What are you reading?

Finished Dark Tower III last night. Starting Dark Tower IV today.

posted by justincredible

Finished Dark Tower III last night. Starting Dark Tower IV today.

ANSWER ME A RIDDLE.

posted by Devils Advocate

ANSWER ME A RIDDLE.

Why did the dead baby cross the road?

 Bernie Kosar's book. Easy read.

posted by justincredible

Finished Dark Tower III last night. Starting Dark Tower IV today.

That was my favorite of the four I've read.

It's hard to pick a favorite between the second and third books. The first was good, but easily the weakest so far.

posted by justincredible

It's hard to pick a favorite between the second and third books. The first was good, but easily the weakest so far.

A lot of that is because it was with the second that King started writing novels in the series. The first book was essentially a collection of five short stories that got put together because they were connected, but the flow isn't as smooth as in the other books. At least that's what I think from reading them.

I'd love to see a television series (live action or animated) adapted from the books. 

posted by justincredible

Why did the dead baby cross the road?

 Because it was stapled to the chicken. Eddie: 

Book IV has started off great. My co-worker says it is mostly Roland's back story, which I am pretty anxious to learn about.

I finished Fire and Fury. It is exactly what people want to it to be. If you think Trump is insane, it plays into that, if you think the book is fiction, I don't fault you from thinking that. It wasn't too well sourced. It was an interesting read though. 

I plowed through Dan Drezner's The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas. It is a good book on how think tanks, media types, colleges, and for profit research firms impact the public policy dialogue in today's media environment. 

I am now reading my old colleague at New America, Brian Fishman's book on ISIS, called the Master Plan. In it, he goes back to Iraq and 2004 and Zarqawi and how his influence and group was the basis and foundation for ISIS. ISIS followed a 2005 al-Qaeda and Zarqawi plan called the Master Plan when spreading into Iraq and Syria. 

Just finished "Charlton Heston - Hollywood's Last Icon" by Marc Eliot.  Interesting, as I'd never known much about him apart from his movies and his NRA affiliation toward the end of his career.

I'm 2/3 done with Dark Tower IV. It's such a great book.

Just finished Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.  Set in rural Mississippi right after WW2.  Really enoyable period novel.  The racism of the Klan and Jim Crow is featured prominently.  Very good story.

posted by justincredible

I'm 2/3 done with Dark Tower IV. It's such a great book.

Yeah, I loved that one. Had this neat "Tombstone meets mysticism" vibe to it with the two rival bands of gunslingers (or gunslinger wanna-bes in the case of the bad guys) mixed in with witchcraft and shit.

Finished Dark Tower IV last week. It was fantastic, but I need to take a small break from the series before I start in on the last 3 books. I should be able to finish the series sometime in March.

I'm about halfway through a book called Dirty Shirt: A Boundary Waters Memoir. Given my love of the Boundary Waters and the $5 kindle credit I had, this book ($4.99) made sense. I'm enjoying it so far, but it's not a super compelling story. Just one guy telling stories about his many trips to the area with his brothers, carrying on his fathers legacy of spending time in the wilderness (his dad died when he was 5).

I also started in on Canoecraft: An Illustrated Guide to Fine Woodstrip Construction last night. If I can help it I'd like to be paddling my own canoe on my Boundary Waters trip this year. I've got about 7 months to learn, plan, and build to meet that goal.

Reading "Misery" by Stephen Kind. Still have a bunch of his downloaded that I need to get get through. Tried to start Salem's Lot but it was really slow, and I'm not sure I'm into Vampire stuff

Misery is on my short list to read. The movie terrified me as a kid, and I really enjoyed it when we watched it around Halloween last year.

posted by iclfan2

Reading "Misery" by Stephen Kind. Still have a bunch of his downloaded that I need to get get through. Tried to start Salem's Lot but it was really slow, and I'm not sure I'm into Vampire stuff

As vampire books go, that is near the peak. It does start slow with introducing the main characters, giving a lengthy "here's small town life here" summary and so on, but when it kicks into gear, you get to watch an entire town get disappeared. Been a while since I've read it, but it's something like 25-30% set-up and then pure straight-up fanging the rest of the way.

posted by Heretic

As vampire books go, that is near the peak. It does start slow with introducing the main characters, giving a lengthy "here's small town life here" summary and so on, but when it kicks into gear, you get to watch an entire town get disappeared. Been a while since I've read it, but it's something like 25-30% set-up and then pure straight-up fanging the rest of the way.

Thanks for the insight. I’m sure I’ll read it bc it’s in the top 10 of most lists I look at, just need to power through.