What Are You Reading Now? - My Quarterly Survey

10/01/10 | MplsSteve

[MplsSteve]

Hi everyone! It's time again for my quarterly "What Are You Reading Now?" thread.

As you know, I consider Freepers to be among the more well-read member of the cyber world. I like to find out what you're all reading.

Essentially, it can be anything. A timeless classic, a trashy pulp novel, a technical journal, etc. In short, anything!

Please do not ruin this thread by posting something stupid like "I'm Reading Your Thread". It became really really unfunny a long time ago.

I'll start. I'm reading "Pendergast!" by Lawrence J Larsen and Nancy J Hulston. Written in 1997, it chronicles the life as well as the rise and fall of Tom Pendergast. In the 1920's and 30's, he was the undisputed boss of Kansas City. Nothing moved or happened in that city without his approval. He was responsible for the rise of Harry S Truman as well.

Pendergast was a contradiction in many terms. he was a family man but also contracted syphilis from a prostitute. He looked out for the downtrodden by getting them jobs and food and then skimmed money off the side (on public works projects) for his own use.

And last but not least, he was a life-long Democrat as well!

All in all, this is a good book and one I'd recommend strongly.

Well, what are you reading now?!

[mjp]

Rereading

-Cognitive Patterns of Jesus of Nazareth: Tools of The Spirit by Robert B. Dilts -The Objectivist Newsletter by By Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden

[cajungirl]

When I got cancer two Years ago, I decded I couldn’t die before at long last I read Proust. I did all six or seven volumes depending on how you count in a year. I loved it but began to dislike Marcel. And didn’t die so now I have other projects.

[cajungirl]

When I got cancer two Years ago, I decded I couldn’t die before at long last I read Proust. I did all six or seven volumes depending on how you count in a year. I loved it but began to dislike Marcel. And didn’t die so now I have other projects.

[RenegadeNC]

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen
The Complete Works of Francis A Schaeffer

[Fantasywriter]

Thank you—what an interesting and informative post!

[fml]

King is creepy. Have you read his Richard Bachman books? I read Desparation and The Regulators years ago.

[rhoda_penmark]

I’m reading an anthology of 4 novels by Raymond Chandler. This is new to me, and his Philip Marlowe character is hilariously politically incorrect. My copy was obtained used and is stamped as having been removed from circulation at one of our local high schools’ library.

This is very historically interesting too. In 1939, he mentioned a character with a Hitler moustache, and a wall calendar with a photo of “The Quints”.

Plus, theres a lot of smokin’ and drinkin’ and womanizin’.

[Red Badger]

They mean house cats, not lions..........

[Rightly Biased]

The Men of The Cinco Peso by Mike Cox..

About the Texas Rangers from 1900 until present.

[LatinaGOP]

I read Thinner, years ago. I think that’s the only of the Bachman books I’ve read. I don’t have a lot of time for reading for pleasure these days. Am currently re-reading all of the Chronicles of Narnia with my homeschooled ten year-old daughter. I’d like to get back to reading King again. Haven’t read any of the stuff he’s written in the last few years. I was so disgusted with how the Dark Tower series ended I stopped reading him for a while.

[Little Ray]

Met him at Liberty Con in Ringgold (Chattanooga). Cool guy. Has Monster Hunters International and Monster Hunter Vendetta out. Has “Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles” coming out in May 2011. Can’t wait. Check out www.baen.com and look at the schedule. Free samples, too!

Only problem with a Kindle is that authors can’t sign it. Working on that though...

[ConservativeDude]

thank you, great response

[Oratam]

Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille

[Wuli]

I'm reading, off and on: "A World Without Islam".

The title does not mean what most people's first impression would think it means.

The author is trying to make the case that a lot of things about the Middle East and about relations between "the west" and the Middle East are more "cultural", and cultural in a deep sense that goes back before Islam, and most likely, due to THOSE elements, contentions and tensions between the Middle East and the west would have still arisen, and would still be manifesting in some form today.

He is a very learned individual and when you can read past his own bias there is a lot of historical details that provided new knowledge to me.

On the other hand, he seems somewhat of an apologist for Islam and in more than one paragraph he sounded like a modern day Soviet foreign policy expert who sees "western imperialism" in anything that the west does.

Most disturbing to me - once I understood his political bias - was the knowledge of the author supplied on the backside of the book's dust jacket - he's been a CIA intelligence "expert" for 25 years.

[Siena Dreaming]

U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth

by Joan Waugh.

[abb]

That was the Life - Dora Jane Hamblin

“The upstairs downstairs behind-the-doors story of America’s favorite magazine.”

http://www.amazon.com/That-Life-Dora-Jane-Hamblin/dp/0233969306/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1285953890&sr=1-7

[eddie willers]

“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.”

[eddie willers]

Restoring "American" Henry M. Stanley (in truth, Welsh born John Rowlands) to his rightful place in history.

[hotshu]

Thanks for the info, I’ll check them out!

[backwoods-engineer]

Presently reading The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker.

Just finished my 2nd reading of the Enemies Foreign and Domestic trilogy by fellow FReeper Matthew Bracken (not his FRname).

Before that, it was The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek.

Before that, it was Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyrrany.

And just before that, my 3rd reading of John Ross's Unintended Consequences.