What book are you reading?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

A Raymond Chandler omnibus. Can't beat those hard-boiled noir crime novels!

[Proletariat]

Rome at War AD 293-696 from the Essential Histories line of Osprey books.

[Sjakihata]

Right now, yes right now Im reading Descartes Meditations

[Somebody Else]

Iliad

[GoreBag]

I just picked up Trainspotting on Wednesday and already has it reminded me of the joy of needless vulgarity.

[Skomatth]

The Blank Slate: A Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker (for fun)
Sorrows of a Young Werther by Goethe (for philosophy class)

[drone]

I just picked up Trainspotting on Wednesday and already has it reminded me of the joy of needless vulgarity.

That's a good book, but I found that I needed to actually read a lot of it out loud to figure out what was being said. Trying to decipher the Scottish accent and slang was tough for this Yank.

[GoreBag]

That's a good book, but I found that I needed to actually read a lot of it out loud to figure out what was being said. Trying to decipher the Scottish accent and slang was tough for this Yank.

Maist ay it no so bad after havin read Rob Roy MacGregor. Yeah, I sometimes need to read it in my...mind's ear, but that's part of the fun.

[Zalmoxis]

I'm reading Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Dr. (Duh) Miklos Nyiszli.

[TheSilverKnight]

Rome at War AD 293-696 from the Essential Histories line of Osprey books.

I just got finished reading that. What do you think of it, Prole?

[Voigtkampf]

Just finished Shusaku Endo's "Silence". I need more time to read, I work too much...

[Zain]

I'm read Tim Lahaye's book "Left Behind: The Indwelling" It's an awesome book.

-ZainDustin

[Csargo]

I'm reading Miracle at St. Anna by James McBridge

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

On the bounce!

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Starship Troopers is very good, "What you apes want to live forever!"

At the moment I am reading Century Rain by Alistair Reynolds. I'm not far into it, but like his other books it is very cryptic in the beginning and slowly begins to make more and more sense. I'd guess that I'm still a ways off from really understanding what is going on and how e4verything relates though.

[Zalmoxis]

I thought the apes quote was taken from a World War 1 seargent.

[littlelostboy]

I currently stopped reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" because another book caught my eye and I found it in the school library. It's called "Sweet Painted Lady" and its written by Andrew Derham, my former High School Head. Its a fairly interesting book about how three crackpot British men (one a owner of a security company, another a physicts teacher and another a family man) and one sassy American woman art teacher who goes to the Lourve and plan to steal the Mona Lisa. Quite an interesting read.

[matteus the inbred]

Now reading Hannibal's War, by John Peddie, which probably ought to be compulsory round here...!

When I've finished that, it's onto The Twelve Caesars, by Michael Grant. I really ought to get RTW installed one of these days...

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I thought the apes quote was taken from a World War 1 seargent.

It is, but it is also on the inside cover of Starship Troopers somewhere, I remember seeing that quote almost every single time I opened the book. I should have made that clear....

IIRC it was apparently an American Marine sergeant.

[Kanamori]

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan, so far, so much better than crossroads. Maybe the last book won't be 800 pages, or whatever xroads was, covering three days.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Uesugi, Zalmoxis, the quote is featured on the inside cover, from a WWI sergeant. If the exact phrase isn't repeated in the book, then the "apes" part is.

[R'as al Ghul]

A Raymond Chandler omnibus. Can't beat those hard-boiled noir crime novels!

Good Taste, mate. I've read "The High Window" a few weeks ago.
The dialogues are priceless.

[Tachikaze]

I have inherited some old children's books published in 1921. Mind you, the estimation of a child's intelligence and literacy was much higher then. From this series, I am currently reading Robinson Crusoe.

I just finished The Tales of Robin Hood. This was interesting because it was published before either of the most famous early Hollywood versions of the stories were filmed (Douglas Fairbanks & Errol Flynn). So, it shows where the evolution of the tales had reached before Hollywood cemented the plot and characters in our common psyche.

Of note:
John Lackland doesn't appear until he is already crowned king of England. This is in the very end of the stories after King Richard's death.

Maid Marian is a childhood friend who marries Robin, is never directly involved in any adventures after the chapter of her introduction, and dies well before he does.

Robin is poisoned by his cousin. He is survived by Little John.

Sir Guy of Gisborne is a minor character in only a single skirmish with Robin in which Gisborne is killed.

The Sheriff of Nottingham is Robin's major long-term opponent and does not die in any of the stories.

Robin is not a Saxon noble, but low-born. The conflict between Normans and Saxons is almost completely absent, mentioned only once.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

The Tower Menagerie, telling the history of the Zoos in the Tower of London. A great read

[Lemur]

I have inherited some old children's books published in 1921. Mind you, the estimation of a child's intelligence and literacy was much higher then. From this series, I am currently reading Robinson Crusoe.

When I was a wee lad I raided my grandfather's library and snatched up the children's books. Given their age and his age, I would guess they were from the '20s or earlier.

My favorite was "Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable." The introduction had a lenghty essay on why they allowed the word "Friday." Good stuff, good stuff.

[edit]

After a quick search, I see that the book made it into Project Gutenberg. So I could re-read it now, free of charge. I love the internet. Seems the book was published in 1882, which sounds about right.

[Adrian II]

Good Taste, mate. I've read "The High Window" a few weeks ago.
The dialogues are priceless.

Same goes for Mario Simmel's Lieb Vaterland magst ruhig sein which I am reading. It's about the tunnels underneath the Berlin Wall in the 1960's and the human jetsam and flotsam involved with this. Simmel has an exquisite sense of humor. And the juicy Berliner accent of many characters, well, det seh ick ja ooch jerne.

[Sjakihata]

Just finished Commando Raid by Joe Poyer, it's hollow, no intellectual stimulation, read it in less than 2 days, I loved it

Also reading Was Heisst: sich im Denken orientieren? by Immanuel Kant, about historyphilosophy, progress and human enlightenment, quite fascinating.

[Reverend Joe]

"Heart of Darkness", for about the third time. Love that book.

Next is Henry Miller, "The Rosy Crucifixion" and his "Tropic" series, and "Black Spring" to finish it off. I have quite a bit of reading to do...

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Finished Troopers. Now working on The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth.

[Romulas]

Just started Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan. After reading it, I may start the whole series over again.