OT: The Good Book: What are you reading right now?
- Thread starter Runner77
- Start date
Habs Halifax
Loyal Habs Fan
A book I just picked up today and written by some chick with Karlsson as her last name... Talks about Dreams and stuff
Frozenice
No Reverse Gear
- Jan 1, 2010
- 7,020
- 520
Anyone here own/use a Kindle Oasis (either version) or the Kobo Forma? Thinking about one of them, kinda leaning towards buying a used 1st version of the Kindle Oasis.
Right now I have a couple year old Kobo 6” e-reader, it’s fine but I have the urge to get something different just for the sake of getting something different. The Kindle can do audiobooks now, I can see myself subscribing to Audibles for the winter.
Right now I have a couple year old Kobo 6” e-reader, it’s fine but I have the urge to get something different just for the sake of getting something different. The Kindle can do audiobooks now, I can see myself subscribing to Audibles for the winter.
Grate n Colorful Oz
Hutson Hawk
I have a Kobo Clara. It replaced the now defunct mini kobo, which is the one you might have. It's the smallest of the bunch and is in B&W.
Do you just buy books online or do you torrent?
You can install the Calibre software to bypass kobo protection so you can add your own files to it.
Frozenice
No Reverse Gear
- Jan 1, 2010
- 7,020
- 520
I have the Kobo Glo HD, which is more or less the predecessor to the Kobo Clara. Mine is B&W, I think they’re all B&W.
I use a website like ebook3000.com or I buy the occasional book from bookbub.com which scans Amazon or Kobo for cheap books (.99 to 1.99) in the categories of your choice and sends you emails once a day.
I don’t find the need to circumvent anything, sometimes Adobe blocks the books I’ve downloaded and then I usually just toss them in the garbage.
Pompeius Magnus
Registered User
I'm the '' I need to hold the actual book in my hands'' type, tablets never did it for me. I live with the consequences though, i.e books freaking everywhere in my house 
- Jun 24, 2012
- 83,758
- 150,723
I'm the '' I need to hold the actual book in my hands'' type, tablets never did it for me. I live with the consequences though, i.e books freaking everywhere in my house
I'm the same. Could never get used to reading from a tablet.
Plus, there is something comforting about a shelf filled with books.
Frozenice
No Reverse Gear
- Jan 1, 2010
- 7,020
- 520
I just finished reading ‘The Fall of the Dynasties’ it’s about Europe’s monarchies fall from grace just before WW1, WW1 and the after effects. Really enjoyed it, well written.
Read 41% of ‘The Barberry Corsairs’ didn’t really like it, all over the place and hard to follow.
Right now I’m starting to read ‘Kaiser’s Pirates’, it seems alright, a fairly light read, it’s about the German Navy during WW1. I have a feeling it’s not going to end well for them.
Read 41% of ‘The Barberry Corsairs’ didn’t really like it, all over the place and hard to follow.
Right now I’m starting to read ‘Kaiser’s Pirates’, it seems alright, a fairly light read, it’s about the German Navy during WW1. I have a feeling it’s not going to end well for them.
On that list, I have read:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Charlotte's Web
The Chronicles of Naria (just the first one)
The Great Gatsby
The Adventures of Tom Saywer
1984
Great Expectations
The Catcher in the Rye
The Outsiders
The Da Vinci Code
The Little Prince
The Count of Monte Cristo
Moby Dick
Catch-22
The Godfather
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Confederacy of the Dunces
Crime and Punishment
Hatchet
I didn't recognize many towards the end of that list.
Of those listed above, ones that really stick out to me as especially memorable are: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Confederacy of the Dunces, Crime and Punishment, and Hatchet.
Hatchet was perhaps the first book that I really got into as a kid, To Kill a Mockingbird was the second - and one of my favorite to this day. Atticus Finch is just such a memorable character that the book stands out as both a classic and extremely readable at any age.
I think Crime and Punishment is probably the best quality literature on my list. It's got way more depth - at least as a tragedy - than any of the others. Incredibly complex and memorable - despite it not being my favorite Dostoevsky novel (The Brothers Karamazov is a better all around book, and much more of a fascinating story, IMO).
The Count of Monte Cristo because it's just an incredibly fun and interesting story. Because of its periodical format and cliff-hanger style, it's almost impossible to put down.
I'd also give a shout to the The Confederacy of the Dunces. Perhaps the funniest, and best written comedy/satirical I have ever read. I'd recommend it to anyone. Also makes me think I really need to read Don Quixote soon.
Pompeius Magnus
Registered User
Man, I'm WAY overdue for another read through of that book, it's been 20+ years since the last time. I just saw the movie '' Capote'' recently too and Harper Lee is all over it so it must be a sign
. The book is essentially a dramatized version of their own childhood ( as I'm sure you're well aware of) .You definitely should read Don Quixote ! It's a pretty long read but for the historical significance alone it's a must for any serious reader out there.
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Chili
En boca cerrada no entran moscas
- Jun 10, 2004
- 8,509
- 4,394
I had read two biographies of Marlon Brando (Brando: The Biography by Peter Manso and Somebody by Stefan Kanfer), both books referenced the autobiography, so I`m now reading Songs My Mother Taught Me. It`s probably the best of the three, it`s self deprecating and insightful.
Also reading a biography on Stalin by Edvard Radzinsky. The earlier part of his life is a bit sketchy because it seems Stalin made it that way. One source the author used was police records. Interesting rise how he manoeuvered his way to the top and how many fell victim to the purges.
Also reading a biography on Stalin by Edvard Radzinsky. The earlier part of his life is a bit sketchy because it seems Stalin made it that way. One source the author used was police records. Interesting rise how he manoeuvered his way to the top and how many fell victim to the purges.
Scintillating10
Registered User
beh3moth
Registered User
- May 27, 2010
- 821
- 768
I've read a lot of postmodern lit and generally enjoy meta-wankery, absurdity, and plotless literary masturbation. Gravity's Rainbow was completely bonkers and bizarre. It was like an indulgent, heroic-dose LSD induced Truman show with WW2 in the background. It's been almost a year and I still don't know if I even liked it or not. I enjoyed the kazoos and the lightbulb part.
Anyone have any good recommendations for a primer into Canadian History?
Canadienna
Registered User
After a decade or more of only ever reading pretty technical non-fiction, I've finally re found my love of sci fi.
Wyndam is the man.
But also I'll always be a non fiction guy so I'm currently reading:
Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life, in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies by Geoffrey West
Wordy title but worth every penny so far.
Wyndam is the man.
But also I'll always be a non fiction guy so I'm currently reading:
Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life, in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies by Geoffrey West
Wordy title but worth every penny so far.
- Jun 24, 2012
- 83,758
- 150,723
Has anyone delved in any inspirational books, self-help, motivation?
I was gifted Tools of the Titans at Christmas and finally got around to starting it this week.
About 30 pages in, very little I can relate to or actually adopt as a habit. This Tom Ferriss guy comes across as a ruthless taskmaster-masochist. I checked out one a Ted talk of his on YT and the guy mentioned how he had planned to commit suicide at some point. More power to him, he's made something good of his life.
I'll keep going, maybe there will be something I can use.
I was gifted Tools of the Titans at Christmas and finally got around to starting it this week.
About 30 pages in, very little I can relate to or actually adopt as a habit. This Tom Ferriss guy comes across as a ruthless taskmaster-masochist. I checked out one a Ted talk of his on YT and the guy mentioned how he had planned to commit suicide at some point. More power to him, he's made something good of his life.
I'll keep going, maybe there will be something I can use.
- Jun 24, 2012
- 83,758
- 150,723
Just saw an interview with this author and the scientific data he's reviewed, show some interesting trends:
When is one most productive?
Pink says there is a lot of research on that, in a number of different fields and what it tells us is that in a given day, our cognitive abilities or brain power does not remain constant over the course of a day. Our brain power changes in predictable ways and in material ways.
Pink says that in his family, no one is permitted to go to an important doctor appointment or discretionary hospital visit in the afternoon. He says the evidence is overwhelming:
What the research reveals across 2000 fields is that timing matters and it matters alot because our brain power is not static in the course of a day. And when you know that, you can make different decisions about what you do and about your interactions with others.
Re social life, love, friendships: evidence is a little less locked down. Looking at mariage, evidence from the University of Utah shows that mariages are most likely to last after people have had their education no matter what the education level is. People who are educated are far less likely to get divorced.
Age: you're more likely to stay married if you get married between the ages of 25 and 32.
When are you happiest in your life: compelling research on an very international level (an effect seen in 60 or 70 countries), refers to a "U-Shaped Curve of Well-Being" (USC Princeton) that shows that if you plot well-being by age, people are fairly happy in their 20s and 30s, a little less happier in their 40s, 50s to mid-50s, that's rock bottom but then after that, they're happier:
Pink says that if you look at friendship networks (research by Laura Carsons "How social networds shrink with age"), they start small, expand, but after age 60 the size of social networks decline significantly. The reason is that people in that age bracket make affirmative decisions to eliminate some of their friends and they'll focus only on a core group of people -- they have fewer friends but closer friends and it's one of the things that helps boost well-being later in life.
Some interesting points even if some are more obvious than others. I might just have to change the timing of my medical appointments now.
When is one most productive?
Pink says there is a lot of research on that, in a number of different fields and what it tells us is that in a given day, our cognitive abilities or brain power does not remain constant over the course of a day. Our brain power changes in predictable ways and in material ways.
Pink says that in his family, no one is permitted to go to an important doctor appointment or discretionary hospital visit in the afternoon. He says the evidence is overwhelming:
- anasthesia errors: 4 times more likely at 3PM than at 9AM
- handwashing in hospitals (first line of defence against hospital acquired infections): massive drop in the afternoons
- doctors much more likely to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics in the afternoon
- doctors more likely to prescribe opiods in the afternoon
- colonoscopies: doctors find half as many polyps in afternoon exams than they do in morning exams
What the research reveals across 2000 fields is that timing matters and it matters alot because our brain power is not static in the course of a day. And when you know that, you can make different decisions about what you do and about your interactions with others.
Re social life, love, friendships: evidence is a little less locked down. Looking at mariage, evidence from the University of Utah shows that mariages are most likely to last after people have had their education no matter what the education level is. People who are educated are far less likely to get divorced.
Age: you're more likely to stay married if you get married between the ages of 25 and 32.
When are you happiest in your life: compelling research on an very international level (an effect seen in 60 or 70 countries), refers to a "U-Shaped Curve of Well-Being" (USC Princeton) that shows that if you plot well-being by age, people are fairly happy in their 20s and 30s, a little less happier in their 40s, 50s to mid-50s, that's rock bottom but then after that, they're happier:
Pink says that if you look at friendship networks (research by Laura Carsons "How social networds shrink with age"), they start small, expand, but after age 60 the size of social networks decline significantly. The reason is that people in that age bracket make affirmative decisions to eliminate some of their friends and they'll focus only on a core group of people -- they have fewer friends but closer friends and it's one of the things that helps boost well-being later in life.
Some interesting points even if some are more obvious than others. I might just have to change the timing of my medical appointments now.
- Jun 24, 2012
- 83,758
- 150,723
Well this is really off the beaten track:
Goodreads description:
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
Found this review particularly interesting:
A man goes insane, shoots another man to death and then helps write one of the first complete dictionaries. What an odd way to enter the academic world!
And believe it or not, those aren't even spoilers! Simon Winchester gives us all that right in the title of his surprisingly riveting read The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The idea of reading a book on the creation of a dictionary only sounded mildly interesting. In the hands of the wrong writer that book might not have entertained me from start to finish the way Winchester did. Granted the story has its intriguing oddities and the occasional shocking moment, but it's Winchester's ability to dramatize this hundreds-of-years-old story that makes it seem as vivid and catchy as the headlines of the morning newspaper. He is a writer who brings legend to life.
As exciting as I find it, this is a book about making a dictionary and that won't enthrall all readers. It gets an extra nudge up in the star department from me, because this is a book about words and I like words. If you're still reading this, I suspect you do too.
Anyone read this? I see there was also movie made about this but it didn't get very good reviews.
Goodreads description:
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
Found this review particularly interesting:
A man goes insane, shoots another man to death and then helps write one of the first complete dictionaries. What an odd way to enter the academic world!
And believe it or not, those aren't even spoilers! Simon Winchester gives us all that right in the title of his surprisingly riveting read The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The idea of reading a book on the creation of a dictionary only sounded mildly interesting. In the hands of the wrong writer that book might not have entertained me from start to finish the way Winchester did. Granted the story has its intriguing oddities and the occasional shocking moment, but it's Winchester's ability to dramatize this hundreds-of-years-old story that makes it seem as vivid and catchy as the headlines of the morning newspaper. He is a writer who brings legend to life.
As exciting as I find it, this is a book about making a dictionary and that won't enthrall all readers. It gets an extra nudge up in the star department from me, because this is a book about words and I like words. If you're still reading this, I suspect you do too.
Anyone read this? I see there was also movie made about this but it didn't get very good reviews.
insomniac
High on Hockey
Just finished All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, by Larry McMurtry. Currently reading Fools Die, by Mario Puzo (for the second time). Highly recommend both.
Scintillating10
Registered User
Chili
En boca cerrada no entran moscas
- Jun 10, 2004
- 8,509
- 4,394
Nearing the end of this great book.
500 years ago, September 1519, Magellan set sail with 5 ships on a historic voyage around the globe.
Lots of adventure & danger travelling uncharted waters, meeting new cultures who could be friend or foe (sometimes both) seeking that elusive route to the orient sailing west and the spice islands.
Holy ****. 500 years?? Amazing how the anniversary of such a pivotal event is almost completely ignored. This looks like a great book to pick up - thanks!
Nearing the end of this great book.
500 years ago, September 1519, Magellan set sail with 5 ships on a historic voyage around the globe.
Lots of adventure & danger travelling uncharted waters, meeting new cultures who could be friend or foe (sometimes both) seeking that elusive route to the orient sailing west and the spice islands.
Just finished book 2 of the Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson. Prefer the Broken Earth trilogy but so far have enjoyed the secrets behind this version of a post-apocalyptic earth.
This summer I discovered Greg Iles. Never heard of him? Me neither, until May, when I noticed his latest book, Cemetery Road, in the bookstore. Suspense drama novelist. Great opening page. I had a gift certificate, so let's do it. Very good book. But then I decided to back-read his catalogue and discovered his Natchez Burning trilogy -- three brick-sized novels, about 2300 total pages, and one of the best stories I've ever read.
This dude Iles is an absolutely amazing writer and has been around for awhile, so why hadn't I known about him? Probably because his subject matter focuses on semi-recent Mississippi, with the complicated race relations and Civil Rights fallout that still plague them decades later. It's a bit remote from my world. But a great story and an incredible narrative are timeless. Iles is a wittier, updated Faulkner.
This dude Iles is an absolutely amazing writer and has been around for awhile, so why hadn't I known about him? Probably because his subject matter focuses on semi-recent Mississippi, with the complicated race relations and Civil Rights fallout that still plague them decades later. It's a bit remote from my world. But a great story and an incredible narrative are timeless. Iles is a wittier, updated Faulkner.
- Jun 24, 2012
- 83,758
- 150,723
Just checked the reviews. Some readers like this author's other books better (books on Columbus and Louis Armstrong) others found his Marco Polo book disappointing.
“Prodigious research, sure-footed prose and vivid descriptions make for a thoroughly satisfying account... it is all here in the wondrous detail, a first-rate historical page turner.”— New York Times Book Review
A Goodreads user called it a book of history but that reads like fiction.
Another user: An incredible story. If, like me, you are only vaguely familiar with Magellan's journey, I highly recommend this book. Cannibals, mutiny, starvation, orgies, murder, torture, scurvy, battles...it is all here.
What's that about orgies?
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