Comments on: Nightstand: What some of your favorite Scholars & Rogues are reading

By: Lex

Lex — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:45:45 +0000

Well, Terry, i think it’s funny!

Obviously, myself and my two brothers had to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” in school, and i’m not sure why but we all used my mother’s copy. By some act of grace, that copy made it through all three of us. And it wasn’t until years later that my mother realized she was sitting on a first edition. We probably wouldn’t have been allowed to touch it had she known that. It’s valued at between $5,000 and $8,000.

By: Terry C. Hargrove

Terry C. Hargrove — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:49:07 +0000

I just bought Nation by Terry Pratchett, nd I’m working on The Pacific by Mark Helprin. On a totally unrelated subject, I once worked in a bookstore when a lady called and wanted to know if we had the book “How To Kill a Mockingbird.” I told her she didn’t need a book–just twist their little heads off. She didn’t think that was funny.

By: tonsure wimple

tonsure wimple — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:40:03 +0000

Philip Pullman is my recent kick. “His Dark Materials” is a three-volume “retelling of Milton’s Paradise Lost with the moral polarities reversed” aimed, nominally, at 12-year-olds. Dark Matter is Original Sin.

Really. For 12-year-olds. He is, of course, British. The first book was titled “The Golden Compass” in the US and the movie TGC did the first 3/4 of it, with stuff, inevitably, trimmed out. The books are wonderful.

Previously he did a series of “plucky intelligent girl in distress in VIctorian London” books for 12-year-olds. Except that the heroine does some illegal and crazy things in her fights against danger. The guy is absolutely fearless in his plotting.

By: Lex

Lex — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:01:23 +0000

Just out of curiosity…has anyone ever read Graham Hancock?

By: wufnik

wufnik — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:12:40 +0000

Currently reading Drood, by Dan Simmons. I like Simmons, but someone please give this man an editor.

By: Lex

Lex — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:00:12 +0000

I liked Guns, Germs and Steel. But i think that Collapse (same author) was better.

By: Ubertramp

Ubertramp — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 07:13:00 +0000

The first three quarters of Guns, Germs and Steel is really interesting. Got a bit less interesting at the end. Its been a while since I read it, but i remember it got a bit too wishy washy and speculative for me.

By: Darrell

Darrell — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:51:43 +0000

I recently ditched cable (until hockey season starts) and I’ve been catching up on some classics I’ve never read, like 1984, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Catcher in the Rye. I’m also interested in David Cross’s new book “I Drink For a Reason”, and a book called Guns, Germs, and Steel. I actually just got done reading Atlas Shrugged, it was actually really good.

By: Dr. Slammy

Dr. Slammy — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:40:31 +0000

Chris: I have to get the Wright book. He’s the greatest poet alive, I think, and is one of the few contemporary writers I’d actually cite as an influence on my own work.

Also a nice guy. Met him at a party once.

By: jeff watson

jeff watson — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:45:05 +0000

I’ve been pimping out Thomas Pynchon’s “Inherent Vice” all over the internet for the past week. Simply put, this is the best novel I’ve read in the last decade(and I’ve read a few novels). It’s so good, I’ve been savoring it like a good Merlot, just reading 15-20 pages at a time.

Jeff