What Books Are People Reading Now ?

[SteeleJoe]

^ or Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great

Loved it. But I love all his stuff.

I wasn't going to mention it - but Hitchens could surely be called arrogant too but somehow (for me) he pulls it off and it doesn't bug me so much; I'm quite the fan truth be told.

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[DMC1]

^ I like their approach. I think it is needed and I am a fan of the truth! Another book I read recently that was really enjoyable was 'A short history of everything' by Bill Bryson.

[DMC1]

^ or Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great

Loved it. But I love all his stuff.

I wasn't going to mention it - but Hitchens could surely be called arrogant too but somehow (for me) he pulls it off and it doesn't bug me so much; I'm quite the fan truth be told.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

Here's a tribute to him.

[davejones]

Just started reading Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Awesome so far. One of my favorite authors.

[Gaccha]

'Platform", Michel Houellebecq

"I've lived so little that I tend to imagine I'm not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop."

The author is probably France's greatest living writer. And here he has written a book about a sex tourist travelling to Pattaya. That really should make it irresistable for ThaiVisa readers.

Houellebecq brilliantly describes the modern life. He is the literary successor to Marcuse's One Dimensional Man.

His style is called Depressive Realism, and I find his description of the Western life as entirly inauthentic and-- ironically-- the moment of sex with a prostitute as the only sincere and genuine moment of jouissance, as entirly convincing.

His writings superbly tie in with academic work on regular sex as a resource extraction mechanism (see Florida University's Baumeister) and the reversing of the normal view of a holiday as a 'staged authenticity'.

Simply superb.

"Platform is calculated to poke, prod, engorge, enrage and amuse the complacent reader of today. It’s dangerous in the way that literature is meant to be dangerous -- that is, it awakens neglected sensibilities." - Benjamin Anastas, The New York Observer

To understand the depth of his life philosphy have a read of: "THE SUICIDE OF THE WEST: The Novels Of Michel Houellebecq" by Alan Dent (just paste and google it)

Available at Kinokuniya Emporium.

[candypants]

Have just finished Jeffrey Archer's Prisoner of Birth, very good and my first read of Jeffrey Archer(never liked him as a person). Can also recommend Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels "men want to be him, women want to be with him "

in a travesty of justice Tom Cruise has been cast as reacher for the first reacher film.

<deleted> were they thinkimg

[onionluke]

I have recently read Nechrophenia by none other than , Robert Rankin alias Roberto Stinko . This light tale tells of zombies and Rolling Stones roadies cursed with the second shadow and how a school boy over 70 years defeats the evil powers of darkness with three ukalales . Hell ye .

[onionluke]

Have just finished Jeffrey Archer's Prisoner of Birth, very good and my first read of Jeffrey Archer(never liked him as a person). Can also recommend Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels "men want to be him, women want to be with him "

in a travesty of justice Tom Cruise has been cast as reacher for the first reacher film.

<deleted> were they thinkimg

John Wayne , " am so macho am dyin' of cancer "

[SteeleJoe]

Have just finished Jeffrey Archer's Prisoner of Birth, very good and my first read of Jeffrey Archer(never liked him as a person). Can also recommend Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels "men want to be him, women want to be with him "

in a travesty of justice Tom Cruise has been cast as reacher for the first reacher film.

<deleted> were they thinkimg

They were thinking that if one of the biggest stars in history, who has made them billions and whose name alone will sell millions of tickets, wants to star in a film he is also producing -- that sounds just fine.

Tom Cruise goes to Paramount and says he wants to make a movie about Mother Teresa and he will play the lead, they say OK. Not that many movie stars, even very popular ones, have that sort of pull with a studio, but he does.

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Edited February 25, 2013 by SteeleJoe

[onionluke]

^

thatsa movie la , with talky la , nicey nicey

[Ron19]

Have just finished Bryce Courtenay's " The Power of One " and really enjoyed it.I liked it so much that I will have to order

" Tandia " to get the rest of the story.

[StreetCowboy]

I've got Dr Zhivago (Boris Pasternak) and The Tower of London (Soseki Natsume) open at the moment.

Dr Zhivago's got too many characters in it, and I'm wishing I'd been taking notes.

Soseki Natsume is apparently a very famous Japanese author who spent some time in London at the turn of the last century - about the same time as the setting of the start of Dr Zhivago. I've not really got into it yet, though; it was hard enough ploughing through the Introduction

SC

Following on from Dr Zhivago, I've just read the Imperial Cruise by Michael Bradley, which I've mentioned earlier, about Theodore Rooesevelt's Asian imperial ambitions. It's a fairly shocking book about our friends' great-grandparents, particularly if any of it is true.

Assuming that some of it is true, he's done a good job of research

SC

Edited March 1, 2013 by StreetCowboy

[Gaccha]

An Enquiry on Human Understanding by David Hume

Obviously one of the greatest and most important works of philosophy. It led to arousing Immanuel Kant from his 'dogmatic slumbers' and led to a war of ideas that has lasted over 200 years.

David Hume-- a Scotsman to the core-- is a very readable philosopher. Because by trade he was a history writer. Unlike Kant's Critique that was a response to this work, Hume uses concrete examples to get his points across. (Kant is of Scottish extraction but his German education appears to have knocked the Celtic flair out of him)

He has many points to make but my favourite is his display that we know nothing of cause and effect; that is, it is impossible to know the cause of anything. Despite this going against the commonsense view of 2013 man-on-the-street, a modified version of this is the accepted view of mainstream science. That is, the mainstream view in science is you do not and cannot know that the sun will rise tomorrow.

A work of astonishing beauty and brevity. A slightly modernised version is available here from a retired Cambridge don.

http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/he.html

[prestburypark]

Ouch by Paul Knott

A financial survival handbook , probably a bit late now for those who don't know the basics of the system...fractional reserve banking et al, but some great historical data and useful cycle information for investors and the average person looking to hold on to what they have.

Some good insights into human behaviour and risk, I thought it a good read.

[Mossfinn]

I am reading Wind in the Willows to my young lad every night.

Quite something

[Gladiator]

Just finished:

1356 - 'Go With God And Fight Like The Devil' by Bernard Cornwell

Better than expected.

Halfway though -

Popeii ll by Robert Harris

Takes a little while to get into the plot but it is worth it !

[Ron19]

Just finished " When The Lion Feeds " by Wilbur Smith for the second time and thoroughly enjoyed it.Have just started " Tandia " by Bryce Courtenay,only 100 pages in so far but is building up to a good story.

[candypants]

I am reading Wind in the Willows to my young lad every night.

Quite something

thank you for the reminder. just finished james and the giant peach for the third time with my daughter, and was thinking beatrix potter might be the way forward, but not relishing the idea. I wish i still had the illustrated edition from my childhood

[GarryP]

Just started "The Governer's Wife" - Mark Giminez after just finishing "Driven to Distraction" by Jeremy Clarkson. While I am not really interested in cars at all, I just love his total lack of respect for just about anything and political incorrectness. Found myself chuckling aloud on the BTS a couple of times, which is very unusual for me. I do realize though that he is not everybody's cup of tea. I would expect most Americans and Germans, among a few other nationals, to despise him.

[Gaccha]

I am reading Wind in the Willows to my young lad every night.

Quite something

thank you for the reminder. just finished james and the giant peach for the third time with my daughter, and was thinking beatrix potter might be the way forward, but not relishing the idea. I wish i still had the illustrated edition from my childhood

The key is Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World.

[tutsiwarrior]

is reading a compulsion? that's always a question when I find meself reading the unreadable like David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest'...and I know of folks who I respect and admire that spent their entire undergraduate days with Ulysses and Finnegans Wake...

is reading intended to be entertainment?...or, a challenge?

fcukit...I never liked sports too much as everyone was too concerned about winning: 'hey! lets try and have some fun over here!... '

the high school coach: 'hey! you! get over here and shape up like the others!...'

fcukin idiots...I skived and went over by the bleachers and lit up a Camel...

earlier with my cousin who also was half bolivian lighting up Camels: 'Caryl Chessman was executed a while back and we went out and ran down the flag...'...'far out'...'yeah, the m.f.s brought in the cops and they chased us...'

later, he gave me a nice copy of Lord Jim for my 12th birthday that he stole from Vromans bookshop in Pasadena...Conrad is heavy going for a 12 year old so he said: 'yeah, and English ain't even his first language...try this Salinger instead....'

Edited March 29, 2013 by tutsiwarrior

[endure]

I'm reading 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel which is rather good apart from her habit when there are 2 or more male characters on a page of only using 'he' without giving any indications as to which character it is. It's just about manageable with 2 characters but when there's 3 or more you arrive at the bottom of the page not knowing quite which 'he' is 'he'.

[tutsiwarrior]

Hilary Mantel has a truly frightening robotic countenance but she is probably an OK writer...

I find that I prefer something mindless and comforting...

(at lunch across the table from my colleague the balance of plant engineer between mouthfuls of hoummous and babganoush and we all have kindle e readers: '(munch, schnoff) yeah, that Harry Potter business is OK when yer tryin' t'get t'sleep...

it wasn't good time to bring up David Foster Wallace...my colleague is from Manchester and pronounces 'book' as in 'beuk' like the Beatle Paul's unpleasant elderly uncle in the film "A Hard Day's Night'...

but I don't put him down, he lives with his wife in a village in north Wales and if we had a fire in the hearth and plenty of booze there would be plenty to discuss...

[onionluke]

I am just finishing up "The Lost City of Atlantis", by Gavin Menzies . Menzies used to drive submarines and through his submariner goggles he proposes that Atlantis was actually the island of Crete and the Minoans who lived there had an empire that stretched all the way from India to Lake Superior , building Stonehenge on the way . The book ends with the end of the bronze age .

[StreetCowboy]

I am just finishing up "The Lost City of Atlantis", by Gavin Menzies . Menzies used to drive submarines and through his submariner goggles he proposes that Atlantis was actually the island of Crete and the Minoans who lived there had an empire that stretched all the way from India to Lake Superior , building Stonehenge on the way . The book ends with the end of the bronze age .

I enjoyed his 1421: The year China discovered the world, though I'm always a bit sceptical. It was a riveting good read, though, while my flight was cancelled for a typhoon

SC

[TexasRanger]

Chickenhawk, by Robert Mason, about Huey pilots in Vietnam. I read it first time about 20 years ago, now reading it on my kindle. Marvelous invention.

[onionluke]

I am just finishing up "The Lost City of Atlantis", by Gavin Menzies . Menzies used to drive submarines and through his submariner goggles he proposes that Atlantis was actually the island of Crete and the Minoans who lived there had an empire that stretched all the way from India to Lake Superior , building Stonehenge on the way . The book ends with the end of the bronze age .

I enjoyed his 1421: The year China discovered the world, though I'm always a bit sceptical. It was a riveting good read, though, while my flight was cancelled for a typhoon

SC

I bought this book at the airport too . His whole argument relies on the sea fairing capabilities of the Minoans, 5000 years ago , in what were probably just big canoes with sails . A good read , no pun intended .

[DocN]

Just finished Larsens "The girl that kicked the hornets nest".....excellent!

Now starting with "Life of Pi". Read it some years ago and loved it. The movie just inspired me to read it again!

[BookMan]

Just finished Larsens "The girl that kicked the hornets nest".....excellent!

Now starting with "Life of Pi". Read it some years ago and loved it. The movie just inspired me to read it again!

I really enjoyed that series. Went straight from Book 1 to Book 2 to Book 3.

The Swedish films based on the three books are also good

[BookMan]

...is reading intended to be entertainment?...or, a challenge?

'

...'

I don't mind a read that challenges the brain but not a read that is a challenge to get through.

I generally see the fiction I read as being the entertainment value