Author Topic: What are you currently reading? (Read 750636 times)

M forever · « **Reply #340 on:** June 27, 2007, 06:59:58 AM »

It's a royal seal from the era of Jeroboam II, king of Israel ca. 788-747 BCE. Why do you ask?

Mozart · « **Reply #341 on:** June 27, 2007, 07:04:05 AM »

Quote from: M forever on June 27, 2007, 06:59:58 AM

It's a royal seal from the era of Jeroboam II, king of Israel ca. 788-747 BCE. Why do you ask?

My brother used to have that as his wallpaper, and wanted me to try and do some things with it in photoshop. I never really asked what it was.

SonicMan46 · « **Reply #342 on:** June 27, 2007, 07:21:37 AM »

Quote from: Bogey on June 27, 2007, 05:29:27 AM

A short bio on Washington as we are going to make Mt. Vernon one of our stops while visiting the east coast:

Bill - excellent book - read that earlier in the year, but can't remember if I posted?

I need to get back to Mt. Vernon soon - like to see that new museum that has opened there - BTW, not sure 'which' route you are taking through Virginia, but I just returned from the Charlottesville area and left a few comments on the Vacation Advisory Thread - have a great time - Dave

bwv 1080 · « **Reply #343 on:** June 27, 2007, 08:24:51 AM »

Great book - very well written on another group of founding fathers I know very little about

karlhenning · « **Reply #344 on:** June 27, 2007, 08:37:07 AM »

Some mighty tempting reading, I see here.

Bogey · « **Reply #345 on:** June 27, 2007, 09:34:18 AM »

Quote from: karlhenning on June 27, 2007, 08:37:07 AM

Some mighty tempting reading, I see here.

Karl,
The Washington biography is a concise read of only about 270 pages....I am only 30 pages or so in, but am enjoying it and impressed with the detail that still is retained in the text. Not the mammoth read you get from say Flexner's effort, of which I still need to read 2 volumes of, but one worth taking in IMO based on my start.

Novi · « **Reply #346 on:** June 30, 2007, 07:01:06 PM »

A friend gave me this as a surprise ... great bloke, great gift

. I've been reading it a little at a time which isn't doing justice to the book. 15 minutes or so a night breaks any narrative momentum and I can never remember the characters in all that Pynchonesque complexity. So now that I'm on a break, I'm going to finish it in one go.

So far, I'm enjoying it: the encyclopaedic scope, a Sue-reading dog, the odd song-and-dance routine, the crazy merging of history and anachronism. I remember a discussion on the old board when it first came out and I think there were some pretty negative reviews (not by GMGers, but published ones). I'm only about 1/5 of the way through, but aside from a couple of iffy moments - and these are only a sentence or so - I think it's great. I do, however, think the analogy to contemporary affairs (terror, paranoia, that kind of thing) is a little heavy-handed, but I'll reserve judgement until I finish the book.

Anyone else read this yet?

Kullervo · « **Reply #347 on:** July 13, 2007, 05:14:43 PM »

Finally getting around to reading this...

Not only did he change the course of history, but he was a brilliant writer as well. What a remarkable man!

PSmith08 · « **Reply #348 on:** July 13, 2007, 05:26:19 PM »

Treadgold, Warren. A history of the Byzantine state and society. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1997.

I like it well-enough and think it's pretty good, but I am almost graduated with my A.B. in Classics, having been steeped in such page-turners as Andrew Wallace-Hadrill's Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum and Sir Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution.

I'd say, though, for a general-interest reading, that you'd be better off shelling out for Lord Norwich's three-volume set. He tells the story in a more narrative and episodic way. Treadgold (and, for that matter, Ostrogorsky) doesn't fool around with neat stories. Of course, Treadgold is trying to get about 1200 years into about a thousand pages with an eye toward completeness - relative to both state structure and cultural issues.

Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber · « **Reply #349 on:** July 13, 2007, 06:14:54 PM »

Quote from: Novitiate on June 30, 2007, 07:01:06 PM

So far, I'm enjoying it: the encyclopaedic scope, a Sue-reading dog, the odd song-and-dance routine, the crazy merging of history and anachronism. I remember a discussion on the old board when it first came out and I think there were some pretty negative reviews (not by GMGers, but published ones). I'm only about 1/5 of the way through, but aside from a couple of iffy moments - and these are only a sentence or so - I think it's great. I do, however, think the analogy to contemporary affairs (terror, paranoia, that kind of thing) is a little heavy-handed, but I'll reserve judgement until I finish the book.

Anyone else read this yet?

i'm reading gravity's rainbow which is supposed to be pynchon's masterpiece. i haven't read anything else by him though.

btpaul674 · « **Reply #350 on:** July 13, 2007, 08:52:43 PM »

An okay read.

As far as this vein of literature,

is far superior IMO.

M forever · « **Reply #351 on:** July 14, 2007, 02:56:12 AM »

Quote from: Kullervo on July 13, 2007, 05:14:43 PM

Finally getting around to reading this...

Not only did he change the course of history, but he was a brilliant writer as well. What a remarkable man!

A great book. He didn't really change the course of history, though. He led the Arabs in their fight against the Turks, but the Ottoman Empire would have crumbled anyway, and the Arabs were screwed afterwards just as much as they had been before.

But still a great story, although a lot of what's in the book is fairly fictional or rather, he "elaborated" a bit...but a great read nevertheless, and the basis for one of the greatest movies ever made.

Kullervo · « **Reply #352 on:** July 14, 2007, 04:13:22 AM »

Quote from: btpaul674 on July 13, 2007, 08:52:43 PM

An okay read.

As far as this vein of literature,

is far superior IMO.

I really like Anthony Storr's "Music and the Mind"

E d o · « **Reply #353 on:** July 14, 2007, 04:55:04 AM »

Just finished Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach. A great quick read. Recommended.

rubio · « **Reply #354 on:** July 14, 2007, 07:49:07 AM »

I just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "The Shadow of the Wind". It's not a book with a very deep content, but the story is magical and it is very well-written and poetic. Highly recommended! I'm going to Barcelona in one week, and it's often nice to read literature associated with the place you're visiting.

btpaul674 · « **Reply #355 on:** July 14, 2007, 08:42:05 AM »

Quote from: Kullervo on July 14, 2007, 04:13:22 AM

I really like Anthony Storr's "Music and the Mind"

I read that one in high school. Very informative, and I would also recommend the benchmark "Emotion and Meaning in Music" by Leonard B. Meyer.

Storr's book isn't really along the cognitive vein in comparison to the two I mentioned, but worthwhile.

Huron has a new book in the works dealing with emotion and memory centered around the functions of the amygdala. Fascinating.

Kiddiarni · « **Reply #356 on:** July 15, 2007, 02:55:55 PM »

Yes, There's lot of those "What are you listening to", "Last movie you watched" etc.

I wanted one about literature, so I decided to start it

Currently I'm reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I like it, quite interesting.

So, what are you reading? Or have recently read?

EDIT:

Embarrassing.

caulfield · « **Reply #357 on:** July 15, 2007, 03:09:21 PM »

we have already had that topic :

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,68.0.html

Kiddiarni · « **Reply #358 on:** July 16, 2007, 09:58:59 AM »

Yeah, I know, extremely mainstream.

Kullervo · « **Reply #359 on:** July 16, 2007, 10:28:11 AM »

Quote from: Kiddiarni on July 16, 2007, 09:58:59 AM

Yeah, I know, extremely mainstream.

Not mainstream, just popular - and with good reason. It's a great book. I recently bought a collection of his short stories but I haven't picked it up yet.

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Author Topic: What are you currently reading? (Read 750636 times)

M forever

Mozart

bwv 1080

karlhenning

Kullervo

btpaul674

M forever

Kullervo

btpaul674

caulfield

Kullervo