On the bookshelf

Currently reading:

The Universe in a Nutshell- Stephen Hawking
A Song of Ice and Fire- George R. R. Martin

Just finished:

Percy Jackson & the Olympians (the whole series) which was not surprisingly better than the movie.

Just finished the last of the Patrick O'brian books. Really the best historical fiction I've ever read.

Finished HP #7, I am now ready to watch part one of the last movie.

I am now in between books. I may read some non fiction that was recommended to me, I won't bore you with the details- let's just say it will make me more sane and leave it at that.

I am not too sure what I am in the mood for, fiction wise. I find if I just meander thru the library, I find fantastic books, serendipitously.

Try "The Man who was Thursday" by G K Chesterton.

Very very good. Can't wait to see how it ends. Reminds me a lot of Evelyn Waugh.

Chesterton has had a bad rap, IMHO.

=))) Bought a hardback new book from the library for 50p again. They raised the prices, last time I bought one for 10p Now it is more for hardbacks than softbacks. So cheap I get book spending happy but hope to be a bookworm again soon, miss reading because I want to So much relevant reading to do! Isn't too bad if I motivate myself to enjoy reading things other than I have to.

I sort of am getting used to somewhat even partly loving being in an area where most people aren't educated nor strive to be, it means I never go the local library anymore as it even has middle aged argumentative chavs and drunks. Usually books on sale are in pretty damn good condition, new and cheap as probably not many people read them. Last time I was sitting there in a suit waiting as I forgot my keys or something, was reading a book on Google Analytics and search algorithms.

Bought this, only 1 book and not a heap load to collect although it was tempting http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/sea-of-poppies-by-amitav-ghosh-828944.html Can't wait to actually read it amongst every other book Novels are usually around £5-10 hence the hyperness. Textbooks £40+ each, minimum slightly less than £30 heck if those were cheap and interesting it would be bliss as have only found one text book actually really fun to read

ZOMG it is a trilogy! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Poppies-Amitav-Ghosh/dp/071956896X

Chesterton's Ballad of Suicide is one of my fave poems ever. Yeah I like poetry

Loving this thread though, restoring my faith in ya all. I love reading popular science, Hawking, Brian Greene, Dawkins, Pinkerton et al. Also love, love, love philosophy texts, existentialism and lefty stuff mostly, but as for novels it depends on my mood what my top picks would be but here's a few from today's in the moment list:

Stanislav Lem - Solaris
Ian M Banks Sci Fi stuff, love it all, but Consider Phlebas or Player of Games are great books.

Jan Martell - Life of Pi - just breathtaking
James Kelman - Swing Hammer Swing, A Dissaffection - What Camus woulda wrote if he lived in a Glasgow "scheme"(project).

"Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure.", what Camus did write as just the best opening line of anything ever, anywhere Yeah I like "The Stranger" a lot, a lot.

New York Trilogy - Paul Auster

Jeb Rubenfeld - The Interpretation of Murder (Sigmund Freud and Karl Jung in New York wi murders going on, cracking stuff)

Oh!! I nearly forgot Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Oh man I love book chat so much

i feel bad as i hadn't read a book in ages like how i used to, procrastinated and used it as an escape mechanism. i swear not to read anything but textbooks and journals until i actually have time though, fun times, love books!

amazing author, i now plan to read EVERY salman rushdie book there is. such a sad book and it really made me think, amazing english too. it blends east and west history/ culture, going really deep into it, with an infusion of falling in love and breaking apart. could relate to it well! also i loved the fact it challenges norms, i hate watching shitty bollywood, it really pisses me off because the plots are so daft and lack any rational meaning!!! the women in this book kickass and break norms

anyone know any other political philosophy novels?

I started and finished The Hunger Games yesterday. I enjoyed it.

I got An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (who I hope to marry one day, dangit!) for Christmas. Perhaps I will start that one.

I did pick up the new Anne Rice novel at the library. I have never gotten into her stuff. This new one is about angels. I may give it a whirl and try it out. I confess that I am not really in the mood though.

I finished Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez last week. It was very good. Fans of Christopher Moore will enjoy the goofball sensibility.

Oh! I didn't see this thread before.

Last think i read was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It was really good.

JRR Tolkien is great. The Hobbit is the best, TLOTR are awsome. I have the Similarion and The Children of Hurin, but they have more family trees than stories and read more like the bible than a novel.

Jack Whyte is probably my favourite author. He writes historical fictions but with his own take on them. The Dream of Eagle series starts from the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain and goes up to the crowning of King Arthur. Its a really good read. There is also the templar trilogy about the knights templar, another awesome read.

Ive read a lot of David Baldacci lately, his work is pretty good.

Dan Brown is alright. The stories aren't the deepest, but the facts are interesting and they are defiantly turn pagers. You have to admit he knows how to write twists and cliff hangers.

Non-fiction I have been reading the works of Senator Romeo Dallaire. Shake hands with the devil is a first hand account on the genocide in rwanda, and is a really show's how the UN (despite having troops in Rwanada) just stood by and did nothing while 800 thousand Rwandans were murdered. His new book "They fight like soldiers; They die like children" is really sad, but moving. Its disgusting that people can do things like getting 10 year olds high on a mixture of cociane and gunpower and then sending them to battle. Or that they send the new kids ahead first with no training in case there are mines and to absorb most of the bullets. Then the ones who survive the first battle are the ones that they view as worth training.

Wuthering Hights

*high-fives devin*

Pride and Prejudice!

So yeah, my lazy arse got more crackin on the Bible. As Piro and I said, it's a crazy book.

I got up to this part in Genesis, cuz I'm slow. Anyway, this part where Jacob has a daughter and the clan leader's son in the region rapes her. And then they have the nerve to ask her hand in marriage. So Jacob agrees to it, on the condition that every man in their clan become circumcised and their entire clan become Jews. Because the clan is sooo loyal, they agree to it. Then after their circumcized and all the soldiers are immobilized, Jacob's sons destroy the place, kill the soldiers and loot the town of its wealth and women.

Vigilante justice or what? I hope someone does that for me, even if on a smallscale, if I ever get raped.

Speaking of the bible, any hear that they are redoing it? Apparently coming out with an "americanized" version that is a bit more politically correct o.O

Mikhaila wrote:

Speaking of the bible, any hear that they are redoing it? Apparently coming out with an "americanized" version that is a bit more politically correct o.O

there always trying to do that, the bible gives a warning about that in Revilations too.

Yeah. Had a convo with hubby about this. He says that it happened ages ago too, they tried to get someone to change the original translations so they "meshed" with what the "old church" wanted. TBH I had enough religion crammed down me from birth to adulthood that I am wary of any "church". I just believe that no one can really tell anyone if they are or are not going to go to "hell" and that the bible in general is written by "men" so thereby foul able. But just MO.

Mikhaila wrote:

Speaking of the bible, any hear that they are redoing it? Apparently coming out with an "americanized" version that is a bit more politically correct o.O

Something like,
“But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of russians.” (Reagan 1:33)

They do have a point though. I mean,

Quote :

Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their genitals as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions.

Ezekiel 23:19-20

Quote :

17: Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

Same guy, 16:17

Speaking of translating the bible, we could never know how correct jerome translated the old testament. Hebrew wasn't his native language, and even the Hebrew spoken in his time was a bit different from the old testament's hebrew.

Yeah and I never knew that Protestants and Catholics use a different bible translation. The Catholics wrote a bible called Douay-Rheims, made in Douay and Rheims, France, respectively, translated from the Latin Vulgate. Today most Catholics, at least in the U.S., use the easier to read New American Bible. The Protestants had a Coverdale bible, I believe and then the King James version, with it being translated from Hebrew and Greek.

So there will always be the argument as to which is the better version. The Catholics have the deuterocanonical/apocryphal texts, so I'll look into that one.


But for ease, this is a good version:
http://www.thebricktestament.com/
Warning, sometimes NSFW

lol the bible has been edited and reedited by so many people its crazy to think about, anyone who thinks the the bible that they are reading today came to them verbatim from ye old days needs to brush up on their history as well

I just piss off folks and tell them that the bible reminds of an hallucination trip.

Zakku wrote:

lol the bible has been edited and reedited by so many people its crazy to think about, anyone who thinks the the bible that they are reading today came to them verbatim from ye old days needs to brush up on their history as well

May I introduce you to the United States of America ?

Yeah, America is the onlyyy country that believes that. Okay.

Achilles wrote:

Zakku wrote:

lol the bible has been edited and reedited by so many people its crazy to think about, anyone who thinks the the bible that they are reading today came to them verbatim from ye old days needs to brush up on their history as well

May I introduce you to the United States of America ?

May I introduce you to the United States of My Ass?

why do we even have to bring this up here to many conflicts that can lead to in game issues.
ive studied biblical preservation for 4 years and always have a Hebrew and greek bible to look into so i know this stuff very well and have a very defrent opinion.
but really there are so many Atheist and Christians in this game it an't worth starting debates and arguments on this stuff here.

ohh i read the Scarlet Pimpernel

Just go finished this great book called 'Arabian Sands" by Wilfred Thesiger, its about this englishman who traveled around the Arabian peninsular between 1946-49 with various Bedouin tribes. If you can track down a copy do so since its worth it.