I thought I'd start a book thread because I'm a total book nerd and always looking for something good to read. What are you currently reading?

I'm reading The Four Queens by Nancy Goldstone, a biography of the four daughters of the Count of Provence in the Medieval Ages who ended up playing major roles in Europe at that time. Very interesting. I'm a big fan of historical biographies.

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Queens-Provenca...1010&sr=8-1

I am starting The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini......great idea on this topic, TO! I love me some reading! ....toni

The Rough Guide to The Gambia!

The Damned United ~ David Peace

hehee, ok... this week I have going...

my day book....
Watching the English http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watching-English-H...r/dp/0340818867 absoultely fab book.. but adictive, I think it will be finished tomorrow ;)

My bed books this week...
The Evil Seed - Joanne Harris
A Lifes Work and In the Fold - by Rachel Cusk

Ems, you're like me--I'm usually reading 3 or 4 books at once. For me to be currently reading only one book is unusual!

Only cos of my envolvement with motorsports etc hehe
busy reading Richard Burns: Rallying's Would-Be King

http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Burns-Rallyi...4106&sr=1-1

Someone who was destined for greater success but tragically cut short

Just finished Tim Willocks' "The Religion" part one of a hopefully three part 14th century epic saga ala "Pillars of the Earth"
Still working on David Baldacci's "Divine Justice"

and Bevan-L, that would be "Rallying's Won't -Be King" now.

E

The Road - Cormac McCarthy it has no chapters it's just one story about a father and son on a journey after a war. Having no chapters it's hard not to read it in one day.

Age of Hirohito: In Search of Modern Japan - Daikichi Irokawa.

Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.

Also re-reading Burning Chrome - William Gibson.

Corsair by Clive Cussler, one of the Oregon Files series. Ive also just bought Ian Rankin - Doors Open as well, but finding time to read them is hard cos its easter holiday time and my five year old has got me run ragged! Only another week to go.......

Peaceful Action, Open Heart: Lessons from the Lotus Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh

Hapa mailed me a lovely book "You Can Heal Your Life" been working on it this week.

Thanks again Hapa!!!!

I've heard of that book, I think I almost bought it. I really like the Abraham-Hicks Law of Attraction books. That shit works, I tell ya.

Kathy Reichs - Monday Mourning

Tonight I read,

Humphrey,
Guess how much I love you, Spring and Summer,
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and Ragged Blossom,

with a little help from my favourite little 6 yr old girl ;)

Finished reading The Four Queens. Now I'm reading The King's Favorite by Susan Holloway Scott. It's historical fiction, which I love, a novel about Nell Gwyn (a 17th century actress/courtesan) and Charles II of England. Pretty good so far.

http://www.amazon.com/Kings-Favorite-Novel...6858&sr=8-1

Re-reading Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, after finishing Peaceful Action, Open Heart, I need a refresher on evil.

The last book I read was "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt. It was excellent and also very funny. A friend loaned me "The Audacity of Hope" by Obama, and I just started it. It seems really good and quite idealistic. It would have probably been better to have read it before the election. Now reality is hitting like a bucket of cold water in the face. We are in such a mess (not that I didn't see that slow-motion train wreck coming for years). Obama is certainly the lesser of the evils. Sorry I didn't intend to make this a political rant! LOL

Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff + Catherine = Love.

Lakota Woman - Mary Crow Dog.

I first read this book when I was 12, I brought the book with me to school where I was confronted by the principle and told I had to surrender the book until the end of the day due to "controversial material". That really caused an uproar, when I told the history teacher what had happened she marched into his office and demanded the book be returned to me.

I am rereading it because I found it in a box of my books and always enjoyed it.

For the second time in my 39yrs of SCI I'm reading an autobiographical book by another SCI person. The first, read some 38yrs ago, added nothing of value to my life. But this one is startlingly different, partly because I've grown up a bit and have my own experiences to compare but mostly cos it's a remarkable book written by a remarkable man.

Declarations of Independence: war zones and wheelchaiars by JOHN HOCKENBERRY. I believe it also was released with the title Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence.

Hockenberry became T4-6 at age 19 and went on to become a war correspondent in the Middle East covering Iraq in the Persian Gulf War and heaps of other rough and unlikely stuff. This is a guy I can easily admire and enjoy as he pushes his personal limits, rolling his wheels where others fear to tread and even abandoning them for the sake of an honesty I can understand.

I'm only partway through (I didn't want to waste time with you not knowing about it) and it's taken a few pages to settle into his style of writing. He's clear and vivid but the storyline is interwoven (so far) with emotional side-trips of the inner goings on of the spinal injury battle. I find myself running my own parallel storyline triggered not by his events but by the familiar issues and emotions.

I have no idea what a recently new SCI person would make of this book but for someone like myself with years to reflect back on it is so far proving a moving and valuable read. I'm considering restarting my life and doing what he's done. And, I believe he's still doing it. So now I'm off to check his BLOG.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams.

Rereading for the unbeknown time. Always makes me laugh.

I love that book! The original BBC tv series is also excellent, I was brought up on it as a child. Haven't managed to bring myself to watch the movie yet, I am sure I will only be disappointed!

I'm re reading The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder for the umpteenth time, such an enjoyable book and totally different from any fiction I have read before, highly recommended!

The movie is shocking Trin. Stick to the BBC version.

I recently finished Garrison Keillor's: Leaving Home.

Compulsive reading; I always leave the foreword or preface till the end, which is just as well b/c I'm not sure I would otherwise have got beyond this:

"Every time I read a book about how to be smarter, how not to be sad, how to raise children and be happy and grow old gracefully, I think,

"Well I won't make THOSE mistakes, I won't have to go through that," but we all have to go through that.........

Life isn't a vicarious experience. You get it figured out and then one day life happens to you. You prepare yourself for grief and loss, arrange your ballast and

then the wave swamps the boat."

I'm reading Christian A. Dumais' "Empty Rooms, Lonely Countries", which is a great collection of short stories and essays on love and life, ranging from bitter to funny and back. He had a great voice.
I just finished Heller's "Catch 22" for the third time. That's a great, disjointed mess of a read that comes together wonderfully at the end.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Second World War by Martin Gilbert

Germany's Aims in the First World War by Fritz Fischer

Trin, the new hitchhikers guide movie sucks...very badly.

Was going through my old books and picked up the first harry potter, going to read the whole series again.

When I am done with that I have all my Dark tower books out to start on them again.

"Hitch-hiker's Guide" was an unfortunate mess of a movie all right. It was never going to be an easy book to film, because of all its ideas and plot threads, but the BBC had done a very good version in the 80s, and the movie felt like the makers couldn't decide whether to copy that or go as far away from it as possible, so they kind of did both.

Dave, do you read comic books at all? I saw there's an adaptation of "The Dark Tower" being released. Maybe it might interest you.



I love Garrison Keilor's writing. His radio show is a joy too.

As a child I had the BBC TV series recorded off the TV I have now upgraded this to a DVD! I also had the cassette tapes of the book narrated by Douglad Adams, I used to listen to them in the car when I was a student covering many miles when I was on placement!
PS. I am not a nerd!

"Control and Freedom - Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics" by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun . A book that explores the realities of hightech orientalism and the idea of cyberization human/machine barrier and the negative effects of both

and

"The Brain that Changes Itself" by Dr. Norman Doidge. A book about mostly neuroplasticity , also touching base on positive reinforcement causing physical, imagable results in traumatic brain injury.

The Count of Monte Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) by Alexandre Dumas

Currently, I am reading:

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
New Rules - Bill Maher
I Hate Your Guts - Jim Norton

Yasko, Jim Norton is friggin hilarious.

Stillfingers - The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite books, sometimes I pick it up and just stay home for a weekend reading it.

mjtpopus - It's a fav of mine and I have no clue how many times I've eagerly turned it's pages...what a marvelous tale of jealousy, triumph, unfailing yet unfulfilled love and the perils of revenge.

Yeah, Jim is funny guy and I love his book!

I have all the ones on the market right now and and pre orders on the rest. and my comic book store is cool and will hold a copy back if I didn't didn't pre order

And I was a really big comic collector, but got out of it. and sold my collection after i was injured.




The hitch-hikers guide books and bbc TV series are responsible for opening my eyes to British humor, it also implanted the need to see the UK into me.

I used to be a big comic collector too. I didn't sell off my collection, but I don't buy much anymore, because they've gotten so expensive over the years. It's crazy how much a regular monthly goes for; I only get the odd really special thing. There's a good comic book store here in Dusseldorf, and the owner's a good mate.

Jeff Smith's "Rasl" is very good, if I can make a recommendation.

My two most recent reads were ODD HOURS by Dean Koontz, my least favorite of the Odd books by far and the wonderful DROOD, by Dan Simmons -- I swear the man can't write a bad book!

Just finished Clive Cussler's Corsair, now I'm on to Ian Rankin's Doors Open. Plenty of reading out in the sun with my new sunglasses, so maybe I will get a tan after all!

The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot

I'm on Janet and Peter, book 2... How's that for improvement?

I read The Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (not the model!) when I was away, a bit strange at the beginning, flicks between 12 century France and the modern day but actually really enjoyable. It's huge though and got left behind to make room for souvenirs!

Early English Furniture and Woodwork - Herbert Cescinsky 1922.

The manual for my printer. It's a pretty dull read. Apparently this Lexmark guy is unable to install, whatever that means

Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire by Richard B. Frank

A Perfect Spy - John La Carre

Great topic idea...I'm done with school for a couple of months so I actually get to read what I want! yay! I feel like such a girl admiting this but I started the "Twilight" saga because of my curiosity with the crazy madness...I'm on book 3 and I gotta say, I like them a lot!

The Judas Strain - James Rollins
Return of the King - J R Tolkien