what i have read in 2011
time waits for no man.
as a continuing tradition ('09,'10), post yer books.
did not read as much as i really wanted to last year.
got a kindle for christmas and am about a third of the way through the sparrow:
In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human." When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong...




Jan04 '11
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not to meep up your thread, but how do you like the kindle? I can't decide between the kindle or the nook.
Jan04 '11
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to stay on topic, currently reading 'Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose' , it is the story of how Zappos.com was formed and their culture of customer service. Actually a really good read.
Jan04 '11
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Reading "Sword of Shannara" by Terry Brooks. Haven't finished yet because, to be honest, I'm really not digging it.
Jan04 '11
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Currently reading a very exciting forum. I'll let you know how it ends!
Jan04 '11
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Oh that Terry Brooks series sucks meep. It never gets better than what you've already covered.
Jan04 '11
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I read the shannara series in middle school and it was the main reason I got into sci-fi/fantasy. I loved it and reread it 3 or 4 times. It's been 20 years since I read it last though..
Try some David Eddings or Tad Williams.
Jan04 '11
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I finished God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater on the first while lounging around waiting for life to start happening again, which was my second Vonnegut book. As I expected, I only really needed to read one of them.
I am now flipping between 'The Watchmen', 'The Sound and The Fury', by Faulkner, and 'The Island', by Huxley
Thinking about reading 'We.' Has anyone read it?
Jan04 '11
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Just finished Garrison Keillor's "Book of Guys" yesterday, am now working on a Robert E. Howard anthology.
Jan04 '11
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For Christmas bought two books for myself and just finished both in the past two days:
JFK in Ireland: Four Days That Changed a President by Ryan Tubridy
The Rite: The Making of a Modern Day Exorcist by Matt Baglio
Currently reading:
Shooting Star: The Bevo Francis Story by Kyle Keiderling
Jan04 '11
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I just read the Keith Richards Bio. Meh
Jan04 '11
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@GrapeApe
i love the kindle. haven't really messed with the nook. from what i can tell, the only major differences: the kindle doesn't handle EPUB format, but you can use a conversion program. also, kindle battery life is much better.
Jan04 '11
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Just read "Full Dark, No Stars", Stephen Kings new collection of short stories. meep, that dude has gotten dark. The stories are very good, but I felt like I needed a bath after each one. If he keeps this up, I won't read him anymore. These four stories are truly horrible.
Jan04 '11
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What I have read -0-
What was read to me -miranda rights-
I did read a bio called "Hipopotumas"
Jan05 '11
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@ghostrider
i've always enjoyed his short stories over his full-lengths. perhaps i'll check this out.
Jan05 '11
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Just finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctrow (From Boing Boing) and found it still spot on, even a couple of years later.
Now reading My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk and am really digging it. A very different voice and some new plot devices that are very Eastern.
Jan10 '11
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Farenheit 451 is a good read, Darren Shans' Demonata series is fairly decent as well, reading a book called "mom, was there color when you were young?" journal style book
Jan13 '11
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Now reading
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Jan13 '11
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Now reading
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Jan13 '11
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Just finished Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese. It has that rich and lush imagery that only Indian writers can give.
Jan15 '11
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Finished The Human Stain and Indignation both by Philip Roth. They were both freaky and weird and GREAT.
Then moved to an uplifting tale about an innocent 13 sweetie pie farm girl in nepal gets sold into prostitution in Calcutta to cover step-dad's gambling debt at the tea house. The best part, its a CHILDREN'S book. Booya.
Currently reading The Blood Meridian by McCarthy and my dictionary is getting a workout. So far, I am loving it. I was pretty pissed at about page 60 or so to realize this is a meeping western but I got over it.
Feb08 '11
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The Story of Inyo, W.A. Chalfant.
History of the Owens Valley (East of the Sierra). This area has an awesome history of Indian wars, Gold Mining, desperadoes, and culminates in the wholesale sell-off (via deceptive and crooked politics) of its most valuable resource - water to the city of Los Angeles. Written by a journalist-pioneer in 1922, it carries the journalistic style of that time.
Real old-west.
Feb13 '11
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Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. Bought it in the airport in Sarasota yesterday. Pure fluff, but fun in the best way. As I read it, I saw it as a movie in my head with Geoffrey Rush as Sir James Almont, Collin Farrell as Captain Hunter, Alfred Molina as Don Diego De Ramano, and Michael Clarke Duncan as The Moor.
Party on, Garth.
Feb13 '11
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Reading The Shining because I haven't seen the movie yet (no meep).
Read How Green was my Valley and To Kill a Mockingbird because
I really liked the movies and hadn't read the books yet.
Sometimes it seems like I was raised in a closet.
Feb13 '11
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Just finished the sequel to The Daemon, a kind of pulpy "high-tech thriller" that I expected to smell like Matrix fanboy, but it's unusual for this kind of book in that the really cool stuff is actually possible, modulo the hand-waving bits, which are at least not entirely meeping retarded. If you can gloss over an ailing super-savant and his flawless AI, it's got a lot of neat scenarios in it.