any Holiday reading ----?

[Mark Walberg]

[QUOTE=robin3mj;881135] think about eating stale bread.[/QUOTE
Speaking of that, Down and Out in Paris and London is a good read and well worthwhile.

[deano]

I had a great reading year wherein all the books I read were really good; guess you can judge by the cover:

Silence, Shusako Endo (read it last year too)
Thomas Merton's Asian Journals
A Treatise on Shelling Beans, Wieslaw Mysliwski - best one all year, a Polish translation of a gem of a story; truly beautiful.
Moving the Palace, Charif Maldijani
Submission, Michel Houellebecq
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders

For the holidays, I'm planning to read A Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks, known on the internet as Herdy Shepherd.

Augustine's City of God. Probably won't find its way back to someone's best seller list. But I've always been interested in the early father's of Christianity, and he's certainly the big one.

That was all of grad school for me, though I never made it to City of God in that time. Augustine's Homilies on I John are amazing, not quite the tome of CoG. I also really dig Kierkegaard to read along with Augustine; I was kind of down on him for a bit, but I decided I like him again. I don't know how similarly he and Aug. would articulate their metaphysics, but they are doing quite similar things, I think, or at least I argued as such in a paper that didn't get torn to shreds.

[false_aesthetic]

The lady's parents bought me a Philip K. Dick book -- starting it today. Pretty impressed with this considering that they've given out a few Trump biographies in the past.

[bking]

I had a great reading year wherein all the books I read were really good; guess you can judge by the cover:

Silence, Shusako Endo (read it last year too)
Thomas Merton's Asian Journals
A Treatise on Shelling Beans, Wieslaw Mysliwski - best one all year, a Polish translation of a gem of a story; truly beautiful.
Moving the Palace, Charif Maldijani
Submission, Michel Houellebecq
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders

For the holidays, I'm planning to read A Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks, known on the internet as Herdy Shepherd.



That was all of grad school for me, though I never made it to City of God in that time. Augustine's Homilies on I John are amazing, not quite the tome of CoG. I also really dig Kierkegaard to read along with Augustine; I was kind of down on him for a bit, but I decided I like him again. I don't know how similarly he and Aug. would articulate their metaphysics, but they are doing quite similar things, I think, or at least I argued as such in a paper that didn't get torn to shreds.

Just received Homilies on John based upon your enthusiasm. I enjoyed his Confessions, really a "modern" autobiography for a book written 1500 plus years ago, very easy and enjoyable read. City of God, a slug fest...hope I can get out of the first 3 or 4 rounds as I'm convinced the pace will pick up if I can hang on a bit longer.

[manet]

"This book serves as both provocation and comfort, a secular prayer for those who are alone - meaning all of us"
The New York Times Book Review

[thomas]

Longitude, by Dava Sobel, is a good read, especially if you're into anything related to boats, the sea, etc., or anything map-related.

Just reminds you how much we take for granted.

Or you could just pick up any collection of Calvin and Hobbes and call it good. Joy awaits you.

[vertical_doug]

Since it is so bitter cold out, Kolyma Tales by Shalamov.

It is a collection of short stories mixing fact and fiction on life in a Soviet Labor camp. The sheer brutality of the gulag and the relentless cold in the winter makes for some really great story telling.

[jumphigher]

I read around a half dozen to 10 books in 2017. Lot's of cycling books (Samuel Abt, etc) and a few novels. Currently I'm reading 'Vector' by Robin Cook - yeah I know it's old, lol.

[Mabouya]

Since it is so bitter cold out, Kolyma Tales by Shalamov.

It is a collection of short stories mixing fact and fiction on life in a Soviet Labor camp. The sheer brutality of the gulag and the relentless cold in the winter makes for some really great story telling.

Next, you can go for "The Long Walk" by Slawomir Rawicz and "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. That should keep you shivering for a while. Brrrrrr....

[monadnocky]

Next, you can go for "The Long Walk" by Slawomir Rawicz and "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. That should keep you shivering for a while. Brrrrrr....

I read the former and I am still up in the air on whether it was completely fabricated (likely, in my opinion). Regardless, a hell of a good read.

[davids]

Next, you can go for "The Long Walk" by Slawomir Rawicz and "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. That should keep you shivering for a while. Brrrrrr....

I loved "Into Thin Air".
It reminded me of "Young Men and Fire" by Norman Maclean.
Two books that convey anguish better than any others I've read.

[robin3mj]

I'm about halfway through Misbehaving by Thaler.
It is a really good read.

Also ripped through Matthew Fitzsimmon's Gibson Vaughn series (3 books) over the holiday. Reasonably readable spy type novels that had the benefit of being free to read on Kindle via my Prime account.

[adamcw89]

Longitude, by Dava Sobel, is a good read, especially if you're into anything related to boats, the sea, etc., or anything map-related.

I love that book, have you read any of her other books?