What are you reading?

Carol 83

Flower Girl
Messages
11,120
Reaction score
27,116
Location
IL
:))))

Around here, there are A TON of "summer reading programs"

My children read more books than watch TV by nearly ten-fold...

By NOW.. it's their choice.

🤓
That's great. Luckily, my son got his love of reading from his mom. His dad is proud of the fact he only read one book in high school and none since then. However, he can fix almost anything, so I guess we all have our different paths.
 

HorseloverFat

Squarepants with Conkers
Messages
11,356
Reaction score
16,220
Location
Northeast Wisconsin
USDA Zone
5a
That's great. Luckily, my son got his love of reading from his mom. His dad is proud of the fact he only read one book in high school and none since then. However, he can fix almost anything, so I guess we all have our different paths.
My parents encouraged reading strongly, as well.

My dad (generally) read things like "The Elegant Universe", "Flatland", "Fuzzy Logic", "Alice in Quantamland." Physics and number theory textbooks, ect.

And then Non-fiction about certain conflicts/battalions/Generals/War heroes.

My Mother (generally) read a fascinatingly strange mix of Fantasy, murder/mystery, and english translations of Japanese Poetry

But no matter the case.. reading was always present... much more so than television.

And no matter HOW "punished" I was.... the books would never get taken away...

(COMIC books would.. but Hey! I already read those ones)

😂
 

Orion_metalhead

Masterpiece
Messages
2,993
Reaction score
4,459
Location
Central NJ
USDA Zone
7a
Just finished Nick Lloyd's "The Western Front", an account of the Western front of World War 1. Not sure whats next. Either Chernow's "Washington", Davis Shenk's "The Immortal Game" or Asimov's "Prelude to Foundation".

rn_image_picker_lib_temp_003e20de-18f6-4682-86c6-02da3e9a606f.jpg
 

HorseloverFat

Squarepants with Conkers
Messages
11,356
Reaction score
16,220
Location
Northeast Wisconsin
USDA Zone
5a
Just finished Nick Lloyd's "The Western Front", an account of the Western front of World War 1. Not sure whats next. Either Chernow's "Washington", Davis Shenk's "The Immortal Game" or Asimov's "Prelude to Foundation".

View attachment 468203

If your going BACK to "war"...

I'd suggest, at some point in your life, reading the "Chesty Puller"- book...


I cannot recall the name, however.
 

Cajunrider

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,539
Reaction score
12,881
Location
Louisiana
USDA Zone
9A
Wow!

That looks like an interesting vantage point.. I'd like to read that.
His story is very similar to many among my classmates. You gotta hear us talking in during our class reunions (we do this practically every year in the past 5 years). Stories about treatment in concentration camps, hardship in new countries are plentiful. BTW the author is a big time Beatles fan. He told us about singing the song Let It Be to himself lots of time in his time of darkness.
 

HorseloverFat

Squarepants with Conkers
Messages
11,356
Reaction score
16,220
Location
Northeast Wisconsin
USDA Zone
5a
His story is very similar to many among my classmates. You gotta hear us talking in during our class reunions (we do this practically every year in the past 5 years). Stories about treatment in concentration camps, hardship in new countries are plentiful. BTW the author is a big time Beatles fan. He told us about singing the song Let It Be to himself lots of time in his time of darkness.

That sounds heartbreaking and fascinating!

I'd LEARN Korean to come and hear you guys speak.

I "sponsor/help with his addictions" a Vietnam War POW...... He is SO immensely broken.... And UNDERSTANDS it, hates it and wants terribly to be "normal"....

He disappears for weeks at a time.. I haven't seen him lately.

The Iraq/Afghanistan vets that I talk to.... Seem even MORE in need of help....

War is AWEFUL.... Hate is AWEFUL...

Look at the great human capacity for EVIL towards each other, we have.
 

AlainK

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
5,394
Reaction score
9,485
Location
Orléans, France, Europe
USDA Zone
9A
In the tram, lots of young people, eyes down to their I-phones or the kind. A picture of heads bent down, unaware of what the world around is.

I always have a book in my pocket. Sometimes, someone smiles at me and ask me "can you read in this noise around ?" (that's when it's rush hours and I have to stand). And I say "yes, I get off at the end of the line, so I don't worry, even if I sometimes have to read back the last paragraph !" I also like to raise my eyes and have a look around to see the people in the "box":D
I don't have ear-plugs, when I hear something, I lift my eyes from my book - I'm curious, I like to know what is around.

Loud-mouth black or arab boys laughing when they get on.

I probably did the same when I was in my teens. Went back to my book. A couple of stations futher, "excuse me madam" one of them said, and he went off the tram. Like a good son his mother has taught him to be, one in 100, one of the 99 in a hundred...

But I like the 15 or so minutes on the tram. I read, or if I can't, I meet intresting people :D

The last ones I've read :

"La Bague sans Doigt", Jean Zay. About Jean Zay, this novel was written when he was in jail under the collaborationist "Etat Français". I worked in the same school as one of his daughters, I buy books in the bookshop his other daugyter founded). It was written in 1941, it has a kind of "Tintin feel" if you know what I mean, it's kind of naive, very 1930s... An important person in my hometown. Among other things he was the one who founded the "Festival de Cannes"

"Le Testament d'un Poète Juif Assassiné", Elie Wiesel. I found it in a "book box", in a park. A very dense, emotional historical semi autobiographical novel. Alot of my family memories collapsing to this novel...

Today, I'm about to finish " Le Disparu de Larvik" (Blindgang) by Jorn Lier Horst. Very well-written, The French translation is good enough to render the narrative skill of the author.

Tomorrow, I'll start an essay, "Un chagrin français", by Anne Rosencher, a journalist trying to find a remedy to what could bring France to the dark ages we knew. A declaration of love to France and "collective bravery" (courage collectif).

Alain
 
Last edited:

ShadyStump

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
5,886
Reaction score
9,732
Location
Southern Colorado, USA
USDA Zone
6a
😫 When I was a child I would often be reading 3 or more books at a time, finishing them within days. Now days I feel like I barely have the mental wherewithal to finish 1 a year. I miss that freedom.
 
Top Bottom