What are you currently reading?

[mn dave]

Flashing Swords #2

[stingo]

Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey - Really good world-building, which is essential for a science fiction novel, and interesting characters too. The ending was a little weak for me in terms of how it unfolded, but it's still a fine piece of writing. In fact, I've started on the second book in the series - Shift.

So, currently reading:
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Shift by Hugh Howey
Mort by Terry Pratchett

[mn dave]

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

How is this book treating you?

[stingo]

How is this book treating you?

I quite like it. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and can tell it's basically setting up the chess board for the game to follow. Which is kind of funny considering it's a 600+ page book. I bought the 5 book omnibus Kindle edition so I have the other 4 ready to go when that one's done. As a side note, I've seen the first episode of the first season of the HBO series and the book and it are recognizably the same. I understand Martin has some creative control over what goes into the series, and he develops themes in it that he only hints at in the novels.

[Brian]

I understand Martin has some creative control over what goes into the series, and he develops themes in it that he only hints at in the novels.

He has in fact written entire episodes himself. (Not that I've read the books or seen the show.)

[stingo]

He has in fact written entire episodes himself. (Not that I've read the books or seen the show.)

Oh really? I didn't know that. Makes it all the more awesome I think.

[stingo]

I picked up a few books for my Kindle Paperwhite, including the Batman Chronicles Vol. I. I was curious to see how they'd handle a graphic format on the Kindle and was pleasantly surprised by how they got around it. It shows the page in full, then you can swipe through the individual panels.

As for Batman, it's interesting to see how far the character, lore and art style has progressed through the years.

[Wakefield]

The delightful Portraits From Memory and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell, recently downloaded (PDF) from the World Public Library: http://worldlibrary.org/default.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Portraits-Memory-Essays-Bertrand-Russell/dp/140674588X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391437713&sr=8-1&keywords=portraits+from+memory

[Wakefield]

Finished Russell, I've begun two new books:

A compilation of two books of essays by Nora Ephron: Crazy Salad (Some Things About Women) & Scribble Scribble (Notes on the Media) [New York: Vintage Books].

I have just read the first essay ("A Few Words About Breasts", May 1972), but I'm totally hooked:

My husband is fond of reminding me of the story of Moses, who kept the Israelites in the desert for forty years because he knew a slave generation could not found a new free society.

Its title (Crazy Salad) comes from an enigmatic verse by W.B. Yeats.

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Also a Spanish translation of the hypnotizing complete essays by Paul Auster:

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[Florestan]

spot.colorado.edu/~pasnau/seminar/berlin.pdf

[mn dave]

On my iPad, I'm reading Storm Over Warlock, a 1960 sf novel by Andre Norton.

Enjoying it so far and the price was right: FREE.

[Fëanor]

Gore Vidal: Creation

A highly entertaining and, in many respects, historically accurate historical novel set in the reigns Persian "Great Kings", Darius I and Xerxes I.  Chief protagonist, Cyrus Spitima is the supposed grandson of Zoroaster.  He travels far & wide as ambassador of the Great King and gets to meet Pericles, Socrates, Ajatasatru, the Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tsu, and Confucius about whom he forms a few conclusions.  A great read -- go for it.

[mn dave]

Sounds good!

[kishnevi]

Gore Vidal: Creation

A highly entertaining and, in many respects, historically accurate historical novel set in the reigns Persian "Great Kings", Darius I and Xerxes I.  Chief protagonist, Cyrus Spitima is the supposed grandson of Zoroaster.  He travels far & wide as ambassador of the Great King and gets to meet Pericles, Socrates, Ajatasatru, the Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tsu, and Confucius about whom he forms a few conclusions.  A great read -- go for it.

I've not read all of Vidal's novels--mainly Burr and the other novels centering on 19th century America--and find what I did read to be high quality but not enjoyable stuff I would want to re-read--except for this one.  Creation is the one Vidal novel I actually like (and one of the few American novels written in my lifetime that I like, as well).

I should mention that while most of the background details have sound scholarship behind them,  Zoroaster himself is now believed to have lived at least a few centuries before the Persian Empire came into existence, and several of the worthies Cyrus Spitama meets in the novel, while they all lived in the same century, were spaced far enough apart in time that a real life Cyrus would have met only some of them on his travels.  (Scholars are not even sure if Lao Tzu existed!)

[Fëanor]

I've not read all of Vidal's novels--mainly Burr and the other novels centering on 19th century America--and find what I did read to be high quality but not enjoyable stuff I would want to re-read--except for this one.  Creation is the one Vidal novel I actually like (and one of the few American novels written in my lifetime that I like, as well).

I should mention that while most of the background details have sound scholarship behind them,  Zoroaster himself is now believed to have lived at least a few centuries before the Persian Empire came into existence, and several of the worthies Cyrus Spitama meets in the novel, while they all lived in the same century, were spaced far enough apart in time that a real life Cyrus would have met only some of them on his travels.  (Scholars are not even sure if Lao Tzu existed!)

Not being the literati I wish I were, I've only read Creation and Julian the Apostate by Vidal  I started on Burr but didn't get to0 far with it.  (I am inclined to dry-eyes and eye strain nowadays and must ration my reading.)

Yes, I believe what you say is quite correct as to the actual historical circumstances.  Yet it's true that, coincidentally or otherwise, the religious leaders in question lived (or supposedly lived) within the span of just a few centuries of each other.

[Fëanor]

On my iPad, I'm reading Storm Over Warlock, a 1960 sf novel by Andre Norton.

Enjoying it so far and the price was right: FREE.

Indeed, the price was right.  Sometimes you get what you pay for.  I read some Norton in my time -- but that was long ago.

[Florestan]

The Liberalism/Conservatism Of Edmund Burke and F. A. Hayek: A Critical Comparison

Now, that whole website is a treasure trove of interesting articles.

[Daverz]

Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White, from Project Gutenberg.  Were people in the 19th Century really this thick?  Oh well, I will perservere for a bit longer.

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Bought after reading the sample.  Fun techno SF so far.

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A cheap used hardback of an old edition.

The bane of generations of math students, but I appreciate the insights of Strang's opinionated writing.

[mn dave]

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I hear good things. Have ordered it myself.

[Todd]

A few chapters into Mr Republican, the detailed and thorough biography of Robert Taft, the most accomplished of the third generation of the political dynasty that started with his grandfather Alphonso (Secretary of War for Grant) and as recently as 2007 included an Ohio governor.  Patterson's writing is concise and informative, and thus far Taft is depicted as a smart but somewhat inflexible soul, at least politically, though he was also actually principled, and not purely pragmatic.  This rather explains his stance against the Nuremburg trials on the grounds they were antithetical to concepts such as no use of ex post facto laws and the undeniable fact that the trials were show trials with mostly preordained outcomes.  Even JFK couldn't help but single this out for praise.  He also wasn't a big fan of Wall Street, though when one is named Taft, attends the Taft School (!) before going to Yale and Harvard, and has doors opened because of a rather, um, influential, father, I suppose one can be choosier than most.  Still, for the faults I've read about thus far, the ones I will read about, and the ones I already know about, it would be nice to have some more serious politicians of this type.  This book also makes me want to get a bio of William Howard Taft post-haste.