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What are you reading?

Have picked up Paul Johnson's 'A History of Christianity' again after a pretty long hiatus. Started reading it in summer 2014 to give it a bit of a glance, got about 100 pages in and was satisfied for the time being (bookmark is still in its spot.. heh).

I feel like I'm coming at it with a bit more perspective now and am going to try to give it a more careful reading right from the beginning again. It's one of the denser, and harder to read books I own, though, so who knows how long I'll last before I lose interest again. Might need to skip around to the different chapters and try to get a cursory understanding.
 
I'm reading about the 1973 Yom Kippur war in Israel. This book gives a good account of the fighting and decisions behind the differing battles. It was a wake up call to the IDF who were under the impression the Arabs were a pushover. The first few days of the surprise attack on israel at least showed it was far from the reality.
 
rousseau said:
Have picked up Paul Johnson's 'A History of Christianity' again after a pretty long hiatus. Started reading it in summer 2014 to give it a bit of a glance, got about 100 pages in and was satisfied for the time being (bookmark is still in its spot.. heh).

I feel like I'm coming at it with a bit more perspective now and am going to try to give it a more careful reading right from the beginning again. It's one of the denser, and harder to read books I own, though, so who knows how long I'll last before I lose interest again. Might need to skip around to the different chapters and try to get a cursory understanding.
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So I decided to make it a goal of mine for 2016 to finish this book. After taking another look at it, it doesn't seem as difficult as I had thought and I'm actually making pretty swift progress, about a fifth of the way through now. The first section 'The Survival of the Jesus Sect', was pretty obscure and difficult to get through, so that might have shaded my lens a bit.

In any case, am going to be making notes as I go through it which will be found here:
http://talkfreethought.org/showthre...ristianity-by-Paul-Johnson-and-it-s-hilarious
 
Having forgotten to put the Aubrey/Maturin novels 17-20 on hold at the library, I am reading Subtopia by A.L. McCann. It is somewhat weird reading something set in the city, if not the suburb, I grew up in. McCann points out that suburbs are to cities as Australia is to the rest of the world (Not a direct quote, I can't find it.) and has some interesting views on stagnation.

Dreading getting through the last Patrick O'Brian book. They have been wonderful.
 
Elmore Leonard "Road Dogs". He was the best at believable dialogue.
 
I'm reading a biography about my greatest hero

Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges

Yes, I'm a computer nerd and he's arguably computings greatest mind ever. Also made into a film. It wasn't until I was half way through the book a friend pointed out how it had been made into a film, "the Imitation Game". And I saw it. While the film is good it dramatises things in a way which hides reality. I understand why they do it, it's for dramatic effect which is necessary to make a film entertaining. The reality is much more interesting. A film is good for conveying emotions, not ideas and Turing was an ideas man. The book also goes into great detail on the minutiae of his mathematical papers and explains why they were interesting. This may not entertain a person who isn't into maths. But I am. Also crucial for understanding why he got put into the position he was given so much power. He was a man who won the political game within Great Britain's secret service based on track record alone. He was famously unskilled at politics, habitually saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

If you like maths I recommend this. There's few true heroes* in the world who won a war with the help of his maths.

* if you are a Nazi Turing was a villain
 
Carrying Albert Home, by Homer Hickam. Subtitled "A somewhat true story of a man, his wife and her alligator.

Homer is of course the coalwood, W. VA Rocketboy. Another of his great books and later a movie.

He has written a really fun "yarn" in this book. Lots of giggles. At the end of each chapter and sometimes more often, I look to the inside back cover and there is Homer's picture, still grinning at me, and I think saying "fun, isn't it!
 
I'm rereading the War Against the Chtorr. It's a SF series wherein the Earth is being invaded by an alien ecology that is simply more competitive and advanced than the Terran ecology. I did gradschool ecology, and this doesn't miss a step. There's even a GURPS books about it.

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I'm rereading the War Against the Chtorr. It's a SF series wherein the Earth is being invaded by an alien ecology that is simply more competitive and advanced than the Terran ecology. I did gradschool ecology, and this doesn't miss a step. There's even a GURPS books about it.

pic530465.jpg
 
Part of the way through Fear Is the Rider by Kenneth Cook.

A killer on the loose in outback Australia.

''It was quite silent in the scrub. No breeze stirred the leaves and no bird moved, except for the kite hawks wheeling silently, eternally, high in the hot air.

She smelt her attacker before she saw him.

A heavy stench hit her with such force that she started with shock. It was a smell she’d never encountered before. Not man, not animal, something like carrion, but alive. It ...''
 
Wiploc said:
They are infinitely rereadable.
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I intend to get my own copies. :)


TV and credit cards said:
That's a good idea. I've been having a hard time lately finding some interesting fiction. These are the only hardbound books I own. They look nice next to my sandglass

Spike, don't forget 21
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I've been reading a set from the library, four books to a volume. They included that in the last volume. I'm just about to start it.

Fine paper and a book mark ribbon. I've enjoyed the physical sensation of reading them, too.
 
Now that my younger son has started them, I've also begun the Harry Potter series. I'm on book 2 already now. Many years ago, I'd started reading the first one to the boys and gotten about 7 or 8 chapters in before somehow losing track of it. That helped me get through the first one even more quickly.

I do have to say that I don't get the fuss over Hermione being now played by a black woman; there really isn't any reason, based on her description in the book to assume she's white. Her hair is mentioned and her attitude, and that's it. People are only up in arms because they got used to seeing Emma Watson in the films.
 
It's very ironic, since Hermione battled prejudice based on her birth.
 
The Farenheit Twins - Michel Faber

The Zone of Interest - Martin Amis

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher - Hilary Mantel

NW - Zadie Smith

The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell



All critical acclaim echoed by this reader.
 
Worldwar: In the Balance by Harry Turtledove

Aliens have invaded Earth and Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill and Hitler are allied against them.

It's not very well written. Really silly. I still can't stop reading. It's chock full of stereotypes. I can tell Turtledove love military machines.

Silly but enjoyable
 
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