Thread: What are you reading?

First overnight shift at my new job tonight.

Doubt I'll be able to go online...

So I'll be reading this...



http://trapdoorbooks.com/?page_id=1134&category=5

It's written by a friend of mine. I've got the unabridged self-published version... I'm not far in. It has been bought up by a small publisher since then... just released or about to.

If you like fantasy, please consider this book. He's very talented.

Reading on the job

I'm reading Nelson Demille's The Gate House

Originally Posted by bronconut

Just a heads up, it's about a 6 hour flick, we can watch the first 3 hours some evening and then catch the remainder during breakfast or something. In fact, I'll warm up some biscuits out of a show of respect for Captain Gus McCray.


Becoming part of the Lonesome Dove Family will be one the better experiences of your lifetime.

Brilliant stuff, both the books and the miniseries. I tnink of Clay as a sorta Augustus McCrae in the younger years.

Speaking of which, the rest of McMurty's western series, e.g. Comanche moon etc. was great as well. Read them all.

I'm reading mostly angry posts Broncos fans.

Over the last couple of weeks I have introduced myself to Dean Koontz. I had never read any of his stuff and a friend recommended I give him a try.

1st I read Phantoms - The story is quite good and flows well. Kind of predictable (if you watch a lot of movies) but well worth the read. They made it a movie so I will have to check it out even though Ben Afleck is in it.

2nd I read The Darkest Evening of the Year - Another good read. However some anger can get you at times on how the child is treated. Anti-climatic ending however.

Now I am reading Intensity. I am half way through it. It isn't too bad. It's one that makes you wonder what is wrong with the woman in the story. HAHA This was made into a movie also. It seams like a good one for a movie so I will check it out also after I am done with the book.

I'm reading a really interesting Sci_fi future History novel published in 1925 - "The Great Pacific War of 1931." Sort of an early "Red Storm Rising" which posits a Japanese sneak attack in 1931, starting with them hitting the Phillipines and blowing up a large freighter in the Panama Canal. Very interesting in what the author got right, and where he is way the Hell off base (he has the Japanese secretly reconverting the aircraft carriers Kaga and Akagi back into battleships; IRL those two led the Pearl Harbor attack, and were far more deadly as carriers.

Originally Posted by shawshank24

i haven't been a "reader" in a long time, but i recently discovered that reading passes time pretty effectively at my work.

i am currently reading 3 books. a few seconds of panic, the one where the journalist came and kicked with the broncos. the chris farely show, his biography told mostly through anecdotes from friends and family. and the long walk, maybe my favorite book i've ever read.

on deck i also bought marine sniper, which i haven't read since high school, slaughterhouse five, and the zombie survival handbook.

i read the long walk. Good read.

I've been working on Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" for the past month or so. I've been wanting to read it for 10-15 years, but kept putting it off.

Finally picked it up. Funny thing is the guy at the check-out was like, "oh, you must listen to Glenn Beck, I've been wanting to get this one too."

I never listen to Glenn Beck, so I had to ask what he meant. I guess Glenn Beck's been going on and on about "Atlas Shrugged" for some time now.

Anyways, I quickly made it about 2/3 of the way through, and then lost interest. I really enjoyed the first 1/2 to 2/3 even though it's kind of an idealized and exaggerated view of pure capitalism vs. a modern regulated economy. It's exaggerated going both directions so it really pulls out the differences.

I appreciated it for pointing out that business and business owners are not inherently evil, and in fact do a lot of good as the "engine" of our economy and creators of jobs.

However, in the last 1/3 of the book I got really disenfranchised with Rand's view of self-interest being the paramount "virtue" of humans and a total rejection of any form of social justice and/or charity.

Now it's become a trudge to finish off. Especially the "hero" John Galt's 69 page diatribe/speech which just drones on and on. . .but at that point you're over 1,000 pages into the deal, and I feel like I have to finish it.

Originally Posted by NightTrainLayne

I've been working on Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" for the past month or so. I've been wanting to read it for 10-15 years, but kept putting it off.

Finally picked it up. Funny thing is the guy at the check-out was like, "oh, you must listen to Glenn Beck, I've been wanting to get this one too."

I never listen to Glenn Beck, so I had to ask what he meant. I guess Glenn Beck's been going on and on about "Atlas Shrugged" for some time now.

Anyways, I quickly made it about 2/3 of the way through, and then lost interest. I really enjoyed the first 1/2 to 2/3 even though it's kind of an idealized and exaggerated view of pure capitalism vs. a modern regulated economy. It's exaggerated going both directions so it really pulls out the differences.

I appreciated it for pointing out that business and business owners are not inherently evil, and in fact do a lot of good as the "engine" of our economy and creators of jobs.

However, in the last 1/3 of the book I got really disenfranchised with Rand's view of self-interest being the paramount "virtue" of humans and a total rejection of any form of social justice and/or charity.

Now it's become a trudge to finish off. Especially the "hero" John Galt's 69 page diatribe/speech which just drones on and on. . .but at that point you're over 1,000 pages into the deal, and I feel like I have to finish it.

Well if you finish it you're a better man than I. To me Rand's view of humanity is so ugly and pinched that I wanted everyong involved on both sides to die

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

Well if you finish it you're a better man than I. To me Rand's view of humanity is so ugly and pinched that I wanted everyong involved on both sides to die

Indeed.

In some respects I can see a philosophy that deals in the reality that humans are selfish, greedy little pigs, at least part of the time, and plays to that even if I disagree with it.

But when you go so far as to say that's a "virtue" and that any act not based on your own self-interest is actually immoral. . .well then we all just become animals.

John Galt is like Gordon Gecko to the tenth power.

Just finished "Then Morton Said to Elway..."

Nice/quick little read - read it on a flight back to Tejas.

Finished Intensity - Dean Koontz
This is a very good read. Keeps you on the edge fairly well through the book. I enjoyed it alot.

Now I am reading Watchers - Dean Koontz (yeah I'm on a Koontz ride atm)
I'm half way through it and it is really good as well.

Let's see...

Just Finished "The Road" By Cormac McCarthy

Reading two different books currently. "A Short History of Byzantium" By John Julius Norwich and "Russia and the Arabs" by Yevgeny Primakov (he was formally head of Russian Foreign intelligence, Foreign Minister of Russia, and Prime Minister of Russia).

"Russia and the Arabs" is a very interesting read from an obviously different perspective, but Mr. Primakov is quite obviously pro-Russian in his view of the events. I think most people would be bored to death by them.... but I guess I can be boring.

I just did a research project on Islam in Russia. It is an interesting subject to say the least, particularly during the Stalin years.

Now I'm about to start research on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Originally Posted by NameUsedBefore

I just did a research project on Islam in Russia. It is an interesting subject to say the least, particularly during the Stalin years.

Now I'm about to start research on the Muslim Brotherhood.

I haven't done much research on the subject in all honesty. This book is a first look at the shaping Middle Eastern world relations outside of an American point of view for myself actually.

This book, "Russia and the Arabs" deals specifically with the time Primakov was in a position to report on their dealings with the Soviet union, starting specifically during Kruschev's reign as Premiere with only a few preliminary touches about the Arabs during the post colonial area after WWII. It's an interesting read to say the least.... you have any book suggestions for pre 1950 Arab world relations? Or even Islam in atheist USSR? would appreciate it