quote:

Originally posted by Ginny:
I am currently reading A Clockwork Orange, I have been able to figure out what a few of the weird words mean so far. A friend of mine was impressed. I'm also supposed to be reading Things Fall Apart for school and annotate it. I've barely started.

Some of the older copies of Clockwork have a glossary in the back. I'm guessing you don't have one of those.

Atonement by Ian McEwan. Anyone heard of it? It's denser than what I'm used to reading, but I like it so far.

also...(at the same time!!!)

the 6th Harry Potter for the first time. Not far enough into it to make much of a judgement.

L'Amande. French story of a mistreated Muslim woman finding liberation through a clandestine rediscovery of sexuality. All true apparently, and written under a nom de plume...

Just finished reading two books . . .

A friend gave me a copy of the PostSecret collection (published by Frank Warren). If you have never heard of this community "art project," I encourage you to check it out:
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

This web site is addictive. New postcards are posted every Sunday. I was inspired to send in my own secret, but it hasn't been posted yet (whew). The book is a collection of the secrets, and it's the kind of book you can read in one sitting. It will make you laugh and cry . . .

I also read Flannery O'Connor's AWESOME, dark novel Wise Blood. WOW! I am a devoted fan of her short stories, but I never took the time to read her first novel. It was amazing . . . . although deeply disturbing. It's about a 22-year-old man named Haze (short for Hazel) who returns home after serving 4 years in the Army. Haze is cynical and messed up psychologically. His father was a preacher, and he struggles with faith in God. Haze falls under the spell of a blind street preacher and the preacher's daughter (she tries to seduce him). Haze is always trying to prove to himself that he has no faith (he really does), so he founds "The Church of Christ Without Christ," but still he cannot lose his faith in God. I won't give away too much more of the plot in case you decide to read this book someday. It's very interesting, wicked, and thought provoking.

I really liked John Huston's movie of the novel, with a terrific Brad Dourif as Haze. Others don't like it as much as I do, but I thought it was both funny and intense.

Wow . . . . I had no idea that this book was made into a movie! I will have to check it out. Thanks.

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. Great book by a great author.

I have been in a Hunter S Thompson bent lately. I just finished "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" and am starting "Fear and Loathing in America" which is a collection of letters written to editors, authors, and politicians. Pretty good.

I got Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick from the library and so far it's really interesting. It's supposed to be the inspriation for Blade Runner. I'm not too far in but I really like it. Too bad it has to go back, the woman at the library said on Monday that I had to bring it back by Friday.

I just cracked open "Black Mass: The Irish Mob, The FBI & A Devil's Deal." It came out in '00 or '01 and it was written by two "Boston Globe" reporters, Dick Lehr & Gerard O'Neill. The book focuses on the relationship between Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger and an FBI Agent who ended up in prison for getting to close to his snitch Bulger. It received a great review in "The New York Times Book Review" so I decided to pounce on it. So far, I'm about 30 pages into it and had trouble putting it down.

BLACK MASS turned out to be as good as advertised. It was a true crime story set in Boston regarding some FBI agents who got a little too close to their snitches.

I am now reading a collection of John Simon's film criticim called JOHN SIMON ON FILM: CRITICISM FROM 1982-2001. He is one of the giants of film critism and his take on films, which I don't always agree with, certainly are always interesting.

I'll be hunting through some used bookstores soon, hoping to find Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" and more sc-fi fantasy. Til then, I'm reading another Charles de Lint novel, Mulengro, which deals with the world of Gypsies. Hopefully I'll find more de Lint as well in the used bookstores, he's definately one of my top favorite authors.

David Ricardo - Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

It's an economics book by this Scottish guy who lived kinda around the same time as Adam Smith. It was first published in 1817, so it's a bit tough to read but I'm planning on reading multiple times like I had to for Adam Smith.

Silk by Alessandro Baricco. An effortlessly beautiful juxtaposition of form and content. Light as the breeze in its evocation of what most of us hold dear...

I am about to crack open OBSESSION: TIMBERWOLVES STALK THE NBA/BILL MUSSELMAN'S RELENTELESS QUEST TO BEAT THE BEST by Bill Heller.

I found this book probably 12 or so years ago for a $1 in a discount bookstore in Buffalo when I was on a business trip and am finally getting around to reading it. I don't have high hopes for it, but I have always been fascinated by Musselman because in the 1970s, when I was a teenagers, he was the coach at the U. of Minnesota and his Golden Gophers got into a brawl with the Ohio State Buckeyes. I remember "Sports Illustrated" ran some graphic photos of the aftermath of the brawl and it was a real cause celebre for awhile because there were some racial overtones to the brawl.

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 by Barbara W. Tuchman
I had intended to read Tuchamn's volume on World War I, The Guns of August, but my father-in-law suggested Stillwell. He's taught it in the past and described it not only as an excellent study of the rise of Communism in China, but on the development of the officer corps in the U.S. military.

So far (as scant 20 pages in), it's excellent.

Now Playing: The Dodgers and Giants on ESPN

I've been reading the back of the Frosted Mini-Wheats box for a while now. Did you know that each bowl contains almost 25% of your daily value of fiber? And when you get your daily requirement of fiber, you're a long way to p rotecting your body against health complications.

I'm about to crack open Richard Schickel's: ELI KAZAN: A BIOGRAPHY. It came out earlier this years and received a stunningly good review in "The New York Times Book Review" by the estimable film critic John Simon. If there ever was a curmudgeon, Simon would fit the bill and for him to give a review this positive, you know the book has to be good.

I read Kazan's autobio -- well worth reading by the way -- a dozen years ago or so so I'll see what Schickel, a film critic for "Time," has to say.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
I've been reading the back of the Frosted Mini-Wheats box for a while now. Did you know that each bowl contains almost 25% of your daily value of fiber? And when you get your daily requirement of fiber, you're a long way to p rotecting your body against health complications.

That's because they're made of lightly toasted 100% whole grain wheat. They have "just the right amount of sweetness" too.

I see we share the same taste in boxes.

Get out of this thread you morons!
Only joking...
Anyway, I am currently reading Or I'll Dress You In Mourning by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, the story of legendary bullfighter El Cordobes. Too early to say if it's good or not yet...