Here are some books that I’m packing for a trip to Oshkosh and thence onward to the West Coast:
- The Peloponnesian War
- Geek Love
- The Importance of Being Lazy
- A Confederacy of Dunces (a reread from 20 years ago)
Maybe if other folks on this server start reading now we can have an Oprah-style discussion in September.
Confederacy of Dunces is great. Other of my recent reads include (in chronological order):
Teach Yourself C++,
The Code Book,
Feast of the Goat (awesome book, good for thinking about whats going on in Iraq right now),
The Blue Nowhere,
How To Win Friends and Influence People,
Seabiscuit…
Oh jeez you know what else – I’ve been doing a bunch of drab data entry lately (yee haw) so I decided to give Audible (digital audio books) a try. “A Short History Of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson was spectacular, and “The Second Coming of Steve Jobs” by Alan Deutschman was pathetic, but attention getting like those rags at the super market isle.
They advertise that you can burn onto CD, which is good but beware most of the books are 5-6 CD’s long at least. I have an MP3 CD player in my car which would be great to have it all on one CD but they won’t let you burn it to CD in MP3 format. I’m sure its possible somehow but just not worth the time to bother.
That’s an interesting mix of greek tragedy and geek tragedy. I read “Geek Love” a couple of years ago. It’s an excellent book that for some reason reminds me of Victor Pelevin’s “A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia” which also comes highly recommended.
Did you change your mind about the summer weather in Oshkosh? It’s been perfect here in Michigan for the last several days – hope it lasts for you.
I had a demo ride in a powered parachute last weekend. Buzzing thru a soybean field at 30′, right past people’s backyards – seemed like an invasion of their privacy. But a great way to see wildlife!
Philip, a book I’m currently reading and enjoying is A History of Warfare by John Keegan. You might be interested in it.
“Hey Nostradamus” by Douglas Copeland looks good to me.
I recommend Authentic Happiness by Martin E. P. Seligman, PhD. At first glance, this book might look like one of those saccharine "Chicken-Soup-for-the-Soul"-type books. But it’s not. Seligman has a solid background as an experimental psychologist (he’s based at the University of Pennsylvania), and he uses real science to explore what makes people happy (and unhappy). The book is a good read.
I read A Confederacy of Dunces only a month or so ago – a great read, and a genuinely original novel.
For my other reading, check out my book reviews – I’ve been writing them for a decade now, and have written over 700.
how about Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez, to bring some relief from the hot summer nights? Or, Reading Lolita in Tehran to see a different take on book clubs…
As the years go on, I find “Confederacy of Dunces” becoming possibly my favorite book of all time. One of only a handful of books that’s made me laugh out loud while reading it. A true classic.