Allister

Nononono. Always read the book before watching the movie.

Better yet - Skip the movie altogether.

temp1

The Monk by Matthew Lewis, read it and you will talk funny
Just finished The Devil in the White City

SinGate

Well Stephan King of course!

The Dark Tower 5 Wolves of the Calla.

All Hail the King!

chewa

Just finished "Lone Cyclist" by Anne Mustoe. Much more enjoyable than her first book as it deals more with the practicalities and feelings of cycle touring and less on the history of the areas she passed through.

Trying to get a copy of "The Song of Phaid the Gambler" by Mick Farren, a scifi book I read in the 80's now out of print.

el Inglés

Try the Dirk Gentley books by the same author .

also the Gorky Park trilogy plus one by Martin Cruz Smith

also ANYTHING by Allen Dean Foster .


re Marvin : " I seem to be lying at the bottom of a deep dark hole , now what does that remind me of ? , ah yes , life "

megaman

Great book. Heard the movie sucked so I avoided it. Right now light reading. Chicken Soup for the Travelers Soul.

ParamountScapin

"Krakatoa" by Simon Winchester. Very interesting book about the explosion of this volcano in south Asia off Sumatra and Java in August of 1883. Makes Mt. St. Helen look like a cap-gun by comparison.

HillaryRose

I've just started "April 1865". Civil War history about not just the battles and generals but about what it meant for the country, focusing on the events of one crucial month in 1865.

I just finished "Candy and Me- a Love Story", a book about one woman's lifelong obsession with sugar, told as a memoir of her teenage and early adult years. Makes my own sweet tooth seem almost normal in comparison.

franklen

Anyone out there read the great Russian Authors? I can't seem to get enough of thier insights into life, and thier portrayal of everyday living, from hard to priviledged conditions.

War and Peace was my favorite, I sat on it for about 5 years before having the nerve to read it, and that was only after I had been indoctrinated by Anna Karenina, a much more manageable title to start out with Tolstoy.

Right now I am reading Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, a little tough going at the start but really grabbed me about 1/3 of the way in.

Prosody

Try reading Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Gogol's Dead Souls, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment or Notes from the Underground, The Brothers Karamazov.

caloso

How the Irish Saved Civilization. Well written and extremely interesting.

The Rob

Donna Tartt's The Little Friend, very good so far. Her first novel, The Secret History, is one of my favorites.

Stubacca

The Last Samurai, by Helen DeWitt.

Interesting story of a single mother, Sibylla, who comes from a long line of frustrated talents, and her son Ludo, who just happens to be a genius. Sibylla is obsessed with the film The Seventh Samurai, and makes it a running backdrop to Ludo's childhood.

It's been bloody hard to get into (this is the fifth time I've started reading it!) but after the first 100 pages or so it's turning into a really good read.

Zub Zub

A little over 1/2 though mossflower (the 2nd book in Brian Jacques series "a tale of Redwall") Its a really good book and so are the other umm....12 or so books I plan to read all of them before the hoildays end!

franklen

I've already read Fathers and SOns, and Crime and Punishment, both excellent. Gogol is a new name to me so I'll have to look into that. I have a copy of Brothers Karamazov sitting on my shelf ready to read. I usually go to the paperback exchange or hit the church bazaars during the holidays and stock up. For less than $5 I can bring home 7-10 novels that last me 6 months, then take them back and trade them in if I choose to. Sure the selection of new writing is low, but the classics are never hard to come by.

turtle

Just finished "Tao: The Watercourse Way" by Alan M Watts. Very good read, opens up some interesting ideas.

Currently reading: "Lost in the Funhouse" a biography of Andy Kaufman.

emgNH

Just finished Population 485 by Mike Perry. At one point, rather unrelated to the larger story he's telling at the time, he's on his way to go cycling with Mike Magnuson (author of Lumox and some excellent contributions to Bicycling).

Reading now: Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis, and still plugging away at Zinn's A People's History of the United States, which is superb.

bbarend

Just started [I]Angels and Demons.

james Haury

I just finished Plunkitt Of Tammany Hall. A book of practical Politics.Opinions are those of George washington Plunkitt. He was born in 1842 in central Park (The land it was built on pre park)and rose to Prominence in the Tammany Hall Political Machine in New York City.

james Haury

I liked the Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzinhetsin. I hope I spelled that last name right. A similiar book was coming out of the ice .It was about an American who grew up in the Soviet union and then imprisoned because of Soviet paranoia. I forget the author.

ngateguy

Jack Dawes by Ken Follet

caloso

James, have you read "One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich"? Also by Solzhenitsin. Very powerful.

For myself, I'm reading "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen.

temp1

Any one here ever read anything by Sherman Alexie? Great stuff.

franklen

Just picking up "Dude, Where's my Country" by Michael Moore that I recieved as a Christmas gift. ANyone else get any good books as gifts for the holidays?

DanFromDetroit

Right now I am reading Black Elk Speaks. This is more or less an autobiography of Black Elk, a leader among the Sioux Indians, born in the last part of the 19th Century. The tale is simply told in his own words in 1932 as an old man. His gift for understatement is only equaled by Sir Edmund Hillary (who also published a great autobiography). He would have been a great man among any people, but it is especially interesting to hear his story and his view of that portion of Sioux history because it is told from a point-of-view that is hardly heard from in history books.

A great read, highly recommended.

Dan