What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Awesome Bill!

Seconded. Those are excellent classics.

[Lilas Pastia]

Too much excellent posts, I feel like a salmon trying to go up the river. Just too much to catch up to.

Right, now, Grisham's Ford County Chronicles.

Next: volume 2 of Naguib Mahfouz' "Cairo Trilogy". My favourite author right now, in the Mann, Steinbeck, Ivo Andric mould.

[Bogey]

Seconded. Those are excellent classics.

Well, I am half way through the second book.  I am taking other suggestions after the third....may just continue with the Asimov run, but always like suggestions, especially for sci-fi, which I have read very little.

[Drasko]

Too much excellent posts, I feel like a salmon trying to go up the river. Just too much to catch up to.

Right, now, Grisham's Ford County Chronicles.

Next: volume 2 of Naguib Mahfouz' "Cairo Trilogy". My favourite author right now, in the Mann, Steinbeck, Ivo Andric mould.

Ha! Andre sighting! So nice to see you around again, my friend.

As for my current reading, as usual it's several books at the same time:

Ullman & Konemann's excellent coffee-table book on Romanesque architecture. Read half of it, then left it aside for long time, now picking it up from where I left it: early French Cluniac period.

It's very cheap, shouldn't be missed by those interested in architecture in some general manner.

Just Starting Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (in Serbian translation). My favorite American writer ( with Hemingway).

Serbian edition from 1961

Still reading Gyula Krudy's Szindbad stories. Short wistful, somewhat proustian stories about male-female relationships in fin-de-siecle Hungary. I read one or two of them when I'm in the mood so Serbian edition of complete stories (about 90 of them) should take me several months to finish.

English translation, selection of stories.

And last but not least, fresh of the press The Sugardust Star, a new book of poetry by a friend. She is a wonderful poet.

Title poem in English translation
http://trgnisepoezija.blogspot.com/2012/05/ana-seferovic.html

edit: horrible spelling, even more than usual.

[Bogey]

Ha! Andre sighting! So nice to see you around again, my friend.

As for my current reading, as usual it's several books at the same time:

Ullman & Konemann's excellent coffee-table book on Romanesque architecture. Read half of it, than left it aside for long time, now picking it up from where left it: early French Cluniac period.

Iit's very cheap, shouldn't be missed for those interested in architecture in some general manner.

Cool.

[Florestan]

Well, I am half way through the second book.  I am taking other suggestions after the third....may just continue with the Asimov run, but always like suggestions, especially for sci-fi, which I have read very little.

Try Frank Herbert's Dune cycle. Another classic winner.

[Bogey]

Try Frank Herbert's Dune cycle. Another classic winner.

Thanks, Florestan.

Just finished Naked Sun.  On to:



Should be interesting seeing that the previous two books were written in the 50's and this on in the 80's.  I have enjoyed Asimov's clarity of writing.  Very clean with his prose.

[Karl Henning]

About two-thirds through this. Very much enjoying it, but especially because I've watched the series prior to reading what the author has to say about each episode.

[asin]1879505096[/asin]

[Bogey]

About two-thirds through this. Very much enjoying it, but especially because I've watched the series prior to reading what the author has to say about each episode.

[asin]1879505096[/asin]

On my shelf downstairs I have a book that collected some of Serling's short stories.  Brilliant.  He is one of the greatest story tellers of our time, Karl....and I say that without reservation.

[Karl Henning]

Submitted for your approval, Bill. . . .

[Sergeant Rock]

I'm reading the biography of George Szell. An interesting fact from his youth: a child prodigy who began playing piano before he was potty trained and began composing shortly thereafter (he was likened to Mozart--aren't all prodigies?), he was the perfect little boy and son--until puberty hit with a vengeance and he turned rebellious. He was so incorrigible, his parents sent him away to be treated by Carl Jung. Jung failed. Szell came back home "quite unchanged but with a rich vocabulary of psychoanalytical terms to amuse his friends and exasperate his parents." 




Sarge

[Fëanor]

Currently I'm reading ...

Paul Krugman: End this Depression Now!



Another book everybody should read. Actually, I'm only about 1/2 way through at the moment, but I have confidently reached that conclusion.

If you know beans about Krugman, you'll know he's an unabashed Keynesian. So you'll know that he believes that the stimulus should have been much larger and longer sustained; you'll know that he would have preferred supporting states to keep public service workers on the payroll. And you'll know that he would have preferred much tougher conditions on the banks when the bailouts were handed out. (With hindsight, he says that the banks should have been placed in formal receivership.)

But if you're an anarcho-capitalist Ayn Rand devotee this book won't convince you. Likewise if you're Neo-classical a.k.a. "freshwater"  economist, you'll be in a state of full denial about the causes as well as the solutions to the current recession -- or depression, as Krugman identifies it based on account of what will happen if effective action isn't taken.

[Brian]

The Obamacare opinions. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a really interesting read.

[bwv 1080]

The first two chapters were interesting reading while waiting for jury duty

[Karl Henning]

The Obamacare opinions. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a really interesting read.

As a purely disinterested (but non-juridical) party, I am of the opinion that you are not crazy.

[DavidRoss]

The Obamacare opinions. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a really interesting read.

Yes. A badly cobbled together majority opinion authored by Roberts that will surely provide fodder for Con Law class discussions in law schools nationwide for many years to come, perhaps ranking with poor Harry Blackmun's Roe v Wade decision as one of the most convoluted and rationally vacuous opinions ever issued in such a significant case.

Interestingly (though utterly wrong) I thought Ginsburg's dissent to limiting Federal power much better argued from precedent, though completely missing the clear intent of the law. Yes, the Court has allowed the camel of unrestrained federal power to stick it's nose, head, forelegs, and middle into the nation's tent -- but that's no reason to allow it to get its ass in, too, and shit all over the place!

Congrats to you, Brian, for actually reading the opinion instead of just parroting whatever your chosen demagogue says about it! Available on the SCOTUS website, here http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf

[Fëanor]

The Obamacare opinions. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a really interesting read.

Taking a slightly distant, rational perspective, no law should be necessary to "command individuals to purchase insurance" because health care ought to be paid for from general tax revenues.  This is the case in many developed nations and those nations tend to have the most effective health care systems in terms of outcomes, and the most efficient health care systems in terms of % of GDP per resident.

[Karl Henning]

Re-reading David Copperfield on my Nook.

[Bogey]

Anyone read this author.  Here is his upcoming book:



December, 1942. Texas Ranger Virgil Tucker receives a plea for protection from Madeline Kimbell, a terrified young woman who witnessed a crime. Keeping Madeline safe from the men who want to hurt her turns out to be harder than he imagined. When a prominent attorney is murdered, Virgil is drawn into the dangerous world of the New Orleans Mafia as the top mob bosses try to take over  alveston's gambling empire. Chockfull of Southern charm, this book is perfect for fans of historical
mysteries and for anyone who loves Texas.

Just pulled the trigger on this one after enjoying Burton's Nights of the Red Moon.  (MN Dave, you "gotta" try this guy! and any others here that like "noir" and gritty crime reads without the gore factor.)

[ibanezmonster]

Great book.