***Book Club***

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

A place to recommend and discuss literature.

My current read is 'Selected Essays, Lectures, and Poems' by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

If you've never read Emerson, you should. He's one of the great literary minds and philosophers from the US. So far the writings that have really struck me are 'Woman', 'Nature' and 'Self-Reliance'

Brilliant stuff!

 

[usedtobefast]

the grapes of wrath-john steinbeck
rereading yet again.

 

[Steampunk]

Am currently enjoying China Miéville's Perdido Street Station. Big Neal Stephenson fan, too.

 

[Anonymous]

Am currently enjoying China Miéville's Perdido Street Station. Big Neal Stephenson fan, too.

With the near collapse of the world's financial system and new administration here in the U.S. I've been reading Ayn Rand. Tedious, but she was ahead of her time. "Atlas Shrugged" gives some insight as to where this country may be headed economically.

For fun there is always Clive Cussler. Dirk Pitt is a bad-ass.

 

[Bala Verde]

Finished Le Rouge et le Noir - Stendhal a while ago. Must read!

Now I am picking up:

The Slave Ship - Rediker
The Ayatollah begs to differ - Hooman Majd
Avengers of the New World - Dubois

 

[Anonymous]

Crikey, thats some serious stuff..

Theres me thinking i was breaking new ground reading High Fidelity by Nick Hornby..
I shall have to send the wife in, shes on about five books a week and has read just about everything :/

 

[Bag_O_Wallet]

I just finished The Aeneid by Virgil. There's lots of fighting and lots of gruesome detail blood, guts, and I believe the quote is "hot brains" flying all over the place.

Relating this all back to the world of cycling... the lead character visits the Elysian Fields in the Underworld. I ended up looking the Elysian Fields up on Wikipedia, and found this...

"In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields in Elysium were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.
Elysian Fields may also refer to:
Avenue des Champs-Élysées (English: Avenue of the Elysian Fields)"

Could you ask for a better spot for a bike race to end?

 

[Bala Verde]

"In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields in Elysium were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.
Elysian Fields may also refer to:
Avenue des Champs-Élysées (English: Avenue of the Elysian Fields)"

Could you ask for a better spot for a bike race to end?

In one word: "Classic"!

 

[elapid]

All-time favourites are, in order of preference:
-The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey
-Touching the Void, Joe Simpson
-The Road, Cormac McCarthy
-Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
-Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger
-Power of One, Bryce Courtney
-Angels & Demons, and Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown

I have been on a bit of a history and classics kick recently. Just finished Gallipoli: The Fatal Shore, Catch-22 and Fightclub, and have 1984 and To Kill A Mockingbird up next. Also bought Born to Run on the advice of TFF, but that's sitting third on the book shelf with another Gallipoli book.

+1 for Grapes of Wrath.

 

[flyor64]

I'm a sucker for military history, and other non-fiction. I really can't put down a well written fictionalization of a historical event...ala Gates of Fire by Pressfield or The Secret Agent by Conrad.

A book I read over the summer that was along these lines and fantastic was Devil in the White City by Eric Larson. Turn of the century piece on Chicago's World's Colombian Exposition (World's Fair 1893) told from two very different viewpoints; the lead architect of the fair, a serial killer.

As I'm learning Norwegian I've recently branched into that realm. I'm currently reading Max Manus, and autobiography of the occupation of Norway by Germany during WWII and the Norwegian resistance. It's fascinating reading, albeit a little slow for me with lots of dictionary references being made.

 

[El Imbatido]

the grapes of wrath-john steinbeck
rereading yet again.

Yeah i'm reading 'The Winter Of Our Discontent' another classic Steinbeck.

Also reading:

LA Confidential: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong - Re-reading again, prompted too by some of the quotes from it in the clinic.

Every Second Counts - Read LA's first book but never got around to the second one. Also prompted to by the happenings in the clinic.

'A Better Way to Train' By Carl Cantrell. Great book about cycling, training and racing. A must read. I have the PDF version if anyone wants it. Just drop me a PM.

101 Defensive & Conditioning water polo drills. Re-reading this to help with the upcoming water polo season.

Also have Pete Read's 'Black Book' also in PDF if anyone wants that as well just PM me.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

I'm just finishing a re-read of "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchmann.

The books I go back to and re-read every couple of years are anything by Jane Austen.

I also just recently re-read the Max Perkins biography, so I will probably see what F. Scott Fitzgerald I have. Frankly I could never read Tom Wolfe.

Haven't looked at Faulkner lately, he's always great.....

Susan

 

[krebs303]

I' m a Issac Asimov fan. Fiction or non- fiction. Also Robert Heinlein, James Michener. And an obscure book "J.G. the Upright Ape; being a novel about the way things are as discovered in the adventures of an innocent hero and illuminated by his forthright reaction to women, men, progress, and other contemporary phenomena."

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

I've been looking for a copy of the two-volume Isaac Asimov autobiography. I read it a number of years ago and would like to read it again.

Needless to say, I am having very little luck finding it here in Germany.

Susan

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

I like Asimov too. The only series I've read from him is 'Foundation', probably one of the more popular releases from him, but reading your posts has sparked my interest again.

Right next to my Asimov sits 'The Complete Science Fiction Treasury of H.G. Wells'

 

[Anonymous]

on the wifes behalf cos she still wont register..

shes reading.. The blood of others by Simone De Beauvoir, which is allegedly an existentialist feminist novel

and youre all reading "man books" apparently..

 

[Bag_O_Wallet]

on the wifes behalf cos she still wont register..

shes reading.. The blood of others by Simone De Beauvoir, which is allegedly an existentialist feminist novel

and youre all reading "man books" apparently..

Too funny! That's exactly what my wife calls the books I read.

 

[Bala Verde]

and youre all reading "man books" apparently..

How else would they get that name?

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

I just started reading "Julie and Julia" -- looks quite funny.

Susan

 

[Bala Verde]

I just started reading "Julie and Julia" -- looks quite funny.

Susan

Only saw the movie, and although Meryl Streep was a great Julia, it was quite painful to watch. I hope the book is better, but then again I have been told by an editor that Julie is a bad writer...

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

I'lll let you know when I finish. The first chapter is quite funny.

I was thinking of seeing the movie as I love Meryl Streep.

Susan

 

[Big_Blue_Dave]

Finished Don't Look Twice by Andrew Gross last week, and can't decide what to move onto next. Have about 100 books that have been bought and allowed to gather dust over the last 10 years but I think one of my Tom Clancy ones will get read next.

 

[Dude17]

Recently read "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Just finished "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz. Currently reading "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery.

Comments on a few mentioned by others:
Couldn't stand "The Road." Just couldn't make more than about halfway through the first chapter.

Liked "Winter of our Discontent" by Steinbeck. It was a book that stuck with me after I read it more than I thought it would.

 

[ak-zaaf]

Almost done with the first part of the 'millennium trilogy' by Stieg Larsson.
It's good, but I honestly don't get the hype.
I probably will read the second part when I'm done with this since it's only €10,- here now.


But overall I still prefer to read cycling books. I have a small collection of about 200 now and I still enjoy reading new ones and searching for old ones.

 

[elapid]

Couldn't stand "The Road." Just couldn't make more than about halfway through the first chapter.

Personal preferences are funny, aren't they? I couldn't put the book down and I finished it in an afternoon.