Author Topic: What are you READING right now?  (Read 762400 times)

TempusFugit

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1150 on: May 03, 2018, 04:29:22 PM »
The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, about Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 trip to South America that almost killed him.

I read this one a couple years ago and found it fascinating.  It's something most of us never knew about one of our most celebrated presidents.   

Have you read the Edmund Morris biographies (3) of Roosevelt?   Those are great. 

TR was a unique man with a vitality that we just don't encounter much.  He was a bit of a warmonger, to be sure, but he was always sincere in his proclamations, as evidenced by his actions. 

Tyson

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1151 on: May 04, 2018, 12:25:19 PM »
Just finished the Brothers Karamazov after FOUR MONTHS. Geez, that book.  I thought Crime and Punishment was delightful in its perambulations and even long diatribes.  By the end, I actually really loved that book.  But the BK - just too too much.

Starting Buddhist Boot Camp, and I'm already irritated with its 2.25 pages long chapters.  Feels like a lot of filler with not enough depth.  Hopefully there are a couple chapters that just speak to me, but so far it just seems super superficial.  I've forgotten everything in the prior chapter before I even finish the subsequent one.  And with them all being so short, that's pretty bad!

BK is great, if you read it with a condescending tone and a slight British accent.  It shifts the tone from "wow these people are really awful" to "Oh my, look at all these silly people, how quaint".

The other thing I find reading things from this time period:  The social customs are so ridiculous and archaic, I often find myself rooting for the villains (or other rabble rousers) because they are the only ones willing to actually transgress these ridiculous norms. 

lizzzi

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1152 on: May 04, 2018, 12:29:50 PM »
I'm reading Oliver Wiswell, published in 1940. It's one of Kenneth Roberts books about early America. This one shows the American Revolution from a Loyalist viewpoint. Very interesting.

Noodle

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1153 on: May 09, 2018, 08:36:17 AM »
Just finished an older book by Gary Paulsen, Winterdance, about his experience training for and running his first Iditarod. At the time he had a lot of experience as an outdoorsman in winter conditions, some experience working with sled dogs (but not racing them), and very little experience with Alaska. (The book was written in the early 1990s but takes place in the early 1980s, when the Iditarod was only about ten years old and much more casually managed than it is today).

There are some very adventurous passages, but also some very funny ones, especially during the training sequences. My favorite was when he lost control of the dog team on the way out of Anchorage to start the race and ended up going through someone's backyard with a full dog team, dog sled and musher.

sui generis

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1154 on: May 09, 2018, 09:47:05 AM »
I'm reading Oliver Wiswell, published in 1940. It's one of Kenneth Roberts books about early America. This one shows the American Revolution from a Loyalist viewpoint. Very interesting.

This sounds really interesting!  Will you update with a rec/no rec after finishing?  I'm tempted to add to my list, but my list is so long, I'm trying to be more strict.

Speaking of my list, I was just going through it the other day to add a new pile to my library holds and I'm discovering that so many of the books on my list aren't available through either of the two city libraries I currently have access to on either Kindle or audio!  I'm really shocked!  I guess they aren't going back to older books (unless they are real classics) to get those licenses and mostly only doing it for newer books.  Even The Left Hand of Darkness (LeGuin), which I think is pretty famous, is not available from either library except in hard copy.  I'm going to start having to read hard copies again?  This is unfortunate for my BF because I read before sleeping and with my kindle, I don't need to have a light on.  I have fond memories of book lights from when I was young, but I really don't want to have to buy one again.

Noodle

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1155 on: May 09, 2018, 10:39:22 AM »
Do your libraries have access to any of the other e-book services such as Hoopla? I have found that older books are often found on the other services. I believe that the pricing works differently--that with OverDrive/Kindle libraries pay by the book (so they have to be choosy about what their patrons may like or read) but with Hoopla or Axis 360 everyone gets access to the same library but the library determines how many books per month you can check out (which is what their fee is based on.) One of the librarians on here may have a clearer explanation. LeGuin seems like a pretty major author to be skipped over, though!

sui generis

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1156 on: May 09, 2018, 10:47:14 AM »
Huh, I actually didn't know that about the different business models between Overdrive and Hoopla/Axis.  I really didn't like Hoopla's UI/playback quality when I tried it.  It's been a few years, so hard to remember now, but I distinctly remember switching to Overdrive and never looking back.  So yes, I have definitely seen Axis and Hoopla versions available of various titles, although I always go for the Overdrive version, which does seem more widely available anyway when I search, IIRC.  I don't think I've ever had to face a situation where it was Hoopla/Axis or nothing.  But I'll have to look into those other platforms again and look more carefully for their availability.

chaskavitch

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1157 on: May 09, 2018, 11:01:47 AM »
Huh, I actually didn't know that about the different business models between Overdrive and Hoopla/Axis.  I really didn't like Hoopla's UI/playback quality when I tried it.  It's been a few years, so hard to remember now, but I distinctly remember switching to Overdrive and never looking back.  So yes, I have definitely seen Axis and Hoopla versions available of various titles, although I always go for the Overdrive version, which does seem more widely available anyway when I search, IIRC.  I don't think I've ever had to face a situation where it was Hoopla/Axis or nothing.  But I'll have to look into those other platforms again and look more carefully for their availability.

For audiobooks, Hoopla's playback is significantly quieter than Overdrive.  I don't know why.

sui generis

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1158 on: May 09, 2018, 11:11:31 AM »
I think I'm remembering one thing I didn't like about Hoopla at the time.  It regularly got "stuck" while playing a book - which makes me think I was streaming them instead of downloading files?  In fact, I specifically remember it would happen most often when I was walking out the door to work, like because it was switching from streaming on my wifi to data.  Ah the good ol' days of unlimited data and streaming everything.  I switched podcast apps years ago and of course only download everything and only when on wifi, and this seems to be the default for Overdrive.  But I don't remember as clearly with Hoopla and have no idea about Axis.  But I assume, whatever the case was 3 years or so ago when I used it, it definitely actually downloads files now, right?  I definitely can't be streaming when I listen. 

Would it be too much of a hijack to ask other folks' opinions on Hoopla/Axis and optimization techniques for using the apps?

Noodle

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1159 on: May 09, 2018, 02:44:34 PM »
I can't speak to audiobooks, but I like the interfaces for print books just fine...and Hoopla is the only way to get graphic novels on my tablet from my libraries, which I really appreciate. I honestly prefer print books for graphic novels because the pages are bigger, but it's great for a series the library doesn't own or (more frequently) is missing volumes from in print. For a long time Hoopla didn't have an app for the various streaming boxes so I haven't used it for video, but I just found out they have an Apple TV app!

If you haven't used some of the non-Overdrive services for awhile, it might be worth checking them out again as the apps are always being updated.

Warlord1986

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1160 on: May 24, 2018, 07:01:27 AM »
'The Historian' by Elizabeth Kostova. And 'The Worlds of Medieval Europe,' which is an old textbook from my undergrad days. I enjoyed it the first time around and I'm enjoying it now.

MedEvac Finance

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1161 on: May 27, 2018, 04:55:09 PM »
the 4 hour work week by tim ferris

just finished a dance of dragons (5th game of thrones book) so looking for different motivational books while we all wait on the 6th

OtherJen

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1162 on: May 27, 2018, 11:02:27 PM »
The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure, who appears to have been even more obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder than I ever was. It’s a fun read, and I was happy to find an e-reader copy through the library.

Warlord1986

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1163 on: May 28, 2018, 11:42:39 AM »
'The Historian' by Elizabeth Kostova

Dracula, and pretty descriptions of the Balkans. :) And Istanbul, which is on my bucket list.

chaskavitch

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1164 on: May 29, 2018, 06:28:49 AM »
the 4 hour work week by tim ferris

just finished a dance of dragons (5th game of thrones book) so looking for different motivational books while we all wait on the 6th

You're going to need a lot of motivational books to make it that long, both to fill up the time and for the fortitude to continue waiting.  I'm fairly convinced GRRM is going to die before he finishes the next one.

I just finished re-reading the first three books of The Expanse.  I have read all but the most recently released book, and I always enjoy them.  The show is not terrible, either, and Amazon just picked it up for a 4th season.

davisgang90

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1165 on: May 29, 2018, 06:40:20 AM »
I'm reading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  I figured since I enjoy the board game so much I should try reading the novel that inspired it.  Pretty good so far.
Great book!  I've actually read it a couple times.

davisgang90

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1166 on: May 29, 2018, 06:42:30 AM »
Recently read

Ace Atkins: The Ranger, now reading the next book The Lost Ones.

Also working through Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

nkt0

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1167 on: May 29, 2018, 06:47:38 AM »
The Beekeeper by Dunya Mikhail.

Amazing acts of heroism told through interviews with a beekeeper on the Iraq/Syria border.

Malaysia41

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1168 on: June 01, 2018, 03:47:33 AM »
@rab and @tyort1 - Harari is an excellent writer and great anthropologist/sociologist.  I throughly enjoyed both books, very thought provoking ideas in both books.

@Malaysia41 - Present at the Creation by Dean Acheson is going on my reading list, thanks.

right on :).

Tyson

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1169 on: June 01, 2018, 12:41:33 PM »
I like to alternate fiction and non-fiction, so after finishing Sapiens a while back, I've been slowly working my way through The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. 

What's crazy about Chaucer is how much he directly influenced later authors.  There's a ton of Shakespeare in there, especially.  I also have to say that the translation I'm reading (by Nevill Coghill) is exceptional and very modern. 

Reader

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1170 on: June 05, 2018, 06:47:38 AM »
I like to alternate fiction and non-fiction, so after finishing Sapiens a while back, I've been slowly working my way through The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

is Sapiens worth reading?

Davnasty

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1171 on: June 05, 2018, 07:23:08 AM »
Seize the Daylight by David Prerau

Never realized how much controversy and debate there was surrounding the use of DST. Does a good job of explaining the whys and the hows and also the many instances of conflicting clocks, particularly in the US with so much distance between cities.

I never even realized the time zones weren't introduced in the US until 1883. Before that they used "sun time" so the time in every town varied to some degree.

ditkanate

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1172 on: June 05, 2018, 07:58:53 AM »
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovski

Tyson

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1173 on: June 05, 2018, 08:08:55 AM »
I like to alternate fiction and non-fiction, so after finishing Sapiens a while back, I've been slowly working my way through The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

is Sapiens worth reading?

Yes, it was quite good.  I personally felt that the author romanticized the whole hunter/gatherer existence too much.  But other than that it was a great sweeping history of our species.

Reader

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1174 on: June 05, 2018, 10:36:20 AM »
is Sapiens worth reading?

Yes, it was quite good.  I personally felt that the author romanticized the whole hunter/gatherer existence too much.  But other than that it was a great sweeping history of our species.

thanks! will put it on my reading list.

Warlord1986

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1175 on: June 06, 2018, 09:38:48 AM »
"A Veil of Spears' by Bradley Beaulieu. Beaulieu is kind of wordy, but he spins a good yarn. Also, I'm doing the 'I got it from the library' happy dance. Let there be dancey-dancey!

kpd905

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1176 on: June 08, 2018, 09:38:28 PM »
I just started reading the Mistborn books by Brandon Sanderson.  It is probably my first fantasy book, I usually read sci-fi.  I am really liking it so far, wondering if I'll get sucked into a whole new genre.

Luke Warm

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1177 on: June 11, 2018, 08:53:41 AM »
just finished 'call of the wild'. started 'the pale king' by david foster wallace.

Samuel

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1178 on: June 11, 2018, 09:39:21 AM »
Now I am reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut for 2nd time
I love this book

Oooh. Good one. Time for a re-read. I have a trip coming up and I find Vonnegut to be excellent airplane reading.


I had a couple library ebook holds come through at the same time so I'm simultaneously trying to get through "Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment", "Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts" (by professional poker player and former PhD student in cognitive psychology Annie Duke), and "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac McCarthy.

Stalling a bit on the Blood Meridian but the other 2 are really fascinating.

Luke Warm

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1179 on: June 11, 2018, 09:41:44 AM »
blood meridian is a hard read.

des999

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1180 on: June 11, 2018, 03:38:02 PM »
just finished Principles/Ray Dalio (the book, not the pdf) - enjoyed learning his background/story

just put a hold at library on Sidartha/Hermann Hesse

anyone read it?  I have seen it recommended a number of times, thought I'd try it out.

Also, to poster up, I read Sapiens a couple months ago, not an easy read, but very thought provoking, worth checking out.


cavewoman

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1181 on: June 11, 2018, 05:13:31 PM »
Siddhartha is in my house from a thrift store haul a few years back - I still haven't read it.  A couple of guests have though! 

Currently reading The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin, book one of a series.  It was harder to get into than I thought, but it has really picked up about 30% in.  I think I got the rec of Jemisin from this thread, and thoroughly enjoyed the Inheritance Trilogy.

Also recently blew through all of the Expanse Series books (but not the novellas yet!).  Got my husband to admit it will be years before he reads them and that we should start watching the show :)

lizzzi

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1182 on: June 11, 2018, 05:47:33 PM »
After I finished Oliver Wiswell, I read two more of Kenneth Roberts's books--Arundel, and March to Quebec. The first title is a novel with some fictional and some real characters who participated in Benedict Arnold's mission from Maine to Quebec during the American Revolution.  The second book is a compilation of the journals of those who participated on the march--so one fiction and one non-fiction on the same subject. After I finished those two, I started on Rabble in Arms, which is mostly about the efforts to stop Burgoyne from coming down from Canada, cutting the new United States in two and joining  Howe in New York.  These books were written in the 1930s and 1940s, and are great reading if you like the period. Better than anything anybody is writing today, and more historically accurate--very balanced views of both sides. Lots of well-drawn characters--and full of fascinating Native American lore, too.

sui generis

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1183 on: June 11, 2018, 09:34:30 PM »

Currently reading The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin, book one of a series.  It was harder to get into than I thought, but it has really picked up about 30% in.  I think I got the rec of Jemisin from this thread, and thoroughly enjoyed the Inheritance Trilogy.

Interesting..I could not get into the Broken Earth trilogy of hers, though I desperately wanted to love a female author of this genre.  I read two of them and am not pursuing the third.  I wonder if the Inheritance Trilogy is easier to get into?

I read Siddhartha as a teen and didn't get it at all.  Definitely need to re-read that.

Anyone else read/reading North Water?  Apparently very popular historical fiction/thriller.  I just got it on my kindle an my online "Women adventure books" book club is reading it this month, so it was fortuitous timing.

plainjane

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1184 on: June 13, 2018, 10:14:21 AM »

Currently reading The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin, book one of a series.  It was harder to get into than I thought, but it has really picked up about 30% in.  I think I got the rec of Jemisin from this thread, and thoroughly enjoyed the Inheritance Trilogy.

Interesting..I could not get into the Broken Earth trilogy of hers, though I desperately wanted to love a female author of this genre.  I read two of them and am not pursuing the third.  I wonder if the Inheritance Trilogy is easier to get into?

It depends on why you weren't able to get into Broken Earth. Inheritance is less bleak? A more traditional fantasy setting with court intrigue.

Have you tried Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series? Oh, Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys if you are interested in a reworking of the Lovecraft mythos.

I'm more into the sf atm. So if you think of SF and fantasy in the same breath - Martha Well's _All Systems Red_ is a fun novella. Emma Newman's _After Atlas_ is a near future dystopia. Ann Leckie's _Ancillary Justice_ was one of the best sf books of the past decade imo. Mur Lafferty's _Six Wakes_ I've mentioned here before as a closed room murder mystery on a spaceship with clones.

I just finished reading A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge - which like so many of her other books is a wonderful fantasy YA novel.

Noodle

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1185 on: June 13, 2018, 10:49:12 AM »
Currently reading The Great Library trilogy by Rachel Caine. I think it is technically YA but the characters don't feel much like teens. It's an alternate history where the Great Library of Alexandria was never destroyed but instead became an international center of power. It's set in the 21st century but the technology is run by alchemy and steam rather than electricity so it feels like an earlier historical period. One reason I'm enjoying it is that the Library is presented as both good and evil, as are its opponents.

mm1970

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1186 on: August 08, 2018, 02:58:18 PM »
Currently reading "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stephenson.

Gosh this country depresses me.

sui generis

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1187 on: August 08, 2018, 04:10:25 PM »
Currently reading "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stephenson.

Gosh this country depresses me.
Oh, that's by the EJI founder!  They are one of my top monthly donation recipients.  Just thinking about the memorial they built makes me choke up.  I don't know if I have the strength of character to visit it in person.  I didn't know there was a book by him, somehow, but it is now added to my list!  Thanks!

I (finally) just read Ender's Game.  Possibly the last person on earth to read it?  I didn't love it most of the way through, but I admired the ending a lot.

I'm currently reading Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood.  Her short stories (and some of her longer ones!) disorient me and I feel like I'm not really fully "getting it" all the time and feel a little uncomfortable with them. But I do mostly enjoy them and feel like I'm doing something valuable by just exposing myself to them, feeling slightly uncomfortable and not fully getting them.  Maybe if I keep doing it I'll get it someday, or maybe it's just good to feel uncertain and uncomfortable with some stuff.

TempusFugit

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1188 on: August 08, 2018, 05:26:36 PM »
Golden Argosy various
The End is Nigh   various
The Truce  Primo Levi
Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman
Great Expectations  by Dickens

Several books have been slow progress and I'm working through them in parallel as I sit at restaurants, wait in line, etc via my kindle app.   Couple are physical books that I settle in with at night.

re: Dickens, I'm convinced that high school ruins classic literature for many of us because being forced to read something before you have the maturity to appreciate it is counterproductive.  Not to mention the vocabulary, particularly the terms for things that do not exist in our modern world, can be frustrating.  Being older and having been exposed to period movies and such, makes it much less of an obstacle. 

Going back and reading (or re-reading) some of the classics can be a much more enjoyable experience.

But I still hate Grapes of Wrath with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns and will never open that book again. 

Will

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1189 on: August 08, 2018, 05:55:31 PM »
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier since jlcollins likes it so much.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2018, 09:49:14 PM by Will »

Tyson

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1190 on: August 08, 2018, 07:49:18 PM »
Infinite Jest - about 100 pages in.  It might be a while before I finish, it's 1100 pages long!  And dense prose, not even close to light reading. 

Its very rare that I read a book and think "whoah, this dude is freaking smart".  But yeah, this dude is crazy smart.  And with a wicked sense of humor. 

chaskavitch

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1191 on: August 12, 2018, 06:45:44 AM »
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier since jlcollins likes it so much.

We just watched the movie again, and DH apparently completely forgot the ending?  I don't know how that happens with a story like this.  I also didn't know there was a book, now I'll have to read it :)

re: Dickens, I'm convinced that high school ruins classic literature for many of us because being forced to read something before you have the maturity to appreciate it is counterproductive.  Not to mention the vocabulary, particularly the terms for things that do not exist in our modern world, can be frustrating.  Being older and having been exposed to period movies and such, makes it much less of an obstacle. 

Going back and reading (or re-reading) some of the classics can be a much more enjoyable experience.

But I still hate Grapes of Wrath with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns and will never open that book again. 


This sounds right.  There are a lot of books that I read in HS and remember hating (for example, Wuthering Heights, Ethan Frome, and yes, Grapes of Wrath) that would probably make a lot more sense now.  I should probably stop my YA streak and read a real novel again.

LennStar

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1192 on: August 12, 2018, 07:25:28 AM »
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier since jlcollins likes it so much.

We just watched the movie again, and DH apparently completely forgot the ending?  I don't know how that happens with a story like this.  I also didn't know there was a book, now I'll have to read it :)

re: Dickens, I'm convinced that high school ruins classic literature for many of us because being forced to read something before you have the maturity to appreciate it is counterproductive.  Not to mention the vocabulary, particularly the terms for things that do not exist in our modern world, can be frustrating.  Being older and having been exposed to period movies and such, makes it much less of an obstacle. 

Going back and reading (or re-reading) some of the classics can be a much more enjoyable experience.

But I still hate Grapes of Wrath with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns and will never open that book again. 


This sounds right.  There are a lot of books that I read in HS and remember hating (for example, Wuthering Heights, Ethan Frome, and yes, Grapes of Wrath) that would probably make a lot more sense now.  I should probably stop my YA streak and read a real novel again.

It is not oinly the age, it is also the difference of "must" and "want".

I - as a guy! - even read Pride and Prejudice. But it took me two or three month. It wasn't THAT bad a book because I could take breakes ;)
In school in two weeks instead? And then "talking about what your think" or even worse "what you feel", at age 16? :D

Proud Foot

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1193 on: August 12, 2018, 07:56:50 AM »
It is not oinly the age, it is also the difference of "must" and "want".

I - as a guy! - even read Pride and Prejudice. But it took me two or three month. It wasn't THAT bad a book because I could take breakes ;)
In school in two weeks instead? And then "talking about what your think" or even worse "what you feel", at age 16? :D

This so much!! I had to take 2 semesters of Civ in college and hated the books we had to read.  I kept all of them and have read some since and enjoyed them. In addition to the "talking about what you think" or "what you feel" I hated the whole allegory parts where the professor is saying "this is what the author meant by this". Unless the author has a companion book explaining all this, how do you know? Also my reading style and preference is not to try to interpret the author's meaning.

ETA: Currently reading "Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers" by Nick Offerman
« Last Edit: August 12, 2018, 08:00:17 AM by Proud Foot »

TempusFugit

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1194 on: August 12, 2018, 10:05:05 AM »


We just watched the movie again, and DH apparently completely forgot the ending?  I don't know how that happens with a story like this.  I also didn't know there was a book, now I'll have to read it :)

re: Dickens, I'm convinced that high school ruins classic literature for many of us because being forced to read something before you have the maturity to appreciate it is counterproductive.  Not to mention the vocabulary, particularly the terms for things that do not exist in our modern world, can be frustrating.  Being older and having been exposed to period movies and such, makes it much less of an obstacle. 

Going back and reading (or re-reading) some of the classics can be a much more enjoyable experience.

But I still hate Grapes of Wrath with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns and will never open that book again. 


This sounds right.  There are a lot of books that I read in HS and remember hating (for example, Wuthering Heights, Ethan Frome, and yes, Grapes of Wrath) that would probably make a lot more sense now.  I should probably stop my YA streak and read a real novel again.

It is not oinly the age, it is also the difference of "must" and "want".

I - as a guy! - even read Pride and Prejudice. But it took me two or three month. It wasn't THAT bad a book because I could take breakes ;)
In school in two weeks instead? And then "talking about what your think" or even worse "what you feel", at age 16? :D



It probably didn't help that I read Grapes of Wrath in basically one weekend.  I procrastinated a lot on that one.  And my teacher at the time specifically warned us that her questions on the test would not be found in any Cliff's Notes or film adaptations.   She asked things like "what color were Tom's shoes?"  (yellow)  and "What did the sign in the store window say?" (caveat emptor). 

As much as I hate GoW to this day, I will say this:  I happened upon a slight little book by Steinbeck a few years ago called Travels with Charlie which is a non-fiction account of his cross country road trip in 1960 accompanied by his dog Charlie.  At a breezy 200ish pages, I can recommend this one to others without hesitation. 

LennStar

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1195 on: August 12, 2018, 01:01:46 PM »
Unless the author has a companion book explaining all this, how do you know?
Haha, yes!

It is a real and true trope that authors are always surprised by what they were thinking when writing something - according to critics and such like readers who have never talked a word to the author.

Quote
her questions on the test would not be found in any Cliff's Notes or film adaptations.   She asked things like "what color were Tom's shoes?"  (yellow)  and "What did the sign in the store window say?" (caveat emptor).

Ugh. I probably would never be able to remember those things.

Cressida

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1196 on: August 12, 2018, 01:42:58 PM »
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier since jlcollins likes it so much.

We just watched the movie again, and DH apparently completely forgot the ending?  I don't know how that happens with a story like this.  I also didn't know there was a book, now I'll have to read it :)

ha. I would certainly never forget that ending.
Spoiler: show
The "her lover dies but it's OK because she gets a kid out of it" trope does not resonate with me.

Noodle

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1197 on: August 13, 2018, 09:45:08 AM »
Unless the author has a companion book explaining all this, how do you know?
Haha, yes!

It is a real and true trope that authors are always surprised by what they were thinking when writing something - according to critics and such like readers who have never talked a word to the author.


In high school I had a teacher who was a  poet--successful enough that she had some poems printed in a textbook of regional literature meant for high school students. She said she was extremely surprised to discover what her poems were about!

I also had the experience that reading classics was more successful after the high school and college period. Somehow, I never read any Jane Austen until I was in my mid-twenties! For me, a big part of the enjoyment was finding connections (or contrasts) between my 21st-century life and the experiences depicted by authors in very different times and places, and I needed a little more life experience myself before I was ready for that.

I have actually read that many college English professors would really prefer that high school English classes work on writing (which a lot of students are deficient in) and practice analysis on contemporary literature and leave the classic literature to them, because they spend so much time dealing with students who either didn't understand what they read or developed a dislike for it, but I suppose high school teachers are thinking that their classes may be the only chance for some students to develop cultural literacy in these works. 

TempusFugit

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1198 on: August 13, 2018, 04:49:56 PM »
...I suppose high school teachers are thinking that their classes may be the only chance for some students to develop cultural literacy in these works.

I think one could argue that it would be best if they attempted to just get students to enjoy reading. Almost anything. Instead, I'm afraid we too often get kids who now hate reading because their exposure was to books that are not for them. 

I heard Kevin Kelly interviewed once (author and founder of Wired magazine, a neat dude if you read up on him) where his final piece of advice to everyone listening was "If you don't already, read at least ten books each year. They can be about anything.  It will change your life."

I can't imagine life without reading.  We've all heard the quote about cowards dying a thousands deaths, where the brave man dies only once. 

I think - and perhaps I've read this someplace, I don't know - that people who don't read live only one life, but readers live many.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: What are you READING right now?
« Reply #1199 on: August 14, 2018, 12:05:00 PM »
Just finished reading "The Dry" by Jane Harper. Thought it was fantastic.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!