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What books are you currently reading?

754K views 7K replies 733 participants last post by  aligreto 
#1 ·
What books are you currently reading.

WELL! I'm surprised that a cultured and intelligent bunch of individuals like yourselves haven't already made a "What books are you Reading" thread. :p Well, since we don't have one, I suppose I'll start it off. :cool:

--Non Music Books--
Currently, I'm reading a compilation of stories written by Fyodor Dostoevsky; who, if is as good of a writer as the current story I'm reading, "The Double," suggest, might be my favorite author. "The Double" is REALLY something else, and I WHOLE HEARTEDLY suggest it to anybody with an appreciation for psychology and classic novels. Here is an excerpt from the third chapter of the story that I have picked out. The main character is on his way to a party and decided on a whim to stop off at the doctors office. ;)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Though Mr. Golyadkin pronounced this with the utmost
distinctness and clearness, weighing his words with a
self-confident air and reckoning on their probable effect, yet
meanwhile he looked at Krestyan Ivanovitch with anxiety,
with great anxiety, with extreme anxiety. Now he was all
eyes: and timidly waited for the doctor's answer with irritable
and agonized impatience. But to the perplexity and complete
amazement of our hero, Krestyan Ivanovitch only muttered
something to himself; then he moved his armchair up to the
table, and rather drily though politely announced something
to the effect that his time was precious, and that he did not
quite understand; that he was ready, however, to attend to
him as far as he was able, but he wold not go into anything
further that did not concern him. At this point he took the
pen, drew a piece of paper towards him, cut out of it the
usual long strip, and announced that he would immediately
prescribe what was necessary.
"No, it's not necessary, Krestyan Ivanovitch! No, that's
not necessary at all!" said Mr. Golyadkin, getting up from his
seat, and clutching Krestyan Ivanovitch's right hand. "That
isn't what's wanted, Krestyan Ivanovitch."
And, while he said this, a queer change came over him.
His grey eyes gleamed strangely, his lips began to quiver, all
the muscles, all the features of his face began moving and
working. He was trembling all over. After stopping the
doctor's hand, Mr. Golyadkin followed his first movement by
standing motionless, as though he had no confidence in
himself and were waiting for some inspiration for further
action.
Then followed a rather strange scene.
Somewhat perplexed, Krestyan Ivanovitch seemed for a
moment rooted to his chair and gazed open-eyed in
bewilderment at Mr. Golyadkin, who looked at him in
exactly the same way. At last Krestyan Ivanovitch stood up,
gently holding the lining of Mr. Golyadkin's coat. For some
seconds they both stood like that, motionless, with their eyes
fixed on each other. Then, however, in an extraordinarily
strange way came Mr. Golyadkin's second movement. His
lips trembled, his chin began twitching, and our hero quite
unexpectedly burst into tears. Sobbing, shaking his head and
striking himself on the chest with his right hand, while with
his left clutching the lining of the doctor's coat, he tried to
say something and to make some explanation but could not
utter a word.
At last Krestyan Ivanovitch recovered from his
amazement.
"Come, calm yourself!" he brought out at last, trying to
make Mr. Golyadkin sit down in an armchair.
"I have enemies, Krestyan Ivanovitch, I have enemies; I
have malignant enemies who have sworn to ruin me . . ." Mr
Golyadkin answered in a frightened whisper.
"Come, come, why enemies? you mustn't talk about
enemies! You really mustn't. Sit down, sit down," Krestyan
Ivanovitch went on, getting Mr. Golyadkin once and for all
into the armchair.
Mr. Golyadkin sat down at last, still keeping his eyes fixed
on the doctor. With an extremely displeased air, Krestyan
Ivanovitch strode from one end of the room to another. A
long silence followed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As this book is an old one and the copyright has since expired, you can read it here.
http://www.kiosek.com/dostoevsky/library/thedouble.txt

If you'd rather read it on paperback, you can buy the small compilation I'm reading at barns and noble for 5$. :p
ISBN: 978-1-59308-037-2

--MUSIC RELATED BOOKS--
I have just perchased the wonderful recommendation from Jtech81 and am reading it.



PS: You all don't need to write a book on the books you're reading like I've done, I just HAD to share how great "The Double" is. ^-^;;;;
 
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#1,847 ·
I just finished Hildegarde Dolson's We Shook the Family Tree. Imagine moving to New York City in 1929 on the very day the stock market crashed hoping to get a job as a writer. This memoir of her childhood to young adulthood includes some amazing (and amazingly funny) stuff about that period of her life, and a whole lot more.

I also just finished Anne Sinclair Mehdevi's From Pillar to Post. This book is both a preguel and a sequel to her first book, Persian Adventure. In this one she and her Iranian husband and their very young children find themselves living in a variety of exotic locales like Mexico, Vienna and Majorca as he follows his various UN appointments.

I love these authors - they've opened up whole new worlds to me from the times surrounding my own early childhood and that of my parents'.
 
#1,850 ·
Have again taken-up Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes - this will be the sixth time I will have read (just love that future perfect, don't get to use it much) the work entire and en français. Filmed twice, and badly, it's a work that to my mind is unfilmable. Avowedly romantic, it captures perfectly and intimately that delicate transition between adolescence and adulthood where fantasy and reality commingle and instead of being at odds, appear to gain strength from each other. A beautiful and moving work made all the more precious and poignant by the death of the author in WWI at the age of 27. What a waste! There is a symphony by Michel Bosc (his 4th) named after the novel, but I have never heard it and need to.

Plant Book Tree Art Publication
 
G
#1,851 · (Edited)
Have again taken-up Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes - this will be the sixth time I will have read (just love that future perfect, don't get to use it much) the work entire and en français. [...]
Vous en êtes sûr, mon cher? The Frenchies love the future perfect, but I ain't sure the double use of 'will' in the same clause (in GB grammar) is correct. I would have said: "This will be the 6th time I've read it". Perhaps it is an Americanism. For example, USA acquaintances of mine say "If I would have known I would have told you."
Perhaps I should post this on Ken's "Pedantry" thread.
 
#1,857 ·
1q84

...finally...finished...Murakami's...1Q84...

Nose Head Eyebrow Eye Eyelash

...so...good...
 
#1,867 ·
Recently finished Martin Luther King's autobiography
A good insight into the man and his philosophy including the text of all his important speeches and how practised and prepared them.
Doesn't go into who were the political movers and shakers in the freedom movement and of course does not deal with his death.
Never the less a book I would recommend
 
#1,869 ·
I'm right in the middle of Douglas Brinkley's biography of Walter Cronkite (American TV journalist and news reader). I'm just past the Kennedy assassination and into the early years of the Johnson administration. It was Cronkite who narrated this period of American history to me in my youth and early adulthood. Brinkley has captured it very well indeed.

And I'm rereading Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy for the Nth time. This is my favorite 20th century fantasy, just ahead of Pullman's His Dark Materials, and I never tire of it.
 
G
#1,870 · (Edited)
I've just received three books penned by Christopher ("Don't call me Chris") Hitchens:
a) God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything;
b) Hitch-22;
c) Mortality.
I've been looking forward to these for a good while after having being 'converted to the cause' via YouTube debates and other appearances of this thinker and writer. I would like to talk about these at a later time. Zealots (of all stripes) beware.
 
#1,874 ·
I read Hitch-22 and loved the guy, through this book. he's witty and very sharp, plus he had a full-on contact with fighting for justice as he sees it. A remarkable guy. I scrolled through God is Not Great and found the arguments to be banal, which is typical of the atheist evangelists, but unlike Dawkins, Hitch writes with wit and great passion.

I'm still reading Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. Not a book to be skimmed through. But I'm loving every comma and utterance of this book. It's the strangest book I've read in a while, but it sucks me into its own remarkably written world, so much so that I can hear the voices and see the faces of everyone in it. It has some hilariously odd episodes, but it's the detail that grips me. He's an incredible writer, I look forward to more by him, when this one is done and dusted. Maybe V. next...
 
#1,876 ·
Oh I'm rather embarassed because I'm currently reading a VC Andrews book, which have crazy over the top soap-opery plots. And not even the ORIGINAL VC Andrews books, which while formulaic and crazy had fairly decent quality writing. These ghost-written ones are fairly bad. Almost laughably so, sometimes there's enjoyment in that. The thing is though I grew up on VC Andrews books, so there's some nostalgia. It was in a set of old giveaway library books.

I've been reading a lot of very serious books lately....medicine, psychology, spirituality, biographies....and I'm loving it. But right now I need to pad my brain with a little cheap fluff. lol.
 
#1,879 · (Edited)
The One Year Chronological Bible NKJV
Vertebrate World Plant Publication Book

This is wonderful Bible because everything is in chronological order and you really get a much better feel for all the writings of the various prophets when it is intertwined with the historical books. I am starting in the New Testament so I can get a better picture of the events of the early church. Also nice is that the Gospels are not harmonized but are interwoven so that same events in more than one Gospel account follow each other, making for better comparison. Or course there are judgement calls on chronology, such as the time of the book of Job, which in this Bible comes in the middle of the book of Genesis, and the placement of many of the Psalms which are not directly associated with particular events in the histories. All in all, it is a wonderful and refreshing way to read the Bible. This is also available in NIV, but I strongly prefer the NKJV for what I believe to be the better underlying Greek texts and that the NKJV (unlike the NIV) does not make judgement calls in footnotes, but merely presents the alternate translations.

Let me add, for those considering this Bible, there is a list at the back of all the Books in standard order so you can look up a verse and find it's location.
 
#1,881 ·
The One Year Chronological Bible NKJV
View attachment 35343
This is wonderful Bible because everything is in chronological order and you really get a much better feel for all the writings of the various prophets when it is intertwined with the historical books. I am starting in the New Testament so I can get a better picture of the events of the early church. Also nice is that the Gospels are not harmonized but are interwoven so that same events in more than one Gospel account follow each other, making for better comparison. Or course there are judgement calls on chronology, such as the time of the book of Job, which in this Bible comes in the middle of the book of Genesis, and the placement of many of the Psalms which are not directly associated with particular events in the histories. All in all, it is a wonderful and refreshing way to read the Bible. This is also available in NIV, but I strongly prefer the NKJV for what I believe to be the better underlying Greek texts and that the NKJV (unlike the NIV) does not make judgement calls in footnotes, but merely presents the alternate translations.

Let me add, for those considering this Bible, there is a list at the back of all the Books in standard order so you can look up a verse and find it's location.
I "get it" but not my way to go. I have read through some that way but I prefer the books "proper". Over the years it just doesn't resonant with me. And I prefer the original KJV for a number of reasons.

Latest I'm reading

Face Outerwear Coat Poster Publication


Let's play "catch up"
 
#1,883 ·
I tried to start the whole huge Robert Jordan cycle several times, but something always kept me from getting further than the first book. I'll try again one of these days. It's so atmospheric you almost move out into the world of this story when you read it.
 
#1,884 ·
I am 138 pages into Matterhorn - A Novel Of the Vietnam War. By Karl Marlantes.

Time Magazine calls it "A powerhouse, tense, brutal, honest." It is also emphatically not a glorification of war. The youngsters hooked on computer war games should read it - for a reality check. The author was a bush Marine. It took him 30 years to get the story written; it's fairly amazing that he was able to write it at all. Damn!
 
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