What are YOU currently reading? (8)

[Sif]

Is that like a history book or does it read like a novel?

It is history, however, for me it read like a novel. Well written and certainly kept my attention.

 

[Lg2000]

Life after life .

 

[Eques Valentinus]

It is history, however, for me it read like a novel. Well written and certainly kept my attention.

I always found it interesting that we invent so many fictional works to tell grand stories (i.e., Lord of the Rings) when the struggles of real history are often a lot more interesting and inspiring.

I suppose fantasy allows us to do away with nuances and contradictions in our human nature (all real life heroes have serious flaws) so that we can avoid uncomfortable debates about good and evil. The War of the Roses and other dynastic conflicts, certainly, had few moral heroes to speak of.

But a society which produces "Game of Thrones" as entertainment has no business lecturing any past age about enlightenment or sophistication.

 

[DragonFox91]

I always found it interesting that we invent so many fictional works to tell grand stories (i.e., Lord of the Rings) when the struggles of real history are often a lot more interesting and inspiring.

I suppose fantasy allows us to do away with nuances and contradictions in our human nature (all real life heroes have serious flaws) so that we can avoid uncomfortable debates about good and evil. The War of the Roses and other dynastic conflicts, certainly, had few moral heroes to speak of.

But a society which produces "Game of Thrones" as entertainment has no business lecturing any past age about enlightenment or sophistication.

I actually think that about movies. All the big blockbusters are sci-fi or fantasy when we've had real so many real wars, conspiracies, & dramas most people have never heard about.

To add when you say so many nuances & contradictions in human nature, I wonder if some of it too is is the writers/filmmakers want to do things their own way & have their own imagination.

 

[Sif]

I always found it interesting that we invent so many fictional works to tell grand stories (i.e., Lord of the Rings) when the struggles of real history are often a lot more interesting and inspiring.

I suppose fantasy allows us to do away with nuances and contradictions in our human nature (all real life heroes have serious flaws) so that we can avoid uncomfortable debates about good and evil. The War of the Roses and other dynastic conflicts, certainly, had few moral heroes to speak of.

But a society which produces "Game of Thrones" as entertainment has no business lecturing any past age about enlightenment or sophistication.

Fiction of all sorts does provide very good stories and is often based on real history. Even many of the Norse sagas (Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok) may have some basis in reality or even the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey.

However, I am familiar with many events from history that provide incredible drama. The Punic Wars are one, especially the Second Punic War. How Rome hangs in there even after three crush defeats with the last one, Cannae (216 BC), being the worst of them.

There is also the amazing story of the Siege of Malta (1565) with the forces of Spain and the Knights of Malta barely surviving against the onslaught of the Barbary Corsairs and the Ottoman Janissary corps.

 

[Sif]

Currently reading Jupiter by Ben Bova. It is part of his Grand Tour series in which Humanity has begun colonization of the Solar System.

In the book Jupiter a young aspiring astrophysicist is pulled into the exploration of the dynamics of the dense, hot liquid hydrogen layer below Jupiter's clouds. There they discover possible signs of large creatures referred to as leviathans.

Each book is a stand alone story and it is not required that they be read in any order.

 

[Sunshinee777]

I finished "How to pass from curse to blessing" by Derek Prince.

 

[DragonFox91]

I read the Game of Thrones series a while back & learned it was inspired by the War of the Roses, so I got a book from the library called Stormbird. It's part of a historical fiction series based on the War of the Roses. Starting it tonight

I also want to get a Christian book on dating, as well as books on Mormonism & Jehovas Witness, & a book on the apocrypha Bible books

I got a few chapters in, but I've been so busy w/ home improvement projects, I've fallen behind on an anime I'm trying to get thru. I'll have to shelve this book for now & return to it later unfortunately.

 

[Ophiolite]

My January reads completed:

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
Noughts and Crosses - Mallorie Blackman
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressel
The Secret History - Donna Tart
Emma - Jane Austen
Tono-Bungay - H.G.Wells
The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K.Dick
Cattleman - R.S.Porteus
Years Best SF 25th Edition - Gardner Dozois (Editor)

I've provided links to the wikepedia articles for most of the works. They are all good reads, but I would especially recommend the three bolded novels.

 

[DragonFox91]

I got a few chapters in, but I've been so busy w/ home improvement projects, I've fallen behind on an anime I'm trying to get thru. I'll have to shelve this book for now & return to it later unfortunately.

I decided to not to shelve it for a later date & read some more last night. Now that my home improvement projects are over, my schedule shall allow some reading time.

 

[Single Dude]

Team of Rivals.

 

[DragonFox91]

Death to the BCS

Argues why the BCS system in college football was so horrible
Argues why the whole bowl system needs to be revamped

Although the book was written prior to the official death of the BCS & the introduction of the 4 team playoff, I'd argue most of the book is still relevant today

 

[saved24]

I am reading a few books. One of the books, I received in the mail this week. It is called FROM FEAR TO FAITH, it is by Merlin Carothers, who also wrote PRISON TO PRAISE.

Here is a quote from his book: "It is a curious paradox that as long as we fight fear, it remains our tormenter. But when we meet it with gratitude and faith, it is defeated, and in fact becomes our ally."

 

[Sif]

Beowulf, the Tolkien translation

 

[sunshineforJesus]

along with my bible study book(having a Mary Spirit) I am also reading a book about the amish.

 

[thehehe]

Been a lifetime since I read a book from an English-speaking author - I always wonder if I should share my readings in my native language, as most of the books I last read don't have an English translation - and there's no fun in sharing something you can't know or discover.
Anyway, I have almost finished Goddard's Hand in glove, can't wait to see if I guessed right or was totally fooled.

 

[Shane R]

Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries by David Dary.

Every five or six weeks I take up a volume that is not spiritual reading. I went to Barnes & Noble a couple of months ago and found a bunch of good stuff in the clearance section. This was one of those.

It was first published in the 80s. Dary was a long-time professor at the University of Kansas and a broadcast journalist for CBS and NBC. The book is quite comprehensive, beginning with the story of the Spanish importing cattle to Mexico in the 1500s and progressing methodically to his contemporary era. He discusses the skills, lifestyle, and equipment of drovers or cowboys. He discusses the cattle industry and he weaves in pertinent information about outside events that impacted the business; things like the advent of the railroad and the American Civil War. And there is a smattering of first hand accounts and stories from the trail.

 

[DragonFox91]

I am listening to the audiobook of My Life Without God by William Murray. He's the son of the woman who sued to get prayer out of schools, although he eventually ended up converting. It's really good.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

Seneca: Letters From a Stoic ♥

 

[Abide with me.]

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'The problem of pain', C S Lewis.
His writings are wonderfully and phorensically analytical, but not always conclusive, like ' Mere Christianity' it posed a great many questions for me, but then it should.
I find myself re reading paragraphs to extract the exact meaning in the context of the previous paragraph and indeed the whole chapter, his books are certainly for the intellectual gymnast, but never dull.

If you haven't read ' the problem with pain' and are contemplating becoming a Christian, you won't be in for an easy ride, he doesn't take prisoners!