What are you READING right now?

[Tyson]

Next up is the big one, the one I've been avoiding reading my whole adult life - The Bible.  As I'm from the South, a bunch of it has seeped into me just through osmosis.  But it'll be good to read the source, directly.  So that way I can know with greater precision exactly what I am rejecting.  Ha, but it won't be a short read - probably 6 months, or longer!

Tyson, just felt compelled to chime in on this one.  As a believer it always pains me to see this type of attempt to "understand" the Bible.  Likely what I will share will not do much, but will share/offer just the same.

The Bible is not a book that will make a lot of sense by just reading it.  It does therefore make it easy to proof text and look for where things seem to not align or seem to contradict other portions and build up that rejection, or to focus on passages that are offensive in today's culture.  Whether you believe or not is something that is between you and the God it seems you reject, but if you did ever want to engage in a bit of discussion, I have had several conversation with several other atheists/non-believers/whatever your variation that I was told were appreciated for their reasoned approach and lack of bible thumping, including some on this forum.  You can always PM me with questions if you'd like.  Just offering in case you do want to explore or understand what the other side sees in a specific area.

As an additional point if you do get through the Bible in 6 months you will have gotten through much faster than most, so can feel accomplished for that, as a year long Bible reading plan is pretty brisk.  Keep in mind there are over 1,000 chapters so even a year means a pace of around 3 chapters a day.

One can never prove the Bible is false for the simple reason that you can't prove a negative.  With things like the bible and other religions, you can't ever get rid of them, you can only replace them with better stories or better explanations.  After struggling with the issue almost my entire life, I've finally gotten to where I have a whole lot of better stories (for me), and the reading of the bible is really my last act of due diligence before cutting ties completely. 

If you're telling me the bible can't be understood by a generally well read, intelligent person, then that's too bad.  But it's not going to stop me.  I'll do my own reading and form my own opinions. 

I won't reply after this because otherwise it would veer into a religious discussion and I simply refuse to do that in this thread.  If you want to talk about it more, PM is best. 

[sui generis]

Just finished Gloria Steinem's Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions.  Still applicable.  More intersectional than I expected. Now going to read a thriller, And Then She Was Gone which will be a light-hearted break from political reading.

[horsepoor]

About two chapters in to The Butchering Art, centered on Joseph Lister's advances in surgery via antiseptic practices.  So far well-written and interesting.

[koshtra]

Just finished Postwar by Tony Judt.  It was pretty incredible.  It explained a huge swath of what happened to Europe, both east and west, to get us to our current point.  At almost 900 pages it's not a short read, but I can say that the prose and writing was excellent and always engaging.  Highly recommended.

Thanks @Tyson !  Finished it last week, and it really helps give a high-level picture. (Also, it's weird to be old enough to able to read magisterial histories, now, of times that I lived through as an adult! Yikes.)

[Wrenchturner]

Starting the Wealth of Nations.   Should take two or three months.

Seems fairly accessible so far despite being written in 1776.

[BuffaloStache]

Just started reading a book called Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson. It's the only real sci-fi book on many ofBill Gates' favorite books lists. So far so good.

Also, related, my goal for last year was to read 12 books. I'm proud to report that I read 14!

[sui generis]

I just started Dawn by Octavia Butler.  I'm not a huge sci-fi aficionado, but I've read my share and have cherished the best of them.  So far I'm really loving this one.  I hope I'm not jinxing it, but it's fascinating from the start and I don't want to put it down!

[horsepoor]

About 20% into The Poisoner's Handbook, which is about the beginning of forensic science in New York in the 1920's.  Very interesting so far.

[BicycleB]

Just finished William Gibson's new book, Agency. Possibly a tiny bit too preachy at the end. But sleek, intriguing, well done.

Stubs! Old klept! AI! Competitive control areas! Will we see the jackpot?

[TempusFugit]

Just started reading a book called Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson. It's the only real sci-fi book on many ofBill Gates' favorite books lists. So far so good.

Also, related, my goal for last year was to read 12 books. I'm proud to report that I read 14!

I found it very entertaining.   I like most of Stephenson's books, but this is one of my favorites. 

[MonkeyJenga]

I'm a third of the way through Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. No surprise as a former Harry Potter lover, I. Am. INTO IT.

[sui generis]

I'm a third of the way through Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. No surprise as a former Harry Potter lover, I. Am. INTO IT.

oooh, added to my list!

Speaking of list, do any of you use some app or just system generally to keep your to-read book list?  I have like 3 or 4 going right now and need to consolidate, but none of them are ideal.  I keep some on goodreads which is convenient, but I can't make notes there about how the book was recommended to me or other things.  Also goodreads is generally ok on my phone but super buggy in a browser.
I also have a list on a simple google doc where I do keep notes, but it's a mess.  And one of the 3 libraries that I get books on also has a list function that I've sometimes used.  Where I should I consolidate my lists to?

[MonkeyJenga]

I'm a third of the way through Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. No surprise as a former Harry Potter lover, I. Am. INTO IT.

oooh, added to my list!

Speaking of list, do any of you use some app or just system generally to keep your to-read book list?  I have like 3 or 4 going right now and need to consolidate, but none of them are ideal.  I keep some on goodreads which is convenient, but I can't make notes there about how the book was recommended to me or other things.  Also goodreads is generally ok on my phone but super buggy in a browser.
I also have a list on a simple google doc where I do keep notes, but it's a mess.  And one of the 3 libraries that I get books on also has a list function that I've sometimes used.  Where I should I consolidate my lists to?

Hope you enjoy it too!

Goodreads does have a private notes section, but you might need to be in the browser to use it. I've got library and goodreads lists, but I'm not too worried about consolidating everything perfectly. I've got more books than I can possibly get to on both.

[Noodle]

I'm a third of the way through Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. No surprise as a former Harry Potter lover, I. Am. INTO IT.

oooh, added to my list!

Speaking of list, do any of you use some app or just system generally to keep your to-read book list?  I have like 3 or 4 going right now and need to consolidate, but none of them are ideal.  I keep some on goodreads which is convenient, but I can't make notes there about how the book was recommended to me or other things.  Also goodreads is generally ok on my phone but super buggy in a browser.
I also have a list on a simple google doc where I do keep notes, but it's a mess.  And one of the 3 libraries that I get books on also has a list function that I've sometimes used.  Where I should I consolidate my lists to?

I use a Google spreadsheet. Different pages for books available at a couple different libraries, on my bookshelves at home, on my Kindle, through Interlibrary Loan, etc. Also pages for books that I have finished, or don't want to read now but might someday. I bookmark promising books in Chrome and then every so often go through and transfer things that look interesting to the spreadsheet.

[sui generis]

Currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun, which is awesome so far and really interesting (/depressing), since I knew next to nothing about the modern history of Nigeria before this. 

Also listening to The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle which seems like fun so far, but I'm only 1/16th into it.  I'm going around saying Eeeeeeve-lyn in my head right now (nice to have the audiobook for the accent - the reader seems pretty good so far)...in America we usually say Eh-ve-lyn.

[sui generis]

Now moving on to There There by Tommy Orange, which I am ripping through. Fascinating.

[Warlord1986]

The Illiad.

Paris was a little bitch.

[Tyson]

The Illiad.

Paris was a little bitch.

When the battles startup, holy crap is that some graphic violence.

[Watchmaker]

The Illiad.

Paris was a little bitch.

I'll take Paris over Achilles or Agamemnon.

[Warlord1986]

The Illiad.

Paris was a little bitch.

I'll take Paris over Achilles or Agamemnon.

At least Achilles and Agamemnon were competent warriors. Paris is all hat and no cattle.

Although, Agamemnon went to war because his brother's wife was kidnapped/ran off. Then he goes and steals another dude's girl. That's some hardcore dissonance right there.

[Tyson]

The Illiad.

Paris was a little bitch.

I'll take Paris over Achilles or Agamemnon.

At least Achilles and Agamemnon were competent warriors. Paris is all hat and no cattle.

Although, Agamemnon went to war because his brother's wife was kidnapped/ran off. Then he goes and steals another dude's girl. That's some hardcore dissonance right there.

And if you read the follow up story/plays of Agamemnon by Aeschylus you find out that before the war started Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter to the gods in order to secure wind for the journey.  After the war when he gets home his wife is .... NOT happy.  To say the least. 

[mm1970]

Reading The Orphan Thief by Glynis Peters, set in UK in WWII.  My MIL left it when she visited.  I like it.

[Watchmaker]

The Illiad.

Paris was a little bitch.

I'll take Paris over Achilles or Agamemnon.

At least Achilles and Agamemnon were competent warriors. Paris is all hat and no cattle.

Although, Agamemnon went to war because his brother's wife was kidnapped/ran off. Then he goes and steals another dude's girl. That's some hardcore dissonance right there.

He's a lover not a fighter, and he's honest about that.  Cowardly though he is at times, he was willing to die fighting Menelaus but that pesky Aphrodite interferes. And he gets Achilles in the end, so it's not like he's got nothing going for him.

[BuffaloStache]

At the behest of just about everyone I know, I just started reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I'm only a couple of pages in, but really enjoying it.

...Last week, I just finished reading SevenEves by Neal Stephenson. Can we talk about what a big, crazy book that is? The first 2/3rds of the book read as excellent space-based science fiction with an apocalyptic edge, and the last 1/3rd completely transforms into a weird fantasy/Dungeons-&-Dragon-esque quest story. I almost wish that the book had just ended after the first section (around page 600- plenty long), and then the author could've written another novel if he wanted to bring in that later part. 

[sui generis]

I'm reading Everything Under by Daisy Johnson right now.  Almost 2/3 of the way in and I barely have an idea of what exactly I am reading. I see why it's a version of Oedipus and based on that, think I can predict where it's going, but I still sort of don't know a lot of basic things that are happening.  It took me till well over 1/3 of the book to even know who the characters were (possibly due to heavy use of the second person).  It was short-listed for the Booker Prize a couple of years ago, so it's just another of those that make me feel like I guess I don't know how to read great literature. 

[sui generis]

Contrast to my prior post: listening now to Here Come the Witches by Lindy West. Good clean fun (laugh/cry emoji) and love hearing her read it herself.

[LennStar]

...Last week, I just finished reading SevenEves by Neal Stephenson. Can we talk about what a big, crazy book that is?

I may be wrong, but isn't that the standard for Neal Stephenson?

When I first read Diamond Age I was so AARRRGGG that we could not just drop a few billion of those AI books on the children of Earth...

[MonkeyJenga]

Contrast to my prior post: listening now to Here Come the Witches by Lindy West. Good clean fun (laugh/cry emoji) and love hearing her read it herself.

I’m reading that now, and it’s a constant fight between loving her writing style and getting incredibly stressed by her subject matter.

[BuffaloStache]

...

I may be wrong, but isn't that the standard for Neal Stephenson?

When I first read Diamond Age I was so AARRRGGG that we could not just drop a few billion of those AI books on the children of Earth...

Maybe? This was my first Neal Stephenson book, so I wasn't prepared for it. Are all of his books really like that?

[TempusFugit]

At the behest of just about everyone I know, I just started reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I'm only a couple of pages in, but really enjoying it.

...Last week, I just finished reading SevenEves by Neal Stephenson. Can we talk about what a big, crazy book that is? The first 2/3rds of the book read as excellent space-based science fiction with an apocalyptic edge, and the last 1/3rd completely transforms into a weird fantasy/Dungeons-&-Dragon-esque quest story. I almost wish that the book had just ended after the first section (around page 600- plenty long), and then the author could've written another novel if he wanted to bring in that later part.

I tend to agree with that sentiment. The first part was very engaging, the second part... meh.   But still a great book overall due to the heavy lifting of the first part.

[turketron]

I tend to agree with that sentiment. The first part was very engaging, the second part... meh.   But still a great book overall due to the heavy lifting of the first part.

I actually did like the second part. I didn't really care about most of the characters compared to the first half, but it was still interesting. But yeah, the first was certainly the better of the two, and while I thought the second half was worthwhile, it would maybe have worked better as a standalone follow-up.

[calimom]

Just finished god Loves the Child, Toni Morrison's last work, for my book group,  which is postponed/cancelled. Not as good as her earlier works but she stayed a wordsmith up until the end.

[TempusFugit]

Just finished What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell.  This is a collection of essays he wrote for the New Yorker.

I found it quite interesting, as I expected that I would.  I love his podcast "Revisionist History."   

You know, I just spent a couple of minutes reviewing the typographical rules regarding period placement and quotation marks.   I hate the way it looks to have the period inside the closing quotation marks, but that's the way I was taught and it is convention here in the US.  Apparently, convention in the UK is to put the period after the marks.  This is somewhat due to the usage of single quote marks in UK vs double here in the US and the effect that the font spacing has on the resulting text typographically. 

Now that we live in the digital age with dynamic font spacing, the reason for the convention is pretty much gone, but we're stuck with this vestigial rule.   I say no more. 

"Revisionist History". 

And this book is now a week past due at the library, but you know, COVID-19, so library's closed. 

[MonkeyJenga]

I just finished Magpie Murders, a cool murder mystery within a murder mystery.

Started How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse, "a feminist reimagining of familiar fairytale tropes and a story of resistance and self-determination—how small acts of rebellion can lead a princess to not just save herself, but change the course of history."

[grantmeaname]

I just read J. Ryan Stradal's The Lager Queen of Minnesota and Kitchens of the Great Midwest in one sitting total, back-to-back. Very readable, digestible books that are near food but not really about it. Really pleasant, escapist fare that gets me out of my apartment for a bit.

[BuffaloStache]

I just read J. Ryan Stradal's The Lager Queen of Minnesota...

That sounds interesting, maybe I'll see if there is an e-book edition at my library I can borrow.

I just finished reading The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. It was pretty predictable, but not terrible and a good way to waste some time.

[calimom]

I just read J. Ryan Stradal's The Lager Queen of Minnesota and Kitchens of the Great Midwest in one sitting total, back-to-back. Very readable, digestible books that are near food but not really about it. Really pleasant, escapist fare that gets me out of my apartment for a bit.

Both of those were fun reads, I love food-themed books. My book group recently had a Zoom gathering where we discussed Bernadine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other. There are 12 linked stories of black British women of different ages and backgrounds and was incredibly interesting.

[grantmeaname]

I finally read Helen Russel's My Year of Living Danishly, which has justly deserved its many recommendations on this board. Man is it sad to live in America instead of a social democracy.

[jinga nation]

JK Rowling's The Ickabog:

https://www.theickabog.com/en-us/read-the-story/

The Ickabog will be published for free on this website, in instalments, over the next seven weeks, a chapter (or two, or three), at a time. It isn’t Harry Potter and it doesn’t include magic. This is an entirely different story.

[MudPuppy]

Just finished I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

Now starting the Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin

[MonkeyJenga]

Reading Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren. Trees and biology and stuff.

[TempusFugit]

I've just finished watching the second episode of Grant on the History channel and it prompted me to take out my copy of his memoirs.  I'd read the first hundred pages or so of them quite some years back, but never really got drawn in.  I don't intend to read the book from cover to cover now, but I'm looking up chapters about specific events and reading out of them more like a reference book. 

@grantmeaname, have you read the memoirs?   I know the story of how /why he wrote them, which is very sad, of course. 

[grantmeaname]

I haven't - they're on my (very long) reading list. Longstreet's memoirs are really highly regarded and on my list too.

[Tyson]

Finished the Bible, now moving on to Behave by Sapolsky.  Mostly because I like to alternate fiction with non-fiction when I read.

[FIRE Artist]

I recently listened to Talking to Strangers by Malcom Gladwell. Really good book, even better audio book because they produced it like a podcast so included recordings of the news events the book references, and quotes are given as actual voice recordings when possible.

I just finished Hidden Valley Road, Inside the Mind of an American Family. This family had 12 children and 6 of them had schizophrenia.  The book details the history of the family and overlays the history of schizophrenia research and treatments. Really interesting.

[sui generis]

I just finished Hidden Valley Road, Inside the Mind of an American Family. This family had 12 children and 6 of them had schizophrenia.  The book details the history of the family and overlays the history of schizophrenia research and treatments. Really interesting.

Wow, sounds fascinating.  Added to my list.  I don't remember learning about them in my Psych classes in college, but definitely loved learning about stuff like this so looking forward to the book.

[LaineyAZ]

Just finished the new non-fiction bestseller, Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo.  I don't want to give it away, but except for the youngest woman, I was surprised by how much sex was a part of the other 2 women's lives, i.e., it took up a lot of their brain space and their emotional focus, to the point that other things were far down the list.  Maybe that was the female type that the author wanted to portray.

The descriptions of their sex lives is graphic and frequent throughout.  Elizabeth Gilbert's promo calls it "A masterpiece at the same level as In Cold Blood." 
Overall it was not for me.  I couldn't help but wish that a portrayal of women with fuller lives, which sex is certainly a part of, would have been a more engrossing read.

[sui generis]

I'm currently reading Remains of the Day, which is an extremely strange book. The first quarter of it was such a meditation on being a butler and the intricacies of the profession that I had to reread the blurb to make sure I was reading what I thought I was reading.  It still goes on *at length* about the intricacies of being a butler but drops diversions of varying lenths within that narrative on the British Nazi sympathizers before WWII.  I partially admire what a great job Ishiguro has done with this - after all, I'm fairly devouring the book, to my own surprise.  But I also find it just the tiniest bit cloying.  In either case, I'm enjoying the change of pace, I guess.  And I put the movie in my queue to watch after I'm done.

[TempusFugit]

This thread needs a poke, so I'll go:

Reading Jim Butcher's latest installment of the Dresden Files novels - Peace Talks.  He already has another one slated for publishing later this year per Amazon, so that's two additions to the series after a few years of writing his other series (which I've never really read, oddly, since I like his Dresden Files novels so much)

Also just started the Einstein bio from Walter Isaacson. 

[MonkeyJenga]

You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain, by Phoebe Robinson. A funny approach that still discusses real issues.