Obiwan I feel your pain. I'm halfway through both the Bedford and the Norton anthologies (volumes one) Just finished the Canterbury tales and still hate it.

Geofram lives!

Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman.

atm.... um....


-My cultural anthropology textbook
-"History of Nigeria" by Toyin Falola
-"Making Globalization Work" by Joseph Stiglitz
-And Foreign Affairs/The Economist as always.

oh fuck and how could i forget:

-"Warrior Politics" and,
-triple your reading speed (rather appropriate)

I have several in progress. Enjoying ToM like LanGaidin, plus The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, just finished Something From The Nightside by Simon Greene. Waiting for a new Dresden book by Jim Butcher.

@LanGaidin - I'm reading Les Miserables for fun. I enjoy reading classics and my favorite authors vary in time from the 16th century (William Shakespeare), 18th century (Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe) and 19th century (Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain; probably my favorite period as far as number of authors). So when I say I'm readin some classic or another, it is for fun, not school. I haven't attended a class outside of certification prep or Six Sigma in over 20 years.

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

@trip - I love Niven's Ringworld series. Is Lucifer's Hammer good so far?

@gold

"I have something around 20 books I have to read this semester, plus research stuff, so I don't have much free time."

There are two easy solutions for this:

1) Sparknotes
2) Don't take classes that involve reading : )

That should give you plenty of time read books of your choosing.

I'm guessing Sparknotes are like Cliff's Notes?

I have several in progress. Enjoying ToM like LanGaidin, plus The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, just finished Something From The Nightside by Simon Greene. Waiting for a new Dresden book by Jim Butcher.

Yeah, as far as I know, they're the same.

Oops sorry for the repost

You said that once already, TrustMe. :-)

@Trust

Dresden books are amazing. I've read about 4 of them. Slowly making my way through.

Too bad the series didn't take off on Sci Fi (or is it SyFy now). I loved it.

It was on ABC or something for a season. Not worth watching, imho. Except for Bob, he was awesome.

@Geofram:

Pain?

I LOVE English! (Why would I major in it and quopte it incessently otherwise?)

So I'm perfectly happy with all the textbooks...American Lit 1400-1865'll be dry for a bit, as first it's jsut an Iriquois creation myth--like I haven't heard enough of THOSE in my lifetime--and journals, but we'll reach Thoreau and Emerson and Melvill ena Poe in due time, and meanwhile the otehr three are a trio of awesome right now, right off the bat:

-Monday and Wedenesday mornings studying the Romantic poets and literary criticism (including, FIRST OFF, Samuel Johnson's criticism of...SHAKESPEARE! XD And upon hearing that, the core of six or eight or so who take all the same classes except Honors Shakespeare--the wusses took regular!--in English and are some of the few people who I'll actually regard as not being idiots offhand started laughting, the professor didn't know why...why WOULD the mention of a critique of Shakespeare with ME in the class be so funny, I wonder?) ;)

-Tuesday and Thursay afternoons studying the poetry of John Keats, his life, and its implementation into the film "Bright Star."

-Tuesday evenings, for three hours, with...HONORS SHAKESPEARE: TRAGEDIES AND HISTORIES! *Triumphant "Eugene Onegin Waltz music plays!* Though we start with the play I think is Shkapespeare's most OVERrated, easily--R&J. "Titus Andronicus" was crude in some areas, but I think it deserves a better reputation for what it started and laid precedent for with Shakespeare--a hero losing family members and seeking revenge, an old figure seeking retirement and getting stabbed in the back for it, questions of racism, a REALLY devious and plotting villain, forbidden love starts HERE first with Bassianus and Lavinia, who will go on to heavily influence Romeo and then Juliet AND Ophelia, respectively, feigning madness, a huge finale of death and revenge, adn so on--whereas R&J is the ONLY Shakespeare play with a PROLOGUE THAT GIVES AWAY THE ENTIRE PLOT! It sounds nice, but really...WHY? Small wonder why the Bard scrapped prologues after, though there's been some discussion as to whether the Prologue can even be his invention or if someone ele put it in, since while it does have a Shakespeare-caliber flow to it and IS a Shakespearean sonnet, to give away the play like that is so unlike him...but maybe I should save it for class? ;)



Actually, I'm miserable when I'm NOT in class...

If you read Sherlock Holmes, Watson often said Holmes would geet severely depressed and bored without a case--that's me without something new to read and analyze or some new insight on which to write.

To me, I'm not much for having kids and a wife, or really relationships at all...

I ahve my one thing that I can play ball with nearly anyone else with, and if I can't do that, life seems grey and dull, which is why I NEVER want to be left alive as a vegetable--if I can't read, write, talk, OR think, life's jsut not worth living PERIOD.

NOTHING comes before those four for me. :)

Dresden Files was Sci Fi channel. Early 2007 IIRC. I remember because I actually did enjoy it. But the books are much better.

Oh, ic. Yeah, the show was how I got introduced to the books, but it was one of those shows that I had running in the background while doing other things. Ok, but could be so much better. Luckily, the books were just that.

@ abge

Those 20 books are all history books (no English classes) and primary sources, so there isn't much sparknotes can do, I checked haha. And yeah, I suppose I could just take classes that require less reading, but the classes that require more reading make you do less real work :)

I just finished book 2 of that"gril who messed with the wrong people but in actual fact you really shouldnt mess with her" Swedish thingy. Ive got book 3 but might take a break from it and read something else, I just got a copy oif Charels Stross Halting State, a crime novel set in a virtual world MMORPG. But im not reading too much these days, Im hooked on Civ V and i am eagerly awaiting Dragon Age 2 in a months time.

also just finished (yeah I know...) eat-Love-Pray - LOL....

I only read literature for my course at University. So right now its "Vår tids psykologi" (our times psychology).

I just finished reading Howards End - for my literature course also - it was really good. Right now, I'm rereading Dubliners.

Harry Dresden series Turn Coat

@ Draug - I agree w/ you. I do like Shakespeare, Dickens and Poe. I tried reading Les Mis though, and I just couldn't do it. It seemed to start so damn slowly, but perhaps I didn't give it enough time. To be honest, I've had an exceedingly hard time moving outside the genre of Fantasy Fiction for a while now.

I just finished Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy (the book, not the game) and I also just finished Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell (with Patrick Robinson)

The latter book is a story about how a four man Navy SEAL team gets ambushed by over 200 Taliban terrorists after the SEALs release a couple of goatherders that discovered the SEALs' position. They didn't kill the goatherders because they were more afraid of the liberal American court system than the Taliban. As the title implies, only one seal made it out alive. One of the SEALs got shot five times (twice in the neck), blown off of a cliff by an RPG, and was still shooting. All of the SEALs jumped off of multiple cliffs (some over 300 feet high) during the battle. The survivor only escaped after he was blown into a crevasse by an RPG. The survivor went without water or sleep for several days, was sniped in the thigh by a Taliban sharpshooter, fell off multiple cliffs while trying to climb them, and killed several Taliban before finally being discovered by friendly Pashtun villagers.

Excellent, fast read.