What books are you currently reading?

[Etzelaire]

The elegant universe, when I finish it I'll start with quantum field theory for the gifted amateur. They are both extremely interesting and quite smooth.

 

[wyverary]

Thanks to my pervasive depression I've been limited to very short works, but i acquired the Kindle version of a collection of short stories by my (current) favorite author, Catherynne Valente, called The Bread We Eat in Dreams. "A Voice Like a Hole" brought me to tears, and there's some other wonderful stuff in there as well.

Funny story...I first discovered the book on the shelves of my workplace (for those who don't know, I work in a bookshop), and I tried to buy it but, because it is a limited edition printing (even the publisher is out of stock...I checked), it cost US$40 and my typical employee discount wouldn't apply. So I got the Kindle version for five bucks.

 

[pushpin]

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

 

[wyverary]

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test is next in my audiobook queue. I'll have to check this one out.

 

[pushpin]

Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test is next in my audiobook queue. I'll have to check this one out.

I found out about it as I researched The Psychopath Test. A reviewer recommended The Sociopath Next Door instead. Since it was a bit less popular, I made the admittedly prejudiced assumption that it might be the more interesting read.

 

[umbrellabeach]

Life, Animated by Ron Suskind. It's about an autistic boy (the author's son) who learned (or just memorized?) a lot of language and stuff by watching Disney movies. Certain Disney characters are one of my special interests so I can relate to it a lot, and I'm enjoying it.

 

[ancusmitis]

I picked up Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould on Amazon while shopping for my college textbooks--Latin, actually; don't know how Stephen Jay Gould got in there, but I'm happy he did! The book was only a penny (plus shipping, but oh well).

 

[umbrellabeach]

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume 3

 

[Myway]

Currently I am reading any book on the Amish. I just finished a couple of them. One is called "An Amish Family". That is about it besides the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

 

[tree]

To my regret, I have been reading
Slowness
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me.
They both seem very poor to me.
Just tedious and nasty.
Recommended to me.
bleh.

I am also reading The Helping Interview.
It has the advantage of being useful.

 

[Tom]

Hans Delbruck's 'History of Warfare' series.

Trivia: It was Hans Delbruck's brain that Igor was supposed to get in 'Young Frankenstein'.

 

[Ylva]

There is a Book Recommendation Law of Inversely Proportional Enthusiasm. The more enthusiastically it is recommended, the more likely it is to be ****. Like the Character Shilling trope.

My list:
"Mathematics for the Million" by Lancelot Hogben
"On the Shoulders of Giants" (the part by Newton)
"Seeing Math Clearly"

 

[BigTimber]

'How to Make Friends & Influence People' by Dale Carnegie. I've seen it recommended repeatedly for people who want to sharpen their people skills. I just started it, so I don't have a definitive opinion yet.

 

[tree]

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Basically Silas Marner + Old Yeller.
Pretty entertaining. Not sensationalist or "adult."
Lots of references to other books, since the main
character runs a bookstore.

I hardly noticed that it was mostly present tense.

For the first forty pages I took the main character to
be 65 years old, so I was surprised to read him saying
he was 39. Then I looked at the information about the
author on the inside back cover. I got the idea from
her picture & the fact that she lives in L.A. that maybe "39"
was about as old as she could imagine.

 

[Mia]

The last three books I've read are:

The Society of the Crossed Keys by Stefan Zweig
Relativity for the Million by Martin Gardner
Collapse by Jared Diamond

Have yet to finish the Crossed Keys, find it annoying, there's so much noticeable class hierarchy in it. Much of which is an imagined entitled state on the part of the main protagonist, with no real attributes or justification for it. He was simply born and trained to regard himself as better than others. Only to discover that he was not any different from anyone else.

Collape is an interesting book, looking at past societies such as the Anasazi and Maya and Viking civilizations right up to present societies that exist in Africa and China, why they fail and or rise to power.

 

[tree]

Hard Times by Charles Dickens.
Rationalism taken to the extreme, beyond the
ethical goal of what provides the greatest degree of
happiness for the largest number of people

 

[StephF]

I'm reading Euler: The master of us all. Its a book on maths

 

[ancusmitis]

I just read a short story for class titled, "The Things They Carried," which is so blatantly based on the Iliad I just wanted to scream. This is not a bad thing necessarily, but Virgil's adaptation for example is a little subtler.

 

[tree]

I just read a short story for class titled, "The Things They Carried," which is so blatantly based on the Iliad I just wanted to scream. This is not a bad thing necessarily, but Virgil's adaptation for example is a little subtler.

I hope you get to use that insight
in class.

 

[SameStars]

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson. I already read A Short History of Nearly Everything by the same author, which is a great book, and I really like this one too. The rest of his books are on my reading list now.