What are you reading?

A place to discuss your favorite authors and poets, Christian and secular

Postby Dot » Mon May 25, 2009 9:54 pm

i just finished one of the best series i've ever read. it's the Restoration Series by Terry Blackstock. 4 books: Last Light, Night Light, True Light and Dawn's Light. they're a great combination of real life situations mixed with who-done-it mysteries, thriller, comic, romance with perfect Godly values and teachings.

to be read with a box of kleenix :forehead:
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Postby Htom Sirveaux » Thu May 28, 2009 5:19 pm

My extremely worn, battered and Scotch taped 16-year old paperback copy of Jurassic Park. I remember getting it from the RIF catalogue in sixth grade.
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Postby ich1990 » Fri May 29, 2009 10:25 am

“Man's Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl

I have held an appreciation for existential philosophy for much longer than I have had a label for it. This appreciation is due, in large part, to the influence of my father and his life philosophy. Likewise, my father and I have long enjoyed studying psychology on an amateur level. Given this background, I was very keen to read “Man's Search for Meaning” which was described as an overview of Frankl's “existentialism meets psychology” system of self help, which he calls Logotherapy.

“Man's Search for Meaning” is everything I expected it to be. I had heard rumors that this volume was a foundational book in the self-help genre, and indeed it was. In fact, I would go so far as to say that most self-help books written in the last half century (“Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” comes to mind) have been largely derivatives of the principles put forth in this one.

The scope of the book is excellent, which is surprising considering its brevity. The first portion is a personal account of Frankl's experiences in Nazi concentration camps, how he survived, and how his theory of Logotherapy got a chance to be put to the test in some of the most extreme conditions imaginable. The second part was a much more technical and less personal overview of Logotherapy. I found this part to be the most useful by far, because it expands on the basic principles and shows how they can be applied to many parts of life.

Along the way, Frankl stops to point out the critical differences between his view on mankind's basic driving forces and Adler and Freud's ideas of man's basic drives. Whereas Freud thought that man strove for pleasure and Adler thought that man pursued power, Frankl argues that mankind's most inner desire is that of meaning and purpose in life. This existential (and possibly religious) idea has powerful psychological and philosophical ramifications, many of which are outlined in the second section.

I found “Man's Search for Meaning” to be an almost perfect mix of theology, psychology, and philosophy in a way that is reminiscent of Kierkegaard's “The Sickness unto Death”. I recommend this book to anyone who is facing personal crises, major life decisions, or who simply wants to open themselves up to a new and satisfying way of thinking about life. 10/10
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Postby Anystazya » Sun May 31, 2009 7:51 pm

One of the books I'm reading right now is The Screwtape Letters by C.S.Lewis. I'm borrowing it from my sister...actually, I just got it from her, and I haven't really gone farther than the first page yet ^^' After I read that, I want to read Mere Christianity, another of my sister's books that I've heard is good :)

I'm also reading a book from my church, called The Yada-Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson. It's interesting. ^^ Has weird title, but it's still cool.

I have another book I'm reading for school, but that's not important...
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Postby uc pseudonym » Thu Jun 04, 2009 1:27 pm

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

I am enjoying this series more than I remembered. It may be because of time, or because the first novel was more tightly focused, so the many viewpoints didn't feel like they were scattering the plot in every direction. However, I wonder whether the upcoming television series might be less of a time commitment than reading all the novels.

Fables by Bill Willingham

Given my interest in derivatives of fairy tales, this has been on my to-read list for some time. I'm finding it consistently enjoyable but I'm not sure I have a great deal else to say about it. Through 50/80 issues.

The Age of Spiritual Machines and/or The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil

Reading these two books in tandem (there's overlap) has essentially cemented by generally negative view of singulitarianism. Kurzweil addresses a multitude of technological issues, but often takes one trend and suggests that closely-related subjects will follow the same trends by default. This combined with a tendency to fudge data so as to get a nice exponential curve makes for unconvincing reading.

The book also includes much well-known information that is accurate, like the doubling rates of the computer industry. But then Kurzweil argues as if this supports an extremely complex hypothesis that relies upon many different fields. If he overestimated any one of them, or any field comes across a barrier comparable to the speed of light, a great deal of the theory falls apart. All too often his arguments are forced to end with "the super-intelligence of the future will be able to solve this problem" which is obviously less than satisfying.

All of this is parallel in his timeline of predictions. They are accurate in a few areas but consistently off in others. It is a shame that the timeline from The Age of Intelligent Machines is much less detailed, and there is no timeline in the most recent book. Being young, I'm content to say "I'll see you in 2045."

Finally, when the book isn't recounting technological details, it frequently feels uncomfortably like wish fulfillment. I'm sad to say that many of the accusations about Kurzweil's psychological issues feel somewhat accurate from his writing (particularly concerning death). There's also a high degree of sentimentalism that I found surprising, for futurism, but that is getting into other issues entirely.

I'll leave this post with a quote I think is revealing. Throughout both books Kurzweil has dialogues between himself and a theoretical woman named Molly, who advances through the changes he discusses and eventually becomes a Post-Singularity super-intelligence. Here is the end of their last exchange, nearly the end of the book:
Kurzweil: Maybe we should kiss goodbye?
Molly: Just a kiss?
K: We'll leave it at that for this book. I'll reconsider the ending for the movie, particularly if I get to play myself.
M: Here's my kiss... now remember, I'm ready to do anything or be anything you want or need.
K: I'll keep that in mind.
M: Yes, that's where you'll find me.
K: Too bad I have to wait a century to meet you.
M: Or to be me.
K: Yes, that too.

This is, more or less, Kurzweil's vision of the future. I'm not confident that a theoretical artificial intelligence would be any more sympathetic to it than I am.
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Postby ich1990 » Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:44 pm

“Boneman's Daughtersâ€
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Postby GeneD » Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:41 am

I'm reading unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. So far it's very interesting.
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Postby Htom Sirveaux » Sat Jun 06, 2009 3:30 pm

Frank Herbert's Dune.
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Postby Changing Myst » Sun Jun 07, 2009 1:47 pm

Reading The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel. Very good read and hinted with a bit of humor here and there.

The Biography of Maria Von Trapp. You know, Maria from the Sound of Music.

Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer. Awesomeness.

And Piercing the Darkness by Frank E. Peretti. First time I read this and it was very good.
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For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38.

If Twilight was like Romeo and Juliet, they would have died a horrible and painful death. And I would have laughed. Hard. :lol:
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Postby akiachan » Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:59 pm

I may be an otaku-san, but I'm also a HUGE young adult fiction book worm :]

I just finished a book reccomended on Stephanie Meyer's website called The Hunger Games. It was really good, and I'm glad I picked it up. I'm excited for the second book in the trilogy (Catching Fire) which is coming out on September 1st of this year.
The first book introduces the concept of a world held together by an anual game called "the hunger games." Each district of Panem has to send a boy and girl tribute to fight in these games. Only one gets out... alive. The rest are killed off one by one by the other contestants, but with this years game a set of seemingly star struct lovers are entered into the game. Both are from the same district.

Right now I'm borrowing a book from my sister called Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side which she bought because it's a mix of Twilight and many Meg Cabbot books. Right now, the way it is written is making this book hard for me to read (so did Twilight).

I'm going to be starting a book called Desiring God which was given to me by my youth pastor for my high school graduation. I've been meaning to finish The Case for Christ and a book called Blue like Jazz.

After this book, I have these to read (all books I've bought):
Ironside- 3rd book in the Tithe series.
Touching Darkness- 2nd book in the Midnighters trilogy.
Blue Noon- 3rd book in the Midnighters trilogy.
The Pilgrims of Rayne- 8th book in the Pendragon series.
Raven Rise- 9th book in the Pendragon series.
Med Center: Virus and Flood
City of Bones- 1st book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy.
City of Ashes- 2nd book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy.
Paper Towns
Blue Bloods- 1st book in the Blue Bloods series
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Postby ich1990 » Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:09 pm

“Introduction to Satire” by Leonard Feinberg

I found this volume in the library free bin. Given that its copyright date is in 1967, I can see why it would be placed there. Nonetheless, I like satirical literature quite a bit and have wanted to review the genre for some time. I decided that even a dated perspective would be sufficient.

This volume focused more on the philosophy of satire rather than the history of satire. I have often researched the history of satire in the past, so I was grateful for this shift of perspective. Although the book was highly repetitive (sometimes reprinting the exact same lines in different chapters), I highly enjoyed the speculations on such topics as what it is that makes people laugh, why macabre humor is funny, and what types of satire are commercially successful. The psychology was quite dated, with frequent and reverent references to Freud, but that is to be expected from such an old book.

I can't really recommend this ancient pseudo-textbook, “Introduction to Satire”, for the obvious reason that it is out of print and does not contain any info on “new” authors such as Vonnegut or Pratchett. The repetition is annoying, but the constant stream of quotations from such sources as Chesterton and Erasmus make up for it. If I had read this book in, say, 1968, I would have given it a 7/10.


Also,
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Postby Nerevarine » Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:42 pm

I'm actually reading The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan, which is book three of The Wheel of Time series.

There are just so many similarities between The Wheel of Time and The Sword of Truth series (for anyone who has read both, you'll know what I mean XD).
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Postby Htom Sirveaux » Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:47 pm

Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor
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Postby Makachop^^128 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:05 pm

the pillow book

Nerevarine (post: 1318598) wrote:I'm actually reading The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan, which is book three of The Wheel of Time series.

There are just so many similarities between The Wheel of Time and The Sword of Truth series (for anyone who has read both, you'll know what I mean XD).


my brother was really into that series

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Postby Makachop^^128 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:06 pm

Nerevarine (post: 1318598) wrote:I'm actually reading The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan, which is book three of The Wheel of Time series.

There are just so many similarities between The Wheel of Time and The Sword of Truth series (for anyone who has read both, you'll know what I mean XD).


my brother was really into that series
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Postby Kkun » Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:23 pm

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
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Postby ich1990 » Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:54 pm

"The Elements of Style (4th ed.)" by William Strunk and E.B. White

I admit, with some embarrassment, that this is the only book on writing that I have read, outside of required textbooks. Disregarding those, almost everything I know about writing has been learned by example, through others' writings. This level of writing has always been sufficient for general purposes and papers, but recently I haven't been able to read my own writing without feeling a modicum of disappointment. Thus, this book.

Despite its vaunted reputation in the writing community, I would not recommend this book to everybody. It uses highly technical linguistic vocabulary as a norm, so if you do not remember what antecedents or nominative pronouns are, you may end up spending an inordinate amount of time turning to the glossary. Also, “The Elements of Style” is very short and will not serve as a complete writing or grammar guide.

Additionally, “The Elements of Style” is beginning to become antiquated. Given the rapid rate of change of the English language and the fact that this book was written over half a century ago, quite a few of the mistakes it preaches against have been accepted into mainstream use. The result is that it teaches a “purist” style of writing which may come across as archaic and pretentious in the modern age.

Aside from these concerns, however, I consider “The Elements of Style” to be perfect as a reference tool for intermediate level writers or aspiring authors. It is concisely written, filled with easily implemented advice, and is, at times, humorous. For a specific audience: 10/10.
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Postby bigsleepj » Sat Jun 20, 2009 5:01 am

Currently reading Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmell.

It's a pretty entertaining read so far.
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Postby Lilac#18 » Sat Jun 20, 2009 2:01 pm

Currently reading The Shack.
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Postby Makachop^^128 » Sat Jun 20, 2009 2:29 pm

Lilac#18 (post: 1322052) wrote:Currently reading The Shack.


ah thats a really good book:sweat:
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Postby Htom Sirveaux » Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:38 pm

Matthew Paul Turner's Chuched. A dead-on right, sharply satirical book about Turner growing up in a strongly fundamentalist church and getting out still a Christian. It's had me laughing out loud since the first page.
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Postby Corkyspaniel » Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:10 pm

[color="RoyalBlue"] Well, I have to read Cry, the Beloved Countrybecause of my Honors reading list. However, I've enjoyed it immensely so far. Reading it can be tedious, but its words are true, biblical, and profound. You can't think for a second that the author isn't a Christian, or that he doesn't understand living in a world we weren't meant for. :)Can't wait to finish.[/color]
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Postby Kkun » Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:02 pm

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling.
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Postby mysngoeshere56 » Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:24 pm

Got a random desire to read more classics.... Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
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Postby Makachop^^128 » Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:36 pm

mysngoeshere56 (post: 1323542) wrote:Got a random desire to read more classics.... Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.


I love pride and prejudice ^^
lol the only girly think i love :hits_self
its really funny
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Postby Sheol777 » Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:21 pm

mysngoeshere56 (post: 1323542) wrote:Got a random desire to read more classics.... Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Well I loved Frankenstein the book is quite different then I have seen portrayed in any media.
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Postby Htom Sirveaux » Fri Jun 26, 2009 6:55 pm

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Under 200 pages and excellent.
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Postby Phantom_Sorano » Fri Jun 26, 2009 6:58 pm

Persistance by Jane Austin. It was her last book written before her death. It is an easy read and a fairly good novel.
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Postby the_wolfs_howl » Sun Jun 28, 2009 5:35 am

Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read Pride and Prejudice in one day.... <_<
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Postby Jingo Jaden » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:54 pm

Charlemagne - Derek Wilson

Charlemagne - The Formation of a European identity - Rosamond McKitterick.

101 Mennesker som forandret verden. '101 Humans that changed the world* - Simon Sebag Montefiore.
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