Brahma Blogs

This team blog is designed to allow a group of friends who have known each other for 20+ years to share their thoughts on culture, politics, religion, relationships, etc.

Friday, October 22, 2004

Got Books?

I know we all have very busy lives, especially those of you with children, but I'm hoping you're still able to get in a couple of good reads every once in awhile.
I'd be curious to know what everyone has been reading lately.
How about you share:
What Book You're Currently Reading
Your Favorite Fiction Book you've read recently
Your Favorite Non-Fiction Book you've read recently
I'll make my list in the 1st comment

posted by cvo @ 10:19 PM  

8 Comments:

  • At 10:22 PM, Blogger cvo said…

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  • At 10:22 PM, Blogger cvo said…

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  • At 10:26 PM, Blogger cvo said…

    Book I'm Reading Right Now: Skinny Puppy by Carl Hiassen
    Hiassen is one of those authors whose books I buy whenever he has a new one out. They're all set in Florida and involve some wacky mystery being solved by very strange characters under unlikely circumstances. It's all very whimsical but usually has a strong, underlying environmental, anti-sprawl message to it

    Best Fiction Book I've Read Recently: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Nifenegger
    An epic love story that unravels inside a twisting, turning time-travel setting. Very interesting premise and great writing. Kyung and I both loved this book.

    Best Non-Fiction Book I've Read Recently: The End of Oil by Paul Roberts
    I will probably talk about this book in another thread, but basically it's about our finite supply of oil in the world and what we and other governments and nations need to do to convert to alternate sources of energy before we reach the breaking point. Every politician and CEO should be forced to read this book.

     

  • At 8:04 AM, Blogger Unknown said…

    Right now, I'm reading Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. My wife really likes Jane Austen, and so I have watched the made-for-TV versions with her. Now my wife is making me read the books, and she suggested that I start with Sense and Sensibility because its TV adaptation leaves some interesting characters out. I must admit that I enjoy Austen's writing style very much.

    I'm also reading Dive into Python, a book about the Python programming language.

    My most recent non-fiction read is By What Authority? by Mark Shea, an evangelical convert to Catholicism. Shea started down his path to conversion when he decided to craft an evangelical response to the modernist heresy in general and to the Jesus Seminar in particular. He was surprised to discover that the evangelical system of thought, based as it is only on the Bible, was incapable of being used to argue forcefully against the modernists. Only the Catholic system, which rests on Apostolic Tradition, in the context of which the New Testament itself arose, has the philosophical integrity to face modernism head on.

    My favorite recent non-fiction book is Galileo's Mistake by Wade Rowland. In the "Hanging with Republicans" thread, I have written some interesting ideas that came out of my reflection and research following my reading of that book.

     

  • At 8:05 AM, Blogger Edith said…

    Currently Reading: Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos. His first book went down as a favorite of mine. I remember talking with Russell about it at some point. Only into the first few chapters. Non-Fiction: The Hightower book I referenced earlier, Thieves in High Places. Vintage Hightower. Although the politics were, as usual horrifying and scathing, it was the "Texasisms" after being gone so long, that had me laughing out loud. Last Fiction: Michael Crichton, Prey. I haven't read a Crichton novel in quite some time and have to say I loved it. I still remember picking up the Andromeda Strain in the middle school library. It's fast, slick, very politically appropos. And hey, if you can make a weapon out of something, why not? GMO being such a huge issue with VT (usually organic) farmers and the wind carry from the mid-west agrifarmers, the issue is in the papers every week here. Great post Curtis!

     

  • At 7:51 AM, Blogger R said…

    I read quite a bit, with the main criteria being that it is not to heavy to rest on my chest while I'm reading it in bed as I fall asleep; that it is nice and long so that I can read it for some time without having to find something new to read, and that it is not totally mindless. This has got me into reading a lot of "classics" that I'd never read, like all the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Illiad, the Patrick OBrian series ("Master and Commander" etc). Here are some of my all-time favorites (read more than once, usually more than twice): Fiasco (Stanislaw Lem -- he is MUCH better than either of the movie adaptions of Solaris would lead you to believe); Laws of the Game (Eigen and Winkler -- kind of out of date in some ways, but a great idea: illustrating the laws of nature, and in particular chemistry, biology, and ecology with bead games similar to Go and Backgammon); The Origin of Conciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (Julian Jaynes -- maybe also a bit dated, but I have yet to find any thing good that updates this: the basic idea is that prior to "civilization," EVERYONE was schizophrenic and heard "voices;" I know it sounds wacko, but if you read it, it's a pretty compelling argument that has really stuck with me much more than I thought it would when I read it); Time Travel in Einstein's Universe (Gott -- this is MUCH better than the title would lead one to believe; Gott is a physicist who does an pretty good job talking about General Relativity and its implications for cosmology and the origin of the Universe in an understandable way, kind of like Brian Greene.

     

  • At 3:49 PM, Blogger R said…

    The best book I ever read on oil is "The Prize" which fits all my criteria about size, weight, and length, and is well-written explanation of the history and econonmics of oil. There was a multi-part PBS series made from it a few years ago.

     

  • At 10:59 AM, Blogger jmeriwether said…

    Non-fiction – Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
    Fiction – The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (Actually it’s a series and the first one isn’t my favorite in the series, but is helpful for full enjoyment of the ones to follow)
    Surprise re-discovery – Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (Hey, Jimmie, is she any relation?)
    Good recent read – Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson – There is a lot of RLS I haven’t read and I enjoyed Kidnapped enough to put the others on my list- and strangely enough, it was referenced in the book I just finished called Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. I wouldn’t have picked up Peace on my own, but Patrick’s mom left it last time she visited and I enjoyed it well enough. It’s odd to consider a person whose relationship with God is so personal that he gets tossed around a bit by the Almighty when he disagrees with His instructions.

     

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