RRC Archives

"Guns, Germs, and Steel", just getting started, but it is really cool so far. Basically a history of why the earth was settled the way it was, and why europe ended up with so much power. Will let you all know what it is like when I finish.

Big thanks to Wirednut for the suggestion.

Wes wrote:"Guns, Germs, and Steel", just getting started, but it is really cool so far. Basically a history of why the earth was settled the way it was, and why europe ended up with so much power. Will let you all know what it is like when I finish.

Big thanks to Wirednut for the suggestion.

Read his book Collapse when you finish Guns...
That is an order.

Bump. I need some new suggestions. I was pulling quite a few suggestions off this topic for my reading list. Now, I need some more...

Here's what I have read from your suggestions

--Monkey Wrench Gang -- loved it & had to buy another Edward Abbey book
--Ender's Game -- loved it
--The Kite Runner -- loved it
--The Sirens of Titen -- totally got me on a Kurt Vonnegut kick
--Freakenomics -- fun read
--A Short History of Nearly Everything -- how can you go wrong with an occaisional Bill Bryson book?
--Sideways --not so bad, but I had already seen the movie
--For Whom the Bell Tolls --I'd never read a Hemingway book & I think Charlie suggested it, so I figured why not? Not as easy of a read as the books listed above, but definately thought-provoking
--Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Pirsig -- Liked reading this one & may be the reason Andy/I are in AL for his blackhawk flight training.
--Cadillac Desert -- good read, but a bit depressing (perhaps, appropriately so)
--Last American Man -- this book annoyed the crap out of me, but I still felt compelled to read the whole sob story about this dude & his father's disfuctional relationship and how his life is turning out like his fathers. Not my cup of tea.
--Gravity's Rainbow -- a bit daunting! still haven't made it past the first 20 pages.

Andy read Collapse and said that the book would depress me. I can handle a sad story--but, generally, I like being happy, so I have left it on the shelf.

So, what are you freaks reading now???

skychick, I hear you on the Last American Man - I was all into the story at first, until I realized the guy was pretty much a jerk to 99% of the people in his life. I felt compelled to finish it, too.. partly because it was eventually amusing to imagine that there's someone like this out there.

I haven't gone wrong with the following from James Michener: Hawaii, Chesapeake, Alaska. I didn't dig Caribbean too much, though, and didn't finish it.

Recently I discovered that David Ball is awesome. He's only got two historical fiction novels out right now - Empires of Sand and Ironfire (I've heard his third one, China Run, wasn't like these two and wasn't very good, so I haven't picked it up) - but they're both fantastic if you like the genre.

Prioritizing Web Usability
Ambient Findability
XML Web Developement
Don't Make Me Think
The Elements of the User Experience

Read these all in the last few months. good reads one and all.

Last american man was pretty interesting. I didn't really see him so much as a jerk as lacking in social skills what he had in other skills.

Diary - by the guy who wrote Fight Club, can't spell his name from memory...bizarre, good, but somewhatanti-climactic

Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller (Non-religious thoughts on Christian spirituality...really good)

And currently trying to finish Under the Banner of Heaven by the Into Thin Air guy....it's really interesting, since most of the stuff takes place right around where we live out here, Mormon Central. I had a rough time in the middle of thebook when they just go through all these awful events, put it down for awhile and then picked it back up, should finish it soon. Really interesting.

Oh and about a dozen pregnancy books about alternative birthing methods, but you kinda have to be in to that sort of thing to just pick it up and read it...ya know?

merrick wrote:.....Don't Make Me Think.......

Good one, for those of us working in the KM web sphere. Also working through a Dreamweaver training manual.

Rereading a bunch of philosophy lately, and some short stories (Kafka/Faulkner/Garcia-Marquez). Cruising through Zen and the Art of Bikes again. Hadn't read that thing since High School, amazing how different my perspective is these days.

I had been slacking for so long, really glad to be reading again.

Current
The Subtext of Form in the English Renaissance, SK Heninger, Jr
Alfred the Great, Eleanor Shipley Duckett
Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Utopia, St. Thomas More
The Gallic Wars (in latin), Julius Ceaser

Summer-
The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene, Maybe the best book i've ever read
The Trial, Kafka
Blood and Iron
Out of Solitude, Henry Nouwen
A Very Shot Introduction to Terrorism, Charles Townshend, should be required reading for all americans and others

10 Other Favorites-
Beowulf, (Heaney's translation)
The Silmarillion, Tolkien
The Discared Image, CS Lewis
The Tenth Man, The End of the Affair, both Graham Greene
Above the Clouds, Anatoli Boukreev
Grendal, John Gardener
Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
Backbone of the World, Frank Clifford
The Orestia, Fagles translation, Aeschylus

rereading The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams

I just finished Will in The World, a biography on Shakespeare. It was great. I also finally read the DaVinci Code. It was ok, but I just don't see why it was made into such a big deal.