What are you currently reading?

[SonicMan46]

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 (2011) by Adam Hochschild - a Kindle download to my iPad2 - thought that I'd not enjoy this method of reading a book but I'm wrong - it is easy, convenient, and versatile - believe that this book was on my list from an excellent NY Times Book Review - enjoying -

[Mn Dave]

.[asin]0143119206[/asin]

[jlaurson]

P.G. Wodehouse
The Coming of Bill
Everyman


Continuing my Wodehouse binge. One Wodehouse a week, at least.  This is "as close as Wodehouse ever came to a serious story", tackling the issue of eugenics in the 1920s.

[Mn Dave]

Downloaded this for $1.99. A mystery that takes place in Minnesota. Pretty good so far.
[asin]1416556745[/asin]

[Brahmsian]

P.G. Wodehouse
The Coming of Bill
Everyman

Thought this had to do with Bill's trip to Boston and his visit with Karl. 

[Brian]

By Raymond Knapp:

[asin]0945193904[/asin]

A couple chapters were too technical and went right over my head, but the parts that - uh - went straight at my head? - the other parts are very good and very interesting.  The author does a mostly good job of hiding his admittedly rather endearing desire to do some rah-rah-gimme-a-B Brahms cheerleading.

[Lethevich]

Cussler has a surprisingly bad style for such a supposedly popular writer - every page offered something to annoy me. I picked this up as the only available reading material during a particularly tedious out of town wait, but I don't care what happens when the action starts moving, as the writer will no doubt be too busy describing every inane technical detail behind every piece of equipment that the characters are using. It's a relatively simple adventure story, but only an adult could enjoy this - a child would never put up with such stilted writing :\

[asin]0425177173[/asin]

Okay, rage. I am actually still reading this, at an incredibly slow pace due to frequent rage quits, then restarts. I don't know whether this is what people call a "page-turner", because that implies that the book is an enjoyable light read, and this is an unenjoyable light read. For some reason as the plot got even stupider I wanted to know where it went.

Everybody in this book "grins widely", everybody has auburn hair and green eyes, every female is described as being highly sexually attractive and only independent to the point that a man stops them because Clive Cussler must surely loathe non-fictional women. when an enemy escapes in a car, the person who got a glimpse of it will describe its model number, engine power and how fast it goes from 0-60 (I wish this was made up). The author at some points dedicates an entire paragraph towards listing the model names of the diving equipment that the characters are currently using. It's so face-crushingly bad that it's quite impressive, yet I feel that by continuing to read it I am in some way condoning or even supporting the awfulness.

It also includes blonde Nazi octuplets or something as one of the main antagonists. When the protagonist found one dead, Cussler still felt the need to talk about what a hot bod the corpse has. Seriously, if this is a "best seller" I am very happy that high street bookstore chains are closing in droves.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

"A Dirk Pitt novel"


It's obviously the pitts.

[Coco]

...de profundis clamavi...

[Bogey]

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 (2011) by Adam Hochschild - a Kindle download to my iPad2 - thought that I'd not enjoy this method of reading a book but I'm wrong - it is easy, convenient, and versatile - believe that this book was on my list from an excellent NY Times Book Review - enjoying -

As well as not taking up space on our already crammed to to the gills bookshelves.  We are becoming very choosy on what we buy in "hard copy" format these days, ie OOP books and a few history ones we want for our library.

[SonicMan46]

As well as not taking up space on our already crammed to to the gills bookshelves.  We are becoming very choosy on what we buy in "hard copy" format these days, ie OOP books and a few history ones we want for our library.

Hi Bill - sounds like you enjoyed your vacation & meeting w/ Karl - hope the weather was kind to you & family - 

Yep, Susan & I are kind of on a non-physical no purchase binge at least for books & videos at the moment - I'm reading on an iPad2 and she is loving her Nook Color and has learned to get books from the library - I've got a couple of ones also on my list and even recent recommendations, just have to wait for them a little bit; however, still buying CDs!  - Dave 

[DavidW]

Okay, rage. I am actually still reading this, at an incredibly slow pace due to frequent rage quits, then restarts.

There is nothing wronging with quitting it, it's not Ulysses!   Buy another novel or visit the library.

I think he was supposed to be good at one point before ghost writers took over.  Let me find the review for the one I had the misfortune of reading one a few years back...

My best friend and co-worker is a Paramedic. He reads alot of books. Or rather that is he did before reading Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler.

Wisely, my friend would fill his idle hours with reading books of varying quality. It usually took him three days to finish a decent sized novel. Often based on his assessment I would decide whether a novel was worth my time or not.

Not so with Valhalla Rising, on day one of him reading this book. He became quiet and withdrawn. Many times I would see him finish a chapter only to see him stare off into space, pale with an expression on his face like he'd just been slapped.

On day two the mumbling began. Walking past him I would catch snatches of phrases "Nemo's sub", "teleporting briefcase" ect. His eating habits became irregular. Oddly, I also noticed he began to carry around a long handled wooden kitchen spoon in his duffel bag.

On day three and completion of the novel he stood up and screamed "How can the author (Clive Cussler) write himself into a piece of his own fiction as a character?!?" "How dare he!" Just then he hurled Valhalla Rising into the garbage can. Ran to his duffel bag and retrieved the long handled wooden spoon. Right then and there he sat cross-legged on the floor and began rocking back and forth hitting himself in the head with the wooden spoon over and over shouting "Oatmeal Spoon!"

Is there a link between the Oatmeal Spoon and Mr. Cussler's poorly written piece of fiction? I cannot say. However, I know in my heart it is Valhalla Rising that destroyed my friends higher brain functions just as surely as I know the sun shall rise tomorrow. In other words, avoid this book!

Best.  Book.  Review.  Ever.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Let me find the review for the one I had the misfortune of reading one a few years back...

Best.  Book.  Review.  Ever.

It's very good. 

[Lethevich]

There is nothing wronging with quitting it, it's not Ulysses!   Buy another novel or visit the library.

I wish I could quit it, I'd love to chalk it down as something I don't like - but more grotesquely, something inside me in some way enjoys it

Oh god, having read that review, I might have to read that book too ;____; I am very familiar with the end of chapter cliffhanger numbness - the author has a great way of ending things in the most silly ways possible, often adding a stupid amount of dramatic weight to a joke that doesn't even make sense.

Edit: Oh dear god: he has a character called MacD Lawless.

.
...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I wish I could quit it, I'd love to chalk it down as something I don't like - but more grotesquely, something inside me in some way enjoys it

Poe called that the "Imp of the Perverse".

[Mn Dave]

Poe called that the "Imp of the Perverse".

I have several.

[Brian]

I wish I could quit it, I'd love to chalk it down as something I don't like - but more grotesquely, something inside me in some way enjoys it

Oh god, having read that review, I might have to read that book too ;____; I am very familiar with the end of chapter cliffhanger numbness - the author has a great way of ending things in the most silly ways possible, often adding a stupid amount of dramatic weight to a joke that doesn't even make sense.

Edit: Oh dear god: he has a character called MacD Lawless.

You really, really need to read Harry Stephen Keeler. Keeler is the The Room of American literature.

Here, for your delectation, is the first paragraph of the 1927 Keeler novel When Thief Meets Thief:

   MY name is Jerry Hammond. J. Hammond, yeggman in the vernacular of gangsterdom and the underworld, safe-cracker in everyday English. Also gentleman – and take that last or leave it! So now I'm placed in the general scheme of things. Yeggman, boxman, peterman, ironworker, blaster – there are more names for the racket that has kept wrinkles out of the lining of my interior for a good eight years than there are fleas on a cat's ear when he's being dipped to his whiskers in insecticide. I know how to cook dynamite in a pail of hot water over a one-hole gas burner, and take off from the bottom a half-ounce of pure nitro-glycerine, known among us users of the stuff as soup. Or how to crumble the dynamite into wood-alcohol and bring the nitro-glycerine out – and straight to the top! – with cold distilled water. I know how to drill into an ordinary fire-proof safe and lay my nitro-glycerine, fused and timed, all ready for the touch-off that will bring the door away. I know how to get to the inside of a chilled-steel receptacle with no more noise than a cockroach, drunk after emerging from an uncorked gin-bottle in a garbage can, would make as he sneaked back to Mrs. C., waiting up to biff him on the beezer for leaving her to mind the youngsters while he went skyhooting. I can saw past the bolts of any cast-iron contraption, using two saws at the same time, one in each mitt. Or I can blowpipe an entry to an armourplated vault, and leave any driller, who's had no more sense than to try and blow it open, to scuttle off faster than a hold-up man at the wheel of a sports Dusenberg, when he hears the radio outfit on it squawking – "Calling all cars!"

And here is the full text. You can also hear the above paragraph read aloud by some sainted genius who manages to betray not even the slightest suspicion that he's reading anything more unusual than a phone book.

[The new erato]

Clive Cussler (I've read a couple) is so stupid, unbelievable and clicheridden that it is a shame NOT to give up.

Re giving up: After reading over 600 pages of Umbert Eco's incomprehensible "Foucaults Pendulum" I gave up with about 50 pages left, and haven't regretted it one day.

[Sergeant Rock]

"A Dirk Pitt novel"


It's obviously the pitts.

Dirk Pitt. Oh god...that's a porno name. 

I'd never heard of Clive Cussler or his series of adventure novels. I took a look at his Wiki entry and read this: "Most of the creative effort is devoted to highly detailed descriptions of events and technology that are not necessarily mandatory to get the story across." So, Sara is not exaggerating 

Thread duty: I recently watched The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968 version) which has compelled a re-read of Cardigan's biography.




Sarge

[Bogey]

Thread duty: I recently watched The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968 version) which has compelled a reread of Cardigan's biography.




Sarge

That looks fascinating.