I'm in a reading lull after finishing several new books/authors- so I decided to reread 'Outlander.' I'm really enjoying it the second time around.

You?

Biography of Roger Williams (founder of Rhode Island)

The Myth of the Free Market

The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails

Last night I read an online bio about Syd Barrett, songwriter and founder of the Pink Floyd group. Though very talented, he was socially dysfunctional, and the group went on without him after just two albums. His creative genius and madness were intertwined, and the one may not have ever been without the other. I was reminded of Emily Dickinson's poem:

Much Madness is divinest Sense-
To a discerning eye-
Much Sense -the starkest Madness-
'Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevail-
Assent-and you are sane-
Demur-you're straightway dangerous-
And handled with a Chain

Syd spent his later years painting, funded by royalties from Pink Floyd sales.

I'm between books at the moment. Started reading "1491" about native life in America before Columbus, but 80 pages in and he does nothing but talk about the period when pilgrims and settlers came to north America from England.....way after Columbus.

I bought a violin today so I can practice up and play it live and in the studio on my songs (I was 1st chair in 4th grade....wow!). I'm also practicing more on various instruments for a studio CD I want to make this year....so probably no reading books for me for a while.

I'm reading Guy Harrison's 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian. He does a pretty good job of explaining (to Christians, presumably) why it's difficult for non-Christians to swallow their claims.

And the fiction book I'm currently reading is called Black Box, by Cassia Leo. I found it in my books and I have no idea where it came from, so I decided to read it.

A biography on Voltaire. Well, that and my textbooks. ; )

Hug 'n' howdy my dear friend.

"The Snow Child". It is a contemporary take on a Russian fairy tale set in Alaska in the early 20th century.

I just finished "Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink" but I think the next three months will be filled with textbooks, research studies, and psychology articles.

My son started reading "Brave New World" and I realized I have never read it, so here we go

I am reading a book on the Colorado gold rush and all the conflict and change it caused.

The Anglican Way and The Anglican Spirit are the two I am presently reading. Says a lot about which faith I have chosen since moving on from Mormonism.

The newest issue of 'Fine Scale Modeler' arrived today.

What can I say? I'm just an overgrown kid.....

It's a different read than when I was in my 20s. I missed a lot of allusions and subtle references. I also didn't appreciate that no sentence is wasted. It's incredibly well-crafted.

Painful. Still trying to make sense of it

Take your time and definitely read the endnotes. It's worth it. The first time it took me 90 pages in to get hooked, and then I was like, whoah.

I'm reading Pioneer Girl, the autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, otherwise known as the author of the Little House books. This has a lot of footnotes and pictures from the time period, so it's a very interesting book.

You might like "A Wilder Rose" which is about Ingalls and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane.
Lane played a big role in writing the Little House Books and was credited as one of the founders of the Libertarian Party

I agree, "A Wilder Rose" is excellent. Pioneer Girl is on back order so waiting for the next press run.

I was a bit disappointed in her political views which I dont share and surprised at the role she had in the Little House books, but she was a fascinating lady.

Still reading Victor Klemperer's diaries. Great regular insight from someone that lived in Nazi Germany and wrote in his diary as everything was happening.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2015 11:14PM by iamanevermormon.

I'm not normally in to the self-help genre, but I'm currently re-reading "A Warriors Guide to Insanity" by Sgt Andrew Brandi (USMC).....helps fight the demons.

Textbooks, textbooks and more f*****g textbooks.

All on kindle reader on my iPad.

Haven't bought a paper book for ages.

Jim Henson's biography. It's such a tragedy that he died so young. He was a brilliant, lovely human being. I still mourn his loss.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2015 12:39AM by DebbiePA.

I'm in the midst of research on a new major project, and the research book du jour for this project is...

Damn You, Scarlett O'Hara: The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, by Darwin Porter and Roy Moseley. I am not necessarily RECOMMENDING this book to anyone who doesn't have a real interest in the entertainment industry (and/or is doing research, as I am)...but if someone who wasn't already inside the industry wanted to find out what it is REALLY like, this book would be one of the books I would suggest (and this particular book is an extremely effective history book of the industry from the silent movie period through most of the rest of the twentieth century).

With the same caveats, another book which I am pretty sure is fairly accurate, and from this same publisher (www.bloodmoonproductions.com) is: Paul Newman, The Man Behind the Baby Blues: His Secret Life Exposed...also by Darwin Porter (so, with this Newman biography, the entertainment industry time period would be extended forward about three decades from the Vivien Leigh/Laurence Olivier period).

Probably most any book from this publisher can be obtained at a greatly reduced price from: www.abebooks.com (many of the copies on this site will be used, but "near new" is often indistinguishable from a copy you might buy at Barnes & Noble).

They also have a bio on Steve McQueen. I have read it, and I am conflicted about it because I have been directly involved in writing three books (including two biographies) about Steve McQueen...my writing partner knew him personally and over a period of years...and there are things in the Blood Moon Productions McQueen bio that we hadn't heard or known before which actually did truly shock each of us---and, on the subject of McQueen, we both would have vehemently declared that we were shockproof...

...you got "all of that" [basically, McQueen's regular, normal, everyday, "McQueen just bein' McQueen" shit] from personally working/interacting with him under a variety of circumstances, as my writing partner (often extremely reluctantly) did. So I am NOT actually recommending the McQueen Blood Moon Productions bio because there are things in there that neither I nor my writing partner know if they are true or not...but, in reality, they are also all too incredibly likely to be true. Hint: McQueen, either the man in person or the man in this Blood Moon Productions biography, was NOT a nice man...not ever!!!

You would NOT have liked to know him...

...Honest to God, you REALLY would NOT!!!

;) ;) ;)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2015 01:48AM by tevai.

Bruno, Chief of Police, by Martin Walker

http://www.amazon.com/Bruno-Chief-Police-French-Countryside/dp/030745469X

4 1/2 stars on Amazon....

I <3 Outlander. I own all of her books. Eagerly awaiting the second part of season one on Starz.

I am currently reading Dead Men Do Tell Tales by William Maples. He was a forensic anthropologist based at UF.

Crossing The Rubicon

by Michael Ruppert

Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

Nothing to do with the church, BTW.

Getting too old for all this serious stuff. Enjoying Mark Billingham's "The Dying Hours" right now and can't wait for the April publication of Phillip Kerr's latest Bernie Gunther novel.

Little Bets
Gentlemen Bastards series
Team of Rivals

This one's terrible, written by a pseudo-historian who probably always believed Hill was innocent. Will Bagley and I are going to discuss that subject, perhaps loudly, but we'll doubtless still be speaking to each other afterwards.

It is, incidentally, coming up on the 100th anniversary of Hill's execution by firing squad at the old Sugarhouse Prison.

A number of leading authorities, including Wallace Stegner, concluded Hill was probably guilty. I'll be picking up Stegner's book in the near future.

Why did I decide this writer was a pseudo-historian? Well, I choked on a reference to "handcarts in 1847," for starters.

For those who learned history in Utah, Hill was convicted of murder in the burgarly of the Morison Grocery Store. His famous call to his followers was "Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize."

This was followed by his request he be buried elsewhere because he "didn't want to be found dead in Utah."

Thousands attended his funeral in Chicago



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2015 01:51PM by SL Cabbie.