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Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting In Iraq I just finished the first chapter after getting it for Christmas today, it is a book which profiles some employees of private security companies in Iraq (I.E. Blackwater, Crescent). The author won a Pulitzer for his international reporting for The Washington Post a few years ago.
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Dec 25, 2009 20:07
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I'm finishing up The Road, which if anything has made it feel colder outside. I'm just picking up FM 3-24, or the Counterinsurgency Field Manual. I'm very excited for it, as in my opinion it is kind of an unsung hero. It's been released publicly and is not only a new direction and resource for the people doing the fighting, but also as a kind of report from the military to the public as to what is being done to fight the wars.
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Dec 26, 2009 07:00
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Buried in books as Christmas presents. I was given: Let The Right One In by Jon Ajvide Lindqvist The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan Football and Chess by Adam Wells Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson (these last two are about soccer tactics) I'm reading The Dwarves by Markus Heitz and a friend of mine, in a demonstration of utter brainlessness, got me Digital Fortress by Book Barn's favourite fiction maven, Dan "People love cliches" Brown, a man who admitted to not even liking fiction.
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Dec 26, 2009 22:27
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I just began Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. I'm only about 100 or so pages in but so far the writing has just been amazingly vivid and I'm glad I followed up on whichever forum post recommended this. I also purchased a collection of fiction/stories by Jorge Luis Borges, Notes from Underground and other stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Siddhartha.
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Dec 27, 2009 05:56
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Glancing at the first page just reminded me that when this thread started, cover pics were s.o.p. So, this year's christmas haul:       The Klosterman, by virtue of being the shortest, got knocked out in a few hours xmas day. I'm quite looking forward to (probably) M&M next, but not until I finish off the last half of Celine's Journey to the End of the Night. (For lynx users, or in the interest of legibility, the pictured are: Pynchon/V.; Bulgakov/The Master and Margarita; Bely/Petersburg; Hornby/Juliet, Naked; Vonnegut/Look at the Birdie; Klosterman/Eating the Dinosaur.)
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Dec 27, 2009 06:35
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Stil working on The Road as I mentioned earlier. But in addition, I've been on a bit of a book binge, putting me in the somewhat unusual position of having a surfeit of reading material for some time to come. The pile now includes (i) Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace, which I am hoping will be as creatively compelling as its text is sprawling, (ii) When You Are Engulfed in Flames, a Sedaris book that I mean to use as a bit of reading candy, mainly on the strength of Me Talk Pretty Once Day, which more than lived up to its promise in that department, (iii) Generation Kill, by Evan Wright, a reporter's eye view of life in a Marine Recon unit in the invasion of Iraq that (to a layman anyway) provides some perspective on the fog of war as experienced by today's soldiers and (iv) The Informant, by Kurt Eichenwald, which I am hoping will offer a bit of perspective on how decisionmaking and control can go astray in a large organization.
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Dec 27, 2009 19:41
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Jut about to start Mieville's The City and the City. Bought it off Amazon as an early Christmas present but I had a slew of library books to wade through first. Looking forward to it since I keep hearing it's a shift from his previous stuff and of course I'm a big detective fiction fan, so this should be interesting.
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Dec 28, 2009 23:57
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I just began The Picture of Dorian Gray, my first Oscar Wilde novel. I'm actually really enjoying it. It's almost all dialogue, which I love. I really dislike authors that spend a lot of time describing things and throw in a few sentences of dialogue here and there, such as King.
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Dec 29, 2009 23:03
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Went to B&N with the gift cards I received for Christmas. Got The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington, The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly, The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld by Herbert Asbury, and War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest by Michael Rosenberg. I've been on a sci-fi kick lately so I'm looking forward to getting a little history and sports mixed in.
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Dec 29, 2009 23:37
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Gay4BluRayz posted:The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart When I saw that book on the shelf I knew there was no way I was walking out of the bookstore without it. My poo poo luck was that it was just before xmas so I gave it to my brother. The cover art is kick-loving-rear end. Has anyone read it? Is it as good as it looks?
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Dec 29, 2009 23:47
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vty posted:I just began The Picture of Dorian Gray, my first Oscar Wilde novel. I should hope so, considering that's his only novel 
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Dec 29, 2009 23:59
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Just started William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five which I got for Christmas. I've not read anything by either author before, and chose them purely based on reputation and a desire to rectify my shocking ignorance of most twentieth century classic novels.
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Dec 30, 2009 00:05
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A Thousand Splendid Suns. I read Kite Runner back in high school and really liked it. This has been a pleasure so far as well.
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Dec 30, 2009 02:18
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Just started Why I am not A Christian by Bertrand Russel. Been on my list of books to read for the past few years. Always see authors quoting him and such and finally getting the chance to read it. Ironically it was a Christmas gift.
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Dec 30, 2009 04:42
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bobwhoops posted:I should hope so, considering that's his only novel Wait, what? Why's he so popular then? He's the title of a million songs/bands.
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Dec 30, 2009 07:12
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vty posted:Wait, what? Why's he so popular then? He's the title of a million songs/bands. He wrote a number of poems, articles and plays, his most famous being The Importance of Being Earnest. It's really good and if you like Dorian Gray it's worth reading or trying to see performed.
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Dec 30, 2009 15:34
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Picked up a copy of The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan from some Book Exchange place for a nice $12. Haven't started yet, but I think its a nice way to get back into reading again.
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Dec 31, 2009 07:36
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Bought this today:
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Dec 31, 2009 14:16
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I went a little crazy after christmas, but I haven't really bought any books in about 5 months so it's okay. I recieved or bought: Hard Times by Charles Dickens A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes The Metamorphoses by Ovid The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri The Iliad and The Odyssey, Fagles translation Populations, Species, and Evolution, an Abridgement of Animal Species and Evolution by Ernst Mayr Systematics and the Origin of Species by Ernst Mayr On The Origin of Phyla by James W. Valentine Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane Oh, and thanks to this thread, I also picked up The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart because it looks awesome. These should keep me occupied for a while.
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Dec 31, 2009 20:53
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In addition to the handful from under the tree, I added to the christmas stack (via a b&n gift card) with David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. Just starting: The Master and Margarita. The first chapter was intriguing, haven't gotten further.
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Jan 2, 2010 05:51
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I just got My Life in France by Julia Child and Bonk by Mary Roach with Christmas gift cards. The Julia Child book appeals to me because I've recently been learning to cook and she kind of fascinates me. I'm starting Bonk first since the subject matter interests me more. It's about sex, by the same author who has already written funny books about research concerning dead bodies (Stiff) and the after life (Spook) I've read about 100 pages so far and it's great. Namirsolo fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Jan 2, 2010 |
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Jan 2, 2010 06:21
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The Evolution of God by Wright. I've Read a little of it. It sounded promising from the reviews I read and for the most part is an interesting read. But it seems like every chapter gets about 8/10 of the way to where it was going in a scholarly fashion and then abruptly launches into very shallow and emotional apologetics. It's just like reading or listening to Shelby Spong.
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Jan 2, 2010 15:46
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Went to the used book store and picked up Armageddon 2419 AD by Philip Francis Nowlan. It's the original novel upon which they based the "Buck Rogers" series. Although in the novel his name is Anthony Rogers and he's fighting off the Mongolian hordes who have conquered the world.
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Jan 3, 2010 05:26
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Kerafyrm posted:City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer. Just starting it tonight! I just finished this and the next book Shriek: An Afterword. Completely loved it, I already went and ordered the next one, Finch and also the author's books from another setting, Veniss Underground. Have just started Death's Door: Modern Dying and the Way We Grieve, a non-fiction about exactly what the title says. Also got up on deck: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. quote:I don't really know what the literary worlds consensus is on the Bronte sisters, but I really can't stand their work. I understand the importance to the treatment of women in literature, but I (and most of my classmates) truly hated some parts. As with everything, it's not for everyone. I couldn't understand what the hell was going on in Wuthering Heights the first time I read it because of the time shifts. Later, it became one of my favorite books. I didn't like Jane Eyre quite as much, but I had seen and read The Wide Sargasso Sea first so I guess I was kind of "spoiled." Some things take multiple reads to gain appreciation. It took me a long time to appreciate Dickens, but now he's one of my favorites so I'm kind of grateful for having had to keep reading him in different classes. Lowly fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Jan 3, 2010 |
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Jan 3, 2010 08:02
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The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. I always wanted to read the so-called 'first novel' ever since I saw it a few years ago at a bookstore. It's pretty long, so it ought to keep me busy for a while. I bought the Penguin classic edition, which has all sorts of nice footnotes and pictures. As an aside, I absolutely love the Penguin classic series; they publish some of the most obscure pieces of old literature out there, and are nice enough to usually couple them with end notes and scholarly introductions. I could die happy locked in a comfortable room with the complete set and enough food/water for the rest of my life. Thalamus posted:The Metamorphoses by Ovid I would suggest reading the Homeric epics, The Aeneid if you can get your hands on it, and The Metamorphoses (especially The Metamorphoses) before attempting Dante. It'll make a whole lot more sense (I mean, you probably have an edition with explanatory footnotes, but it's nice when you can recognize classical references on your own). Foyes36 fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Jan 4, 2010 |
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Jan 4, 2010 04:18
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I've just started reading If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. It's about a man who just can't find the book he is looking for. Every other chapter is a passage from a different book. It's very meta, but has amazing diction so far.
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Jan 4, 2010 04:53
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Today I took my Christmas vouchers to the city and got: A Wolf At The Table by Augusten Burroughs The Fade by Chris Wooding John Dies At The End by David Wong Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke And now I'm on BookDepository about to buy Boneshaker by Cherie Priest and Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions Of Evolution by Nick Lane. I'll have a lot to read before uni starts up again 
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Jan 4, 2010 06:09
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Yesterday I picked up: Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger's by John Elder Robinson (Augusten Burroughs' older brother) Push by Sapphire (The book the movie Precious was based off of) Lucky by Alice Sebold ( a memoir by the woman that wrote The Lovely Bones about her rape at 18 and how it's changed her life) I read Push in about 3 hours last night. It's a really interesting writing style as it's told from the point of view of an illiterate 16 year old. It starts out with most words written out phonetically and then as she goes on through a literacy program the spelling improves. It can be hard to read at times though because it includes very graphic scenes of her incestuous rape from her perspective. (Don't worry, I didn't spoil anything that wasn't already revealed on the back cover)
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Jan 5, 2010 18:50
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Just bought: The Divine Comedy by Dante The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins God is Not Great by Chris Hitchens, I believe, book is in my car right now Freakonomics by Steve Levitt The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin *Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris *indicates books I've read, loved it
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Jan 6, 2010 04:49
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Selina Kyle posted:Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger's by John Elder Robinson (Augusten Burroughs' older brother) Would love to read this, having read all of Augusten Burroughs' memoirs - to see (some of) the same stories from a different eye view. If you've read this yet, or if anyone else here has, how much does Augusten feature in the book?
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Jan 6, 2010 11:36
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Reading Indignation by Philip Roth and have McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Delillo's Underworld waiting in the wings.
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Jan 7, 2010 05:38
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I just bought two Stephen Fry books on Bookdepository: Moab Is My Washpot, his autobiography, and the novel The Liar. I'm really excited to read both of these.
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Jan 7, 2010 15:12
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I picked up both The Anubis Gates, which I started last night, and Middlesex, which will likely be next up. Both were bought after reading positive reviews around the Book Barn, so I thought I'd give them a shot.
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Jan 8, 2010 01:10
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I just bought Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. But it seems everyone here hates her and this book. I love it so far (about 200 pages in) and can't really put it down for any length of time.
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Jan 8, 2010 04:56
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Just used a credit at Audible to get Impact by Douglas Preston. I'm trying to fill the techno-thriller vacuum left by Pirate Latitudes kinda sucking 
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Jan 8, 2010 06:32
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ANGRY_KOREA_MAN posted:I just bought Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. But it seems everyone here hates her and this book. I love it so far (about 200 pages in) and can't really put it down for any length of time. People poo poo all over her fiction because she has a horrible philosophy, but the stories really are good. To contribute, I just started the 16th Oz book, Kabumpo in Oz. When I committed myself to reading the entire Oz series, I never thought there were forty-one of them! Oh well, they're short kids' books so it's not like they take more than a day to read.
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Jan 9, 2010 16:17
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LooseChanj posted:People poo poo all over her fiction because she has a horrible philosophy, but the stories really are good. That and she writes like a highschool student. Her prose is the some of the most jarringly bad, awkward sounding stuff in popular fiction. I'm about halfway through David Foster Wallace's short story collection Girl with Curious Hair. I finished Infinite Jest a few days ago and now plan on marathoning through all of DFW's stuff. I'm really liking it so far. John Billy is a great display of DFW's chameleon-like talents at voice, and it reads a little like a more playful Cormac McCarthy. My Appearance, the story about the woman going on Letterman, is one of the more brilliant, concise statements on irony I've read. And the title story is extremely creepy - Sick Puppy is a pretty frightening creation. After I'm done with DFW I've got How to Be Good by Dick Hornby calling my name. Red Pyramid fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Jan 9, 2010 |
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Jan 9, 2010 18:34
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After finishing Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Res Skies by Scott Lynch I decided to begin Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, book 1 of the Malazan Fallen Empire Series. I am only 40 or so pages into and I am liking it so far. I can sense the same sort of rawness in the way Erikson writes much like GRRM, who I love like any good TBB goon would. I love winter break because I get to read all these awesome fantasy series I put off during the school year.
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Jan 10, 2010 01:11
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Just started reading Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. About a 100 pages in and it's been really good so far. Really annoyed with myself for glancing at it in the books store so many times and ignoring it because I thought it was a fictional crime book.
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Jan 10, 2010 01:19
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ANGRY_KOREA_MAN posted:I just bought Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. But it seems everyone here hates her and this book. I love it so far (about 200 pages in) and can't really put it down for any length of time.
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Jan 10, 2010 01:30
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