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Currently reading:

The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritson. I've been reading a few of hers and some by Lisa Scottoline lately.


Best read I've had recently:
Flags of Our Fathers, by James Bradley. If you like the movie, you'll love the book.
 
I am reading a Biography of Ben Franklin. Best recent read was "Pillars of the Earth". That was an incredible book that I highly recommend.

EDIT for Detail: The bio is interesting but a standard bio... if you like them you would like this one, he was an interesting dude in a turbulent time.

Pillars is an incredible epic that spans 3 generations in Feudal England. It follows multiple story lines and characters that are all involved in each other's lives and the main glue that holds the story together is the building of the Cathedral at Kingsbridge. This book brought out true emotion and the character development is second to none IMHO. Epic in scale and detail it is a great read, and fast considering its impressive length.

Great book! I just finished it...very epic and a lot of interesting characters.

Currently reading Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card. Wanted to follow up on the Ender's Game series. Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow are must reads for any sci-fi guys/gals out there. For people who do not know, basically about children sent to a battle school to learn how to fight against an alien race.
 
I don't do much real reading anymore, I tend to wake up with black smudges on my face :D

The way I read now is audiobooks, I have 3+ hours in commuting every day. I find a well written book that is read by a professional narrator brings a new depth to a story. I have about 50 titles now, all unabridged of course, on a wide range of subjects. Most are Scifi/Fantasy series with some classics and history mixed in.

I just finished "rereading" Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow" series.

A tremedous biography read is "His Excellecy" by Joseph Ellis. It gives a very well balanced account of George Washington.

Do you really have all the Ender books on audio? Is it CDs or mp3 files?
 
Do you really have all the Ender books on audio? Is it CDs or mp3 files?

Not quite, I don't have "A War of Gifts" and some of the other short stories that were published in Card's magazine, but I have all the main books, including the newest "Ender in Exile". I belong to Audible.com, so most of what I own is in the proprietary Audible format. When I joined a few years back they had a sweet deal prepay a year's membership and get an iPod Shuffle free. So I got two accounts one for me and one for my son, Two iPods and 48 credits (most books are 1 credit).:rockin:

Also in my library are the entire "Wheel of Time" series; eagarly waiting for the post-morteum 13th book. Most of the "Shannara" books by Terry Brooks. The original "Dragon Riders of Pern" series by Anne MaCafrety. "Eragon" series. If you haven't figured it out yet I'm a sucker for scifi and fantasy epics.
 
At the risk of being called out for post whoring (twice in a row double posting). I wanted to break out this one out seperately.

I would HIGHLY recommend anything by Ted Dekkar. His "Circle" trilogy; "Black", "Red" and "White" is a scifi action tale about a nobody 25 year old who made some unwise choices, like borrowing money from the mob. This results in him being shot and linking with an alternate reality, where our world is their history. He then awakens back on earth to accidentally set in motion the means by which the population of earth will be anihilated. Can he save both worlds?

Just so no one can accuse me of being a devious evangelical, Ted Dekkar is a Christian author. Every one of his books that I have read have contained strong Christain messages. BUT, the stories are well written and can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their beliefs.
 
Since we are also talking about audiobooks, are there any freesites to download them to an mp-3 player? I've kinda just entered into the late 20th century and got one before christmas...but now that I've downloaded and listened to every brewing podcast archive imaginable....I haven't used it since the holidays.
 
A place to start would be librivox.org. I have only listened to a couple of samples, but they seem to be okay. They are a volunteer based organization trying to get all the classics (public domain books) into audio, if you have a desire you can offer to read and post files. They have a fairly large library available and you can get them sent as podcasts as well. When I finish with my current "read" I plan on digging a little deeper through thier catalog.
 
A place to start would be librivox.org. I have only listened to a couple of samples, but they seem to be okay. They are a volunteer based organization trying to get all the classics (public domain books) into audio, if you have a desire you can offer to read and post files. They have a fairly large library available and you can get them sent as podcasts as well. When I finish with my current "read" I plan on digging a little deeper through thier catalog.

Oh that's cool! Thanks!
 
For classics, you can also go to Project Gutenberg. They have thousands of classics available in multiple editions, and I've also seen audio books for some of them.

I've wasted many a happy hour on their site :)
 
Just went to the library and picked up "A Confederacy of Dunces" by: John Kennedy Toole. While I was there they had a copy of "The Neon Bible" as well, so I nabbed that too. Haven't started reading either of them yet, but I've heard they're great.
 
Alright I succumbed to my baser needs and just started listening to Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way.

Being a huge fan of Evil dead, II and Army of darkness (this is actually where Ashz came from, Ash was apparently taken) I couldn't resist it when I saw it.

This book is cracking me up as it is read and acted out by Bruce.
 
Just Another Soldier - Blog/diary/newsletter turned into a book by a NYC National Guardsman deployed in Iraq for a year. Pretty sweet account of the day-to-day minutia that never really gets told in the news

The Translator - Memoir of a Darfur tribesman whose village is destroyed. He then works as a translator for the UN, Red Cross, BBC, CBS, and a bunch of other journalists before being captured, imprisoned and tortured for sneaking in "spies" (journalists)

Maus - Graphic novel (long comic book) about a the writer's father's experience as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust trying to run from the Nazis, then survive Aushwitz.
 
10 Big lies about America -Michael Medved
Black Belt Patriotism - CHUCK NORRIS!!!
How to Brew (for the 50th time)- John Palmer
 
Just curious. Does anyone use an ebook reader? I bought the Sony PRS-505 and will never read a regular book again. I love being able to carry around a complete library in my pocket. The e-ink technology is amazing, such high resolution that you can't hardly tell that the font is digital.

Anyways I'm currently reading Citizen of the Galaxy by Richard A. Heinlein. An excellent sci-fi adventure.
 
Another series of historical fiction is Kent Family Chronicles, the first book is "The Bastard", series by John Jakes. It starts with a young boy in England that meets Ben Franklin and then has to flee from his half-brother. The books follow his decendents through the Revolution, Civil War, westard expansion, and the turn of the century.

I haven't read the Kent Family yet, but I've read Jakes' North and South trilogy twice. The series follows two families, one from South Carolina and one from Pennsylvania. The two main characters are young men that meet while attending West Point. The books deal with the twenty years surrounding the Civil War and how the friendship and values of these two men are strained by the disputes of the day.

Beer Blast: The Inside Story of the Brewing Industry's Bizarre Battles for Your Money

By: Philip Van Munching

I read this book last year. It was a pretty informative look at how large breweries compete for market share. It's main focus is on Heineken and their battles with Corona and Jim Koch. Van Munching's family used to be the importer for Heineken products in the U.S.

Other interesting books dealing with the history of brewing in the U.S. are "Ambitious Brew: the Story of American Beer" by Maureen Ogle, "Under the Influence: the Unauthorized Story of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty" by Peter Hernon and Terry Ganey, and "Citizen Coors: A Grand Family Saga of Business, Politcs, and Beer" by Dan Baum. The first one is a look at the early days of brewing in America. It focuses on many of the small breweries that existed prior to prohibition. The last two are basically family stories as told to outsiders. They are very informative as to how very small local brewers were able to grow their businesses into the massive companies they are today.

As for myself, I'm currently reading a bunch of textbooks, as I am finally completing a Business Degree. I used to read three to four novels a week. I read a lot of American History books, I finished a biography of Franklin over the winter break. My favorite book is "Centennial" by James Michener. It is an entertaining look at the settling of Colorado.
 
I'm reading The Terror by Dan Simmons. I'm only 170 or so pages into it & it's a 700+ page book but it's pretty good so far.
 
Cj Cherryh: The Foreigner

Somehow, I missed these the first time around, so I'm starting in on them now. Nine total books in three story arcs -- should keep me reading until may or so.
 
Just curious. Does anyone use an ebook reader? I bought the Sony PRS-505 and will never read a regular book again. I love being able to carry around a complete library in my pocket. The e-ink technology is amazing, such high resolution that you can't hardly tell that the font is digital.

Anyways I'm currently reading Citizen of the Galaxy by Richard A. Heinlein. An excellent sci-fi adventure.

to pick a nit - the author is Robert not Richard. But I too like his early works there was a whole series of books for teens (Starman Jones, Farmer in the Sky, etc.) that had young men has the protagonist. They seem a bit dated now but in the early 50's they addressed issues that teens were facing.

I especially like a quote of his from Farnham's Freehold about the death of millions of books being worse than the deaths of the prople in a nuclear holocost. People are born to die, but the knowledge in books can live forever.
 
I especially like a quote of his from Farnham's Freehold about the death of millions of books being worse than the deaths of the prople in a nuclear holocost. People are born to die, but the knowledge in books can live forever.

How surrendipitous! I just started reading for probably the 20th time Fahrenheit 451. One of the most memorable scenes is when the 'outcasts' are reciting major works of literature from memory as the paper copies have been burned in the name of political correctness.
 
Since I read for class I hit up about 2-3 books a week. Right now it is the two following:

Gender Trouble - Judith Butler
Interaction Ritual Chains - Randall Collins
 
Since I read for class I hit up about 2-3 books a week. Right now it is the two following:

Gender Trouble - Judith Butler
Interaction Ritual Chains - Randall Collins

Cultural Studies student? I took my M.A. in Cultural Studies from George Mason in 2004.

I know both works well; Butler is exceedingly difficult to read at times, but brilliant.
 
Cultural Studies student? I took my M.A. in Cultural Studies from George Mason in 2004.

I know both works well; Butler is exceedingly difficult to read at times, but brilliant.

Sociology. Butler is for queer theory and Collins is for contemporary theory. No cultural studies in A&M, but I am in a reading group with some friends on the subject.

You are right, Butler is difficult to read, I wish I had more than a week to read/reread her work, but it will have to wait until later.
 
I also Just finished George R. R. Martin's - A Song of Ice and Fire.

This is also an epic fantasy along the lines of the above books. A little bit more, soap opera like, if you will, but still good, following the turmoils of a kingdom changing hands like old world europe. Good books and am awaiting the next.

I'm rereading this excellent series. IMHO this is much more gritty and realistic than Tolkien, Jordan or Goodkind, or the vast majority of fantasy writers, with the exception of Glen Cook. Ignore the cover-art and get stuck into the Amazon.com: The Black Company (Chronicles of The Black Company #1): Glen Cook: Books . Super, gritty, realistic fantasy from the perspective of a trooper in a mercenary unit. I cannot get enough of it!

In SciFi try Iain M. Banks... a good place to start ... Amazon.com: Consider Phlebas: Iain M. Banks: Books


Next for my attention the Soviet Gulag (should be depressing): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400034094/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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i've been plowing through s lawhead's 'celtic crusades trilogy' in addition to 'byzantium' by him. pretty good historically researched fiction, on par with alan eckert imo.

also a few historical works on the crusades; 'the first crusade' 'the fourth crusade and sack of constantinople' and interaction between islam and the west during the crusades 'god's crucible' and a work by karen armstrong, can't recall the title... i've been in a medieval rut this winter. ;)
 
I just read 'Gang Leader for a Day' by Sudhir Venkatesh. Sudhir was a sociology grad student doing research on gangs in Chicago and befriended on of the leaders of the local Black Knights. He spent about ten years hanging around the projects while in college, finding out what it's really like and how the social and economic systems work. He has written a few other books on similar subjects; next I would like to read his book 'Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor'. He obtained the actual "books" from one of the gang members in charge of finances and studied the economics behind it.
 
I just finished reading twilight, I hated it. If you like books about pedophile vampires this is the book for you.
 
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