What Are You Reading Now? (My Quarterly Survey)

1/12/10

[MplsSteve]

OK, it's time for my quarterly What Are You Reading Now? survey.

I do this because I like to gauge what Freepers are reading. I believe that the Freeper community are one of the more well-read on the Internet.

What are you reading? It can be anything...a classic novel, a NY Times bestseller, a technical journal, a trashy pulp novel - in short, anything.

Please do not defile this thread by replying "I'm Reading This Thread". It became unfunny a long time ago.

I'll start. I'm reading "Pickett's Charge: A Microstudy" by George R Stewart. It was written in 1959 and is a classic read about the last day of the battle of Gettysburg. It was his only book about the Civil War but he wrote many others.

Well, what are you reading?

[elli1]

I pick up loads of reading material at estate & rummage sales. My copy of The Short Novels of John Steinbeck has the orig owners name—Viola something...Sept 29th 1953—written on the front flyleaf.

Will have to look for those other authors that you mentioned. Thanx!

[Logic n' Reason]

Two books at present....

"The Weaker Vessel" (Antonia Fraser), and

"The Victorians" (A. N. Wilson)

Both good reads as far as I can tell....

[Logic n' Reason]

This sounds like a fantatic book. Are you professionally in telecommunications?

I am....and I'd not heard of the book before.

I'm thinking of getting it!

Would you recommend it?

[slorunner]

the Bible, KJV

Systematic Theology by Hodge

Just Finished In the Hands of Providence - Biography of Joshua Chamberlan

Over the Edge of the World - account of Magellan’s voyage

[abb]

Are you professionally in telecommunications?

Yes and no. I do the Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™ threads here on FRee Republic and have been doing them for about four years now. And I have been a news junkie all of my life. The DeathWatch™ threads chronicle all things news and media and particularly pay attention to the business of media and how it is paid for.

For the past 2 or 3 years, I have read everything I could get my hands on about the media industry that I could. Bios of CBS' Paley, NBC's Sarnoff, The NY Times' Sulzbergers, W. R. Hearst, etc, etc. I figure if we conservatives are going to supplant the Old Media, we better learn some history of the industry and how it grew up. And maybe read about some famous "journalists" and what the "news" business was all about.

Last June I started my own weblog and began covering local news - school board, county commission, city hall, etc. So I guess I'm a reporter now.

I would recommend the book - the author worked for Western Union for almost all his life. Some interesting stuff about the early days of wiring the world. I'm about halfway through it.

In the last batch of stuff I got from Amazon, I got the three-volume history of the industry by Erick Barnouw:
# A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States To 1933 , Oxford University Press, 1966.
# The Golden Web: A History of Broadcasting in the United States 1933-1953, Oxford University Press, 1968.
# The Image Empire: A History of Broadcasting in the United States from 1953, Oxford University Press, 1970.
I look forward to reading them.

What exactly do you do in telecom? Have you ever seen this website? Fascinating!! The networking is as important as the medium and the message. The internet will have as profound an effect on the world as the invention of movable type 500 years ago, in my opinion.

http://long-lines.net/

[Tijeras_Slim]

“Intellectuals and Society” Thomas Sowell

“I, Sniper” Stephen Hunter

[mathluv]

I found his Amber series on CDs, except for 1 & 2. I wish they were not abridged.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I've read that he did unabridged readings of most of the Amber books (9 out of the 10? relying on my not-perfect memory...) but that they are not currently available. However, used copies of the unabridged releases do occasionally turn up on eBay and similar places.

[Rose in RoseBear]

Reading CSS/XHTML books to help me build my website

And reading Jayne Anne Krentz's Harmony books, in no particular order. Right this very instant, I'm halfway through her Ghost Hunter.

[Domandred]

I read an article somewhere that I think Sanderson was following Jordon’s outline for the finish of the series which only was one more book. He decided to split and expand the end into three more (including the one just out) to get to the end.

I’m just glad someone picked it up to finish it. Two things I hate on serials (books or TV) is an unresolved ending because of cancellation or death, and second being continuing a series long past any reasonable amount.

[Hoffer Rand]

Genuine Reality: A Life of William James

[Drawsing]

Just finished “Innocents Abroad” by Mark Twain. I am almost through with “Roughing It”. by the same author. I have read both of these multiple times.

[mathluv]

I got mine (3-10) at Books-A-Million for $1 each. That is the only reason that I got them abridged. I always have a book going in the car, but I rarely get anything that is abridged.

[mathluv]

I love that series. I just finished the 4th in the Arcane series that is really #1 in a new series about the Arcane Society. I look forward to the next one coming out under her pseudonym of Amanda Quick.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I've never listened to an audio book, but I've been tempted to get the ones Zelazny himself read for, as I've heard that he does them very well.

[Tax-chick]

I listened to “Master and Commander” on CD recently. I’d never been able to make it through one of those books in print, but the audio book was enjoyable. I’ll be looking in the library catalog for other recordings.

[avg_freeper]

"Book 9 here. Rereading since next book is out to finish the series by a different author (RIP Jordan)"

I was really in the mood for some good fantasy and I've never read Tolkien's LoR novel's so my wife ordered a nice boxed set for me for Christmas.

Unfortunately, they're "momentarily" out of stock and Amazon still hasn't delivered them.

So I looked online for something similar and came across the WoT series. I'm really enjoying it so far.

I've been checking one book out at a time from the Library and racing through each one because they're so riveting. It's going to be a bummer when I get to the last one that was written and have to wait for the next like everyone else.

[woollyone]

Mere Christianity, CS Lewis

again

[Sawdring]

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.

[GSWarrior]

The Killing Machine by Jack Vance