So, What Are You Reading?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Ted Heiks, Jul 27, 2013.

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  1. SpoonyNix

    SpoonyNix Active Member

    Finished No Place to Hide, by Glenn Greenwald.

    Got just a few pages into Anathem by Neal Stephenson and decided I probably won't enjoy it, so, pass.

    Reading Arguably, a collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens. I looooove British humor, but I wasn't expecting Hitchens writings to be laugh-out-loud funny.
     
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I bounced off of Anathem too, same thing, got about fifty pages in and just didn't go further. But I went back a few years later and tried it again and sailed through it, so... who knows?
     
  3. SpoonyNix

    SpoonyNix Active Member

    That's interesting. I guess when I said I probably won't enjoy it, I suppose I meant I wouldn't NOW. I can imagine at some point wanting to dive back in. I liked Cryptonomicon, and Anathem has some very good reviews. Seems to me that to "do" Anathem the right way I am going to have to immerse myself in the story, and I ain't got time fo dat, at present : )
     
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  4. Tireman 44444

    Tireman 44444 Well-Known Member

    Glorious Cause-Robert Middlekauff
     
  5. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America.

     
  6. Thorne

    Thorne Active Member

    Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock. I've been long fascinated by the possibility of ancient cultures and their supposed lack of sophistication
     
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  7. Tireman 44444

    Tireman 44444 Well-Known Member

    The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon Wood
     
  8. newsongs

    newsongs Active Member

    "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team".
     
  9. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    The Time Keeper
    Book by Mitch Albom
     
  10. MasterChief

    MasterChief Member

    University coursework. Afterward, I'm going to read Batman: The Three Jokers.
     
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  11. SpoonyNix

    SpoonyNix Active Member

    Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto.
     
  12. SpoonyNix

    SpoonyNix Active Member

    Finished Shibumi by Trevanian.
    Now on Satori by Don Winslow.
     
  13. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    I just finished reading the Qur'an, in English. One of the items on my bucket list, along with reading it in Arabic one day.

    I've always wanted to learn Arabic, and I've been interested in understanding Islam and the culture of the Middle East.

    Not a lot of thoughts to share, but now it will be easier to place in context people who cite the Qur'an to justify various things.

    I suspect a lot of the beliefs will actually be based on hadith, and not the Qur'an itself.
     
  14. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    My capstone for a course in digital law I took.
    The course was free, offered by my alma mater.
    My capstone is 65 pages.
    I didn't sleep all night to finish it.
    But I don't feel tired. I feel accomplished and proud.
    Wish me luck ;-)
     
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  15. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    Taking a udemy course in US contract law. Really interesting reading material and audio. The entire course is 12 hours. As someone who regularly comes across clauses escrowed from the US laws, this is a great crash course for me. The Belgian law system is mostly law-acts based and here and there the opinion from the court of arbitration is asked when the law is unclear, but we don't use much common law where precedents change the entire system. In Belgian law it is clear that the decision from the court doesn't affect people outside of that case of law. The US is very different here where a certain precedent can change the outcome of all subsequent cases that deal with the same problem. So a crash course in US contract law is really helpful for me.
     
  16. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Read Herodotus' Histories of the Persian Wars and Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.
     
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  17. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Imagine being able to go back in time and tell them that people would still be reading their work 2,500 years later.
     
  18. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    Loved reading Herodotus in high school.
    One of my favorite writers stays Ploutarchos Soloon though.

    And Plato's allegory.

    And Anaximenes.

    I loved loved loved classic languages in high school.

    Who are your favorite Roman writers on a side note?
    Mine is Vergil :)
     
  19. Tireman 44444

    Tireman 44444 Well-Known Member

    The Hard Hand of War- Mark Grimsley and Memoirs of W.T Sherman by William T. Sherman
     
  20. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    I paid a dollar for a collection of Humble Bundle books, one of which is The Checklist Book by Alexandra Franzen. It's all about how to accomplish more by making better use of checklists. It's a short book, more like a handbook. A quick read, I finished it in about an hour.

    It provides a few philosophies one might choose for how to design their life: Values, Desires (how do you want to feel), Kaizen (what can you do better today than yesterday), Sohwakhaeng (a Korean term apparently translating to "small but certain happiness"), sexual energy, dying empty (basically dedicate part of your week to whatever your life's work or dream is), faith, necessity, 24-hours left to live.

    It uses a workbook style to ask you what you would focus your life/time on if you followed these different philosophies with different questions. Then it moves on to some different checklists. One a Daily Checklist that includes tasks you want and need to do, and moments you want to experience.

    Once you have your daily checklist habit down, you add "Loose Ends" checklists for things like Finances, Health, Work, etc., that have medium/long-term timelines and then a Seasonal Checklist and a Survival Checklist with a list of basic needs and coping strategies during an emotional crisis.

    Other checklists include Marketing Checklist, Workout Checklist, Birthday Checklist, Vacation Checklist.

    All in all, the book did not speak to me. I do value checklists, but I don't think that the book taught me anything I didn't already know about them.
     
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