What's on yer current reading list?

[jsluder]

Oh, and of course my wife and I will both be reading the new Harry Potter book when it comes out in July. (And, of course, She Who Must Not Be Named gets to read it first.)

[rebelpiper]

its time to pick up the old deer and deerhunting mags...bow season starts in 111 days

[avanutria]

I'm working on reading this book on Gödel, Escher and Bach by Hofstadter called The Eternal Braid.

Ah, is that the one with the three-lettered block on the front? I've seen that. Haven't read it yet, but I want too, and I want to make one of those blocks because those are my initials.

[Joseph E. Smith]

Like jsluder and his boss ( ), I will be reading the new HP book when it hits the shelves in July... but to prepare for that event, I have dusted off the previous books in the series to warm up for the event.

[jGilder]

I'm currently reading...



How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions

John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community, describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies.

• "Well, the company I worked for was a company named Chas. T. Main in Boston, Massachusetts. We were about 2,000 employees, and I became its chief economist. I ended up having fifty people working for me. But my real job was deal-making. It was giving loans to other countries, huge loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay. One of the conditions of the loan–let's say a $1 billion to a country like Indonesia or Ecuador–and this country would then have to give ninety percent of that loan back to a U.S. company, or U.S. companies, to build the infrastructure–a Halliburton or a Bechtel. These were big ones. Those companies would then go in and build an electrical system or ports or highways, and these would basically serve just a few of the very wealthiest families in those countries. The poor people in those countries would be stuck ultimately with this amazing debt that they couldn’t possibly repay. A country today like Ecuador owes over fifty percent of its national budget just to pay down its debt. And it really can’t do it. So, we literally have them over a barrel. So, when we want more oil, we go to Ecuador and say, “Look, you're not able to repay your debts, therefore give our oil companies your Amazon rain forest, which are filled with oil.” And today we're going in and destroying Amazonian rain forests, forcing Ecuador to give them to us because they’ve accumulated all this debt. So we make this big loan, most of it comes back to the United States, the country is left with the debt plus lots of interest, and they basically become our servants, our slaves. It's an empire. There's no two ways about it. It’s a huge empire. It's been extremely successful." - John Perkins, Democracy Now

It has everything for exciting summer reading: exotic locations, sexual intrigue, and world domination.

[chas]

I'm working on reading this book on Gödel, Escher and Bach by Hofstadter called The Eternal Braid. I haven't picked it up in the last two weeks, but what I've read so far is quite fascinating to me. Gödel is a mathematician, Bach is (of course) a composer, and Escher (also of course) is an artist. Hofstadter combines all of their points of view on life, and their contributions, and comes up with something that has interested me forever. Imagine, someone else has actually considered the links between music, art and mathematics, and has written extensively on this concept!! I just knew there was a mathematical way of looking at everything. I need to get back to this book and see what other mind teasers are waiting for me. Teasers, because my mind loves this kind of stuff...

I got about 1/5th of the way into that. What I could decode was great, but it was definitely a trudge for my liberal-arts non-mathy mind.

I saw a talk by Hofstader a couple of years after that came out. It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen (other than a couple of conference talks by obviously disturbed individuals, like the one, "The vagabond potential and unemployment among physicists"). The guy came out, sat on a stool and kind of rambled for an hour. No trnasparencies, no notes, just stream of consciousness with no apparent direction, theme, or interconnectedness.

Brilliant guy, as was his father, but I was quite disappointed.

[burnsbyrne]

Mostly I've been reading insipid, superficial and boring old paperback mystery and suspense books. I know I should read important books of great social and artistic value but they put me to sleep and cut into my TV watching time.
But at least I'm reading something other than the TV guide.
:roll:

[emmline]

Mostly I've been reading insipid, superficial and boring old paperback mystery and suspense books. I know I should read important books of great social and artistic value but they put me to sleep and cut into my TV watching time.
But at least I'm reading something other than the TV guide.
:roll:

thanks, burnsbyrne, for demonstrating that Chronic Erudition Syndrome and WhOA need not go hand in hand.

[chas]

Mostly I've been reading insipid, superficial and boring old paperback mystery and suspense books. I know I should read important books of great social and artistic value but they put me to sleep and cut into my TV watching time.
But at least I'm reading something other than the TV guide.
:roll:

I didn't start reading avidly until the advanced age (in my family) of about 14 or so. All of my family read the insipid, boring old paperback mysteries -- Agatha Christie, Emma Lathen and such. I just couldn't get into them. Fortunately I discovered insipid, exciting old science fiction novels. I eventually forced myself, for the remainder of high school and college, to do SF only every other book. The alternates had to be "literature" or other stuff. Not that there isn't a lot of quality SF out there that ought to qualify as literature.

[izzarina]

(And, of course, She Who Must Not Be Named gets to read it first.)

Hey! How did you know that I'd be reading it first????

The HP books are pure fluff, but they're fun to read when you have a lot on your mind and you don't want something deep that makes you think.
Other books for me.....hmmm.....I don't know really. I had been reading A Tale of Two Cities (again), but of course got sidetracked. Most of my reading material these days (at least the ones I finish) tend to go by the names of Green Eggs and Ham, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and Make Way for Duckings

[jsluder]

Hey! How did you know that I'd be reading it first????

Legilimens!

[spittin_in_the_wind]

E. Annie Proulx...

Just finished "That Old Ace in the Hole" by her, and it was great. Am now reading "Postcards"...weird.

Robin

[scarhand]

I've got about eight books on autism and asperger's syndrome in a pile on my desk at the moment;

avanturia, what are those titles on asperger's you've got? i've got a husband and a daughter . . .

[Walden]

I just finished reading Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis.

[avanutria]

avanturia, what are those titles on asperger's you've got? i've got a husband and a daughter . . .

Asperger's Syndrome - Tony Attwood (not read yet)
Mindblindness: An essay on autism and the theory of mind - Simon Baron-Cohen (not read yet, came highly recommended)
Asparagus Dreams - Jessica Peers, who has Asperger's
Asperger Syndrome, the Universe and Everything - <a href="http://www.aspergers.com/universe.htm">Kenneth Hall</a>, who also has Asperger's

Also written by autistic people:
Emergence Labeled Autistic - Temple Grandin
Nobody Nowhere - Donna Williams
Somebody Somewhere - Donna Williams


There are a couple more downstairs, I'll get you the names this weekend in a PM.