What Book Are You Reading?

[Repatriated Canuck]

I am currently reading a book that for the first time in a very long time I need to look up words..... I read it with my smartphone at hand to get at dictionary.com.

It's called "Moral Combat" by Michael Burleigh and you can tell he was educated in one of those big old British Universities. It's good to stretch my vocabulary but is it really necessary to say plebiscite instead of referendum? It almost feels as if he uses obscure words for the sake of using them. I suppose if I paid for an education that expensive I'd do it too. Anyway, I did buy the book to learn something I just didn't expect to need a dictionary. I've not needed a dictionary with a book since I was a child!

It's a really good read though. It's about good and evil during the Second World War and I do recommend it.


I also just bought the first two Harry Potter books..... Sometimes you just need to be entertained and switch off. :P

[gdmillar]

Reading a few books at the moment, shall just include a list for now. Will delve further into descriptions once complete.

Persuasion: The Art of Influencing People - by James Borg
The Utility of Force - by General Sir Rupert Smith
The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[bolo121]

Am Going through Iaian Banks's well known Culture series.

Have finished 'The Player of Games and am now in 'Use of Weapons'

Have a sudden yearning to own my own General Systems Vehicle.....sigh.

[nvishal]

Nvishal
You called me a "file", if that is not name calling, I don't know what it is. I did not panicked, it is you that have to backtrack after a 7 days cool off, which you did.

You just called immature via sideway. By the way, the name Andy is reserved for my friends, you are not one of them.

lol you banned me again? full 30 days worth How hard is this for you to understand? You can ban as many times as you want but you still won't get no respect from me.

Tell me if i understood this correctly... You're a moderator boy aren't you? You take out the trash? You require the need to re-read these sentences cause you're not sure the first time. And yet they made you a moderator? It's interesting. How well do you understand cost-benefit?

[editec]

I'm currently wading through "the Shah" by Abbas Milani.

It has tiny type.

I hate tiny type.

It's not exactly light reading.

Abbas writes like an historian submitting his doctoral thesis.

I think it's probably worth the read despite my complaints.

[Mihais]

I went recently through :-Lions of Kandahar,MAJ Rusty Bradley,USSF.About the role the SF and the Kandaks played in capturing the Panjwayi.
House to house,by SGT David Bellavia,about the urban fighting in Fallujah.

Now I'm bothering with ''The wrong war'' by Bing West.I swear Mr. West reads WAB.

[bolo121]

Just Finished Pirate Sun by Karl Schroeder, the concluding book of his Virga Sci Fi Series. Fun but nowhere near the level of the first two.

[bigross86]

The Tale of a Thousand Nights and One Night

[ProudKorean]

A book called "Su-Nan-Ee-Dae", or translated (very roughly): Tragedy passed on in family
It's a short story by a Korean named Ha-Geun-Chan, it's about a father who lost an arm in an Allied air attack after doing forced labor for the Japanese when they occupied us, which is the past. In the present, he's going out to the train station to see his son, who was supposedly dead from the Korean War, only to return alive, albeit wounded.
The father is shocked when he sees that his son, like his father, lost a limb, this time, a leg.
After a few awkward conversations, the son suddenly cries out about how they will manage to survive, with 2 disabled men. The father replies that he has managed to survive well on his own, and as his son has his arms and he has his arms, they will live. Then, they set out for their homes, with the father carrying his son on his back while the son is holding a fish bought to celebrate.

This short story (very short, only 10 pages), is still very emotional and very symbolic. It shows how the Koreans suffered so much, with the occupation by Japan, followed only 5 years later by the devastating Korean War, though the suffering (wounds) by the father and the son. However, it's painting a bright future for Korea, even after such devastation, by portraying the father and son cooperating together to go home.

[bolo121]

Read Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld offering, Snuff.

Dull and disappointing. Its very saddening to see the Alzheimers wrecking his abilities.

[crooks]

Hurm I think this thread (as the sticky on the subject) needs a bump, rather than the necro.

I'm actually reading a lot lately - My favourite book in a long time is Harry Potter agus an Órchloch, the Irish translation of the first Harry Potter. The translator, Máire Nic Mhaoláin has done a fantastic job - some of the terms are magnificent and I'm keeping it to give to my son when he's old enough to read, or even better have it read to him. Only gripe I'd have is the jacket hints at the other titles like Seomra na Rún (The Chamber of Secrets), Príosúnach Azkaban (fairly obvious) and Cuach na Lasratha (Goblet of Fire) but no sign of them coming out. Yes Irish is not exactly Mandarin but still it's a shame, would love to continue reading them in what is my first language.

Other than that, re-read the Great Gatsby for the 20th time - I love it, there's something about Fitzgerald's ability to write, the words just weave together so beautifully. I've rarely read anyone who could turn a phrase like he could, a true master of literature, he also had surprising foresight, understanding the roaring twenties and the rise of slothful wealth coming hand in hand with the death of real labour and productivity. Factories rust as East Egg becomes a new Eden of wealth - but what then for the wealthy, who need not work? What do they fill their days with? My favourite quote on that being:

"I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. "

Strangely poignant for the times we live in.

Finally love the new Michael Moore book, Here comes Trouble. It's like a kind of Forrest Gump compilation of stories of his life, it's actually very moving in parts, when he talks of his mother, the Vietnam War and his childhood he shows a very different side to his usual one. Definitely one worth browsing even if you disagree with him, genuinely a well-written and interesting book.

[LavenderStar]

Reading The Power Of Six. I just downloaded a copy of ebook, since I totally forgot it got released couple of months ago.

[BadKharma]

Making and Breaking the Grid by Timothy Samara.

[MIKEMUN]

The Black Company, Glen Cook...

[bolo121]

Armageddon by Max Hastings

Excellent writing