Books you're currently reading???

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by Cloud

and audio books may count for entertainment, or even education, but not as reading.

do you just mean in the technical sense, or are you saying that listening to a book is invalid for some other reason? cuz i've done a good bit of both, and i don't see much of a difference.

[Cloud]

oh, I don't mean that listening to a book is "invalid"--it's just not, technically, reading. I think the brain processes audio and visual input differently.

at least mine does--

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by Cloud

oh, I don't mean that listening to a book is "invalid"--it's just not, technically, reading. I think the brain processes audio and visual input differently.

at least mine does--

so, technically, yes listening to a book is not the same because the information arrives aurally instead of optically. ok. but the repeated comment that audio books don't count as reading is incorrect on any other level. When I listen to a book, I get at least as much information as I do when I read it visually. I still get the mental imagery that comes to me when I read. I hear all the words in the book. Your comment that the brain processes the info differently is based on what, exactly? If anything, I think listening to a book is better than reading it because your listening skills improve. In case you can't tell, I'm irked at your tone.

[Cloud]

maybe you have a right to be, I'm sorry. I just don't think it's the same.

Listening, to me, is much more passive. For example, if I, as a teacher, assigned my students to read a book, I don't think it would "count" if they listened to it, in the same way that reading Cliff Notes or something is not equivalent to reading the book itself.

I don't know--I'll have to think about it. I mean, it doesn't seem to count to me, but this is real life, not a test, and why should you care what I think anyway?

guess I'm just biased in favor of the printed word. I've tried audiobooks, but they seem slow and boring to me. But my commute is only 5 miles roundtrip!

(trying to dodge the irk)

[lumberjim]

ah, your mom doesn't count.

how about braille? does that count? If I listen to a book and you read it, do you understand it better than I? jibbahjabah!

[SteveDallas]

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

From penile implants to the role of the urethra in female orgasm, Roach covers the subject of physiological research on human sexual function through the ages (and today). It's interesting stuff, and she has a wicked sense of humor.

[Cicero]

Here:


Look it's even color-coated.
:p

[Crimson Ghost]

But does it come with pants?

[Buffalo Bill]

Tai-Pan, by James Clavell

[Cloud]

Originally Posted by Buffalo Bill

Tai-Pan, by James Clavell

One of my all-time favorites. Must have read that thing 20 times when I was growing up. "Noble House" isn't bad either, but Tai-Pan's a classic.

[wolf]

Feeding your Demons by some former female Buddhist monk, I mean to say, she's still female, but she gave up monking ... She probably grew up with some perfectly normal name, but now is called something like Tsultrim Allione (actually, she's called something exactly like that).

Not a bad book about facing your personal issues in a personified way and addressing them by "feeding" them in a spiritual sense to transform the energy. She also gives ways of using the techniques for group work.

[Sundae]

When faced with my demons
I clothe them and I feed them
And I smile, yes I smile
As they're taking me over

(Catatonia - Strange Glue)

I'm reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. Not because of the film - the trailers scared me because there were too many big lips, but because I read The Boleyn Inheritance (the sequel) a couple of months ago and it was a reasonably wholesome snack. Not a main course, and certainly not a baquet, but not something that rots your teeth or makes you fat either.

[busterb]

A Prisoner of Birth Jeffrey Archer
The Appeal John Grisham
Betrayal John Lescroart

[BethL]

Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile

It's a really good read (despite the poor proofreading job).

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Stasiland by Anna Funder

I actually read that one a while ago, but it is just extraordinary. If you were intrigued by the historical aspects of the film The Lives of Others, you will appreciate this book. It looks at the affects of the Stasi on a selection of former East Germans. It's engrossing and heartbreaking.

[lumberjim]

just finished Rise to Rebellion

From Publishers Weekly
Once more breathing vigor and passion into the dusty annals of our nation's history, the author of the bestselling Civil War trilogy (Gods and Generals; The Last Full Measure; Gone for Soldiers) demonstrates an ever-growing level of literary competence in the first installment of his projected two-volume saga of the American Revolution. Spanning the crucible years beginning with the Boston Massacre in March 1770 and continuing through the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July, 4, 1776, the story is told from the perspective of a handful of characters well known from our history books. In Boston, the Sons of Liberty activist Samuel Adams and his younger, more intellectual and oratorical second cousin, John Adams, speak out against King George III. In London there's aging Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin, who has resided for a number of years abroad, an agent for home colony Pennsylvania (and others). In New York, Gen. Thomas Gage is the ranking British officer on American soil. And heroic colonial planter George Washington has risen to full colonel in the Virginia militia fighting for George III during the French and Indian War. This masterful dramatization of the fateful escalation of the rebellion following the Boston Massacre moves from the battles of 1775 at Lexington, Concord, Fort Ticonderoga, Bunker Hill and the siege of Boston, through the convening in 1776 of the Continental Congress and the reading of the Declaration of Independence. Richly embroidered with portraits of such heroes as Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Paul Revere, John Hancock and Thomas Jefferson, the tapestry chronicles America's plunge toward liberty. (July; on-sale June 12)Forecast: Ballantine is bringing out the big guns for this one: major advertising, a Boston launch, a 13-city author tour and Fourth of July Gettysburg media appearances. Simultaneous BDD Audio. Expect patriotic sales.

now i'm reading

The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff

that (although it is a different author) picks up right where it left off.

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Many histories of the American Revolution are written as if on stained glass, with George Washington's forces of good battling King George III's redcoat devils. The actual events were, of course, far more complex than that, and Robert Middlekauff undertakes the difficult task of separating the real from the mythic with great success. From him we learn that England taxed the colonials so heavily in an attempt to retire the massive debt incurred in defending those very colonials against other powers, notably France; that the writing of the Constitution was delayed for two years while states argued among themselves in the face of massive military losses; and that demographic shifts during the Revolution did much to increase America's ethic diversity at an early and decisive time. Vividly told, this is a superb account of the nation's founding.