Off Topic: What are you been reading this days?

Hatched69

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davidjh7 said:
Man, you know how to LIVE!!! That's practically porn, baby!:biggrin1:

Oh yeah!! How to twiddle big knobs and do "plug-ins"!!! Woo-Hoo!!:tongue:
 

D_Gunther Snotpole

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I've just finished reading George Plimpton's 1997 oral biography Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career.

Fascinating book in which friends, lovers, enemies, professional observers ... all kinds of people discuss Capote at all stages of his career.

It's extraordinary how contradictory the takes people have on the same events and personalities can be -- scarcely a new observation, but one seldom so clearly demonstrated in my experience.

This book was a major source for the movie Infamous, which just came out and which starred Toby Jones as Capote. (However, the movie and the book do not move on parallel tracks at all.)

There is an excellent Coda in which the late poet James Dickey assesses the size of Capote's literary achievement. His verdict is not new: The talent promised a good deal more than it delivered. But Dickey is remarkable in capturing just what the nature of that achievement was.
 

Aloha!

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Hehehe...Michael Crichton for me...there's no library near by so I end up reading the same books over and over...and over....
 

D_Harvey Schmeckel

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The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Frank Rich. Although we lived through the events he describes, while it was all happening (the promotion of the Iraq War via an elaborate campaign of false propaganda) it was impossible to see the big picture as Rich presents it in this book. He doesn't spare his own paper, the New York Times, which thanks to Judith Miller became one of the primary instruments in the propaganda fest.
 

eddyabs

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Just been reading the Graphic novel Alan Moore's '49ers'....excellent stuff...also reading Ken Saro-Wiwa's 'A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary'....anyone who has an interest in Human Rights, corporate crime, will be interested in Ken's story...I remember the outrage felt, myself included, when Ken was executed in 1995, by the Nigerian Abacha regime.
 

hypolimnas

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Just finished:
Freud, "Forgetting things" from The Psychology of Everyday Life in the bath, great actually. The best thing is that even when you fall asleep, and the bottom half of the paperback gets soggy, you can still effectively turn the pages from the top corner.

Trying to finish (oh it is bad):
The Prince and the Pauper, (Clemens). Loved it as a kid, found it in a friends spare bedroom when on holiday. Not giving up yet.

Also:
Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century (Jourdain and Jenyns). Could be better but, might be useful.

Finally on the last few pages of:
Mozart's Women (2005) (Jane Glover), brilliant a really excellent read!
 

scanjock8

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Just finished
The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis (utterly simple deeply thought provoking, brilliant)

Working on
Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville (my yearly chunk)
Beautiful Evidence, Edward Tufte (information design is so sexy)
 

taven

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I'm just finishing The Confession by James McGreevey, the gay former governor of New Jersey. On one level, the most important to me, the book resonates because I've gone through so many of the same stages with being gay that he writes about. The filth in politics just reinforces my disgust with the majority of our political leaders. Much of the time I fight with myself over not bothering to vote, voting against anyone in office, or trying to make an intelligent choice (as much as that is possible.) So far I've gone with the third choice, but I don't see much difference in any of the three except in my own mind.

By the way, I have come to have a great respect and empathy for McGreevey.
 

taven

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Well, I'm just finishing Here's What We'll Say by Reichen Lehmkuhl today. This is about his years in the Air Force Academy. It's been an interesting read to follow the McGreevey book. I hate it when I finish a book and want another in the same vein, but don't have anything like it lined up. I'll have to go with something from the pile of unread...God! life can be hard.
 

jay_too

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In a dollar bin at the used book store, I found the greatest Chaucer book. It was published in 1934: Canterbury Tales in Modern English by J.U. Nicolson. Mom liberated my copy, but I found copies for me and my grandmothers on Amazon for $2.50 or so.

This is the perfect book of short stories [in verse] to read and re-read while waiting.

Oh and the copies are in very good condition....all were little used library books.
 

b.c.

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Just perused the latest copy of the Sam's Club "Gifts 2006" catalog (or perhaps more aptly in this case, "catalogue"). Wondered if it weren't an "April's Fools" edition. Page 15 F. Vinotemp Wine Vault?? Aluminum exterior, holds 1,500 bottles of wine and measures 8' x 6' x 10'. A mere $33,000.00. Think I'll rush right out and get one. Whoops..."online only".

Or maybe I'll try their pear-shaped Tanzanite necklace with .73 TW diamonds in 14k gold. Only $27,560. A steal!
 

BuddyBoy

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Recently finished:
Lads by Dave Itzkoff, about his time working for Details and Maxim
Sputnik by Paul Dickson about the post Sputnik panic and space program development in the the US.
Insatiable by Gael Greene, an autobiography of the well know restaurant critic.
Grace and Power by Sally Smith, about Jack and Jackie Kennedy, and his 1000 day Presidency

Starting:
Shockwave by Stephan Walker, about the first atomic bombs
Project Orion by George Dyson about the project to develop the first atomic spaceship back in the 50s and 60s.

I bought the new Sony ebook reader, the PRS-500, and I'm in love. E-ink, a great screen, and with a 2G SD Card it holds 2500 books.:eek: That should get me through a few months.