CONFESS!!! Last book you read and current book you're reading now

[LynneSin]

And I say confess so folks don't go around picking random books out of their ass just to hide the fact that the last book they read was "Best of Penthouse Forum"

Last book I read was "The Queen's Fool" by Philippa Gregory. It wasn't really that good. I actually picked it up at the airport in Dallas/Fort-Worth because I thought it looked like a decent historical fiction work during the Elizabethian era. Only reason I finished it was well, I was bored one day and I'm a fast reader.

I haven't picked my next book, but Bob Graham's book is sitting on my "To-Read" list.

[sniffa]

1. patriots: the men who started the american revoLution

by a.j. Langguth.

the book i'm reading now: same one.

i read books over and over untiL i find a new one to faLL in Love with. :D

[LynneSin]

7. I do the same exact thing with books

Which is why I hate loaning out some of my books because I love them so much I want to know they're nearby for when I want to read them again. My copy of "Memoirs of a Geisha" is so worn out I might have to get it replaced.

[Patiod]

88. I'm the opposite

Once they're read they either go back to the library or into whatever hands I can get them into.

I have one small bookshelf of books I actually want to keep and about 10 piles on the floor of stuff that's either waiting to be read or awaiting adoption

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

2. " The Merlin Trilogy " by Mary Stewart .

I am a sucker for Arthurian Legend ;)

[RubyDuby in GA]

3. Currently,

I'm in the middle of God's Politics by Jim Wallis and His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis (someone please tell me how this man won the Pulitzer for Founding Brothers, which I'm also halfway through).

Last book completely read was Jill Conner Browne's The Sweet Potato Queens' Field Guide to Men: Every Man I Love is Married, Gay or Dead.

p.s. I too read The Queen's Fool and it was no where near as good as The Other Boyeln Girl. Just my humble opinion...

[LynneSin]

4. I was looking at "The Other Boyelin Girl"

maybe I'll check that one out. I do like historical fiction and I have one about the wife of the last emporer of China, but I can't recall the name of it.

[RubyDuby in GA]

18. I like historical fiction too

I have a degree in History and it didn't offend my delicate sensibilities :)

I also always recommend a novel called Ride the Wind. It's about Cynthia Ann Parker who was taken as a child and raised as a Comanche. It will break your heart.

[Richardo]

5. Last one: 'Conspiracy of Fools' Now: 'Assassination Vacation'

Love them both....and highly recommend them. :thumbsup:

[notadmblnd]

6. last book, sorrows of the Empire by Chalmers Johnson

book currently re-reading. The Rise and Fall of the third Reich.

[Zan_of_Texas]

28. The Wimp Factor, by Stephen Ducat.

Excellent, multi-layered book about how the striving for "masculinity" (as currently defined, meaning to dominate living things or Nature) leads us to untenable positions, such as interminable war. Also, how political spinmeisters use the concept to promote or attack candidates.

Chalmers Johnson is an amazing scholar, by the way.

For fun, I love mysteries. I found a leatherbound book of Arthur Conan Doyle for 50 cents at a garage sale, and started reading his original work. I'm on a second volume now, Return of Sherlock Holmes.

I had read dozens of mysteries, if not a hundred, and had never read the original Sherlock stories, and they are really cool. Set around 1890, and I enjoy the details of the period -- no phones, no cars, but things happen very efficiently!

[notadmblnd]

35. The last book I read for fun was The Wish List

about an abused girl gone bad , she meets an untimely death and before she is cast into hell permanently has an opportunity to redeem herself by helping her victim accomplish his lifelong wishes. Very good story, I read it to my son.

[SnowGoose]

8. I'm a frequent book starter

but less frequent book finisher. So I'll fess up and say the last book I actually read all the way through was last year. Jeez.

Anyhow, it's The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan. I recommend it, FWIW. It asks the question: have humans been manipulating plants all these years, or have plants been manipulating humans, by giving them things they want? Four examples are explored in-depth - potatoes (sustenance), tulips (beauty), apples (sweetness), cannabis ("dude, what were we talkin about?").

There was a lot that I didn't know (for one example, did you know that when Johnny Appleseed was out planting orchards, it was for the purpose of making hard cider? At the time, apples weren't considered food, but rather a starting point for booze).

I just started "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving (the Cider House Rules guy). I started it because of that "what book are you" link someone put up a couple of weeks back.

'Goose

[Goathead]

9. The Secret Architecture of the Nation's Capital

It is really good.

[Richard Steele]

10. I just finished George McGovern's latest book.

"The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition"

I don't know what my next will be; probably something crappy and brain-rotting, no doubt.

[Heidi]

11. I just finished "War Against The Weak:

Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create A Master Race," by Edwin Black, and recommend it highly to anyone interested in a thoroughly-documented look at how eugenics had their seeds in the U.K. and flourished in the U.S. before spreading to Germany.

www.waragainsttheweak.com

Right now, I'm Jonathon Franzen's collection of essays, "How to Be Alone."

(Edited to add link)

[ralps]

12. The last book I read was "Rescued from Paradise" by Robert L. Forward

The book I'm reading now is this-

:hi: :loveya: :hug: :pals: :woohoo:

[MikeDuffy]

13. "Collapse" (Jared Diamond) and before that

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" (John Perkins)

[Patiod]

84. I've been talking up "Collapse"

now I have to actually read it (talking it up based on the Greenland chapter excerpted in The New Yorker)

[mark414]

14. aristotle's nicomachean ethics

hooray for philosophy class

as far as what i'm reading for fun?

THIS:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=314x74

[BurtWorm]

15. I'm currently reading Pol Pot by Philip Short

The Bog People by PV Glob, and Collapse by Jared Diamond. I can't remember the last book I finished. It was probably Don't Think of an Elephant by Lakoff.

[LynneSin]

19. I saw that book - is it good?

I love biographies of despotic dictators, especially those in Asia and Southeast. About a year ago I read a book from a woman who survived the Khmer Rouge during her teenage years. Heartbreaking but wonderful written story.

Here's the book if you're interested: First They Killed My Father : A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Paperback)

The woman is now a part of the anti-landmine campaign.

[BurtWorm]

24. It's excellent. It will definitely fix your jones for Asian dictator bios.

I'm also strangely drawn to such subjects. You might also be interested in The Private Life of Chairman Mao, by his personal physician, Dr. Li.

[LynneSin]

31. I have a weird obsession for dictators and junkies

It's a self-esteem thing - makes me realize my life isn't that fucked up but I better work at it or I could end up like that!

[CornField]

16. I'm still muddling through "God's Politics" -- but I finished two fiction

books recently - "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (which is a really easy and really good read) and "The Search" by Iris Johansen. This is part of the Eve Duncan series which I normally like. Unfortunately, I wasn't overly impressed with this particular one.

Now I've got "Twisted" by Jonathan Kellerman going in tandem with the Wallis non-fiction book. Guess who's winning my attention? LOL!

[progmom]

17. last book finished: Peace LIke A River

current book: On The Road

on deck: Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind
... and Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

[Richardo]

21. I want to read 'On the Road' sometime...

...it'll have to wait until after 'Freakonomics' :)

[RobinA]

89. I Finally Read

"On the Road." I put it into the "Ya had to be there" category. I was underwhelmed.

[RevolutionaryActs]

20. Last book I read was "The Metamorphosis." - Kafka.

Book I'm reading now is "The Chronicles of Narnia." - Lewis.

Next book will probably be "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." - Suzanna Clarke.

[XNASA]

22. I'm reading "Tropic of Capricorn" by Henry Miller....

..and before that I read "Girlfriend In a Coma" by Douglas Coupland.

I read "Tropic of Cancer" before that and to tell the truth, I can't get enough Henry Miller these days.

[Abelman]

23. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Currently: Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut

Before this:
On the Road
Catch 22
Martian Chronicles

[WilliamPitt]

25. Three books

Heretics of Dune for bedtime reading.

George Washington, A Life at the bar.

The Longest Day in my pocket for whenever I need to pass the time.

Yes, I'm a dork.

[Heidi]

30. How do those selections make you a dork?

I don't get it.

[WilliamPitt]

32. Dune, a biography and WWII non-fiction?

D-O-R-K.

:)

[Heidi]

72. Nah.

But the fact that you spelled out "D-O-R-K" reminded me of a funny story. (Back when I was an editor, I turned around and asked one of the reporters, "Hey, how do you spell 'accordianist'?" To which he replied, "L-O-O-Z-A-H. Loozah."

[WilliamPitt]

26. bug dupe

[funkybutt]

27. What's the Matter with Kansas

just finished The Best Aweful by Carrie Fisher

[Parrcrow]

29. Currently reading Egotists and Autocrats by George Bowering

previous book read was High Spirits by Robertson Davies.

[flamingyouth]

33. Just finished "An Embarrassment of Mangoes" by Ann Vanderhoof

(Late last night...) Haven't decided on the next one yet. Probably another travel book.

[Lavender Brown]

85. I enjoyed that one

I want to try the recipes in it someday.

[cedahlia]

34. Last: "Finding Miracles", Current: "The Good Earth"

Finding Miracles is an excellent young adult novel by Julia Alvareza (yeah, I read kids' books...I'm a library assistant in the children's deparment!) :-)

I'm actually *listening* to The Good Earth on CD during my drives to work. It is excellent as well.

[Kenneth ken]

36. last book

Night Over Water by Ken Follett. I thought it was very good. Several plot lines that weave together, and lots of twists and turns.

Currently: Democracy matters, by Cornell West. I'm having a little trouble getting started; I've been on the first chapter for over a week.
I do like his essays though so I'll eventually get plugged into this.

[Worst Username Ever]

37. Just finished "State of Fear," just started "Hyperion."

[Phentex]

38. Last: Angels & Demons. Current: One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Still have 200 pages to go!

[stanwyck]

57. you read Angels & Demons just in time

for the current situation at the Vatican. Very timely. Good planning on your part.

[Democrats_win]

66. It'll be good timing for another week or so.

[Phentex]

86. It was quite freakish...

I saw the crowds there and my mind did wander a little bit about the possibilities.

[LostinVA]

39. Just read, "History on Trial." Am reading

"Idiot's Complete Guide to Celtic Wisdom"

[Left Is Write]

40. Last book read: On The Street Where You Live by Mary Higgins Clark.

Current book reading: Nighttime Is My Time by Mary Higgins Clark.

[huskerlaw]

41. Currently: The Prince by Machiavelli

Gotta keep one step ahead of Rove, ya know.

Previously: The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland

[Bzzzz]

42. Chronicles and...

Street Lawyer, by John Grisham

[Bullwinkle925]

43. Last: "A Wrinkle in Time" Currently: "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"

[Bonhomme Richard]

44. Here's mine

Last book - John Adams
Currently reading - Under The Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Mormons are a strange bunch.

[Ramsey]

45. The Dream of Scipio, by Ian Pears

Is my current book. Almost done with it.

It's a cool book. It follows the life of three men who lived in the same town in France, one at the end of the Roman Empire, one during the Great Plague, and one during WWII. The Roman characters wrote a philosophical treatise that inspires the second man to become a poet and the third man to a life of academics. It describes how philosophy shape's each man's response to the horrors in the world around him.

Last book I read was Memoirs of Cleopatra.

[Mrs. Venation]

46. Last: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

The book was fascinating. I highly recommend it.

Current: Loose Lips, by Rita Mae Brown. More adventures of the Hunsenmeir sisters, Juts and Louise!

[bertha katzenengel]

81. TOOT! TOOT! *BANG* TOOT! TOOT! *BANG*

:rofl:

[yellowdogintexas]

47. "Stalker" by Faye Kellerman and "Native Tongue" by Carl Hiaasen

were the last two I read; currently reading "Exile", can't think of the author's name but it is REALLY GOOD

[two gun sid]

48. Last book: The History of the IRA

Book I'm reading: The People's History of the United States.

[Reverend_Smitty]

49. Nothing Sacred by Lewis Black

is the book I'm currently reading and it is damn funny. I bought it on Saturday and have about 40 pages to go.

The last book I read was What's The Matter With Kansas. I would definitely recommend it

[YellowRubberDuckie]

50. We keep reading the Harry Potter Series over and over...

I'm rereading Order of the Pheonix right now. It's a sickness.
Duckie

[mpendragon]

51. last: Catch 22 current: A Wrinkle in Time

I read "A Wrinkle in Time" when I was a kid but I didn't really understand it so I thought I'd take another pass at it.

Before that I read "Choke" by the guy that wrote "Fight Club".

[Squeech]

52. Two at a time

The bedtime book is called something like An Economic Analysis of the Constitution. It's an attempt to demonstrate that the founding fathers had their own economic interests in creating a strong central government with tax and tariff powers-- many had war bonds that the Confederacy couldn't repay, some had businesses that weren't competitive enough with Europeans and wanted protection against imports, etc. The premise is pretty solid, but the book was written almost a century ago, and not only is the rhetoric tedious, but the author keeps having to reassure us that he's not a Marxist or similar bomb-throwing radical. So a couple pages of it will usually have me snoring.

The one I'm reading to actually get information out of is a history of Africa from 1800 on. I regret to say (because I would prefer to support anybody Chimpy has a problem with) that France comes out the bad guy in what I've read so far, even surpassing England's prodigious talent for trusting in rogues and denigrating sincerity. But I'm not out of the 19th century yet, nor have I gotten to Leopold's rapine of the Congo.

Actually there's an old sci-fi anthology too, Wandering Stars, of Jewish SF writers from the "golden age." Okay, that's three books. Fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and fanatical devotion to the... okay, I'll start again...

[sakabatou]

53. Catcher in the Rye

Now: Of Mice and Men

[tavalon]

54. Last book and yet, ongoing

Gardening West of the Cascades. My next book is in the mail from Buzzflash. It's title is After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism) by Emmanuel Todd, with a foreword by Michael Lind. Not likely to be light reading but I get much of my reading list from Buzzflash's current available books. I buy those books from Buzzflash at a premium because it's my way of supporting them.

I'm hoping that Will's next book is picked up by them, though if Truthout sells it directly, I will buy it there for the same reason I buy from Buzzflash.

[juslikagrzly]

55. Serious book - Trash Novel - Serious Book - Trash Novel

That's my sequence, otherwise I'd be too depressed :(

Sy Hersh - Chain of Command

Sue Grafton - R is for Ricochet

[stanwyck]

56. The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini is my current book. Book before that...The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. (I'm in a book club...for 21 years. Long before Oprah!).
The Kite Runner is amazing. Can't wait to get home to read.

[izzybeans]

58. sorry grad student here.

Simon Critchley's On Humor and now Malcolm Ashmore's The Reflexive Thesis

I must be feeling a bit British lately.

I'm still recovering from the Critchley. It was fascinating.

the Ashmore, well if you like the social studies of scientific knowledge it gets little better-from the writing to the "thesis".

[donheld]

59. Current book - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins

Last book - Catcher In The Rye - J. D. Salinger.

[HamstersFromHell]

60. Last Book: "Towing Jehovah"

Current Book: "The Mote In God's Eye" (for like the 10th time)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

61. Just finished Tony Hillerman's Skeleton Man

and am currently reading a recent Japanese mystery that I'm thinking of translating.

[Patiod]

87. "Skeleton Man" is my current read

and just finished a book about forensic nursing (interesting, but appallingly bad writing), "1000 Days in Tuscany" and (edit) a book by a former FBI who says that thanks to J. Edgar, the bureau is a totally screwed-up sexist mess.

Every pile of nonfiction needs one mystery to lighten it up.

[shesemsmom]

62. I have jumped around in the Cornwell stuff and am reading the middle

of her books. I just read * the Body Farm and I and now reading *from Potters field8 After I read * Unnatural Exposure* and * Cause of Death* I will be caught up and will read *** and Jack the Ripper: Case Closed*. Her books are fascinating

[smoogatz]

63. Last book: "Civil War Land in Bad Decline"

stories by George Saunders. Brilliant, dark, funny stuff. Currently working on a collection of short stories by Chekhov, edited by Richard Ford. Just gorgeous--genius doesn't do them justice.

[JVS]

64. "The Small Catechism" by Dr. Martin Luther

I read it this afternoon. I'll be reading it again. I am trying to memorize it.

[Democrats_win]

65. Are you doing it for school?

[JVS]

67. No

[derby378]

68. Re-reading RED DRAGON

Picking up little nuances that I missed last time I read it, several years ago.

[tammywammy]

76. ohhhh, I love that book

I've read it a bazillion times I think. I still jump at the end. Oooooh, so creepy and scary, yet I can't help myself.

[Democrats_win]

69. Now: "The Page Turner" Then: "Star Wars 3"

The Page Turner is about someone who turns pages for a concert pianist. Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith is about the evil bush administration.

[bloom]

70. Just finished -> Ulysses

Appropriate for bloom - don't ya' think? :)


Last year with the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday on June 16th - I thought I really need to read that.

My next book to finish will be The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler.


I intend to get "Confessions of an Economic Hitman".

[deutsey]

93. I read Ulysses for the first time last year

Great book.

[tammywammy]

71. Last book: Hitler's Hitmen -- by Guido Knopp

Current books:
The Corporation : The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power -- by Joel Bakan, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- by Dave Eggers and In God We Trust : All Others Pay Cash -- by Jean Shepherd

This is my leisure reading (done mostly while at work when not on DU) the rest of the time it's all school reading.

[jonnyblitz]

73. Everything Is Illuminated byJonathan Safran Foer

currently reading "the folding star" by alan hollinghurst. light stuff

[R. A. Fuqua]

74. hmmmm.....a lot of intellectuals here!

My tastes are more practical. I just finished a book on how to improve my ski technique.

I have two more books that are on my list--1) on stretching techniques to reduce injuriy risk for athletes and 2) one on mental preparation for athletics.

What can I say? I am a jock and an athlete--but at least I do read! Not much though, I typically work out for 3 hours a day.

I am not stupid, I have an engineering degree from a prestigious university and a good job. I like being healthy and fit--and I have found that the ladies appreciate the fact that my body is solid, rock-hard muscle.

[Mojambo]

75. Last was Jennifer Government by Max Barry

I just started Explorers of the Amazon by Anthony Smith.

[Elidor]

77. Ultimate Journey by Robert Monroe, followed by

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, by Carlos Castenada.

Good stuff.

[bobthedrummer]

78. Finished "Spy Handler" by Cherkashin-the KGB agent that ran both

Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, btw he got a shot in at Bush and the Iraq war selective intelligence use.

I'm starting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Crimes Against Nature".

[barb162]

79. the Bob Woodward book on the Iraq War; and I can't

remember the name of the book even though it was excellent

[lumpy]

80. Green Mansions

by Wm.Henry Hudson. After many many years reread this book written sometime in the 1800s. Rather a fantasy story set in S. America forest. Struck me how un-pc the writer was in describing the native population as savage.

[Taxloss]

82. Last book finished: "Lights out for the Territory"

by Iain Sinclair.

Book at present: "Stuart: A life backwards" by Alexander Masters.

ON EDIT: I tell a lie, I have read both "Screen Burn" by Charlie Brooker and "Imaginary Friends" by Craig Brown since the Sinclair book.

[Mutley]

83. the last book i read for fun

was 'The DaVinci Code' by Dan Brown

I am currently reading 'Paradise Lost' by Milton for an english class.

[Balbus]

90. The last book I read was "The October Horse"

The current book I'm reading is "The Jesus Incident"

[deutsey]

91. They Marched into Sunlight

About a massacre of US troops in Vietnam and the increasingly tumultuous anti-war movement in the US. I HIGHLY recommend this excellent book.

Currently re-reading Twain's "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" for a presentation I'm giving next month.

[RobinA]

92. Just Finished

A Bright, Shining Lie. Currently alternating between Meditations on Green and A Long Day's Journey into Night. I'm kind of in a Vietnam phase, and NIght is a detour before I return to that.

[deutsey]

94. See my post above yours (#91)

"They Marched into Sunlight" is a great book on Vietnam.

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

95. class and fun

Just finished for classes:
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (CONFUSING as all hell)
Emma by Jane Austen
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (that's my 'writing for kids' class)

Just finished for fun:
... um... ?? see above, who has time?

Currently reading for classes:
Holes by Louis Sachar (the 'writing for kids' again)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (so far, much better than Emma)
Survivor by Chuck Palahoozywhatsits...the guy who wrote Fight Club.

Currently reading for fun:
The seventh book in the Lemony Snicket series. What can I say, I started it on a break at work (I work at the campus bookstore) 'cause I hadn't brought my homework books with me.

[qnr]

96. OK,

Last: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay, LL. D. Quite the oldie.

Current: Applying Modula-2 by Chris Johnston. Quite the oldie, in a different sense.

Edit: s/Jonston/Johnston/

[graywarrior]

97. Way of the Warrior by Dan Millman-last book

Current: Magic of Believing

[BlueIris]

98. Last: Haunting of Hill House; Now: House of Leaves--scarier than

the Bush administration. Seriously.

[freebird1]

99. A Salty Piece of Land ~ Jimmy Buffett

next up ~ Snake Bites

[Lilith Velkor]

100. Last: Song of Susannah, Now: The Guns of Avalon

by Stephen King and Roger Zelazny respectively. Next will be A Scanner Darkly by PK Dick.