What are you Reading now ..... other than comics ? 7 7

[jimjum12]

Just finished "Deep Storm" by Lincoln Child .......... man that book was GOOD .............GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[JayT]

The Familiar by Mark Z. Danielewski and about to start a reread of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Murakami.

[Erndog]

Almost finished Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. Enjoying it so far.

 

Once finished onto another one of his books, Needful Things.

[namisgr]

Biographies

 

.....GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

I'm still mostly reading non-fiction, too. I just started Jon Krakauer's book 'Into the Wild'.

[Ebel 1911]

Just finished "You Can't Make This Up" by Al Michaels. Good overview of sports broadcasting & many different events over his career.

[TupennyConan]

A survey of Hebraic & Christian apocalyptic literature, with an emphasis on Merkabah mysticism & Revelation.

[jimjum12]

A survey of Hebraic & Christian apocalyptic literature, with an emphasis on Merkabah mysticism & Revelation.

 

.... now THAT sounds compelling....... especially the mysticism aspect. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[catrick339]

Fifties sci-fi and crime digests, Modesty Blaise strip reprints, the continuation of the Spenser novels by Ace Atkins, after Robert Parker passed away. He writes good Spenser, but Hawk, not so much.

[catrick339]

Oh, and Spider Robinson. Plenty of Spider Robinson.

[Brock]

Damien Lewis' Ministry of Ungentlemenly Warfare... Riveting non-fiction, and soon to be a movie.

[PovertyRow]

Fifties sci-fi and crime digests, Modesty Blaise strip reprints, the continuation of the Spenser novels by Ace Atkins, after Robert Parker passed away. He writes good Spenser, but Hawk, not so much.

 

I was really bummed when Parker passed. I spent my first 49 years living in the Boston area, with most of it in Cambridge and Beacon Hill. I'd sometimes see Parker dining at Harvest or another local restaurant. He helped the owner of the local mystery book store build their bookshelves.

 

Parker is my hands down favorite mystery writer. When I heard about Atkins taking on Spenser after Parker's death I was excited and fearful. So far I only read LULLABY (his first) and thought it felt a good bit like Parker although less fluid.Hise descriptions of the greater Boston neighborhoods were noticeably more stilted than Parker's. Obviously written by someone who never lived there.

 

Does he get a better flow in subsequent stories?

[jimbo_707]

I just finished reading The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. It was a decent read, but the 1920s silent movie was better than the book.

 

Before that, I read The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins. Incredibly, 42% of Americans still don't accept evolution, which basically means 42% of Americans have no critical thinking skills. It almost makes me embarrassed to call myself an American.

[cloudofwit]

I just finished reading The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. It was a decent read, but the 1920s silent movie was better than the book.

 

Before that, I read The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins. Incredibly, 42% of Americans still don't accept evolution, which basically means 42% of Americans have no critical thinking skills. It almost makes me embarrassed to call myself an American.

 

Either-or fallacy alert: Either you believe in evolution...or you do not have critical thinking skills. Baloney. Also, you might think we all know or agree on what "critical thinking skills" are, but I'd be willing to bet a bunch of us have different or at least somewhat varying ideas.

 

But let's assume we're all on the same page, definition-wise....Sure, some Americans who do not believe in evolution have little to no critical thinking skills. But it's folly to think those who do believe in evolution are somehow superior and immune from blind spots when it comes to critical thinking.

 

As Americans or anybody else, I don't think we should be embarrassed by what many of our fellow countrymen think. I'd be more curious as to how they--individually--arrived at their conclusions. (For what it's worth, the late Timothy Leary, who loathed traditional religion and its implications, STILL thought evolution was baloney. And I doubt he was alone.)

Edited December 26, 2015 by cloudofwit

[Ares]

I read the Original Tarzan recently and Now I am re-reading some books in the Xanth Series by Piers Anthony

[catrick339]

Fifties sci-fi and crime digests, Modesty Blaise strip reprints, the continuation of the Spenser novels by Ace Atkins, after Robert Parker passed away. He writes good Spenser, but Hawk, not so much.

 

I was really bummed when Parker passed. I spent my first 49 years living in the Boston area, with most of it in Cambridge and Beacon Hill. I'd sometimes see Parker dining at Harvest or another local restaurant. He helped the owner of the local mystery book store build their bookshelves.

 

Parker is my hands down favorite mystery writer. When I heard about Atkins taking on Spenser after Parker's death I was excited and fearful. So far I only read LULLABY (his first) and thought it felt a good bit like Parker although less fluid.Hise descriptions of the greater Boston neighborhoods were noticeably more stilted than Parker's. Obviously written by someone who never lived there.

 

Does he get a better flow in subsequent stories?

 

Yes./ I've read four of the first five by Atkins, he's smoothing out pretty well. It's a somewhat different Spenser, but it's still Spenser....and he's taken on Sixkill as an apprentice, and that relationship is nearly as satisfying as Spenser and Hawk. I believe he's going to be a worthy successor.

 

[namisgr]

[For what it's worth, the late Timothy Leary, who loathed traditional religion and its implications, STILL thought evolution was baloney.

 

No he didn't. Perhaps the confusion lies over Leary's theory of the evolution of consciousness, articulated in his eight circuit model of consciousness.

[jimbo_707]

I just finished reading The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. It was a decent read, but the 1920s silent movie was better than the book.

 

Before that, I read The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins. Incredibly, 42% of Americans still don't accept evolution, which basically means 42% of Americans have no critical thinking skills. It almost makes me embarrassed to call myself an American.

 

Either-or fallacy alert: Either you believe in evolution...or you do not have critical thinking skills. Baloney. Also, you might think we all know or agree on what "critical thinking skills" are, but I'd be willing to bet a bunch of us have different or at least somewhat varying ideas.

 

But let's assume we're all on the same page, definition-wise....Sure, some Americans who do not believe in evolution have little to no critical thinking skills. But it's folly to think those who do believe in evolution are somehow superior and immune from blind spots when it comes to critical thinking.

 

As Americans or anybody else, I don't think we should be embarrassed by what many of our fellow countrymen think. I'd be more curious as to how they--individually--arrived at their conclusions. (For what it's worth, the late Timothy Leary, who loathed traditional religion and its implications, STILL thought evolution was baloney. And I doubt he was alone.)

Saying that you don't believe in evolution is like saying that you don't believe the earth orbits the sun.

Things that have been scientifically proven are not fair game for any intelligent person to choose not to believe in. (We've even witnessed evolution natural selection occurring in species with short life cycles.)

Accepting evolution is all about the scientific evidence, which is overwhelming--far above the bar that we normally call "proof." Disdain for traditional religion has nothing to do with it, so Timothy Leary's opinion isn't particularly germane.

As for wanting to know how people arrived at their conclusions, I've heard some of the explanations: they're all about the same and don't include any grasp of how science works.

[DavidTheDavid]

Rick Atkinson's The Guns At Last Light, the last of his trilogy on WW II. If you're someone who loves learning about WW II, give the first of the trilogy a try. Absolutely brilliant writing done as historical narrative. The degree of research is breath-taking, and the quality of Atkinson's writing is just stunning.

[PovertyRow]

...Does he get a better flow in subsequent stories?

Yes./ I've read four of the first five by Atkins, he's smoothing out pretty well. It's a somewhat different Spenser, but it's still Spenser....and he's taken on Sixkill as an apprentice, and that relationship is nearly as satisfying as Spenser and Hawk. I believe he's going to be a worthy successor.

 

Thanks, Rick. I'll pick up Wonderland next.

[rjpb]

Fifties sci-fi and crime digests, Modesty Blaise strip reprints, the continuation of the Spenser novels by Ace Atkins, after Robert Parker passed away. He writes good Spenser, but Hawk, not so much.

 

I was really bummed when Parker passed. I spent my first 49 years living in the Boston area, with most of it in Cambridge and Beacon Hill. I'd sometimes see Parker dining at Harvest or another local restaurant. He helped the owner of the local mystery book store build their bookshelves.

 

Parker is my hands down favorite mystery writer. When I heard about Atkins taking on Spenser after Parker's death I was excited and fearful. So far I only read LULLABY (his first) and thought it felt a good bit like Parker although less fluid.Hise descriptions of the greater Boston neighborhoods were noticeably more stilted than Parker's. Obviously written by someone who never lived there.

 

Does he get a better flow in subsequent stories?

 

Yes./ I've read four of the first five by Atkins, he's smoothing out pretty well. It's a somewhat different Spenser, but it's still Spenser....and he's taken on Sixkill as an apprentice, and that relationship is nearly as satisfying as Spenser and Hawk. I believe he's going to be a worthy successor.

 

I haven't read a Spenser novel since the late 1980s. I liked the first couple, which were more in the hardboiled P.I. tradition as I recall, but I got tired of the crutch of the near superhuman abilities of Hawk to bail Spenser out of tough situations ( I felt the same about Robert Crais' Joe Pike in the Elvis Cole novels), and the plots seemed to become more over the top thriller than gritty noir around then. This was also around the time Parker wrote the Marlowe Poodle Springs novel - which I found a pale and tedious imitation of Chandler.

 

I'll admit to being a bit of crime fiction grump though, frequently losing interest in authors as I feel they become lazy plotters, too committed to the nobility of their central characters (diminishing their flaws as time goes on), or so enamored of their own brilliance that their material becomes near parody of their earlier work (I'm talking about you James Ellroy).