Topic: What are you currently reading?

[karlhenning]

I never read the original film Casino Royale, but from what I hear it was either a spoof or hiding behind pretending to be a spoof, no?

Well, with Woody Allen playing Jimmy Bond, Jr, it had better have been a spoof!

[Brewski]

Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale - An entertaining look at grammar, from an author who encourages people to consider when to break the rules in writing (hence the "sin"  ). Lots of fresh thinking here--and good for writers of all levels.

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Misread that as good for writers of all evils, Bruce . . . .

[Brewski]

Well, who knows? Hale may have intended that as well!

--Bruce

[Fëanor]

Sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ...

The Honourable School Boy ~ John le Carré

[Cato]

This book should be better known:

Solomon Northup wrote this account of his kidnapping by con men, who lured him away from his home in Saratoga, New York, drugged him, and sold him in Washington D.C. into slavery.  He lost 12 years of his life before being rescued and returned to his family.

Highly recommended: you will feel so outraged at times that you will want to reach back across the decades and do something to save him!  An antidote to the "happy slaves" of Scarlett O'Hara, whom Northup did occasionally find, but they were a great exception: even while admitting that some slaves were "happy," he is not willing to compromise on the issue, as one can imagine!

[Geo Dude]

Currently reading Ovid's Metamorphoses translated by Charles Martin, The Iliad translated by Richmond Lattimore, and Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges.  All are fine works.

[-abe-]

Ah, answering my own question, courtesy Rotten Tomatoes:
The new Casino Royale film was great... and as quickly as it had raised my hopes that James Bond was going into the right direction again, as a series, it went below all the lows that the later Brosnan adventures hit (not that he's to blame). A series of music/action videos in search of a plot. Gross. A Quantum of something..., alright.

I enjoyed Casino Royal as well.

The sequel was really hurt by the Hollywood writers' strike from a few years back.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/daniel-craig-says-writers-strike-fucked-quantum-of-solace-he-rewrote-scenes-with-marc-forster#

Actor Daniel Craig and the director desperately tried to save by themselves a barebones script that was turned in hours before the writers' strike. Obviously they didn't succeed. 

[Ataraxia]

Robert McCammon's USHER'S PASSING, thanks to a certain Mr. W.

[Ataraxia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning

[Harry]

J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Text.
J. H. Hospers, A basic Bibliography for the study of the Semitic Languages.
K. Galling, Textbuch zur geschichte Israels.

[springrite]

Deep Simplicity--Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity (John Gribbon)

It has been a while since I read my last science book so this is toughing going and my brain is about to explode. But I enjoy it very much, like I did with all of Gribbon's other books.

[Opus106]

Deep Simplicity--Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity (John Gribbon)

It has been a while since I read my last science book so this is toughing going and my brain is about to explode. But I enjoy it very much, like I did with all of Gribbon's other books.

I enjoyed reading many of his books during my pop-physics stage; definitely a favourite. I came across somewhere that he had tread into the multiverse territory recently, but I haven't read it.

[springrite]

I enjoyed reading many of his books during my pop-physics stage; definitely a favourite. I came across somewhere that he had tread into the multiverse territoy recently, but I haven't read it.

Yes, I know some of his books in those areas but I am not planning to read them any time soon, or ever. I want to get a bit more into complexity/chaos/simplicity because some of the things I learn in there aid in my study and personal interest in Budhism.

[Todd]

About a third of the way through David Rothkopf’s Power, Inc..  It’s certainly an ambitious book by a former Clintonista.  The author attempts to make the case that the struggle between corporations and states is akin to the struggle between church and state from centuries past.  Well, maybe.  While the book offers a most intriguing glimpse at the beginning of corporations – starting with the selling of shares in Stora Kopparberg in 1288 (the company still exists as Stora Enso) – the author has so far not convinced me his main idea is true.  I know some good stuff is coming about the modern world, but his historical arguments are a bit weak at times.  Beyond that, some of the writing is repetitive and not especially effective (he’s no Daniel Yergin).  It’s also incredibly biased toward the West.  That’s certainly understandable in many regards, but it will be interesting to see how he handles the different approaches to relationships between governments and corporations in other parts of the world.  Anyway, it’s still an interesting read.

[Philoctetes]

Currently reading up on my main man, David Addington.

[-abe-]

I loved the first one, and so far its sequel has been gripping. The HBO series looks sumptuous, but from what I hear HBO has overemphasized sexual elements just to be HBO. 

[Florestan]

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

[karlhenning]

The Grapes of Wrath

Just where are they stored, I've wondered . . . .

[val]

FRANÇOIS CHESNAYS:          "Les dettes illégitimes"

Chesnais is a well known French Professor of Economy. In his perspective, the huge debts of most countries in West, today, are the result of Bank operations against the interest of the citizens and with the only profit for the Bankers themselves. He fights the politics of austerity and is in favor of a severe control of the Bank and Finance activity.
Let's wait the result of French elections. The socialist candidate seems not far from Chesnays perspective.