What book are you reading?

23scidoo

HughFreakingDillon

read Seth Rogan's Year Book while on vacation at the beach. Funny beach read. 

23scidoo

GlowGirl

23scidoo said:

I read that book - pretty good.

brianlux

I just started reading American Authors Series: Wendell Berry edited by Paul Merchant. I came across a copy of this book in a used bookstore in South Lake Tahoe yesterday. Having read a lot of Wendell Berry, I am certain to enjoy this collection of works by and about Wendell Berry.

A well regarded bookseller I know from Salt Lake City, Ken Sanders, told me (and has stated elsewhere), "Wendell Berry is the greatest living American author". That would be difficult to argue.

As an aside (and one one generally negligible importance), I just learned that Wendell Berry and I share a birth date: August 5th!

23scidoo

GlowGirl said:

23scidoo said:

I read that book - pretty good.

About 65 pages in and looks promising!!

D-Day

last one finished 

Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton 

started
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

both upcoming movies + with futuristic beings:
Mickey is a human and a renewed version of himself. Each time made to survive the next deadly mission on a distant planet.
Klara is a AI being, something that  (some?) parents buy for teenage kids but seemingly for a different reason than just for fun. The AI just moved from the shop to a new home and was baffled by the first sunset out there.
It’s written from the AI’s point of view and that hightech thing is a thinking being. Unforeseeable where this all leads.

Wobbie

pretty damn interesting. I never gave much thought to what it would have been like to sail from england to cape horn in 1740.

23scidoo

Wobbie said:

pretty damn interesting. I never gave much thought to what it would have been like to sail from england to cape horn in 1740.

I got this on my list..film adaptation is coming..

brianlux

Well now, here's the thing: I've read piles of what are often referred to as classics, you know, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Harper Lee, Dostoevsky, Stein, Cather, Capote, Huxley, London, Kesey, Orwell, and on and on and on. Great stuff for the most part, though mostly depressing tragedies, but now and then some comedy, and, of course, tons of great writing.

But wait! Never A Farewell to Arms? Well, I must do something about that! I mean, after all, it's considered, as it says on the inside front dust jacket flap, "...one of the supreme literary achievements of our time." A must read, right? Right!

OK, well I'm about 120 pages in and so far we've got Frederick hanging out with Rinaldi, et al, and meets Catherine, whom he swears he will not fall in love with, and then off to war we go and he gets his legs all blown up, then suddenly we're in Milan and he's a mess and falls in love with Catherine anyway, and then its page after page of, "Oh darling this" and "Oh darling that", and "darling, darling, darling..." and, "You do love me, don't you?", and "Oh yes, darling, forever," and... Jiminy Cricket, what all!

Jeez Louise, please, tell me it gets better!

Pap

brianlux

Having quickly finished off the most disappointing Hemingway book I can imagine (A Farewell to Arms), I really wanted to get into a good read.  And OH did I find one!  Record producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin's The Creative Act: A Way of Being, is a collection of relatively short essays about creativity.  I'm only 25 pages in and already feel like this is a treasure trove of great ideas.  First off, I love it that Rubin starts off by saying:

Some ideas may resonate,

others may not.

A few may awaken and inner knowing

you forgot you had.

Use what's helpful.

Let go of the rest.

But let's be honest here.  For those who read this book, some will love it, some will hate it.  But then, maybe a few of the haters might read the little verse above and not be so cynical.  

Me?  I'm loving it.  I read a few of the essays to my wife and she's on board as well.

23scidoo

Pap said:

Thats a good one..

Loujoe

Getting in the  spirit 

Loujoe

xavier mcdaniel

Read this in two days: 

23scidoo

brianlux

I'm back into reading Charles Bowden (bow like ribbon and bow).  This one is called Mezcal and unlike much of his other work which is basically creatively and intensely wrought journalism (though Bowden did not particularly care to be referred to as a journalist), this little gem fits nicely into what we might today described as a "road trip" book.  Were it not for the obvious fact that Jack Kerouac's work basically invented that genre, or that my saying this might come across as offensive, I would say I am finding that Mezcal makes On the Road read like a rough draft of a good idea.  (I'm not the only one who feels this way- check out some of the better written critical reviews on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70401.On_the_Road  ).

But now I have made the unseemly transgression of implying one thing is "better" than another, and we all know that kind of comparison is at the least unfair, if not risky business.  So let's just say this:  If you like Kerouac, or other road trip literature, or are even mildly interested in being taking to fascinating places, Mezcal might just be the ticket.  I'm digging the ride, myself.  

soph189

Trying to finish this before I watch the final season of My Brilliant Friend 

g under p

I'm reading this 500+ page book about my father and uncle. They were one of three pioneers of the Jamaican Sound System they created starting back in the early 50's through the 60's. I can recall when I was 6-10 when my father would tour the island playing some concerts, dances and any gathering that required superior sound for entertainment.  I spent the summers in the country with him and I was popular with my friends because I could get in even though we were very young.

They had a huge record shop in Kingston, with thousands and thousands of records mostly 45s. There, musicians who wanted their music to be heard came to get their music distributed to the public. THIS, was b4 major radio stations came about in the 50s. The likes of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff would visit his record shop searching for a chance to get their music out. THIS was the era of SKA, ROCK STEADY then REGGAE music.

My father and uncle are both alive today. My father 96, my uncle at 93. 

Peace