Posted on 07/03/2008 8:40:03 AM PDT by MplsSteve
OK everyone, it's time for my quarterly "What Are You Reading Now?" thread.
I like finding out what Freepers are reading lately. It can be anything...a technical journal, a trashy pulp novel, an old classic...in short, anything!
Please do not defile this thread by posting "I'm Reading This Thread". It became very unfunny a long time ago.
I'll start. I'm close to finishing "The Last Valley" by Martin Windrow. It's about the siege/battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Well, what are you reading now?!
“The Last Valley” is very tragic. Before you start reading, you already know what the outcome will be but I found myself (strangely enough) hoping for a different outcome. How terribly the French troops suffered during that siege. I can’t even begin to think of how awful it must have been.
In some respects, I think the decline of France (in the post WWII years) started there. As I once read somewhere “France lost its backbone in Indochina and it lost its soul in Algeria” - or something similar to that.
Please don’t try to ruin the spirit of Free Republic by silly requests not to defile a thread.
It’s what we do!
I cant reed or rite, I shood bee in Irak with thee uther loosers!
Freakonomics
Once again, I find myself neglecting my duties, as I haven't gotten around to posting a Summer Reading Thread yet, even though summer arrived almost 2 weeks ago.
If I may expand, without hijacking, this thread: a couple question that I'm curious about: do you want more frequent Book threads or would you prefer just pings to existing book threads?
i just finished nassim nicolas taleb’s “black swan”
and i’m a third of the way thru’ jonah goldberg’s “liberal fascism”.
Just finished Patrick O’Brian’s “The Commodore.”
Currently reading “Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy” by Ian W. Toll.
Excellent read. I highly recommend it.
Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett
This is my 3rd time, I think, reading “This Present Darkness.” Next is “Piercing...” of course. 3rd time, too. Though the last time I read the books was sometime around 1996 or so. I don’t think his other books are let downs, as a matter of fact, I think “The Oath” was his best one yet. It’s hard for a book to grip me in the first three paragraphs, but the escaping through the woods scene in that book was simply amazing.
Faulkner, the Master. I’m reading Absalom, Absalom!.
While hanging out at “Books a Million” the other day (yeah, I’m a fun guy) I thumbed through a book that is supposed to refute Dawkins’ assertions, point by point.
I can’t recall the name of the book or the author, but it looked pretty good.
Not good enough for me to plunk down the retail price for a hardcover copy, mind you. But, good.
"Triplanetary" is so dense that even though I'm 100 pages in, I haven't a clue as to what I'm reading, and I'll probably give up soon. Oddly enough, the Foreward, written sometime in the 70s even admits that the first few chapters are terrible, but then it gets going. I've no clue where it's going.
If I give it up, I'll probably pull out the 4 David Gemmel books that have been in the basement for way too long: "Legend", "The King Behind the Gate" and the next two books in that series.
I'll probably also request the next 2 or 3 Sue Grafton books from the library as that's been my summer reading for the last couple of years.
Past books at: http://www.geocities.com/tanniker/
Yep, I started keeping a page just to remember the books that I've been reading. I've thought of switching to a blog, but then I'd have to start all over again.
Adams vs. Jefferson : the tumultuous election of 1800 / John Ferling.
and
Setting the world ablaze : Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution / John Ferling.
My gosh, I bet that is excellent.
Beyond the Band Of Brothers by Dick Winters. Futher recollections by him that did not make the original book or mini series
Just finished “Dead Heat” by Joel Rosenberg
This is the last of His Last Jihad series.
The Last Jihad
The Last days
The Ezekiel Option
The Copper Scroll
Dead Heat
these are excellent, fast moving stories based on Bibical Scriptures in ‘now’ time.
I started with ‘the Ezekiel Option’. all were Great reads.
Now I am reading his non- fiction book
“Epicenter”
Also an excellent read.
Just Finished Ken Timmerman’s Shadow Warriors. Unbelievable and sickening. The State Department and CIA are completely infiltrated with liberals who would rather destroy the President than protect the country.
I have the book Jefferson- Writings: Autobiography, Notes on the State of Virginia, Public and Private Papers, etc. It is a Library of America book. I confess I haven’t read it cover to cover. I do pick it up every once in a while and read some of it, I have learned a lot of things I didn’t know before. There is a lot of detail about things that happened during his life. Very interesting.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at
by Erik Larson - A really fascinating book that intertwines the story of the building of the Chicago Worlds Fair and serial killings of H.H. Holmes during the fair.
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