Books I'm reading etc.

[Paluka]

I could not get into The Known World and gave up pretty early on it.
I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I think it is fantastic. I haven't read Harry Potter, but I would think this book kicks Harry Potter's ass.

[gumpzilla]

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I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I think it is fantastic. I haven't read Harry Potter, but I would think this book kicks Harry Potter's ass.

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It is an excellent book, and certainly more literary than Harry Potter. The one advantage of Harry Potter is that what it lacks in sophistication it makes up for in scope; there's just a lot more story to tell. I think there's a pretty high degree of correlation between liking both works.

[JaBlue]

re-read some Castaneda, still very interesting and fun. Girlfriend read Eat, Pray, Love and I really liked the passages she read me.

Just bought a bunch of books that I look forward to reading. Any comments/suggestions on order?

Suttree (read intro. excited.) - McCarthy
Lolita - Nabokov
Naked Lunch (few pages in. WOW.) - Burroughs
The Essential Swimmer
The Beat Book (collection of Beat poetry)
The Old Man and the Sea
Arrow of God - Chinua Achebe [liked Things Fall Apart, this was $2.00]

[7ontheline]

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I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I think it is fantastic. I haven't read Harry Potter, but I would think this book kicks Harry Potter's ass.

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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is an excellent book. I agree that it's better than Harry Potter. I've never quite understood the Harry Potter phenomenon - I think they're good books but I don't think they're anything super-special for adults. I see why kids/teens would like them.

[El Diablo]

All,

Just purchased:

IV by Chuck Klosterman. Collection of essays, generally pop culture themed, and general musings on life, and some stories.

The Reach of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. About celebrity chefs. He wrote my favorite cooking/restaurant book, The Soul of a Chef.

These purchases will allow me to continue deferring my more serious books.

[Unoriginalname]

All,

One of my friends suggested I read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn as one of my next books. It sounds interesting, but what does the El D forum think? I've found I seem to have the same taste in books as a lot of you, so I'm curious to see if others have read it.

[invisibleleadsoup]

i'm really enjoying the black swan,haven't quite finished it yet but its given me a lot to think about.

i can certainly see why his style would rub some people up the wrong way,but i think he gets away with it since his subject matter is very interesting and a lot of his examples and references are fascinating. almost every page has something that made me stop and think,and i keep coming across points that i wish myself and my friends had read since they would have been relevant to conversations and arguments we've had in the past.

this is the first book i've read on this sort of thing so maybe other people who are better versed in maths and philosophy would be less impressed,but i think regardless of your background there is a huge amount of stuff in the book that is well worth thinking about.

[goofball]

Just Finished
<u>The End of Faith By Sam Harris</u>
I bought this at the airport on a whim and read it before I returned home. Most of the book is an intelligent argument about the dangers of faith, how it can lead people to do unspeakable things. For example, if you have total faith that if you blow yourself up killing infidels you and your entire family will go to heaven, then to do so would be completely rational. Obviously, Islam isn’t the only religion subject to this critique. The end of the book gets a little mystical for me though. While the author is still grounded (sort of) in science, he just goes on and on about a few twinkle ding dong ideas that end up as a boring digression.

<u>Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer</u>
This book is about the surprising history of Mormonism. It interlaces the history, birth, and development of Mormonism with current stories about fundamentalist Mormon beliefs and the story of how one of those fundamentalists had (and carried out) a revelation to murder his sister-in-law and niece. It’s super interesting and reads easily, like a novel. Also, I'm sure most people think mormons are a little nuts, but after reading this book and getting more insight into exactly what they believe I think they're even more f'ing nuts than ever.