books

[John Koch-Northrup]

What are your favorite books? What are you currently reading?

[John Koch-Northrup]

I used to be a huge bookworm, especially when I was younger and had more time. As a kid I was happier curled up with a book than running around outside. (or playing piano or tinkering with my color computer - but those are different threads!) I think there were several years where I read literally 60 or 70 books in one year. I used to read a lot of history... raiding the library for every book on a certain timeframe or event. (yep - I was that scary). But my favorite books were when I escaped into fantasy worlds... I read the Hobbit in maybe 6th grade and Lord of the Rings in 7th. I've read LOTR proably 12 times now (and even took a course on Tolkien in college). I've read most of Tolkien's work and later collections more than once - except I still haven't really dug into Children of Hurin just yet.

Now that I'm a heck of a lot older and have a heck of a lot less time for various hobbies - reading definitely takes a back seat until I get in one of my moods, or I have to travel for work (nothing like a 3 hour layover to catch up on reading!).

My favorite 'current' fantasy authors are L.E. Modesitt, Terry Goodkind, and Robert Jordan. I can jump into the pros and cons of each if anyone wants to chat about them. :) I've also been reading a lot of R.A. Salvatore books in the last couple of years - a co-worker let me borrow a couple of the Drizz't books which somehow I'd never read - well, ok, I know why - it was due to reading some Dragonlance books in the 80's and being totally turned off to all novels based on D&D worlds since.. I've since changed my opinion... :)

I occasionally read auto and biographies - I loved Peter Falk's book. Humorous and thoroughly enjoyable.

[Andi]

I too, used to be a huge bookworm...I haven't been reading much lately but I actually just started a book called "Rosslyn, Guardian of the Secrets of the Holy Grail" by Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins. It's a rabbit hole l I've been down before, but I'm looking at it from another perspective. I am very interested in the concept of sound healing...and have read a number of opinions here and there that link the "Grail" to a musical scale of some sort. Prior to this book I was reading Deepak Chopra's "Ageless Body Timeless Mind" ~ well, more like skimming it...and at the same time re-skimming Ken Wilber's "Marriage of Sense and Soul." Man, it's probably time for me to get something FICTION before I get too out of balance, any good recommendations??

[Andi]

Oh, I should put in a shameless plug for both my Dad's and Aunt's books, lol...Dad's latest is "I Carlos" (Casey Dorman) - it's a mystery/thriller. Aunt's is a literary criticism of Patricia Highsmith's work (Noel Dorman). No, I haven't written anything worth anything yet...but it's brewing...I can feel it...

[åpne sinn]

It's really no wonder that you and I get on so well, John. You just described my childhood perfectly; more of a book person that a sports person, loved fantasy, read LotR about 12 times (although I've never particularly been interested in digging into Christopher's "cash-in" books). Used to read nothing but fantasy, now when I manage to read it's usually anything but. Not sure where the allure wore off, but I'm definitely moving away from the fantasy genre. Currently, I'm reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. It's a remarkable story and a fresh twist on the Dracula myth. I'm only about a third of the way through the book so far, but it's spectacular. Other excellent books I've read recently are Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" and Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "The Shadow of the Wind". Both were really wonderful stories.

These days I do more audiobook listening than anything else, with the amount of travelling I do for work. Just finished up listening to Grisham's "The Chamber" and am now thoroughly engrossed in George Guidall's masterfully delivered performance of Frank Herbert's "Dune".

[John Koch-Northrup]

I just picked up a copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird" - I read it once at some point in school 20+ years ago. I dearly love the movie - my wife and I rewatch it every couple of years. I figured it was time to read it again.

Haven't started it yet - probably will in the next month or so.

[åpne sinn]

Currently reading a wonderful book by Stephen Pressfield entitled "The Virtues of War". It's a first person account of Alexander the Great's conquest of most of the [then] civilized world given by Alexander himself. Pressfield is historian-vum-novelist, so his work is always impeccably researched and incredibly detailed. I'd highly recommend it; it's almost like learning at Alexander's knee.

[EtherFluX]

I am reading "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramhansa yogananda

Its a book about Yogi's, by a Yogi.

It has a lot of great information, I reccomend it to anyone.

[Chris Russell]

Peter Schiff is on it. He worked in the Ron Paul campaign as a financial adviser.
Just herd him on coast to coast am the other night, scary stuff indeed and not fun at all.

[EtherFluX]

Lake Shrine?
No I have never been thier.
I would like to.
I went Backpacking in the Colorado Wilderness last year, It was Amazing.
I Just Love being outside in nature. Far away from Squares and Rectangles.

[John Koch-Northrup]

Love that "squares and rectangles" comment.

I have three books I've bought recently and haven't started reading yet...

Confessor - Terry Goodkind
How Starbucks Saved My Life - (forget the author - need to look it up)
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

I've read all the other Goodkind books and am very happy the series is coming to an end. Hopefully this will be one of the "better" books in the series - they're all decent, but some really drift into repetition more than others. The first few are excellent, assuming you like fantasy... :-)

The Starbucks book I picked up based on the description. It's short and looks uplifting - looking forward to it.

Mockinbird - been since childhood that I read it and it's among my top movies (we tend to watch it every couple years...) - so I wanted to tackle the book again.

[sympathetic | DIVISION]

I have two book shelves of books I must read, so I'm slowly consuming them when not sleeping & working! At the moment I'm reading the following:

Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
A Case of Conscience - James Blish

Both are pretty dense, but both are brilliant! Well worth the struggle if you haven't read them!

[Steve Brand]

Recently read, "Masters of the New Energy" by Sainte Germaine, "Book 8: The New Beginning..." by Kryon/Lee Carroll, a book about Mary Magdalan and one about the Knights Templar. I've been on this metaphysical/spiritual kick in my reading for years now. I'm feeling with the new year, I might give this line of reading...and myself...a little break. I've decided this before, but then something new jumps into my hand and it starts over. We'll see...