What are you currently reading?

[orbital]

I finished it in two days and have re-read it about six or seven times. 

I should revisit it sometime myself.

I can't give The Glass Bead Game its due concentration these days  I can only devote 15-20 mins a day to reading and I think this book deserves better than that. I think I'll stop now and look out for a more suitable time to restart.

In the meantime, I will dip in and out of Woody Allen's Complete Prose.

[DavidRoss]

"COLLAPSE", Jared Diamond

The most interesting book I have read in the last year. It is a study about the collapse of several ancient civilizations and also modern regions, such as the state of Montana in the USA or Australia, and the reasons of those collapses.
The book is very detailed and with fine analysis, showing us the very serious dangers that threaten us today.

Montana has collapsed?  Big news indeed!  (There's that word again.)  Australia, too?  No wonder we haven't heard from Rob for awhile!

[Florestan]

Montana has collapsed?  Big news indeed!  (There's that word again.)  Australia, too?  No wonder we haven't heard from Rob for awhile!

Excellent!

[nut-job]

Montana has collapsed?

When you think of it, what have they produced since the Unabomber?

[Benji]

"COLLAPSE", Jared Diamond

The most interesting book I have read in the last year. It is a study about the collapse of several ancient civilizations and also modern regions, such as the state of Montana in the USA or Australia, and the reasons of those collapses.
The book is very detailed and with fine analysis, showing us the very serious dangers that threaten us today.

I have that on my shelf. Have done for about two years now. I really should read it. Hopefully society will not collapse before I do [read the book, not collapse]...

[Bu]

I have that on my shelf. Have done for about two years now. I really should read it. Hopefully society will not collapse before I do [read the book, not collapse]...

I read the first 160 pages or so.  Fascinating reading, but stopped for some reason.  Now I would love to go back and finish the whole thing, but fiction keeps a callin'.

[Benji]

Instead i've been indulging in sci-fi recently... Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 (Bonobo Snuff Box is up next), Carl Sagan's Contact, PKD's Minority Report (vol.4 of collected short stories).

Currently, Bertrand Russell's Conquest of Happiness, which is still very useful to me despite showing its age.

[Benji]

I read the first 160 pages or so.  Fascinating reading, but stopped for some reason.  Now I would love to go back and finish the whole thing, but fiction keeps a callin'.

I am guilty of that too, most often when it comes to popular science books. Not that I have any difficult, coming from a scientific background, but when i'm reading I like my imagination to be set free and limitless, which is why I find it all to easy to put the pop-sci on hold and indulge in some sci-fi.

A quick scan of my shelves shows I am approximately half way through:

The God Delusion
The Selfish Gene
How the Mind Works
The Stuff of Thought
and...
The Happiness Hypothesis

Nobody tell me how they end! 

[Benji]

I also read White Fang and Call of the Wild last week and loved both stories, even though the ending of White Fang is a bit naff really. I'm just waiting for my copy of London's Northland Stories to arrive in the post and I will, no doubt, devour that volume rapidly as well.

[DavidRoss]

When you think of it, what have they produced since the Unabomber?

Nah--he was a product of Chicago, Harvard, Michigan, and Cal.  Didn't they give us Joe & Hannah?

[Daverz]

Montana has collapsed?  Big news indeed!  (There's that word again.)  Australia, too?  No wonder we haven't heard from Rob for awhile!

Diamond never made a claim about Montana collapsing.  Googling "Jared Diamond Montana" should give you a good idea of what he has to say on the subject.

[bwv 1080]

Montana has collapsed? 

Yes, it was soil erosion from overplanting dental floss

[val]

DavidRoss
Montana has collapsed?  Big news indeed!  (There's that word again.)  Australia, too? 

Montana was one of the healthiest states of the USA. Now it is one of the two most poor, depending on more than 50% on federal support. Regarding Australia, the ecological problems regarding deflorestation, quality of the waters, desertification, have reached perhaps a point of no return.

[Joe_Campbell]

(Roll over for amazon link)

I haven't started just yet, but I waited over 6 months for this, so I hope it's good!

[DavidRoss]

Montana was one of the healthiest states of the USA. Now it is one of the two most poor, depending on more than 50% on federal support.

How do you figure this?

[Opus106]

  I had to post what I was reading when I came across this in the book:

'Oh?' said Lord Emsworth. 'Ah? Tea, eh? Tea? Yes. Tea. Quite so. To be sure, tea. Capital.'

An extract from Summer Lightning -- A Blandings Novel -- by P.G. Wodehouse.

[greg]

An audiobook of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason." (on chapter 4) I hardly understand any of this, so I need to do some research of the terms, and probably need to read other books before I continue with this one. 

[Florestan]

An audiobook of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason.

You should have post this in the "What are you listening to?" thread. 

[Renfield]

An audiobook of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason." (on chapter 4) I hardly understand any of this, so I need to do some research of the terms, and probably need to read other books before I continue with this one. 

Handbrake. Reverse into "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals". Go on from there.

(Preferably with actual, written book: especially those footnotes are killers!)

[greg]

Handbrake. Reverse into "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals". Go on from there.

(Preferably with actual, written book: especially those footnotes are killers!)

I predicted that heart attack! 

Well, today in class, I had open that audio book and the wiki page for Kant. This older guy, probably in his 60s, with an accent I'm not sure of (Jamaican? i'm bad with accents) comes into class sometimes since his program is a little different- but, he was sitting behind me and he saw what I was looking at and started talking to me about it. I told him I'm just starting to try to read some philosophy, and he said that I definitely shouldn't read Kant for now and that "he's the hardest to understand, and The Critique of Pure Reason is basically the hardest book to understand"- the way he was talking, it sounded like he's read everything. He recommended me to start with many others, just to save Kant for later- read Hegel, Hobbs, (some other guy), and the Greeks (Plato, Socrates, etc.) and some Marx.

Now I realize how funny it is to have that 27 hour audio book on! 

So, "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals" is only 78 pages? Well, when I do decide to read Kant, that sounds like something good to start with!