what are you reading right now? - Page 29

Fatty Lumpkin · 01-30-2003, 01:45 PM

i'm pretty much a freak because i usually read many books simultaneously. right now:

kurt vonnegut: slapstick and hocus pocus
howard zinn: the zinn reader
fast food nation by i forget who
crashing the party by ralph nader
and i've been working ulysses by james joyce for the past ten years

i need to learn to focus on just ONE thing at a time. it would make me much more sane.

BeardofPants · 01-30-2003, 02:17 PM

HoME 7, and Wizard of Earthsea.

sun-star · 01-30-2003, 03:50 PM

I'm reading the Wizard of Earthsea too. And the Wings of a Dove. Both very interesting

Elven Archer · 01-30-2003, 06:52 PM

i was reading To The Far Blue Mountains but i just stopped reading it. i guess i lost interest after i read the end.

cassiopeia · 01-30-2003, 10:53 PM

I read George Orwell's Animal Farm in about two hours yesterday. Very interesting. I'm now reading Isaac Asimov's Fantasy Collection (the ones about the little demon thing, Azazel) and a book about ME, Author of the Century.
I have ordered Dune from the library, so I will be reading it soon!

**crickhollow** · 01-30-2003, 11:32 PM

The History of Nursery Rhymes

Sicirus · 01-30-2003, 11:39 PM

I have finished The haunting of Hill house and recomend it to all.
I got bored of Tamsin though

.
I am now reading Dogland : which is about the 1950's and a familly of white southerners hiering an African American to work in Dogland in Florida.

Coney · 01-31-2003, 07:35 AM

The Amish Phone Book - Very light reading this one.
Adolf Hitler, My Part in His Downfall - Spike Milligan (v.funny)
The Arts Good Study Guide - Tedius, boring but necessary.

Hidden Lives was good, if you like autobiographies that are written by people who aren't famous movie stars

Evenstar1400 · 02-03-2003, 10:14 PM

the hobbit
the house on mango street (4 english)

thats it for now... trying to keep unread books in my bookshelf for at least a week

Legolas_Frodo_Aragorn · 02-05-2003, 04:48 PM

return of the king

and i am the cheese (for english)

***Khamûl*** · 02-07-2003, 12:30 AM

Right now I'm reading Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'. Very fascinating book.

Cirdan · 02-07-2003, 12:31 AM

Khamul, how is the translation, as far as readability?

***Khamûl*** · 02-07-2003, 06:20 PM

It's not hard to read. It's Samuel B. Griffith's translation with comments under some of the points. At some points, he'll leave a footnote and say, "[This translator] thought that this verse meant [whatever], but it is literally translated as [whatever]." It's actually pretty easy to read and understand.

_orerunyar_ · 02-08-2003, 12:21 AM

Hmm, I usually have a few books going at once, but with school and everything it's kind of hard to find a lot of time to just kick back and read. The book is called The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. It's about a group of people in the late 1890's who shared a common idea, and developed the concept of pragmatism (something I believe in for sure). The discussion is part narrative, part history, part drama. It reads almost like Simon Singh (Fermat's Enigma, The Code Book), but with a bit more of a factual-history feel to it. Has anyone else read this book? It was a pretty big seller if I can recall right.

And as always, I have a copy of the Silmarillion close at hand

and I'm always poking through one computer book, currently The Missing Manual for Dreamweaver MX. Whee

_orerunyar_ · 02-08-2003, 12:47 AM

Hmm, I usually have a few books going at once, but with school and everything it's kind of hard to find a lot of time to just kick back and read. The book is called The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. It's about a group of people in the late 1890's who shared a common idea, and developed the concept of pragmatism (something I believe in for sure). The discussion is part narrative, part history, part drama. It reads almost like Simon Singh (Fermat's Enigma, The Code Book), but with a bit more of a factual-history feel to it. Has anyone else read this book? It was a pretty big seller if I can recall right.

And as always, I have a copy of the Silmarillion close at hand

and I'm always poking through one computer book, currently The Missing Manual for Dreamweaver MX. Whee

BeardofPants · 02-08-2003, 01:08 AM

About to start on Red Mars...

Shadowfax · 02-09-2003, 01:27 AM

I have just started Beowulf, and so far, I love it.

cassiopeia · 02-09-2003, 01:34 AM

I just go Beowulf from the library today! I kept reading about it in regard to Tolkien and his writings, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Starr Polish · 02-09-2003, 02:15 AM

So far I have finished reading "The Agony and the Ecstasy", "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". All very good books. I think I'm getting a bit more ::quotefingers::worldly::/endquotefingers:: because I understood much of the satire in the last book. Very funny.

Currently reading AP Psych book and the Silmarillion.

Huan · 02-09-2003, 02:45 AM

Cassiopeia, Beowulf is just plain incredible. And it is indispensible in an understanding of Tolkien. The Rohirrim especially have a lot of Beowulf in them: the sentry who does all the "who goes there?" to Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf at Edoras is taken wholesale from Beowulf and his men's approach to Heorot. And Bilbo taking a cup from Smaug is based on a bit of Beowulf! But LOTR as a whole owes much to Beowulf's sensibility: that sense of an age ending, things going where fate has decided, that kind of sadness of a something that once was great doomed to pass with the wind, but first here's some awesome fights with two ogres and a dragon!
The what-I'm reading update: just finished Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers, which was so very good. Now juggling Philip J. Caputo's A Rumor of War, a memoir of one man's experience in the Vietnam War, Mapping Human History, a book about what our species' DNA can tell us about the species' history as a whole and why bigotry is therefore stupid, and the graphic novels Batman: Dark Victory and House of Java, a black-and-white independent.

01-30-2003, 02:17 PM	#562
BeardofPants the Shrike Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Francisco, CA <3 Posts: 10,647	HoME 7, and Wizard of Earthsea. __________________ "Binary solo! 0000001! 00000011! 0000001! 00000011!" ~ The Humans are Dead, Flight of the Conchords

01-30-2003, 03:50 PM	#563
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	I'm reading the Wizard of Earthsea too. And the Wings of a Dove. Both very interesting __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool. Last edited by sun-star : 01-30-2003 at 03:51 PM.

01-30-2003, 06:52 PM	#564
Elven Archer Elven Warrior Join Date: May 2002 Location: America! Posts: 480	i was reading To The Far Blue Mountains but i just stopped reading it. i guess i lost interest after i read the end. __________________ "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: 'it goes on'." ~robert frost

01-30-2003, 10:53 PM	#565
cassiopeia Viggoholic Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 1,749	I read George Orwell's Animal Farm in about two hours yesterday. Very interesting. I'm now reading Isaac Asimov's Fantasy Collection (the ones about the little demon thing, Azazel) and a book about ME, Author of the Century. I have ordered Dune from the library, so I will be reading it soon! __________________ Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

01-30-2003, 11:32 PM	#566
crickhollow The Buckleberry Fairy/Captain Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Washington State again (I miss Texas). Posts: 1,345	The History of Nursery Rhymes __________________ A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

01-30-2003, 01:45 PM	#561
Fatty Lumpkin Sapling Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Maryville, MO Posts: 10	i'm pretty much a freak because i usually read many books simultaneously. right now: kurt vonnegut: slapstick and hocus pocus howard zinn: the zinn reader fast food nation by i forget who crashing the party by ralph nader and i've been working ulysses by james joyce for the past ten years i need to learn to focus on just ONE thing at a time. it would make me much more sane.

01-30-2003, 11:39 PM	#567
Sicirus Elf Lord Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Down the road on your left...No your other left. Posts: 1,825	I have finished The haunting of Hill house and recomend it to all. I got bored of Tamsin though . I am now reading Dogland : which is about the 1950's and a familly of white southerners hiering an African American to work in Dogland in Florida. __________________ "I know less then half of you half as well as I should like. And I like less then half of you half as well as you deserve." Bilbo Baggins

01-31-2003, 07:35 AM	#568
Coney The Buddy Rabbit Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Trapped in the headlights.. Posts: 3,372	The Amish Phone Book - Very light reading this one. Adolf Hitler, My Part in His Downfall - Spike Milligan (v.funny) The Arts Good Study Guide - Tedius, boring but necessary. Hidden Lives was good, if you like autobiographies that are written by people who aren't famous movie stars __________________ Blessed are the cracked, they let the light in Beatallica

02-03-2003, 10:14 PM	#569
Evenstar1400 Elven Warrior Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: In the inner depths of my lair. Posts: 421	the hobbit the house on mango street (4 english) thats it for now... trying to keep unread books in my bookshelf for at least a week __________________ Treebeard: Hmm, you look like hobbits, smell like hobbits, feel like hobbits and sound like hobbits. You must be orcs!

02-05-2003, 04:48 PM	#570
Legolas_Frodo_Aragorn The Elven Queen Of All Pyros Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Im like a little bug stuck in the lamp...never going anywhere Posts: 795	return of the king and i am the cheese (for english) __________________ Would you judge my future based on what i did in the past? Procrastinators Unite!!!.....tomorrrow.... Kids in backseats cause accidents...accidents in backseats cause kids As long as there are tests..there will be prayers in school

02-07-2003, 12:30 AM	#571
*Khamûl* Slacker Warrior Admin Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,759	Right now I'm reading Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'. Very fascinating book. __________________ "If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you." Gandalf to Pippin Psalm 107:31

02-07-2003, 12:31 AM	#572
Cirdan Elf Lord of the Grey Havens Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: somewhere else Posts: 2,381	Khamul, how is the translation, as far as readability? __________________ There exists a limit to the force even ther most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences. -Muad'dib on Law The Stilgar Commentary

02-07-2003, 06:20 PM	#573
*Khamûl* Slacker Warrior Admin Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,759	It's not hard to read. It's Samuel B. Griffith's translation with comments under some of the points. At some points, he'll leave a footnote and say, "[This translator] thought that this verse meant [whatever], but it is literally translated as [whatever]." It's actually pretty easy to read and understand. __________________ "If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you." Gandalf to Pippin Psalm 107:31

02-08-2003, 12:21 AM	#574
_orerunyar_ Sapling Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: The Far West Posts: 5	What I'm reading currently Hmm, I usually have a few books going at once, but with school and everything it's kind of hard to find a lot of time to just kick back and read. The book is called The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. It's about a group of people in the late 1890's who shared a common idea, and developed the concept of pragmatism (something I believe in for sure). The discussion is part narrative, part history, part drama. It reads almost like Simon Singh (Fermat's Enigma, The Code Book), but with a bit more of a factual-history feel to it. Has anyone else read this book? It was a pretty big seller if I can recall right. And as always, I have a copy of the Silmarillion close at hand and I'm always poking through one computer book, currently The Missing Manual for Dreamweaver MX. Whee __________________ Aire Mar?a Eruo ontaril, á hyame rámen úcarindor, s? ar lúmesse ya firuvamme: násie.

02-08-2003, 12:47 AM	#575
_orerunyar_ Sapling Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: The Far West Posts: 5	What I'm reading currently Hmm, I usually have a few books going at once, but with school and everything it's kind of hard to find a lot of time to just kick back and read. The book is called The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. It's about a group of people in the late 1890's who shared a common idea, and developed the concept of pragmatism (something I believe in for sure). The discussion is part narrative, part history, part drama. It reads almost like Simon Singh (Fermat's Enigma, The Code Book), but with a bit more of a factual-history feel to it. Has anyone else read this book? It was a pretty big seller if I can recall right. And as always, I have a copy of the Silmarillion close at hand and I'm always poking through one computer book, currently The Missing Manual for Dreamweaver MX. Whee __________________ Aire Mar?a Eruo ontaril, á hyame rámen úcarindor, s? ar lúmesse ya firuvamme: násie.

02-08-2003, 01:08 AM	#576
BeardofPants the Shrike Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Francisco, CA <3 Posts: 10,647	About to start on Red Mars... __________________ "Binary solo! 0000001! 00000011! 0000001! 00000011!" ~ The Humans are Dead, Flight of the Conchords

02-09-2003, 01:27 AM	#577
Shadowfax The Fleet-Footed Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: British Columbia Posts: 913	I have just started Beowulf, and so far, I love it. __________________ Jesus saved me "To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child" (Cicero, 106-43 B.C.) "Art is a lie which makes us realize the truth" (Picasso)

02-09-2003, 01:34 AM	#578
cassiopeia Viggoholic Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 1,749	I just go Beowulf from the library today! I kept reading about it in regard to Tolkien and his writings, so I thought I'd give it a go. __________________ Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

02-09-2003, 02:15 AM	#579
Starr Polish Elf Lord Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Slow down and I sail on the river, slow down and I walk to the hill Posts: 2,389	So far I have finished reading "The Agony and the Ecstasy", "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". All very good books. I think I'm getting a bit more ::quotefingers::worldly::/endquotefingers:: because I understood much of the satire in the last book. Very funny. Currently reading AP Psych book and the Silmarillion. __________________ “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” –Bertrand Russell

02-09-2003, 02:45 AM	#580
Huan Elven Warrior Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Oxford, MS Posts: 274	Cassiopeia, Beowulf is just plain incredible. And it is indispensible in an understanding of Tolkien. The Rohirrim especially have a lot of Beowulf in them: the sentry who does all the "who goes there?" to Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf at Edoras is taken wholesale from Beowulf and his men's approach to Heorot. And Bilbo taking a cup from Smaug is based on a bit of Beowulf! But LOTR as a whole owes much to Beowulf's sensibility: that sense of an age ending, things going where fate has decided, that kind of sadness of a something that once was great doomed to pass with the wind, but first here's some awesome fights with two ogres and a dragon! The what-I'm reading update: just finished Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers, which was so very good. Now juggling Philip J. Caputo's A Rumor of War, a memoir of one man's experience in the Vietnam War, Mapping Human History, a book about what our species' DNA can tell us about the species' history as a whole and why bigotry is therefore stupid, and the graphic novels Batman: Dark Victory and House of Java, a black-and-white independent.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Introduction: Reading the Sil for the First Time	Bombadillo	The Silmarillion	41	04-03-2005 05:07 AM
Reading Lolita in Tehran	Menelvagor	General Literature	1	05-12-2004 09:41 PM
March 25th (Today) : Tolkien Reading Day	Finrod Felagund	General Messages	6	03-30-2004 11:41 AM
For those reading along with the movie	Elfhelm	Lord of the Rings Movies	0	11-06-2003 01:17 PM
Reading THE HOBBIT at the bookstore...	Gilthalion	The Hobbit (book)	95	11-06-2000 04:01 AM