Books: What are you reading tonight?

[Blarg]

I've started I Am America and So Can You," too. Colbert is extremely arch, and that can be great, but sometimes it feels a little bit strained and I find he misses the funny frequently enough. This strikes me as great bathroom reading, where you get just enough to amuse you, then finish your business and move on to something else. Best in small doses. I expect this one will take me a long time to actually finish.

[Blarg]

Also, I've just finished The Military Institutions of the Romans, by Vegetius. More bathroom reading, though it is readable straight through. Now I'm starting My Reveries on the Art of War, by Maurice de
Saxe.

[Kimbell175113]

Okay, follow up now that I've finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics. This won't really be a review because I loved the book so much that it's hard to be critical.

This book had a fair amount of buzz last year, but here's a synopsis for those who haven't heard about it: Blue van Meer, a hyper-literate teenager, and her father travel around the country, moving every few months as Dad likes to get a temporary teaching gig at one university, then quickly move to the next one. (Mom is long since dead, car accident.) They spend a ton of time memorizing poetry and dialogue and philosophy, watching old movies, and being really academic in general (and the dad also spends time picking up women in every new city).

For Blue's senior year of high school, they move near a private school and plan to stay in one place for a whole year for the first time. She gets caught up in a group of quirky kids (standard for any high school story, I guess) who spend a lot of time with one of the teachers, Hannah Schneider. Hannah is charismatic, mysterious, etc., and then she turns up dead, and then the crazy [censored] starts happening. I don't want to call the book a murder mystery, but it wouldn't be that far off if I did.

The story is not terribly original (ton of parallels to Veronica Mars), but it's expertly done in a Blue's first-person narration. The book is organized as a "Core Curriculum," with each chapter relating to a literary work - and the book ends with a Final Exam for the reader (not cheesy at all, and in fact the ending is one of the story's biggest strengths.)

The biggest draw for me was the style of the narration, which allowed for some great sly jokes. What happens is that everything is cited, referenced, like a term paper, but most of the citations are either boldly made-up or hilariously obtuse and abstract. I'd be reading along, trying to keep up with these characters who are smarter than I am, and then out of nowhere I'm hit with a Jason Takes Manhattan joke. The book is just fun to read, and as I said, I recommend it to anyone (it'd help if you are young and a nerd, though).

[SoloAJ]

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I am about halfway through Freedom Writers now. I saw the movie a while ago. I went to a showing that was almost entirely teachers and it was funny to hear them laughing at certain things that I had no idea what was funny. Teachers are weird.

(Yeah, I'm going to be one in a couple years).

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One of the more fun and infuriating things is figuring out what others know that you don't.

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I'm getting the hang of this sort of thing more and more from my education classes. I am really loving immersing myself in the education of education. I just really hope that I don't have some huge crash and quit feeling when I get out there in the real world.

[SoloAJ]

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The story is not terribly original (ton of parallels to Veronica Mars), but it's expertly done in a Blue's first-person narration.

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I'm adding this book. I loved that show so much that I'm willing to give it a whirl on that alone.

Though, the rest of your synopsis has me intrigued anyway.

[SoloAJ]

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sigh. another bit of trivia, I apparently have reading comprehension problems.

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No worries, I wasn't going to call you out on it or anything. I definitely am looking forward to the movie. I'm hoping it will be the horror movie that I've been waiting for for a long time now. A real solid horror movie.

Though, I just saw 28 Days Later for the first time a couple nights ago, and that was pretty impressive I thought. A nice blend of 'scary' and 'constant fear.' I always did prefer Silent Hill (the game) atmosphere to some Wolf Creek style of horror movie.

Here's to hoping that Darabont captures The Mist's subversive fear elements.

[BestLuckEver]

I've been playing poker for a year or so, and I really want to improve my game so :

Currently :
Super/System 2

Up next :
All 3 HOH
Barry G Ace on River

[Runkmud]

You guys read way better books than I do.

That said, I'm super excited!!!! Up until George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, one book ruled the top of my list. Pillars of The Earth by Ken Follet amazed me, because at the time, as an agnostic 19 yr old, the last thing I wanted to read was a book about the building of a church, but it was so well done, I couldn't ignore it. Since then, I've read it over 10 times, about once every two years. Recently, my ex, who I would like to think I brought into the wonderful world of reading (other than boring text, and self help books) brought to my attention that Follet has recently written a sequel. Holy McMuther [censored] am I excited, I can hardly wait. This will delay my addictive waiting for Martin to finally get back to work.

If you haven't read Pillars of The Earth, please do. I'm aware that Follet has written some dogs, this isn't any of them, this was a great book that changed my vision of the world, give it a shot! If the sequel sucks, I'll give you a heads up!

[johney5]

behind the shades

PNLH

[Wynton]

"The Nine," by Jeffrey Toobin.