what books have you been reading?

<p>Aeneid - Virgil
Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
The Once and Future King - T.H. White</p>

<p>Survivor by Chuck Palahnuik
Jonathan Strange & M. Norrel - Susanna Clarke
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
Everything Bad is Good for You - Steven Johnson</p>

<p>I read Slaugherhouse V also, and it was one of my favorite books I've read. I just finished a philosophy/science book that came out earlier this year called I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hoffstradter which discusses the concept of "I" and self as an abstraction loop. VERY interesting read. I'm reading Lord of the Flies now, and I'm going to pick up Camus's The Stranger when I'm done. Then potentially some works by Feynmann.</p>

<p>Dorian: I also just finished 100 Years of Solitude and I adored it. I found it by chance on my parents' bookshelf (though neither of them read it) and decided to read it, even though I thought it was going to be boring, but it was wonderful!</p>

<p>Right now, I am reading:
A Short History of Nearly Everything--Bill Bryson (Almost done with--good, quick review of all the various sciences, enjoyable because it focuses more on the histories of all the people involved in science through the centuries, many of whom are...a bit nutty.)
Ahab's Wife--Sena Jeter Naslund (Also nearly done with. It's a novel about the wife of Captain Ahab, who was briefly mentioned in Moby Dick, which I have not read. It's so, so, so good though, I really recommend it.)
Lolita--Vladimir Nabokov (Only 15 pages into it, but I'm really enjoying it...the writing is beautiful, although very dirty and disturbing, if that makes any sense.)</p>

<p>A Short History of Nearly Everything is great. I read it as extra credit for my second semester physics class. Very entertaining read.</p>

<p>Aside from the usual battle accounts, summaries, stories, and historical fiction from WW2 or the American Civil War and Real Estate Investment books:</p>

<p>Origins of Terrorism - Walter Reich
Paradise Lost - John Milton
The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman
Ecce Homo - Friedrich Nietsche
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner</p>

<p>Perfidy--</p>

<p>The movie that's coming out is The Golden Compass.</p>

<p>katho, if you're just starting palahniuk i recommend fight club. even if you've seen the movie it's still really good, and the ending is different.</p>

<p>Yeah, my brother told me that it ends differently and that I'd probably like it way better than I even liked the movie (and I loved the movie). I also really liked the few passages in Rant that my brother had me read on a plane. Anyway, he's got most of his books, so I'll be quite occupied with them for a while :)</p>

<p>Katho- I also have an interest in WW2-Holocaust books. What have you read lately that's good?? Have you tried Those who Save Us by Jenna Blum?</p>

<p>Ooo, haven't seen/heard of that one, I'll have to check it out!</p>

<p>I'm currently finishing up The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by Robert Payne. It's really good...one of the few books I've come across that gives a more objective view of him and his life. This book has really given me a much better understanding of <em>why</em> he turned out like he did instead of just going on about how horrible what he did as and adult was. There were actually parts of this book that made me feel sorry for him...which I'd never felt before.</p>

<p>Before that I read A Mengele Experiment by Gene Church. Really great book...graphic, but it's written very well and gives a really interesting view into the life of one of the few survivors of his medical experiments. But like I said, it is pretty graphic...probably not for everyone.</p>

<p>Oh, and if you haven't read Holocaust Survivor by Mike Jacobs, I highly recommend that one as well. I got the chance to meet the author when I was in 8th grade and have an autographed copy of this book. He's one of the nicest and most interesting people I've ever met. And he's also an amazing story teller...yeah, I have a lot of respect for him. </p>

<p>Well, I hope at least one of those books is a new one for you and you enjoy it/them!</p>

<p>I'm currently in the process of reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. It's fantastic because it's really a pure escapist novel but is VERY long (I've been working on it for several months now and am usually a quck reader) and a bit slow at tiems.</p>

<p>Some of my favorite novels which I'd highly recommend are Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell), Brave New World (Huxley), All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque), Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky), Treasure Island (Stevenson), Jane Eyre (Bronte), and To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee).</p>

<p>i just got done with "the reluctant fundementalist"</p>

<p>currently reading "the god of small things"</p>

<p>soon enough ill get around to "a thousand splendid suns"</p>

<p>Katho- Thanks for the recommendations. I'll check them out.
I also read The Reluctant Fundamentalist and loved it.
Just finished A thousand Splendid Suns. Liked it even more than Kite Runner.</p>

<p>Katho- Another one that you might like is The Lost: A Search for 6 of the 6 Million by Daniel Mendelsohn. I saw the author speak about it last spring. I found it to be profoundly moving.</p>

<p>Everyone should read Slaughterhouse Five. It's amazing.</p>

<p>Chindia: How China and India are Revolutionizing Global Business</p>

<p>The Assault on Reason by Al Gore</p>

<p>THe Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri</p>

<p>The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer (required reading for the class of 2011 at Cornell)
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama</p>

<p>Just finished "Mexio and its War with the United States" [Henderson] and "The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1942" [Gonzalez]</p>

<p>Now reading "The Death of Artemio Cruz" [Fuentes]</p>

<p>Anyone read "Ode to Kirihito"?</p>