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What Is Everyone Reading?~~~~

I just started A Confederacy of Dunces and 30 pages in, I can tell I'm going to love it ๐Ÿ™‚
So what is everyone reading? A new book or re-visiting an old one? Something amazing or are you struggling to finish it?

ZantiMisfit 8 Nov 4
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3

I finished "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari and am now reading the sequel, as it were, called "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow"

Harari has an unorthodox take on human history, beginning far back into prehistory. Rather than the standard history textbook's beginning at the start of the written record, with a quick gloss over the prehistoric, he devotes four chapters to what he calls the "Cognitive Revolution".

Homo Deus continues the story by speculating what path human history will take in both the near and distant future. He renames the Holocene Epoch as the Anthropocene Epoch, due to the impact Homo sapiens has had on the global ecology over the last 70,000 years.

Both books are highly recommended if you enjoy history and speculation on our future presented in a more irreverent style than found in standard academic books.

3

Gettin kinda lazy โ€ฆ so if I can find it in audiobook form, I will. At the moment, itโ€™s โ€œGod Is Not Greatโ€ by (and read by) Christopher Hitchens - as recommended by one of us! ๐Ÿ˜€ Itโ€™s deep, disturbing, and delicious ~

Varn Level 8 Nov 4, 2018

That book is my atheist bible. Hitchens was so intelligent.

2

Iโ€™m currently reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Iโ€™m also listening to Island if the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore. His books are hilarious and certainly help me keep my sanity with all the jack wagons on the road.

Loved Moore's Lamb. ๐Ÿ™‚ A fundamentally theistic perspective, but it was far more human than the original claptrap of gospels that the story was loosely based on.

@KenChang have you read Fool and Serpent of Venice? Absolutely hysterical! And the audiobooks are great. They are both read by Euan Morton who does a stellar job. I laugh so hard I start snorting! (โ€œDie you badger shagging spunk monkey!&rdquo๐Ÿ˜‰.

I have listened to Fool and Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove at least three times each. Just good olโ€™ raunchy slap your knee funny. Lamb is great also. Moore just possesses the twisted, fast paced and warped sense of humor I love.

@Psmintexas No, I have not. But sounds like I have to check out the audiobook versions! Thanks!

2

I am reading A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar, the biography of the mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. upon which the move was based.

2

I read A Confederacy of Dunces a few years ago and enjoyed it. A very different tale, indeed. I'm presently reading Never Coming Back by Alison McGhee.

2

Grant by Chernow. Really good. He was a much better general than people know.

2

Per a recommendation post I already earlier today, I just finished Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Hawking. If you're a little nerdy, it's a good read. I'm now onto Deer hunting with Jesus by Bageant.

2

I tried to get through that book years ago and couldn't do it. I'm about 100 pages into the Book Thief- really good so far!

2

I'm on my second attempt with Confederacy of Dunces, this time in audio-book. The loser dude who lives with mommy is so incredibly unlikeable, I didn't get it before, and I'm not getting it this time. My BFF loves this book and so, it seems, do many of you. I'd like to get through it, please tell me it gets better. Please!!!

Sadly, As a lover of the book, I'd say it's not an acquired taste. It's all about the genius in stupidity, (and the high-brow, coffee-shop diatribes). But, I find real joy in perfectly written stupidity...in that it takes a real genius to fictionalize complete obsurdity. That's what you just may not vibe with.

I agree with shockwaverider. I had heard about the book for years and finally read it a few months ago. Ignatius was so unlikable, I didn't find the book all that funny.

@APaleBlueDot Thanks - that's very helpful. I find stupidity annoying, especially willful stupidity. It is amusing in small doses. When I read the book (vs. listened to it), I enjoyed it at first, but it didn't hold my attention for long and became a chore to read. Listening to it was worse. I realized just now that he reminds me of one of my therapy clients from my internship in counseling...

I had the same experience at first. I kept getting bogged down in the first chapter. Then one day I was lying on the beach reading Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins and a college professor from New Orleans asked me how I enjoyed it and started talking about another N.O. book, A Confederacy of Dunces. So on my 3rd attempt, I fell in love with the book. And my daughter heard me laughing so much that she read it and loved it, and my (now ex) boyfriend did too. Maybe it takes a certain kind of crazy to appreciate it.

2

A Confederacy of Dunces is one of my favorite books. I reread it periodically. The first time I read it on the beach, laughing so hard I must have looked like an idiot. Right now I am reading Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut. Seems appropriate just now.

2

The Next Tsunami. It's about how they discovered that the Pacific Northwest is prone to devastating tsunamis. As I live a block from the ocean (but thankfully out of the tsunami zone) it's both fascinating and terrifying.

Remi Level 7 Nov 4, 2018

Thee reason Iโ€™m no longer in Oregonโ€ฆ Iโ€™d been looking into โ€˜sunami setbacksโ€™ at various properties at โ€˜the beach,โ€™ my father & brother live at the Oregon coast.. An informed local suggested I look into what will generate that sunami. I did ๐Ÿ˜•

@Varn yeah, I refuse to even consider a place in the tsunami zone. I think I love it too much to leave the coast though. I'm only half joking when I encourage my parents to get a place here because it's where all the climate change refugees are going to come. Doesn't get too hot here!

@Remi ...if you can handle the wind and rain.. Iโ€™d not have left my beloved Oregon if it werenโ€™t for that impending subduction zone disaster. Though, if I still had my family's homestead ..Iโ€™d have ridden out hell & highwater. Geologic timeโ€™s a bitch when it coincides with our flickers in time. Enjoy it for me ~

2

Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood. Her writing style is fantastic.

cava Level 7 Nov 4, 2018
2

I'm reading "Religion for Atheists", I heard a talk given by the author and he made some good points, so I got the book.

1

I'm finishing up "Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs" by Johann Hari.

Orbit Level 7 Dec 23, 2018
1

I'm in the middle of "Fear" by Bob Woodward right now, and if I get bored with it I switch to a couple of atheist books. Listening to Michael Shermer at the moment with "Why We Believe What We Believe."

1

A confederacy of dunces is magnificent!! As a followup, if you've not read Tom Robins' Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, you'll find a completely different story with the same loving charms. Matter of (opinion) fact, you'll probably really dig any Robbins, and most likely all of Vonnegut, if you love CODunces.

1

Under the Sea Wind, by Rachel Carson.

1

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, 400 pages in, almost 800 to go.

I love Neal Stephenson, but really had to force myself through all those books.

@jerry99 I am half way through, but I have been reading this for a month.

1

Health policy and statistics. Just started a masterโ€™s program, on top of my full time job, which hasnโ€™t left much time for recreational.... anything.

1

Iโ€™m reading a book about young women raised in purity culture (aka no sexual anything before marriage) [amazon.com]

UUNJ Level 8 Nov 4, 2018
1

I am rereading a wonderful, hilarious book:

  1. "The Improbability of Love" by Hannah Rothschild.

Before that, I also savored from my home library, books I love:

2. "Crow Lake" by Mary Lawson.

3. "Rise and Shine" by Anna Quindlen.

This month's book club selection:

  1. "Salt To the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys. This powerful, gorgeously written exploration of a little-known WWII tragedy, the sinking of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff ship. Over 9,000 passengers died, the worst maritime disaster in history.
1

Reading

  1. TheLord of the Rings trilogy for the umpteenth time.
  2. Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
1

I am reading three books.

  1. Re-reading the Terror by Dan Simmons. Love this book.
  2. Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, recommended by my secondary book pimp. (Yes, I have two).
  3. Raw Spirit, by Iain Banks, recommended by @Jnei.

I am pairing the first one with bourbon, the second with coffee, and the third with scotch.

Dan Simmons is great. I picked up The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons in the bargain books at Barnes & Noble a while back. I love anything with Sherlock Holmes. Mr. Simmons did an excellent job of introducing the fiction of Holmes with the accuracy of U.S. history. It was a wonderful read.

1

I read, but it's mostly online articles or tech documents (I have masters in comp engineering). My mom sent me "Life Force, The Scientific Basis" by C. Swanson PhD, but haven't started yet.

1

I've read A Confederacy of Dunces 3 times over the last 30 years. It tok me several tries to finally read Frankenstein because it was frequently boring. Tried numerous times to read Foucault's Pendulum before finally giving up. You need a PhD to read that book.

A book everyone should read is To Wish Upon a Star available on Amazon. Simply terrific. ๐Ÿ˜‰

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