What Are You Reading?

[David G]

I've been cleaning off my desk area today. Next up is the about-to-topple stack of books that I'm reading, re-reading, about to read, should read, or am keeping handy for reference.

Here's my list - do you have a similar pile?

Letter In A Woodpile - NPR essays, Ed Cullen

Freakonomics, Levitt & Dubner

Double Cross - the true story of the D-day spies, Macintyre

The Sailmaker's Apprentice, Marino

Voyage Of A Summer Sun, Robin Cody

World Woods In Color, Lincoln

The Land Where the Blues Began - Alan Lomax (thanks to Jimmy W for the tip)

The Conscience of a Liberal, Krugman

GLASS: Frank Lloyd Wright at a glance, Erlich

The Onion Book of Known Knowledge

Building Classic Small Craft, Gardner

Willamette Week's Beer Guide

Water: A view from Japan

A Splintered History of Wood, Spike Carlson (much recommended if you love wood)

The Woodbook, Taschen

Sailboat Design, Gougeon & Knoy

Waterline, Joe Soucheray

Smuggler Nation: how illicit trade made America, Peter Andreas

Skene's Elements of Yacht Design

Sensible Cruising Designs, Herreshoff

[skuthorp]

John Welsford's Backyard Boat buildr and Rag and Bone by Peter Manseau, a book about holy relics, their providence or lack of it and their effects on the faithful of many religions.

[George Jung]

Duty/Robt. Gates

The Geography of Bliss/ Eric Weiner

[Keith Wilson]

The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Mi Pais Inventado, Isabel Allende

[Chip-skiff]

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, a rather intricate whodunit set in Hokitika, NZ during the gold rush— won the Booker Prize last year.

Traditional Boats of Ireland: History, Folklore, and Construction by Críostór MacCárthaigh.

Light on Water: The Life of Te Mära O'Slattery Smith, a novel that I wrote and am now editing (which counts as reading, I guess).

[David G]

Chip - your title makes it sound like non-fiction? And therefore not a novel??

[Flying Orca]

The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert. A relatively light romp through the Anthropocene mass extinction.

[David G]

Either you galoots are a schmeck of a lot tidier and more disciplined than I... or you're not describing the WHOLE pile...

[PeterSibley]

The Story of the Human Body , Evolution, health and Disease ... Daniel Lieberman. Human evolution with the last half of the book being a reference to our current ''livestyles'' and diets and our bodies, the matches and mismatches.

The Far Side of the World, Patrick O'Brain.

Death of Kings, ​Bernard Cornwell.

[Paul Pless]

United States Department of Agriculture Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service Animal Welfare Act Animal Care Regulations, November 2013

More commonly referred to as the USDA APHIS Blue Book. Its pretty dry, I can't say that I can really recommend it. I'm teaching a course on it and hosting and participating in a few institutional and animal use ethics meetings in the next month, so I thought I'd reread it for the dozenth or so time, especially since its been re-edited last year. . .

[Keith Wilson]

United States Department of Agriculture Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service Animal Welfare Act Animal Care Regulations, November 2013

Needing a cure for insomnia?

[Sky Blue]

William Manchester's The Last Lion, Vol. 1, and the quarterly, Sea History, which arrived with my latest copy of WB.

[Arizona Bay]

The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert. A relatively light romp through the Anthropocene mass extinction.

That sounds interesting and I see another one of hers that looks good, Field Notes From a Catastrophe.

On the table now (reading and rereading)

The First Salute and The Guns of August - Thuchman
Sea of Glory- Philbrick
All the Brave Fellows - Nelson
Annals of the Former World - McPhee

[Chip-skiff]

Chip - your title makes it sound like non-fiction? And therefore not a novel??

It's a fictional autobiography. Found this photo while doing research and was so intrigued that I made up a great big sprawling story.

[Ian McColgin]

I like to read and I usually have up to a dozen books going in any given week.

This week:

"Light of the World", James Lee Burke - latest Bobicheaux novel.

"The Sea and Civilization", Lincoln Paine - major new text

"The Story of Music", Howard Goodall - very cool and different approach to music history

"Uncharted", J.B. Chicoine - a WBF favorite

"Little Green", Walter Mosley - Easy Rawlins makes it to the summer of love

"Front Porch Politics", Michael Stewart Foley - community activism in the 70's and 80's - personal note: This is like how when Nixon's enemies list was published and my name wasn't on it - none of my stuff in three states is even hinted at in this book.

"The Burglary", Betty Medsger - Getting the files from that FBI office.

"Gods of Aberdeen", Micah Nathan - novel of alchemy and such at elite Connecticut college

"Tudors", Peter Ackroyd - Pleasantly readable history

"Whose God Rules?" - an anthology of legal arguments, including a chapter by my brother.

"Guantanamo", Joseph Margulies - expose of our crimes.

[Chip-skiff]

I don't understand how anyone can read more than two quite different books in a serious way at one time, with any degree of recall.

Am I handicapped?

[Keith Wilson]

Am I handicapped?

No. I don't know how people can do it either. I only read one or at most two books at a time, and never two novels. I'll fill in gaps with magazines or the newspaper, but too many books at once is confusing.

[epoxyboy]

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, a rather intricate whodunit set in Hokitika, NZ during the gold rush— won the Booker Prize last year.

+1 finished it on saturday night - its a good read. Now on to some trashy sci fi for a bit of light relief .

[Sky Blue]

Sometimes a serious work takes more energy than I may have at a given time. Often I will put it down for a week or two and take up some light entertainment, like a pulp mystery or a Western.

Sometimes this allows me to think about the work up to the point where I left off, which sometimes primes me for more when I am ready. I usually have a few books going at one time.

[ron ll]

Just finished "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt. 800 page novel with good characters. Might try her other one next, Secret something or something Secrets. But I might need to get away from fiction and back to non for a break.

[htom]

Too many piles.

Science fiction:
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson
The Void series, Peter F Hamilton
The Boy Who Would Live Forever, Fredric Poul
Neptune's Brood, Charles Stross

Cooking:
Keys To Good Cooking, Harold McGee
Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet, Padma Lakshmi
I'm Just Here for More Food, Alton Brown
A Blessing of Bread, Maggie Glezer

Mind and Brain:
Destructive Emotions, Dalai Lama and Daniel Goleman
The Emotional Life of Your Brain, Richard J. Davidson
How to Train a Wild Elephant, Jan Chozen Bays

Mysteries:
The Chinese Nail Murders,
Necklace and Calabash, and
The Lacquer Screen, three of the Judge Dee mysteries by Robert van Gulik

An old book on APL, a couple of books about Drupal, and Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe

Hi, my name is Tom and I'm a readaholic.

[Bernadette]

don't have much choice out here but i did find a copy of "swallows and amazons".

[Jim Bow]

Full Dark House - Christopher Fowler
Monuments Men - Robert Edsel (far far better than the movie)
And a book about Nigel Gresley and the competition for the steam locomotive speed record. BTW- 126mph. Can't remember the name of the book, it's out in the car'

[TomF]

Book of Martial Power, Steven Pearlman

Perennials All Season, Douglas Green

The Book of Five Rings, Mushashi

Big honking Statistics text.

[Vince Brennan]

Full Dark House - Christopher Fowler
Monuments Men - Robert Edsel (far far better than the movie)
And a book about Nigel Gresley and the competition for the steam locomotive speed record. BTW- 126mph. Can't remember the name of the book, it's out in the car'

See also a (I think) PBS show, "The Rape Of Europa".

[Michael D. Storey]

Ashort e-mail from Michael Tawton

[Runner]

"Boatbuilding" Howard Chapelle
"The Complete Riggers Apprentice" Brion Toss
"Into The Wild" Jon Krakauer
"Trail Runner Magazine"
"Woodenboat Magazine"

[BrianY]

Just finished In Suspect Terrain by John McPhee ( for the third time). Also recently read Hawaii's Story by Queen Liliuokalani. Am now reading Fool Moon by Jim Butcher.

[LongIslandBoy]

Windows 8.1 for Dummies! God help me!
Why Read Moby-Dick? Nathaniel Philbrick . God help me, Part 2!
The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell

[David G]

No. I don't know how people can do it either. I only read one or at most two books at a time, and never two novels. I'll fill in gaps with magazines or the newspaper, but too many books at once is confusing.

I didn't even mention fiction. I normally only do one fiction book at a time. The nightstand right now holds The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma. Literary fiction. The author's debut novel. He's someone who seems like he'd be an insufferable little pinprick in person... but who, nonetheless, writes beautifully and entertainingly. It takes me back to some of the artsy, eccentric, demented genius types I hung around with in college.

Before that it was one of Laurie R King's nouveau-Sherlock books. And before that, some John D. MacDonald.

[Keith Wilson]

Before that it was one of Laurie R King's nouveau-Sherlock books.

Great fun! The first ten pages of The Beekeeper's Apprentice were enough to make me a fan for life. Have you read her Kate Martinelli books?

[Ian McColgin]

Laurie R King rocks. The Martinelli books are cool. Mr & Mrs Holmes occasionally flagged but then she'd bring the stories back to life. Still hard for any author to match a series starter like "The Beekeeper's Apprentice".

[marshcat]

Just finished A Soldier of the Great War, by Mark Helprin. Best book I have read in a long time.

Just started The Martian, by Andy Weir.

Flipping around in Mastering VMware Vsphere 5 when I have time..

[bahma]

Quite frankly, the following are loaded in my I-Pad, with few a exceptions, such as Seven Pillars, Two Years before the Mast, and the like, which have been read many times over the years, which are hardback.
Some, somewhat tedious are as yet unfinished.....but are handy to read in airports, etc.


Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
Economics, the remarkable story of how the economy works.
A moveable feast.
A Short Story of nearly Everything
Britannia Road.
Fate is the Hunter..... (topical at this moment)
The Wisdom of Crowds
summary of American Theocracy.
In the Graveyard of Empires.
Code Name Pauline.
1412 The Year China Discovered the World.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khyam.
delphi complete Works
Rewilding of North America.
Visit Sunny Chernobyl.
When the Money Runs Out,
Two Years before the Mast
The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars.
The Great Hurricane of 1780
Canada.
Leaves of Grass.
Democracy in America.
The Great Gatsby
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo..... The trilogy.
The Malacca Conspiracy.

all good stuff.

[David G]

Great fun! The first ten pages of The Beekeeper's Apprentice were enough to make me a fan for life. Have you read her Kate Martinelli books?

Yes. Good stuff.

You know... I started this thread on a whim. As a way to procrastinate when faced with the cleanup/organizing tasks. As it turned out, it has provided fodder for further exploration. I hope it has for others as well.