What are you reading?

[Greenbeard]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/After-Virtue-Study-Moral-Theory/dp/0268035040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277697457&sr=8-1]After Virtue[/ame] by Alasdair MacIntyre.

 

[hjmick]

Amazon.com: Under the Dome: A Novel (9781439149034): Stephen King: Books

The first thing readers might find scary about Stephen King's Under The Dome is its length. The second is the elaborate town map and list of characters at the front of the book (including "Dogs of Note"), which sometimes portends, you know, heavy lifting. Don't you believe it. Breathless pacing and effortless characterization are the hallmarks of King's best books, and here the writing is immersive, the suspense unrelenting. The pages turn so fast that your hand--or Kindle-clicking thumb--will barely be able to keep up.

The best SK book since before Gerald's Game, but still not as good as The Stand.

The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving.

I've always like Irving's work and The Hotel New Hampshire is one of the better ones.

Moved on to The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

The only thing worse than, and more disappointing than, this book were the two movies made from previous Brown books...

Me: 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs.

Very good book, but nothing like the television show. No real surprise there.

 

[Dr Grump]

The Cold Six Thousand

James Elroy

 

[hortysir]

Amazon.com: Under the Dome: A Novel (9781439149034): Stephen King: Books

The first thing readers might find scary about Stephen King's Under The Dome is its length. The second is the elaborate town map and list of characters at the front of the book (including "Dogs of Note"), which sometimes portends, you know, heavy lifting. Don't you believe it. Breathless pacing and effortless characterization are the hallmarks of King's best books, and here the writing is immersive, the suspense unrelenting. The pages turn so fast that your hand--or Kindle-clicking thumb--will barely be able to keep up.

The best SK book since before Gerald's Game, but still not as good as The Stand.

The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving.

I've always like Irving's work and The Hotel New Hampshire is one of the better ones.

Moved on to The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

The only thing worse than, and more disappointing than, this book were the two movies made from previous Brown books...

Me: 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs.

Very good book, but nothing like the television show. No real surprise there.

Not as Epic as the stand, but the pages turn quicker I think.

 

[Ringel05]

What are you reading?

Right now? Posts on the USMB. Thought that would be obvious.

 

[Harry Dresden]

"I STUCK MY FINGER IN IT"....by the Little Dutch Boy....i thought he was talking about the dam.....

 

[hortysir]

"I STUCK MY FINGER IN IT"....by the Little Dutch Boy....i thought he was talking about the dam.....

The dyke punched him for it

 

[Ringel05]

Currently I an reading:
Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s by Otto Friedrich

 

[Dr.House]

The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox

(after reading The Marks of Cain by the same author)

 

[Catbert]

Standing in line to read Alpha Rising as soon as my daughter and her fiance are through with it. Unknown author, but reviews are good.

 

[Woyzeck]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Artist-Floating-World-Kazuo-Ishiguro/dp/0679722661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277869614&sr=1-1"]An Artist of the Floating World[/ame] by Kazuo Ishiguro.

 

[hjmick]

I read a lot of books. Different authors, different genres, fiction, nonfiction. I love to read. One of my favorite books is The Stand by Stephen King. I've read it three times. The original 1978 publication, the 1990 uncut version, then the 1978 version again. It stood, for me, as an unparallelled epic novel, perhaps King's best work and a modern American classic. While I've enjoyed to no end a great many books since, it has stood the test of time in my mind, with nothing in fiction coming close to it's level of story telling.

Until now...

I just finished The Passage by Justin Cronin. An author I had never heard of with just two other books to his name. This book may very well have usurped The Stand as my favorite. I'll know for sure after I sleep on it, but it doesn't look good for King.

Viral vampires, post apocalyptic America, perilous journey, great story telling...

This is definitely the best book I've read this year.

And the best thing? It's the first book of a trilogy.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Passage-Justin-Cronin/dp/0345504968/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281500343&sr=1-1]Amazon: The Passage[/ame]

Enter the Passage

 

[Luissa]

Currently, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

The Lost City of Z


From Publishers Weekly:

In 1925, renowned British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett embarked on a much publicized search to find the city of Z, site of an ancient Amazonian civilization that may or may not have existed. Fawcett, along with his grown son Jack, never returned, but that didn't stop countless others, including actors, college professors and well-funded explorers from venturing into the jungle to find Fawcett or the city. Among the wannabe explorers is Grann, a staff writer for the New Yorker, who has bad eyes and a worse sense of direction. He became interested in Fawcett while researching another story, eventually venturing into the Amazon to satisfy his all-consuming curiosity about the explorer and his fatal mission. Largely about Fawcett, the book examines the stranglehold of passion as Grann's vigorous research mirrors Fawcett's obsession with uncovering the mysteries of the jungle. By interweaving the great story of Fawcett with his own investigative escapades in South America and Britain, Grann provides an in-depth, captivating character study that has the relentless energy of a classic adventure tale.

John Grisham's review for Amazon.com:

In April of 1925, a legendary British explorer named Percy Fawcett launched his final expedition into the depths of the Amazon in Brazil. His destination was the lost city of El Dorado, the “City of Gold,” an ancient kingdom of great sophistication, architecture, and culture that, for some reason, had vanished. The idea of El Dorado had captivated anthropologists, adventurers, and scientists for 400 years, though there was no evidence it ever existed. Hundreds of expeditions had gone looking for it. Thousands of men had perished in the jungles searching for it. Fawcett himself had barely survived several previous expeditions and was more determined than ever to find the lost city with its streets and temples of gold.

The world was watching. Fawcett, the last of the great Victorian adventurers, was financed by the Royal Geographical Society in London, the world’s foremost repository of research gathered by explorers. Fawcett, then age 57, had proclaimed for decades his belief in the City of Z, as he had nicknamed it. His writings, speeches, and exploits had captured the imagination of millions, and reports of his last expedition were front page news.

His expeditionary force consisted of three men--himself, his 21-year-old son Jack, and one of Jack’s friends. Fawcett believed that only a small group had any chance of surviving the horrors of the Amazon. He had seen large forces decimated by malaria, insects, snakes, poison darts, starvation, and insanity. He knew better. He and his two companions would travel light, carry their own supplies, eat off the land, pose no threat to the natives, and endure months of hardship in their search for the Lost City of Z.

They were never seen again. Fawcett’s daily dispatches trickled to a stop. Months passed with no word. Because he had survived several similar forays into the Amazon, his family and friends considered him to be near super-human. As before, they expected Fawcett to stumble out of the jungle, bearded and emaciated and announcing some fantastic discovery. It did not happen.

Over the years, the search for Fawcett became more alluring than the search for El Dorado itself. Rescue efforts, from the serious to the farcical, materialized in the years that followed, and hundreds of others lost their lives in the search. Rewards were posted. Psychics were brought in by the family. Articles and books were written. For decades the legend of Percy Fawcett refused to die.

The great mystery of what happened to Fawcett has never been solved, perhaps until now. In 2004, author David Grann discovered the story while researching another one. Soon, like hundreds before him, he became obsessed with the legend of the colorful adventurer and his baffling disappearance. Grann, a lifelong New Yorker with an admitted aversion to camping and mountain climbing, a lousy sense of direction, and an affinity for take-out food and air conditioning, soon found himself in the jungles of the Amazon. What he found there, some 80 years after Fawcett’s disappearance, is a startling conclusion to this absorbing narrative.

The Lost City of Z is a riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling tale of adventure.

I'm about halfway through it and I must say it is quite interesting and very well written.

I need to read Scott Pilgrim Volume 1 and 2, my friend let me borrow them, and I keep forgetting I have them.

 

[Samson]

Currently, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

The Lost City of Z


I'm about halfway through it and I must say it is quite interesting and very well written.

I read this. Fascinating Story.

 

[hjmick]

Currently, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

The Lost City of Z


I'm about halfway through it and I must say it is quite interesting and very well written.

I read this. Fascinating Story.

It was a great read, well written and engrossing. Almost made me want to go down there and look for Fawcett myself...

 

[Modbert]

I will have to check out The Passage there Hjmick. The Stand is one of my favorite books of all time, though not my favorite. Though I actually enjoy IT more than The Stand but that's not my favorite either.

 

[hjmick]

I will have to check out The Passage there Hjmick. The Stand is one of my favorite books of all time, though not my favorite. Though I actually enjoy IT more than The Stand but that's not my favorite either.

Do it Bert. I recommend about one of every seven books I read, though I do recommend The Lost City of Z as well so this last bunch it's two of seven...

I came across the book at Costco and, after reading the flap, was reminded of The Stand. This was why I bought it. It may be better. I almost wish I'd waited to read it just so the release of the second book would be closer. Now I have to wait at least a year.

 

[Modbert]

Do it Bert. I recommend about one of every seven books I read, though I do recommend The Lost City of Z as well so this last bunch it's two of seven...

I came across the book at Costco and, after reading the flap, was reminded of The Stand. This was why I bought it. It may be better. I almost wish I'd waited to read it just so the release of the second book would be closer. Now I have to wait at least a year.

That's how I felt with The Dresden Files. I read all of them in a few months (school can be a huge free time vaccum. ) and now I got to wait until around October for the newest in the series.

So other than the previous mentioned books, what do you consider your favorite books?

 

[Luissa]

The Harry Dresden books seem good. My client is listening to them on "tape", and they seem pretty interesting.

 

[R.C. Christian]

Reading the U.S. Army's counter insurgency manual currently.