I am about to start "The Heat is On" by Ross Gelbspan. After reading "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton which states that global warming isn't occuring, I thought it would be a good idea to read a book that stated that the it is occuring to balance it out and help me form my own opinion.
Posts: 3691 | Location: ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha | Registered: 18 October 2004
I'm reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It's the story of an Australian convict who escapes from prison and loses himself in India. Part cultural exploration, part love story, part prison novel, part war story; equally grand and intimate.
I am reading Trainspotting and The Corrections (80 pages from the end of T, and 250 from the end of C) Both are great, but Trainspotting is so amazing, it just blows me away. I usually don't read a book twice, but I feel that I will read this book numerous times before I grow tired of it.
Friedman is an economist, and he's looking at systems of law (criminal law, tort law, contract law, social norms) from the perspective of an economist. It doesn't center around money, but rather the incentives that laws create for the "rational individual".
It's a seemingly mundane subject that is made interesting by Friedman's dry sense of humor (first line of the book: If there was only one person in the world, he would have a lot of problems, but none of them would be legal ones.) and his ability to explain things at a brisk but workable pace.
Posts: 571 | Location: Detroit (suburbs) | Registered: 18 May 2004
Currently reading Players by Don Delillo. It's one of his earlier books. Stats off with an attempted terrorist attack inside the New York stock exchange. Every book of Delillo's seems to be about 15 years ahead of its time. White Noise is another one that seems like it is much more relevant today than it would have been when originally released.
Also just finished Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard. It was very good, just like everything of his I have read.
Somehow I'm reading three books at once right now, something I generally don't like to do, but I'm too far into each of them now to put any of them down. I'm reading Candide (after being reminded of it by philosopherEric) at work, and A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis and Wittgenstein's Blue and Brown books at home. Anyone read any of these? They all seem very good to me so far.
Well, I am finishing up on Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and in school I recently started the Redwall Series. Also, I am starting a nonfiction title!! One of my first. This book is Warriors Dont Cry.
Posts: 635 | Location: California | Registered: 24 August 2004
Ah Redwall, Brian Jaques (spelling?) is a pretty dang good writer. I know I got into those books and felt a bit silly rummaging through Walden's Books "youth" section for the new "Marlfox" (it was new at the time :P) What do you think of them?
quote:Originally posted by keylimetrev: Somehow I'm reading three books at once right now, something I generally don't like to do, but I'm too far into each of them now to put any of them down.
Haha, me too actually. Right now, I'm reading Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Jon Stewart's America (the book), and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.
Posts: 451 | Location: Northern California | Registered: 16 August 2004
I just finished Baer's Phineas Poe trilogy... very rare to see an author mature so vividly. I'm actually currently reading Delillo's White Noise and just purchased Joey Goebel's Torture the Artist and Rebels on the Backlot, a book with some interesting stories behind the production of my favorite movies. What can I say, I'm on a Palahniuk prescribed reading list.
Posts: 54 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: 19 May 2004
I'm a couple hundred pages into A Frolic of His Own, William Gaddis' last novel published before he died. So far it is one of the best novels I have read in quite a while. It's completely strange since there is almost no narrator, but is actually really easy to read and a very funny slap in the face to the legal profession. Between Candide (which I just finished), A Frolic of His Own, and all the Randy Newman I have been listening to lately, I'm feeling like satire is about as good as comedy gets.
Well, I just recently finished Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and although I thought the final twist was great, it doesnt compare in my "book" to The Da Vinci Code.
Posts: 635 | Location: California | Registered: 24 August 2004
I love Lester Bangs' style. He was Hunter Thompson's spiritual brother.
________________________________________________________ "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson tinymixtapes.com / The Skinny / PopMatters
Originally posted by Biggles: It's really not very interesting, and I've almost given up on it. Oh well, I'm almost half-way through, so I must keep reading.
I'm always amazed when people can do that. If a book doesn't keep my very flighty attention, it just gets ditched. Has been a consistent problem with getting through anything by Joseph Conrad.
At the moment, I'm reading "A Lover's Discourse" by Roland Barthes. Kind of like a self-help book for clever people. Not entirely sure I'm clever enough...
Posts: 1 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 22 March 2005
Just started 'The Making of a Philosopher' by Colin Mcginn. My sister sent it to me for my birthday and the first ten pages or so are fun. I don't predict any great philosophical breakthroughs in the book, but an autobiography of a modern university professor should be good reading since I'll be heading off to grad school soon hopefully to end up in a university philosophy department myself eventually.
