What are you reading?

[whyweigh5.0]

I've been slacking.. still on the last chapter of Slaughterhouse five.  I picked up the complete Hitchhikers Guide last night on amazon 8-)

got it a couple days ago.  It's nice.. black leather-like covering.  Gold outlined pages.  A sewn in placekeeper.  it's got the 5 complete novels and one story.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Restaurant at the End of the universe

Life, the Universe and Everything

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Mostly Harmless

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe

[rowjimmy]

got it a couple days ago.  It's nice.. black leather-like covering.  Gold outlined pages.  A sewn in placekeeper.  it's got the 5 complete novels and one story.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Restaurant at the Ed of the universe

Life, the Universe and Everything

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Mostly Harmless

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe

Thats the ed. that I have. sweet sweetness.

[cactusfan]

Nice!  McCarthy has gone spare, and while I don't think it worked in No Country For Old Men it damn sure worked in The Road.  In a word, distilled.

I, too, am wading my way through Pynchon (about 700 pages in) and it is like falling down an elevator shaft.
I always try to read two at a time, so the other right now is Don DeLillo's Americana.

i finally finished Against The Day. did you ever finish it? like falling down an elevator shaft all the way into the center of the earth and back again. kind of exasperating in a lot of ways, but ultimately a lot of fascinating pieces in there. i'm glad i made it through. i think.

now i'm reading War Trash by a chinese writer, Ha Jin. won a bunch of awards. hope it's good.

been years since i read hitchhiker's guide. i will always remember this line, though: 'the huge yellow ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.'

[nab]

Rubbish- The Archeology of Garbage   What Our Garbage Tells Us About Ourselves

By William Rathje and Cullen Murphy



This is a fascinating book that seeks to use archaeological method to interpret modern American waste disposal in an attempt to better understand past human behavior vis-a-vis artifact deposition.  It is based on the reality that a good amount of the archaeological material found and studied today is, in fact, evidence of past cultures dumping their trash.  Some interesting insights I have gleaned so far:

- The industrial revolution did not create non-biodegradable trash, it has always been a major part of human waste activity (think of pottery shards, glass, bone in non-acidic soils, stone tools).
-  Recycling has been a constant presence in the human waste experience.
-  Getting an exact estimate of American waste products is extremely problematic.  Volume accounts are erroneous on the side of large garbage objects (fridges, building materials etc.) and Weight accounts are thrown off by the study area (the exact same bag of trash would weigh different in New Orleans, on account of humidity, than it would in Arizona or New York)


This is only the beginning.  More to come   

[birdman]

   Nice Nab. I read that book during college.

Are you an archaelologist? I have a BS in Physical Anthropolgy....my main area of study was osteology. I never pursued a career since my wife found out she was pregnant a few weeks after graduation. Archaelogy just wouldnt pay the bills...I still dig in the dirt, now I just install polls however.
    Anyway, Rubbish! was a fun read.

[nab]

   Nice Nab. I read that book during college.

Are you an archaelologist? I have a BS in Physical Anthropolgy....my main area of study was osteology. I never pursued a career since my wife found out she was pregnant a few weeks after graduation. Archaelogy just wouldnt pay the bills...I still dig in the dirt, now I just install polls however.
    Anyway, Rubbish! was a fun read.

I am an archaeologist, or soon to be, I still have 3 years of school left to complete my Masters.  My wife and I just had our first baby and she won't let me do anything but pursue my education/career.  I've tried to give up a couple of times but she keeps pushing me.  Its a good thing.  Anyway, yes, I do love to dig me some dirt.  I also make my bread and butter digging dirt now, just not archaeologically; I am a landscaper.  Kind of annoys the other guys when I insist on looking at the stratigraphy in a freshly dug hole, or when I sift through the dirt looking for objects of interest.

[sophist]

I just started the Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley

[rowjimmy]

I just started Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry

[mopper_smurf]

Dutch 'zine.

[tmwsiy]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=phish

[birdman]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=phish

Phish ="A band that preaches love and happiness rather than hating your parents and fuckin' bitches. Kind of like Jesus."
:lol:

[rowjimmy]

I just finished reading The Streets of Laredo The followup to Lonesome Dove (see earlier in the thread.)

Wow.

Now I'm going on novel hiatus so I can focus my energies on music

[Red Sea Pedestrian]

Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe as well as The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan. I have a highly developed geeky side to my personality, although it's usually a side I don't get to indulge very often.

[converse29]

"The Life Of Pi"-Yann Martel.

[rowjimmy]

Fieldwork: A Novel
by Mischa Berlinski

Recommended to me by Stephen King
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20034042,00.html