Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Luna]

Have acquired all but a few of the books on this list for my kindle:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books

Going to tidy 'em up, load them up, and start going through the ones I haven't read, yet.

[Juana]

Which, so far, is not nearly as boring as Dr. Cave Guy claimed it would be.

[Cain]

Both the Oxford and Cambridge Medieval Europe histories are surprisingly well written and engaging.

If you want another well written, if somewhat more focused book on medieval history, I highly recommend A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century by Barbara Tuchman, of the Guns of August fame.

[Disco Pickle]

Got my copy of The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of our Times by Giovanni Arrighi in the post today.

Ippy and Pickles might find this of interest in particular.  As I understand it, his basic thesis is that "financialization" of the economy is not an end-stage or further stage of capitalist development, but a reoccuring event throughout history, which tends to undermine the pre-eminent economic powers and create a new system whereby challengers depose that power and become a new hegemon.

Though there is more to it than just that.  As Arrighi says in the introduction, the book is essentially about the two interdependent master processes of the modern era - the creation of a national state system and the formation of a worldwide capitalist system".

So, should be fun.  Arrighi's prose is quite readable as well, which always helps.

It just so happens I was holding out for a good recommendation before starting another book.  That sounds like a good one.  Thanks for the tip Cain.

[Cain]

You might find he's a little Marxist influenced in places...not massively so, most historical sociologists like Arrighi do borrow from Marx, but they also borrow from practically everyone else.  His actual theorizing and history seems to divert from any sort of easily definable political position, as a history book ultimately should.

Plus, it's interesting.

Also just got Nir Rosen's Aftermath: Following the bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World.

And fuck me it's huge.  It's over 550 pages long, and that's the hardback version.  Rosen's got a very good rep as a journalist, thoroughly deserved, so I'm hoping this will live up to expectations.

[Iason Ouabache]

Recently read American Juggalo (Kindle Single). It is a not-quite-gonzo story by a journalist who went to The Gathering in southern Illinois and somehow survived. Could have been better but he had some interesting insights into their culture.  The publisher of that, N+1, also has a book called What Was the Hipster?: A Sociological Investigation which I'm dying to read sometime soon.

Also read The Game from Where I Stand by Doug Glanville. I'm sure it wouldn't interest anyone here but it's good as far as baseball books go.

Also read The Stranger by Camus. I'm not ready to discuss it yet.  

[the last yatto]

Dmz vol 1 - brian wood
Chaos monkey - jaq d hawkins
Thus spoke zarathustra - nietzsche

[Eater of Clowns]

I went to the library to pick up the much hailed The Name of the Wind and right next to it in the new fiction section I saw a copy of A Dance with Dragons!

I grabbed it immediately and had a chat with the librarian about how excited I was and how shocked that it was there.  The wait list was 50 people long last time I checked it.

[the last yatto]

DMZ reminds me a bit of children of men, with its phishes and government forces battling it in in the not so distant future except this one is set in america and instead of filthy hippies as the rebels its heavily influenced from the  tea party... and this one includes a neutral third party whos just trying to survive in the middle of a war zone...

the author  is cool enough to give you issue one for free http://www.brianwood.com/downloads/dmz_1.pdf
as well as a cool promo http://www.brianwood.com/downloads/Take_a_Break_DMZ_Magazine.pdf

[dontblameyoko]

Just Kids by Patti Smith

[El Sjaako]

I'm currently struggling through Quantum Psychology by RAW, but I found I had enough criticism that I'm annotating it. So now the margins are filled with notes like "ost scolars translate the first line of the Tao te Ching differenly" and "Qualifiers can be added in normal English too".

I've also got The Meaning of Liff by Douglas N. Adams on the side, for when I get enough of Wilson.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Still reading "In the Temple of My Familiar" and it's hurting my soul

damn you, Alice Walker!

[Placid Dingo]

Finished A Room With a View. Just brilliant. It's an older work but it's still quite subversive (in attitudes to religion, if not to women). The story is engaging, the characters well drawn and believable. Would reccomend.

[Luna]

Oooh, guilty pleasures...

Just got my filthy little hands on a near-complete run of the Destroyer series.

Remo Williams.

They're just...  incredibly awful.

I am going to rot my brain right out of my skull. 

[Don Coyote]

The Goblin Corps

It has such wonderful lines.

"Why don't you come and try to kill us the hard way, and I'll shove you up that horse's ass and feed him beans"


"You really want to know Craeosh? I had to relieve myself. That enough detail for you, or did you want shape, color and texture?"