Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Kai]

Still rolling through Angel Tech.

I've just about decided I'm done with Loyal Rue - Religion is not about God. I really like his deconstruction process (central myth with historical context, emotional appeals, and ancillary strategies, as well as religion being an evolutionary inducer of social cohesion and individual fullfillment) but his conclusions at the end are fatalistic and frankly not that interesting.

About halfway through Six Legged Soldiers. A good read, if you're into warfare and insects (for me, the latter much more than the former). The coverage of Shiro Ishii's entomological warfare in China during WWII is extensive.

Just started:

The Mind Map Book - T Buzan

[Thurnez Isa]

Jesus, Interrupted by Bart Ehrman

basically a blooper book of things Jesus said that are complete contradictions, or just doesn't make sense

Only have like three chapters, but will be purchasing it sometime

[Iason Ouabache]

*cough* hxxp://gigapedia.com/items:links?id=303976 *cough*

Ehrman is awesome.

[Cain]

The Lucifer Principle, by Phillip Zimbardo.

Yes, that Zimbardo, of the Stanford Prison Experiment.  Great book actually, I'm going to build on several of his observations, once I've had enough sleep to be able to write well.

[Cain]

The Family, by Jeff Shartlet.

Well, this is creepy.

"Hey," David said, "let's talk about the Old Testament." His voice was like a river that's smooth on the surface but swirling beneath.
"Who"—he paused—"would you say are its good guys?"

"Noah," suggested Ruggi, a  shaggy-haired guy from Kentucky with a silver loop on the upper ridge of his right ear.

"Moses," ofered Josh, a lean man from Atlanta more interested in serving Jesus than his father's small empire of shower door manufacturing.

"David," Beau volunteered.

"King David," David Coe said. "That's a good one. David. Hey. What would you say made King David a good guy?" He giggled, not from nervousness but from barely containable delight.

"Faith?" Beau said. "His faith was so strong?"

"Yeah." David nodded as if he hadn't heard that before. "Hey, you know what's interesting about King David?" From the blank stares of the others, I could see that they did not. Many didn't even carry a full Bible, preferring a slim volume of New Testament Gospels and Epistles and Old Testament Psalms, respected but seldom read. Others had the whole book, but the gold gilt on the pages of the first two-thirds remained undisturbed.

"King David," David Coe went on, "liked to do really, really bad things." He chuckled. "Here's this guy who slept with another man's wife—Bathsheba,  right?—and then basically murdered her husband. And this guy is one of our heroes."  David shook his head. "I mean, Jiminy Christmas, God likes this guy! What," he said, "is that all about?"

"Is it because he tried?" asked Bengt. "He wanted to do the right thing?" Bengt knew the Bible, Old Testament and New, better than any of the others, but he offered his answer with a question mark on the end. Bengt was dutiful in checking his worst sin, his fierce pride, and he frequently turned his certainties into questions.

"That's nice, Bengt," David said. "But it isn't the answer. Anyone else?"

"Because he was chosen," I said. For the first time David looked my way.

"Yes," he said, smiling. "Chosen. Interesting set of rules, isn't it?"

He turned to Beau. "Beau, let's say I hear you raped three little girls. And now here you are at Ivanwald. What would I think of you, Beau?"
Beau, given to bellowing Ivanwald's daily call to sports like a bull elephant, shrank into the cushions. "Probably that I'm pretty bad?"

"No, Beau." David's voice was kind. "I wouldn't." He drew Beau back into the circle with a stare that seemed to have its own gravitational pull. Beau nodded, brow furrowed, as if in the presence of something profound.  "Because," David continued, "I'm not  here to judge you. That's not my job. I'm  here for only one thing. Do you know what that is?"

Understanding blossomed in Beau's eyes. "Jesus?" he said.

David smiled and winked. "Hey," he said. "Did you guys see Toy Story?" Half the room had. "Remember how there was a toy cowboy, Woody? And then the boy who owns Woody gets a new toy, a spaceman? Only the toy spaceman thinks he's real. Thinks he's a real spaceman, and he's got to igure out what he's doing on this strange planet. So what does Woody say to him? He says, 'You're just a toy.' " David sat quietly, waiting for us to absorb this. "Just a toy. We're not really spacemen. We're just toys. Created for God. For His pleasure, nothing  else. Just a toy. Period."

He walked to the National Geographic map of the world mounted on the wall. "You guys know about Genghis Khan?" he asked. "Genghis was a man with a vision. He  conquered"—David stood on the couch under the map, tracing, with his hand, half the northern hemisphere—"nearly everything. He devastated nearly everything. His enemies? He beheaded them." David swiped a finger across his throat. "Dop, dop, dop, dop."

Genghis Khan's genius, David went on, lay in his understanding that there could be only one king. When Genghis entered a defeated city, he would call in the local headman. Conversion to the Khan's cause was not an option, as Genghis was uninterested in halfhearted deputies. Instead, said David, Genghis would have the man stufed into a crate, and over the crate's surface would be spread a tablecloth, on which a wonderful meal would be arrayed.

"And then, while the man suffocated, Genghis ate, and he didn't even hear the man's screams." David stood on the couch, a inger in the air. "Do you know what that means?"

To their credit, my brothers did not. Perhaps on account of my earlier insight, David turned to me.

"I think so," I said. "Out with the old, in with the new."

Yes, he nodded. "Christ's parable of the wineskins. You can't pour new into old." One day, he continued, some monks from Europe show up in Genghis Khan's court. Genghis welcomes them in the name of God. Says that in truth, they worship the same great Lord. Then why, the monks ask, must he conquer the world?  "I don't ask," says Genghis. "I submit."

David returned to his chair. "We elect our leaders," he said. "Jesus elects his."  He reached over and squeezed the arm of Pavel. "Isn't that great?" David said. "That's the way everything in life happens. If you're a person known to be around Jesus, you can go and do anything. And that's who you guys are. When you leave  here, you're not only going to know the value of Jesus, you're going to know the people who rule the world. It's about vision. Get your vision straight, then relate. Talk to the people who rule the world, and help  them obey. Obey Him. If I obey Him myself, I help others do the same. You know why? Because I become a warning. We become a warning. We warn everybody that the future king is coming. Not just of this country or that but of the world." Then he pointed at the map, toward the Khan's vast, reclaimable empire.

[LMNO]

I find it hard to believe that's non-fiction.

[Brotep]

His voice was like a river that's smooth on the surface but swirling beneath.

[Cain]

Yeah, fortunately Sharlet's flowery prose is dying off, in the later chapters.  Maybe its a religious writer thing?  Being around people who quote scripture all day has to rub off on you somehow.

[LMNO]

It would really suck if someone posted an hxxp link to a PDF of "The Family".


Because that would be wrong.

[Cain]

http://gigapedia.com/redirect?hash=2fc1de9f5e68c8672e0f9c1640853328 or http://dl1.s25.ifile.it/xep4b9rm/0060559799.zip should do the trick.

[LMNO]

So, I'm now reading both "Dead in Dallas", and "The Family".


I also have a dead tree re-issue of "House of Leaves" which I'll probably dig into after "The Family".

[Dimocritus]

Not sure if some one has posted this. The Third Police Man by Flan O'Brien. I'm sure many of you have read it, but I just came across it and it's still fresh in my mind. Please don't ridicule me.

[LMNO]

I read At Swim Two Birds, and that was enough for me.

Is Third Policeman just as fucked up?

Also, did you pick it up because of Lost?

[Dimocritus]

I read At Swim Two Birds, and that was enough for me.

Is Third Policeman just as fucked up?

Also, did you pick it up because of Lost?

Haven't read that particular book, is that by O'Brien as well? Either way, it was fucked up. It tweaked my crazy-head without LSD . And, no, it was actually suggested to me by my English professor, but it's weird that you ask that because, while I usually avoid television, LOST happens to be the only T.V. series that I have followed in years. What is the connection?

[LMNO]

There was a shot of the cover in the bunker, or something.  I don't watch it, so this is only hearsay.

And yeah, same author.  Those fucking Irish writers...