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What are you reading?

rousseau said:
Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and it's Tributaries by David Livingstone, originally published in 1865.

I got a new, hardcover version of this for Christmas. I'd had it on my e-reader but thought a physical copy might be nice. Very interesting read.
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If you found that interesting then you should read The Life and Labours of David Livingstone by J.E.Chambliss. There is a 1875 edition for sale on Amazon.com for $50 USD and some 1970 edition paperback edition for $26 and change. Other editions are on line but all of them are of American old and new editions and, no offence to our American friends, it would somehow grate on me to read copies of an1875 book about a 19C Scottish explorer in Africa written in "American" starting with Labors for Labours right on the cover and title pages. OK guys, I'd be quite comfortable reading about Stanley in Africa in 19C, written in "American". :)

I say explorer and not missionary advisedly, as he personally only "converted" one single African to Xtianity. He did start a massive missionary effort in Africa to fight slavery through his example and writings and speeches on his return from his first voyage.
 
4321lynx said:
rousseau said:
Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and it's Tributaries by David Livingstone, originally published in 1865.

I got a new, hardcover version of this for Christmas. I'd had it on my e-reader but thought a physical copy might be nice. Very interesting read.
Click to expand...

If you found that interesting then you should read The Life and Labours of David Livingstone by J.E.Chambliss. There is a 1875 edition for sale on Amazon.com for $50 USD and some 1970 edition paperback edition for $26 and change. Other editions are on line but all of them are of American old and new editions and, no offence to our American friends, it would somehow grate on me to read copies of an1875 book about a 19C Scottish explorer in Africa written in "American" starting with Labors for Labours right on the cover and title pages. OK guys, I'd be quite comfortable reading about Stanley in Africa in 19C, written in "American". :)

I say explorer and not missionary advisedly, as he personally only "converted" one single African to Xtianity. He did start a massive missionary effort in Africa to fight slavery through his example and writings and speeches on his return from his first voyage.
Click to expand...

I am interested in the early editions. I checked out an old version from the library a number of months ago and it was a beautiful book. Unfortunately I was trying to fit the copy I got over Christmas within a 75 dollar secret santa limit, along with a title by Crawford Young.

As far as I can tell all of these titles exist at Gutenberg, though, so hard to justify spending 75 - 100 on an old physical copy when you can get the text itself for free.
 
The End of All Things - John Scalzi

I was hesitant to get this book at first, reviews had led me to believe it was quite a departure in content from previous Old Man's War books but as it turns out I just really enjoy Scalzi's writing style so I'm enjoying the book quite well even though it's a very different type of book.
 
Oscar Peterson's autobiography, A Jazz Odyssey -- not a perfect book, but it includes insights and personal reflections that a 'magisterial' bio by a seasoned jazz writer would have missed. The book has the same class and seriousness that OP's music has. Most valuable, for me, are the anecdotes about his peers in the jazz world, and he met and worked with almost everyone in that world as it existed in the 50s (with his JATP tours) and later in the 60s and beyond (with his many appearances at Montreux and on world tours.) He also describes some experiences with racism that he found searing -- he is unsparing in his descriptions of the rage and despair he felt when he was assaulted with racist epithets. A few drawbacks: he doesn't give the years in which events occur...he doesn't name many specific recordings that a reader might then acquire...he refers obliquely to several marriages and to children but is unwilling to write in a personal vein on this part of his life. (I'm halfway through the book, so there may be passages coming up that address those last two caveats.)
 
Records of the Grand Historian - Qian Sima, translated by Burton Watson

I went to the library for this one, a translation of historical records from the Han Dynasty in China, in and around the 1st and 2nd century B.C.. I've only given it the briefest of looks so far.

The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: from early times to the thirteenth century, translated by Burton Watson

I also did some searching for other works Watson had translated and found this. Of course the first poem had some guy lusting after a woman.

The Confucian Analects, translated by Simon Leys

This was in the general vicinity of the poetry book, and I'd been wanting to read it too. I spent the most time on this one last night and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
 
Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield

“A king does not abide within his tent while his men bleed and die upon the field. A king does not dine while his men go hungry, nor sleep when they stand at watch upon the wall. A king does not command his men's loyalty through fear nor purchase it with gold; he earns their love by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endures for their sake. That which comprises the harshest burden, a king lifts first and sets down last. A king does not require service of those he leads but provides it to them...A king does not expend his substance to enslave men, but by his conduct and example makes them free.”
 
I'm reading a kids' series, Wings of Fire, and I hope Jimmy Higgins spots this because he was looking for good books for this age group a while back.
 
Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen. I did some research a few weeks ago and stumbled on this book, which is considered a classic. It describes how to discipline kids in a win-win way that actually works, while maintaining their self-esteem.

I've struggled to get through the past few parenting books I read, mostly because they tend to be light on ideas, and heavy on explanation. This one seems like it'll be a critical read, though.

I've also finally cleared my house of library books - this might be the first time in a couple years that's happened.
 
Lake Wobegon Days, by Garrison Keillor -- mainly because I've owned a copy for 20 years and want to get it off my shelf. It has its moments, but it is hardly a novel, as Wikipedia terms it -- it's more like fictional social history. Keillor invents a small Minnesota town and tells you about its people and their doings over a century's time. There are dull patches, and there are some earthy comedic stories. It is taking me longer to read than I predicted (it's around 340 pp. and I still have 100 to go.) In a nutshell, this is the PG-13 version of Mayberry RFD.
 
Politics in the Congo: Decolonization and Independence by Crawford Young.

I finally caved and went back to the library to check this title out, Young's first work. I likely won't give it a ton of attention, but plan to browse through it a bit this weekend.
 
Hearing a couple weeks ago about the 75th anniversary of the firebombing of Dresden got me to finally pick up Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. I should have read more of his books years ago.
 
hurtinbuckaroo said:
Hearing a couple weeks ago about the 75th anniversary of the firebombing of Dresden got me to finally pick up Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. I should have read more of his books years ago.
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I read a lot of Vonnegut a number of years ago, I had quite the affinity for Mother Night.

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
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“It was not the thought that I was so unloved that froze me. I had taught myself to do without love.
It was not the thought that God was cruel that froze me. I had taught myself never to expect anything from Him.
What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction. What had made me move through so many dead and pointless years was curiosity.
Now even that had flickered out.
How long I stood frozen there, I cannot say. If I was ever going to move again, someone else was going to have to furnish the reason for moving.
Somebody did.
A policeman watched me for a while, and then he came over to me, and he said, "You alright?"
Yes," I said.
You've been standing here a long time," he said.
I know," I said.
You waiting for somebody?" he said.
No," I said.
Better move on, don't you think?" he said.
Yes, sir," I said.
And I moved on.”
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In retrospect one sees hints of Vonnegut's chronic depression in these words.
 
In a history mood of late. I've picked up a pair of related works, both attempts at a general history of Native American nations coping with US policies, in adjoining time periods: Brit expat historian Colin Calloway's "One Vast Winter Count; the Native American West before Lewis and Clark", and former BIA legal expert Charles Wilkinson's "Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations".

I can already highly recommend both as organized and professional presentations of complex issues. Americans should be especially interested in the latter work, as it both explains the present situation well and fills in some major gaps in almost all state history curricula. British folks would be more naturally interested in the former volume, which likewise contradicts many supposed truisms about the Colonial era.

I also recently finished a slightly older work, Ronald Hutton's "The Witch, a history of fear from ancient times to the present". Characteristically of its author, it is long and dense, and I wouldn't recommend it as anyone's first book on witchcraft. But it filled in some gaps in my own knowledge, and his summary thoughts were compelling enough that I think they'll be making it in to my witch trials lecture next term.
 
I couldn't resist and checked out a few titles by Rupert Emerson today, who was Crawford Young's PhD advisor and mentor. From Empire to Nation: The Rise to Self-Assertion of Asian and African Peoples and Africa and United States Policy.

Emerson, born in 1899, was a famous scholar who had quite a bit of influence on Young, who is my favourite writer to date. I don't expect to absorb too much of these titles, just giving them a browse.
 
Dataclysm. An awesome book about stuff about relationships and dating learned by the guy who ran Okcupid. It's an analysis of big data
 
I’m reading Antimony Gold and Jupiter’s Wolf, how the elements were named. I’m finding it quite enjoyable. Written by Peter Wothers, a chemist at Cambridge, it’s a leisurely history of chemistry, starting with the ancients and the four element theory. I’m about a third of the way through and we still haven’t gotten to the modern concept of a chemical element, although we’re getting close. It contains a good pocket history of medieval mining, the gradual acceptance of the fact that there were more than seven metals (there had to be just seven to correspond to the seven known planets), and the gradual appearance of semi-experimental chemists from the ranks of alchemists.

I posted on another thread at some point that my avatar is a depiction of the alchemist Hennig Brandt discovering phosphorous. Apparently he developed a process for distilling urine to yield the element. Well it turns out that he required something on the order of 30 gallons of urine (that’s over 110 liters) to get an appreciable amount of phosphorous. He enlisted a local regiment to provide it for him. Now that’s dedication to experiment! His main problem was when he demonstrated his discovery the ladies in the audience objected strongly to the noxious odor.
 
rousseau said:
I couldn't resist and checked out a few titles by Rupert Emerson today, who was Crawford Young's PhD advisor and mentor. From Empire to Nation: The Rise to Self-Assertion of Asian and African Peoples and Africa and United States Policy.

Emerson, born in 1899, was a famous scholar who had quite a bit of influence on Young, who is my favourite writer to date. I don't expect to absorb too much of these titles, just giving them a browse.
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I finally managed to go through most of 'Africa and United States Policy', and a bit of 'From Empire to Nation'. The former is actually very good, and I believe originally intended as a journal entry rather than a book. Emerson adds some perspective that I've never heard from Young, mainly in the realm of international politics and how the U.S. was kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't regarding Africa. Too little aid to Africa and they don't care, too much aid and they're accused of neo-colonialism. Very interesting perspectives. Not quite done it yet, but looking forward to the rest.

Another aspect of African history I didn't realize is that their independence was kind of swept up with that of Asia and had no natural emergence. It just happened because it was starting to happen more legitimately in other regions in the world. I had an inkling that this is what happened, but I didn't realize that there was a relationship with developing Asian countries.
 
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