What are you reading right now?

[beerbecue]

The Creation - E.O. Wilson
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Parasite Rex - Carl Zimmer

[mkmound]

The last few days I've been reading a book which I had known about since college days, but never gotten around to buying . . . The Humanities in Retrospect, by Bill Francis. Bill, who was a university-level art educator, takes 50-year slices from 1100 AD to 1950, and lists artists, scientists and inventors and inventions, historical and political events, musicians, etc. from eight Western European countries in which he had traveled -- England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and one other which escapes me right now. It gives a very quick reference of which major figures were contemporaries of each other, and probably influenced by the ideas of the others.

I was inspired by a tour guide on a recent trip to Italy which I was privileged to take. The guide gave a lot of political, historical, and cultural background and context to the objects we were seeing, and it was exciting to learn the bigger picture, rather than "this artist did this work in 15xx".

[Schultz]

I'm currently reading "Pompeii" by Robert Harris and am thoroughly enjoying it. I just finished "A Good Year" by Peter Mayle, which I found out halfway through has just been made into a movie starring Russell Crowe. If the movie is half as good as the book, I may be making a very rare trip to the theatre to see it.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

JerMc, not sure if you are a long time Heinlein fan or not, but Time Enough for Love was written at a time when Heinlein was pretty sick and not expected to live. Critics usually pan it and say it is one of his worst works. I don't know, I am not a critic. It is a little different from his other stuff, but still definitely Heinlein, and if you understand that he was very ill during the writing, I think you will see that reflected. I still think it is a great book.

[Sciuropterus]

JerMc, not sure if you are a long time Heinlein fan or not, but Time Enough for Love was written at a time when Heinlein was pretty sick and not expected to live. Critics usually pan it and say it is one of his worst works. I don't know, I am not a critic. It is a little different from his other stuff, but still definitely Heinlein, and if you understand that he was very ill during the writing, I think you will see that reflected. I still think it is a great book.

I agree!

Our 18-month old daughter Dora is named from that book, after the character Dora Brandon Long.

As I mentioned a while back, Time Enough for Love (and the prequel, Methuselah's Children) are what got me interested in kilts during my late teens. I have been reading Heinlein since I was ten.

[bubba]

Then there's "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" . Also a very good read bt Heinlein

[macwilkin]

I'm "officially" reading Richard Winder's "Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War" in preparation for a living history event in December at Ft. Scott [Kansas] National Historic Site -- Ft. Scott was a Mexican War-era post.

Regards,

Todd

[JimB]

No heavy reading here. I'm reading a novel by Diana Gabaldon called "Outlander". Its about how an english woman goes back to the time of the Jacobite uprisings. Lots of pretty good history and good descriptions of the times. Hey, it's good escapism.

[Kilted Taper]

Just finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter and now reading Dearly Devoted Dexter both by Jeff Lindsay. If anyone has seen the new Showtime series, Dexter these are the books the show is based upon.

[GreenDragon]

Promise of the Witch King - RA Salvatore