What are you currently reading?

The Art of War by Sun Tzu,

Discover magazine (Einstein tribute edition)

&

Stranger on the Loose by D. Harlan Wilson

Summary from Amazon
"In this collection of stories, D. Harlan Wilson deconditions the boundaries of reality with the same offbeat methodology that energized his first book The Kafka Effekt. Stranger on the Loose is an absurdist account of urban and suburban social dynamics, and of the effects that contemporary image-culture has on the (in)human condition. These stories operate on a plane of existence that resists, and in many cases breaks, the laws of causality. Parrots teach college courses. Flâneurs impersonate bowling pins. Bodybuilders sneak into people’s homes and strike poses at their leisure. Passive-aggressive glaciers and miniature elephant-humans antagonize the seedy streets of Suburbia. Apes disguised as scientists reincarnate Walt Disney, who discovers that he is a Chinese box full of disguised Walt Disneys . . . Wilson’s imagination is a rare specimen. The acorns of his fiction are planted in the soil of normalcy, but what grows out of that soil is a dark, witty, otherworldly jungle."

Iv been reading 1984 for about 3 months now and only on page 7. Its hard to read during the summer, ill get through it fast during school. After that Iv got Dante's Inferno.

I'm slowly making my way trough The Sum of All Fears, but its taking forever because I find myself distracted by things like the computer and such. After this I'll probably get some heavier reading along the lines of maybe some more Aldous Huxley. My friends keep suggesting me books, so the list grows with every week.

Brave New world was very good, but I must say that The Doors of Perception was a bit of a let down.

"The Eagle and The Rose"-Rosemary Altea

I usually have about 5 books going at once - I know, I'm a dork - lol - and the only books I can read in one sitting are Harry Potter books....otherwise, give me a solid 4-5 months to get thru my current "menagerie" of books...

Right now I'm reading:
"Four Past Midnight" by Stephen King
"Katastrophe" by Randall Boyll
"Wicked" by Gregory Maguire
"The Metamorphosis and Other Stories" by Franz Kafka
"Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
"The Cyberiad" by Stanislaw Lemi

Phew....those, and also a Far Side always at the ready in the bathroom

Although not even in the same league, anyone who has not read Kafka or Maguire should really check out there stuff

So my grandma gave me a copy of "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoyevsky. VERY hard read. Gave it up.

Back to fantasy: "Insurrection", part of the War of the Spider Queen series, by Forgotten Realms.

Lol... Yeah, sometimes I do that to, it happenned a lot of time that I had 2 or 3 books going at the same time. But just not as much as you lol...

Currently reading: Ride a tiger, by Harold Livingston. (a story based on the life of Meyer Lansky)

Dan Brown's - Deception Point.

Excellent read so far.

"The Prince" by Machiavilli

Next is a rereading of Sun Tzu

"The Art of War"

Then I promise I will drag myself through Clausewitz

"On War"

Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by 3 different authors, can't think of their names.

Just finished "FOREVER" by Pete Hamill, all should read, great book.

Just started - Silver Wolf - Alice Borchardt

- To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip Jose' Farmer

- Area 51- The Mission(Book 3) - Robert Doherty

Also just started re-reading on of the greatest books ever written - Swan Song - R.M.

Loved 1984.. if you like Orwell "Down and Out in London and Paris" is a great autobiographical work, from his homeless years. I intend to read "Homage to Catelonia" soon as well.

Currently reading :

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, (halfway through volume 1). An incredibly detailed study of the soviet prison system. Orwell was bang on, though the reality was worse than even he imagined.

William Manchester's "The Last Lion", biography of Winston Churchill trying to spin out volume 2 cos volume 3 hasn't been written yet!

Also starting Julius Caesar's, "The Commentaries", just a few pages in.

As you can see I'm mostly a history buff at the moment. I should read more fiction, but I have a habit of only getting halfway through novels.

[Edited on 13/8/04 by muppet]

That's Dostoyevsky's best book. I read it and it's really worth it. Maybe you should try again when you have some for yourself.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is a good book, muppet. I read it as well. Solzhenitsyn sometimes includes too much information though, making certain parts of the book difficult to read.

I'm now (still) reading James Joyce's Finnegans Wake and I'm now in book II, chapter II. James Joyce is in my opinion the best writer ever and I have read all his work except Finnegans Wake. If you haven't read Ulysses you have really missed something. I liked the Proteus, Wandering Rocks, Nausicaa and Circe episodes best. You do have to take your time to read it. It's about 950 pages and there are a few difficult episodes, like Eumeus and Ithaca.

I'm also reading Bertrand Russell's Skeptical Essays. He is a very accessible philosopher.

i'm reading Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

The Discworld Universe kicks A$$

I'm trying to read about 4 or 5 books at the same time too, I always do.

Right now I'm working on.

The Shining
Dune
Starship Troopers
Where is Joe Merchant
A Pirate Looks at Forty- The autobiography of Jimmy Buffet
Area 51- Excalibur
At the Mountains of Madness


I usually try to read each one in a week.

I love Robert A. Heinlein

My favorite from him is "Time Enough for Love"

If you like Heinlein, you might also like Philip K. Dick - "Counter-Clock World" is pretty crazy...

I've been looking at a few of Dick's books,I've only read "Do Anroids Dream of Electric Sheep?" aka Blade Runner. I'll have to check that one out.

This weekend found these at the thrift shop for .25 each:

Brave New World
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Thesues and Oedipus Rex(OMG! I thought I was buying the plays; it was a modern take on the plays by some hippy playwright! what a crock!!!)

Some good reading though, for $1.25

I've also been trying to find 1-12 of the Conan series. Lost mine in a move. I also found them at a used book store, for $8.00 each! What a rip! Guess I'm gonna have to ebay it!

I just slogged my way through The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancey. It was kind of a chore to finish and I am a techno-thriller junkie. Until I get to the bookstore or library (or have one of my minions go) I will have to make do with the stack of American Rifleman magazines my dad had been saving up for me.

I need a new techo-thriller.