What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
A couple of months ago I picked up 2 books at the same garage sale:
The Harvest of Hellenism, A History of the Near East from Alexander the Great to the Triumph of Christianity, by F. E. Peters and
Why I Am Not a Christian, by Bertrand Russell
I just finished the first and started the second for some fascinating and entertaining juxtapositions. Caution, the first uses a lot of unfamiliar (to me) words to describe all the cults and heresies and schools of thought that finally coalesced into "official" Christianity around 325 AD.
The Harvest of Hellenism, A History of the Near East from Alexander the Great to the Triumph of Christianity, by F. E. Peters and
Why I Am Not a Christian, by Bertrand Russell
I just finished the first and started the second for some fascinating and entertaining juxtapositions. Caution, the first uses a lot of unfamiliar (to me) words to describe all the cults and heresies and schools of thought that finally coalesced into "official" Christianity around 325 AD.
- randomwalk
- Posts: 312
- Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:12 am
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Which other two have you read? I thought Alexander Hamilton was fantastic, and though I enjoyed Washington I didn't think it rose quite to the former's level. I still have Titan and The House of Morgan sitting in a box somewhere to be read.gkaplan wrote:I'm about sixty-five pages into Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. I have read two other biographies by Chernow, so I know this one will be excellent, as were the other two.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I have read Alexander Hamilton and The Warburgs.
Gordon
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Next up:
"The Fifth Witness" by Michael Connelly.
"The Fifth Witness" by Michael Connelly.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
nisiprius wrote:
FabLab wrote:
And yes, the Brandywine Museum is in Chadds Ford, PA, over the border from Wilmington.
During the same trip, we were also able to visit the Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. Both exhibits were excellent; both are highly recommended.
OK... enough... back to books.
andNot sure how original is "original," but it seems to me that there were vast numbers of copies in a publisher's series... what was it called... edited by May Lamberton Becker, and that they included the Wyeth illustrations..,
FabLab wrote:
Thank you both for the responses and the clarifications. In both cases my writing was imprecise. I was-- and still am-- seeking the Wyeth editions of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Mysterious Island. The word "original" was unnecessary.I'm thinking that even though you mentioned Wilmington, DE, you were referring to the Brandywine River Museum on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, PA.
And yes, the Brandywine Museum is in Chadds Ford, PA, over the border from Wilmington.
During the same trip, we were also able to visit the Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. Both exhibits were excellent; both are highly recommended.
OK... enough... back to books.
"We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." Anais Nin |
|
"Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious." George Orwell
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I need some input here. I just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Now, more out of curiosity and compulsion than out of the quality of the literature, I am about one-third into The Girl Who Played With Fire.
My question is: Huh? What's the deal here? Why the cult status? Why the perma-position on the best seller lists? This is not good writing. And, where is the appeal of these story lines, these characters, and the rather stark descriptions of violence and sexual assualt to female readers?
And, I can't believe that the prose is simply scintillating in Swedish but somehow loses all its verve and flow in translation.
Are the fans out there? Care to enlighten someone who just doesn't get it?
My question is: Huh? What's the deal here? Why the cult status? Why the perma-position on the best seller lists? This is not good writing. And, where is the appeal of these story lines, these characters, and the rather stark descriptions of violence and sexual assualt to female readers?
And, I can't believe that the prose is simply scintillating in Swedish but somehow loses all its verve and flow in translation.
Are the fans out there? Care to enlighten someone who just doesn't get it?
"We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." Anais Nin |
|
"Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious." George Orwell
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I enjoyed all 3 books in this trilogy. Certainly some readers may not.cinghiale wrote:I need some input here. I just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Now, more out of curiosity and compulsion than out of the quality of the literature, I am about one-third into The Girl Who Played With Fire.
My question is: Huh? What's the deal here? Why the cult status? Why the perma-position on the best seller lists? This is not good writing. And, where is the appeal of these story lines, these characters, and the rather stark descriptions of violence and sexual assualt to female readers?
And, I can't believe that the prose is simply scintillating in Swedish but somehow loses all its verve and flow in translation.
Are the fans out there? Care to enlighten someone who just doesn't get it?
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Just finished Fredrick Forsyth's "The Cobra". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Forsyth I have been a Forsyth fan for years but this one didn't do much for me.
Also recently finished Robert Parker's "Trouble in Paradice". It was a loser, seemed so cookie-cutter.
Also recently finished Robert Parker's "Trouble in Paradice". It was a loser, seemed so cookie-cutter.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and did not appreciate it either. The graphic violence was unnecessary and unbelievable. Here's one for you - How about all the coffee this guy drinks? Everywhere he goes "...and they drank coffee" We never learn if it was good or bad, old or fresh, does he ever get the jitters from too much coffee? (Is he ever desperate to find a bathroom?) We are never privy to those thoughts but man does the hero consume some coffee.cinghiale wrote:My question is: Huh? What's the deal here? Why the cult status? Why the perma-position on the best seller lists? This is not good writing. And, where is the appeal of these story lines, these characters, and the rather stark descriptions of violence and sexual assualt to female readers?
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
While at the library to pick up Bill O'Rilley's Killing Lincoln, I browsed around a bit and found a copy of Bernstein's The Investor's Manifesto. After reading both I think the latter is more of a thriller!
While the moments do summersaults into eternity |
Cling to their coattails and beg them to stay - Townes Van Zandt
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Robert Reich - Aftershock
Ohhhhh My, how things have changed over the past 40 years.
I thought Leave It to Beaver was real based on my observations of the young family next door (60's).
Don't think I want to win this race to the bottom.
burt
Ohhhhh My, how things have changed over the past 40 years.
I thought Leave It to Beaver was real based on my observations of the young family next door (60's).
Don't think I want to win this race to the bottom.
burt
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"Brash Endeavors" by William Manchee.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
-
- Posts: 547
- Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:15 pm
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Victory and Honor - Part of the Honor Bound Series by W.E.B Griffin & William E. Butterworth, IV
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Concrete Blond - Michael Connelly
Don't trust me, look it up. https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Just finished And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails by Wayne Curtis. An entertaining history of rum and the New World. Now reading, The New Geography of Jobs, by Enrico Moretti.
"Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful." - George E. P Box
- nisiprius
- Advisory Board
- Posts: 52219
- Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
- Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I'm on a Jeff Shaara run... my wife just about chain-read all of his books over the last few years and kept telling me they were good, but I kept stalling. Finished The Rising Tide and The Steel Wave, just started No Less Than Victory. Rather like Patrick O'Brian (which is a high compliment), not in style or subject matter, but in his ability to convey the chaos, the importance of chance, and the multifactorial nature of it all (the strategy was good but they couldn't get supplies; or, the strategy and the supplies were good but the weather was bad, etc.)
Also, Paul Collins, The Murder of the Century. Good, but not as good as The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine.
Also, Paul Collins, The Murder of the Century. Good, but not as good as The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"Shadow of Power" by Steve Martini.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
- randomwalk
- Posts: 312
- Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:12 am
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I just finished Hitler: 1936-1945 by Ian Kershaw.
Now reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.
Now reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I hope Hitler: 1936-1945 by Ian Kershaw has a happy ending.randomwalk wrote:I just finished Hitler: 1936-1945 by Ian Kershaw.
Now reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Just picked up a book I'd put on hold at the village library: Social Security Strategies by William Reichenstein and William Meyer.
The fundamental things apply as time goes by -- Herman Hupfeld
- XtremeSki2001
- Posts: 1733
- Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:28 pm
- Location: New York
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
A box of rain will ease the pain and love will see you through
- runthetrails
- Posts: 593
- Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:51 pm
- Location: Tennessee
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice, by Christopher Hitchens
Normally I'm a big fan of Hitch, but I thought he was somewhat less than fair here. In situations where I would tend to see Mother Theresa as politically neutral for the sake of fundraising, he painted her as fully complicit with corruption, criminal individuals and cruel political regimes. I do think he had some valid criticisms -- providing absolute minimal medical care because she feels suffering is critical to the religious experience, despite easily being able to provide better, strikes me as abominable.
Normally I'm a big fan of Hitch, but I thought he was somewhat less than fair here. In situations where I would tend to see Mother Theresa as politically neutral for the sake of fundraising, he painted her as fully complicit with corruption, criminal individuals and cruel political regimes. I do think he had some valid criticisms -- providing absolute minimal medical care because she feels suffering is critical to the religious experience, despite easily being able to provide better, strikes me as abominable.
- randomwalk
- Posts: 312
- Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:12 am
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I don't want to give it away but it involves a Walther PPK.chaz wrote:I hope Hitler: 1936-1945 by Ian Kershaw has a happy ending.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I like spoilers.randomwalk wrote:I don't want to give it away but it involves a Walther PPK.chaz wrote:I hope Hitler: 1936-1945 by Ian Kershaw has a happy ending.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Buried Prey - John Sanford.
Don't trust me, look it up. https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications
- ruralavalon
- Posts: 26353
- Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:29 am
- Location: Illinois
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier, by John F. Ross.
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein |
Wiki article link: Bogleheads® investment philosophy
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Nights of Awe by Harri Nykanen.
Jewish police officer in Helsinki police procedural. Love the characters smart ass internal thoughts/comments.
Paul
Jewish police officer in Helsinki police procedural. Love the characters smart ass internal thoughts/comments.
Paul
...and then Buffy staked Edward. The end.
-
- Posts: 1588
- Joined: Fri May 25, 2012 9:38 am
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Just finished "The Clash of the Cultures." Can't see why anyone who believes in active management would continue their ways after reading this book. We have become too infatuated with the daily movement of the stock market to maintain the discipline of long-term investing. Too bad, society as a whole is a loser when paying excessive fees and comissions to Wall Street.
Free market capitalist by the way, but fully subscribe to the notion that there are "value adders" ie productive enterprise and the mere "renters" that are intermediaries for financial transactions.
Free market capitalist by the way, but fully subscribe to the notion that there are "value adders" ie productive enterprise and the mere "renters" that are intermediaries for financial transactions.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"Compulsion" by Jonathan Kellerman.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
The Clash of the Cultures by John C. Bogle.
I purchased the hardcover edition through the Bogleheads "Amazon.com" link for a total of $18.11.
Norris
I purchased the hardcover edition through the Bogleheads "Amazon.com" link for a total of $18.11.
Norris
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I'm reading a detective/mystery novel by Elizabeth George, "Playing for the Ashes." I'm not usually much of a mystery reader, but this is pretty nice - much better written than the usual hack job in this genre. The authoress is an American who writes English novels, which for me is a red flag, but she carries it off pretty well without coming across as too much of an Anglophile fangirl. Good, in-depth characterization of most of the principals, except oddly the main detectives, who could do with some fleshing out. Good overall.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Elizabeth George is a terrific author. Her Inspector Lynley stories became a series on Masterpiece Mysteries on PBS.Bungo wrote:I'm reading a detective/mystery novel by Elizabeth George, "Playing for the Ashes." I'm not usually much of a mystery reader, but this is pretty nice - much better written than the usual hack job in this genre. The authoress is an American who writes English novels, which for me is a red flag, but she carries it off pretty well without coming across as too much of an Anglophile fangirl. Good, in-depth characterization of most of the principals, except oddly the main detectives, who could do with some fleshing out. Good overall.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"Caught" by Harlan Coben.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz
- nisiprius
- Advisory Board
- Posts: 52219
- Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
- Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Elizabeth George is the only writer we buy in hardbound, because she is the only writer for whom we feel we can't wait.chaz wrote:Elizabeth George is a terrific author. Her Inspector Lynley stories became a series on Masterpiece Mysteries on PBS.Bungo wrote:I'm reading a detective/mystery novel by Elizabeth George, "Playing for the Ashes." I'm not usually much of a mystery reader, but this is pretty nice - much better written than the usual hack job in this genre. The authoress is an American who writes English novels, which for me is a red flag, but she carries it off pretty well without coming across as too much of an Anglophile fangirl. Good, in-depth characterization of most of the principals, except oddly the main detectives, who could do with some fleshing out. Good overall.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"The Intelligent Investor" (Benjamin Graham, commentary by Jason Zweig) is currently queued up on my e-reader.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Ed Klein's "The Amateur". I will make no comment about the book or the subject matter as I do not want this thread to be locked.
Ed
Ed
-
- Posts: 179
- Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:21 pm
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"How the World Works" by Noam Chomsky
- tuckeverlasting
- Posts: 295
- Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2011 9:50 pm
- Location: The Emerald City
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Just finished: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins.
It's Good To Be A Boglehead
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Just finished The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Audiobook) by David Mitchell
Now reading Retirement Portfolios by Michael Zwecher and listening to The Social Conquest of Earth by E.O. Wilson.
Now reading Retirement Portfolios by Michael Zwecher and listening to The Social Conquest of Earth by E.O. Wilson.
"Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful." - George E. P Box
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"Flesh and Blood" by Jonathan Kellerman.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
- LazyNihilist
- Posts: 1005
- Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:56 pm
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Just finished reading "A Confederacy of Dunces - J.K.Toole". I liked it. Hope Fortuna spins the wheel up for me.
The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must -Thucydides
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
After reading Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational," it was encouraging to read his follow-up, "The Upside of Irrationality" and learn that all is not lost by being irrational. As Ariely says, our irrational ways let us "adapt to new environments, trust other people, enjoy expending effort, and love our kids." And he demonstrates all that very nicely.
"Yes, investing is simple. But it is not easy, for it requires discipline, patience, steadfastness, and that most uncommon of all gifts, common sense." ~Jack Bogle
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
Drop by Michael Connolly.
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I've seen some of his TED talks, I like him alot. It's been posted before, but he has a coursera course coming up. In case you missed that post:Fallible wrote:After reading Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational," it was encouraging to read his follow-up, "The Upside of Irrationality" and learn that all is not lost by being irrational. As Ariely says, our irrational ways let us "adapt to new environments, trust other people, enjoy expending effort, and love our kids." And he demonstrates all that very nicely.
https://www.coursera.org/course/behavioralecon
Cordially, Jeri . . . 100% all natural asset allocation. (no supernatural methods used)
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
If you mean the Coursera course for next March, I've signed up along with several other Bogleheads. I think you're referring to this thread: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 11&t=99671Jerilynn wrote:I've seen some of his TED talks, I like him alot. It's been posted before, but he has a coursera course coming up. In case you missed that post: ...Fallible wrote:After reading Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational," it was encouraging to read his follow-up, "The Upside of Irrationality" and learn that all is not lost by being irrational. As Ariely says, our irrational ways let us "adapt to new environments, trust other people, enjoy expending effort, and love our kids." And he demonstrates all that very nicely.
Thanks for mentioning it as I also like Ariely very much.
"Yes, investing is simple. But it is not easy, for it requires discipline, patience, steadfastness, and that most uncommon of all gifts, common sense." ~Jack Bogle
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"The Affair" by Lee Child, another Jack Reacher story.
Chaz |
|
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen |
|
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
-
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 4:06 am
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
"Truman" by David McCullough. A Pulitzer-Prize winner and one of the best books I've ever read during my 80 plus years.
- randomwalk
- Posts: 312
- Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:12 am
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
The best non-fiction book I've ever read.treborsetag wrote:"Truman" by David McCullough. A Pulitzer-Prize winner and one of the best books I've ever read during my 80 plus years.
- ruralavalon
- Posts: 26353
- Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:29 am
- Location: Illinois
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V
I just finished Stormy Weather by Carl Hiassen.
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein |
Wiki article link: Bogleheads® investment philosophy