What are you reading?

[Torurot]

2nd best book I've read this year. The blurb on the back about sums it up.

The Glass Palace
Amitav Ghosh 2000 ISBN 13 978 0 00 651409 1 ISBN 10 0 00 651409 x
An extraordinary epic. The Glass Palace is a masterful novel of love, war, family and presents us with a band of memorable characters, spread across Burma, Malaya and India, and across three generations - before the door to Burma closes behind them, and the glittering light of that civilisation seems extinguished.

[Instant Kama]

Torurot:
Maybe you've read it, but if you enjoyed Glass Palace try ' My Life As A Shan Princess' It's by an Austrian lady who's name escapes me at the moment, if you do get into it let me know and i'll give you some info on the house and the lady who lived there. A couple of others along the lines of G.P. are 'Saigon' and 'Peking' both by Anthony Gray.

And another plug for 'Three Cups Of Tea' every home should have one. Aint read the follow up yet wondered if others had. ?

[JaiDee]

Found what may be a classic while walking through Barnes and Nobles yesterday;

"Nothing to Envy; ordinary lives in North Korea'' by L.A. Times reporter Barbara Demick.

Can't wait to dig in on this one, those poor bastards in that rathole country have one of the worst standards of living of anyone in the world; and we never get the truth out of there. By interviewing 6 people who have escaped and moved on to China or South Korea I think this book will give fascinating insight on a country very few of us really know anything about.

http://nothingtoenvy.com/

[Napalm]

PG Woodhouse, Jeeves in the Offing, very funny book...

[strocube]

Oh man, you guys, I just read a really fun and interesting nonfiction thing by Nick Schou titled Orange Sunshine, The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and its Quest to Spread Peace, Love and ACID to the world.

For me, it was one of those books that you don't want to end, and you start getting bummed when your about to be finished with it.
It's a tale of naivete and sheer balls of fucking steel, my brothers!
I was born about ten years too late so I missed out on all this fun. Anyway, it's really fun to read about.

ISBN: 987-0-312-55183-4

Jai Dee, I think you'd love this.

[guydesavoy]

I've just received the proofs of a new book, publish date sometime later this month :

"The lights are out but I'm still here".

According to the blurb on the jacket, it's the cautionary tale of a guy who just couldn't move on.
Should be a gripping read when it comes out  

By G Brown. (But I think that might be a nom de plume).

[El_hefe]

"God is not Great" by Christopher Hitchens. A lot of cogent essays on religious follies & atheism thoughtfully put together, very thought provoking, although after 2/3's of the way through it got a bit overdone. Interestingly a famous atheist that recently renounced atheism, Antony Flew, died a few weeks ago. (He felt that recent discoveries in DNA research pointed to some kind of inherent design.)

[JaiDee]

(JaiDee @ Mar. 29 2010,00:44) "Nothing to Envy; ordinary lives in North Korea'' by L.A. Times reporter Barbara Demick.


  http://nothingtoenvy.com/

Finished this book a few days after I bought it and would recommend it very highly to anyone who reads here.

If you have any interest at all in the "hermit kingdom'' pick it up.

[Lefty]

I'm nowhere near the voracious reader of books that some here appear to be. Your mentioning that book made me think of a book I read a few years ago and liked quite a bit.

It was written by Timothy Leary, and titled:

The Delicious Grace of Moving One's Hand: The Collected Sex Writings.

Synopsis
Timothy Leary (1920-1997) was one of the most controversial figures of the 1960s, the man who urged a generation to turn on, tune in, and drop out. Now, nearly two years after his death, this manuscript has emerged comprising his best writings about sexuality. Beginning with an account of his first sexual encounter €” his own conception €” Leary takes readers on an exploration of the link between sexuality and the mind. Each short chapter contains either a traditional or novel approach to what Leary called "improving your navigational control over your pleasure cruises," including Hindu methods for stimulation via hypnogogic yantras, chemical aphrodisiacs, and neurolingual tricks for arousal.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Del....0251811

[Tomcat]

" The Richness of Life" by Steven Jay Gould.

He was the arch enemy of Dawkins as far as evolutionary theory was concerned and this is a collection of essays. The problem is that Gould took no prisoners as far as the layman is concerned and the later chapters are a hard grind and i doubt if i will get to the end. A degree in Biology is probably required.

I thought this was going to be a similar book to Dawkins " Ancestors Tale" where the trail of life is explained back to the single cell first ancestor but its just his take on Darwins Ideas ( Gould actually died some years ago)

he woffles on about baseball and Joe Di Maggio for at least twenty pages . A bit off padding doesnt hurt i suppose.

[JaiDee]

(Tomcat @ May 23 2010,18:45) I thought this was going to be a similar book to Dawkins " Ancestors Tale"

I started that last week!

So far so good; this is my 4th book by Richard Dawkins, he is one smart MFER

*Useless trivia alert; he owns one of the original 1500 "On the Origin of Species'' which were printed.

[guydesavoy]

I'm reading Gibbon, again. It's all there

And snippets of Poe

[Tomcat]

I took a concise volume of Edgar Allen Poes works with me to Thailand three times and never touched it. Reminds me to dust it down and start reading it

Actually i bought the Poe book after i read most of H P Lovecrafts works. I do like old style Gothic/ Weird Horror and even Anne Rice of whom i have everything except the controversial  book she wrote  about a sort of fictional Autobiography of Jesus Christ.( cant remember the name)

[Tomcat]

(JaiDee @ May 23 2010,19:49)   So far so good;

The Ancestors Tale is sort of book that i will read more than once, its a bit Encyclopedic in that you will probably have to read it more than once as there is a lot to take in. Sort of like a reference book in a way.

If im on this earth just once i want to know roughly how it happened or came to be, at least within the bounderies of what i can understand .

[Road Runner]

(Tomcat @ May 23 2010,17:45) ...........a sort of fictional Autobiography of Jesus Christ.( cant remember the name)

The Life Of Brian?


Just finished Billy Ruffian - The Belerophon and the Downfall of Napoleon.

It tells the story of what was an ordinary warship during the Napoleonic wars.
But one that somehow ended up in the three major naval actions of that war.

Finally after Napoleon was beaten at Waterloo and being hunted down by most of Europe he surrendered himself to ship's captain.


RR.