. I’ve read the first volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and I liked it a lot. I’ll check out From Hell. Another comic I liked a lot was Y: The Last Man. Anyone read that?

I couldn’t agree more! Gibbons was very much a product of the “Enlightenment” period (what a mis-labelling of a period!) Typical Occidental and totally (I believe willfully also) ignorant of the Eastern Orthodox Empire. Anything pagan, anything Latin or ancient Greek would do for him as the standard of cultural measurement. Yes Galen was spectacular indeed. As a matter of fact, herbal medicine like Valerian and St. John’s Wort was known in Byzantium and before - and both are becoming increasingly popular.

And they did a mean flame thrower too…