IGX

In the midst of Tom Wolfe's 'Back to Blood' about Miami. Quite good so far.

I just finished up a great adventure novel. "The Tiger's Revenge" by Claude Bahlz. Riveting and I must say, quite scary when you think about it.

John Sandford's Deadline. The plot has a few holes but the main characters are likeable. It's a decent popcorn mystery novel.

My latest reading...

Bear Grylls autobiography.

Holland Oates wrote:How far in are you Bram? They get progressively better as he goes along. The whole 90# woman aikidoing giant men makes my balls ache but I get past it. One of my favorite easy reads.

I'm waiting on the third one from the library. Glad to hear they'll get better, it's been fun so far. Do you think the tv version is worth watching?

Bram wrote:

Holland Oates wrote:How far in are you Bram? They get progressively better as he goes along. The whole 90# woman aikidoing giant men makes my balls ache but I get past it. One of my favorite easy reads.

I'm waiting on the third one from the library. Glad to hear they'll get better, it's been fun so far. Do you think the tv version is worth watching?

I never watched it. What I saw wasn't great. I need to sit down and check it out.

The wife and read every Dresden book as soon as it comes out in hardcover. They are book crack.

Can't decide. Just finished re-reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History, weighing another go at James Salter's 'A Sport and a Pastime' or something non-fiction like The Power of Habit.

milosz wrote:Can't decide. Just finished re-reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History

Probably my favorite book. I'm reading The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton and The Gunsliger by Stephen King.

I hadn't read it in 15 years, remembered absolutely nothing about the last half so that was a treat.

Just finished Boys in the Boat. Book is about the 1936 men's Olympic 8's rowing team. I don't usually read nonfiction but this is was excellent.

Ty Cobb, A Terrible beauty by Charles Leerhsen.

Leerhsen has stated that when he pitched his idea to Simon and Schuster he assumed that
he would flesh out the mostly negative things that have been written about Cobb, since Al
Stumps article in true magazine in 1961, after Ty's death.

Just started the book, so don't know what Lerrhsen wrote, other than his recent speech at
Hillsdale College.

Just finished Snow Crash. Highly entertaining, shocking that it was written between 88 and 92.

The Crawdaddy wrote:Just finished Boys in the Boat. Book is about the 1936 men's Olympic 8's rowing team. I don't usually read nonfiction but this is was excellent.

My 13yo is reading that....now he wants to be a rower. Probly snag it when he's done.

I'm reading:



Great selection from familiar authors that I wouldn't have known to pick up

Bram wrote:

Sangoma wrote:Just read Ham on Rye and Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Late discovery.

I've read a lot of Bukowski and those are my two favorites. Women and Pulp are both good, but not on the same level in my opinion. Pulp is fiction, maybe his only fiction story.

Working my way through the Dresden files. Wizard/Private Eye story. The wizard part is the weaker side of the story, but he's an entertaining protagonist.

I rarely read non-fiction and despite the entire fantasy genre.

I've also read the entire Dresden series at least once. My wife is friends with Butcher and she had the books so I decided to flip through them on a random vacation. The initial three in the series are...ok...but when you are past that and he stops re-explaining everything that happens in every novel like he was writing for nine-year old kids it really does take off.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:Just finished Snow Crash. Highly entertaining, shocking that it was written between 88 and 92.

His stuff and Gibson's are very good even today. They foretold some interesting things.

Stephenson's Seveneves from last year or the year before is fantastic.

I'm still picking my way through a zip file of old Destroyer books. I think I'm reading Assassin's Play-Off right now.

Finished Book 3 of the Dresden Files this evening, definitely seem to be getting better. The whole vampire masquerade angle was a lot of fun.

It's good to have a series that's addictive, but I picked up "Presence" from the library and will put the next dresden book off until I take a crack at this.

i don't believe... i stumble on "Malachite Casket" in English. Loveliest book from childhood, read and reread many times. now in English a feeling as so reading the first time

.... These stories are told to a young boy by a watchman, who lived on top of a mountain in the Ural Mountain region of Russia. The tales are darker and deeper than most Russian tales, exploring and expressing realistic social relations and internal struggles.There is not a single person in Russia who has not heard of The Malachite Box by Pavel Bazhov, who learned the unwritten history of The Urals while working as a boy in the old mines...

Bazhov spent many years collecting the legends, traditions and sayings which he later wove into the collection which well merits the description "something different". In the music of Urals speech, characters- real and fantastic -come to life: The Mistress of The Copper Mountain who guards its wealth, the Great Serpent with its trail of gold, and skillful artist-craftsmen to whom the secrets of the mountain depths and of their craft are open.
The Malachite Casket is rightly regarded as a classic. It has served as the theme for sculptured groups, Sergei Prokofiev drew from it inspiration for his ballet "The Flower of Stone", and it has provided the theme for operas, symphonies, and films.

(djvu)
http://bookzz.org/book/2369736/945de0

abridged :( there were two volumes.

A Guide To The Good Life: The Ancient Art Of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine

Irvine is a philosophy professor who stumbled across stoicism and it resonated. A similar chance encounter led to Admiral William B. Stockdale of Hanoi Hilton fame using stoicism to survive while leading men through horrific times. If you haven't read his "Courage Under Fire" paper, it's good and is available for free on the interwebz.

Essentially A Guide To The Good Life is a stoic primer with examples of a few of the techniques used by the Greeks & Romans on their path to tranquility. Consider it an intro for the curious. He gets into a bit of the history of Stoicism and other schools along info about and contributions made by some of the major stoics. He also works to bring stoic teaching to modern life.

Having grown up in the era of positive thinking learning about how the stoics used negative imagery to their benefit was a lightbulb moment for me.

It's worth a read if you're interested in this sort of thing.

I think this + Constructive Living compliment each other.

Bram wrote:Finished Book 3 of the Dresden Files this evening, definitely seem to be getting better. The whole vampire masquerade angle was a lot of fun.

You need to get past the third book for it to really turn into literary crack.

DrDonkeyLove wrote:A Guide To The Good Life: The Ancient Art Of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine

Irvine is a philosophy professor who stumbled across stoicism and it resonated. A similar chance encounter led to Admiral William B. Stockdale of Hanoi Hilton fame using stoicism to survive while leading men through horrific times. If you haven't read his "Courage Under Fire" paper, it's good and is available for free on the interwebz.

Essentially A Guide To The Good Life is a stoic primer with examples of a few of the techniques used by the Greeks & Romans on their path to tranquility. Consider it an intro for the curious. He gets into a bit of the history of Stoicism and other schools along info about and contributions made by some of the major stoics. He also works to bring stoic teaching to modern life.

Having grown up in the era of positive thinking learning about how the stoics used negative imagery to their benefit was a lightbulb moment for me.

It's worth a read if you're interested in this sort of thing.

I think this + Constructive Living compliment each other.

Really, really good book. Agree entirely.

Bedside table includes:

Springsteen's 'Born to Run'- 30 pgs in. Interesting thus far and I'm a big fan.

Simon Winchester's 'Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories'- engaging and part of that interesting, though possibly increasingly cliched, 'biography' of inanimate objects. I have one of Cancer, another of Detroit, Kurlansky's 'Salt'.

Norman Davies' 'Europe'- my go to refresher for the AP Euro class I teach.

JM Robertson's 'World History'- my go to refresher for big picture world events.

Michael Chabon's 'Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'- wonderful.

Just start reading whichever tickles my fancy as I lie down for the evening.