What are you reading?

[Ymir's blood]

I finished The Haunted Looking Glass, a collection of ghost stories assembled (not written) by Edward Gorey today. Good stuff. I did skip the two I'd read before, Dickens' The Signalman and Stevenson's The Bodysnatcher.

[Ymir's blood]

I found a used copy of The Sufferings of Young Werther by Goethe last night and started on it.

[Dingfod]

I am currently reading about modifying a Toyota 3TC engine. I do not know why. I have no Toyota and little inclination to actually work on one that needs to be worked on.

Actually, I might have an inkling. I used to have a car with that engine in it and I complained for the whole two years we had it about how little power it had. On the other hand, it did get close to 40 mpg.

[Veritas]

Dingfod, your queerness amuses me.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Swords and Hilt Weapons, by Peter Connolly and seven other authors.
It's pretty good, but I'm disappointed it repeats a myth: that if a Gurkha unsheathes their khukuri, it will be used to draw blood, even if that means their own. Utter bullshit, on par with saying if a Swiss unfolds their pocketknife, it will be used to draw blood.
You'd think experts in blade history would know better, but oh well.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Robert A. Becker Revolution, Reform and the Politics of American Taxation, 1763-1783.

Every time I drop by my advisor's to let him know how my research is going, he throws another book at me..."Here, include this too."

Ironic though, how we rebelled from Britain over taxes, and over the course of the Revolution, taxes increased at least 15 times over what they had been before, and, by screwing the poor out of fair representation and the use of regressive taxes, the wealthy managed to put the lionshare of the tax burden onto the "poor and middling" classes.

Not much has changed in 230 years.

[quiet bear]

I'm re-reading The Art of Happiness at Work, by Howard Cutler. It's a series of conversations with the Dalai Lama.

Just taking a brush up course.

[JaredM]

The Alphabet of Manliness by George "Maddox" Ouzounian.

[California Tanker]

Decided to take a break from the Iraq readings, and have kicked off with "Panzer Aces II", basically a bunch of mini-biographies of the WWII careers of German armoured vehicle crewmen. It's the second book of a series.

As an aside, I recently finished "Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks", an easy-to-read mini-autobiography of a Soviet Sherman company commander in WWII.

NTM

[Veritas]

Why am I reading so many biographies lately and not much fiction? I'll lose touch with fiction unless I read more novels...

[Dingfod]

I am reading the book my Secret Santa sent me, out loud, to anyone that will listen to me because it's funny. It is George Erasmus' book, HOW to REMAIN what you ARE, Everything you always wanted to know about LUXEMBOURG but nobody ever told you.

Next up, another Xmas gift: Neil Gaman & Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agens Nutter, Witch.

[Veritas]

Dingfod, I should warn you - Good Omens will cause spontaneous opening of the bowels. I shat myself laughing at the bit about the bananas.

True dat.

[Dingfod]

I read it once about 10 years ago. I remember it being funny, but not so much so that I shat myself.

[Veritas]

Maybe your bowels were tighter then.

[Kyuss Apollo]

or less full of shit

[Veritas]

[xyza]

The newest in the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K Hamilton ... Not while I'm working nights though, far too much sex in the book for reading at work

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

or less full of shit

I think anyone that knew me then would have to say that I was as full of shit then as I am now. However, the sphincter ring may indeed have been tighter. Age does bad things to a person. Tonight sometime, I commence the shat splattering read.

[Veritas]

Best have the toilet roll ready, Dingfod.

[ceptimus]

I'm reading LILA An Inquiry Into Morals by Robert M Pirsig. This is a kind of sequel to his Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I'm only a quarter of the way through at the moment. I'm finding it a bit slow and also rather difficult at the moment, but it's interesting enough to make me want to continue. I hope and expect that once the foundations are laid, it will become much more absorbing.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Good Omens rocks hardcore.

Reading The God Delusion--got it for Xmas.

[biochemgirl]

I am reading The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug

It's very good. I read a lot of books about history and plagues and such, and the problem is that usually they are a bit tough to work your way through (even for a science minded person). This is so engrossing, I can't put it down. In fact I'm headed to bed to settle in and read a bit more.

[D. Scarlatti]

[Sock Puppet]

I'm finally beginning Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Very Zelaznyesque so far. Me likey.

[Watser?]

Reading this book that Shelli sent me for Sinterklaas:

It is very good