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Thread: What are we reading?

  1. #11
    Prodigal Son
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    Moooochos grassy arse

    Also reading Montalbano number II (Terracotta Dog), having been to Sicily last September. Quite funny.

  2. #12
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Currently: "Wilson" by A. Scott Berg - a biography of Woodrow Wilson. Pretty good so far.

  3. #13
    Supreme Member lostnight's Avatar
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    My most recent book I finished was Cell by Stephen King, because I love his writing, and because I read they were going to make it into a movie in 2014 starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson (umm, not Lawrence Fishburne, lol). Very good book, except for the last page, he could have done that better. Not really the result I complain about, as much as the briefness of it. The movie is already taking some deviations from the book. It will be set in Atlanta instead of Boston. Also, the girl that tags along with them is a neighbor instead of a random stranger. Still looking forward to it.

    Getting so sick of the winter, I went with another Stephen King book, this one set in Florida; Duma Key. Only 27% done, like it so much so far, the location is a good escape from this long nasty Ohio winter.

  4. #14
    Senior Member sandydandy's Avatar
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    Loved Cell!

  5. #15
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by George View Post
    Currently: "Wilson" by A. Scott Berg - a biography of Woodrow Wilson. Pretty good so far.
    Finished this last week. Fantastic biography. A great study of life in a time of amazing change, violence, bigotry, corruption in business and government, European empires falling and new boundaries being drawn in Europe, and so much more.

    Standing here in 2014, it's easy to see some of the far-reaching effects of this European reconstruction, far beyond even WWII. Example: I have a friend who is veteran of the 1990s Bosnian conflict. The causes of that war can be drawn back to WWI pretty directly - "Hey, you people who don't like those people across the border, listen up! You all now live in the same country. Hope you can learn to get along."

    As my friend says, "Those people have been fighting the same war for hundreds of years. That's why I left. It's not over."

    I remember writing essay exam questions in college about Wilson's Fourteen Points and wrote a term paper on Eugene V. Debs but wow - this book was just chock full o' knowledge about the times that I did not know or had forgotten from my college studies and I enjoyed spending some time in the past with this great book.

    My highest recommendation for "Wilson".

    Oh, and something special for the oft-maligned GTXF Cycling Crew - Wilson was an avid cyclist who toured the UK on bicycle more than once, including riding from Edinburgh to Glasgow wearing "cycling shorts and a waterproof cape".

    Reading "Wilson" hot on the heels of "Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes To War" as mentioned here previously, was a good combination.

    Currently listening to another audiobook from the library: "The Men Who United The States" by Simon Winchester. Winchester is an Englishman who is now a naturalized US citizen, and as he says, "after a half-century of wishing". It's a book of US history with his own 20th and 21st century experiences at historical American sites included...sort of like a cross between a history book and "Travels With Charley". This audiobook is read by the author and it's fun to hear such Englishisms in a book about the history of America with such phrases as "had grown quite tiresome" in reference to the leader of an enemy country, and "longitude" with a hard G. There's a great deal about surveying and geology and socialist communes so far. Interesting book. I'm about 20% into it now. It's pretty good and quite entertaining - the author tells good tales.
    Last edited by George; February 26th, 2014 at 09:18 AM.

  6. #16
    mAdminstrator Random's Avatar
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    I've read a pair of Winchester's other books: The Map that Changed the World, which is about one of the first geologic maps, and Kraktoa: The Day the World Exploded, which is pretty self-explanatory. Interesting stuff.
    Whoomah!

  7. #17
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    Both of those were pretty good, but for my money his best book is The Professor and the Madman, about the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary (and a lunatic).
    Recommend.
    -Formerly Stabulator

  8. #18
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    I am almost finished with Winchester's "The Men Who United The States". This man is a great storyteller. He reminds me of my favorite college professors in history and political science - men who could lecture facts all day but who would go off on tangential tales that were as entertaining as educational.

    On the way home from work last night, I picked up another Winchester audiobook from the library, again read by the author: "Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Historic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories". I assume I will enjoy it. I'm on the lookout for "Kraktoa" too - that's a story I know little about but it seems very interesting.

  9. #19
    mAdminstrator Random's Avatar
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    It's "Krakatoa," I fat-fingered the title above. Sorry!
    Whoomah!

  10. #20
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Funny. I typed it that way at first and then scrolled up to your post to check my spelling.

    I'll remember not to copy test answers from your paper in the future.

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