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Whatcha Reading?; War and Peace? Best of Jugs? I'm curious
Topic Started: Apr 26 2006, 05:09 PM (3,429 Views)
Jenster
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Snefaldia,Nov 30 2008
09:09 PM
Background: I read Atlas Shrugged on a whim freshman year, and it was one of the most painful experiences I've ever had in literature.

Oh, God. My sister is like completely obsessed with that novel. <_<
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The Evil Smurfs
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Atlas was fine, aside from the speeches. When John Galt does his 70 page monologue, I was about ready to scream. Seventy pages of monologue. Dry. Very dry.

As a whole, though, the book wasn't nearly as horrible as everyone likes to paint it. Fountainhead is. Couldn't finish that monster. Anthem, on the other hand, is pretty good. And pretty short.
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The Palentine
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The Lance and the Shield, by Robert Utley

Its a biography of Sitting Bull. Very good reading. Mr. Utley is one of the best western historians this country has ever produced.
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Gruenberg
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William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis: god damn this is a great work of history. I really like New Western History, and this book is basically an environmental history of Chicago in the late 19thC, arguing for its importance in the development of the frontier.
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Cobdenia
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Just reading "Mud Blood and poppycock" by Gordon Corrigan, about the First World War, which rubbishes the perceptions most of us has of the conflict, such as the "Lions Led By Donkeys", "In the Trenches for Four Years", and even "senseless slaughter". For an opinionated historical piece, it is very good, and it's very hard to disagree with the conclusions he draws, and very well backed up. Some conclusions, and statements, are so well argued and backed up that I'd describe it as pretty much fact. An excellent book if you want to have your mind changed about something.
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eco
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Kim Stanley Robinson - Fifty Degrees Below

KSR is an unashamed hippy lefty green type and this is the second part of a trilogy about climate change in the very near future, so I think you can guess what kind of position he puts across. I've never not enjoyed one of his novels, he has a lovely simple writing style and a disarming sense of humour. That said, he seems to have struggled to get remotely close to the dizzy heights of his career-defining Mars trilogy.

Still worth a read, and a nifty counter to the late Michael Crichton's 'critique' of climate science.
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eco
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KSR's novel I mentioned in the previous post includes a chapter where the US and Europe suffer from an extreme cold snap. I couldn't help but think of this as I lay in my bed last night, wearing a hoodie, trousers and socks and with the frigging heating on. I could see my damn breath!
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Murray the Evil Skull
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Paper Lion, by George Plimpton.
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MuhOre
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Mr. Pip by...I forgot the authors name. But Genocide and Hemingway on an Island nation always comes fun together. :)
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qumkent
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I'm reading a Biography of Christina of Denmark, by Julia Cartwright, it's a beautifully bound and gilt embossed copy from 1913 I inherited in a library of books from a dead antiquarian relative.

The biography is excellent, Christina's life was ne of those keys to the period ( early to mid sixteenth century ) and the scholarship is excellent.
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The Evil Smurfs
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Re-reading the Dresden Files to psych myself up for the newest book in April. Woop woop.
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Gruenberg
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Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City, while a bit outdated now, is an interesting look at the CPA in Iraq post-invasion.

Robert Collins's More is a very good economic history of the modern US.
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The Palentine
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Baseball Spring Training is about to start, so I'm performing my pre-season annual ritual.

Re-reading Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Veeck as in Wreck, bu Bill Veeck. :)
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Jenster
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Right now I'm reading Taming American Power by Stephen Walt for my U.S. Foreign Policy class
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The Evil Smurfs
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With Turn Coat coming out in April, I've been re-reading (again) the Dresden Files. Just started Small Favor.
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