What BOOK are you reading right now?

Yes, for sure. I'm reading a lot I already knew and piles of stuff I'd no idea of. Very dense. Smallish print. Great illustrations with no credit.

But, liking it.

I woke up later in a dream, in a dirty city, in a miserable deli at the bottom of a building, asking the counter guy for a pastrami on rye..
No kidding, those were my waking words. That was this morning. Stay tuned for tomorrow.

A Stendhal fan I see ! Consider also M'ille de La Mole at the bar with him.

I'm not sure whether you're talking about a fictional character or a Huxley, so I've imagined both, but they got into a fight and were chucked out.

Julien Sorel would never get into a fight. He was too accommodating for his own good.

It's Heaven! Of course there's fighting.

added a new book to the currently reading list, The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card, an author that continues to mystify book to book, some i can't get into (Ender's stuff for example) and some i quite enjoy (Lost Boys and various short fiction)

In the ancient world, pantheons of gods ruled over every society of man, until the trickster, Loki, sealed off the source of their power. Ever since they have been forced to live with greatly diminished power amongst the humans they used to rule.

Danny North has discovered that he has the powers of a gate mage, making him one of the most powerful members of his family of former gods. Unfortunately this earns him a death sentence. Ever since their fall, the former gods have made a pact that anyone who shows the same power as Loki, the power of a gate mage, must be killed immediately lest one pantheon be the only one to return to its former greatness. Danny must flee from his family and fend for himself in the society of normal humans while he learns to use his power and recover the greatness for all mages that Loki stole so long ago.

Meanwhile in the world of Westil, the home world of the gods, a boy has been released from his ancient imprisonment inside a tree. He has no recollection of who is or how he became imprisoned. All he knows is that he too has the great powers of a gate mage and that he has forgotten something very important.

For the book lovers out there...

Thanks, kiddo (meant in the best way)

I'm reading the McCullough book sent to me by Pemerson, about americans in Paris in the nineteen hundreds. Lots of names I knew but did not know much about if anything. Let me know if you want to read it. It's a mix of oddly easy descriptive stuff (why I say that, another whole subject but I take it as well researched) and very interesting. I'm half way through now. So far, I recommend it.


On the other hand, I liked the book Parallel Lives. Just ask.

The Mc Cullough book is Greater Journey.

Parallel lives - http://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Lives-Five-Victorian-Marriages/dp/0394725808
I've both of them if you have interest.

I haven't had much time for reading because of my full teaching load and because I am writing a novel. Both require intensive reading and rereading. I have been chipping away at a literary biography of Shakespeare, called The Soul of the Age by Jonathan Bate.

However, today, I began A First-Rate Madness; Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness by Nassir Ghaemi of the Tufts Medical School faculty.

Ghaemi is convinced that 'normal,' mentally healthy people can successfully lead in ordinary times but that times of great stress demand extraordinary leaders. Such leaders, he feels, are more often people with depression (which makes them empathic), but are especially people with mania (bipolar disorder).

He has chosen 8 people with successful political, military and business careers to examine.

Are you ready for the list?

They are William Tecumseh Sherman, Ted Turner, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, MLK, FDR and JFK.

His counter example consists of 5 people with normal mental health who he feels failed in moments of crisis. They are Richard Nixon (yes, many would debate his mental health), George McClellan, Neville Chamberlain and possibly George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

I'm on page 6. We shall see.

Can't see it, butrfly.

But that makes me remember a photo I saw of Hitchens this a.m.
I liked the photo as it seemed quite like him, but was also interested in his book shelf system. I suppose lots of people do that, some kind of hidden rack where you can stack, say, nine books at a time - in a vertical column.

Just finished: Zodiac by Neal Stephenson

Reading: Predictably Irrational.

....and with the teapot and cup standing next to it. What else can one ask for?

Just finished Handling The Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of Let The Right One In.

Excellent, unexpected, thought provoking and emotionally satisfying.

Highly recommended.

Since I think I have read virtually everything Stephenson has written, I suspect I read Zodiac. That I don't remember the novel is testimony to its failures. However, to argue that Stephenson is predictably irrational is to perhaps suggest that one has, only, read Zodiac or is incapable of recognizing great literary talent.

What other Stephenson novels have your read that you consider "irrational?"

I just finished A Clash of Kings, the second in the "Song of Ice and
Fire" series by George Martin. I got started on the series after watching
the HBO miniseries Game of Thrones.

Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point is my book to read while waiting for
Rhys at the gym and Foucault's Pendulum is my book by the workbench.
I've been reading that one forever.

George Martin is ruthless. He'll get you totally involved with a character
and the next thing you know that fellow's head is rolling on the ground.

Yes. One can only hope that by the end of book 7, there will be sweet revenge for the noble fallen (and by 'sweet', I mean slow and painful...ice and/or fire!!!).

For those that have already read the five books published so far (and, like moi, are eagerly awaiting the next massive installment), GRRM has presented us with a wonderful Christmas gift -- his first sample chapter of The Winds of Winter (Link to sample chapter - contains SPOILERS!).

It's beautifully written and exceptionally provocative, leading one to wonder and speculate about all manner of plot twists and turns.

Thank you, Mr. Martin!

I'm about 2/3 the way through Random Family by Adrian Nicole Le Blanc
http://www.amazon.com/Random-Family-Drugs-Trouble-Coming/dp/0743254430/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325186566&sr=1-1

Quite a book so far, written by a journalist following the lives of two women (and many other people) in the Bronx. The book reminds me a lot of Children of Sanchez by Oscar Lewis.

Right now I am reading An Evil Eye by Jason Goodwin. This is the 4th installment in a historical (mystery) fiction series set in the Ottoman Empire of mid 19th century.

Goodwin is an expert on the Ottoman Empire and wrote the excellent Lords of The Horizons, a non-fiction, historical account of the Turkish empire.

The main character in the series is Yashim, the renaissance eunuch who serves as something of a detective and problem solver for the Sultan.

The first in the series, The Janissary Tree won the 2007 Edgar Award for best novel.

The books provide a wonderful wealth of facinating facts about the Ottomon Empire in general and Istanbul and Europe during the 1800's.

The core mysteries are complex and intriguing, defying the best attempts at early solving.

Each book in the series treats readers to at least one detailed decription of a delicious sounding meal; skillfully prepared by Yashim.

Highly recommended.