Whatcha readin'?

[martini]

Right now I'm reading Robert Charles Wilson's Julian Comstock, which is like Mark Twain meets Heinlein and is, in a word, awesome. This is not what I should be reading, mind, but can't seem to stop.

[Knoxious]

I am working on books that I have always meant to read and haven't. In that category and on the night stand is "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver. She's married to my college psychology professor. I've read her non-fiction and none of her fiction. Umm, she's good.

That is a gorgeously written book. I was looking forward to her latest work but the reviews didn't motivate me. Toby, what was that book on critical thinking you mentioned before?

[Apeville]

God Is Not One- the dude was on Colbert this week- Colbert grilled him on what the best religion was and which religion was winning. He did answer the second part of that question.

[Apeville]

A tiny book talking about Double Nickels On The Dime by San Pedro heroes the Minutemen. Fab.

[phobus1x9]

Old school summer: "Walden" and "Moby Dick." The Melville is for the bike tour, because the two fit together like a wheel and a tire.

[crooked-finger]

I just started Faulkner's The Hamlet (I took in a copy of this which costs a penny on Amazon and I found that my copy had some damage which I guess would mean I'd have to price it at zero to sell it, so I decided that it would be better to just read it myself--since I have never read the Snopes trilogy but always sorta, in the back of my mind, wanted to...), and this collection of Pavese. I'm still reading Flint's introduction and trying to decide what to read first.

Don't ask me to diagram that first sentence!

[spinetingler]

Milton Rokeach - The Three Christs of Ypsilanti

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti (1964) is a book-length psychiatric case study by Milton Rokeach, concerning his experiment with a group of schizophrenic patients at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

To study the basis for delusional belief systems, Rokeach brought together three men who each claimed to be Jesus Christ and confronted them with each other's conflicting claims, while encouraging them to interact personally as a support group. Rokeach also attempted to manipulate other aspects of their delusions by inventing messages from imaginary characters. He did not, as he had hoped, provoke any lessening of the patients' delusions, but did document a number of changes in their beliefs.

Rokeach came to realize that his research had been manipulative and unethical. "I really had no right, even in the name of science, to play God and interfere round the clock with their daily lives," he apologized in an afterword to the 1984 edition of the book.[1]

Still working on this (it's not exactly a page-turner) but on the last chapter.

It's very sad in spots, as you might suspect, but two of the guys have some remarkable insights that even we "normal" people could likely stand to learn.

[Lee G]

I'm still reading Byron's Don Juan, which is perhaps my fave thing of his (not least cause it's the funniest thing of his), but I just got sidetracked by David Mitchell's brand spankin' new novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

[spinetingler]

Scat, a YA novel (!) by Carl Hiaasen that my eldest got with a gift card the other day.

Much like his adult work, just less, er, adult.

[binR Bishop]

That is a gorgeously written book. I was looking forward to her latest work but the reviews didn't motivate me. Toby, what was that book on critical thinking you mentioned before?

If you're talking about The Lacuna, I read it. I liked it ok, but it was nowhere near the standard of Poisonwood Bible.

Just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's a fun read, but why can't murder mysteries just be about, well murders? Why do they always have to be about sadistic murders involving torture of women and animals? With all the gory details?

I'm now reading Enemies of the People, Kati Marton's account of her young years in Hungary when her parents were targets of the secret police. Next up is John Barry's book about the 1917 flu epidemic (can't remember the title right now).