What are you reading?

[phuzzyfish12]

Currently Reading:

The Passage: A Novel by Justin Cronin
You don't have to be a fan of vampire fiction to be enthralled by The Passage, Justin Cronin's blazing new novel. Cronin is a remarkable storyteller (just ask adoring fans of his award-winning Mary and O'Neil), whose gorgeous writing brings depth and vitality to this ambitious epic about a virus that nearly destroys the world, and a six-year-old girl who holds the key to bringing it back. The Passage takes readers on a journey from the early days of the virus to the aftermath of the destruction, where packs of hungry infected scour the razed, charred cities looking for food, and the survivors eke out a bleak, brutal existence shadowed by fear. Cronin doesn't shy away from identifying his "virals" as vampires. But, these are not sexy, angsty vampires (you won't be seeing "Team Babcock" t-shirts any time soon), and they are not old-school, evil Nosferatus, either. These are a creation all Cronin's own--hairless, insectile, glow-in-the-dark mutations who are inextricably linked to their makers and the one girl who could destroy them all. A huge departure from Cronin's first two novels, The Passage is a grand mashup of literary and supernatural, a stunning beginning to a trilogy that is sure to dazzle readers of both genres.

400 pages into this book and can't put it down. 1st book out of a trilogy - can't wait for book two in 2012

Bossypants by Tina Fey
Tina Fey's new book Bossypants is short, messy, and impossibly funny (an apt description of the comedian herself). From her humble roots growing up in Pennsylvania to her days doing amateur improv in Chicago to her early sketches on Saturday Night Live, Fey gives us a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of modern comedy with equal doses of wit, candor, and self-deprecation. Some of the funniest chapters feature the differences between male and female comedy writers ("men urinate in cups"), her cruise ship honeymoon ("it's very Poseidon Adventure"), and advice about breastfeeding ("I had an obligation to my child to pretend to try"). But the chaos of Fey's life is best detailed when she's dividing her efforts equally between rehearsing her Sarah Palin impression, trying to get Oprah to appear on 30 Rock, and planning her daughter's Peter Pan-themed birthday. Bossypants gets to the heart of why Tina Fey remains universally adored: she embodies the hectic, too-many-things-to-juggle lifestyle we all have, but instead of complaining about it, she can just laugh it off.

This months book for my book club. Haven't started it yet.

[Mr. Natural]

I started once and didn't get far. The second time, I read the Introduction, where Zukav encourages the reader to persist even if the physics is outside our comprehension. So that's what I did and it was a richly rewarding read. Often, I would be unable to grasp simpler concepts, but the more complex ones would make sense. Although, when I looked up S-matrix theory on wikipedia, it seemed a lot different than the concept I felt so in tune with in the book.
A few cool quotes: "Time irreversibility is an artifact of the measurement process."
"A subatomic particle [quantum] is a set of relationships, or an intermediate state."
"Non-substantial fields are the substance of the universe, not matter. Matter is simple the momentary manifestations of interacting fields."
"At the subatomic level, there is no longer a clear distinction between what is and what happens, between the actor and the action."
"What we experience is not external reality, but our interaction with it."
"True love of all dances is dancing."
"If we accept the mechanistic determination of Newtonian physics, - if the universe really is a great machine - then from the moment the universe was set in motion, everything that was to happen in it already was determined."
"Don't confuse the type of dance they are doing with the fact that they are dancing."
"Languages are useful for conveying information, but if we try to communicate experiences with them, they simply do not work."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B001SRQNUK/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

This sounds incredibly difficult, but ultimately rewarding.

I'm actually reading the Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective, by the Dalai Lama. It's incredibly slow going, as I only read 5-10 pages a day, then re-read them the next day, contemplate, read them once more before starting the next few pages...good news is, I think it's working  :-) I think I'll have to send it to bvaz next.  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

I have a book I read in the same manner - I AM THAT by Nisargadatta Maharaj. I'll probably be reading it for the rest of my life, lol. I'll read a passage and it will be so dense and applicable to my life that I spend more time holding the book "staring into space" than actively reading it. I'm a big 'contemplater,' too.  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard
DANCING WU-LI I was able to read pretty regularly, which helped big time. If it was spread out over a while, I would get lost and do a lot of back-tracking.

[mistercharlie]

Decided to re-read The Dark Tower series. Finished The Gunslinger on the plane rides to and from the Virgin Islands and just started on The Drawing Of The Three this morning. This is the first time I've re-read the earlier books since the last 3 came out.

[cactusfan]

The Man In The High Castle - Philip K. Dick


I've slowly but surely been reading a lot of PKD over the last few years, getting to some of the more weird and random ones. This one is one of his most famous. I read it in college long ago, thought I'd give it another try. It's great. An alternate history assuming Germany and Japan won WWII and partitioned the USA between them. Great characters with heads full of PKD's usual trippy thoughts and questions as to the nature of reality, which are further confused by a popular but illegal book everyone's reading which offers an alternate history of reality wherein Japan and Germany lost the war.

now reading On The Beach - Nevil Shute


The classic cold war book about the aftermath of a massive nuclear war, written in '57. Takes place in Melbourne, Australia, where the last living humans wait for the radiation from thousands of nukes to slowly make its way down to the southern hemisphere and kill them. I'm assuming everyone dies in the end, but I'm not there yet...

Along the same lines, I've been into end of the world books recently. If you've got any interest in such books, here's three of the most famous, all well-worth reading:

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.



Earth Abides - George R. Stewart

This is the one that inspired Stephen King's The Stand.


The Day of The Triffids - John Wyndham

[gah]

I started once and didn't get far. The second time, I read the Introduction, where Zukav encourages the reader to persist even if the physics is outside our comprehension. So that's what I did and it was a richly rewarding read. Often, I would be unable to grasp simpler concepts, but the more complex ones would make sense. Although, when I looked up S-matrix theory on wikipedia, it seemed a lot different than the concept I felt so in tune with in the book.
A few cool quotes: "Time irreversibility is an artifact of the measurement process."
"A subatomic particle [quantum] is a set of relationships, or an intermediate state."
"Non-substantial fields are the substance of the universe, not matter. Matter is simple the momentary manifestations of interacting fields."
"At the subatomic level, there is no longer a clear distinction between what is and what happens, between the actor and the action."
"What we experience is not external reality, but our interaction with it."
"True love of all dances is dancing."
"If we accept the mechanistic determination of Newtonian physics, - if the universe really is a great machine - then from the moment the universe was set in motion, everything that was to happen in it already was determined."
"Don't confuse the type of dance they are doing with the fact that they are dancing."
"Languages are useful for conveying information, but if we try to communicate experiences with them, they simply do not work."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B001SRQNUK/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

This sounds incredibly difficult, but ultimately rewarding.

I'm actually reading the Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective, by the Dalai Lama. It's incredibly slow going, as I only read 5-10 pages a day, then re-read them the next day, contemplate, read them once more before starting the next few pages...good news is, I think it's working  :-) I think I'll have to send it to bvaz next.  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

I have a book I read in the same manner - I AM THAT by Nisargadatta Maharaj. I'll probably be reading it for the rest of my life, lol. I'll read a passage and it will be so dense and applicable to my life that I spend more time holding the book "staring into space" than actively reading it. I'm a big 'contemplater,' too.  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard
DANCING WU-LI I was able to read pretty regularly, which helped big time. If it was spread out over a while, I would get lost and do a lot of back-tracking.

Oh man! Just read the description and some reviews of that on Amazon. Looks like where I'm exactly at. Definitely need to grab that one. I'm actually kind of surprised I've never heard of the author before. Thanks for the heads up! 

[phuzzyfish12]

The Man In The High Castle - Philip K. Dick


I've slowly but surely been reading a lot of PKD over the last few years, getting to some of the more weird and random ones. This one is one of his most famous. I read it in college long ago, thought I'd give it another try. It's great. An alternate history assuming Germany and Japan won WWII and partitioned the USA between them. Great characters with heads full of PKD's usual trippy thoughts and questions as to the nature of reality, which are further confused by a popular but illegal book everyone's reading which offers an alternate history of reality wherein Japan and Germany lost the war.

now reading On The Beach - Nevil Shute


The classic cold war book about the aftermath of a massive nuclear war, written in '57. Takes place in Melbourne, Australia, where the last living humans wait for the radiation from thousands of nukes to slowly make its way down to the southern hemisphere and kill them. I'm assuming everyone dies in the end, but I'm not there yet...

Along the same lines, I've been into end of the world books recently. If you've got any interest in such books, here's three of the most famous, all well-worth reading:

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.



Earth Abides - George R. Stewart

This is the one that inspired Stephen King's The Stand.


The Day of The Triffids - John Wyndham

Gonna add these to my list, thanks :-)

[Multibeast12]

Decided to re-read The Dark Tower series. Finished The Gunslinger on the plane rides to and from the Virgin Islands and just started on The Drawing Of The Three this morning. This is the first time I've re-read the earlier books since the last 3 came out.

I'm still on the Third one. I never have time to read anymore.

[mistercharlie]

Decided to re-read The Dark Tower series. Finished The Gunslinger on the plane rides to and from the Virgin Islands and just started on The Drawing Of The Three this morning. This is the first time I've re-read the earlier books since the last 3 came out.

I'm still on the Third one. I never have time to read anymore.

Well if you read that third one slow enough, you may be able to read the eighth book where it goes in the series. The new book, The Wind Through the Keyhole,  should be out sometime in the next year and it falls chronologically between the third and fourth books.

[birdman]

Decided to re-read The Dark Tower series. Finished The Gunslinger on the plane rides to and from the Virgin Islands and just started on The Drawing Of The Three this morning. This is the first time I've re-read the earlier books since the last 3 came out.

I'm still on the Third one. I never have time to read anymore.

Well if you read that third one slow enough, you may be able to read the eighth book where it goes in the series. The new book, The Wind Through the Keyhole,  should be out sometime in the next year and it falls chronologically between the third and fourth books.

How can it fall between books 3 and 4 when there is no gap in time between the end of book 3 and the beginning
of book 4? Also might I add that I am super psyched for this.

[mistercharlie]

Decided to re-read The Dark Tower series. Finished The Gunslinger on the plane rides to and from the Virgin Islands and just started on The Drawing Of The Three this morning. This is the first time I've re-read the earlier books since the last 3 came out.

I'm still on the Third one. I never have time to read anymore.

Well if you read that third one slow enough, you may be able to read the eighth book where it goes in the series. The new book, The Wind Through the Keyhole,  should be out sometime in the next year and it falls chronologically between the third and fourth books.

How can it fall between books 3 and 4 when there is no gap in time between the end of book 3 and the beginning
of book 4? Also might I add that I am super psyched for this.

Oops, It falls between 4 & 5.   :oops:

The major story of Roland and his ka-tet was told, but I realized there was at least one hole in the narrative progression: what happened to Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah, and Oy between the time they leave the Emerald City (the end of Wizard and Glass) and the time we pick them up again, on the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis (the beginning of Wolves of the Calla)? [7]

[kellerb]

Decided to re-read The Dark Tower series. Finished The Gunslinger on the plane rides to and from the Virgin Islands and just started on The Drawing Of The Three this morning. This is the first time I've re-read the earlier books since the last 3 came out.

I'm still on the Third one. I never have time to read anymore.

Well if you read that third one slow enough, you may be able to read the eighth book where it goes in the series. The new book, The Wind Through the Keyhole,  should be out sometime in the next year and it falls chronologically between the third and fourth books.

How can it fall between books 3 and 4 when there is no gap in time between the end of book 3 and the beginning
of book 4? Also might I add that I am super psyched for this.

Oops, It falls between 4 & 5.   :oops:

The major story of Roland and his ka-tet was told, but I realized there was at least one hole in the narrative progression: what happened to Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah, and Oy between the time they leave the Emerald City (the end of Wizard and Glass) and the time we pick them up again, on the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis (the beginning of Wolves of the Calla)? [7]

Even less time for him to catch up!

[Mr. Natural]

I started once and didn't get far. The second time, I read the Introduction, where Zukav encourages the reader to persist even if the physics is outside our comprehension. So that's what I did and it was a richly rewarding read. Often, I would be unable to grasp simpler concepts, but the more complex ones would make sense. Although, when I looked up S-matrix theory on wikipedia, it seemed a lot different than the concept I felt so in tune with in the book.
A few cool quotes: "Time irreversibility is an artifact of the measurement process."
"A subatomic particle [quantum] is a set of relationships, or an intermediate state."
"Non-substantial fields are the substance of the universe, not matter. Matter is simple the momentary manifestations of interacting fields."
"At the subatomic level, there is no longer a clear distinction between what is and what happens, between the actor and the action."
"What we experience is not external reality, but our interaction with it."
"True love of all dances is dancing."
"If we accept the mechanistic determination of Newtonian physics, - if the universe really is a great machine - then from the moment the universe was set in motion, everything that was to happen in it already was determined."
"Don't confuse the type of dance they are doing with the fact that they are dancing."
"Languages are useful for conveying information, but if we try to communicate experiences with them, they simply do not work."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B001SRQNUK/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

This sounds incredibly difficult, but ultimately rewarding.

I'm actually reading the Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective, by the Dalai Lama. It's incredibly slow going, as I only read 5-10 pages a day, then re-read them the next day, contemplate, read them once more before starting the next few pages...good news is, I think it's working  :-) I think I'll have to send it to bvaz next.  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

I have a book I read in the same manner - I AM THAT by Nisargadatta Maharaj. I'll probably be reading it for the rest of my life, lol. I'll read a passage and it will be so dense and applicable to my life that I spend more time holding the book "staring into space" than actively reading it. I'm a big 'contemplater,' too.  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard
DANCING WU-LI I was able to read pretty regularly, which helped big time. If it was spread out over a while, I would get lost and do a lot of back-tracking.

Oh man! Just read the description and some reviews of that on Amazon. Looks like where I'm exactly at. Definitely need to grab that one. I'm actually kind of surprised I've never heard of the author before. Thanks for the heads up! 

I feel kind of silly starting it from the beginning and proceeding towards the end, since it is definitely not a book that requires that sort of thing. Actually, I had it for a little while and would flip to random passages - then I got freaked out that I might be "randomly" opening to the same parts of the book each time and decided to go cover to cover.
Check out a passage or two at a bookstore and see what you think.
I just now realized that you find a book called THE POWER OF PATIENCE to be "incredibly slow-going". hahaha!
I watched a video of TNH's called MINDFUL MOVEMENTS, and also saw an interview he did with Ram Dass on youTube. While he seems to be a very high being, he wasn't very engaging. But then again, neither was Prabhupada, and I've been moved/changed by plenty of his ISKCON writings.

[rowjimmy]

if I was still single I'd have finished this by now.  instead I'm on page 70

finished it yesterday. great stuff. enjoyed it more than the last one. although since it's really just the other half of the last one, it's similar in that it's all about bringing us to new lands and new characters and setting things up for the big push to the end (however damn long it takes him to write it).

if i ever re-read this one and the last one, which might happen whenever the next book is published, i think i'll try to flip back and forth and kind of read them as one book.

I'm midway through this as well... Digging it.

Just wrapped this up today.

Damn.
Shit went down.

[kellerb]

Finally finished Dharma Bums.  the first half took me forever, but the 2nd half took about a day.

[phil]

Finally finished Dharma Bums.  the first half took me forever, but the 2nd half took about a day.

That's how it went for me too. I read it after climbing Desolation Peak, it was very cool to know exactly what he was talking about. Probably my favorite by Kerouac.