What are you reading now?

Sort of a companion to the "listening to right now" thread, but without the "right" because, duh, obviously right now you're reading the forum.

I'm reading Steve Ulfelder's “Wolverine Bros. Freight & Storage” which is a classically noir-ish detective novel. I'm pretty much a literary omnivore, so when this came to the office I was more than happy to start chomping on it. I'm glad I did: it's good, by-the-numbers, hardboiled crime fiction, and this author is obviously one of us--as a regular SCCA competitor (with a race shop named Flatout Motorsports) his car chase descriptions are excellent, and he also does some good stuff with his settings, like a machine shop full of lovely WWII-era shipbuilding equipment. Thumbs up.

Margie

nothing. Too busy shipping books.

I've been kind of getting into pulp crime stories from the 1950s - the ones with hard boiled detectives (or criminals) who live in fancy New York apartments, drink plenty of Scotch, smoke cigarettes like madmen, and always have a couple beautiful blondes hanging around. They're pretty formulaic but they're fun anyway. My brother just gave me a pile of books by Donald Westlake, he wrote about a hundred of the things.

I just picked up Measure of a Man by Martin Greenfield. It looks to be an interesting story. He learned to sew in a concentration camp then came to the US and became the tailor to the Presidents.

rereading a James Lee Burke Dave Robicheaux novel. Forgeet the title but they're all pretty similar. I like the atmosphere and the way he writes about the south. Sort of southern noir.

Next on the list is probably a sci-fi translation called The Three Body Problem. Forget the author's name. Has to deal with the idea of species competing for colonization in space. Translated from a very popular Chinese novel.

In between books at the moment. I seem to only read while traveling. Finished my last book exactly at touch down of my last trip.

There was a discussion here recently about a book named "The Martian" by Andy Weir. My brother got it for Christmas and I read the first 30 or 40 pages of it the other day at his house - it looks pretty good.

The Age of Atheists by Peter Watson. It's been a tough slog, the only thing that keeps me interested enough to finish it is the famous people who were/are atheists and getting their point of view. Watson seems to be enamored of poetry combined with non theism, he keeps drifting off to that tangent.

I am reading bits and pieces of magazines and Herb Adams' book.

I need something new. I mixed it up a lot this year and never found anything that was entertaining AND had some new knowledge in it.

It seems everything I find is straight entertainment or straight knowledge enhancement type reads.

The only thing I read that was a mixture was the What if? (written by xkcd guy)

Old issues of Automobile Quarterly.

Just finished Shadow of Freedom by David Weber and my pre-order of The Fall by Jay Allan is available today for download.

Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz. It's his account of the early days in mission control.

Scratch 2.0 (Simple computer programming language) for Teens. My kids are starting to take an interest in such things, and I don't want to get left behind.

I lent my dad my hardcover copy of Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken", which regardless of the quality of the movie is an incredible story. I literally could not put the book down.

My downstairs book is We Meant Well by Peter Van Buren. It's a humorous non-fiction account of the reconstruction efforts in post-invasion Iraq. I'm sure there's some embellishment for the sake of a good story, but even if only a quarter of it is true, it kind of makes you laugh for a bit and then shake your head at the insanity of it all.

My upstairs book is The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar by Shay McNeal. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I'm halfway through the book and yet I feel like we're wandering through WWI with nothing but promises that it will all make sense if we just read to the end of the book. In theory, it's a non-fiction account of how the allies secretly got the Tsar and his family out of Russia and away from the Bolsheviks and that their famed execution Never. Actually. Happened.

I'm actually re-reading Game Of Thrones as the first step in reading the entire series sequentially, without breaks. I read the first one years ago, but never any of the others.

Before that I read The Tale Of The Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean (which was excellent, witty, and informative) and The Psychopath Whisperer by Kent Kiehl (which wasn't).

I've been in the mood for simple/light reading lately. Just finished "The Eyes of the Dragon" by Stephen King (great book), and started "The Hunger Games" (so far not so bad)

Next in the pile is "Competition Car Suspension". Good times

Grassroots Motorsports Forum, obviously.

I knew someone would have to.

Picked up "The Martian" based on reviews here and really liked it. Haven't found anything new as of late, so I'm re-reading King's 11/22/63, but the enhanced edition which seems to have some extra detail.

I've ready "Ready Player One" multiple times now.

Need to find something new.....

-Rob

Seriously, I wait till a forum goes a few threads then read the whole thing.

It's like a short story, but with bad grammar, poor punctuation and the attention span of an ADHD monkey on crack

Goodbye, Darkness A Memoir of the Pacific War. Written by William Manchester, published 1979.

Manchester was a USMC sergeant that fought on Okinawa. In 1978 he took a trip to all of the major battlefields of the pacific to come to terms with inner demons.

It is very well written.

I’m reading Steven Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.

Regrettably, I’m not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. It’s the fancy hard bound, image enhanced version and it tends to deep dive on the basic stuff and then just gloss over the profound implications that result.

Brian Greene does a much better job of pointing out the bizarre realities of the universe’s inner workings.

Oh well, I got a smoking deal on it…floor display, perfect condition, $15.

I heard good thinks about "Ready Player One". I've been kind of back and forth on whether or not to buy it...

Paddle Your Own Canoe, by Nick Offerman. Pretty interesting read.
The Everlasting Stream, by Walt Harrington. Highly recommend for any fathers or sons who love their fathers/sons.
Dude! You're getting married! by someone. Not very well written. Meh.

I guess I'm also reading The Two Towers, but I've been off and on on tht one for a year.