What Are You Reading? Why Are You Reading It?

[jonasdatum]

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.

 

[PCG342]

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.

 

[ODIN 0ERO]

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.

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.

 

[WarC]

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!

 

[PCG342]

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.

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.

 

[bellgamin]

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.

 

[PCG342]

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

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

 

[jonasdatum]

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.

“.... 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.

 

[Mulderator]

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

 

[PCG342]

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

 

[kingmatt]

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.

 

[PCG342]

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

 

[BanditFlyer]

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

Yep.

On the side I am reading bits and pieces of "Warlords of the Ancient Americas",

Well at least it isn't about Germans.

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.

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

Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Virakocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki. Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea.

When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers. The Incas described these "white gods" as wise, peaceful instructors who had originally come from the north in the "morning of time" and taught the Incas' primitive forefathers architecture as well as manners and customs. They were unlike other Native Americans in that they had "white skins and long beards" and were taller than the Incas. The Incas said that the "white gods" had then left as suddenly as they had come and fled westward across the Pacific. After they had left, the Incas themselves took over power in the country.

Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in color from reddish to blonde, and almost Semitic, hook-nosed faces. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that when Jakob Roggeveen first discovered Easter Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun." The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's book Aku Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.

Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's Stone Age people colonized the then-uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa around A.D. 500. They supposedly sailed from Peru to the Polynesian islands on pae-paes—large rafts built from balsa logs, complete with sails and each with a small cottage. They built enormous stone statues carved in the image of human beings on Pitcairn, the Marquesas, and Easter Island that resembled those in Peru. They also built huge pyramids on Tahiti and Samoa with steps like those in Peru. But all over Polynesia, Heyerdahl found indications that Tiki's peaceable race had not been able to hold the islands alone for long. He found evidence that suggested that seagoing war canoes as large as Viking ships and lashed together two and two had brought Stone Age Northwest American Indians to Polynesia around A.D. 1100, and they mingled with Tiki's people. The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined (Heyerdahl 1958). In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of A.D. 400 for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an "oven" by the "Long Ears," which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race which had ruled the island in the past (Heyerdahl 1958). Genetic research has found, however, that modern-day Polynesians are more closely related to Southeast Asians than to American Indians.

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

I'll have to google that one.

 

[o.0]

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.

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.

 

[WarC]

Well at least it isn't about Germans.

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

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.