What Book Are You Currently Reading?

Have to agree with Frank about motorcycle maintanance...a bit too gushy for me if you know what I mean, and I just couldn't go on after about halfway through. Reading Lolita now tho....damn I wish I could write like Nabokov...
 
captainslack said:
Poptart: "Chronicles" is a wonderful book!!! One of the best things I read last year. Did you know Dylan is doing a show in XM starting next month?

Stephanie: "Da Vinci Code" is FINALLY coming out in paperback (large size, I believe) soon. I work at Barnes & Noble, so I know these things. :D

I just started "1776" by David McCullough last night. Looks to be a good read. If it's half as good as his biography of Harry Truman, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
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Yes, unfortunately I'm too poor to buy satellite radio service.
I have an HB of DaVinci that I'll list today for other bargain hunters.
 
Dave H said:
wouldn't mind reading a book called something like "Large format photography for dummies and how to start in it"
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All the LF books I've read are highly technical. What I'd recommend you do is make a camera yourself (from plans on the internets--all you'll need to buy pre-made is a lens and film holder) and try the larger format, then buy the best quality camera you can afford if you still like it.
 
The Da Vinci Code was a book that I just couldn't put down. It's certainly not a serious text but had tremendous entertainment value for me, and obviously many others.

At the other end of the spectrum, in Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance, I failed to comprehend his philosphical problem, or indeed, why it was even important. The character's musings seemed to me like someone slowly going insane. It completely failed to capture my interest.
 
broadie said:
Have to agree with Frank about motorcycle maintanance...a bit too gushy for me if you know what I mean, and I just couldn't go on after about halfway through. Reading Lolita now tho....damn I wish I could write like Nabokov...
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I liked the Pirsig book but it's been a while for me.
There's really no one else like Nabokov. He was a fan of Dickens but that's a different era of literature. If you don't mind I'd like to suggest the work of Thomas McGuane, especially the books "92 in the Shade" and "Panama."
 
I've had the Da Vinci code for almost ayear now, in paperback.

Right now I'm reading Susan Sontag's On Photography. You can read _here_ what I'm thinking of it. :rolleyes:
 
The Da Vinci Code was very entertaining; I couldn't put it down either. I did cringe a number of times for how it was using references; very oversimplified. But it worked: it kept you reading.

The moment I saw the name "Saunière" I knew it was going to be interesting. Debating whether the book is "fact" or "fiction" is silly, imho; like debating it over "Death of a Salesman". Somehow everything that is printed is not necessarily true.

Dan Brown knows how to get you hooked, and you have to give him that. Anybody read "Demons and Angels" (or is it "Angels and Demons"? it's been over a year...)
 
Gabriel, I read Angels and Demons a few months after Da Vinci Code. It is just as entertaining, exciting, and far-fetched!
 
RML said:
I've had the Da Vinci code for almost ayear now, in paperback.

Right now I'm reading Susan Sontag's On Photography. You can read _here_ what I'm thinking of it. :rolleyes:
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I just picked that up yesterday at the same used book store that I found the book on Chinese cameras I mentioned in another thread.

It was in the philosophy section!
 
"Purity of Blood" by Arturo Perez-Reverte. This is the second book in the Captain Alatriste series. The stories take place in seventeenth-century Madrid and are very interesting to me since I was fortunate enough to visit Madrid and the Andalusia region a couple of years ago. Ah, my kingdom for some real tapas.
 
A physics student has no time for Dan Brown...

A physics student has no time for Dan Brown...

I'm reading "Structure and Properties of Conducting Polymer Composites" by V.E Gul' and many, many related papers...... :confused:

Don't tell me I'm the only one... :p
 
It's interesting how the same titles seems to crop up.
I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code as an adventure story, Angels and Demons a little less, and lost patience with Deception Point less than halfway through. Mr Brown seems to be stuck with the same plot structure, a daughter's troubled relationship with her father.
Dylan's Chronicles vol. one is on my shelf, unread, but I will soon. Is there a vol. two yet?
The best read I've had for a long time is Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, thankfully a translation, my Spanish is very slow. It's about post civil war Barcelona and the Cemetary of forgotten books. If It hadn't been recommended I might have bought it for the cover, a nice grainy "street" photo. See below.
Read and enjoy,
Regards Richard F.
 
fishric said:
Dylan's Chronicles vol. one is on my shelf, unread, but I will soon. Is there a vol. two yet?
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Not yet. :( Not sure when, if ever, it'll come out.

fishric said:
The best read I've had for a long time is Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, thankfully a translation, my Spanish is very slow. It's about post civil war Barcelona and the Cemetary of forgotten books. If It hadn't been recommended I might have bought it for the cover, a nice grainy "street" photo. See below.
Read and enjoy,
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Have you ever read "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell? It's a memoir about his experiences as a soldier in the Spanish Civil War. Very interesting read. I was assigned it in a Spanish History class in college, but didn't get a chance to finish it. However, I enjoyed it so much, I went back a number of years later and re-read it. Was glad I did!
 
I really enjoyed the Aubry-maturin series. There is an earlier series about the British Navy during that period by C.S. Forester. The Horatio Hornblower series. Not as good as the Robertson books in my opinion but an interesting read none the less.

Right now I'm reading,"The cold six thousand" by Elmore Lenard. A bone chilling look at the U.S. starting with the Kennedy assasination( in Dallas) and ending with the his bother's death in Ca.. A fiction tale that has that sad ring of truth to it.
 
I'm just finishing "Up in the Old Hotel" by Joseph Mitchell, who was a writer for The New Yorker. His wife Therese was a photographer of note who died in 1980.

Charlie
 
captainslack said:
Have you ever read "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell? It's a memoir about his experiences as a soldier in the Spanish Civil War. Very interesting read. I was assigned it in a Spanish History class in college, but didn't get a chance to finish it. However, I enjoyed it so much, I went back a number of years later and re-read it. Was glad I did!
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In Robert Capa's "The Definitive Collection" there are some remarkable photos taken in the streets of northern Spain in 1937 (pp. 132-135) that speak to the horrors of air attacks against civilian populations. The picture on p. 135 could be any mother and daughter running for their lives, anywhere, before or since.

 
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