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?!

[Jane Austen]

I bought CROSSFIRE by Dick & Felix Francis.

[knews_hound]

There are actually 4.

http://www.deankoontz.com/frankenstein-book-four-lost-souls/

#5 is supposed to be out in the spring.

#4 starts it all over again. Victor is NOT dead. He uses a clone to come back to wreak havoc, this time in Montana.

All the same players are back and it is a very quick read. Almost too quick.

Cheers,

knewshound

[marron]

burgomeister’s entire library off 1200 books

How cool. How big a file is that?

I've got a fair library that I carry on my key-chain but nothing like that...

[MWestMom]

“Crimes Against Liberty...” by David Limbaugh.

[apocalypto]

How was that book? I have not read the book, but I saw a TV show (maybe on True TV). That show left the impression that there was no real evidence against the husband.

[davius]

War Propaganda And The United States by Harold Levine and James Wechsler, 1940;

Born In Blood, The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry by John J. Robinson, 1989;

The Boston Tea Party by Benjamin Woods Labaree, 1964;

Stories Of Our Country by James Johonnot, 1887;

Stories of the Thirteen Colonies by H.A. Guerber, 1898;

Stories of Great Americans For Little Americans by Edward Eggleston, 1895;

Little Visits With Great Americans by Orison Swett Marden, 1905;

Islam In Modern History by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, 1957;

The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, 1997;

Rereading: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, 1963;

Rereading: For The New Intellectual, The Philosophy Of Ayn Rand by Ayn Rand, 1961;

Rereading: The Survival Book by Paul Nesbit, Alonzo Pond, and William Allen, 1959;

Also: National Review Magazine;

and Washington Times, Weekly Edition

My secret? I never enter a bathroom without reading material.

[keepitreal]

These are what I am reading and what is in my pile for October:

The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army by Greg Jaffe and David Cloud (half-way through, very good)

Faithful Place by Tana French (Irish detective novel)

First Family by David Baldacci

Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe 1958-1962 By Frank Dikotter

Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Roadtrip by Matthew Algeo

Happiness is a Serious Problem by Dennis Prager

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival and My Journey from Homelessness to Harvard by Liz Murray

The Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Witness by Sandra Brown

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight by Karl Rove (will I get banned from FR for reading this???)

I have such a large To Be Read pile I’ll have to live to 100 to finish it, God willing.

[Prussianone]

In my travels, Dashiell Hammett, “The Creeping Siamese”; at home, “Ancient Ways - Reclaiming Pagan Traditions”, Pauline Campanelli.

[fml]

Very good. There was very little phyisical evidence to tie him becuause he was there so often and cleaned up very well. But he thought he was so much smarter than the investigaters he just talked too much and they got him.

At the end the writer gives a discription of the crime from the victims point of view which was fascinating

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

“Polgara the Sorceress” by David Eddings for fun

"A Grief Observed" by C. S. Lewis

"Beautiful Hair; Healthy Scalp Secrets & Remedies" by Mia Wadsworth

[eyedigress]

I have been reading “The Myth of Separation” by David Barton but get chastised on FR from quoting from it. Oh Well

[rhoda_penmark]

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

yessiree...exactly...the most eloquent description of pulling a boner that I’ve ever heard. LOL

[eddie willers]

I am now reading a Rex Stout 'Nero Wolfe' novel written in 1938.

Were writers just better then?

PS. Last novel that I really enjoyed was Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

[cajungirl]

I don’t know how big it is bit it is on a thumb thimgy. Google burgomeister and go to the site and they will tell you. I only did it cause I was afraid he would be shut down for copyright violation. A great library to have

[cajungirl]

The best thing about the kindle is all the free books you never read are rhere, free, wonderful

[VermiciousKnid]

Interesting that you’re reading a book entitled “Pendergast!,” because I am currently making my way through “Dance of Death” by the Dynamic Duo of Doulgas Preston and Lincoln Child.

The main character’s name? Pendergast — a mysterious and brilliant FBI agent with remarkable abilities of all kinds.

Regards,

PS: Preston and Child have written many books with Special Agent Pendergast as the lead character. The books are (Sherlock) Holmesesque, and I have always found them to be entertaining and well-written.

That said, though, I do not recommend any new readers start with “Dance of Death.” The ongoing plot is just too complicated to start here. If this sort of thing appeals to you, may I recommend you begin with their first Pendergast book, “Relic,” and go on from there.

[apocalypto]

I read great reviews of “The Girl Who Played with Fire” by Stieg Larsson. And it is selling well. However, I just could not get past the first 60 or so pages and those were a chore. It was incredibly boring.

[rhoda_penmark]

“Were writers just better then?”
A lot of the ones that were, were banned, I hearsay. :-)

Just finished Chandler’s “The Lady in the Lake”, (1943) in which one of the characters was a Hollywood “Dope Doctor” who kept the jet set from seeing Pink Elephants in the morning. a la Michael Jackson.

Nothing on earth is new, really.

I don’t make enough time to read. I should change that.

[Poser]

“How did you like it?”

Rand’s style is quite wordy and could probably be edited by about 25%, but I found most of it to be very good and parts of it to be annoying and frustrating. I suppose that’s the way it had to be. In real life, there are no straight, predictable paths.

[Poser]

“So, how pissed are you now???”

Not at all. I would like to have seen him build Cameron’s building in Hell’s Kitchen, but I guess that would have been counter to the whole premise of the book.