What are you currently reading?

[bwv 1080]

Of course there is that one particular scifi franchise which takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... Yes, I noted the word "most" in your post, just messing around.

should have qualified it with 'hard' scifi

[Jo498]

It is for a lot of people, and the second for most of the rest! It's an old hole in my reading. Quite funny so far.

It was the first by Twain for me when I was around 8 or 9 and together with "Treasure Island" which I read at about the same time it was probably the first book I read that could qualify as a "great book" or at least claim to transcend children's literature.

But I definitely was too young for "Huckleberry Finn" and I am not even sure I finished the latter when I tried it a year or so after Tom Sawyer. I was considerably disappointed because I had expected something much closer to a typical sequel of Tom Sawyer. (When I read Huckleberry Finn again a few year ago as an adult and in the original I found that the bits that try to bridge back to Tom Sawyer, especially the ending, are actually the weakest ones.)

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Also started reading The Gilded Age, collaboration between Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner.

[Karl Henning]

Also started reading The Gilded Age, collaboration between Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner.

I've not read that.  (Yet.) 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I've not read that.  (Yet.) 

The beginning seems promising enough. Who knows, maybe this will become my choice for the greatest American novel? 

[Karl Henning]

(* chortle *)

[Ken B]

It was the first by Twain for me when I was around 8 or 9 and together with "Treasure Island" which I read at about the same time it was probably the first book I read that could qualify as a "great book" or at least claim to transcend children's literature.

But I definitely was too young for "Huckleberry Finn" and I am not even sure I finished the latter when I tried it a year or so after Tom Sawyer. I was considerably disappointed because I had expected something much closer to a typical sequel of Tom Sawyer. (When I read Huckleberry Finn again a few year ago as an adult and in the original I found that the bits that try to bridge back to Tom Sawyer, especially the ending, are actually the weakest ones.)

Ironically Moby Dick is now often sold as a children's book! I was asked by a prof once if he should get it for his kid aged about 8. I boggled. But I have seen it, unabridged, unaltered, on sale in the children's section!

[André]

Henning Mankell's last book, the Swedish Rubber Boots (2015). All of Mankell's novels are bleak. They are about small gestures, insignificant events. Words that come out do so at a cost. His characters are mentally and emotionally weaker at the end vs at the beginnning.

For some reason it doesn't seem to be available in English yet.

[Bogey]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

Enjoyed that one....not on the Copperfield level for me, but what is,as it is my favorite.

[Bogey]

After this, I will hit the  Elijah Baley series for a second read. 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

It bothers me a bit that my edition of "Gilded age" does not have page numbers. This may be one of the only times that I ever have had to use a bookmark!

[kishnevi]

On the topic of fake news
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/journalist.html

[James]

[NikF]

Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kastner.

[asin]1590175840[/asin]

The last time I was in the gym some woman told me it was the first occasion she's seen me without a book. I usually take one with me because while some people play on their phones when waiting for a bench or punchbag to be vacated, I don't have that kind of phone. Anyway, due to packing and putting stuff into storage I've left myself nothing to read and so today I bought a few books.

[NikF]

I haven't seen this yet but I'm going to make time to see it on the big screen.

After this, I will hit the  Elijah Baley series for a second read. 

Reminds me of the OTR (old time radio) shows I used to download with a 28.8 kbit(?) connection. It was shows like Dimension X and X Minus One and Quiet, Please. Surprisingly few were cheesy and most were atmospheric and cool. X Minus One in particular had stories from (amongst others) Asimov and Pohl and Heinlein and Simak. Good stuff.

[Bogey]

Reminds me of the OTR (old time radio) shows I used to download with a 28.8 kbit(?) connection. It was shows like Dimension X and X Minus One and Quiet, Please. Surprisingly few were cheesy and most were atmospheric and cool. X Minus One in particular had stories from (amongst others) Asimov and Pohl and Heinlein and Simak. Good stuff.

You download and listen to OTR Nik because you are a cool cat. I have been buying some Ace Doubles for future sci-fi reading.  Nothing like a sci-fi paperback from the 50's for back porch summer reading!

[Jo498]

Ironically Moby Dick is now often sold as a children's book! I was asked by a prof once if he should get it for his kid aged about 8. I boggled. But I have seen it, unabridged, unaltered, on sale in the children's section!

That's amazing. Although I also remember from my childhood/youth (early 1980s) that usually heavily abridged and edited "classics" like "Moby Dick", "Robinson Crusoe", "Gulliver's travels" and also "Count of Monte Cristo", "Three Musketeers" "Oliver Twist" or "David Copperfield" were offered as children's books. I guess that often went almost as far as re-telling the main story in accessible language but sometimes they were also older cheaply re-published editions only moderately abridged. I do not remember details.
I think that the Moby Dick translation I read with about 15 was not or (probably) only slightly abridged but I do not remember exactly (and cannot check as it was a borrowed copy).

[Drasko]

My first venture into several Wodehouse worlds which I haven't explored this far: Blandings, golf, Mr.Mulliner and Ukridge.

[kishnevi]

His best known book is probably Battle Cry of Freedom.


The naval aspect of the Civil War is sometimes lost--as he notes at the start, the forces on land, and the number of casualties, of the forces on land were greater by orders of magnitude--but crucial.  He keeps the narrative going, sometimes at the cost of making the background details clear.  And sometimes he strikes an oddly modern note.  Thus, one commander in charge of the fighting, faced with a plan from Washington that does not match reality, is said to "wonder what Fox was smoking".

But overall, gets an A from me.

[Bogey]

Father's Day gift.