What are you reading now?

[Pariah]

"Skinny Dip," Carl Haissen (and finished)

 

[Pariah]

"The Road" Cormac McCarthy

 

[Mike Olbinski]

"The Road" Cormac McCarthy

Oooooh, woo, let me know what you think. Pretty sure there is a thread on it.

 

[Shane]

LIBERTY By Stephen Coonts.

Only about 80 pages in but like it so far.

 

[Pariah]

Oooooh, woo, let me know what you think. Pretty sure there is a thread on it.

It's really good. I'll probably finish it up tonight.

I was on a crazy tear through books last week because I was on vacation...but now that life is getting in the way again I'll slow down.

 

[Pariah]

Okay, so I finished "The Road" over lunch. VERY good book.

Haunting.

 

[D-Dogg]

Reading "The Long Tail" . Fan-tastic book.

 

[Heucrazy]

I'm reading my autographed copy of "How to make Love the Bruce Campbell way", by Bruce Campbell.

 

[Pariah]

"The Book of Joe," Jonathan Tropper

 

[Pariah]

didn't know that. it's called "what is the what." his book "you shall know our velocity!" is really great, actually. i'd love to know what you think of it.

Based on your recommendation I went to Amazon to order "You Shall Know Our Velocity," but order both that and "What is What" because the reader reviews for that one are unanimous in their praise. Sounds like it's going to be very, very good.

Did you ever pick up "What is What"?

 

[Pariah]

"Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank

http://www.amazon.com/Alas-Babylon-...0909401?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181765638&sr=8-1

I've got those Dave Eggers books coming in the mail, but they're not due here until next week, so I picked this up on the recommendation of a friend that sprang from a conversation about "The Road."

 

[jenna2891]

Based on your recommendation I went to Amazon to order "You Shall Know Our Velocity," but order both that and "What is What" because the reader reviews for that one are unanimous in their praise. Sounds like it's going to be very, very good.

Did you ever pick up "What is What"?

no, i haven't. thanks for the reminder, though; i added it to my amazon cart.

 

[Gambit]

"Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank

http://www.amazon.com/Alas-Babylon-...0909401?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181765638&sr=8-1

I've got those Dave Eggers books coming in the mail, but they're not due here until next week, so I picked this up on the recommendation of a friend that sprang from a conversation about "The Road."

I read that awhile ago. It was a good yarn--not quite what I expected but nice.

 

[Pariah]

I read that awhile ago. It was a good yarn--not quite what I expected but nice.

Have you read the road? How does it compare?

 

[Gambit]

Have you read the road? How does it compare?

I haven't read the road. All I'll say is a lot of action in Babylon has to do with mundane survival techniques after the nuclear war. It had an understated air to it and wasn't as dramatic and event-driven as I would have thought. It was a solid book though.

 

[D-Dogg]

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

Very interesting book...written by the man himself it is a fascinating glimpse inside his head and how he perceives the world. Similar to Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" but non-fiction.

From Publishers Weekly
This unique first-person account offers a window into the mind of a high-functioning, 27-year-old British autistic savant with Asperger's syndrome. Tammet's ability to think abstractly, deviate from routine, and empathize, interact and communicate with others is impaired, yet he's capable of incredible feats of memorization and mental calculation. Besides being able to effortlessly multiply and divide huge sums in his head with the speed and accuracy of a computer, Tammet, the subject of the 2005 documentary Brainman, learned Icelandic in a single week and recited the number pi up to the 22,514th digit, breaking the European record. He also experiences synesthesia, an unusual neurological syndrome that enables him to experience numbers and words as "shapes, colors, textures and motions." Tammet traces his life from a frustrating, withdrawn childhood and adolescence to his adult achievements, which include teaching in Lithuania, achieving financial independence with an educational Web site and sustaining a long-term romantic relationship. As one of only about 50 people living today with synesthesia and autism, Tammet's condition is intriguing to researchers; his ability to express himself clearly and with a surprisingly engaging tone (given his symptoms) makes for an account that will intrigue others as well.

An excerpt from the start of the book:

I was born on January 31, 1979 -- a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number 9 or the sound of loud voices arguing. I like my birth date, because of the way I'm able to visualize most of the numbers in it as smooth and round shapes, similar to pebbles on a beach. That's because they are prime numbers: 31, 19, 197, 97, 79 and 1979 are all divisible only by themselves and 1. I can recognize every prime up to 9,973 by their "pebble-like" quality. It's just the way my brain works.

I have a rare condition known as savant syndrome, little known before its portrayal by actor Dustin Hoffman in the Oscar-winning 1988 film Rain Man. Like Hoffman's character, Raymond Babbitt, I have an almost obsessive need for order and routine which affects virtually every aspect of my life. For example, I eat exactly 45 grams of porridge for breakfast each morning; I weigh the bowl with an electronic scale to make sure. Then I count the number of items of clothing I'm wearing before I leave my house. I get anxious if I can't drink my cups of tea at the same time each day. Whenever I become too stressed and I can't breathe properly, I close my eyes and count. Thinking of numbers helps me to become calm again.

Numbers are my friends, and they are always around me. Each one is unique and has its own personality. The number 11 is friendly and 5 is loud, whereas 4 is both shy and quiet -- it's my favorite number, perhaps because it reminds me of myself. Some are big -- 23, 667, 1,179 -- while others are small: 6, 13, 581. Some are beautiful, like 333, and some are ugly, like 289. To me, every number is special.

No matter where I go or what I'm doing, numbers are never far from my thoughts. In an interview with talk show host David Letterman in New York, I told David he looked like the number 117 -- tall and lanky. Later outside, in the appropriately numerically named Times Square, I gazed up at the towering skyscrapers and felt surrounded by 9s -- the number I most associate with feelings of immensity.

Scientists call my visual, emotional experience of numbers synesthesia, a rare neurological mixing of the senses, which most commonly results in the ability to see alphabetical letters and/or numbers in color. Mine is an unusual and complex type, through which I see numbers as shapes, colors, textures and motions. The number 1, for example, is a brilliant and bright white, like someone shining a flashlight into my eyes. Five is a clap of thunder or the sound of waves crashing against rocks. Thirty-seven is lumpy like porridge, while 89 reminds me of falling snow.

 

[BACH]

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http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalingrad-...0561429?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182369060&sr=1-1

Synopsis
This is a timely analysis and re-creation of the turning point of World War II. In October 1942, a panzer officer wrote "Stalingrad is no longer a town...Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure". The battle became the focus of Hitler and Stalin's determination to win the gruesome, vicious war on the eastern front. The citizens of Stalingrad endured unimaginable hardship; the battle, with fierce hand to hand fighting in each room of each building, was brutally destructive to both armies. But the eventual victory of the Red Army, and the failure of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa was the first defeat of Hitler's territorial ambitions in Europe, and the start of his decline. An extraordinary story of tactical genius, civilian bravery, obsession, carnage and the nature of war itself, "Stalingrad" will act as a testament to the vital role of the soviet war effort.

 

[D-Dogg]

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

Very interesting book...written by the man himself it is a fascinating glimpse inside his head and how he perceives the world. Similar to Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" but non-fiction.

CBS interview with him...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/26/60minutes/main2401846.shtml

 

[Pariah]

Finished "Alas, Babylon."

It was okay...I didn't care for the structure much. It was sort of, "just there," I guess.

I just started Eggers' "What is What." GOod so far.

 

[abomb]

Just finished this book from the library;

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Polishing off "Game of Shadows".

Next is the second half of "The World is Flat".

Then finishing "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".

 

[Shane]

I just finished Liberty by Stephen Coonts. It was pretty good.

Just started this today: http://www.amazon.com/American-Andr...1716701?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182449599&sr=8-2

Gets great reviews on Amazon. The author was only 24 when this was published.

 

[D-Dogg]

I'm now reading something I am surprised I never read. With Catch-22 being one of my very favorite books, I decided to finally read a book said to be similar in Slaughterhouse Five. Ethan Hawke (who I like very much) reads the audiobook and the forward was about 25 minutes long from Vonnegut...and entertaining. If the book reads anything like the forward, I'm in for a good time.

 

[Gambit]

I'm now reading something I am surprised I never read. With Catch-22 being one of my very favorite books, I decided to finally read a book said to be similar in Slaughterhouse Five. Ethan Hawke (who I like very much) reads the audiobook and the forward was about 25 minutes long from Vonnegut...and entertaining. If the book reads anything like the forward, I'm in for a good time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQnAhSzb4gY

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Just finished "The Husband" by Dean Koontz...it was pretty enjoyable, had a good twist in it.

 

[D-Dogg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQnAhSzb4gY

Digging the book.