What Are You Reading? Why Are You Reading It?

Hello, so what are you reading? In recent years I've been depending more and more on reading for entertainment. What Are You Reading? Why Are You Reading It? Here are some of my current titles:

Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: First Strike, ... Ok your turn guys and gals.

 

Why are you reading that, seriously? Halo? Book?
Blehh.
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
's a great book about a dystopic future. An old favorite of mine.

 

the books i read---botany,biology,astronomy,geology,martial arts,cat biology and behaviour,computer technology,human psychology.

no specifical book name.

i do not read adventure or crime novels.

they are useless waste of time.[IMO]

why do i read these books?---because they interest me.....because knowledge is power...because ignnorance is not bliss.

 

I just finished reading Amityville. It's more like a "fun" book for me. It gave me a rough sleep the first night I started reading it. That's the sign of a good book.

On the side I am reading bits and pieces of "Warlords of the Ancient Americas", it is a history book detailing the Aztec empire shortly before, during and after the arrival of the Spanish under Cortez in the early 1500's. Interesting because it goes into the interactions between Cortez and Mochtezuma, the Aztec leadership, and how the Aztecs basically handed the reins over to the Spanish before realizing they were merely invaders. Lots of black and white artwork from the Aztec side with their interpretation of the Europeans.

At one point, Cortez urged the Aztec leadership to end sacrificess in Tenochitlan and instructed their priests to erect a cross atop their temples and setup shrines to the virgin mary inside. For awhile the Aztecs were living in a sort of religious duality, still practicing their native religion but also catering to the Spanish in recognizing christianity. They essentially saw the arrival of the Spanish as the fulfillment of a prophesy saying that Gods would return to the earth and assume leadership of the Empire. The Aztecs had just recently established themselves as the supreme power in the America's and so they saw the arrival of the Spanish as well-timed divinity. If not for their initial embracing of the Spanish, they might not have fallen...They had a complex governing system and military infrastructure. They might have lacked the technology of the europeans but they had the veracity, tactical prowess and numerical advantage to be their match on a neutral field.

I also have my eyes on "Ishmael". Two friends of mine are reading that book right now and both say its good. Library time!

 

Not all works of fiction are "novels," nor are they "adventure or crime." Besides, what are you saying, that nothing can be learned from unrealistic stories?
Read Vonnegut someday, bub.

 

I have finished reading the first two books in Raymond Feist's 4-book SerpentWar Saga, & now am well into book 3. I like fantasies which are multi-book novels by prolific authors. Totally escapist stuff for me.

Feist is one of my favorite authors, as is L. Modessit Jr.

If you are a fanatasy fan, please recommend some good books/authors etc.

 

Everyone I know loves R.A. Salvatore, Bellgamin.

Also, slightly O/T, has anyone read "Freakonomics?" Great book.

 

“.... Martial arts..." I am not a practicing artist, but am refitting my knowledge base with some recent and future purchases. Took martial arts briefly as a very young child, took a self-defense course years ago, and read up a bit online over the years. Not just because I might join the military, but because I believe unarmed and melee combat is something everybody should know to some reasonable extent. Back in "high school – early college" physical plateau, basic unarmed combat training was part of my workout. Trying to get back in shape and get surpass my prior plateau. Anyway here are some of the books I am either reading or planning on reading:

Close Combat
by U.S. Marine Corps and USMC
Paperback
ISBN: 1581600739
Pub. Date: March 2000
- I recommend this book. There are some things that "might" come in handy if somebody attacks you with a gun. The bulk of this book teaches "basic" combat techniques. Such as low kicks, ground fighting, punching, strikes, chokes, holds, compliance, knife fighting, and weapons of opportunity. You can't go wrong with the absolute basics! Even a high level martial artist has to agree with that.
Status: I try to read this book every two weeks. I’ll say it again “can’t go wrong with learning the fundamentals.”

Elite Forces Handbook of Unarmed Combat
by Ron Shillingford
Paperback
ISBN: 0312264364
Pub. Date: August 2001
Status: As of 1/18/2007, purchased, but haven’t read it yet.

Outdoor Survival Skills
by Larry Dean Olsen, Robert Redford (Foreword by)
Paperback - REVISED
Publisher: Independent Pub Group
Publish date: Nov 1997
ISBN: 1556523238
Format: Paperback, 253 pages
Status: Purchased, but not read yet.
- Not only because I might join the military, but something I should at least try to learn.

Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
Status: Purchased, but haven’t read it yet.
- Read the first three novels and have been dying to know what happened to the Doc and the other female Spartan. Also, there is a giant plot hole with a number of the other Spartans that were on “other missions.”

Backshot: Starfist: Force Recon
by David Sherman, Dan Cragg, Dan Cragg
ISBN: 0345460588
Pub. Date: July 2005
Series: Starfist: Force Recon
Status: Reading.
- There is a small bookstore at my local mall. I go there whenever I buy something from the select stores. While looking for Ghost of Onyx I found books related to the StarFist collection. After browsing a few random pages, figured why not? Brought it, but it’s hard to get into. If by the end I like it, I’ll buy “the first” book in the collection.

StarCraft: Speed of Darkness; Shadow of the Xel’naga; Libery’s Crusade; Queen of Blades; StarCraft Ghost Nova.
- The only books I haven’t read are QofB, Nova, and Shadows. Speed of Darkness is a short but direct tale of a man who died the way he was raised. Goes into detail as far as how the NBA armor works. LC is a tale of a man who was thrown into the mix of a war, while all he wanted was the facts! Now I must warn you that the stories are written a little basic, but are none the less entertainment.

Brute Force (based on the Xbox Game)
- According the reviews I’ve read and see, the game isn’t all that great. The story is good. Personally, I didn’t like the ending.

 

Complaints, pleadings, medical records, witness statements, etc. I'm reading them because I don't get paid otherwise!

 

That's a lousy excuse!
Hey, you could be doing worse things with your time.

 

I've just finished "bad ground" about the Beconsfield mine rescue.
Normally, I read politics, politics, politics.
So much crap is printed these days that I can rarely be bothered to waste my time.
Case in point, the last couple of books in the Bourne series.
Or Tom Clancy who used to really engage me until he discovered the word processor.

 

... Didn't Clancy write Bourne? If not, who did? Ludlum?
Could be worse... I enjoy the works of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley...

 

Yep.

Well at least it isn't about Germans.

Out of curiosity, have you read anything about Kon Tici Viracocha?

I'll have to google that one.

 

One i suggest you read if by Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth (There are 9-10 books in this series)

Elizabeth Haydon - The Symphony of Ages: Rhapsody, Prophecy, Destiny, Elegy for a Lost Star, Requiem for the Sun, and The Assassin King (all a series)

Kate Elliott - Crown of stars series (8-9 books in that series)

Just a few to get you started. Out of those I would read in order. Sword of thruth is by far my fav so far.

 

Nope, no Germans in that one!

Thanks for that link. I hadn't heard of Thor Heyerdahl before, I read that link and it is pretty amazing stuff. It seems as if the New World wasn't quite as New as we once thought. That reminds me of some of the Norse settlements that have been found in Newfoundland in the last few decades. (I got that Germanic connection in there somehow!) Cultural exchange like that is pretty interesting.