Ok Folks,besides snuffhouse what are you reading,im currently reading my favourite author Stephen King and the book is Duma Key. Maybe you have a favourite book/snuff combie.With this current read im finding toque bourbon and Jim Beam black to be very agreeable with me.It dont get much better than this for me. Next book for me will likely be Charles Dickens David Copperfield. Simon

Cool, I’m a huge Stephen King fan…I think possibly my favourite read was Salem’s Lot, or maybe Bag of Bones. At the moment I’m reading… English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby.

WEB Griffin, Death and Honor and FA Hayek, The Road To Serfdom.

Salems lot and B of B are both great reads,i have read all bar his latest After sunset but im not keen on hardbacks so i have to wait that bit longer for the new ones lol. If you haven’t read the talisman i highly recommend it.Co-Written with peter straub and is more Horror/Fantasy than some of his others.I was snivelling in my snuff hanky at the end of it lol. Simon

currently read the snuff list! Though the book I’ve been reading in my spare time is “nova Express” by uncle bill (william Burroughs). Great story. Oddly clove snuff seems to go with it the best. Just finished reading “again dangerous visions” which is a collection of short science fiction stories that kick ass.

I’m reading several books at the moment - the one I have with me is ‘Moab Is My Washpot’ by Stephen Fry, The World’s Greeatest Living Englishman.

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…

I’m reading more Groo the Wanderer. (also listened to Rush, took snuff and had a lot of honey in my tea, bob. But I’m out of Tick comics to read)

ooh! Greekfire!

I just reserved a copy of “Battle Cry of Freedom” Watching “The Blue and The Grey” has put me in the mood.

The new Stoker’s Catalog

lol, nice

I hope I get the new catalog. I didnt order anything from the first two they sent me, but i was planning on it. I think some companies take you off their list if you don’t order anything. Not to say that stokers is like that. And I suppose its still a bit early. I just got done reading a book called Water for Elephants for lit class. Pretty good read. Next I’m gonna read The Nose by Nicoli Gogol. I was in San Francisco last week and our hotel was by the SF museum of modern art. An artist named William Kentridge had an exhibition and there was one really cool film piece based on The Nose. It was very cool. The Nose is on google books and only 40 pages or so, so what the hey.

David Gemmel, I currently have two of his set aside for a special occasions since I don’t want to finish them too fast.

Turns out there is a lot of mention of snuff in The Nose. "Should you care for a pinch of this? Snuff can dissipate both headache and low spirits. Nay, it is good for hemorrhoids as well.” hmm can’t find the insert link function http://h42day.100megsfree5.com/texts/russia/gogol/nose.html

I recieved the Winter catalog from Stokers last week. I flip through it almost daily. If I still dipped, I would pick up a tub of that pinching tobacco in the butternut flavor. So cheap, but probably better than anything I could get in a store.

I’ve just picked up Studs Terkel’s “Working”. Fascinating. It’s a collection of at least 120 interviews from the people that made up the american work force in the early 70s; old coal miner types, paperboys, stewardesses, cadillac salesmen, etc. Its amazing to see how nearly all the participants clearly and humorously percieve the inhumanity and meaninglessness of their bread and butter. I HIGHLY recommend this one.

cstokes4, the Stokers Loose Leaf chew is in my opinion the best available. The flavor is true & lasts a long time.

Re-reading David Copperfield, I had forgotten how many snuff mentions there were in that book. I know many consider him a bit too descriptive and wordy, but I do find once I get into any of his classics I have a hard time putting them down. He was one of the best as far as character development goes.

Love lovecraft. Not many writers can get away with the use of the word undescribable horror so often.

Aside from my stable diet of Japanese mangas, my current books are The Diary of a Nobody (penguin classics) and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (penguin classics).

Am studying the political/ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka these days…

Labels of all my snuff boxes/tins/bottles

I just purchased the first three volumes of the Forgotten realms series: “The Legend of Drizzt” by R. A. Salvatore. I will crack open the first volume tonight and if past experiences serve me right, I won’t be putting it down until I discover that I have reached the last page.

Reading to myself: Atlas Shrugged…for the third time. Ullyses by James Joyce…for the umpteeth time…I love Molly Bloom’s soliloquy at the end. The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O’Connor. On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Reading out loud to some friends: To Kill a Mockingbird. My next book to read will be Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell; with no other books until I finish it.

Right now I’m reading Tom Robbins’ novel “Skinny legs and all.” Just finished Christopher Moore’s “Coyote Blue” on Thursday. You know, I love this thread, but I just saw an article on MSN today that said something like 58% of non-college grads and something like 42% of college grads haven’t read a book since high school or college, respectively. I think that is pretty sad.

I’m currently reading: Fiction: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (a farcical comedy about armageddon) Non-fiction: A Polite and Commercial People (the New Oxford History of England volume covering the period from 1727 to 1783) Just Finished: The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home (graphic novel based on the Stephen King series) About to start: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition 100-600 AD by Jaroslav Pelikan (volume one in a history of the development of Christian theology)

tybalt , I see you are a history buff too~~ snuffegnugen , I think that article you read has some truth in it. TV and the internet have a lot to do with the decline of reading.

@itsuke: Yes, I’m a bit of a history buff. At one time I had contemplated going into academics, and had even gone so far as completing an M.A. in history before I realized that the job prospects in academics left something to be desired. Although I’m in a different line of work now, I still enjoy reading history in my spare time (mostly English history prior to the 20th century). Although I enjoy reading fiction as well, I’ve often found that, to paraphrase the cliche, truth is often stranger (and more entertaining) than fiction.

Reading Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon. Only about a hundred pages into it, so I’m not sure what to make of it. At this point, it’s rather confusing, but I’m thinking there may be some sort of resolution much later that will warrant a second read. Have The Blood of Elves, by Andrzej Sapkowski next in my queue, along with The Histories of Herodotus. Being a student, I find that I actually get much more reading done when I’m away from university. About Dostoevsky, I have I a love/hate relationship. He spent the majority of Crime and Punishment creating a very accurate depiction of humanity, and then I felt that Raskolnikov’s last few moves were just a total 180 on all of his previous traits and actions. I really felt as if Dostoevsky sold himself short to sneak in a little word about the saving power of Jesus. Anyone else get that?

tybalt , aahh, I am an M.A. student reading history. I also hope to teach history in a college setting someday. What you said about job prospects…I know it all to well. But to be honest, I can’t imagine myself doing anything else, guess I am screwed.

Itsuke: I was thinking about switching my major from bio to history, but I simply cannot stand kids, and the only jobs I could get around here would be as high school history teachers, or maybe a university professor. Still, I hardly have patience enough to deal with 20 year-olds, I doubt I could put up with high school kids every day.

@snuffegnugen Have you read any other books by Tom Robbins? I have read them just about all of them and I love his books. I got turned on to him when my college roommate had to read Another Roadside Attraction and write a paper on it. She did not get the book at all. So, I read it and wrote her paper. Yes, I know that is a bad thing to do. I might just have to pull out that book and read it again.

Have just finished reading ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ for the nth time. Currently reading ‘Necropolis - London and it’s Dead’ by Catherine Arnold. Macabre and fascinating.

I’m reading An Introduction to Visual C++

Just finished Mircea Eliade’s ‘The Sacred & The Profane.’ Currently working on ‘She’ (H. Rider Haggard), ‘The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles’ (Hutton), ‘When They Severed Earth From Sky’ (Elizabeth and Paul Barber), ‘The Great Plague’ (Stephen Porter), ‘Synchronicity’ (Allan Combs and Mark Holland), and ‘In Defense of Women’ (Mencken). All are rereads except for Haggard and Mencken. I keep a pile going on my little porch-nook, and begin an evening with the more scholarly volumes, working my way down to the simpler ones as the night progresses and my mind becomes more tired and/or inebriated.

I usually have about three books on the go at any one time. Ive just finished ‘Azincourt’ by Bernard Cornwell and a biography of Thomas Cromwell. Im now re-reading ‘Snuff and Snuff Boxes’ by Hugh McCausland.

And I’ve just started Azincourt!

The Stand by Stephen King. Stefan

I’m just getting into The Histories, by Herodotus. In the last three or four days, I’ve finished Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon, and The Blood of Elves, by Andrzej Sapkowski. Gravity’s Rainbow was quite enjoyable, if a bit mind-boggling. I suspect it’ll warrant a rereading in another 10 years, when I might catch more of the many references. The Blood of Elves was also decent, but being a prequel, it left me wanting more, and not too much of his work has been translated yet, from what I understand.

If you like the classics have you tried ‘The twelve Caesars’ by Seutonius? Very fascinating insights into what made the old despots tick.

No, I haven’t read it, but I was thinking about picking it up some time. At the moment, I have enough of a backlog of books to read, that I can’t really justify buying more.

I just started the 3rd book in Orson Scott Card’s Homecoming Series. GOOD STUFF!!!

and i am re-reading the Wheel of Time series. The final book comes out in a few months. Only 20 thousant pages to get through by then! LMAO.

I am currently reading an excellent book by Bruce Hood title ‘supersense’ this book is about why we have (whether right or wrong) supernatural beliefs and explains the science behind it. Any Skeptics here should check this out. I am also reading ‘Dead Until Dark’ by Charlaine Harris, this is one of the books the vampire show TrueBlood is based on.

These days, it’s all technical handbooks, regulatory guidelines, and crap like that. For enjoyment, I find myself occasionally turning to Hobbes’ translation of Thucydides. Very insightful stuff, and, of course, Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy.

Chronicles of The Cape Fear River by James Sprunt

Noam Chomsky - Rouge States. It’s taking some getting through.

The Analects, Mencius, and Xunzi, all confucian classics. No, I am not reading them for pleasure (hell no). It’s just that I have an overdue paper left over from the spring semester that must be completed…

@Spam: Chomsky is a love-hate thing for me. I’m a fairly liberal guy, but sometimes Chomsky seems to get lost in this academic world, and makes statements that kind of make sense, but aren’t really true in the real world. I’ve got the CD interview of his, “War Crimes and Imperial Fantasies.” I find it interesting, and I’d agree with him that America really does have an empire, although not in the traditional sense of occupying countries as a metropolitan power, but in the way we throw around our military/economic might to try and crush or dominate every country that doesn’t agree with our leadership. Latin America is a great example of this, where the US encourages democracy, and then immediately denounces a country when they democratically elect a leader who won’t screw over his country to benefit the US, like how we treat Evo Morales. Same interview though, and he claims Nixon is guilty of issuing orders for genocide. I understand where he’s coming from, but genocide has become a very charged word. Right now, I’m reading “The Complete Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges.” Interesting book.

I get Chomsky.

Perhaps I missed the mark with how I was saying things. I love him, for the most part. He’s one of a few scholars who actually aren’t on Israel’s side in the Israel-Palestine conflict. If you’re like me, and you share that stance in the US, half the people who hear you say it will almost immediately call you an anti-Semite. It’s just that about once every other publication, he says something that’s just begging to be taken out of context, like his quote about Nixon. Nixon told Kissinger, “I want anything that flies on anything that moves,” or something to that affect. He was talking about a bombing campaign in Burma, I think, where the Viet Cong were crossing the border to smuggle supplies to other parts of the country. Chomsky said it was tantemount to issuing orders for genocide. If you take the orders and the word genocide in their broadest meanings, yes, it was. Nixon wanted to kill everything and everyone in that area. But it wasn’t the sort of program like Hitler implemented in Germany, Pol Pot ran in Burma, what occured in Rwanda, or Darfur. He wasn’t targeting a specific group, and saying, “These guys! Wipe all of them out.” It was a stupid order to issue, and the value of such a program is questionable at best. But what should wind up on the sleeve the disc comes in? “Nixon gives orders for total genocide! We have the proof.” Something like that. It’s those sort of things that the context is vital for. He says some controversial stuff, and almost always has some sort of proof to back it up. But 19 year old gits who fancy themselves savvy and revolutionary tend to find that one quote, and just run with it, without reading any more. In the interview, turns out the whole thing was just an example talking about how the Nuremberg trials had a big stumbling block in that they couldn’t find written copies of orders like that. Yet my father notices that one quote on the dust jacket, and flips out, then goes off on a lengthy argument when I show him the newspaper articles to back it up. He also can’t be bother to listen to the interview, because the thing’s two hours long. I suppose what I really want is to run into someone in real life who also reads Chomsky’s books, and not just the catchy blurbs. If I could talk about him without having to immediately go on the defensive because some guy fancies himself to be some kind of 24 year old intelligentsia and throws out provocative remarks without anything to back them up, and then tries to crawl down my throat about something I say because he doesn’t understand it, it would probably be a very interesting conversation. I also really need to find a university that fits the old idea of it; a place where people go to learn and discuss ideas. At my school, you’d probably be considered a heavy reader if you glanced at the Budweiser label before drinking it. And that just goes to show, they’ve also got no taste in beer.

I see what you mean, and you said a mouthful, shikitohno. I don’t want to go into politcal discourse here, but just one thing I want to mention is that I thought Pol Pot was Cambodian.

I’ve been reading light hearted books this summer while I had some downtime on fire assignments. RIght now I’m reading Christopher Moore’s “Island of the sequined love nun.”

I think you’re right about Pol Pot. My knowledge of Asia barely extends past a brief understanding of Japanese history and politics. Something I need to read up on. Perhaps we just need to find Chomsky some publishers that don’t write up such scandalous blurbs for the outside of his releases.

Controversy sells books. Shock the public with a “what? no way!” response and they buy it. The publisher doesn’t really care if you read it, just that you buy it.

Yeah, it’s true. They just seriously misrepresent the guy when they do that. He’s much more calm and level-headed than those remarks make him seem.

“The Siege of Vienna” by John Stoye…

Oh and Søren Kierkegaard “Dagbøger i Udvalg 1834-1846”

“Assegai” by Wilbur Smith. My son is in the publishing business and we get all our books for cost less 20%.

“The Memoirs of Francois Vidocq.” Vidocq was a criminal turned detective who became the chief of the Paris police force and was supposedly the inspiration for Poe’s seminal detective stories. Just started this one, but it’s interesting reading thus far…

C. August Dupin, yes? And he in turn was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. I read all of those years ago. They were a lot of fun.

@Xander: That’s right. I re-read the Poe stories every now and then, and they’re always enjoyable. It’s been awhile since I read the Holmes canon, but it might be about time to revisit them.

“Sick Puppy” by Carl Hiaasen

“The Associate” by John Grisham

A crazy article in a back copy of nat geo about future textiles. Damn it’s amazing to think of how much technology has jumped and how much more it will. Oh and pol pot was definatly in Cambodia. I know because I just rewatched “swimming to cambodia”.

Just finished “Cocaine Nights” by JG Ballard and now feasting my eyes on “The Matlock Paper” by Robert Ludlum. After reading an early posting on the G20, I am sure the militant anarchists among you will find JG Ballard somewhat comforting. xx

Jg Ballard is awesome.

@ld, I read “The Matlock Paper” twice. I love Robert Ludlum’s books

“Practical Demon Keeping” -Christopher MooreChristopher Moore

The portrait of Dorian Gray by Wilde. Just finished it - utter garbage. I read the transcript of his trial in the library at Scotland Yard, he certainly talked himself into a prsion sentence, poor guy.

Fishing for Stars by Bryce Courtenay

“Basket Case” by Carl Hiaasen

Book 7 of the Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan)

The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner and other collected short stories by Alan Sillitoe.

The on-line book “Snuff Yesterday And Today” that toffeenose found. See This Thread

war and peace for the second time.

Lord Hornblower by C.S. Forrester

News at the moment. namely http://www.texasguntalk.com/forums/politics-sponsored-dcortez/10938-shooter-advised-dohbama-transition-new-post.html as far as books go, im reading Manly P. Hall’s “Ancient Mysteries Of The Free Masons” may re-read William Gibsons ‘Neuromancer’ next.

@BB1: I loved “The Chamber” have you read it?

“What Every Body Is Saying”, An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People. Written by Joe Navarro with Marvin Karlins, Ph.D.

Snuffhouse.org

Probably going to start on “Ulysses” soon, since I haven’t read any of James Joyce yet. “Sult” by Knut Hamsen will be my side project.

The Urantia Book. A new age take on life, science, religion, philosophy, life after death etc. Written by unknown authors perpetrating to be spirit beings.Quite contraversial but extremely interesting. If it is true I want to die now lol. Stefan

@ shikitohno: “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” is good to read before “Ulysses”. Its sort of a prelude. Its a challenging read on its own, but I found a lot of myself in that book when I was a younger man. I have not yet challenged brave Ulysses.

I’m reading… The art of electronics By Paul Horowitz, Winfield Hill It’s a little bit hectic

Tom Clancy - Sum Of All Fears

Stephen Kings: Under the Dome! The Wiz!

james joyce is my favorite fart sniffer and it"s because he is an amazing writer. I wish I could remember the word I used to use to describe his writing. It basicly means something along the line of reveal the divine through hinting at it through the mundane. The most blatant example of this is in my opnion is the story “grace” in dubliners. In my opnion you should start with Finnegans wake it will stretch your brain out, plus it’s one of my favorite all time books. Up there with “The Atrocity Exhibition” for mind bending read time.

Oh I’am reading the only story in Again Dangerous Visions I’ve not read yet. Great collection for the fan of more adult science fiction (when I say adult I mean deep and meaningfull not porno.)

Bob, you can’t do that to me. I was thinking there would be some hot action in there involving a robot and a human. Kidding, of course. When did adult become a byword for gratuitous sex, by the way? Many “adult” titles seem like the fantasy of a teenage boy, and not the least bit of the intellectual challenge I’m hoping for when I pick up such a book. Planning on finishing A Savage War of Peace today, as I’ve got little else to do. Next, it’s either Zaregoto, or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Yeah there is a diffrence from adult and adult only. Reminds me of a calvin and hobbes where calvin is looking at list of movies and then says something about how one says it contains adult situations and asks hobbes what that means. Hobbes say it must mean it has things like doing taxs and going to work.

Henry Miller is another good one for finding the wheels and levers for the universe, all while ripping around the brothels of Paris and sleeping hungry on park benches…

I’ll have to check him out then. Never even thought much of reading him but now that sounds worthwhile.

Plaasmoord by Karin Brynhardt

Finishing up Citizen Soldier by Steve Ambrose and starting We Were Soldiers Once and Young

‘Jupiter’s Travels’ by Ted Simon. ( nice read if you are into motorcycles.)

“Crystal Cave” Mary Stewart

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris and The Art of Steam Heating by Dan Holohan.

The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

@Bart “‘Jupiter’s Travels’ by Ted Simon” I’ve got that book, its not had a read yet, but i’ll get onto it at some point

Journey to the End of Night by celine. a great book!

this would be a nice little book collection http://www.tankmagazine.com/tankbooks/tankbooks02.html . sorry dunno how to do a clickable link

Hellraiser Ginger Baker, really good read so far.

Killing Hitler by Roger Moorhouse - bought it like a week ago, quite deep and thick book that tries to describe all the details and the plans of the Hitler’s assasinations. I would recommend this book to any fan of history or literature of fact as the author has very deep knoweldge of the 2nd WW era.

“Climbing Mount Improbable” by Richard Dawkins. Maybe not that interesting if you aren’t into biology like I am, but certainly a good read if you would like a more plausible explanation of the diversity of species and life on our planet than that offered by creationism.

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. really wish I could read Latin so I could read this in the original language

@snuff_noob: The Divine Comedy was written in Old Italian, not Latin. It was once of the first widely celebrated religious poems in vernacular instead of Latin.

Provos,the IRA and Sinn Fein by peter taylor,i must say im relly enjoying this,interesting to see it from their point of view rather than what i have always been fed by ‘the british side’.At least for me it helps me understand why they did some of the things they did. simon

@ simongrant: I recommend the works of Tim Pat Coogan, if you want some more.

@ simongrant also bandit country is a good book . the history of the ira in south armagh

Thanks for the recommendations guys,i will certainly be looking into those. Cheers simon

Been reading 'Discovering the God Who Is" by R.C. Sproul. Takes a Scriptural and philisophical aproach to answering people’s questions about God.

Kafka on the Shore -Murakami Dead Sea Scrolls -Wise A Death in Vienna -Silva (audio)

“Philisophical”? Boy, I iz smart.

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

The last in the Troy series by David Gemell.

Currently reading The Tommyknockers (again). Simon

“Fearful Symmetry”- by A. Zee. If you like popular books on Physics it’s a pretty good read. The author does a decent job explaining how the concept of symmetry has led us from classical newtonian physics to modern theoretical physics. The only drawback is the lack of mathematical explanation. The concepts are all well explained in written format, but if you want to fully comprehend some of these topics (e.g. Lorentz invariance), it helps to follow the equations, which you have to go get from other sources because they are not in the text or appendix on this edition.

Spontaneous Evolution by Bruce Lipton & Steve Bhaerman, also Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Both good reads…

I just finished The White Mountains and The City of Gold and Lead first and second books of the Tripods trilogy. I loved these books as a kid. I haven’t looked at them in 15-20 years. It’s been fun reading them to the wife too. Its all new to her.

Just finished Catch 22 again…love that book. BTW, TC, I loved Weaveworld.

I’m starting the Letters of Pliny. a fascinating insight into ancient Rome.

“Dagon and Other Macabre Tales” by H.P. Lovecraft.

I just wrapped up 2 series at the same time both Gemell. The Riganti and the Drenai

I’m currently reading Empire: How Britain made the mordern world by Niall Ferguson. Great read.

re re re re re reading the Dresden files.

a little light fluff reading - Jailbait Zombie by Mario Acevedo btw I’m a huge zombie nut

So very many wonderful books mentioned here. Some mentioned David Gemell whom I love. I was very sorry to hear of his passing, his books have given me much joy over the years and I mourn that he will write no more. His wife finished the last of the Troy series after his death, in my opinion she did well with it. As for theology RC Sproul is a great author and I have read a few of his books. I just finished a book from a new author Liane Merciel called The River Kings’ Road: A Novel of Ithelas. It was very entertaining. I have just started Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight by Karl Rove

I am far sadder in Druss’s legacy passing than when I heard Robert Jordan passed. I enjoy the pi vein that started with Laural K. Hamelton in the Anita Blake series… Until it turned into crap and soft core creepy porn. Another Fav author besides Jim Butcher is the ever ancient Piers Anthony, Glad he came back into print and his Sos the rope series and sci fi are like no other. The new kid on the block with a bunch of stuff that has bowled me over is Kim Harrison and the hollows.

Experimental Methods in RF Design by Wes Hayward W7ZOI 2003 American Radio Relay League http://w7zoi.net/abstr.pdf

My CCNA Books from cisco press

Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Saints by Fr. Alban Butler (written 1756-59, final edition 1779-80), Introduction to the Devout Life (for the third time) by St. Francis de Sales (written 1609, final edition 1619), various works of St. Alphonsus Liguori (lived 1696-1787) on and off each day. I have a lot of other works for my philosophy classes at school, as follows: Political Philosophy (second half of the semester, after covering the classics): Leviathan (Hobbes), Two Treatises on Government & On Property (Locke), Social Contract (Rousseau), Communist Manifesto (Marx/Engels), Rerum Novarum (Pope Leo XIII). Epistemology (second half of semester, after covering the classics): Meditations (Descartes), An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Hume), Critique of Pure Reason (Kant), Methodological Realism (Gilson). In literature we’re reading Dubliners by James Joyce. We just finished Paradise Lost by Milton, and the first half of the semester we read the Divine Comedy by Dante. We also read Beowulf but didn’t spend much time on it. I’m not really reading the history texts because they are a waste of time, but we’re studying basically from the revolutions of 1848 through the end of WWI right now in Western Civilizations, which has been pretty interesting.

Picked up James Thurber Carnival today.

Flipped through the Irish Times. Might try the crossword later.

I’ve just started reading War and Peace, which I’ve been meaning to get around to for while since I bought a copy, and in the first few chapters in a Countess who is the subject of a few chapters takes snuff out of a snuff-box the whole time while she is being visited by some guests. It’s funny how I might not have noticed such a reference to snuff just two years ago, but now it pops out of the page at me. So far a good read too, which figures, since it’s supposed to be one of the best (and epically-giant) novels written to date.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Well, to be honest, I am listening the audio version of the book) The heroine is not someone you want to mess with…

Biography of Maximillien Robesspierre

I been reading Terry Goodkind’s Sword Of Truth series (Currently book 4 Temple Of The Winds).

Chaos- by Jame Gleick

The Elegant Universe: superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the quest for the ultimate theory. By Brian Greene

Just finished re-reading Kick-Ass and I just began my plunge into the House of M saga. Any other comic book fans on snuffhouse?

I haven’t read the comic but I doubt I’ll enjoy another film this year as much as I did Kick-Ass. I had a big fat stupid grin on my face throughout.

As far as the comics go, I was a big fan of DC comic’s Jonah Hex. Now I see they are making a movie.

@BradMajors It’s an excellent comic book, even for people new to the genre (like myself). It’s not particularly lengthy either and it’s currently available in hard copy as a ‘graphic novel’. Absolutely worth a read!

Just finished The World According to Garp, almost done with The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, and getting ready to begin Slaughterhouse Five.

Has anyone ever read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books? After I read my Sword Of Truth series, I’m starting on the Making Money Discworld book.

Just finishing off a Garrison Keillor and am going to start Elizabeth George’s latest Inspector Lynley tome tonight. Poor old boy is finally starting to get to grips with his wife’s murder. “The Lynley books constitute the smartest, most gratifyingly complex and impassioned mystery stories now being published.” – Entertainment Weekly

Creative Photoshop Digital Illustration and Art Techniques

‘Shop Class as Soulcraft’ an inquiry into the value of work by Matthew Crawford

The back of an 8 oz. bag of Tim’s Cascade Chips.

I hate to say this but to me shop class as soulcraft sounds like a book for the amatuer necromancer.

LOL

Twinkie, Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger. Describes the production methods of all 42 ingredients of your standard Twinkie. Overall a commentary on how many ingredients in modern food products start off in a mine or chemical plant, rather than a field or garden…

@Sfingle. I’ve read it 2 times. I can’t decide if it’s the best book I’ve ever read. I want to say yes but then I look upon my beloved Balzac and so what can I do?

I’ve had this interest in the old Sci-Fi Pulps of the 30’s to 60’s, so I was at the bookstore yesterday, and picked up a couple of books of short story compilations that were originally published in those. One was all Arthur C. Clark, and another, various authors. I do love sci-fi, and don’t read much, so the short stories should be easily digestable.

Started reading a complete collection of the fiction by Edgar Allan Poe

The Totem by David Morrell. I got interested by his books by my brother in law, I bought almost all that he wrote and now after exams I finally have time to read them.

Web Publishing With HTML and CSS gonna publish my first website for a little self-promotion and put up my portfolio, figured I should find out what I need to do

One of the things I do better is reading, hahah. I love to read. It´s been my special hobby since I was a child. I´ve got maybe 400 books in my house “library”, and I won´t say I´ve read all of them, but I can assure that I did read at least 90% of them. Last year I bought a Kindle, and I enjoy reading from my Kindle; besides, it´s more convenient and practical. Anyway, I am currently reading Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Before that, it was Under the Dome by Stephen King. I love King, maybe my favourite author. Have any of you read The Dark Tower epic saga? I have enjoyed the seven Dark Tower books… twice!!! Enrique.

Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama series

@Enrique: How are you enjoying Ghost Story? I never could seem to get into it. However, I love Shadowland and must have read it a dozen times. Funny thing, I worked through the first 6 books of the Dark Tower series, and by the time I got to the 7th I was so damned exhausted I never did finish it. Of course, now it’s been so long I’d have to start over…

Just finished ‘Robespierre and the French Revolution’ and now started ‘The Religion’ by Tim Willocks, about the siege of Malta fought between a group of Knights against Islamic forces in the 1500’s. Mostly what I read is either history or historical fiction. Never got into Ghost Story either. For fantasy my all time favourites have to be the ‘Many Coloured Land’ series by Julian May and ‘Knight of the Word’ books by Terry Brooks.

The Three Terry’s. Terry Pratchett, Terry Brooks and Terry Goodkind.

@James S.: To tell you the truth, Ghost Story is not going to be one of my favourite books. It´s not bad…nor good, either. I can´t remember if I have ever read any other book by Peter Straub, except The Talisman, written with Stephen King, but he is not going to be one of my favourite authors. Reading all the dark tower books means reading a lot of pages, maybe 4000. I can understand you got exhausted!! If you ever feel like it, you could try again. @snuffster: Apart from The Lord of the Rings, which I enjoyed immensely, I don´t feel very attracted to fantasy. A very long time ago, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I remember I started a book by David Eddings(??) but can´t remember the name. I never finished it. I prefer mystery, thrillers, legal thrillers (John Grisham, Phillip Margolin), medical thrillers, all kinds of thrillers, haha!! Enrique

@Enrique: Try Shadowland, much better in my opinion. As for not finishing the Dark Tower series, I’m annoyed because it’s out of character for me (read Moby Dick at 9, read the unabridged Dracula at 13); page count generally doesn’t vex me. However, being a new dad has curtailed much of my recreational reading time, but I’m not complaining! I don’t read as much fiction lately; mainly because it’s sometimes weeks between times I can read, and it becomes easy to lose the thread of the story. I lean more towards technical books; my interests are obsolete technology, alternative energy, transportation, and thermodynamics…

Unabridged Dracula? So that’s the version with the naughty bits?

Oh, James S., congratulations for being a new dad!! I know what you mean, I am a father of two little girls, 3 and 1 years old, and the first few months when my first daughter was born, it was a complete chaos! We couldn´t do anything: no sleep, no TV, no reading, no nothing, hahah. After that, things settle down, you get used to the new situation, and everything improves.

@Xander: Ha, more like several bursts of 50 pages describing absolutely nothing, just Bram Stoker having a bit of verbal diarrhea. If a neck ain’t gettin’ bit or Van Helsing ain’t drivin’ a stake into somebody, move on! @Enrique: Thank you! Actually it’s been almost 14 months but now my daughter’s started to crawl and climb to a standing position. It’s so much a part of her day that she now does it in her sleep, so about 1 am we’ll hear a thump because she stood up while asleep, fell and bonked her head in the crib. It takes about ten stands/thumps before she finally understands it’s not morning yet…

Giacomo Casanova: “The Story of my Life” (Everyman’s Libray ed.)

@ James S.: Ok, so its like Moby Dick then. I seem to remember tagents lasting 3 or 4 chapters before getting back to the story. A lot of verbal diarrhea there too.

@Xander: True, but often it was laced in neatly with strange allegory or humorous banter between the harpooners and the officers, whereas Stoker would take a wad of dull descriptive prose and chaw on it without even moving from the room. If Melville is an acid trip, then Stoker has got to be 3 too many well vodkas at the local after the pretty girls have gone home…

This.

I’m on the final Cantica (Paradiso) of Dante’s Comedy.

I just couldn´t finish Ghost Story. It didn´t hook me. Yesterday I started The First Patient by Michael Palmer, and this one seems very good, at least up to the first 50 pages or so. I will give another try to Peter Straub, reading in the near future Shadowland… and let´s see what happens

I am bad at reading, I mean, I am a good reader, but I can’t ever seem to have a time of peace and relaxation in order for me to read. I bought this giant book of Arthur C. Clarke short stories, and only read the 1st one so far.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand… You should think a senior english major would have already read this book but sadly it has been left up to me to discover such a iconic piece of literature.

Strange book The Fountainhead. Unbelievably popular in the States and virtually unheard of elsewhere. I’m surprised at the number of people who’ve mentioned they couldn’t get into Ghost Story. I found it an absolute page-turner and the scariest book I’ve ever read. The image of the kid on the stairs still gives me goosebumps 20-odd years later. Much better than Shadowland which left me cold. The film version of _Ghost Story_with Fred Astaire was an object lesson in how not to adapt a novel. Terrible movie.

I’m reading Roald Dahl’s Someone like You. I think I’ve read some of the stories in this volume before, but I don’t mind. Great stuff.

I’m reading the new edition of In-Fisherman magazine that arrived in my mailbox earlier this week

Read the Sunday Tribune and Observer like every sunday. Supplements last for a week.

Flipping back and forth between James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency and Steve Sleight’s excellent The New Complete Sailing Manual. Not that I believe it’s all going to go belly-up and we’ll all be stuck in Waterworld, that’s just how my to-read list stacked up…

The Bhagavad-Gita

The Ridge Runner- It’s about this crazy guy who lived alone in the woods of Northern Idaho, around the North Fork of the Clearwater, on the St. Joe national forest. This was back in the forties and fifties and this guy basically lived without any permanent structures, he holed up in forest service cabins and stole some rations here and there, but for the most part he lived off the land for like 20 years. Pretty interesting story if you like that sort of thing.

this list and medical text books fun stuff. One thing just looking at the chemicals your body use to regulate all of it’s functions it’s amazing that things don’t go wrong with our bodies so much more. Seriously it’s amazing that we all aren’t raving lunatics with this gland or that gland just choosing to take a holiday.

@Snuffeg: It’s not a crazy story, it’s the biography of Bart’s first 20 years.

Managerial Financial Accounting…and it is just a boring as it sounds…

Just finished Dead Zone by Stephan King. You can kinda tell he was on something writting this one.

Haha! I usually don’t visit this thread. I read Snuffeg. description of Ridgerunner and thought, man that sounds interesting! Stokes, you got me pegged!LOL! ^5 Bru!

Norton’s Anthology of World Literature, currently Gilgamesh. I think it would be more interesting if I didn’t have to read it for a Lit class. Also, a nutrition text book and a medical terminology book. (<– It’s all Greek to me…)

@Bart LOL, hahahaha, ^5 for all my bru’s.

The SS Brotherhood of the Bell. About secret Nazi technology.

[Tom, have you watched this?](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Occult+History+of+the+Third+Reich+[3+Discs]+-+Box+-+DVD/6937826.p?id=1412159&skuId=6937826&st=The Occult Third Reich&lp=1&cp=1)

Yes, I used to have it long ago, it was OK, but it didn’t get into the secret technology, like the flying saucers. I’m also a fan of the Bhagavad Gita.

@tom502: How did I guess that?

Yes, the Gita is a great book. Quite a journey.

I always keep at least a copy around. Same with the Koran and a whole lot of different bible versions and editions. My brother-in-law gave me a nice edition of the Gita for my birthday 35 years ago.

Of world spiritual texts, the Gita is my favorite. I think it best explains everything.

As you stated, quite a journey. I just like having a collection of ‘sacred texts/holy books’ from various religions, but I like what some may consider oddball translations/versions of the bible like: The Holy Bible in Modern English by Ferrar Fenton. The four gospels are in different order in that one – starts with John.

@Tom I would have to agree. Next on my list is Ramayana then Mahabharata

I have a decent library of various spiritual texts from various faith traditions. Many Buddhist Sutras, Dhammapada, others. Oh, and the english library of AUM Shinrikyo books(Tokyo subway gassing). Book of the Radha Soami Sant Mat path. Book of Hinduism, Hare Krishna books, Vedanta, Osho Rajneesh(though he’s not Hindu). I also like Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health, regardless if some of their believers may take to an extreme, the ideas in her book are very eastern. I’m not big into the “western religions”, but I do have a standard KJV Bible, and a Catholic St. Joseph Edition Bible, and a Quran translated by Rashid Khalifa who is a proponent of the Quran Only branch that rejects sharia and haditha. Also have some on other topics, Rael’s book “True face of God”, Dark Moon(about the appollo hoax), a book about 2012, some classic era Sci-Fi story compilations, and 2 new books I recently got about secret nazi technology. I have other stuff too, just some that came to mind. I like books, and have many interesting ones, though I don’t often have much time to read.

My Hinduism library has been growing in recent weeks. I started out reading “The Idiots Guide to Hinduism” after my Fiance took me to a Hindu Temple for a school project. Lately I haven’t been able to put down the Gita and I’ve got the Upanishads up after that along with the other books I listed above. I’ve also been flipping through the Rig Veda.

If you have not read Osho’s books, I really recommend them. He has a sorta controversial history(aka Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), but his words are really deep, and I find him amazing. Just take him on his words. He goes beyond any religious tag, and really is enlightening(I find). If possible, visit some local used book stores, or ebay or amazon and find his original books from the 70’s and 80’s.

@Tom: You’ve got quite a collection there. @cstokes & Tom: Are you familiar with the teachings of guru Meher Baba? That was the one Ronnie Lane, Pete Townshend, and others were into.

enten- Sorta. I did have a Meher Baba book, called, I think, “Listen, Humanity”. I tried to read it, but couldn’t get into it. It seemed fine, but didn’t grab me. My fave spiritual master is Rajneesh.

@tom502: Sounds really interesting. I will definately check it out. Is that the one that had the base in Oregon in the 80s? They were picking people up all across the country on their way to Oregon. And they were accused of contaminating the food at those fast food places.

Yeah, It was called “Listen, Humanity”.

enten- Yes, Rajneeshpuram. He made some big organizational mistakes. I believe his main mistake was letting a certain someone run the place for him, and then it got political, and eventually all fell apart. But that’s why I say to take him by his words(his books and videos), in the spiritual sense, and not get hung up on his past organizational failures. Though the historical phenemona is interesting.

That would be reading w/o prejudice. I can definately do that. I would anyway – I knew that those problems were organizational and such. It got big and sloppy. And many were hating the group, especially in Oregon. I must now go have bladder scan. ^5 bru.

Currently re-reading one of my favorite science fiction novels: Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany.

Slavoj Zizek: In Defense of Lost Causes

Just finished up “Star Wars: Death Troopers” and started on “Star Wars: Death Star”. A couple of chapters in. Pretty good. Much better than the last book. If I wanted to read a zombie novel, I would. But I want Star Wars…and there just wasn’t enough of it. With or without Han Solo. ~Ken

Jeeves and Wooster - The Mating Season.

The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Killer Angels.

Managerial Finance and Accounting…yuck…lol

The Ridgerunner

Most people who have not read it would probably believe that ‘The Histories’ by Herodotus, written in the 5th century BC, is a dry as dust tedious textbook on ancient irrelevances. They would be wrong. Scattered throughout is intrigue for the scheming, pornography for the prurient, depictions of stomach-churning cruelty for the morbid, campaigns for the military minded, folk-tales for the poetic and strange religions for the spiritual. Although the primary focus is on the rise of the Persian Empire concluding with the Greek victories at Salamis and Plataea there is so much more with scores of fascinating digressions covering government and politics, science, geography, natural history and peoples and customs of the then known world as seen through the eyes of an educated and well-travelled Greek. (There is a complete book in the volume dedicated to Egypt with information on pyramid building and the process of mummification.) Above all it explores human character and demonstrates the fragility of wealth and happiness. The parallels with the modern world are vivid. Try the translation of the Greek by Aubrey de Selincourt with revisions by John Marincola.

Stories for Christmas by Charles Dickens

A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole.

The 290 by Scott O’Dell

@philp the more things change the more they stay the same right. Reminds me of the belief that time isn’t real and that there is only one moment that repeats with most asthetic diffrences.

Uncle Bernac by Conan Doyle, in this book it mentions Napoleon taking massive pinches of snuff

Currently reading Two Pinches of Snuff vol 1. Fictional stories that relate to snuff (albeit in a small way).

Updike’s Rabbit books are a great read, especially for an Englander who desn’t know too much about life in the USA.

LINK: An Extraterrestrial Odyssey, by Dr. Jonathan Reed. He has a lot of vids on youtube of his encounter.

Grave’s End by Elaine Mercado. Couldn’t put the bloody thing down; read it all in one go…

LOTR Fellowship Of The Ring, its been many a year since I read the LOTR trilogy I thought it was about time for a re-read

I started reading The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari this morning, pretty interesting.

Greil Marcus’ “When That Rough God Goes Riding” … biography of Van “the man” Morrison

Norman Fairclough’s Language and Power. Some pre-dissertation reading.

@petersuki: You shouldn’t take Updike’s novels as accurate portraits of life in the USA in general. He writes very specifically about upper middle-class suburbanites in the New England states, and they’re hardly typical. Of course, no regional social group in the USA is typical. We’re a melting pot of cultures, after all.

PipenSnusnSnuff Sure, the melting pot goes without saying, and therefore there is no possiblility of any one ‘[The] Great American Novel’. But there are some great American novels and this is one of them in my view. Rabbit Angstrom starts out from a skilled working class background and he never loses this formation, and although he does get a bit of money later on, this has little effect on his character, and, unless a person’s class is entirely determined by his wealth in the States, he is never ‘upper middle class’. He would have been uncomfortable with the very people you identify as Updike’s specific subject. I think you have confounded the artist and his material. Updike might be described as upper-middle class, I guess. At least in this, Updike’s ‘great’ book (his only great book if I’m any judge), we don’t have a study of ‘upper-middle class suburbanites’ at all. And that description of Rabbit Angstrom taking a pinch of snuff before a basketball game will live forever won’t it.

Singularity is Near.

Speaking of middle-class, I recently read through Babbit by Sinclair Lewis, you can read it free on the Project Gutenberg site. It might’ve been written in the 1920s but a lot of it is still relevant today…

JameS. You are right there. I spent a couple of years reading nothing but critically acclaimed American fiction (life’s too short to dabble). Sinclair Lewis is special. Babbit is a great laugh (‘Babbit’ ‘Rabbit’?). The honours in the great novels’ racket over the last 100 years go to the States, with one or two exceptions. (Dos Passos vg too.)

I must admit I haven’t read a lot of the classics; Babbit aside I tend to lean towards the more, um, lurid stuff like Henry Miller and Charles Bukowski…

@JamesS. Bukowski doesn’t count as a classic yet? He fully deserves the label.

I read as much Henry Miller as I wanted, when I was a sprightly, sex obsessed lad - looking for the lurid bits. Bukowski has been overlooked though. I just haven’t bumped into him. Will track him down. I would recommend Dos Passos’ USA. An experiment, but one that works. Some might consider his political take ‘Un-American’. I’ve just started Patrick Hamilton’s, Twenty Thousand Steets Under the Sky. Grinding ugliness in London suburbia/pub culture. I read his Hangover Square a few years ago.

@petersuki: From my perspective, Rabbit Angstrom is a working class character as seen through the eyes of the upper middle class. Not an authentic portrait at all, albeit an interesting look at how most Americans are blind to their own class prejudices. That’s not to say Updike isn’t a great stylist – he certainly is. But he quickly adopted the POV of his new life when he moved to New York (and later to Massachusetts). There are almost no contemporary American authors who write from the perspective of the lower classes. Social class is the American “elephant in the living room.” RE: the Sinclair Lewis discussion: If you liked “Babbit,” you must read “Elmer Gantry.” Another novel that is just as pertinent today as it was when it was written. Perhaps more so.

Yes i have a copy of that. I was not so impressed. I found the religious posturings of the protagonists absurd, even monstrous and got no pleasure reading about it all. I can’t believe that such a depiction of abject fanaticism can be ‘authentic’, and even if it were, I’d rather not read, or even know about it. I found the portait of Rabbit full of warmth, insight and human sympathy, quite unlike the treatment meted out by Sinclair Lewis who delights in showing the absurdity and folly of his characters. However, I will gladly meet you half way. If you accept that the Rabbit books are fine literature, I’ll accept that they are not good sociology. Have you read Dos Passos?

I’ll hafta check out Elmer Gantry…

I’m re-reading all Tintin comic books, got the whole lot, and really good read they are! Must been over ten years since last time. Brilliant graphic art, complicated plots, best comedy ever and deep subtext if you want to think about it . Unfortunately, this print series is one of translations for UK market in '50’s, it’s old-fashioned but sillily British, but that’s not a big deal, we all know Tintin is Belgian! My faves are Blue Lotus, Secret of Unicorn/Treasure of Red Rackham and Red Sea Sharks but they’re all great! Might go to see the film too but have bad feelings about it.

Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Stephen King- The Dark Tower Series. I’am up to Part IV, The Wizard and Glass, and i just found out his new release, The Wind Through the Keyhole is part 4.5.

A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin.

@Pot Poe:  The Wizard & Glass is probably the best entry in the Dark Tower Series.  If I had my way, the series would stop there.  I don’t read King anymore, but I might have to check out the new one if, as you say, it’s a continuation of Wizard & Glass.

I’ve just discovered the Game of Thrones TV series. I think you guys are onto something up there^^^

A Storm of Swords-R. R. Martin

Re-reading Laurel K. Hamilton’s Skin Trade…though I’m not sure why other then hoping it might suck less the second time around.

Clearly a trend is forming here and I’m getting addicted to this show, that’s like 4 recommendations above. I guess Song of Ice and Fire is first? Its rumored Sean Bean is a snufftaker, we need him here. Currently reading: Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein Lord Hornblower - Forrester Comic series: DMZ Echo Northlanders Orchid Rachel Rising Scarlett Secret Secret Service Sergio Aragonés’ Funnies -and patiently awaiting the return of Groo

@Mr. Nose not a contuination on Wizards, just Roland telling his band another story; one from his childhood i have heard. I’am still waiting on my library to have it, due to all my disposible income earmarked for snuff.

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson…actually, re-reading it. And well worth the re-read, too.

http://www.booksie.com/other/short_story/robert_owen/the-document

 Was reading this thing I wrote. I hope someone else reads it too cause I’am very proud of it.

Just finished Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan.

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Currently finishing off “The Bible.”  I figured that despite not believing it, it was probably one of the more important books I could read.  After all, it’s only left its influence all over Western thought, culture, music, history and art.  Only have around another 200 pages left in it, then I can move on to something else.

Next book is probably going to be “The Basic Works of Aristotle.”  I picked up a couple of books by the same author @Sinister Topiary is reading, Slavoj Zizek, and while I enjoyed his writing when he was talking pop culture, his philosophy writings leave me totally lost due to my lack of proper vocabulary for it.  I decided I was going to start off with the old Greek and Roman philosophers, and try and work my way up through things.  I figure by the time I get up to contemporary philosophers, I should know the appropriate terms.

For competition, I suddenly got the urge to read “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” yesterday, after playing some Dynasty Warriors 7.

@Vito445  Which version are you reading?  “The Divine Comedy” is one of my favorite books, but I felt like the footnotes in the Penguin edition made it a lot more enjoyable.  It was pretty fun reading about all the references he put in there to his political and theological enemies.

@shikitohno I am reading the Signet Classics version, is has quite extensive footnotes placed at the end of every chapter, can’t do without them, especially in a translation.

Footnotes are always helpful for stuff like that.  As I recall, the Penguin version in “The Portable Dante” just has them at the bottom of the page, which I find a lot more convenient.  A couple months ago, I finished reading a copy of “The Master and Margarita,” which had all the footnotes in one section at the back of the book.  Would drive me mad while I was reading it, but they made the book a lot more enjoyable.

@bob page not found?

a dance with drangons  by george rr martin

but i keep rereading terry pratchetts work just gone back to read his snuff agan…

http://www.booksie.com/other/short_story/robert_owen/the-document I added a picture and it ruined the old link. changed the first link too. Both should work now.

Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake and One To Pay the Rent…biography of Artie Shaw

Dublin phonebook. Looking for funny names.

Rereading Brave New World

Game of Thrones

Botchan by Natsume Soseki

Fearless Golf by Dr. Gio Valiante

@Xander Song of Ice and Fire is the novel series name. GofT, same name as the show is the first book.

Yeah I’m going to get those SoIE books and read them. Seems to be a strong trend towards it here for sure Fantasy has been disappointing to me ever since Tolkien. This seems something new though, the show is fascinating me, I guess because I like all the political intrigue,tactics, etc, and its not too heavy on the fantastical element. Need to read some Zizek too, smart dude for sure, but I’ve been putting of reading serious books lately.

@shikitohno: As a philosophy grad, I’m not sure I would recommend reading Aristotle first to get a start in philosophy.  Aristotle’s “works” are actually lecture notes from his student that were translated back a forth a few times over the centures.  They are notoriously difficult to read, though immensely fascinating if you can stomach it.  If you are wanting to get a good ground in philosophy by reading on your own, I’d recommend starting in the middle.  Check out Descartes, Locke, Hume, Leibniz & Hobbes.  If you really want to start at the Greeks, check out Plato or get a good collection of the Pre-Socratics.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Aristotle, but he’s not nearly as approachable as some of the others.

I just finished Clash of Kings and am waiting for a copy of Storm of Swords.
In the meantime I’m reading Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett

Thomas Hobbes is buried 7 miles from me, in a hamlet called Ault Hucknall. George Stephenson is buried in Chesterfield, in a church just off the “doughnut” roundabout, as everybody calls it. And somewhere on my grandma’s side we are related to Florence Nightingale. Sorry to be totally OT, just thought I’d have a ramble lol.

Stefan

I’ve seen a documentary called Darwin’s Dangerous Idea didn’t know it was also a book, I’m going to look into getting that one.

Just finished Under the Dome by Stephen King…outstanding story.  When King is on his game there is no one better.

@BigSnoot McSnuff  - You’re right, Under the Dome was great.

I’m about halfway through Stephen King’s 11/22/63.

Halfway through 11/22/63 as well(my library sourced this instead of Wind Through the Keyhole, wife said “new Stepen King” this is what I got). The readability of Stephen King is second to none, imo. Duma Key was a little thin and the Last Tower book was as well. I believe King was faced w/his own mortality(getting run over tends to do that), and fired through the end of Dark Tower, just to please the fans and to not leave it unfinished.

JEREMIAH

Ploughing through some Nietzsche. Wow, quite vitriolic!

Dark Moon Rising by Raven Kaldera. Wonderful book if you have the stomach for it.

@Xander My favourite fantasy books, excluding LOTR,

The Demon trilogy by Terry Brooks

The Many Coloured Land, 4 book series, by Julian May

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson

G of T seems pretty good - I’ve not made up my mind as to whether I can still get through this type of book anymore or if I lost the knack at 18 when I finished the last Covenant book. When he brought out the last couple of books rounding the Covenant series off I just felt like I had wasted my time.

I read the LOTR so many times, and was in the Tolkien Society at 11 that all I can do these days is read my favourite bits, I just can’t get through it from cover to cover again.

I just finished The Child Thief. A dark Adult version of Peter pan. Surprisingly good

The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevsky 

Halfway through Walden…or life in the woods but im really struggling with it now and i picked up Richards Laymon’s Travelling vampyre show yesterday so i may start it later and return to Walden when its done.

The Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance. Also wading through a geology textbook, because I’ve always felt that when you stop learning, your mind starts dying.

Stephen King’s 11-22-63

@googlebomb inpatiently waiting for the paperback of 11-22-63…in the meantime reading Richard Laymon’s The travelling vampyre show

@simongrant I’m only about a quarter of the way through 63 and so far so good. The Traveling Vampire Show looks like it would be a good book. Who else do you read? I’ve been thinking about giving the new Koontz book a try some time right off.

Alhazred by Donald Tyson

A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin

@googlebomb The travelling vampyre show is a blast,only the 2nd Laymon book i have read the other being midnight tour which is part of the beast house trilogy. As for who i read it is mostly Mr King. I have read the first three Odd Thomas books by Koontz and all three were great. Have you tried anything by Brett Easton ellis? I have read American Psycho and Less than Zero,what a very talented man indeed,both books had me gripped but i can’t say why,very very weird but brilliant with it.I need to buy more Ellis titles although there arent that many.

Simon

Fragile things. By the brilliant Neil Gaiman

I prefer the dull Neil Gaiman personaly (that’s of course a joke)

I’m finishing up the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Pretty catchy storyline and likeable characters.

Beyond Exile, sequel to Day by Day Armageddon by J.L Bourne, also Game of Thrones.

yeah but you realize all these stories are just rip offs of the first story told around fires when people lived in caves. (sorry had to make fun of haters for a second).

They are all good against bad when you think about it, just different vehicles for that. I’m a sucker for zombie stuff:) 

that is true. When I saw Game of Thrones and Hunger Games and remembered people saying they’re both already been done. And I thought wow people can’t you tell that a plot outline is not a story and that the same plot outlines have been in use forever. It’s like saying that all rocks bands that write love songs are not orginal because look someone else already wrote a song about being in love and played it with guitars bass and drums.

@simongrant No, I haven’t had a chance to check out Brett Ellis until just now. I looked him up and read an excerpt from Imperial Bedrooms. I’m hoping to find a copy of his American Psycho at my local book store this coming Friday. Have you read anything by James Patterson?

Finished 11/22/63 and loved it.  I’ve read some reviews that were critical of the ending (which is typical with King’s books), but I thought the ending was very well done.

Stephen King - The Dead Zone

The Chronicles of Narnia. I bought the whole set in one volume, this is one series I never read as a kid, I was more a Tolkien buff, but really bloody good read actually.

Stefan

You’re in for a treat Stephan. I read those before I was old enough for Tolkien (Hobbit at 11, LOTR at 14) I think I had to “graduate” to Tolkien, so the Narnia books I read the year or so prior. Now I’ve said above, fantasy just seems dull to me since Tolkein with the exception of the Game of Thrones stuff which is newish, but Narnia will always have a place in my heart. I hope your collected edition puts them in order of publication and not that nonsense psuedo-chronological versions that were out not long back. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe should be first and the Magician’s Nephew shoulkd be sixth. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favorite and the Last Battle was rubbish, I wish I hadn’t read it, becuase I can’t unread it.

Stephen King’s The Stand

@xander, The Magician’s Nephew is 1st. I’m about half way through it. I think The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe is 3rd, I’ll have to check.

@googlebomb The Stand is a bloody good read, I think it’s my favourite Stephen King book.

Stefan

“The Stand” is one of maybe three books that I’ve read more than once. It got me started enjoying “post apocalyptic” types of books and movies.

The Stand is very good, but, personally, I think “It” is the best thing King has ever written.

@walrus1985 Heresey! Cease and desist without delay and read the books by publication order. C.S. Lewis must be rolling in his grave with all this revisionist history.

“The Stand” is my favorite King, and possibly, my favorite favorite. i recently recieved a fresh, free copy, due to “National Book Night”, whatever that may be. Finished 11/22/63 a few days ago, and i liked it. the ending was better that most of King’s books. I feel that many of his works are so immerising, any ending is a terrible one(i still say he dropped the Tower ending though). Now on to “Wind Through the Keyhole”.

I joined the Tolkien Society when I was 11 and didn’t have a clue what any of them were on about. I think they have a nice website now but in those days it was Xeroxed fanzines. The membership secretary sent me a letter partly in Sindarin. I remember a report of one of the ‘Oxenmoots’ where they formed a ring over Tolkien’s grave; a much deeper type of fanatic than I was. Strangely enough I can’t read him anymore, the only author that means a lot to me whose works I am kind of burned out on.

“The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” by David Mitchell. Late 18th century Japan, Dutch traders, evil religious cult, spectacular writing! Also read his “Cloud Atlas.” The movie should be out late 2012. Pairs well with any traditional snuff.

“The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” by David Mitchell. Late 18th century Japan, Dutch traders, evil religious cult, spectacular writing! Also read his “Cloud Atlas.” The movie should be out late 2012. Pairs well with any traditional snuff.

 Sounds really interesting never heard of it but it is going on the list of things to read at some later date. Better do so before seeing the movie.

I joined the Tolkien Society …Strangely enough I can’t read him anymore, the only author that means a lot to me whose works I am kind of burned out on.

That sounds precisily like how I feel about LEd Zepplin.

The Northern Thebaid… Monastic Saints of the Russian North
Compiled and translated by: Fr. Seraphim (Rose) and Fr. Herman (Podmoshensky)

ISBN: 0-938635-37-9

We’re talking about guys who went away out into the wilderness and wetland country in the far north of Russia between the 14th and 18th century.

(The Thebaid was a desert in Egypt where Christian Monasticism first sprouted in the fourth century.)

@howdydave those monks must’ve been intrepid to say the least, and bloody cold lol. Closest I’ve been to that is at Throssel Hole Buddhist monastery in the snow in December, bloody cold but v v peaceful.

Stefan

Polystom by Adam Roberts. SF. Very good. I haven’t read much of this thread, reading is so personal. I keep promising myself, tomorrow I will start Ulysses. LOL.

I’m reading “Webster’s Under the Bridge”  ;->

Lots of neat words in it but the plot line is hard to follow…

I have dropped everything else becuase I started “A Game of Thrones” finally.

My System by Aaron Nimzovich

CHESS!!!

Monastic Wisdom – The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast

ISBN: 0-9667000-1-5

Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.  Fun and easy read.

Nearly finished reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, an extremely long winded book I must say

The 14th Book of Pan Horror Stories.

The Bhagavad Gita

I’m about to start “A Lion Among Men,” the third book in the “Wicked Years” series by Gregory Maguire. 

The Northern Thebaid… Monastic Saints of the Russian North
Compiled and translated by: Fr. Seraphim (Rose) and Fr. Herman (Podmoshensky)

ISBN: 0-938635-37-9

We’re talking about guys who went away out into the wilderness and wetland country in the far north of Russia between the 14th and 18th century.

(The Thebaid was a desert in Egypt where Christian Monasticism first sprouted in the fourth century.)

Haven’t heard those names in a long while. I bought Fr Seraphim’s book on the Orthodox teachings on death and dying (ascension through the watchtowers and all) when I visited St Herman’s Monastery in Platina, where he is buried.

On the end table now: Patrick O’Brian’s “Ionian Mission” (the one in which the Doctor Maturin’s sloth is debauched by Capt Aubrey), Marcus Borg’s “Speaking Christian,” and the “Oxford Book of Card Games” (wicked fun).

The Tin Drum by Günter Grass.

Usually jump around a lot, lately have been stuck on Martin and started book four in the Song of Ice and Fire series which is A Feast for Crows.

I’m also in the middle of DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Dr. Rick Strassman and Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism by Frederic Jameson.

Pharmako/poeia by Dale Pendell

For daily readings…

A Psalter for Prayer
(An Eastern Orthodox Psalter published by Holy Trinity Monastery {Russian Orthodox} in Jordanville, NY)

ISBN: 978-0-88465-188-8

Remember Thy First Love
The Three Stages of the Spiritual Life in the Theology of Elder Sophrony

By: Archimandrite Zacharias

ISBN: 978-0-9800207-2-4

I’ve been reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Really love the books and the characters, but I’m stuck on Wolves of the Calla and can’t seem to make it past the prologue. 

If anybody out there is looking for some good detective stories, I highly recommend:

The Joe Gunther Series by Archer Mayor.

All about a detective who lives in Vermont.  Read them in sequence since there is an ongoing development of characters and interpersonal relationships between characters.

Archer Mayor is a real artist when it comes to painting pictures with words!

Currently reading ‘The Impossible Dead’ by Ian Rankin. It’s the second of his post-Rebus novels featuring DI Malcolm Fox.

“Doctor Dogbody’s Leg”  by: James Norman Hall (co-author of: “Mutiny on the Bounty”)

All about a salty old British sea surgeon (retired) who was in the British Navy during the American Revolution and Napoleonic wars. He would tell his cohorts in the taproom of Will Tunn’s Cheerful Tortoise (a seafarer’s pub in Portsmith) about how he lost his leg in action. The thing is… the story was different every time he told it!

A great collection of short stories!

@Walrus1985 & stogie:  The only pub I’ve been in with a name that comes anywhere close is “The Stone Toad.” It had a 4’ sculpture of a toad sitting beside the front door.

Cold Vengeance by Lincoln and Child.

I’d love to go in a pub called The Cheerful Tortoise. The wierdest pub name I’ve come across was in Chesterfield and it used to be called The Slug & Fiddle, but now renamed to it’s previous name The Crooked Spire, because it’s next to the Crooked Spire Church.

Stefan

@Walrus1985 I love all those names.  Sl much more creative than something like Jeff’s Bar.

I take it back…

My favorite pub in Milwaukee is “The Safehouse.”

All spy and espionage motif… A passer by wouldn’t even know that it was there because there is a humble brass nameplate that says “International Exports, Ltd.” You need a password to get in the door and everything! Say any word you like and they will let you in on your first visit. After that it’s: “I’m looking for a safehouse.” Use the correct password and you used to get a card that was good for a discount on one drink. 

If you ever go to Milwaukee, The Safehouse is a MUST SEE!

http://www.safe-house.com/   (click on the red door)

Those are fantastic pub names! We’ve got one locally called The Surly Wench… love it!

Rereading A Study in Scarlet right now

I am now on the second book in the Game of Thrones series. It took me the whole of the first volume to get comfortable with it and now I am an avid fan.

Philip Dicks The Divine Invasion.  Deep stuff.

Niwaki: Pruning, Shaping, and Training Trees the Japanese Way - Jake Hobson

Well if nothing else we are a very diverse group, from fantasy and religion, to tree pruning :-).

Stefan

Crime Does Not Pay Vol.2

I have just finished reading Preston&Child’s Cold Vengeance and am starting XO by Jeffery Deaver. I have many favorite authors but these are at the top of my list.

I see what you mean, and you said a mouthful, shikitohno. I don’t want to go into politcal discourse here, but just one thing I want to mention is that I thought Pol Pot was Cambodian.

You are absolutely correct.

Rereading: _ Aesop’s Fables _.

@Citra47 I remember that conversation. That was years ago! Shiki and I were both newbies here then. This thread has real staying power it seems.

Right now it’s Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.  We’ll see if I can finish it this time.  In a few weeks I should have some vintage Dark Shadows reads to complete before fall semester begins.

Alhazred by Donald Tyson. Some people think that Tyson sugarcoated The Mad Arab and made him a (anti)hero in this book…I think they must be reading a different book.

@harlequin Book? they are talking about his personal life.

@bob sorry, but what do you mean exactly?

sugar coating mad arabs. That’s what he does with his free time. Now that I’am explaining it it ruins the joke. Oh well.

The yoga sutras of Patanjali And also The shack

Rereading some of Sir Richard Burton’s translation of “The Arabian Nights.” In Victorian England, Burton’s translation was viewed as pornographic in some circles, but it’s the closest to the originals.

@bob ah, sorry. I can be a little slow when it comes to jokes sometimes. Also, reading over the Principia Discordia, or How I Found The Goddess And What I Did To Her When I Found Her. By Malaclypse the Younger.

I finished up _A Game of Thrones_the Barned and Noble slipcase edition. I was hoping A Clash of Kings would be out soon in the same format, but I guess I have to keep waiting. So I went to the library to just get a temporary reader copy, but not suprisingly they are all checked out. So I picked up and began Democracy Matters by Cornel West instead.

Also, reading over the Principia Discordia, or How I Found The Goddess And What I Did To Her When I Found Her. By Malaclypse the Younger.

Hail Eris!

My grandson insisted I read The Hunger Games…Not at all bad.

Terry Patchett’s Snuff

Robert Harris… Pompeii

Rereading some of Sir Richard Burton’s translation of “The Arabian Nights.” In Victorian England, Burton’s translation was viewed as pornographic in some circles, but it’s the closest to the originals.

He also translated the Kama Sutra. The man was the hero of heroes! Presently reading “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt,” which sadly is confirming my opinion that we’ll never find his like again, or Captain SIr Richard’s; and also Stephen Jay Gould’s “Full House. The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin.”

Jerry Fodor, The Language of Thought

Rereading some of Sir Richard Burton’s translation of “The Arabian Nights.” In Victorian England, Burton’s translation was viewed as pornographic in some circles, but it’s the closest to the originals.

He also translated the Kama Sutra. The man was the hero of heroes! Presently reading “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt,” which sadly is confirming my opinion that we’ll never find his like again, or Captain SIr Richard’s; and also Stephen Jay Gould’s “Full House. The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin.”

I love his translation of the Kama Sutra. It’s probably the best as far as I’ve seen. He definatily understood the tone. If you read his translation it’s obvious how scholarly the orginal was and how straight forward as well. Good read not really something that will teach an experienced person much, but the view point and tone is really what’s special about the Kama Sutra.

Stephen Ambrose…Comrades.

@LadySnuff – The best version of The Bhagavad Gita that I’ve ever read was a small pocket edition that I found for sale at the local Hindu Temple. It only contains the straight story line without any commentary or interpretation to divert your attention.

Right now I’m proof-reading a story called: “The Town of Tamarack.” I haven’t quite figured out whether it is a fantasy, science fiction or an allegory. 125 pages (single spaced) with atrocious punctuation, which I am in the process of cleaning up. I’ve been told that the target audience is 10 year olds, but it seems like an awefully long book for a kid of 10 (especially after the white space had been added.) Well… maybe not given the length of some of the Harry Potter books. I’m currently up to page 23.

The Sign of Four

it’s definatily allegory this is of course based off the fact that you’re on page 23. I know it might not make sense but trust me on this one.

I’m on page 23 because of all of the capitalization: sometimes entier phrases, sometimes the first letter of every word in a phrase, sometimes the nouns in a phrase (looks like the author was attempting to inconsistantly indicate bold type and italics;) innumerable commas and insidiuos punctuation marks placed outside of parenthesis. e.g.; I came accross 357 incidents of “);” not to mention the commas and periods!

sounds like a mess. When I hear of people editing jobs like that I wonder if it’s all nonesense designed with the hopes that the editor will accidentily become creative and write a good story (the one he thinks he’s editing.).

@n9inchnails… I love The Sign of Four… Good Choice!

I just started “Love In The Ruins” by Percy Walker

Chuck palahniuk. Invisible monsters

Dreamtime & Inner space

Finally got hold of a proper Asterix collection, so Asterix the Gaul

Perdurabo by Richard Kaczynski, by far the most comprehensive biography of Aleister Crowley.

willc I’ve never read it but best chance it’s not accurate. Just based on statistics. Like I said never read it, 90% chance more myth then anything.

Nah bob this is the real deal. If you don’t know anything about AC this will bore you to tears. No sensationalism, just the facts, like good old Jack Webb would say.

Good to hear. The myth is great and all but it gets tiresome especialy when you consider he was an interesting fellow on many fronts.

Yeah bob some things written about Crowley are absolutely crazy but people take it for fact. Even with all the myth taken away he led an interesting life and rubbed elbows lots of neat folks and traveled to some cool spots.

Sri Isopanisad

Maha Yoga by “Who”, a disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

The Brewers Handbook… Honing up my brewing skills. With practice of course!!!

Willc including his oss service too. Lots of people have trouble believing his conection with the guy who wrote James Bond.

@bob I am not too sure if he served with official capacity in the OSS but I do believe he was a staunch patriot and his time spent in the US during WW1, writing for that German Nationalist paper, were all done with Queen and country in mind. A friend lent me Secret Agent 666 and I will be reading that next. As for knowing Ian Fleming I have no idea about that but it is certainly possible that they met or knew each other and most certainly knew of each other.

Shah of Shah’s, All the Shah’s Men, and an Evidence Case Law book.

yeah he did and it was flemings idea.

I just started reading “A Short History of the Middle East” by George E. Kirk When i’m bored a grab what ever volume of STE that i’m on and read some of that.

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

@Snuffster: What zed book 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.

This forum

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.

Dorotheos of Gaza: Discourses and Sayings Dorotheos was a people person monk. He was, for a time, in charge of the guest house. He mixed it up there with ordinary folk so much so that evidently when his feet hurt–which he speaks of in a meditation on the fruits of the fear of punishment and having to revisit your sins after death–he seems to attribute this physical pain to excessive guest house partying over shared meals. Other Dorotheos themes: friendship skills, diet and portion size and dealing with the passions, humility, learning to take advice, care of the soul, guarding your tongue while rating out your brother (for his salvation of course), dealing with your own falsehood, the bad taste of bad religion (“a bad man does evil when he mixes it with righteousness”), sobriety and vigilance, the price of living near vs. distant from God, dealing with your own bitterness and disappointments. Amazingly contemporary for a monastic who lived in the 6th Century!

sounds reall interesting Howdy. Though like they say the more things change the more they stay the same, especialy the monks. (I just made that last part up.)

Just started. The Dead do not improve. Loving it

Currently reading Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs by Chuck Klostermann

Empire of the summer moon. I moved to Texas from California and it seemed the only Texan history anyone knew was the Alamo, I was recommended this book from a customer at my work and it covers the Comanche Indians, and all the land they covered and they’re relationship with whites, spaniards, and Mexicans. It is a very good read, however I am constantly side tracked by reading my son Dr. Suess books & fairy tales… I learned 2 things 1) I’m OVER Dr. Suess 2) Fairy tales would have a R rating.

The Lion of Bagdad

@Stogie Is it the Pride of Baghdad by Brian Vaughan? If so I loved that book. If not I havent heard of the Lion of Baghdad.

Besides comics books I’ve never read a book in my life with a “story”, be it fiction or otherwise, except when it was required reading in school. And yet, my wife won’t let me near a bookstore because I’m a how to/technical book junkie. Car repair, woodworking, chess, unicyling, rock climbing, outdoor survival, magic, etc. I even learned to tune piano’s from a book! I blame my dad because when I was a kid I’d ask for something like a kite and he’d say “go to the library and get a book and make your own”…and then I did. I have shelves full of books and not one of them has a story in it.

The book of Thoth- Crowley

Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche

@TexiCaliSlim I like how good old fashion fairy tales contain some very brutal, gruesome stuff, unlike those Disney versions that were all whitewashed.

the book of Thoth definatily helped me learn how to be a really good tarot reader. Interestingily you could say Tarot is what I was reading

I’ve just been reading Seeing Stars by Simon Armitage, while jamming unconscionable amounts of Yorkshire snuff up my snoot. He’s a terrific poet, I think.

@bob I think any Tarot reader worth their salt has spent a year studying The book of Thoth. Crowley’s system opens up a whole other world. I think most Tarot readers are intimidated by the amount of study it takes to even grasp a basic understanding of the complexities of the Thoth but if they do it can change one’s life. Once I learned the Open Key using the Celtic Cross was simply child’s play. I would suggest to anyone with a remote interest in Crowley to read the Book of Thoth in conjunction with The Book Of Lies and the Book Of The Law. This would give a person a clear understanding of who Crowley was. Cheers Bob

50 shades of grey … joking

In The Spirit Of Happiness by: The Monks of New Skete

A Right to be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury by Aaron McGruder I’ve fallen in love with this show on CN’s Adult Swim. Its the funniest show they’ve got. Now I’m collecting all the old comic strip albums. Hilarious, and witty!

GOT2

my man kurt vonnegut some short stories in a collection called welcome to the monkey house.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

http://www.vice.com/read/the-cat-offers-itself-0000360-v19n9 William Gibson Neuromancer and Ulysses by James Joyce (what an amazing read.)

Mark Billingham…GREAT !!!

Daggerspell - Kathryn Kerr

S.M. Stirling’s Emberverse series, started with Dies the Fire, currently reading The Sunrise Lands. Good stuff if you like the post-apocalypse premise.

“The Immortal Game” (chess history, entertainingly written), “Cooking Provence” (love to eat), and St Auggie’s “City of God.”

don’t know if I already said but Ulysses and Neuromancer switching between them. And it’s doing strange things to me brain

Just finished ‘Mr Standfast’ by John Buchan. Ripping stuff and made me desperate to get out tramping over grousemoors which I finally got round to doing yesterday. Fortunately no fiendish agents of a foreign power were pursuing me though. Got loads lined up on my Kindle to read - now that autumn is here and the shadows are lengthening, I think I’ll go for ‘The Castle of Otranto’.

The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach by: Prof. Peter Schickele “As with all of Peter Schickele’s musical musings, this is suberb humor reflecting a boundless knowledge of the world of music.” --Victor Borge

For those too young to know about P.D.Q. Bach… P.D.Q. Bach was a phenominon that originated in the mid 70’s. Think of it as classical music’s equivalant of MAD Magazine! For those a little older… Think of it as classical music’s equivalant of Spike Jones!

Heart of Dankness- underground botanists, outlaw farmers, and the race to the cannabis cup-Mark Haskell Smith (very entertaining author)

The Scroll of Nesphertau

Just finished Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; constantly working through the second volume of The World as Will and Representation.

Stephen King- Full Dark, No Stars

Love Vonnegut.

my plan is tostart up some bradbury soon. Been too long

The Haunted Vagina- CARLTON MELLICK III. This is a genre that I really enjoy called “Bizzarro fiction”. This book is only 100 pages and messed with my head on so many levels. If you decide to get into this genre you will have to get past the titles. Mellick is the Buddha of bizzarro.

Jesus in the Lotus : the mystical doorway between Christianity & Yogic spirituality. Paul Russill.

Book 3 GofT. Shugun - for about the tenth time, Women in White by Wilkie Collins and The court of the red Tsar, Simon Sebourg Montefiore. I usually have three on the go because I have the attention span of a monkey.

American gods by Neil Gaiman For about the 5th time

American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

The internet where ever it weaves

Currently I have more books unfinished than I care to admit, but… At the top of the reading pile is Jung’s Red Book (would be finished if not for the physical size of the tome, a good 1 1/2 foot tall & hard to handle), Dracula (a seasonal tradition), and a primer on biostatistics (I’m a masochists).

I’m about to start Steven Erikson’s Gardens Of The Moon. It looks like it should keep me entertained this winter.

Lee Child… The Hard Way… Lots of action and I don’t have to think very hard… Just what the weekend ‘ordered’.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, Steampunk FANTASY with capitals!

Michael Connelly - The Lincoln Lawyer B-)

Last books I read were the Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson, and that was some time ago. Before that it was House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, which I never finished because I got distracted with school stuff at the time and it’s kind of a tough read. But, I’ve been thinking about diving back into House of Leaves, because it’s such an intriguing novel. The layout and the where it was heading had me going, so hopefully this time I don’t get sidetracked.

Finally finished Shah of Shahs and All The Shah’s Men. Right now I’m flipping through Ho Chi Minh on Revolution and Thirteen Days.

Karol K. Truman - Feelings Buried Alive Never Die…

Lee Child… The Hard Way… Lots of action and I don’t have to think very hard… Just what the weekend ‘ordered’.

The Paradise Prophecy

I just finished reading a book I´am Ozzy, the autobiography of Ozzy Osbourne. 100 % recommended ! >:)

James Rollins, Subterranean. Not bad at all. Has me at the edge of my seat!

Zane Grey - Western Union

Right now reading some collection of Poe. Recently read Kasher In The Rye by Moshe Kasher and A Bad Idea I’m About To Do by Chris Gethard both by comedians and both extremely funny. Also read Satchell Paige’s America recently which was very good. Read Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell this summer and reading her newest book Unfamiliar Fishes right now. Read both of Sloane Crosleys books this summer as well. I can’t recommend Sloane Crosley and Sarah Vowell enough they are both funny and great writers.

Canterbury Tales

Lonesome Dove…oh my god…!!!

The Holy Bullet

A collection of short stories by Philip K. Dick, the collection is called ‘Total Recall - What is Real?’

At the Mountains of Madness (and other tales), by H.P. Lovecraft.

@Faust oh yeah. I love H. P. Lovecraft

Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews by Peter Longerich

Andy McDermott’s The Covenant of Genesis. Very much pulp fiction action genre… But a fun fast read.

For Whom the Bell Tolls from Hemingway. I bought a bunch of used books from eBay and got the corresponding audiobooks as well. I’m trying to polish my English skills - reading the book and listening the audio in parallel seems to be a good method. I never learned English in school and nowadays I have to communicate more and more in this language…

A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin

Brad Thor, Foreign Influence

Learning American Sign Language (by Humphries & Padden) and The Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language

Mike Dash, my favorite author. This one is Satan’s Circus, a profile of NYC at the turn of the century. Truth is indeed stranger, and more callous than fiction.

“For Hearing People Only” Answers To Some of the Most Commonly Asked Questions About the Deaf Community, its Culture, and the “Deaf Reality” by: Moore & Levitan

The last Game of Thrones book. I will be very unhappy when I finish that although the next one is in the writing I hear. Also ‘The court of the red Tsar’ by Simon Sebag Montefiore. That guy was worse than Hitler by along chalk.

I generally only get limited to reading manuals on equipment but I love Ann Rice. Got my first book of hers back in Jr High. I am also working on my own version of Pagan Fables for the newbies that think fate has a sense of humor. Here is one I wrote not to long ago. Please be advised that language is course like life can be the same… http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Am-Pagan/2053170

for all of you that like the game of thrones books , have a look at robin hobb’s farseer books there a good read and theres 9 to the set so loads to keep your pet book worm happy…

The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher… introspective, nice

Presently reading Lincoln bio by Doris Kearns Goodwin and just ordered The Great Gatsby from Amazon. Haven’t read it since high school and have been meaning to revisit it for a long time. With the new movie coming out shortly, I figured that now is a good time.

I bought a Kindle two weeks ago and I’ve read a few books: 3x Jo Nesbo, 1x S. King (Cujo), 1x M. Kundera, 1x Bohumil Hrabal, 1x Rex Stout and authobiography of Peter Criss (Kiss)

@dazz34 I will have to check out the Robin Hobb books, they look very interesting. I am 3 books through Steven Erickson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series, it’s very good if your into fantasy novels.

Finishing Stendahl’s The Red and The Black today. Then moving on to Balzac’s Le Père Goriot

“World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” by Max Brooks

‘Day of Confession’ by Allan Folsom

Borderlands: The ultimate exploration of the unknown. It seems to be mostly a de-bunking book.

@snuffbrant - WWZ is great, just finished it along with ‘The Walking Dead - The rise of the Governor’. It’s a tie in book from the POV of the guy who runs the fortified town in season two, covering the early days and how he comes to be there. Also just finished Zone One by Colson Whithead, which is about NYC being used as a safe zone following the Zombie plague. A year ago I hadn’t read a single Z book, now I’m hooked. My all time favourites to date are the two books in the Day by day Armageddon series, no 3 is meant to be out this year.

In Stahlgewittern (Storm of Steel) by Ernst Jünger

@Abraxax … Nigel, i hear you, a year ago i, as well, would not have been reading Zombie books … but WWZ, how it is written, is perfect. I am going to checkout the day by day Armageddon series and Zone One as well … along those lines, my understanding is that both the book and movie, Warm Bodies, is pretty good too - an entirely different take on the Zombie genre. Who would’ve thunk it - I am a zombie fan. Thanks for the recommendations.

The Cezanne Chase

A Clash of Kings… I am almost finished with this second book in the series by George R.R. Martin. It has been hard to put down. I hope to finish it today.

Humbolt’s Cosmos. History of Humbolts scientific research in the Americas. Very well done.

A Clash of Kings… I am almost finished with this second book in the series by George R.R. Martin. It has been hard to put down. I hope to finish it today.

Just wait until you get to the 3rd book! I am about 1/2 way through the final published book (A Dance with Dragons). Good stuff!

Everything bukowski and Dostoevsky - Crime and punishment

Thanks to @Abraxas for the recommendation - now reading Day by Day Armageddon Origin to Exile by JL Bourne … they’ve put two books into one volume and added another short story. Be on this for a while.

John Paul Jones, A Sailors Biography.

@Stogie Jones Hall was a ghost town when I was at KP. Its since been renovated but man was that place spooky when I was there. http://cdm15281.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15281coll9/id/707/rec/50 Its the one on the left in the photo.

currently revisiting ‘The Complete Sherlock Holmes’. Time to start considering what to read next…

Spirited Away - A Novel of the Stolen Irish. Story of Cromwell’s men kidnapped the Irish Catholics and sold them in Barbados as slaves

@Pete Tschantz – If you like “The Complete Sherlock Holmes” try “Dr. Thorndyke” by R. Austin Freeman http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dr+thorndyke&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=2531187225&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=s&hvrand=21093503091822554210&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&ref=pd\\_sl\\_6ezmenw26\\_e

Freeman uses an “inverted mystery” format in 4 (I think) of his stories. This allows the reader to actually witness the crime before Dr. Thorndyke solves it.

More Z stuff - re-reading the ‘Feed’ trilogy by Mira Grant. This is a cooky little sub-genre that is quite addictive and I’m running out of fixes now. Also,Hitler and Stalin by Lord Alan Bullock for some serious stuff and the Jon Shannow novels by David Gemmel who I think is the top dude for heroic fantasy.

@PeteTschantz – Another option is the “Joe Gunther” series written by Archer Mayor. Joe Gunther is a detective who lives in Vermont. Read the series in sequence because character relationships develop throughout the series. Mayor has an amazing way with words! He can paint a picture in one sentence that takes most authors 2 or 3 paragraphs!

thanks @HowdyDave! Added the first Dr. Thorndyke volume to my wish list, and I’ll look up the Mayor books

Joe Gunther #1 is $0.00 on the Kindle store - pretty sure that means it is book crack. So I have it going to the Kindle now

“The unbearable lightness of being” by Milan Kundera

Daniel Boorsteins - ‘Cleopatra’s Nose - Essays on the Unexpected’

I wish I read as much as you guys! I mostly read the internet… if that counts. haha. But I do enjoy a good book from time to time, it’s just hard for me to get into one. My favorites are the well known Catcher in the Rye, The Stranger, and lots and lots o’ Vonnegut.

The Psychology Of Self-Esteem By Nathaniel Branden

Nathaniel Philbrick’s ‘Seas of Glory’.

A Dance with Dragons, the fifth in the series by George R.R. Martin. I have been loving these!

World Religions/ Origins. History. Practices. Beliefs. Worldview/ Franjo Terhart, Jeanina Schulze

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. Pipe smoking gets a couple of mentions but I don’t think there’s any snuff, still a fantastic book though, I see something new in it every time I read it !

Auction Gems - Bid Getters, over 5000 Auction Sayings ( 1973 ) by Earl D. Wisard ( finally found this book after years of searching, where else but EBAY! )

The Stick and Cane in Close Combat by Tom Lang

These Truths We Hold The Holy Orthodox Church: Her Life and Teachings Compiled and edited by a monk of St. Tikhon’s Monastery

The Stick and Cane in Close Combat by Tom Lang

Very interesting - Do you practice anything howdydave? Sounds a little Baritsu a la E. W. Barton-Wright. I’ve done a little Canne du Combat with some Savate myself, and learnt ‘walking stick’ while studying TCMA many years ago. I’m still working my way through Marcel Proust’s ‘In Search of Lost Time’ I’m on book three of the six; ‘The Guermantes Way’ I love Proust’s prose but I find its like a good pipe; you need to slow down an savour the flavours of it, it’s very easy to rush it and in that instance it leaves a bit of a blur on the mind of what it was like. I’m happily interspacing this with the Rougon-Macquart series by Emile Zola, oh and the Snuff Takers Ephemeris obviously!

The Stick and Cane in Close Combat by Tom Lang

Very interesting - Do you practice anything howdydave? Sounds a little Baritsu a la E. W. Barton-Wright. I’ve done a little Canne du Combat with some Savate myself, and learnt ‘walking stick’ while studying TCMA many years ago.

I’m a practitioner of “Neo-Bartitsu” (a term coined by those of us who are members of The Bartitsu Society.)

Victus, A book about the dinastic war in Spain between the Habsburgs and the Borbons and the final assault of the city of Barcelona.

George R R Martin, A Game of Thrones. I’m halfway through this 1st book in the series and I’m enjoying the hell out of it. I’ve bought the rest of the series so I’m don’t get further behind the times, as I’m a late comer to this series. Stefan

Colin Cotterill’s The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die, Kim Harrison’s Ever After, and John Bew’s biography of Lord Castlereagh. Just finished a new bio of Karl Marx by Johnathan Sperber that was interesting, though the coverage of his writings was hard going.

A friend bought me the full collection of Inspector Morse novels by Colin Dexter for Christmas, and I’ve just started the third book (The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn). I don’t get a huge amount of time for reading and tend to intersperse with other stuff which is why I’m only on the third one. Other stuff I’m dipping into includes various gardening guides and Psychodiagnostic Chirology by Arnold Holtzman

@50ft_trad. I’ve only read one or two of the Inspector Morse books, but they were great fun. Really well done. But what is Psychodiagnostic Chirology? It sounds intriguing.

@50ft_trad. I’ve only read one or two of the Inspector Morse books, but they were great fun. Really well done. But what is Psychodiagnostic Chirology? It sounds intriguing.

@BAS What happens in the mind happens in the body and vice versa. Many people perceive them as seperate entities but they are very sympathetic. Psychodiagnostic Chirology takes palm reading and fingerprints (dermaglyphics), along with hand shape, size, proportions of components, skin condition etc etc and relates them to psychodynamic theory like Freud and Jung and so forth. A friend of mine studied in a Buddhist environment many years ago and they did something very similar on an elemental basis (earth, fire, air, water), and the two fields seem to mirror each other closely from what I can tell. The psychodynamic and elemental tags are essentially metaphors for the same mind/body mirroring, they just use different ways of portraying similar aspects of the psyche/personality. It’s not “fortune telling”, just a map of some of the mental biases that can be in place, though it can also be an indicator of pathological conditons too To be honest (just like with the Morse novels), I haven’t had a great deal of time to properly get stuck into it yet

@50ft_trad. Thanks for explaining it. It sounds interesting.

I’ve been working on “The Meaning of Night” by Michael Cox…I think I started it in May of 2011. I-) I’m terrible about reading and finishing books, its quite a good book too…

rereading guy de Maupassant selected short stories

PT Deutermann’s The Moonpool

An American Tragedy (Dreiser, 1920-24 ish)

I’m finishing Under the Dome. Only 30 pages left, but I’m so disappointed in ending that I’ve been trying to finish reading for a week.

Wonderland by Ace Atkins. It’s the continuation of Robert Parker’s wonderful Spencer PI novels. Atkins gets most things right, and it’s fun to be back in Boston with Spencer investigating a murder.

Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman

ACIM

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, a historical novel based around Thomas Cromwell. Strange writing style

Bolivar by Marie Arana. A new bio of the South American liberator. Very informative yet highly readable.

Monster of God by David Quammen a discussion ofthe archetype of man eating animals and their effect on the psyche. lpretty easy read and has some nice ‘ponder’ points.

“The Race” by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. For anyone who likes detective/action novels the Issac Bell series by Clive Cussler is great. This one is the 4th in the series and I believe there are 2 more after it as of now.

Just finished The Waves by Virginia Woolf. beautiful. Also contains a couple of references to snuff.

I finished A Dance With Dragons by George R R Martin. The fifth book in the series. I feel empty handed now… Cliffhangers with no idea when the next book will be released. What a great work!!!

The children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien.

He Shall Thunder In The Sky by Elizabeth Peters…

Still À la recherche du temps perdu; half way through Sodom and Gomorrah

Leonard Nimoy “I Am Spock”

A Battle Won by S Thomas Russell. The second in a new(ish) series about a half French English naval officer during the Napoleonic wars. If you like Forester’s Horatio Hornblower books, and Patrick Obrian’s Aubrey Maturin series, this is good fun.

The Mating Season by P.G.Wodehouse

Seven Years in Tibet From Widipedia: Seven Years in Tibet (German: Sieben Jahre in Tibet. Mein Leben am Hofe des Dalai Lama) is an autobiographical travel book written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer based on his real life experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War and the interim period before the Communist Chinese People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet in 1950. The book covers the escape of Harrer, and his companion Peter Aufschnaiter, from a British internment camp in India. Harrer and Aufschnaiter then travelled across Tibet to Lhasa, the capital. Here they spent several years, and Harrer describes the contemporary Tibetan culture in detail. Harrer subsequently became a tutor and friend of the 14th Dalai Lama. I’m planning a trip to Kathmandu, and I’m looking into going over to Tibet, if I can. I’ve heard the Tibetans are heavy users of Indian snuff, a topic I’ll explore when I’m there.

I am on Mircea Eliade - Treatise on the History of Religions and Henry Arvon - Anarchism.

I am just finishing the LOTR trilogy , then back onto The book of lost tales. Love Tolkien

Dan Brown “Inferno”

I know its a old one but The Hound of the Baskerville

I know its a old one but The Hound of the Baskerville

Old but good! Can’t beat a bit of Sherlock!

@MisterPaul Could’nt agree more I have always liked the Sherlock stories and have a renewed interest since the release of the Robert Downey films

@bam Yes, I’m generally a fan of most things Sherlock related. As Robert Downey is one of my favourite actors, the new movies were a must. Word is that now RD Jr hs finshed Iron Man that a subject to script approval a third film will be in around a year or so - Really hope it comes off as the first two were excellent, Guy Richie seems to have the right approach directing them I think. Also watched the BBC Sherlock series recently, which I didn’t have high hopes for as it’s not ‘period’, but really enjoyed those also; worth checking out if you haven’t already

Lord of the World by Benson. Victorian era apocalyptic thriller.

@MisterPaul I hope RD makes another Sherlock film they have captured the exact essence of what makes a great film imo. I will be giving the bbc updated version a look have heard off a few people now its good

Gears of War: Jacinto’s Remnant by Karen Traviss

Gears of War: Jacinto’s Remnant by Karen Traviss

@md363 Karen Travis does a nice job on the Republic Commando Series also, I bought it for my son because he was playing the video game. I ended up reading it and the rest of the series 4-5 in all.

Yeah she’s a good author, she has written 2 novels in the Halo series, 1) Glasslands and 2) The Thursday War. I love the Halo novels and she does a great job on those as well.

English: Adam Bede, very ambient, I liked it a lot before something happened which I won’t reveal which might ruin the plot for people who haven’t read it yet; I dunno maybe it’ll be redeemed we’ll see. Latin: Plutarch’s Amphitruo, I love the archaic Latin, it’s pretty damn neato. I wish I could relate to Pagan sensibility.

Passions & Virtues According to Saint Gregory Palamas

Eon by Alison Goodman. Page burner…

I picked up some Plautus at the local university library. I never knew but in Virginia any state resident can check out books from any state university library. I don’t want to forget my Latin so I figured I’d read the Amphitruo. Funny stuff, the only other Latin play I’ve read was Terence’s Phormio which I thoroughly enjoyed. Plautus almost reminds me of Blackadder at times with all of the punchy dialogue between master and slave. Mercury is helping his father Jupiter sleep with Amphitruo’s wife Alcumena while Amphitruo is off fighting the Tilosians by taking Amphitruo’s form, while Mercury takes the form of Amphitruo’s slave Sosia. Sosia’s been tricked by Mercury into believing he has two selves: Mercury warded him off from Amphitruo’s house by pretending to be the real Sosia and beating the crap out of him. Sosia is explaining to his master Amphitruo why he was not able to enter Amphitruo’s house to declare Amphitruo’s deeds in war to Alcumena: Nihilo, inquam, mirum magis tibi istuc quam mihi; neque, ita me di ament, credebam primo mihimet Sosiae, donec Sosia illic egomet fecet sibi ut crederem. ordine omne, uti quidque actum est, dum apud hostis sedimus, edissertauit. tum formam una apstulit cum nomine. nec lact’ lactis magis est simile quam ille ego simlest mei. “It’s no more bizarre to you than it is to me; Nor, gods help me, did I Sosia at first believe myself, Sosia, until I the there-Sosia caused me to believe him. He described, in order, just what happened, when we were with the enemy. Then he took my figure along with my name. And milk is no more similar to milk than that “I” is to me.” Literal translations from Latin always sound so awkward… any other Classics geeks here? I love how colloquial the language and meter of Latin comedy seems. It comes about as close as any Classical literature likely comes to the way the average man-on-the-street actually spoke in that time. Which ironically makes it extremely difficult to read; it’s like taking someone trained to read Milton and Jefferson and asking them to translate the script of a sitcom. Edit: looks like I already mentioned I was reading Amphitruo, damn alcohol killing my braincells off, oh well this is a fuller exposition.

any other Classics geeks here?

Well I read almost entirely ‘classics’ but I think in a different sense to yourself. You seem to have the geek chic on me here - My Latin is ascendum stercus aqua sine remus I can’t say I read much at all of this epoch - Good for you though, I like the comparison to Blackadder

@horus92. I like classics but lack the ability to read them in the original languages. Been doing latin on my own but am stuck on the amo, amas, amat phase. Nice work reading Plautus!

@BAS thanks man! I’d highly recommend Hans Orberg’s Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. With the two tiny paperback companions you can teach yourself quite a lot with it. The textbook is entirely written in Latin so it trains your brain to understand the language in its native syntax as it was written rather than deciphering it like a crossword. It’s just a collection of stories, starts out with “Roma in Italia est” and whatnot and ends up with you reading unadulterated Martial and Catullus and whatnot. I often wonder whether people who speak synthetic languages like Serbian and Russian have an easier time learning Latin and Greek than analytic-language-speakers like us Anglophones.

@horus92. Thank you for that, I’ve been looking for a good course. Orberg sounds just the thing. I’ve no idea if Russian speakers have an easier time with Latin and Greek. But anyone who speaks one Romance language should be able to work their way into Latin without too much trouble.

I love reading threads. I’m currently reading “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” by Neil Gaiman. I don’t love his novels but LOVE his Sandman series. I am 50% through this latest release and I think it is his best novel so far. For those familiar, I think Gaiman’s style of storytelling is better suited with shorter stories and the graphic medium.

@Fbones 24. The Sandman books put the novel into graphic novels. I like Gaiman, he’s a clever, witty fellow who creates worlds that I find it easy to believe in. I’ll have to look for The Ocean, thanks for the headsup.

Professionally, I’m on a forced march through The Oxford Handbook of International Relations. Personally, I’m in the middle of Dune and Sox and the City: A Fan’s Love Affair with the White Sox from the Heartbreak of '67 to the Wizards of Oz.

North of Montana by April Smith

Just finished Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad and half way through Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. I’m back on my sailing/exotic climes/adventure kick.

T H White’s The Once and Future King for some British Arthurian fiction. Sir Johnny’s A Book of Britain - fascinating and some very pertinent comments on what has happened to the British countryside. This gentleman not only produces superb snuffs but also has a very deep understanding of the countryside and a way with words that turns a work of non-fiction into a “page turner.” Highly recommended.

Not read much recently as we have just been moving house. Boxes unpacked now so getting familiar with “QiGong massage for your child with autism” Louisa de Silva. So far so good.

I finished this about a month or so ago but I thought I’d mention it. Kim by Rudyard Kipling has a kindly old Tibetan Lama as a main character who is said to be very frequently snuffing throughout the novel.

R. E. Howard’s Conan Complete Collection, rereading a few of the stories. Howard was a master at the short story and although his works are mostly considered pulps, I think they rank up there toward the top in whatever genre Howard happen to be writing, be it fantasy, western, sports, or other. There is a lot of depth in these stories and even a good bit of social commentary thrown in.

I’m at chapter 15 of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped and lo and behold this line “these Highland beggars stood on their dignity , asked alms only to buy snuff (by their account)…”

Tracker by James Rollins.

@willc Howard was a great story teller, I’ve read the Conan stories a few times, and sampled some of his other writings (he wrote some fine cowboy/western short stories too), he did so much with the short time he was around.

I highly recommend A Treasury of Great American Scandals by Michael Farquhar if you want to read some very humorous and largely forgotten or buried stories from American History.

Ulysses : James Joyce. One needs time to digest this riddle.

Last Harvest by Witold Rybczynjki. a well written book on real estate development in America.

Ulysses : James Joyce. One needs time to digest this riddle.

Love a classic but can’t get on with Joyce Dubliners is one of the very few books that I’ve had to ‘rest’ from - Supposed to be worth the effort though Ulysses…

It’s very difficult to keep track of what’s going on in Ulysses with the stream of consciousness popping in and out but it’s interesting and keeps your brain awake. I’m using an annotations site for any references I don’t catch and for certain latin and other foreign phrases I don’t already know. It’s a project I must conquer.

Still reading Plautus, probably will be for another few months. Right now I’m on the Casina. Also Mommsen’s History of Rome when it’s slow at work

Last, nineth tome of Star Wars: Legacy of the Force. Eighth was great, we’ll see what the last brings.

The Goodbye Look by Ross Macdonald.

Doctor Dogbody’s Leg by: James Norman Hall (Mutiny on the Bounty) Two years after Napoleon was defeated, a salty old navy surgeon sits in a tavern called “The Cheerful Tortoise” (in Portsmith) and tells the tale of how he lost his leg. The thing is… every time he tells the tale, it is different!

Allan Quatermain by: Sir H. Rider Haggard Pub. 1887 The “Indiana Jones” of 130 years ago! This fictional character lived from 1817 to 1885. I first encountered him in the movie: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and I thought that the character warrented further investigation. I probably should have started with the first novel: King Solomon’s Mines.

True Irish Ghost Stories by St. John D. Seymour and Harry L. Neligan. Pub. 1914 _I haven’t got a clue what the “St.” stands for… I’m fairly sure that it isn’t “saint”! _

@HowdyDave Check out the original League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a bound collection of the comics here http://www.amazon.com/League-Extraordinary-Gentlemen-Vol/dp/1563898586/ref=sr\\_1\\_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376103902&sr=1-1&keywords=league+of+extraordinary+gentlemen or from any reputable comic book seller. Allan Moore is an excellent writer, but scoffs at any of his works made into movies (save V for Vendetta). The premise of the book is that all of the imaginative literature of the 19th century is true and occurs in the same universe, and Alan Quatermain is sort of a leader of a period super-hero team with Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo et al. A lot of the connections are left for the reader to figure out as he goes. Its quite brilliant with a lot to say even socially and politically, and don’t dismiss it just because its a comic book. Quatermain was quite the opium addict, but has some great character development.

Im currently reading How the Scots Invented the Modern World. “A true story how Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything In It”. By Arthur Herman.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

The Jefferson Key - by Steve Berry. Adventure at it’s finest…

Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner

@howdydave St. John is a really posh upper class name, pronounced “Sinjon”. Stefan

Past issues of The Snuff Takers Ephemeris

The Darkening Field. It’s the second in a series about a Moscow police captain in the late 30’s. Good stories and believable atmosphere. The author, William Ryan, does an excellent job getting inside the paranoid mess that was Stalin’s Soviet Union with enemies everywhere.

“Four Blind Mice” by James Patterson

The Sayings of Confucius : “The Master said, with some we can learn together, but we cannot go their way; we can go the same way with others, though our standpoint is not the same; and with some, though our standpoint is the same our weights and scales are not.”

More Confucius : “The Master said, noble men unite but are not the same, lowly men are all the same but are always out for themselves.”

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Spectacular Now. A really good movie about growing up, and learning to deal with things like absent fathers, addiction, etc. Very well done, and surprisingly optimistic.

well I finally finished A Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. The man from Mars had a lot to teach us, but really the book wasn’t as revolutionary as I was led to believe, I grok. But google spellcheck at least knows that “grok” is a word! Currently in the middle of Brian Wood’s graphic novels Northlanders really good stories about what it was like to live in the viking age. What to tackle next is always a perplexing question, I have such a backlog of books… I think its time to start getting into the works of Kim Stanley Robinson… Will let you know.

Beginnings by David Weber, the latest story collection from the Honor Harrington universe. It’s a quick and enjoyable read, that explores some of the background of Honor and the star kingdom.

War of the Worlds by: H.G. Wells Saw all the movie versions (and the radio version,) it’s about time to see how far they deviated from the original.

I’m reading Orange is the new black. I don’t know if any of you seen the show on netflix. The main charactor its based on (Piper Kipman) wrote a book about the true version of what happenend.

Professionally, I’m on a forced march through The Oxford Handbook of International Relations. Personally, I’m in the middle of Dune and Sox and the City: A Fan’s Love Affair with the White Sox from the Heartbreak of '67 to the Wizards of Oz.

To appreciate Dune you need to read it twice! It’s much more comprehendable, free-flowing and enjoyable the second time through once you have all of the vocabulary under your belt and don’t need to look words up in the glossery.

Clive Cussler’s - The Kingdom…

The Sayings of Confucius : “The Master said, with some we can learn together, but we cannot go their way; we can go the same way with others, though our standpoint is not the same; and with some, though our standpoint is the same our weights and scales are not.”

@Zaratzu if you’re liking Confucius, I’m wondering if you’ve tried Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) IMO the best of the Taoist philosphers.

I am an avid reader of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. I read them over and over. Great stuff

Burke by Jesse Norman. It’s a bio of the father of conservatism. Good book. Nice counterpoint to the Marx bio I read a few months ago.

Almost finished part six of Marcel Proust’s À la Recherche du Temps Perdu. I only have part seven ‘Time Regained’ to go. I’ve been at this since just before Christmas 2012. The odd thing is that I have kept on buying other things to follow on. I’m unsure whether to start on Emile Zola’s ‘Les Rougon-Macquart’ series (twenty books; I’m guessing two years or so) or I have ‘Philosophy in the Boudoir’ by Marquis De Sade, or Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert - Still I have a while to consider this though I guess…

@MisterPaul. I’ve been meaning to read Proust for a long time. Since I unfortunately don’t read French, it will have to be a translation. Do you have any thoughts on which English translation is the best?

The Complete Father Brown Mysteries by G.K. Chesterton

For little snippits, I am also reading: Curious Myths of the Middle Ages by: Sabine Baring-Gould

revisiting the Hobbit/LOTR series. Just finished Book 2 of LOTR, really enjoying the written version again.

_ The Way of a Pilgrim _ This is the English title of a 19th-century Russian work, recounting the narrator’s journey as a mendicant pilgrim across Russia while practicing the Jesus Prayer. It is unknown if the book is literally an account of a single pilgrim, or if it uses a fictional pilgrim’s journey as a vehicle to teach the practice of ceaseless inner prayer and communion with God. The Russian original, or a copy of it, was present at a Mount Athos monastery in Greece in the 19th century, and was first published in Kazan in 1884, under the Russian title that translates as " Candid Narratives of a Pilgrim to His Spiritual Father."

@MisterPaul. I’ve been meaning to read Proust for a long time. Since I unfortunately don’t read French, it will have to be a translation. Do you have any thoughts on which English translation is the best?

Hi @ BAS Sadly my French won’t run to it either which is a shame I’m reading the Scott Moncrieff/Terence Kilmartin which was revised by D J Enright. It’s a lot easier going than the original Moncrieff verson and [to me] the continuity is better. It’s definately worth the time to read. To me reading Proust is a lot like smoking a pipe well: You really need to forget about it going out occasionally, how long the bowl will take, slow down, relax, and savour the delicacy of the flavours; get lost it the moments . It’s so worth it! Only Gautier comes close to this type of decriptive brilliance and beauty in his writing. It’s a cliche, but Proust does change you. I’d aways intended to get around to this and am so glad that I did, I do feel an odd sense of achievement. Funny enough I was going to post here today as I started Time Regained just this morining Good luck with it if you have a go.

@MisterPaul. Thank you for that. I’ll look for the Moncrief/Kilmartin translation. I’ve always meant to read Proust, and this coming new year seems to be the right time to start him. I’ve heard that he changes your perceptions, so I look forward experiencing that. I’d add that finishing the whole series is an accomplishment. Swan’s Way is often as far as most of us get. I’m just reading the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of the Brothers karamazov. It’s great. Their War and Peace is also worth the effort, though I always thought that Constance Garnet did a nice job with Tolstoy. Thanks for the input!

@Bas, No worries I think it does change you, although that sounds slightly odd, The Captive and The Fugitive particularly I found told a lot about the nature of Proust’s [and our] obsessions. Funny enough I haven’t gotten around to War and Peace although it has been on the list for sometime, I’ll check out that translation, thanks for the tip on that I do love the Russians! Gogol’s Dead Souls is one of my favourites, along with Anton Chekhov, and my all time favourite is A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov - This is well worth a read. Oddly I can’t get on with Fyodor Dostoyevsky (It’s a while since I tried to be fair) so good on you with Brothers Karamazov

The Bible of Clay by Julia Navarro.

The Sublime Life Of Monasticism by: Bishop Mettaous Bishop Mettaous is a Coptic Bishop and the abbot of St. Mary Monastery, El-Sorian in Lower Egypt where he has lead the life of a monastic for at least 25 years.

@BigPaul. I was just looking at A Hero for Our Time this past weekend. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll put it on my list now. War and Peace is one of my personal favorites, one of the few “great books” that always seems to speak to me. Dostoevsky is perhaps easier to admire than like, but he gets at the knots in existence with wonderful insight. To me he is worth the not inconsiderable effort required to get properly into one of his novels, but I haven’t always felt that way. Chekhov is brilliant. But I like watching his plays more than reading them (same issue with Shakespeare).

I too enjoyed A Hero for Our time. Excellently done. War an Peace is an absolute classis but for me was a very slow read as the cast is so large I had a terrible time keeping them straight and had to back peddle quite a bit. As for Dotoyevsky, Crime and Punishment is the best of his that I have read…

I’ve just started: The History of Rome by Titus Livius/Livy

Wow. I think I’m moving Lermontov up to the top of the list, given all the accolades he’s picking up here. @Stogie, I had that same problem with War and Peace the first time I read it. My copy didn’t have a list of characters, so I was always back tracking to find out who Tolstoy was writing about, but after a while I got the hang of the major characters and it became easier. Rereading it now, it’s still a bit of an issue, but there is wikipedia and having read it before really helps. FYI the Briggs translation has maps and a cast of characters. Crime and Punishment is great, and it has a relatively small list of characters. When I started brothers Karamazov, I was always getting the three brothers confused, They’re both fantastic books, but right now I’m liking Brothers more, probably because I’m still in it. @Howdydave. Wow. That’s another book that I would love to read, especially if I could manage it in Latin, though at my current pace of self study, that’s about a decade or so away…

Who Am I?: And If So, How Many?

Currently reading the books: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith, and Breathers: A Zombie’s lament by S.G Browne. Any suggestions for a good read. Particularly ones involving the Northwest passage and the Sir John Franklin lost expedition. I 'm looking for books to send to my father in Afghanistan and he is obsessed with the Franklin expedition and the Northwest passage.

Sail by James Patterson

@YankeeStout For the Franklin Expedition, I would suggest: In the Arctic Seas A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Companions by Francis Leopold McClintock McClintock lead the last search for Franklin in the “Fox”, a schooner with a crew of 25.

@YankeeStout For the Franklin Expedition, I would suggest: In the Arctic Seas A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Companions by Francis Leopold McClintock McClintock lead the last search for Franklin in the “Fox”, a schooner with a crew of 25.

Thanks! I’ll be sure to send that to him!

The Camera from Ansel Adams. I am an amateur b/w film photographer, and just started to take this hobby seriously… and Adams is a good teacher to follow.

Time was regained a few weeks back when I finished Marcel Proust epic masterpiece. Over half way through Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert - Well worth a go; probably my favourite Flaubert thus far, very attractive descriptive passages and a romantic ethos

some fictions from the rather well known (in my generation atleast) Garth Nix- The Old Kingdom trilogy. I found these books when my mum moved house again. need to get an ereader though.

A Farewell To Arms by Earnest Hemingway…

Stephen King “Doctor Sleep”

I have finished “Taniec Śmierci” (original title: “Dance of Death”) by Preston and Child, and I started “Zakazane Imperium” yesterday (polish title for “Boardwalk Empire”)

@Viertel… Preston and Child write very well. Enjoy!!!

@Viertel… Preston and Child write very well. Enjoy!!!

I noticed that when I realised that I’ve read all book in one day but it is very hard to find last, third book of Diogenes Trilogy in Poland, so I must wait…

The Enemy We Know by: Donna White Glaser An interesting “murder mystery with a twist”… After I got my Kindle book, I discovered that it was probably published under the auspices of AA and a lot of the characters are Alcoholics. Lots of obvious AA references and probably a lot of subtle references that you have to be an insider to appreciate.

Deliver us from Evil - by David Baldacci

Hakan Nesser - Borkmann’s Point

Finished Borkmann’s Point, and Jo Nesbo - Cockroaches after this, now I’m reading Henning Mankell - One Step Behind

The Bulldog Drummond Chronicles by: Sapper and Herman Cyril McNeale I figure: why read all the new stuff when there are _ tons _ of great old books out there that I haven’t read yet? (Bulldog Drummond first came out in 1920.)

In honor of Tom Clancy: The Hunt for Red October Threat Vector The Cardinal and the Kremlin The Bear and the Dragon And many, many more!

The Hobbit, an old love made better shared with my son.

Finished Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert; very good - the ending particularly interesting and unconventional for the period. I’m about a third of the way through ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky now, am liking that a lot, recalls ‘Catcher in the Rye’ to me [which I’ve read enough times to be an assasin/serial killer]. Although the style is deceptively simplistic the themes are thought provoking… Reminds me of being younger than I am

Finished One Step Behind and Mr Monk goes to the Germany, now I’m reading “Sun and shadow” by Ake Edwardson

DIANETICS by L. Ron Hubbard

Started reading A Song of Ice and Fire a few months ago. Currently on A Dance with Dragons, don’t think I’ll be able to stretch this book out until the new one comes out. MOVE YOUR ASS MARTIN!!

Currently reading Under the Eagle by Simon Scarrow, first book in the series by this author, and I think I’m going to have to start buying the others as I go along. Currently pairing that with Toque’s Christmas Pudding and/ or Creme de Figue as those are my “I’m not doing another frigging thing tonight. At all.” choices of relaxing snuff. Neither one of those snuffs is exactly reminiscent of the Legions, or Italy, but I don’t hold that against them…

Riptide by Preston & Child

Alright, moved on from Under the Eagle and have now started The Eagle’s Conquest, same author. If you’re into historical fiction I would definitely pick these up. Very solid writing and it seems like pretty solid research went into these. Not as detailed as Patrick O’Brian, but definitely entertaining. Still pairing my books with Creme de Figue and Xmas Pudding, but I’ve got an SP or two on order that might be a bit more “Roman” appropriate.

Sandy chuggs rangers and the famous ICF

Which snuff is the best for you while reading?

So, I finished comrade Chbosky novel ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ and I have to say it was very enjoyable - Highly recommended. I’ve moved on to the Marquis De Sade ‘Philosophy in the Boudoir’ [Predicably racy obviously] though in places rather inspired: “To Libertines: Voluptuaries of all ages, of every sex, it is to you only that I offer this work; nourish youselves upon its principles: they favour your passions, and these passions, whereof coldly insipid mortalists put you in fear, are naught but the means nature employs to bring man to the pleasures she prescribes to him; hearken only to these delicious promptings, for no voice save that of the passions can conduct you to happiness” I’ve only read ‘Virtue’ prior to this so it’s a bit of an eye opener!

Finished “Sun and Shadow” by Ake Edwardson, finishing “Tortilla Flat” by John Steinbeck, tonight I’m gonna start with one of the Elling trilogy by Ingvar Ambjornsen

King Solomon’s Mines (1885) by: H. Rider Haggard The first Allan Quartermain story. Unlike the movie versions, a woman does not go along on the trip! _I don’t know why Hollywood feels that it needs to add a bit of bootie to make great stories “more interesting!” _

All Hell Let Loose, Max Hasting’s overview of the Second World War.

Collectors by David Baldacci

Jotunbok by Raven Kaldera. It’s a sort of religious book for people who worship the giants of norse myth. I bought it for a friend who is devoted to Loki, but I find it pretty interesting.

Finished “The Guards” by Ken Bruen - awesome!!! Could not find “Book of the Dead” by Preston & Child, so I got it from library. Can’t wait to read how Pendergast will get out of troubles, so see you tomorrow guys!

The Moses Quesy by Smith @Viertel, I have read everything by Preston & Childs… GREAT stuff. Oh so creative. Most recently read a short story titled Extraction with Aloysius and Diogenes as kids - and their interaction with the local version of the ‘tooth fairy’.

Have decided to put down the Marquis De Sade ‘Philosophy in the Boudoir’ for a time being and have picked up the first of Emile Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart series ‘La Fortune des Rougon’ - Splendidly written as all his output is.

A day before yesterday: Finished “Book of the Dead”. Great ending of Diogenes Trilogy, now I’m looking for Fever Dream. Yesterday: started and finished Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu. Worst of all Monk novel series. I have also started Frank Tallis - Fatal Lies, and that is what I’m reading today. I think I will look for some Nesbo books.

I started: Tarzan of the Apes yesterday. It was first published in October 1912 in the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine. It first came out in book form in 1914. I think that this book may hold the record for most sequels with 24!

I bought Jo Nesbo - Phantom (Sorgenfri) and Leif Persson - Another Time, Another Life today, so I have something to read for next week. In the midtime I read Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I’ll finish Fatal Lies maybe next week - I didn’t find it boring, but… well… Nesbo is waiting.

I started: Tarzan of the Apes yesterday. It was first published in October 1912 in the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine. It first came out in book form in 1914. I think that this book may hold the record for most sequels with 24!

Not even close, there is over 100 Starwars books and novellas

The Outline of History, H.G. Wells Re-read

@n9inchnails not even close. There are around 600 Star Wars books - guides, novels, etc. Stricte novels are around 200. They are set in time period 25,793 years BBY (Before Battle of Yavin - so before Episode IV) to 45 ABY (After Battle of Yavin). There are also “Legacy” comics that shows us Star Wars future in 140 ABY.

I started: Tarzan of the Apes yesterday. It was first published in October 1912 in the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine. It first came out in book form in 1914. I think that this book may hold the record for most sequels with 24!

Not even close, there is over 100 Starwars books and novellas

All by the same author?

^^ No, they are written by several authors, such as Michael Stackpole, Karen Traviss, Timothy Zahn, Aaron Allston, etc.

{in Yoda style] “Hmmm… The force is strong with this thread me thinks…”

@HowdyDave. I always enjoyed the Tarzan books, especially the first few, and as far as I know ERB wrote all of them. I haven’t read the Star Wars books, so I can’t speak to them but the Trek books are hit and miss, some absolutely first rate, and quite few that are for serious fans only.

I’m in the process of reading and trying to understand “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking

@BAS the same with Star Wars. I’d say they are only for fans, because most of them really do not represent anything special. Most of them are 5/10, so you read them only to know how is the Galaxy doing. But, of course, there are several really good - Darth Plagueis, Darth Bane trilogy, Shadows of the Empire and whole New Jedi Order Era concept. Yuuzhan Vong are awesome!

The Return of Tarzan Book 2

The Last Ringbearer - it is a take on LOTR but from the viewpoint of lesser characters and some of the bad guys. Only a third of the way through it but it is very well done and certainly keeps me turning the pages.

The Return of Tarzan Book 2

I bought the complete adventures of Tarzan on the Nook for about $3.99 I didn’t realize it , until after reading for a short time I looked down at the page number and it was page 50 of 3688. Very entertaining, timeless in a way but still reflecting an innocence of the time it was written. Not the campy stuff seen on old tv shows. After finishing it I got the complete Jon Carter of Mars, good mindless entertainment.

Wayne of Gotham by Tracy Hickman.

The Return of Tarzan Book 2

I bought the complete adventures of Tarzan on the Nook for about $3.99 I didn’t realize it , until after reading for a short time I looked down at the page number and it was page 50 of 3688. Very entertaining, timeless in a way but still reflecting an innocence of the time it was written. Not the campy stuff seen on old tv shows. After finishing it I got the complete Jon Carter of Mars, good mindless entertainment.

After finishing the first book, I got The Complete Tarzan on my Kindle.

The Alternative Hypothesis by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.

Better Than Bullets by Theodore Roscoe This is volume 1 (I have the entire 4 volume set) of the stories of: Thibaut Corday and his adventures in the French Foreign Legion. The stories appeared in the pulp magazine : Argosy All-Story Weekly. The stories in volume 1 appeared between Oct. 1929 and Sep. 1932, the series continued on in Argosy until 1939.

Arthur C. Clarke: “The Songs of Distant Earth”

Snuff by Terry Pratchett. Another fine Discworld book.

Weekly Reader

J.R.R. Tolkiens ‘Silmarillion’ - a Very Beautiful Tale. My favourite of His works. Goes fine with noble snuffs…

Well, having plowed through all those Simon Scarrow books I could easily get my hands on, I have now turned to King Solomon’s Mines by Henry Rider Haggard.

‘Samuel Adams - A Life’ by Ira Stoll. Well written and with lots of bibliography. Very good read.

The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain.

The Green Lama: The Complete Pulp Adventures Vol. 1 by: Kendel Foster Crossen

I bought the complete adventures of Tarzan on the Nook for about $3.99 I didn’t realize it , until after reading for a short time I looked down at the page number and it was page 50 of 3688. Very entertaining, timeless in a way but still reflecting an innocence of the time it was written. Not the campy stuff seen on old tv shows. After finishing it I got the complete Jon Carter of Mars, good mindless entertainment.

If you like pulp fiction, you might be interested in: http://argosymagazine.co.uk/forum/index.php Argosy is resurrecting pulp fiction to a digital format.

The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle

Thanks for the link @ howdydave

The Taoist Experience - Livia Kohn

Almost forgotten about reading. So I’m back in the Alternative Hypothesis by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.

After reading an excerpt that @JakartaBoy posted I picked up Seven Years in Tibet, and have not been able to put it down. A wonderful and mind-boggling story.

@Nosemud, great story, isn’t it?! I’m a bit sad that the world is now so mapped and connected, it’s great to read about a different, not-so-distant era.

Around The World In Eighty Days - Jules Verne

Report on probability A by Brian Aldiss.

“The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories” by H.P. Lovecraft. Specifically “At the Mountains of Madness”.

Blood Relations - Jeremy Bamber & The White House Farm Murders - Roger Wilkes

The Snuff Takers Ephemeris vol 7

Argosy Vol. 1 Fantastic Frontiers A reincarnation of the old pulp magazine Argosy in digital format. This is the initial release. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/390096

The Battle For New York by Barnet Schecter

After reading the thread regarding Pan Tadeusz I had to acquire a copy. Looking forward to starting on it this evening.

War and Peace - Tolstoy.

"Citizens’ by Simon Schama and “Life of Napoleon” by Bourienne

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.

Horatio Hornblower is excellent- nice to hear it evoked

@general_desaix @xander have you all ever read the Aubrey- Maturin novels? Thought they were all excellent. Currently reading World War Z.

@agentmatt I read the first one and enjoyed it. I have copies of most of them already in my never shrinking pile of “to read” books. #:-S I did also like the movie they did on one of the books, and hope for more. Its a shame Patrick O’Brian died right in the middle of writing the last book.

War and Peace - Tolstoy.

Wife and I are reading it out loud

Argosy Vol. 1 Fantastic Frontiers A reincarnation of the old pulp magazine Argosy in digital format. This is the initial release. Smashwords – Argosy Volume 1: Fantastic Frontiers

Incredible !!! I’m a Weird Tales fan— familiar with Argosy of course

To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth Jeff Cooper

A Patristic Treasury: Early Church Wisdom for Today by: James Payton A collection of writings from the Church Fathers.

In Search of Pipe Dreams

Walden

I have read three Mr Monk novels last week, now one day break

Wife and I still reading War and Peace out loud at nights

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Seven Years in Tibet, based on the recommendation of others here.

Cathedral by Nelson DeMille

The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy. Intending on ploughing through his work back to back, read the Lloyd Hopkins trilogy and The Black Dahlia over the Christmas period

The Paradise of the Holy Fathers (Volume 1) Translated by Wallis Budge

Stories from the Egyptian Desert by: Bishop Macarius

Celebrated Criminal Cases of America by: Thomas S. Duke A dusty old book published in 1910. I first heard about it when I was reading “The Thin Man.” The author lived in San Francisco, so he started with cases on the west coast and worked his way east. It’s a book that Nick Charles gave to Gilbert when he wanted to know if there had been any celebrated cases of cannibalism in the USA. I looked it up and, low and behold, it’s a real book which was quoted verbatum in “The Thin Man”!

The Illiad by Homer I just started it and, with all of the other stuff I’m reading, I don’t expect to finish it for about a year. I may give up on this translation because the translator, writing for an English audience, cleverly decided that he would use the names of the ROMAN deities (e.g.; Jove and Neptune instead of Zeus and Poseidon) in his story about the GREEKS! And they live on Olympus too!

Anything Terry Pratchett…I love to laugh and he makes me do so quite frequently! I’ve read nearly every one. Nearly worn out my completely unabridged hitch hikers guide to the galaxy compendium i’ve read it so many times.

The Complete Father Brown by: G.K. Chesterton

Weird Tales anthology (I’ve a number of them)

Travel 2014 - Lonely Planet

Seven theories of religion- Author: Daniel L. Pals (theories of James Frazer, Freud, Durkheim, Marx, etc.).

Algernon Blackwood collection

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Jaroslav Hašek - “The Good Soldier Švejk”.

I’m a big Donald Hamilton fan. Am currently finishing book eight of the Matt Helm series (out of 27). Have read the canon twice, this is the third time. Not great litarature, and a bit of a guilty pleasure, but if you like realistic “secret agent” fiction, Hamilton is tough to beat. The series started in 1960, so some of the earlier books are a bit dated (sexist and Cold War related themes) but great, nonetheless. Hamilton’s westerns and non-fiction (he wrote sailing, hunting and firearms works as well) are also well worth reading. Oh, and the Matt Helm movies are NOTHING like the books, so don’t let them put you off. The books are now back in print, which is great, all mine are vintage paperbacks (the first ones sold for 40 cents!). Oh, I’m also reading some Jack London on the iPad–love projectgutenberg!

The Book of Three

Why Nations Fail Why, for example, did the USA breed Bill Gates, while Mexico bred Carlos Slim? Why did the USA, not China, breed Thomas Edison? How come slavery worked in the southern states, but not in the North. Great reading for political economy geeks, but lots of racy, interesting anecdotes from the Congo, the Aztec kingdoms, and all over the place.

The Lying Stones of Marrakech - Penultimate Reflections on Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould.

Algernon Blackwood — just cannot get enough recently… damn finest horror author ever, IMO.

DS9 - The Ferengi Rules of Aquisition

Over My Dead Body (A Nero Wolfe Mystery) by: Rex Stout

The Snuff Taker’s Ephemeris Volume Nine

Kipling’s Tales of Horror and Fantasy

Easy Go: A Novel by Michael Crichton writing as John Lange

Marekors by Jo Nesbo

Currently reading FATAL VISION (true crime) by Joe McGinnis and starting to read the CHINATOWN screenplay by Robert Towne

Zero Day by David Baldacci. Yet another rollicking, well written tale!!

@Grant Wife and I read Fatal Vision – you should also try Bitter Blood – another INSANE N.C. crime thriller you’d like. We’ve the Fatal Vision movie as well. Anyhow, we’re currently reading yet another Weird Tales compilation of mine.

The Snuff Takers Ephemeris

A Bid for Fortune aka: Dr. Nikola’s Vendetta aka: Enter, Dr. Nikola by: Guy Boothby First Published 1895

Actually, at this second I’m proof-reading a young-people’s fantasy called ‘The Town of Tamarack.’ I think they’ll have to do something about the title and the town’s name because there is already a series of childrens stories that take place in a town named Tamarack. (Copyright don’cha know…)

@howdydave I’ve run into THAT ^^^ before as well!!

Nothing to Envy - Barbara Demick…All about the bastard Kims in NK…highly recommended

Einstein’s Dreams

The Good City And The Good Life - By Daniel Kemmis. Actually a pretty good read on what it really means to be a good citizen.

Bahnson NC Masonic Manual

New Testament in the Orthodox Church

Flipping through woodcuts in Agricola’s De Re Metallica – incredible

Bahnson NC Masonic Manual

I think that Freemasonry invented texting shorthand… Wa’ja think?

^ @howdydave now if they could only modify it enough for the red work :))

The Snuff Taker’s Ephemeris Volume Nine

Just bought the digital edition–very good. Plan to get all the back issues.

A History of the Methodist Church – I’m not a Christian per se, but was raised Methodist-- I like John Wesley and Francis Asbury— interesting and brave fellows

I’m on the last few chapters of book 5 of A Game of Thrones - A Dance With Dragons. Then I’ll be eagerly waiting for book 6 which is due out this year. The HBO TV production is brilliant and obviously so are the books. If you’re thinking about reading the books, make sure you read books 4 and 5 in parallel. There are guides on the net on how to do this. It makes for much more enjoyable reading.

the rats by james Herbert, I know old book but a real good read…

The Red Telephone or “The Devil’s Doings…” very nice, very old book I picked up for .25 on Saturday at the market… nice little book of tales regarding religionists falling prey to Old Nick

I am reading the Dark Tower Series and I am on the book 4, Wizard And Glass(Stephen King)

Tales of Old Japan by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, GCVO, KCB pub. 1871 This was the first glimpse by westerners into the culture of Japan. The first story is a piece of history called: The Fourty-Seven Ronins This is a true story that occurred in the 17th century.

‘Between You And Me - A Memoir’ by Mike Wallace. Review of some of his interactions/reflections of the famous and infamous during his long career with 60 minutes and before. a very interesting, easy to read book.

@Grant Wife and I read Fatal Vision – you should also try Bitter Blood – another INSANE N.C. crime thriller you’d like. We’ve the Fatal Vision movie as well. Anyhow, we’re currently reading yet another Weird Tales compilation of mine.

I’m enjoying the book very much and I remember seeing the movie as well. I think it was something of a 2 part made-for-tv mini series if I’m not mistaken, with Karl Malden. I just started another book today. One that I read many many years ago and thought I’d revisit. Blood Beast by Don D’Ammassa - About a gargoyle. It was carved from cold stone…but it pulsated with pure evil!

H.P. LOVECRAFT- Dreams of Terror and Death

Algernon Blackwood anthology

Halo: The Thursday War by Karen Traviss

John Stuart Mill

The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans. Totally scary, I always new those guys were bastards, but I never realized quite how mediocre, unoriginal and banal they were as well.

Father Arseny: A Cloud of Witnesses Father Arseny was a Russian hieromonk – a monk who is also a priest. From 1927 to 1958 he spent most of his time in Russian goulags due to his faith. During this time he became the spiritual father of many fellow prisoners. After his release he encouraged his spiritual children to record their own personal history in the faith. This book contains the stories of 15 of his children as well as the story of Father Arseny himself. An inspiring book about the survival of Christianity through the Soviet regime.

Naked Lunch. Was reading The Worm Ouroboros. I have a personal library of awesome stuff.

G is for gumshoe

Life With Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse -Kidnapper

Dr. Nikola Returns by: Guy Boothby This time Dr. Nikola goes to China and Tibet. He doesn’t seem to be the 100% evil villain in this story that he appeared to be in the first Dr. Nikola story.

Finally got around to starting The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Past issues of “The Snuff Takers Ephemeris”

sven hassel wheels of terror

Starting on the Dune series with the first one, Dune

League tables

Starting on the Dune series with the first one, Dune

I would suggest that you read the first book _twice._The first time through you will constantly be flipping back to the glossery to look up words. The second time through, you get the flow of the story without those annoying interruptions to look up new vocabulary.

Good job, 9IN. That was a life changer for me. Frank Hebert was a true guru. I’m going to go back and read them all again now that the prequels and sequels seem to have finished.

Currently midway through Imperial Japan (1800-1945). Very good read. About half way through Power, Faith, and Fantasy (America in the Middle-East 1776-present).

The invisible war by Saint Nicodemus of Mount Athos

Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” - more relevant (to me, at least) today that it was upon publication. Not-so-patiently waiting on STE v9 hardcopy.

Cirque Du Freak #1: A Living Nightmare HBO made a movie a few years ago called: Cirque Du Freak - The Vampire’s Assistant. That’s the title of book #2 in this 12 book series. Since the book is always better than the movie, I thought that I would check out the series. While the series appears to be targeting middle school readers, I think that I am going to enjoy it since I have been proof reading a book aimed at the same audience. It is good to take a break with mindless entertainment when you read a lot of longhaired stuff! Besides… it was recommended by JK Rowling.

Weaveworld by Clove Barker.

Still working my way through the Matt Helm canon by the awesome (late) Donald Hamilton. On number 20 out of 27. It’s great that these are coming back into print. My collection are all orginal paperbacks. Kinda funny, the first volume (1960) was priced at 40 cents.

Now Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins This stuff is quite compelling even for an older childrens’ book. Also the lady and I have been reading The Chronicles of Narnia to each other for a few months, she never read them as I child so I told her she needed to. We’ve read them in the proper order (as they were published) not the revisionist chronological order. We’ll start The Last Battle tonight.

Philokalia

Joyce Carol Oates’s The Accursed. Excellent story taking place at Princeton around 1914-5. Written like a horror story, but in the “is it supernatural or is it not?” vein. And for light, uplifting reading: Blood Meridian (again) by Cormac McCarthy. It’s the selection this time for my girlfriend’s and my book club.

The Scramble For Africa by Thomas Pakenham. I’m three-quarters of the way through this 738-page litany of bloodshed, cannibalism and mayhem - I particularly enjoyed the accounts of the British defeats in the Zulu wars and the Italians losing 4000 men to the Ethiopians. I also had no idea that cannibalism was quite that common - okay, maybe every so often a missionary might get eaten or something - but it looks like it was, in fact, just normal. The Belgians in the Congo even had an army of 10,000 cannibals (headed by just 6 European officers) who would clear up the battlefield after an encounter, and cook, eat and preserve all the dead - and wounded. Once they cooked and ate over a thousand Swahili in a single session… and, to be frank, I’m not sure I even wanted to know any of this. But it’s too late now… Definitely recommended.

R.H. Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast ( 1840) One of the books I was assigned to read in school, but never did. This is the account of a young man’s sea voyage on the brig Pilgrim, from Boston, south to Cape Horn and up to California, when it was still part of Mexico. I really like reading about sailing and oceans, the Royal Navy in the days of Nelson, etc. My life long desire was to go to sea in a sailing ship. Alas, I was born too late. Also reading Captain Marryat’s The Privateersman( 1830). This was the guy who inspired Forster who wrote Horatio Hornblower by the way. Both books are written in an old style, hard to get through fast, but really packed full of details about how sails are set, furled, unfurled, etc. They are both in the heydays of snuff usage too, which makes it fun to pinch and read, read and have a pinch, and so on.

@slartie I have to tell you this… I used to be a teacher, a high school teacher. I once read an essay by one of my students about Drizzt. I don’t remember anything the kid said about Drizzt in particular, but it was so good, so well written, such excellent use of language, etc, that I gave her an A+( actually a 6, on a 1-6 point scale). It just jumped out at me when I read your post, since I am always fishing for new stuff to read. I am stuck in the 18th and 19th century seafaring era and the Indian Wars/Gold Rush era of US history. I need to find some escapist stuff I suppose…

@mrmanos Drizzt’s adventures is definitely a fine way to escape. You might find the seafaring somewhat lacking, but there’s plenty of just about everything else. Happy reading!

From Tibet to Mount Athos to Elder Paisios

Got very into Flannery O’Connor the last week or two. As a semi-southerner raised as a Catholic Flannery O’Connor is right up my alley. I finished her two novels (both very short) and am reading her short stories now.

The Bounty - The true story of the mutiny on the Bounty. By Caroline Alexander. A very well written, well documented book. Very readable.

Der Untertan, by Heinrich Mann

Günter Prodöhl - Kriminalfalle ohne Beispiel (The pitaval of the unusual crimes). Arthur Conan Doyle - all Sherlock Holmes novels.

The Bounty - The true story of the mutiny on the Bounty. By Caroline Alexander. A very well written, well documented book. Very readable.

On a naval theme, I’m on my third read-through of the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels. Utterly utterly brilliant.

@Thunderbird‌. Those are wonderful books. I’ve read the series twice and they are, along with Forester’s Hornblower, splendid entertainment.

@Thunderbird‌. Those are wonderful books. I’ve read the series twice and they are, along with Forester’s Hornblower, splendid entertainment.

Give you joy of it sir! A glass of wine with you.

@Filek – Once you’ve finished Sherlock Holmes, you might want to take a look at the Dr. Thorndyke stories by R. Austin Freeman.

@howdydave, I’d love to, but seems non of them have been translated into Polish so far.

Thaddeus Stevens - Scourge of the south by Fawn M. Brodie. Well written and seemingly well researched. A bit dry but definitely readable.

Unseen Warfare** Spiritual Combat** by Scupoli (a Roman Catholic classic) was upgraded by Theophan the Recluse and Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (Mount Athos) with Orthodox applications.

Mastering the Nikon D610–546 pages of how-to-use-your-camera, lol.

Master and Commander by Pat O’Brien with some WoS Royal George.

Patrick Suskind’s “Perfume”. A must read for snuff users! Here’s an extract: This scent had a freshness, but not the freshness of limes or pomegranates, nor the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or birch or camphor or pine needles, nor that of a May rain or a frosty wind or of well water… and at the same time it had warmth, but not as bergamot, cypress or musk has, or jasmine or narcissi, not as rosewood has or iris… This scent was a blend of both, of evanescence and substance, not a blend, but a unity, although slight and frail as well, and yet solid and sustaining, like a piece of thin, shimmering silk… and yet again not like silk, but like pastry soaked in honey-sweet milk—and try as he would he couldn’t fit those two together: milk and silk! This scent was inconceivable, indescribable, could not be categorized in any way—it really ought not to exist at all. And yet there it was as plain and splendid as day. Grenouille followed it, his fearful heart pounding, for he suspected that it was not he who followed the scent, but the scent that had captured him and was drawing him irresistibly to it. Wish I could get away with writing a snuff review like that!

‘Never Call Retreat’ by Bruce Catton. A study of the last half of the American civil war. well written and researched and quite readable.

Back Issues of The Snuff Takers Ephemeris

Holy Week - Easter 501 pages worth of church services that will be completed at my church this week! Since I’m in the choir, I will be at every one of them. Technically, it is 1,002 pages since they have Greek and English pages side-by-side.