What Are You Reading?

Just finished George & Weedon Grossmith: "The diary of a nobody" Quite entertaining and still funny 120 yrs after it was first published.

Other than that I'm reading book II of Carsten Niebuhrs "Travels through Arabia, and other countries in the East"

Just started "Coin's Financial School", an 1894 booklet concerning the financial situation in the United States which was issued in support of the Populist demand for "free silver" about that time. When I am finished with that, I will be reading Milton Friedman's "Money Mischief" the first half of which concerns U.S. monetary policy in the late 19th century.

Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America by Ann Coulter

P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley

Cynomys said:

Just started "Coin's Financial School", an 1894 booklet concerning the financial situation in the United States which was issued in support of the Populist demand for "free silver" about that time. When I am finished with that, I will be reading Milton Friedman's "Money Mischief" the first half of which concerns U.S. monetary policy in the late 19th century.

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A fellow libertarian?

Taro the Dragon Boy by Kyoko Matsutani.

I have an affinity for fairy tales and folk lore from across the globe and have an impressive but modest collection. This was one of my recent finds. It's a quick read but enjoyable.

After finishing Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (fantastic read, by the way), I got sidetracked by re-watching the first episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. Now I'm working my way through the novels before I watch it again. Just finished the first one last weekend, and I'm about a third of the way through the second. It's good, gritty fantasy that's light on magic and monsters (so far, at least), and heavy on feudal politicking. I'm kicking myself for not having read it earlier, but I think I'd have enjoyed it less.

I am finishing up Boone: A biography by Robert Morgan. And getting ready to start Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick.

The Boone biography is expansive and at times dry. At least in the first few chapters when the descriptions of Kentucky land speculation came up. Later chapters include some of Boone's biggest adventures and some of his hardest disappointments. Worth a read if you like biographical material.

Cheers, Todd

Just picked up "Personal Declension" by Octavius Winslow for the second time.

Just wrapped up the original Foundation trilogy from Isaac Asimov and am also burrowing my way through Zelazny's Amber series (picked up a massive collection of all the books in one fat tome). Good stuff, the lot of it.

Phog Allen said:

And getting ready to start Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick.

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If you've seen "Blade Runner" you may be setting yourself up for a disappointment, I know I was when I finally read it.

Another vote for "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. If it was fiction, it wouldn't be believable. (Sea Biscuit was great too).

1369 said:

If you've seen "Blade Runner" you may be setting yourself up for a disappointment, I know I was when I finally read it.

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I am approaching it with the attitude that it is a different story or topic or whatever from the get go. Very FEW movies ever capture the printed experience that came before it. So I try to approach it with an open mind.

Cheers, Todd

Hemingway's Boat. He loved his boat and big game fishing, but treated those closest to him miserably, despite the author attempting to demonstrate otherwise.

Surveillance: A Novel by Jonathan Raban. A very post 9/11 book if there ever was one. Strange fit nowadays, should have read it years ago but didn't see it til it was 25 cent book to buy at the local library. Nevertheless, very well written.

This time I'm reading Cornelious Ryan's "A Bridge Too Far" chronicling the ill-fated and "masterly chronicle of the Battle of Arnhem, which marshalled the greatest armada of troop-carrying aircraft ever assembled and cost the Allies nearly twice as many casualties as D-Day.

In this compelling work of history, Ryan narrates the Allied effort to end the war in Europe in 1944 by dropping the combined airborne forces of the American and British armies behind German lines to capture the crucial bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem. Focusing on a vast cast of characters -- from Dutch civilians to British and American strategists to common soldiers and commanders -- Ryan brings to life one of the most daring and ill-fated operations of the war.

'A Bridge Too Far' superbly recreates the terror and suspense, the heroism and tragedy of this epic operation, which ended in bitter defeat for the Allies".

A_Bridge_Too_Far




"Reading is to mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

Just finished "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus" by Rick Perlstein. Probably the best book on the Goldwater movement. Although written by one who was not of that political persuasion (I was at the time), the book is highly praised by nearly all and sundry who have read it. Here is a review from the Ludwig von Mises Institute: http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=189

Geisler is brilliant.

Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose