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Post Info TOPIC: Books We're Reading


Keeper of the Holy Grail

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Books We're Reading


So, what have you read lately?  Or what are you reading now?

Instead of a book club, why don't we just give a little pitch here for a book we liked?

Currently, I've got 3 books on the Mountain Meadows massacre on hold at the library, since I'll be visiting that site in a couple weeks.

Also just started Land of the Burnt Thigh, about 2 sisters who homesteaded South Dakota back in 1907.

biggrin.gif

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Future Queen in Zion

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I'm reading 54 smut-free smut books.


What? laughing.gif

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Ros


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The compiled works of George Eliot.
Rereading Chinese folk-lore Monkey. Theres a movie being made.
Just finished The Madonnas of Leningrad.
The Horatio Hornblower series by Forrester. Don't know where I stopped last time so I am back on book 1.

And, of course, there will be that one day later this month where it's all things Harry. Ghee!

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Wise and Revered Master

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"Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting" by Ed McGivern
and
"Nicholas Nickelby" by Charles Dickens

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I'm rereading Harry Potter right now. In preparation, you see. Just finished OotP this morning and started HBP.

Before that...Ummm...Thirteenth Tale --it starts out a little creepy, but an excellent mystery after that.

The Great Snape Debate (I am not obsessive. I'm NOT.)

Pillar of Light --It had been awhile since I read W&tG, and I wanted to see if my perspective had changed. It wasn't the greatest thing ever, but I still liked it.

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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Oh...and Yay for George Eliot, Hornblower, and Dickens!!

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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- Teaching Effective Classroom Routines
- Positive Teacher Talk
- Neil Sperry's Complete Guide to Texas Gardening

and about 150 children's books to decide which ones to put in my class reading center first. BTW, I inherited a huge old clawfoot bathtub that I'm going to fill with pillows and put in my classroom reading center. Gotta get them kids addicted to reading in the bathtub!

-- Edited by Roper at 16:34, 2007-07-10

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Keeper of the Holy Grail

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Hey, that sounds cool! Till they crack their little heads open fighting over it, I guess. Then the parents...

Anyway- How much time a week do you all typically spend reading for pleasure?

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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Well, I find what I read pleasurable even though it's for work at school or at home.  But if you mean how much time per week do I spend just "escaping" into a really good book with no utilitarian purpose--zero since I started grad school last year.  And I really miss that.

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Head Chef

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At the moment I'm reading 1984. Soon I'll read Animal Farm, Quidditch through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Then, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out I'll read that.

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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How much time a week? Ummm... ashamed I go through cycles where I'll read a good 20 hours... (or more if I've got a couple page turners in succession) then back off to just an hour or two.

-- Edited by Euphrasie at 23:20, 2007-07-10

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Profuse Pontificator

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Finished Half-Blood Prince a couple of weeks ago.

Just read Mediterranean Winter by Robert Kaplan. Love his books.

Myths, Lies, and Outright Stupidity by John Stossel of ABC. VERY highly recommend this one!



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Profuse Pontificator

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I am now reading a series of books called the Belgariad, there are five in the series. It is a fantasy series by David Eddings.

I also apparently appear to be reading other books that the rest of you are not reading! The scriptures! For shame! biggrin

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Understander of unimportant things

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Ring World -- almost as good as reading Isaiah or 2 Nephi for sedetive properties... wink.gif

I don't know that I have actually sat down and read a book all the way through in more number of months than I care to fathom.

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Head Chef

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Valhalla wrote:

I am now reading a series of books called the Belgariad, there are five in the series. It is a fantasy series by David Eddings.

I also apparently appear to be reading other books that the rest of you are not reading! The scriptures! For shame! biggrin




 The very same David Eddings who caught his house and office on fire when he drained the gas from an old car in his driveway and threw a lit match in it.



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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
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Profuse Pontificator

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That was not very smart of him to do!

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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers
Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning
Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them
In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever


Wise and Revered Master

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Valhalla wrote:


I also apparently appear to be reading other books that the rest of you are not reading! The scriptures! For shame! biggrin


My bad, add the BOM to my list.  I just assumed that since the prophets have said to read them that it was a given!




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Hot Air Balloon

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The only book I'm reading consistently is the Book of Mormon. I'm looking forward to reading Harry Potter though, and I'm reading Trav's new book... :)

--Ray


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I just assumed that since the prophets have said to read them that it was a given!

I wasn't going to list it either.

I'm reading Eldest with my son and Magic Street. Of course, with Harry Potter 7 reaching our house in about 2 weeks we may have to drop Eldest to read HP7 - we have our priorities! Then we have The Lost Prince of Darkleaf to read.


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Profuse Pontificator

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Just devoured Hamlet in Purgatory by Stephen Greenblatt. Hamlet is my favorite work of secular literature of all time, and I love reading new commentaries on it. This one was fascinating!

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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The Belgeriad is a great series! I read them the first time back in high school.

For fiction I'm currently reading The Souldrinkers Omnibus, a sci fi series.

In the historical category I'm reading Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 and Chosen Soldier.

BoM is a given.

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Profuse Pontificator

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I recently read "Sergeant Nibley" by Hugh Nibley and his son Alex Nibley.  Nibley was in intellegence in WW2 in Africa and Europe, and relates some very interesting and faith promoting experiences, as well as things he wasn't supposed to find out that caused him to write "...you had better not try to tell little old me who started the war." 



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Understander of unimportant things

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How was that book, lund? Worth getting, or is it more one to borrow from someone who did buy it?

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Profuse Pontificator

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Re. "Sergeant Nibley", it is not a book I will likely use for reference, so I suggest borrowing.  It cost about $25 at Deseret Book Store.  My favourite incidents are: Pg. 9 continued on Pg. 198,  Pg 133,  Pg. 286.


One Excerpt from "Sergeant Nibley" by Hugh Nibley and Alex NibleyPage 7 (Year 1929)"I was set apart by Melvin J. Ballard, (an Apostle at that time) and he told us at that time to warn the people that they would be destroyed by fire if they didn't repent and accept the gospel."Page 9"During a conference in Karlsruhe I went and tracted right by a big church on the main street where it forks and leads out to the Oldenwald forest.  There was a butcher shop there, and I went to it and started giving my voice of warning.  On impulse I said what Brother Ballard told me, that the people woudld be destroyed by fire from heaven, and a gigantic Hessian woman had a fit.  She ran to the back of the shop and came out waving a huge meat cleaver and said "Don't you tell me we'll be destroyed by fire from heaven!"  So I moved on.Page 276 (Year 1945)Late one moonlit night I was driving Van Patten down the main street in Karlsruhe past the big church in the moonlight.  The city was all in ruins; it had all just been wiped out by firebombs from the English planes.  They just smashed the whole city.  Suddenly I jammed on the brakes and ground to a halt.  Van Patten said "What's wrong?"  There was the framework of the door to the butcher shop where I had preached back in 1929.  It was the butcher shop where the woman came out raving, waving the cleaver, and yelling "Don't you tell us we'll be destroyed by fire from heaven!"  And all you see was the framework of the door there.  Fire from heaved destroyed it....So they got fire from heaven all right.  It was a strange thing - that such things should happen." Pg. 198"I woke up one morning very early, and there was my grandmother standing right at the head of my foxhole looking down at me.  Just as plain as anything I saw her looking at me and I looked at her and waved."  Note by Alex Nibley: "When the mail came through, it brought word that explained what the image he had seen of his grandmother standing by his foxhole had meant.  Margaret Reid  Sloan died on October 22, 1944"


-- Edited by lundbaek at 18:06, 2007-07-15

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I'm reading 3 different books entitled "Pediatrics".

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Hot Air Balloon

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I'm reading a book called "Network Programming in Perl." :)

--Ray

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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You sentimental fools.

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Profuse Pontificator

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Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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Ooh, Shiz, that sounds really good!  Would you consider posting a review of it when you're done?  That may be one that I make time to read.

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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Shiz...have you read The Sacred and the Profane by Mircea Eliade or Ways of Worldmaking by Nelson Goodman?  I think you'd like them.  Also Less Than Words Can Say...I forget the author...  Google says Richard Mitchell.


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Hot Air Balloon

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what are these books about and why are they worth reading?

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(Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)


Senior Bucketkeeper

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Eliade is a discussion of the...ummm...sacred and the profane. In other words, he described the difference between two paradigms wherein one tries to live as much as possible within the realm of the sacred, and things all around have meaning versus the more modern mindset where all space is the same, nothing is special, the world and all around is just matter... In the sacred, there are places that become a center and a threshold to communication with God. He also discusses many of the myths and rituals used through time by people attempting to remind themselves of their center, the creation, and rebirth from chaos into order.

Worldmaking is about how we view the world through art and science in order to interact and create our own experience in the world...which actually becomes our world. The way in which we construct our own world from other worlds around us with underlying beliefs and precepts guides the way in which we find truth. It also shows why communication gets mangled because we're all arguing from our own world, and sometimes ideas can't be translated semantically from one world to another. Which is why we have to communicate against a background of shared beliefs in order to make any translation and why a book read by many people becomes a different book to each of them...they create the meaning in the space between the "signs" or words and the world in which the reader lives.

Less Than Words...is about the misuse of English and the loss of grammar and its effects and reflections on the world. For example, rampant use of passive voice both reflects and encourages an abandonment of responsibility. Even if we understand what was intended, bad grammar matters because it reflects the mind who wrote it. And the education system perpetuates a decline in thought because the educators are as guilty of misuse as the ignorant.

They're worth reading because...they make you think? Anyway...I like them.

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Hot Air Balloon

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I have hated the passive voice. biggrin.gif

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Keeper of the Holy Grail

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Even passive-aggressive? biggrin.gif

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Senior Bucketkeeper

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No, no, no Ray... "The passive voice is hated by me."

ETA: ("I have hated" is past perfect, I think.)

-- Edited by Euphrasie at 16:07, 2007-07-16

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Senior Member

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"Brigham Young: American Moses" It's hard to get through.

"Saints Without Halos" An interesting read (the chapter on Mr. Kane was quite touching)

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Profuse Pontificator

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I'll add those to the list, Euph. Thanks!

And Roper, it is a fascinating book so far, though there is a lot of linguistics lingo to get through. But if you like (or can gloss over) words like "retroflex tongue" and "glottal stops" and "morphemes," then you would probably really enjoy the history stuff.

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Wise and Revered Master

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Just started reading "California Desperados" about early bad guys in California. The book is very interesting. It talks a bit about Sam Brannon the Mormon Apostate. He was vice president of the Committee of Vigilence in Sanfrancisco which was a Vigilante group that operated in the open to fight the huge crime wave in the city.

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