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What Are You Reading Now? - My Quarterly Survey
7/12/10

Posted on 07/12/2010 10:39:11 AM PDT by MplsSteve

Hi, everyone!

It's time again for my quarterly "What Are You Reading Now?" survey.

As you know, I consider Freepers to be among the more well-read groups currently on the Internet. Each quart, I like to find out what everyone is reading.

It can be anything...a technical journal, a NY Times best-seller, a trashy pulp novel...in short, anything!

Please do not ruin this thread by posting something inane like "I'm reading this post". It became very unfunny a long time ago.

I'll start. I'm reading a historical biography called "John L Lewis: Labor Leader" by Robert Zieger. I have found it to be a real even-handed look at one of the major figures of the American labor movement during the early to mid 20th Century. The author goes as far to state that some of the problems with today's current labor unions can be traced to John L Lewis's leadership of the UMW.

Well, what are YOU reading?


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bestsellers; bookclub; books; fiction; godsgravesglyphs; goodread; literature; magaizines; magazine; nonfiction; novels; pages; readers; reading; readinglist; thrillers
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To: MplsSteve

I am rereading all my SF periodicals : I have 95% of all the issues of F &SF published from January 1980 on, about 75% of IASFM published from January 1980 to somewhere in 2002, and the complete run of Realms of Fantasy (plus a few years’ worth of Analog and Amazing/Fantastic). Some good reading, some classic works, some unintentional humor (eg , when Isaac Asimov proclaimed from on high that there would never be a cable station devoted to science fiction because there weren’t enough sci fi fans in the entire USA), some irritating opinions (Ted White’s public, multi paragraph temper tantrum in print when a reader begged him to-once in a great while-include a “hopeful” SF story among the one dystopia after another) lots of pretty forgettable works, interesting book and movie reviews worth considering re:Netflix and Amazon used books, etc. A little trip to Nostalgiaville


141 posted on 07/12/2010 1:16:31 PM PDT by kaylar (It's MARTIAL law. Not marshal(l) or marital! This has been a spelling PSA. PS Secede not succeed)
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To: Hoosier Catholic Momma
I learned about One Second After here on FR also.

I never really gave EMP much thought until reading that book. Eye opening, and scary as hell. The last third of the book was a little too Road Warrior like. I think a real event would more resemble post earthquake Haiti. But it did give it an exiting finish worthy of a movie.

142 posted on 07/12/2010 1:18:53 PM PDT by NavyCanDo
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To: Leg Olam
I LOVE de Balzac... I bought about 9 volumes at a flea market. I think I paid $3 for all of them. Real old hard bound books with gold leaf on the page edges. SUPER!!
143 posted on 07/12/2010 1:20:29 PM PDT by SMARTY ("What luck for rulers that men do not think." Adolph Hitler)
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To: MplsSteve
"Days of the French Revolution" by Christopher Hibbert and

"The Classical World" by Robin Fox.

144 posted on 07/12/2010 1:23:35 PM PDT by Siena Dreaming
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To: mel

I was completely shocked to see this out front on display at Barnes and Noble this weekend!


145 posted on 07/12/2010 1:23:35 PM PDT by nurees (Oh...there is a NEW Mexico (Homer Simpson))
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To: MplsSteve

The lost City of ‘Z’ by Grann. A fascinating book about Percy Fawcett in the Amazon

The Magician’s Death by P.C. Doherty. A Murder Mystery set during the Reign of Edward I of England

The Arctic Grail by Berton. The hunt for the North West Passage and the North Pole. Odd that during the time period of this book, the Arctic opened up several times so that sailing ships could sail almost all the way through the passage. Much more clear of ice than today.

Sky and Telescope when I can. Against the Odds magazine when I can.

Just finshed:

The Poison King by Mayer about Mithradates VI of Pontus.

The Lacquer Screen by Robert Van Gulik a Judge Dee Novel.


146 posted on 07/12/2010 1:25:53 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: NavyCanDo; Bean Counter
IMO, post Earthquake Haiti exists because of the copious amounts of relief money and international relief workers & charities.

IMO, having read ONE SECOND AFTER -- I think that conditions would deteriorate much faster than depicted in the book and that violence & even cannibalism would rise up much sooner.

I am not optomistic about the ability of our modern society to remain civilized for many weeks after a major EMP event.

147 posted on 07/12/2010 1:26:52 PM PDT by hennie pennie
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To: NavyCanDo

Yeah, I read that earlier this year..I enjoyed it a great deal..frightening scenario. Just finished “A year of living biblically” and “death eaters”..both nice light summer reading...ready for something a little deeper now.


148 posted on 07/12/2010 1:36:55 PM PDT by coloradomomba (BO stinks!)
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To: Bear_in_RoseBear
I think you'll like it if this kind of thing is your cuppa tea.

It adds a whole new dimension to the development of human culture, psychology, and even to religion.

149 posted on 07/12/2010 2:07:27 PM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies (Does building demolition count as a Muslim engineering achievement?)
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten; Bear_in_RoseBear; All
Check out the reviews at Amazon. There is even a Julian Jaynes Society website.

Here are some of the reviews of Bicameral Mind from that site...

"Neuroimaging techniques of today have illuminated and confirmed the importance of Jaynes' hypothesis."
— Robert Olin, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus in Preventive Medicine, in Lancet

"This book and this man's ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century. I cannot recommend the book emphatically enough. I have never reviewed a book for which I had more enthusiasm. ... It renders whole shelves of books obsolete."
— William Harrington, in The Columbus Dispatch

"Some of Jaynes' original ideas may be the most important of our generation..."
— Ernest Rossi, Ph.D., Professor of Neuroscience, in Psychological Perspectives

"... Scientific interest in [Jaynes's] work has been re-awakened by the consistent findings of right-sided activation patterns in the brain, as retrieved with the aid of neuroimaging studies in individuals with verbal auditory hallucinations."
— Jan Dirk Blom, M.D, Ph.D., in A Dictionary of Hallucinations

"Julian Jaynes's theories for the nature of self-awareness, introspection, and consciousness have replaced the assumption of their almost ethereal uniqueness with explanations that could initiate the next change in paradigm for human thought."
— Michael Persinger, Ph.D., Laurentian University, in Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness

"The weight of original thought in [Jaynes's book] is so great that it makes me uneasy for the author's well-being: the human mind is not built to support such a burden."
— David C. Stove (1927-1994), Professor of Philosophy, University of Sydney, in Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness


150 posted on 07/12/2010 2:23:45 PM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies (Does building demolition count as a Muslim engineering achievement?)
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To: MplsSteve

Exodue.

Not the novel.


151 posted on 07/12/2010 2:47:18 PM PDT by ExGeeEye (Palin/Undecided 2012...make that Palin/Whoever She Picks...)
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To: ExGeeEye
nuts.

Exodus

152 posted on 07/12/2010 2:51:37 PM PDT by ExGeeEye (Palin/Undecided 2012...make that Palin/Whoever She Picks...)
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To: MplsSteve
Just finished With The Old Breed: At Peleliu And Okinawa, by Eugene Sledge. Damn.

Think I'm going to start And The Rain Came Down, by S.A. Bailey next.

153 posted on 07/12/2010 2:51:55 PM PDT by real saxophonist (The fact that you play tuba doesn't make you any less lethal. -USMC bandsman in Iraq)
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To: MplsSteve
Just finished reading "Helmet for My Pillow" and "With the Old Breed".

We owe these men a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. It is also amazing that any of them made it out alive.

154 posted on 07/12/2010 2:54:34 PM PDT by Jmouse007 (Heavenly Father, deliver us from evil and from those perpetuating it, in Jesus name, amen.)
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To: MplsSteve

I just re-read Pompeii, a novel by Robert Harris.

The hero is an aquaduct engineer and the novel gives a lot of terrific info on the design, building and maintenance of Roman aquaducts and their importance to their civilization.

Lots of good historical info on Pliny the Elder and his libarary (which has been recently discovered and new technology is enabling translation of some of the charred pages.) and living habits and customs.


155 posted on 07/12/2010 2:58:28 PM PDT by wildbill (You're just jealous because the Voices talk only to me.)
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To: MplsSteve

Okee, here we go:

w/ the kids:
Three Strangers Come To Call, by Janis Kent Percefull
The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pene du Bois
That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis

just me:
Conservatives Without Conscience, by John W. Dean (it’s HILARIOUS)
Symbolic Logic, by Lewis Carroll


156 posted on 07/12/2010 3:01:52 PM PDT by FourPeas (God Save America)
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To: nurees

Amazing. it is truly a fascinating read


157 posted on 07/12/2010 3:48:46 PM PDT by mel
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To: MplsSteve

Bram Stoker’s Dracula on my Crackberry via B and N eReader and Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Founding by Dan Abnett (Warhammer 40K, Black Library). Next up is Volume 2 of Sherlock Holmes collection.


158 posted on 07/12/2010 4:03:16 PM PDT by shawnlaw
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To: MplsSteve
The most interesting book I've read lately was The Great Understander: True Life Story of the Last of the Wells Fargo Shotgun Express Messengers by William W. Walter.

It's the fascinating story of the life of a kid who is abused at home, so he heads out to the old west and bounces around. I love it for the reality. It has a religious ending which is ok, too. The ending is separate and does not color the rest of the book, so it would be interesting for all.

159 posted on 07/12/2010 4:52:10 PM PDT by bannie (Gone to seed.)
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To: MplsSteve
A Patriot's History of the United States, by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen

It's a great book, and a book which can be easily read. It is chock full of interesting facts and anecdotes most people have never heard - including myself, and I consider myself somewhat of a history buff.

Most school teachers wouldn't like it, though. It doesn't have over half the page space covered with useless pictures and it takes a dim view of the Progressives who have been destroying America for over 100 years. It also calls them out, chapter and verse.

This is a must read. I bought 5 extra copies and plan to give them as Christmas presents to all my adult children and my sister-in-law.

160 posted on 07/12/2010 5:14:18 PM PDT by Gritty (Modern liberals might as well march around wearing jackboots and arm bands - Don Feder)
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