What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

[Coito ergo sum]

I don't seethe as much as rant.

A rant by any other name is just as sweet

[Clinton Huxley]

Flashman's Lady. Classic Flashman, with added cricket.

[JimC]

Re-reading the space opera saga of David Weber, starring Dame Honour Harrington...

[apophenia]

I've got 100 or so pages in Doubt by Jennifer M. Hecht (on the 26th), then my other three groups, the latter part of The Happiness Hypothesis which I already mentioned, The Year of Living Biblically (I think; I may skip that one, as it's a bit light for my tastes - and it's on the 25th), and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey Of Pat Tillman (which is on the 2nd; ouch, no rest for the weary - may go easy on that one too).

I'd like to spend time with Hawkins' On Intelligence, readings on Anatta, and I've got some Bloom County from the library that I'm enjoying immensely. (And a Viktor Stenger book is coming in May — may skip an April book and get a start on Stenger.)

Guess that's pretty much it, except for some readings in Heraclitus, which is just a snack. (Only fragments of him survived. Well under 100 pages.)

[Trinity]

just finished SF called "Air" by Geoff Ryman...bloody excellent

[Ian]

[Ronja]

Je-BUS! Ian, is the cover of that Pinker book what I think it is?

[anna09]

Loved this!

[Ian]

Je-BUS! Ian, is the cover of that Pinker book what I think it is?

An angel stopping Abraham from killing Isaac at the last moment? Yes.

But the book most certainly does not consider religion to be a pacifying influence; if anything, it takes religion to task for being institutions which helped to prolong centuries of institutional torture by placing greater value on souls than on lives, and by espousing intolerance and genocide, not to mention the barbarity contained within the texts themselves. The book's title is taken from an Abraham Lincoln quote, btw.

It's an excellent book. I highly recommend it.

[Ronja]

Yeah, that's how I interpreted the message of the cover, and it struck me as gutsy and very straight-forward. I'll definitely keep that one in mind, next time I need something a bit more substantial to read. Thanks for posting about it!

[John_fi_Skye]

I'm quite near the end of The Bridge, by Iain Banks. One of my daughters gave me it for xmas, but I'd been too busy to read much up until yesterday. It's enigmatic, of course, but I'm involved and already very moved, and I'm worried I might be terribly upset by the ending. We'll see.

Recently, I read The Man Who Gave Away His Island, the biography of John Lorne Campbell. It was great. I hadn't known he'd been such a pal of Compton Mackenzie's. But lots of others mentioned in the book are/were people I've known - Hugh Cheape, Hamish Henderson, John Macinnes, Angus Macintosh - and the I'm familiar with lots of the places it refers to.

[rachelbean]

Going to start "Black Swan Green" on my trip into work tomorrow

[John_fi_Skye]

The Bridge, by Iain Banks, is wonderful.

[JimC]

Je-BUS! Ian, is the cover of that Pinker book what I think it is?

An angel stopping Abraham from killing Isaac at the last moment? Yes.

But the book most certainly does not consider religion to be a pacifying influence; if anything, it takes religion to task for being institutions which helped to prolong centuries of institutional torture by placing greater value on souls than on lives, and by espousing intolerance and genocide, not to mention the barbarity contained within the texts themselves. The book's title is taken from an Abraham Lincoln quote, btw.

It's an excellent book. I highly recommend it.

I must give it a go - I have enjoyed other books by Pinker...

[John_fi_Skye]

Author Unknown, by Don Foster. Looks interesting so far.