What BOOK are you reading right now?

H G Wells' Outline of History, volume I.

i have my grandfathers hard cover copies, i've not read them cover to cover but have browsed them, someday

These are old copies of volumes I and II bought at a library sale by my ex brother in law.
I'm also not starting at the beginning (a privilege of being out of school, not to have to) but a bunch of pages in, where he discusses human migrations and the development of languages.

just checking mine out, they're 1949 editions, revised to the end of the second world war

So are mine...

I don't come here often, so....

Has anyone read anything by Neal Stephenson? Any comments? I've just ordered one from Amazon, on the strength of a conversation with my pal.

not read him, but always on my radar through other authors read

I've had more time on the trains since I have given up doing the NYTimes Crossword.
13 Things that Don't Make Sense // Michael Brooks
fascinating

Darwin in a Nutshell// Peter Whitfield
Too complex to be in a nutshell, but I learned some things

Island at the the Center of the World // Russell Shorto
Really excellent look at pre-English Manhattan. Learned the connection between the Dutch and why Mets fans wear Orange

Joe(and perhaps why America evolved into a democratic Republic with such ease.)Nation

i've been looking at the 13 things book, it does look good

We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. Rather a discomforting read, but very interesting, all the same.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Reviews/We-need-to-talk-about-Kevin/2005/05/13/1115843320412.html

I am reading "Inferno" by Niven & Pournelle, and I quite enjoy it.

I started re-reading The Hobbit by Tolkien and will then progress through the Lord of the Rings. I haven't read them in a long time and happened to catch one of the movies and got into the mood to read them.

never been able to read the lord of the rings, loved the hobbit, just got too bogged down in the rings, have seen the movies and listened to the bbc's dramatized productions

I found an 1888 copy of les miserables at a garage sale today for $2.

kinda interesting, but too old to be able to read every page condition...(they are all still there, just really crispy)

Wonderful!

cool, i love finding things like that

Oh, you lucky person! I love that when you find a gem. I head for old bookstores everywhere I go because you never know what treasure is waiting. I found George Eliot books (John Blackwood original publisher) in Palm Springs, CA and Chicago, IL!

I'll take some photos and send them to Mizizz to post, if anyone is curious...

(I have found it intriguing so far)

Oh that's fantastic RH - would love to see more pics please and anything you can tell about it.

The Court of the Air (published 2007), a fantasy steampunk novel set in a Victorian-esque world with the addition of magic in various forms and where steam power, rather than oil, drives the economy. The nation in which the plot is largely set (Jackals) is recognizably based on Victorian Britain and the main neighbouring country is presumably inspired by the Paris Commune and various other communist states (Quatérshift). A follow-up of sorts, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves (published 2008), is set in the same world and introduces more races and tells some of the back-story. Rather than being an "alternative" universe, it is hinted at through the books that this is actually Earth after an ice age, set hundreds of thousands of years in the future.
Hunt's novel, The Court of the Air, commenced his Jackelian fantasy series, and was the first of his works to be published by HarperCollins, also the publisher of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis in the UK. The Court of the Air was one of the ten books selected by the organisers of the Berlinale Film Festival/Berlinale Co-Production Market for presentation to US and European film producers. HarperCollins' elevator pitch for The Court of the Air was summarized as Charles Dickens meets Bladerunner.[3]
In November 2008, his second book in the Jackelian series, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, was nominated for the long-list of the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy. The third book in the series, The Rise of the Iron Moon, to due to be published in the UK in February 2009, features the invasion of the Kingdom of Jackals from the north by a horde called the Army of Shadows. The Kingdom's citizens initially believe the invaders are polar barbarians.