Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Reeducation]

Now reading The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human by V. S. Ramachandran.
Great stuff. A little repetitive now and then, but that does not bother much. I can read about mirror-neurons all the time.

[Laughin Jude]

I'm most of the way through The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson. Picked it up on a whim when I saw a cheap used copy at Powell's the other day. I have a feeling I'm going to end up looking a bunch of the names from this book up on the internet to try and sort through what's bunk and what isn't once I'm done reading it.

[Jenne]

So, from Ali's Infidel I went to Donoghue's Room.  
-------------SPOILER ALERT-------------------------





It's the tale of a 19 year old woman who was kidnapped and held hostage in a garden shed...and how she escaped later on with her 5 year old son, 7 years later.

Told from the 5 year old's point of view.



Yeah, it's true, my head's just a WEE bit fucked up right now.

[Don Coyote]

Catch-22- Joesph Heller

[Placid Dingo]

Catch-22- Joesph Heller

This is a huge favourite of mine.

Read the sequel also, which was all kinds of weird.

Currently reading a bunch including Little Women and Scarlet Letter.

[Laughin Jude]

Catch-22- Joesph Heller

This is one of those classics I didn't get around to reading for years and thought was excellent when I did. It's the kind of thing they should have kids reading in high school instead of four hundred year old plays.

Just plowed through Candide again as I hadn't read it since my early twenties. Still funny, still a way too accurate depiction of the realities of life for comfort.

Now I'm on to Michael Foucalt's Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. It seems to be about the way our ideas concerning "madness" have changed over the past few centuries, from something (he seems to be arguing) that was just accepted as a part of life to being something we have to fear and lock people away for. I've heard Foucalt mentioned time and again in other stuff I've read and in classes I've taken, but I never read anything by him. I was in the market for a new philosopher to read and, as a self-identified crazy person, the subject matter popped out at me. I guess I'll see if he strikes my fancy or not.

I have a feeling I'm going to end up re-reading what's published of A Song of Ice and Fire with the TV series and the next book both coming out soon. I still need to get around to reading Justine by the Marquis de Sade as well; I read Philosophy in the Bedroom last summer and more Sade's just been sitting there on my bookshelf untouched ever since.

[El Sjaako]

Catch-22- Joesph Heller

This is one of those classics I didn't get around to reading for years and thought was excellent when I did. It's the kind of thing they should have kids reading in high school instead of four hundred year old plays.

Yeah, I recently read it, and kicked myself for not reading it earlier.

[Jenne]

Reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali's follow up to Infidel, called Nomad.  I'm finding the reviews that criticized this work are pretty much right-on.  She's a bit one-sided and less credible in this book than she was in her first.

And reading her stuff is driving my husband nuts, it seems.    Which makes plowing through it worth it.

He has a few barstools.

Anyway, I'm moving on to A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block afterward.

[Eater of Clowns]

Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid on Earth

[Diogenes]

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Not far from the end. It's a cool book.

[Disco Pickle]

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Not far from the end. It's a cool book.

I picked it up a few months ago and just couldn't seem to get into it.  I'll give it another shot after i finish the ones I'm in now.

[Luna]

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Not far from the end. It's a cool book.

I picked it up a few months ago and just couldn't seem to get into it.  I'll give it another shot after i finish the ones I'm in now.

I recognize the title, I remember I read it... but it just didn't stick with me.

[Diogenes]

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Not far from the end. It's a cool book.

I picked it up a few months ago and just couldn't seem to get into it.  I'll give it another shot after i finish the ones I'm in now.

I was sceptical at first, but it won me over. There are a lot of "I must know what happens next!" moments, and I love the deadpan humour, deep characters/character development, and varying settings. I also like the feel of it with its historical/alternative history setting and archaic spellings, since I have a lot of old books between 100 and 300 years old I instantly dug the vibe the author tries to create.

[Jenne]

It was a good book, I liked it.  But yes, it drags rather in places.

[Chairman Risus]

Catch-22- Joseph Heller

I'm thee with Placid Dingo, great book. I'd also suggest the sequel, though it does have a very different feel to it.

Just finished Hesse's Steppenwolf. Really enjoyed it.

If I'm picking from Pratchett or Gaiman next, any suggestions?