For those who are new ... we discuss books. I list what I'm reading, and people comment with what they're reading. Sometimes I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
Just the usual diary this week.
cfk has Bookflurries on Wednesday nights, with links to lots of other diaries about books and reading on daily Kos .
Just finished
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. An amazing book. Very hard to describe, but I reviewed it here.
Now reading
Ideas: A history of thought and invention from fire to Freud by Peter Watson. We've started this book in Let's Read a Book Together. We are going through it one chapter per week, but the chapters can be read more or less independent. Come join us on Sundays. I think though, that I will abandon this series -
Society without God by Phil Zuckerman. How life is lived in two of the least religious countries on Earth: Denmark and Sweden. The first chapter of this book demolishes the argument that societies without God would be hellish, crime-ridden or whatever. Later in the book, he has discussions, or interviews, with many ordinary people about their lives and the role of religion.
The Fellowship by John Gribbin. About the founding of the Royal Society and the scientific revolution. I am fascinated by this period, but am finding this rather slow going. I'll stick with it though. I wish I could find a better book on this. The fact that this book isn't holding my interest is not good.
William Blake: Collected Poems, I got this one for my Kindle and now I can't find the edition I got. But it's all the poems. I have to get this in print. Reading poetry on the Kindle just isn't the same.
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Physics by Julian Barbour. Barbour's idea is that time does not really exist. Just started it, but it looks very interesting
Just started
The New Space Opera 2 ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. A collection of science fiction short stories in the "space opera" style. Mostly, I like them.
Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. The story of the battle for Stalingrad, and surrounding events. Brilliant, harrowing, informative. The eastern front gets much less attention than the Pacific or western fronts, but the scale of destruction and loss of life was huge. The only problem I have is who to root for. One has to root against Hitler, of course. But it's hard to root for Stalin in any real way, despite the fact that they were our allies at the time.
And some technical books for work.