What's everyone reading these days?

[CourtesanCassandra 167]

Anything by Jeff Long. He does both fiction & non. Really liked The Descent (not really related to the movie) & The Reckoning. Year Zero looked really interesting, so that's on my 'to read' list.

 

As for mags, I love Bon Appetit. I also like the one you get at the Liquor store called Taste. They've got some awesome drink recipes, as well as food recipes & what kinds of wine pairings go well with them. Best of all, that one is free.

 

And I get the Georgia Straight solely for Tar Paper Town & Dan Savage. :)

[MightyMouse 839]

Theo Fleury's autobiography. Good read so far.

[esoterica 624]

I'm late entering this thread but I have not had time for boards since I moved away from Ottawa.

 

I'm currently reading "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins, which is surprisingly well-written and accessible. I usually find Dawkins a bit too dry and verbose but this book (like his previous) is accessible.

 

I'm also reading "The Evolution of God" by Robert Wright, which is quite fun.

 

e

[VedaSloan 119179]

I'm late entering this thread but I have not had time for boards since I moved away from Ottawa.

 

I'm currently reading "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins, which is surprisingly well-written and accessible. I usually find Dawkins a bit too dry and verbose but this book (like his previous) is accessible.

 

I'm also reading "The Evolution of God" by Robert Wright, which is quite fun.

 

e

 

Dawkin's talk on TED about being an atheist is fabulous.

[jerican 657]

How am I not surprised that you visit TED? I love that site, there was a talk once about fractal math and how cultures/nature reflect it that blew my mind.

 

 

Dawkin's talk on TED about being an atheist is fabulous.

[VedaSloan 119179]

How am I not surprised that you visit TED? I love that site, there was a talk once about fractal math and how cultures/nature reflect it that blew my mind.

 

 

 

I visit TED when I'm supposed to be doing other things, like making flashcards of Italian verbs. :) And now I'm going to watch the one you suggested. I could go for some mind blowing right now.

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Previously on this thread, Annessa recommended Sarah Katherine Lewis' Indecent: How I Make It and Fake It as a Girl for Hire. Annessa characterized this book as "a riot", and now that I've read it, I wholeheartedly agree.

 

Lewis is a sex worker who has an obsessive-compulsive disorder centering on sanitation and a disgust with bodily fluids.

 

Hilarity ensues.

 

She loathes her clients and everything about them, except their money. She gets through her sessions by fantasizing about what she'd like to be doing to them:

Cooper was muttering something into my skin.

 

"What, baby?" I asked, pulling my chest back a few inches.

 

"I want to make you feel good," he said ....

 

Ugh

. I could feel his erection through his pants. It felt like a tiny animal, rearing its little head and demanding attention. Muzzling my disgust, I kept my weight on it.

 

"You're making me feel good already," I responded by rote.

 

You know what would really make me feel good, Cooper? Sawing your cock off with a rusty tin can lid.

But my violent ideation was habitual, not personal. I bore Cooper no particularly vicious ill will. He was just a customer, like any other. They were interchangable and equally loathesome.

Lewis views her sessions as war zones. Her clients are cheerfully characterized as attempting to get the most service for the least money; meanwhile, she just as cheerfully attempts to get the most money for the least service. Within this field of battle, everything goes. Lewis is not above simply stealing her client's wallet, for instance: this is viewed as total victory for her in the battle-zone arithmetic: she gets all the client's money for zero service.

 

Lewis' (half tongue-in-cheek?) theory of the psychology of male sexuality is fascinatingly perverse. Her theory, oft repeated throughout the book, is that her male customers are not really interested in her at all ... they're only using her as a vehicle to allow their own interraction with the remnants left on her body of the "slurry of spit and cum" of previous male customers. In other words, the clients are all secretly gay, but just not bold enough to lick "each other's assholes" directly; hence, her intermediary role as "serving platter". She sees herself as "just a conduit for straight men to relate to each other sexually".

 

Mix this all up with a savage sense of humour and a knack for indelibly inventive and darkly hilarious phraseology, and what you're left with is a wonderfully entertaining read. Warning: don't drink tea and read this book at the same time. Your tea will wind up not so much sipped, as ... sprayed all over your Oreos.

 

Any book that can get me squirming uncomfortably (after all, I'm a client in the sex industry) and howling with laughter at the same time is okay by me. It's going into my re-read pile, tea-stains and all.

[TracieGold 282]

Amy Tan is a fantastic writer. I am reading right now ADA of Nabokof, the author of Lolita. He is also great.

There are so many classics that it is impossible to keep up.....

Have a good read honey!

Tracie:-D

[canuckhooker 19202]

I was a big fan of Douglas Adams and his Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy a trilogy in 5 parts. Unfortunately Adams passed away in 2001. I have just found however Part Six of Three, And Another Thing written by Eoin Colfer. It is not bad but unfortunately he is trying too hard to be Adams, and therefore is just repeating many of the old jokes. Not a lot of originality yet, but it is good to have one more book in the series.

[BownChickaBown 4829]

Right now I'm reading 3 books, on and off again:

 

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Money by Galbraith

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

 

...but I seem to be doing more writing nowadays than reading.

 

(PS: Oh, and of course, like everyone else, I read Playboy monthly ;) )

[Guest O***wa**W]

 

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

 

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

 

 

Both excellent reads!

[VedaSloan 119179]

Right now I'm reading 3 books, on and off again:

 

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Money by Galbraith

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

 

...but I seem to be doing more writing nowadays than reading.

 

(PS: Oh, and of course, like everyone else, I read Playboy monthly ;) )

 

 

Oh, how I adore Richard Dawkins! There's a man I'd try to seduce if I ever saw him lecture. I've watched his lecture on atheism on TED.com about a thousand times.

[Guest C****** K***e]

I'm currently about halfway through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I had no idea what to expect going into it, but I'm fascinated and I can't wait for my pre-bedtime chapter every night! (Unfortunately it's the only time I have to read, but I'll probably dive in headfirst over Christmas break.)

Must say, though, I think my all-time favorite book is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. I read and reread and reread it a million times over, and will continue to do so in the future - amazing and insightful and MARVELOUS!!!!!!!

[todosj 102]

I'm currently about halfway through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I had no idea what to expect going into it, but I'm fascinated and I can't wait for my pre-bedtime chapter every night! (Unfortunately it's the only time I have to read, but I'll probably dive in headfirst over Christmas break.)

Must say, though, I think my all-time favorite book is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. I read and reread and reread it a million times over, and will continue to do so in the future - amazing and insightful and MARVELOUS!!!!!!!

 

I absolutely loved Ayn Rand's books, especially The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged . . .

 

I've not had the pleasure of James Joyce's book you mention, but it seems well worth a look . . . . :cool:

[JoyfulC 132299]

I just finished W. Sommerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage." I had trouble getting through it -- I only kept at it because so many people told me that it was an important book to them. I'm not sure why, though. I found it difficult to sympathize with the protagonist.

 

After finishing it, I went on YouTube and found the 1934 movie version (split into 12 pieces) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqzMtUVr9c8&feature=PlayList&p=AEA4C80F0AC33AEC&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=152 starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. Whatever. It seems to deal with the part of the book I had the most trouble with.

 

Now I'm working on Helen Waddell's "Peter Abelard" (1934). It was a birthday gift. It is the story of the Middle Age romance of Abelard and Heloise. So far, it's pretty good -- catchy dialogue. A bit heavy on the religious scripture.

 

..c..

[VedaSloan 119179]

The upcoming film adaptation has reminded me that I MUST MUST read Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I hear there are some very disturbing visuals in this one (babies roasting on a spit, other acts of cannibalism). I love post-apocalyptic stories.

[72Nova 116]

I usually tell people the Road is horrible, in the sense that it is just so relentlessly bleak.

 

Have you read Blindness, by Jose Saramago? It's an interesting, deep end of the world story.

 

The upcoming film adaptation has reminded me that I MUST MUST read Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I hear there are some very disturbing visuals in this one (babies roasting on a spit, other acts of cannibalism). I love post-apocalyptic stories.

[BobbiInVic 976]

Lol, "Its 5 o'clock somewhere"!

 

Seriously, I am making my dinner martini and the book is full of yummy recipes!!!!:-D

[todosj 102]

Recently had the opportunity to read some of James Joyce's letters to his lover, Nora, at : http://bit.ly/NIfng

 

Quite raunchy, and somewhat over the top . . .

 

Who knew there was such open discussion back then . . . ?

[VedaSloan 119179]

Recently had the opportunity to read some of James Joyce's letters to his lover, Nora, at : http://bit.ly/NIfng

 

Quite raunchy, and somewhat over the top . . .

 

Who knew there was such open discussion back then . . . ?

 

Ha, you'd be surprised! I read an excellent dual biography about the relationship between Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir and they totally were in an open relationship and had mutual lovers on the side.

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Who knew there was such open discussion back then . . . ?

 

Times change, societies change, intellectual ideas change. But human nature ... that just doesn't change.

[masterowls 249]

Currently, I've got the following on the go:

 

Rent Boys: The World of Male Sex Workers-Michel Dorais

-this is a study that was the result of interviews with forty male sex workers in Montreal.

 

Leaves of Grass-Walt Whitman

-I've always loved Whitman and when I learned that Leaves of Grass was banned in some states because of the gratuitous sex, well I went out and got my own copy :)

 

Anyone reading anything good? I'm always on the prowl for new reads.

Dear Erin,

I don't so much read as listen, because of my physical disability I have difficulty holding a book, so I belong to audible.com here are a few of my favorite listens.

1. The inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini (still waiting for the final book)

2. Anything by Karen Marie Morning

3. The Magic Kingdom of Landover series by Terry Brooks

also any of the Chronicles of Counter Earth novels by John Norman. There are at present 26 of them at least at last count. One word of warning, they are extremely kinky, so if you happen to have nieces and nephews or other small children around where you read, I'd be careful where you leave the book.

[Kate von Katz 49953]

Right now I'm slowly digesting Homer's The Iliad. And in between reading bits of that, I'm reading a biography on Beethoven. And of course - my favorite - the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Posted via Mobile Device

[daddio 2704]

Hi Erin:

 

I've just finished reading Jose Saramago's "Death With Interruptions." I've also read his "Blindness" and "Seeing".

 

He is a brilliant writer with a very interesting style.

 

I'm struggling through Nabovko's "Pale Fire". He, too, is a brilliant writer but this book hasn't engaged me, unlike "Lolita" and another book of his the title of which escapes me at the moment.

 

I've also started "The Epic of Gilgamesh" - still wading through the intro and haven't yet reached the epic itself. Hopefully it is epic.

 

If you're interested in modern history try Margaret MacMillan's "Paris 1919" and "Nixon China."

 

She has to the the best current writer of history.

 

I could go on ... and on ... and on!

 

If you want some gems of modern Scottish literature let me know!

[Guest f***2f***]

Just picked up "the Bookseller of Kabul" start it today.