What are you reading?

[Isotopia]

Reading the 1979 out of print book Bloodsport: A Journey Up the Hassayampa by Robert F. Jones. Recommended to me by a friend who reads more books than any human I know. This is one of his faves. I can see why.

Sort of a Huck Finn on steroids meets Hemingway's Nick Adams Stories with Vonnegut as the river guide. A lost masterpiece of American fiction.

NOTE: this is a total 'guy' book. You've been warned.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911309,00.html

[FIGJAM]

Looked up the original versions of "Grimms fairy tales".

S. King could'nt do better.

[can't sit still]

I'm reading "Seed of Knowledge, Stones of Plenty". It's absolutely fascinating in that it postulates that the various megaliths and mounds and pyramids were built to "condition" seeds for better fertility. The authors have extensive support for their claims.
http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Knowledge-St ... 1571781846
This is an interesting paper related to the topic. http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2010/ ... iology.htm
It mentions "The Primeval Code" Unfortunately, I don't read German. http://www.urzeit-code.com/index.php?id=23
"In laboratory experiments the researchers there Dr. Guido Ebner and Heinz Schürch exposed cereal seeds and fish eggs to an 'electrostatic field' – in other words, to a high voltage field, in which no current flows. Unexpectedly primeval organisms grew out of these seeds and eggs: a fern that no botanist was able to identify; primeval corn with up to twelve ears per stalk; wheat that was ready to be harvested in just four to six weeks. And giant trout, extinct in Europe for 130 years, with so-called salmon hooks. It was as if these organisms accessed their own genetic memories on command in the electric field,"

There is current use of magnetic treatment for seeds;
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department ... ll/eng7939

[Isotopia]

Unexpectedly primeval organisms grew out of these seeds and eggs: a fern that no botanist was able to identify; primeval corn with up to twelve ears per stalk; wheat that was ready to be harvested in just four to six weeks. And giant trout, extinct in Europe for 130 years, with so-called salmon hooks. It was as if these organisms accessed their own genetic memories on command in the electric field,"

I see you're a fiction fan.

[Sic Pup]

The Chicken Chronicles: Sitting with the Angels Who Have Returned with My Memories: Glorious, Rufus, Gertrude Stein, Splendor, Hortensia, Agnes of God, The Gladyses, & Babe: A Memoir
by Alice Waters

Love that the title is a mouthful.

[Eric]

Lenin, Stalin and Hitler; the Age of Social Catastrophe

I wouldn't really recommend this if you haven't done other reading on the period, but if you have it's absolutely fascinating. It's giving me a lot more awareness of the era, and it's a period I've read a lot about.

It's also almost 600 pages of small print- it may be time for reading glasses....

[Sic Pup]

The Chicken Chronicles: Sitting with the Angels Who Have Returned with My Memories: Glorious, Rufus, Gertrude Stein, Splendor, Hortensia, Agnes of God, The Gladyses, & Babe: A Memoir
by Alice Waters

Love that the title is a mouthful.

I really need to wear my reading glasses when selecting books.

I knew something was up two paragraphs in as it was news to me that Alice was a poet.

Granted, it's less than 200 pages but I sat down in the sun on a cool autumn day with the dog snoring in my ear and devoured the entire thing in one sitting.

Almost every chapter began with "Dear girls" (or a derivation) and ended with "Love Mommy".

I never though a book comprised entirely of letters to chickens could be so profound.

The author was Alice WALKER.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE unexpected things!

and as if I needed further confirmation I am an idiot.

[Jax Dee]

Sins of the House of Borgia by Sarah Bower. It is a fictional account of historical figures. Fascinating and very well written. The characters really come alive for you.

[shykat]

Do It! by Jerry Rubin

[MOOP_Nazi]

The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

[BAS]

"A Perfect Spy" by John LeCarre'

Got it for free from a radio call in.

[Jax Dee]

Just Kids by Patti Smith. Autobiography. Just...wow. What an amazing life she and Robert Mapplethorpe had together. The end, where she says her goodbyes to Robert, made me bawl my eyes out.

[MOOP_Czar]

Evolving Health - Noel Boez.

Analysis of how modern society is making us sick. Fun stuff.

[Sic Pup]

Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music - The Definitive Life by Tim Riley exhaustively researched it paints a very detailed picture of his life and provides a greater understanding of what made this genius such a miserable bastard. However, it's long (just shy of 800 pages) hence does take a certain level of commitment.

I picked up Broetry: Poetry for Dudes by Brian McGakin to break it up a bit but I ended up running through it in one sitting, it has it's moments. A few samples:

For Mama Celeste, as a Child

Mother cut tiny
slices for my small boy hands:
delicate pizza.

For Mama Celeste, in College

Hold up. This whole time
you were only a dollar?
You cheap, frozen whore.

For Mama Celeste, after College

Sorry about that.
Please take me back, Mama C.
I'm sick of ramen.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He's in Miami

Just in case the Los Angeles Police Department
is looking for information on the whereabouts of
a crafty-looking Latino male, age 30, about 5'10"
and extremely skinny, who likes to smoke pot
(a lot) and play video games all day, and who
enjoys drinking Newcastle, Guinness, and high
quantities of Vitamin Water, in the interests of
any ongoing drug-related crimes in the area, for
example, illegal possession, illegal sale, or illegal
production in his friend's apartment in Los Feliz,
he's in Miami.

If you manage to track him down, please let me
know. He owes me rent, two bottles of Arizona
Green Tea, and a frozen pizza. Supreme, please.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have finished
the beer
that was in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for Friday

Forgive me
this girl came over
so sweet
and so hot

[theCryptofishist]

Between books right now.
This does not seem like a bookcase I could live with...

[Sic Pup]

I finished the Lennon bio, spoiler alert - it's not a happy ending. I cracked Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams by Nick Webb. It's been awhile since I've read anything not from an American perspective (he says sheepishly) and I'm finding it refreshing. Predictably unpredictable it starts at the end and then jumps back several generations, looks like it may be quite the ride. I'm keeping a towel handy.

I attempted to find out WTF is going on with The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman that I was the first to reserve months before it's release with the Reference desk at my library. I could not get an answer as to why it came into the facility on 10/4 and is still "Being processed" when it's on the shelves of a dozen other libraries in the Interloan system. The dude at the desk was pleasantly surprised when he looked up my record and enthusiastically shared that it was one of his favorite authors. Something tells me I won't be seeing that copy any time soon.

I put in the request on interloan and it's in transit.

[Sic Pup]

The Visible Man has an awesome premise, love me some Klosterman, but I will say I was a tad disappointed in the ending, I thought it had greater potential. That said, since the copy I put on hold is finally processed I may just take that copy out and read it again to see what/if I missed something that would put the ending into context.

I'm on part 4 of the 6 part Addams trilogy on audiobook, listening to them make my walks fly by. I've also ripped the rest of the Addams audio books and will put them on the iPod.

I'm "reading" reading Zappa: A Biography by Barry Miles

[lucky420]

Just finished 2030 by Albert Brooks. Really liked it, funny and it kind of reminds me of what's happening in our country today. Or how it could get someday....

Just started "Room" by Emma Donahue

[theCryptofishist]

The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture, James H. Billington.
Quite readable, actually and when you're talking about schisms in churches in the 17th century that's no easy feat.
I was a hundred and some pages into a history of the Russian Revolution, and I put it down (It's just too heavy to commute with) and haven't picked it up again, but it was pretty good.
I re-read A History of the End of the World, and decided it was not a really first rate book, but since it was introducing me to interesting ideas it was worth my time and maybe I want to find a better book on the subject.

[bigdane]

Out of Oz - Gregory Maguire

[FIGJAM]

"The Poisoners Handbook. A History of forensic medicine"

Part of it tell's about how when proabition was'nt working, the government went to the industrial alcohol makers and required them to make their product more poisonous so the bootleggers could'nt re-distill to make a drinkable product.

Of course they did'nt tell tis to the bootleggers.

[wh..sh]

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

[lucky420]

Besides the book I mentioned earlier, all the panic posts in the 2012 Ticket Thread...

[Isotopia]

The panic thread is pretty funny. Hell if fucking hippies can figure out how to make it to a Dead show then half of the folks here have nothing to worry about.

[theCryptofishist]

The panic thread is pretty funny. Hell if fucking hippies can figure out how to make it to a Dead show then half of the folks here have nothing to worry about.

Yeah, the wind ups pretty good, but I fear we wont see all that lovely panic degrade into the entitled rants by lottery losers. or at least not that many...

[robbidobbs]

Job by Robt A Heinlein.
Read it 25 yrs ago, so it's time.
(Gotta stay off Discworld just a few .more. months...pant, pant)

[Jax Dee]

For those of you into fantasy novels, check out Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Trilogy. A-fucking-mazing!

Right now I am reading My Lobotomy - A Memoir by Howard Dully. A fascinating and horrifying look into the era when it became common practice to scramble someone's brains if they did not conform to societies ideals. You get a first point view of how this happened to a 12 ear old boy and the life he led after if happened.

[theCryptofishist]

I re-read A History of the End of the World, and decided it was not a really first rate book, but since it was introducing me to interesting ideas it was worth my time and maybe I want to find a better book on the subject.

I;ve wanted to write a "review" of this since I first read it in the summer, in fact at about the time the tickets were sold out. It struck me that this relatively minor thing suddenly becoming an event of major importance, far beyond its actual meaning was perhaps related to the tendency of European cultures to see an end whether its there or not. We were even calling it "Tickageddon" after all.
But the fantasy of the end of the world, as spelled out in Revaluation, seems to be beating the drums of history in our minds. Reading now about the Russian Revolution and I'm seeing how a millenarian turn of mind made it easier for the turn towards the Bolsheviks. People apparently thought that there would be no need of prisons, that they were living in the 1000 years of Christ's reign. And if that number of years sounds familiar to you, it should. 25 years later, the Germans began their experiment of living in the end times. And the whole 2012 nonsense. Somebody doesn't print out a calendar for 2013 and it's seen as denoting an end. We see that end everywhere, and there are plenty of examples of people expecting to be wafted off to heaven and having to come to disappointment at their staying on earth.
It's like this story (or meme, if you prefer) has become a parasitic idea that prevents us from living in the moment and seeing the actual problem at hand. Or even refusing to solve problems because we see it as a sign of good things to come. I've come to wonder if that's why some people don't worry about global climate change. And don't get me started on the shining city on the hill.
On a certain level this is a very scary book.

[Elorrum]

Home by Bill Bryson. Man can he meander! Lovin' the footnotes.

[ygmir]

just finished "Towers of Midnight" book 13 in the Wheel of Time series: Jordan (dead) and Sanderson.