The "What Are You Currently Reading?" Thread

[73109]

About a third of the way through Kitchen Confidential and The End of Faith and a few vignettes into Naked Lunch. I'm reading Arguably at my leisure too.

[wolfandwolfandwolf]

Finished the Hunger Games series in roughly a week's time, now reading Blue Like Jazz and Screwtape Letters.

[Jaq]

Re-reading Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, currently on the second book of ten, Deadhouse Gates.

Given that the shortest book in the series is 200,000 words long, and most are over 350,000, I'm gonna be here a while. 

[Dr. DTVT]

About a third of the way through Kitchen Confidential

I love reading Bourdain, but that book is probably the one I enjoyed the most.  I'm currently reading:

The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain
ESPN: Those Guys Have All the Fun by Jim Miller and Tom Shales
The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse by Gregg Easterbrook
The Internet is a Playground by David Thorne
Mastermind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber by Daniel Charles
Handbook of Radical Polymerization edited by Krzysztof Matyjaszewski
Macrocycles: Construction, Chemistry and Nanotechnology Applications edited Frank Davis and Séamus Higson

[MykeHavoc]

I'm currently reading a whole mess of DC comics at the moment. Catching up on the new 52.

[yorost]

Re-reading Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, currently on the second book of ten, Deadhouse Gates.

Given that the shortest book in the series is 200,000 words long, and most are over 350,000, I'm gonna be here a while. 

If I ever start a new fantasy series again it will probably be that one.  I just started a reread of R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy, myself.

[Odysseus]

Nearly finished Sam Harris's latest offering: Free Will.  66 pages of interesting headfuck with regard to our notions of free will - it's made me sit up and take notice, that's for sure...

[Nick]

Nearly finished Sam Harris's latest offering: Free Will.  66 pages of interesting headfuck with regard to our notions of free will - it's made me sit up and take notice, that's for sure...

Yeah, but it's so dreadfully short. After that headfuck he uses one page to basically say how this could change everything. I really wish he had made it a full 200 page book and used the remaining 130+ pages in order to explain how his theories should affect how we conduct ourselves in the future.

[Sigz]

1/4 of the way through Hellbent by Cherie Priest. It's a nice take on the vampire thing, and the writing/narration is really funny and entertaining.

Finished it. It was a fun read, though it could have used some editing.

Next up: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

[73109]

Nearly finished Sam Harris's latest offering: Free Will.  66 pages of interesting headfuck with regard to our notions of free will - it's made me sit up and take notice, that's for sure...

Yeah, but it's so dreadfully short. After that headfuck he uses one page to basically say how this could change everything. I really wish he had made it a full 200 page book and used the remaining 130+ pages in order to explain how his theories should affect how we conduct ourselves in the future.

I'm about half way through with The End of Faith and now more than ever, I think Harris is a complete ass.

[Nick]

Finished The Hunger Games trilogy. Simply alright I'd say. Kinda felt rushed near the end and I simply didn't like certain parts about it and found what seemed like several major logic flaws, but I'll give my favorite.

The premise is that the game-makers are constantly trying to keep the games exciting and trying out new twists and turns in order to achieve this. With that said, you're going to tell me that in 74 years of the games no one thought to have a game in which the district reps would team up until the end? Seems like an uber obvious thing to try.

In any case now maybe I'll finally get through some more of Bill Clinton's memoir.

[73109]

To defend the book, of the 74 hunger games, 72 of them were normal. It was only during the "Quarter Quells" that anything out of the norm happened.

[Nick]

It was the only time it was mandated that something special be happening, but numerous examples of different twists and turns the games had taken over the years were given in the book. Most dealt with terrain, traps, the difficulties the combatants would face and such.

[73109]

I would think there is a difference between twists in what the players face and twists in who the players are, but there's no point in arguing the point. I couldn't care less.

[Omega]

I'm about half way through with The End of Faith and now more than ever, I think Harris is a complete ass.

And here I thought he was one of your idols...?

[73109]

Nah, I really like Dawkins and adore Hitchens. I don't know enough about Dennett to make a judgement call (I have Breaking the Spell, I need to read it), but I really dislike Harris.

[ClairvoyantCat]

Reading The Night Circus currently, as well as A Dance With Dragons.  Both are very good so far.

[Sigz]

Reading The Night Circus

 

[Omega]

Nah, I really like Dawkins and adore Hitchens. I don't know enough about Dennett to make a judgement call (I have Breaking the Spell, I need to read it), but I really dislike Harris.

Why? Not that I'm complaining, by the way...

[73109]

He's far too militant and crazy for my taste.

"We should nuke Muslim countries before they develop nukes because they don't fear death so they'll have no problem nuking us..."

Really, dude?

Not to mention the fact that he is an extremist to the extent of the people he hates. He not only believes violence against people is justified, I think I can say he goes so far as to be an anti-pacifist, which is something I'm not at all cool with. I'm relatively hippie-esque, so reading that shit pisses me off...

[Omega]

He's far too militant and crazy for my taste.

"We should nuke Muslim countries before they develop nukes because they don't fear death so they'll have no problem nuking us..."

Really, dude?

Not to mention the fact that he is an extremist to the extent of the people he hates. He not only believes violence against people is justified, I think I can say he goes so far as to be an anti-pacifist, which is something I'm not at all cool with. I'm relatively hippie-esque, so reading that shit pisses me off...

Hitchens and Dawkins seem pretty militant about their atheism as well. They wish to ban religion from the public square and often harp on about how they should do x to get rid of religion and even publish books with titles like How Religion Poisons Everything.

[Sigz]

Reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, it's fantastic.

[73109]

Hitchens and Dawkins seem pretty militant about their atheism as well.

I'd say there is a difference between feeling very passionate about an idea and being a militant. To me, a militant involves using violence as a means to one's end.

They wish to ban religion from the public square

This is untrue. As much as Dawkins and Hitchens hate religion and would love if it was kept out of the public square, neither one of them has ever[/b/] said it should be banned. They dislike religion because it "makes a virtue out of not thinking" and would like a more secular look on life, teaching science, etc. They believe in the freedom to say whatever the hell you want, no matter how stupid.

often harp on about how they should do x to get rid of religion and even publish books with titles like How Religion Poisons Everything.

To them and many others, religion should be gotten rid of. It isn't very hard to see why they think the way they do, regardless of whether you believe it or not. As for titles of books like God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and The God Delusion, you have to realize two things. A. These guys need to have titles like that. They need to have people gasp at their titles so people will by the book. It's sensationalism, but it really makes sense. Look at the titles of Hitchen's other works (No One Left to Lie to, Missionary Position, etc.) B. These guys really feel that way. Hitchens truly believes that religion poisons everything and Dawkins really believes it takes a deluded person to believe in God. That's just, like, their opinions, man...

[Sigz]

Yeah, there's a pretty big difference between being hostile towards a belief and saying an entire region of the world should be nuked.

[73109]

I fucked up my bold...too bad I can't edit my posts.

Yeah, there's a pretty big difference between being hostile towards a belief and saying an entire region of the world should be nuked.

Which truly is what Sam Harris considers in The End of Faith

[Omega]

This is untrue. As much as Dawkins and Hitchens hate religion and would love if it was kept out of the public square, neither one of them has ever said it should be banned. They dislike religion because it "makes a virtue out of not thinking" and would like a more secular look on life, teaching science, etc. They believe in the freedom to say whatever the hell you want, no matter how stupid.

This is one of the reasons why Hitchens and Dawkins frustrate me (one of the more petty reasons; there's a list of them, I'd like to add): they always attempt to force a false battle between "science vs religion" when, as any learned philosopher or theologian will tell you, they are in no way incompatible or mutually exclusive to each other.

To them and many others, religion should be gotten rid of. It isn't very hard to see why they think the way they do, regardless of whether you believe it or not. Hitchens truly believes that religion poisons everything and Dawkins really believes it takes a deluded person to believe in God. That's just, like, their opinions, man...

And also, as you point out correctly that it's their opinions, it is completely futile and arbitrary to condemn an entire worldview on its social impacts; one could easily say the same thing about atheism and it would lead to the same dead end of a conversation that is not interested in truth, but rather with who can swing an ad hominem stick the hardest. A theist could follow Dawkins' or Hitchen's petty behavior and launch an emotional attack on atheism as well, demanding that the world purge itself from atheism and secularism by bringing up some of the atrocities perpetrated by atheist or secular governments and leaders in the 20th Century alone (Pol Pot, Stalin, etc) or claim that atheism poisons everything, or that atheists are inherently deluded. Such petty name-calling is waste of time on either side.

[masterthes]

In honor of Poetry month, I'm going to attempt. Paradise Lost by John Milton

[ZirconBlue]

I'm blindly following the herd and reading The Hunger Games. 

Next up: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Good book.

[Dimitrius]

It's 3am, I just finished A Clash of Kings and... I NEED MORE!!! Starting A Storm of Swords now!!

[Odysseus]

Nearly finished Sam Harris's latest offering: Free Will.  66 pages of interesting headfuck with regard to our notions of free will - it's made me sit up and take notice, that's for sure...

Yeah, but it's so dreadfully short. After that headfuck he uses one page to basically say how this could change everything. I really wish he had made it a full 200 page book and used the remaining 130+ pages in order to explain how his theories should affect how we conduct ourselves in the future.

I'm wondering whether it's a taste of a work yet to come....  There's obviously room for development like you say.

I don't know if any of you guys have seen this; it's a Sam Harris lecture that pretty much follows the book.  It's a bit of an epic - I've got about halfway through - hopefully going to watch the other half this week.  Apologies if it's old news!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCofmZlC72g

I haven't read End Of Faith yet, but I thought Letter To A Christian Nation was pretty bloody good.  He has quite an ability with economy of words!

[TheVoxyn]

Last week I read Sherlock Holmes; hound of the baskervilles and Animal farm (read it before). Now rereading 1984 and then on to something new. Either another Holmes novel or something heftier. Still have War and Peace lying around..

[Odysseus]

Just finished Half Life by Roopa Farooki and started Climbing The Mango Trees by Madhur Jaffrey.

[hefdaddy42]

Hitchens and Dawkins seem pretty militant about their atheism as well.

I'd say there is a difference between feeling very passionate about an idea and being a militant.

That's probably what Harris would say, too.  It's all a matter of where on the firing range you fall.  It's all perspective.

[Nekov]

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I was recently in the UK and bought about 20 books. 

[lonestar]

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I was recently in the UK and bought about 20 books. 

Were you able to get some of the Silverberg titles I suggested?