What are you reading?

[RubyJewelStone]

I had to read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for English and a selection of the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.

[uc pseudonym]

If you look at any serious discussions you'll find the posts are far from succinct (even if not longwinded). Regarding your book, I have a favorable impression of any story that begins with a disgruntled astrophysicist. While I'm here, welcome to the forums.

Meanwhile, I have no new reading to note.

[yukinon]

rapidly change the what? Don't leave me hanging when you're talking about solar flares!

[harina]

I'm reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. It's really a great book. I haven't read anything that awesome for a while. I borrowed it at the library because I wanted to read a new book and it seemed to be exciting...

The story is about a girl growing up in a boarding school, but as you read it on and on, new facts will show up (like, what the boarding school really is and how the students really got there and why) and you'll realize that the story really is kinda unrealistic.

[mitsuki lover]

Civil War Curisoisites by the late Webb Garrison,associate Dean of Emory University and president of McKendree College.

[Pent]

I am currently reading Solar Flare by Larry Burkett.

I loved that book.

[uc pseudonym]

First Corithians a commentary by Richard Hays

From what little I've read of it so far he seems to have all the best intentions and look at the historical data (and text) directly and honestly. Of course, I haven't gotten to any of the tricky passages yet.

[HisaishiFan]

A Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. So far, very cool.

[mitsuki lover]

Finished Civil War Curiosities today.

[Kaori]

For class, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and White Noise by Don DeLillo.

For myself, The Faculty of Useless Knowledge by Yury Dombrovsky. I followed Technomancer's link a while back and thought that it sounded interesting according to the reviews--and so it is.

[VashTheStampede]

"The Cross Centered Life" - C.J. Mahaney

[mitsuki lover]

I feel read out for now,unless I find something interesting tommorrow at the library.

[yukinon]

Chaucer is awesome.

[uc pseudonym]

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" by Tennessee Williams

I'm actually reading the script, so I decided to list it here. I'm barely into Act I, so I have next to no substansive comments at this point. Overall, I like the dialogue better than some of Williams' other work (I have "The Glass Menagerie" in mind) but I had forgotten how wordy some of his stage directions are. Yes, when I watch a play I often think, "That lighting treats him gently, but in a stronger light he'd show signs of deliquescence."

[mitsuki lover]

I saw American Jesus in the library today but didn't check it out.Looks interesting though as it talks about how Jesus has been changed and transformed by different parts of American culture and sub-culture and counter-culture until he wouldn't even recognize himself the way some interpret him.

[Doe Johnson]

I finished The Book of Franza by Ingeborg Bachmann. It was okay, still better than Quest for Christa T. There are only three chapters in it. The first chapter is more or less about the character Martin's view of his sister, Franza, and the story of when she just leaves her husband and he (Martin) is looking for her, and later when she is staying with him. The second chapter switches more to Franza's view and takes place during their trip to Egypt. She basically sounds like a nut with an emotionally abusive husband who is using her as a psychological experiment. Apparently his first two wives either commited suiced or refused to leave the house. He sounds like such a cheerful guy. Anywho, the third chapter is more or less fragments of when Martin and her were in Egypt - fragments refering to the fact that Bachmann died before completing the novel and so they don't really have transitions to the events that take place. This is from more of a mix of their views. Martin is thinking up ways to help his sister break away from her mindset - such wonderful things as using hash, her having sex, or burying her in mud! Don't those sound helpful!? He wasn't as clueless as that description made him sound, but he didn't really help her stay sane. Meanwhile she tried to get a doctor to give her medication to commit suicide, and ended up dying after bashing her head against a pyramid. Such uplifting reading. Next up in the uplifting German writtings: Wonderful, Wonderful Times by Elfriede Jelinek. I've heard it's even more delightful than Das Buch Franza(the German title), that it is infact, one of her least depressing or controversial works. Oh the joys of German written works!

I've finished Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It's pretty interesting. It has the first society that actually looks like a utopia in my class, which is supposed to be the topic of the entire class. The all-female country places an EXTREMELY high value on motherhood. It is essentially what the culture is based on. There is no disease, everyone has a sisterly or motherly attitute toward everybody else, people don't act selfishly, there are no major preditory animals, all of the trees in the "forest" are actually taken care of and are mainly food bearing (they were planted), and things are designed for comfort and use instead of being pleasing to the eye. Yes, this world of purely women sounds like an awesome thing, I just highly doubt it would actually be like this.

[Fionn Fael]

I'm reading every book of The Chronicles of Narnia. I started reading them when I was 9, but I didn't finish (let alone remember what I'd read), so I picked them up again. I love this series!!

[mitsuki lover]

I checked out American Jesus and started to read it today.It's in two parts.Part one is called Resurrections and is how Jesus has been viewed in Christianity in America.
(Kind of sadly bland these days really,which is no surprise since aside from the Orthodox and Catholic churches most of American Christianity has become quite bland,blame it on Televangelists and Megachurches that dilute the Gospel and deny the Creeds importance and the place of the Sacraments in daily life.But I digress..)
The second deals with outside the mainstream Christanity and is called Reincarnation.

[yukinon]

ooo, which are you reading now, Fionn?

[Ryusei]

I have a two books I'm reading/about to start reading. (I can never read one at a time, I'm always in the middle of a book when I start on another...) I'm about to start on "The Prince and the Pauper" by Mark Twain. I'm about halfway done with "The Hidden Treasure of Glaston". (Actually, I started on "The Prince and the Pauper" a while back, but I never finished it, so I'm re-reading what I already read.) I don't remember who wrote "The Hidden Treasure of Glaston"...I'll have to get back to you guys on that... So there. ^^

[SnoringFrog]

Right now I'm working on The Demon in the Freezer it's a nonfiction book about smallpox. Can't remember who wrote it right now.

[Technomancer]

At the moment, I'm reading "The Educated Imagination" by Northrop Frye, and "A Cook's Tour" by Anthony Bourdain.

[Locke]

Reading DUNE by Frank Herbert.
Makes me want to polish of my copy of "Stranger In A Strange Land" for some reason...

[uc pseudonym]

Hm, that's an interesting connection. I found those two novels to be very different types of reading and on initial reflection no similar themes jump out at me (unless it is the evolution of humans). Can you elaborate on that "some reason" at all, or is it unknown even to you?

[Hitokiri]

Continuing with my annual reading of The Silmarillion. I am also combining with the reading of The Book of Lost Tales 1 and 2.

[Da Rabid Duckie]

The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice, by Victor Kappeler and Gary Potter.

[yukinon]

It sounds like you should be taking Tolkien Studies with me, Hitokiri.

[Scribs]

I am starting in on Dostoyevski's Notes from the Underground

[Warrior4Christ]

"In the Beginning Was Information" by Werner Gitt.

A fascinating book about information theory, and how this points to a Creator.

[bigsleepj]

I am starting in on Dostoyevski's Notes from the Underground

Cool - I recently bought this book, though I wont be getting to it quickly. When I'm finished we should maybe compare Notes. ]Foucault's Pendulum[/i].