what are you reading?

[BrewCrewForever]

I'm about half way through "Killing Yourself To Live: 85% Of A True Story" by Chuck Klosterman. Awesome book. Love Klosterman's views on pop culture, music and the little things in life.

[theavrock]

Just thought I would bump this thread. Starting at the end of summer I have been trying to turn the TV and computer off and get back to reading books. Just curious what everyone has going on out in Brewerfan land.

Recently I have read The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Always a big fan of the movies, but never had read the books.

Also read Thomas Friedman's Hot Flat and Crowded.

Currently reading The Hobbit and after that will start on What We Leave Behind or On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

[I Heart Brewers]

I just finished Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. It won the Booker Prize a few years back and I had planned on reading it for a while. Quick read, under 200 pages. It's about two men who dated the same woman years back and the story begins after she has recently died. They eventually become mortal enemies and the fun ensues. I enjoyed the prose and themes of the story.

 

I am currently reading The Big Short by Michael Lewis. I'm all about educating myself over the recent financial collapse and this book is another entry to it. It's been out for a bit but I just got around to it. It's typically Lewis style writing. I like it so far because along with the mechanics of the mortgage backed securities collapse he also adds a human element by focusing on the main characters stories and backgrounds.

[owbc]

I enjoyed Freedom by Jonathan Franzen although it certainly isn't without its flaws. It had plenty of parts that were not believable, but it's still a worthwhile commentary on modern American life.

 

I've also been going through some weather disaster books: I just finished Isaac's Storm about the 1900 Galveston Hurricane and I am looking forward to starting The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough.

 

I haven't gotten to anything on the Financial Crisis yet--I wanted to read All the Devils are Here but I'm waiting for the price to go down.

 

theavrock--did you like Hot Flat and Crowded?

[Patrick425]

Sorry, this is not about books - I heart the Brewers, that's a great brewerfan name. I wish I would have used it, but it would be much better if heart was spelled "Hart".

[I Heart Brewers]

If I had a quicker wit that would have been it as well. Funny, would have made sense as the only Brewers jersey I own is Hart's.

[theavrock]

obsessedwithbrewcrew wrote:

 

theavrock--did you like Hot Flat and Crowded?

I did quite a bit. I've read also read From Beirut to Jerusalem, so I like his style. Its a book about environmental issues that does a great job of explaining not only what the issues are, but why you should care. Finally he breaks down additional steps of action. This IMO is what differentiates good books on environmental issues from the junk. Instead of simply complaining or pointing out flaws there are things to be done and ways to overcome these "issues." Additionally it is done so without being overly political or preachy.

[Patrick425]

I really envy you readers.

 

Some of the books mentioned in this thread I have purchased, read 40-50% of it, and then never finished ("The Big Short", "From Beirut to Jerusalem" - I have actually read the first 100 pages or so of "The Big Short" twice.). This is not because I didn't think they were good books, it's because I have a hard time focusing when reading. Usually I'll buy a book before I go on vacation to read on the plane or by the pool, then once I get back from vacation, I never pick it up again.

 

A lot of people I know seem to be able to pound out a 300-400 page book in less than a week, no problem (my wife is one of those people). I'm lucky if I can read 20 pages a night. I just get too distracted and can't focus...or I find myself falling asleep. I'm not necessarily distracted by noise or other things going on around me, but also by other thoughts that are coming and going in my head while I'm reading that have nothing to do with what I'm reading. I just have a hard time losing myself in a book, no matter how good it might be. I'm one of those readers that finds my self reading the same sentence or paragraph 2 or 3 times because I wasn't really focused the first one or two times I read it. If I had better reading skills I would read all the time. I have always wondered if any of those "speed reading" courses really worked.

 

I think the last book I read cover to cover was "Into Thin Air".

[GAME05]

i'm at least a slow reader, too. all those years as an editor/proofreader and i've learned to read very carefully as if i'm checking for errors (which i regularly find).

 

i just finished "The Year of Living Biblically" by AJ Jacobs. this was where he lived by Old Testament rules for a year (which included things like never combining fabrics). after enjoying the interviews he gave, the book was only ok--like a really good episode of a bad tv show. it's not really a theological book, though.

 

finished another one recently that i really enjoyed: "Wind, Sand and Stars" by Antoine Exupery. a true-adventure book, he chronicles his time piloting his single-engine mail plane in the 1940s over mountain and desert (he seems to think crash landing is almost funny). the author is very prosaic without seeming so forced, so his writing was very beautiful and enjoyable to read.

[theavrock]

I really envy you readers.

A lot of people I know seem to be able to pound out a 300-400 page book in less than a week, no problem (my wife is one of those people). I'm lucky if I can read 20 pages a night. I just get too distracted and can't focus...or I find myself falling asleep. I think the last book I read cover to cover was "Into Thin Air".

I know how you feel. I am the same way. I love reading but I get so distracted these days. I swear its because of how much time I spend on the internet. One of the things that I did was just carve out time every night or morning. Even if it was a half hour here and there I did it every day and have gotten much better at it.

Its so silly that I have to say I am getting better at reading. As a kid I would read a book every week it felt like. Not sure what happened, but I really do enjoy getting back into the habit.

And Into Thin Air was awesome. Love Krakauer's stuff.

 

[Brewtacular]

I just finished The Secret History of the Mongol Queen's. It is Jack Weatherford's wonderful follow up to Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World.

[flosses like fossas]

good looking out on bumping this thread, tom. if i had my (dorky) way, it'd be as busy as the beer thread.

i'm currently reading two books, a trend that i have occasionally picked up over the past year or so. i'm almost finished with yukio mishima's the temple of the golden pavilion and i'm not too far into fitzgerald's this side of paradise, two very different titles. this is my first mishima, i'd been being stingy because it's hard to find used copies of his stuff, especially living in a non-english speaking country. the book is good, a classically japanese examination of a fixated psyche, but something of a snowball of morose ideas. this side of paradise is a breeze to read and it's been ages since i've read some musty old american aristocracy. other recent reads: netherland by joseph o'neill, the shadow of the sun by ryszard kapuscinski and invisible cities by italo calvino.

i'm sure i've whored this before, but i'm on goodreads. at worst it's a good resource for finding new material and remembering what you've read, at best it's a great forum for discussing books. anybody else?

[Brewtacular]

Flosses,

I'd be interested to hear your take on the golden pavilion once you finish. I've read about the book a few times and its general theme, and seen the pavilion, but never gotten around to reading it.

To the list in general

I've read a number of Haruki Murakami books lately. I don't read fiction but I do read him. He's good.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicles

Kafka on the Shore

After Dark

Norwegian Wood

What I talk About When I Talk About Running

[gypcasino]

I'm currently reading dozens of e-mails from the Yuku team, each one that says "Hi gypcasino, A new reply has been posted in 'what are you reading?' on 'Brewerfan.net Fan Forum'." Fascinating stuff.

[flosses like fossas]

Flosses,

I'd be interested to hear your take on the golden pavilion once you finish. I've read about the book a few times and its general theme, and seen the pavilion, but never gotten around to reading it.

To the list in general

I've read a number of Haruki Murakami books lately. I don't read fiction but I do read him. He's good.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicles

Kafka on the Shore

After Dark

Norwegian Wood

What I talk About When I Talk About Running

2 points here.

1) as i think i mentioned, the pavilion is a downhill run of morose psychology. but it's good. mishima keeps it mostly believable and certainly does well to ponder various angles of the human condition. stylistically and tonally, it is very classically japanese. if you like murakami, you ought to give mishima a shot.

2A) i'm also a murakami fan. has the japanese version of norwegian wood hit theaters in america yet? it's here (i live in taipei), but there seem to be no english subtitles anywhere. really frustrating, been waiting for this movie since last year, enduring the delayed release dates. i'll probably have to download it later.

2B) did you know that murakami has a new novel? again, it's been translated into chinese, but it isn't yet available in english. the title is 1Q84 and apparently it's the first of a trilogy. murakami is big all around the region, and the book seems to be making a splash here. english version due in september 2011.

[Brewtacular]

Flosses,

Murakami does rock. I don't think Norwegian Wood is out in the US but I haven't heard good things from Japan thus far. I'll still give it a whirl sometime though. I'm looking forward to his new book also. Although, the Japanese have this weird way of taking novels and breaking them up into multiple books. (They do this with many Western novels) I'm gonna have to get some info from you since I'm gonna be passin through Taipei for a few days this spring.

[mothershipconnection]

Do either of you read Japanese? The wife has been unsuccessful in finding either Japanese ebooks or a good source of Japanese books in America. She has to rely on packing the suitcase when either we go there or her mother comes here.

[flosses like fossas]

Do either of you read Japanese? The wife has been unsuccessful in finding either Japanese ebooks or a good source of Japanese books in America. She has to rely on packing the suitcase when either we go there or her mother comes here.

i don't. i'm studying chinese, but i don't know any japanese. i'm sure there must be japanese sources for ebook downloads, each country in the region out here seems to be pretty self-sustaining in terms of making literature available in the local language, including amazon and a number of asian companies offer book deliveries. i'll poke around and see if i can turn anything up.

brewtacular - happy to offer info on taipei.

[patrickgpe]

right now i'm reading fargo rock city by chuck klosterman, i really like his stuff.

[BrewCrewForever]

I got these two books for Christmas.

 

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Started reading "Are We Winning?" first, good so far. Always been a fan of Will Leitch. After I finish that I am going to tackle "Baseball Between The Numbers". Heard great things about it.

[drezdn]

I just finished reading Mary Roach's "Packing for Mars" and am moving onto her book "Spook," because I've liked everything I've read by her so far.

[flosses like fossas]

tomorrow i'm going to start amulet by roberto bolano. anyone else a bolano fan? read anything besides 2666 and savage detectives? this is my first foray into his slightly less heralded stuff.

[Brewtacular]

I just read When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip. Interesting memoir about growing up in Vietnam during the American War. Reminded me of a very solid book called First They Killed My Father about a girl growing up in Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge.

[brewers4eric]

Add me to the growing crowd that was unable to put down "Flags of Our Fathers". I also finished "Flyboys" during a weekend camping trip this summer. I've got a growing collection of WWII genre literature, "Helmet for My Pillow" was my last read, shortly after I received "The Pacific" dvd collection for Christmas. I'll be looking for "With the Old Breed on Pelielu and Saipan" the next time that I am in Barnes & Noble.

 

I was also very lucky, as my uncle provided me with a copy of his wartime memoirs from the pacific theatre, having served in Hawaii, Saipan, and Okinawa. The experiences that he passed along are quite a bit tamer than what Robert Leicke recorded in "Helmet for My Pillow", but were no less moving. Its a family connection with history that I will some day pass along to my own kids.

[gypcasino]

right now i'm reading fargo rock city by chuck klosterman, i really like his stuff.

Did you read his fiction book "Downtown Owl"? Excellent book.