What are we reading today?

[MurphCID]

I just finished (for the second time) the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, and now I am reading The Forever Engine by Frank Chadwick on Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Engine-F ... 807&sr=8-1

[Lady Fitzgerald]

At this moment, I'm reading this thread.

Smart sagacious donkey comment aside, I'm about to wrap up Charts and Charms (I had one more chapter when I passed out last night).

The next book in my enormous queue of books to read is Three's A Clowder (Crazy Cat Lady Chronicles Book 3). Despite the title of the series, it's in a dystopian setting here in the SSA where society has collapsed and is slowly rebuilding after a pandemic decimated the population.

[Portreve]

Well, nothing today because I've been really busy (this whole weekend has been a blur of sadness (my cat dying) and happiness (going to a Joe Bonamassa concert in Fort Myers) and carpet cleaning and working on Christmas decorating) but the book in currently listening to is Noam Chomsky's The Culture of Terrorism (ca. 1989).

This past year, I've listened to a bunch of books, several of which are from Prof. Chomsky, but also Aja Raden's The Truth About Lies, Mark Manson's The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck, and several of Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes of Amber series.

[Pjotr]

Death in the Afternoon (Hemingway). A great book by a great writer, about bullfighting in Spain.

[AdamFirst]

The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones.

This is a painful question for me. Once upon a time, I was constantly reading books. These days, I'm reading the web, and something has gone wrong with my ability/willingness to read books.

Thankfully, there are some exceptions.

[t42]

Balthazar - the book 2 of The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

[Portreve]

These days, I'm reading the web, and something has gone wrong with my ability/willingness to read books.

I have been struggling with exactly the same thing. Something has happened to my capacity to have a long attention span for book reading and several other specific things, but not for other stuff. I'm at a loss to try and understand it, much less explain it.

Because I often am on the road for between 1 - 2.5 hours for my job, I've found audio books to be an absolute godsend. In terms of long-length books, I've consumed more this past year than I ever have in my life, even back when sitting down and reading a book for hours on end wasn't a problem.

[AdamFirst]

Thank you, Portreve. You reminded me that audiobooks are an option. My brother is a big fan of them when doing largely mindless tasks, and has sung their praises to me.

I hope you have an enjoyable Christmas season. Try to stay alert on the road!

[MurphCID]

I tend these days to download books on the kindle app, or iBooks. I find that I do most of my reading on my iPad mini. It’s been a while since I bought a paper book.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I tend these days to download books on the kindle app, or iBooks. I find that I do most of my reading on my iPad mini. It’s been a while since I bought a paper book.

I haven't bought a dead tree (paper) book in over a decade. Since Amazon, in their infinite wisdom (/sarcasm), does not make an app for Linux, bless their hearts (you Southerners will know what I mean), I mostly read from the Kindle Cloud Reader off my TV screen (I do download the books to my computer for sideloading onto my Kindle and as a backup). When away from the house, during a power outage, or reading a non-Amazon book, I use my Kindle.

[t42]

I've listened to a bunch of books

Can we still use "reading" exclusively nowadays? I've listened to over seventy audiobooks so far starting from the summer of 2020, mainly on everyday short trips. There are so many excellent narrators that I'm often picking the book based on the artist not on the author.

[MurphCID]

I've listened to a bunch of books

Can we still use "reading" exclusively nowadays? I've listened to over seventy audiobooks so far starting from the summer of 2020, mainly on everyday short trips. There are so many excellent narrators that I'm often picking the book based on the artist not on the author.

I think either works. I still read, but mostly on the iPad, even though I have close to 500 books at the house. Most have not made it to Kindle, or I would have transitioned 100% of my library. It is hard to get H. Beam Piper, Jerry Pournelle, so many of my history books, etc on Kindle.

[slipstick]

Just finished:
"Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide" by Miranda Devine
"Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections" by Mollie Hemingway

Currently reading: "Leviathan Falls (The Expanse Book 9)" by James S.A. Corey

[Boccerini]

I am currently about half way through Don Quixote.

After finishing it, I´ll go back and read some more Charles Dickens. I have read, and loved, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield.

[MurphCID]

Finished, and now I am reading Rising Sun by John Toland (2 volumes), WWII from the Japanese view.

[Pjotr]

now I am reading Rising Sun by John Toland (2 volumes), WWII from the Japanese view.

Interesting. Clint Eastwood has made a good movie about that view as well: Letters from Iwo Jima.

Of course the Japanese policy was sheer primitive power politics: grab all the territory that you can get and don't bother about niceties like the rules of war in the Geneva Convention. Apply indiscriminate killing if there's even a small net benefit to that.

I knew several people from the Dutch East Indies (occupied by Japan in WW 2, now known as Indonesia) who suffered from this first hand. Stories of shockingly brutal and inhuman atrocities. Even many decades after the war, those people still refused to buy any Japanese products, even if the alternatives were much more expensive....

But that doesn't change the fact that there were many Japanese grunts involved, that simply had to obey orders they themselves didn't like. Furthermore, I can't help but admire the courage and the will to fight of the average Japanese soldier. They had a fine army.

How do you like that book you're reading?

[MurphCID]

now I am reading Rising Sun by John Toland (2 volumes), WWII from the Japanese view.

Interesting. Clint Eastwood has made a good movie about that view as well: Letters from Iwo Jima.

Of course the Japanese policy was sheer primitive power politics: grab all the territory that you can get and don't bother about niceties like the rules of war in the Geneva Convention. Apply indiscriminate killing if there's even a small net benefit to that.

I knew several people from the Dutch East Indies (occupied by Japan in WW 2, now known as Indonesia) who suffered from this first hand. Stories of shockingly brutal and inhuman atrocities. Even many decades after the war, those people still refused to buy any Japanese products, even if the alternatives were much more expensive....

But that doesn't change the fact that there were many Japanese grunts involved, that simply had to obey orders they themselves didn't like. Furthermore, I can't help but admire the courage and the will to fight of the average Japanese soldier. They had a fine army.

How do you like that book you're reading?

Just got started, but it starts of with the 1936 Coup by highly militarized Imperial officers. Toland is a fine writer, and he along with Cornelius Ryan have some excellent books. There are several other books I have read about the end of WWII and Japan which are quite nice reads, that have a great deal of detail, such as Embracing Defeat by John Dower, Hell to Pay by D. M. Giangreco, and Retribution by Max Hastings. Additionally for those interested in the Naval aspect, I recommend all the books by the late James Hornfischer (Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, Neptune's Inferno, and The Fleet at Flood Tide)

[kenetics]

Recursion by Blake Crouch. Pretty good but not as mind-blowing as his Dark Matter.

I used to listen to audio books on my daily commute to Tampa, before I retired. I listened to all the Aubrey-Maturin sea stories by Patrick O'Brian. Nowadays audio books put me right to sleep!

[MurphCID]

Still slogging through Rising Sun by Toland. A good read, but somewhat dated in some areas with new research on Pearl Harbor, Midway, and the Pacific Island Campaigns. A bit too glowing towards "dougout Doug McArthur" who probably should have been shot for stupidity.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Valpolicella Violet: A Private Investigator Comedy Mystery (Franki Amato Mysteries Book 7)