For the book readers on STR, what are you reading?

[jasonmason]

Reading The Good Apprentice by Iris Murdoch. Absolutely impressed by it.

Finished The Air Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller recently, which discusses his return to the US in the early 1940s after years as an expat in Paris. Another excellent read.

 

[Von-Diggity]

Currently reading The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine. Always interesting to find out more detail about the crisis of the third century.

 

[mxvet]

The 5 Love Languages....long story

 

[One_Track_Mind]

Moby Dick... it's a lot to chew on... but a good read that will test your attention span and vocabulary... full of sage wisdom
The Secret Knowledge... by David Mamet (GlenGarry Glen Ross) about his transition from liberal to conservative... so far it's eh... sounds like he's been watching too much Faux News... My take: both parties are nuts...

 

[jasonmason]

Finished the Good Apprentice. Continue to be impressed by the writing of Ms. Murdoch.

Up next, The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow. Though I should (and probably will) finish Collapse before I really get into it. After that? Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, by Henry Miller.

Man, I have a lot of reading to do.

 

[Saosin]

Just finished the Hunger Games trilogy.........gonna be cool to see these made into movies. These were easy reads but fun nonetheless

 

[geek]

Just finished the Hunger Games trilogy.........gonna be cool to see these made into movies. These were easy reads but fun nonetheless

yeah, i was pleasantly surprised by these. Wife was reading them, thought they were a chick book, but they were actually pretty good (couldn't put the first one down).

 

[YvettesSherpa]

I have been catching up on some W.E.B. Griffin books. I've killed four of them in the last couple weeks. I'm just about done with the fifth. I can't put his books down. If you like military books give him a read.

 

[mauric6943]

The 5 Love Languages....

i read it - TWICE - my long story is probably like your long story. I have the ......Languages for Men if you need to borrow it.

 

[mauric6943]

Just finished The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta. Not a bad read. Wanted to get a feel for the author while I patiently wait for his new book, The Leftovers, to become available at my library.

Also read Foundation: Redefine Your Core.... during a recent road trip to northern CA. Nothing Earth shattering but a few new exercises and stretches that I wasn't familiar with. Like everyone else, including Lance it seems, my movement patterns need work

 

[SeanC]

I recently finished off the entire Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire; and, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest). A couple of other folks here -- denmo and bvader, just to name two -- look to have either read it or listened to it, at least to the first book. Really a damned shame that Mr. Larsson died so unexpectedly (and before his books were even published -- bummer!!). He had many more books in the works (he was already at work on fourth and fifth books in the series, and wanted to do ten of them altogether!). I'm now in the process of reading the slim volume On Stieg Larsson that accompanied with my hardbacks -- loads of info and email threads in there. Very cool stuff on who he was.

Apparently he would have been horrified at the final names chosen for the books (all indicated above). He unwaveringly stuck to his original title up until his death -- it was to be: Men Who Hate Women. The second book (Fire) was going to have a similar name. Now, there's a couple of stocking stuffers for you...

I saw the first movie (with subtitles) a few months ago (after finishing the first book). It's very dark, and very good, but like any movie out there, they had to go point to point really quickly in order to move the story along in a way that works for motion pictures (not much time spent in people's heads as the book does). As a for instance of something skipped (hopefully not a spoiler for you), there is absolutely NO REFERENCE in the movie at all to the relationship between two of the main characters in the book, and it's kind of an important one! Something about that relationship, and how it affects other characters' perception, sets up the second book. I've not yet seen the second or third movies, but it will be interesting to see how they develop the beginning of the second without having the jumping off point of how the first book ends.

I'm also very interested to see how Hollywood remakes the trio of movies in the coming years with Daniel Craig at the helm. Should be good (I hope...).

- shud

I read these, and watched all the movies,too. The three movies were 2+ hours each and even then they had to leave a lot out.

The interesting thing about the movies is that they seemed to concentrate more on telling the story and less on having glamorous A-list actors and cinematography. I'll be the American versions will feature a smattering of good-looking people, sweeping landscape shots, dramatic musical score, etc. I believe David Fincher is directing, which should be *good* but I'm sure the focus will be different than the originals.

Read the books before you see the movies.

 

[Chewyeti]

I recently finished off the entire Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire; and, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest). A couple of other folks here -- denmo and bvader, just to name two -- look to have either read it or listened to it, at least to the first book. Really a damned shame that Mr. Larsson died so unexpectedly (and before his books were even published -- bummer!!). He had many more books in the works (he was already at work on fourth and fifth books in the series, and wanted to do ten of them altogether!). I'm now in the process of reading the slim volume On Stieg Larsson that accompanied with my hardbacks -- loads of info and email threads in there. Very cool stuff on who he was.

Apparently he would have been horrified at the final names chosen for the books (all indicated above). He unwaveringly stuck to his original title up until his death -- it was to be: Men Who Hate Women. The second book (Fire) was going to have a similar name. Now, there's a couple of stocking stuffers for you...

I saw the first movie (with subtitles) a few months ago (after finishing the first book). It's very dark, and very good, but like any movie out there, they had to go point to point really quickly in order to move the story along in a way that works for motion pictures (not much time spent in people's heads as the book does). As a for instance of something skipped (hopefully not a spoiler for you), there is absolutely NO REFERENCE in the movie at all to the relationship between two of the main characters in the book, and it's kind of an important one! Something about that relationship, and how it affects other characters' perception, sets up the second book. I've not yet seen the second or third movies, but it will be interesting to see how they develop the beginning of the second without having the jumping off point of how the first book ends.

I'm also very interested to see how Hollywood remakes the trio of movies in the coming years with Daniel Craig at the helm. Should be good (I hope...).

- shud

Just destroyed the first 2 books in this series, and loved the second installment more than the first. Was engulfed in the last ~100 pages till the wee hours of the morning!

I hope the third is better still!
Sounds like the movies are well worth it?

 

[bvader]

Anybody want to read an amazing mix of history, innovation and human darkness, true story of the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson.

http://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601

As to the Millenium trilogy chewed through all 3 plus watched all the movies...movies could not live up to the intricacies of the narrative.

 

[shudder]

I've not been able to convince my better half to watch the second and third movies (dunno if she ever will -- she did NOT like the first movie -- too graphic and gnarly for her), so long way of saying I can't tell you about them. But, I am not surprised by bvader's comment that they could do better to live up to the intricacies of the narratives, but what movie (based on a book, anyways) has EVER lived up to complexity of the images we created in our mind's eye from reading the printed page? Not many...

- shud

 

[MojoCP]

Audio booking: Ready Player One.

I like it. There are a few parts of the book with 80's references that make me roll me eyes, but the storytelling is solid and the sense of suspense/pace of the book has me hooked (about 40% of the way in). Kind of a dystopian techno future book. I would recommend it as a fun read. I big shift from a Song of Ice and Fire: Book 5 - A Dance with Dragons.

Now that I finished the book... I say SKIP IT.
Just too corny.

 

[speckledtrout]

I read the Steig Larsen trilogy last year and while i loved the first and the second one, I found the third a little tough to finish. But I did, of course. I'm one one of those people that needs to finish a book, no matter what...

Read the Hunger Games series this summer and was blown away. I went into the first book tentatively, afraid that it was gonna be more tween crap like the Twilight series. So glad I was wrong. I chewed through that first book in hours then got in my car and drove to the book store to buy the second. :lol:

Got an iPad a couple of weeks ago so I decided to try out the book aspect of the tablet. The first book I downloaded was the Family Fang. I loved this book. The storyline of this book is hilarious and all of the good buzz I had been reading on this book was spot on. If you like Wes Anderson or his ilk, you'll really like this book. The other book I downloaded is a book that just got released this week. It's a really great book called The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. I think it's his first novel and I loved the tone and style of the book.

The cool thing about getting books online is that I had been waiting for the book to hit the stores and it was released the day we were driving out to Utah to ride. So I sat in the back seat of Liz's (dirtmistress) van and downloaded a book in 10 seconds and got to
enjoy it on the ride out! Say what you will about how ebooks have no soul, etc. I thought it was pretty damn cool I got to buy and read a book I had been excitedly awaiting while in the back seat of a car. :bang::wave:

 

[christopher]

I just finished reading this and it is very good.
OUR POSTHUMAN FUTURE consequences of the biotechnology revolution
Francis Fukuyama.
Very interesting read, highly recommended from a book nut!Just thought I would share.

I like the topic.
Thanks.

"Life"
Keith Richards


Quite good and not what you'd expect.
Well written(ghost writer, of course) and avoids the cliched(sp?) stories about groupies, orgies, and hotel room bans.

It's about the blues, postwar England, and women, love, friendship, art and the US from Keith's "unique"
perspective, etc

 

[christopher]

Just finished The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta. Not a bad read. Wanted to get a feel for the author while I patiently wait for his new book, The Leftovers, to become available at my library.

Also read Foundation: Redefine Your Core.... during a recent road trip to northern CA. Nothing Earth shattering but a few new exercises and stretches that I wasn't familiar with. Like everyone else, including Lance it seems, my movement patterns need work

Try "Bad Haircut" by Perotta. Excellent.

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Haircut-Seventies-Tom-Perrotta/dp/042515954X#reader_042515954X

 

[Chewyeti]

I've not been able to convince my better half to watch the second and third movies (dunno if she ever will -- she did NOT like the first movie -- too graphic and gnarly for her), so long way of saying I can't tell you about them. But, I am not surprised by bvader's comment that they could do better to live up to the intricacies of the narratives, but what movie (based on a book, anyways) has EVER lived up to complexity of the images we created in our mind's eye from reading the printed page? Not many...

- shud

Polished off the third in the series last night. Hornets nest was a slooooow read for the first 300 pages, but the last 200 flew by. Out of the three books, the second and third were the best.

Time to watch the movies....and then onto the hunger games?

 

[joytron]

Just started Quammen's "Wild Thoughts From Wild Places" a collection of his articles from Outside magazine. Great read if you are into nature writing but still want some passion behind the words. Nothing he writes is dry even when topics include nutmeg and trout fishing. About halfway through with this one but I think I prefer the Boilerplate Rhino.