SUMMER BOOK THREAD

[Senoska]

Post what books (If any) that you're reading over the summer, today I spent 80$ on some books :D

Sam Harris: Letter to a Christian nation
Richard Dawkins: The god delusion
Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene - 30th anniversary addition
Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species - Hardcover
And a Learn to speak Japanese book (Figured this would be a fun project since going to japan next year, figured id start now.)

[finale23]

damn, i was about to start a thread on book recommendation sam harris' "end of faith" is decent too, sensoka

some of the good ones i have read this summer so far,

water for elephants,
suite francaise,
the glass castle,
ender's game (classic)
speaker for the dead (classic)
cat's cradle
slaughterhouse five

[TheCursedGatts]

I have/am currently read/ing:
All 6 harry Potter books again to get ready for the 7th
The Ender arc of the Ender series and am working on the Bean Arc
Several Discworld books
The legacy of the Force Star Wars Arc/series/whatever it is
Dracula
Hannibal series

[Nayr]

I have to read:
Frankenstein
Much ado About Nothing

[Penthesilea]

I couldn't get into The God Delusion...

I have a problem of starting books, getting 3/4 of the way through them, then forgetting about them for months and months. Hopefully some of all of your suggestions will captivate me to finish them.

[Demetrick]

I'm in the middle of Book 3 of War and Peace.

Its pretty good so far. Much more interesting and easier to read than I was expecting.

[Senoska]

I couldn't get into The God Delusion...

I have a problem of starting books, getting 3/4 of the way through them, then forgetting about them for months and months. Hopefully some of all of your suggestions will captivate me to finish them.

I dunno how you couldn't get into it. Richard Dawkins is a GREAT author. I have a few of his books. I really enjoy his public speakings as well.

[Vade]

Starting Wheel of Time...

waiting for HP7

[Shuemue]

Shantaram

[Royal]

Does summer reading count?

Jane Eyre
Sea to saragosa or something.

[Vandole]

World War Z: an oral history of the zombie war
i read the zombie survival guide, so this should be pretty gewd.

[miokomioko]

everything by chuck palahniuk

[Axil]

Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd

MOTHER FUCK YEAH


my two books

[Elesirdur]

Just finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Andre Dumas, Pere. The 1996 Penguin Classics translations is totally new and modernized to give a much more authentic feel to Dumas' writing. Moreover, because it's a new translation based on original French-language collections, they've left in quite a few parts of the book that were censored in the original Victorian England publications, most notably Eugenie Danglar's hinted lesbianism and a number of lines during the book's climax which provide some rather grisly contest. Nearly every other English-language version of The Count of Monte Cristo uses the censored Victorian copies as a base, so this is a great copy. This whopper weighs in at nearly 1500 pages, but it's a fantastic adventure story and a wonderful glimpse of fiction at a time when it was transitioning from serial publications in magazines and journals to self-contained books.

Right now I'm reading John Keegan's Face of Battle. I actually had this as reading material from way back in a 2nd year survey history course on War and Human Conflict from 1700 to the Present. I only just barely skimmed through it and I'm really, really pissed I didn't read it cover-to-cover; it would have opened my eyes to understanding historical scholarship a full year earlier than I finally did. (I did my BA in History and PoliSci focusing on Military History and Int'l Relations.) Keegan is pretty much considered to be one of the most important military historians in the Post-WWII era, largely because of this 1976 book. Keegan attempts to understand what the average soldier must have experienced during the battles of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme. He gets away from the shitty blood-and-guts "popular history" (which, if you ask a historian, is a dirty word) and tries to understand what role the individual played, what forces influenced their actions, and how they perceived and dealt with the leadership of their Generals and commanders of whom the locus of military history was focused upon. The opening chapters on history and historiography provide a great insight into what scholarly history is actually about and should prove interesting to those with only casual interests in history.

Oh and fyi, if you like Keegan then definitely get his 1993 publication, A History of Warfare. He packs in a basic encapsulation of human history into just a hair over 400 pages and does it with tact, wit, and the best effort I've seen from survey book to resist the euro-centrist views espoused by the vast majority of military historians.

[Kirst]

I have on my list:

Wuthering Heights (I saw a stage version of it recently, which is helping me with getting through it)
Vanity Fair - Thackerey
The Demon Prince's series by Jack Vance
HP7 when it comes out
Plus I have a random pile of books on the go to read - The Dresden Files books etc.

[thestalkmore]

Starting Wheel of Time...

waiting for HP7

DUDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I read the Wheel of Time. Rocked so hard until about book 8 where it got reallllllllllllllllllly slow. I have the latest but haven't read it because I'm afraid it will be boring and that I won't remember any of the characters.

[Nuketwig]

I second the re-reading of the Harry Potter series.

[crazyrabbit]

I never wantet to read the HP books but maybe i'll start this summer >.>;
A realy good series is the dark tower from stephen king. One or two books arent as great as the others but overall these books will keep ya busy for a long time ;o

[Italax]

I need to finish George R. R. Martin's 'A feast for Crows' before I start reading anything else.

[Chips]

I couldn't get into The God Delusion...

I have a problem of starting books, getting 3/4 of the way through them, then forgetting about them for months and months. Hopefully some of all of your suggestions will captivate me to finish them.

I dunno how you couldn't get into it. Richard Dawkins is a GREAT author. I have a few of his books. I really enjoy his public speakings as well.

The God Delusion was very well written, but overall just a mediocre book. Dawkins' logic is somewhat sloppy in a lot of cases, and all he does it play the bully when attempting to get his point across. It's a good read, but it's not end-all-be-all.