Anybody read a good book lately?

[Zanshin]

Wait, recession? When the farg did that happen?

[shorebird]

Stephen King-Just After Sunset. A great collection of short stories. I go through one at a time per visit to the can. My kind of reading. King is a great short story writer. Not all authors can do it.

Just read the Gunslinger as part of the Dark Tower series.  It was fun.  Didn't 'wow' me but got me interested enough to read the 2nd book.

I loved the Dark Tower series. It's a sci-fi, horror blend. Why someone hasn't tried to put this story on the big screen I don't know. Most movies from King stories are bad, a few were good, one, The Green Mile, was just plain great, one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's interesting that King started writing the series when he was just 19, and it took 22 years for him to complete the books. He wanted to write something comparable to The Lord of the Rings. I think he surpassed his expectations, and if someone in hollywood could do it right, they'd have a blockbuster series of movies on their hands.

[shorebird]

I have a question just out of curiosity. Does anyone here read a book twice, or maybe even more? I can't do it. I tired it, and I've had to put the book down after a few chapters, Even if it's been years since I origionally read it. With Non-Fiction, I go back to certian chapters just to confirm a fact or event, but thats it.

[Rome]

Why wouldn't you read a great book more than once if it's a pleasure to read?  I've read some books three or four times just because there are passages that make me laugh hysterically.   John Updike's "Rabbit" series is a good example as are the novels of Tom Robbins.

[shorebird]

It just doesn't do it for me if I can't capture the same feeling from reading it the first time.

[Seabiscuit36]

Red Mafiya really covered both of those topics well, obviously from the Russian Organized crime standpoint.  I particularly enjoyed when they talked about setting up shill banks to take advantage of the deregulation of the banking system, and milking accounts dry. 

[Zanshin]

I do with several books. Sometimes because the books are great, other times because it evokes a feeling from a different time in my life. Sort of like an amplified memory.

[General_Failure]

Some books I've read at least a dozen times. I rarely catch everything the first time through, so I get a chance to appreciate good writing a little more. I'm currently on my second go through Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals.

[Sgt PSN]

i've read the same safety magazine cover to cover well over 3 dozen times because no one's put new reading material in the crapper at work since october. 

[shorebird]

i've read the same safety magazine cover to cover well over 3 dozen times because no one's put new reading material in the crapper at work since october. 

lol!!

[Rome]

lol @ sassy whacking it to osha.

[Sgt PSN]

you should see the centerfold.........the chick in there has some of the nicest, most perfectly formed ear plugs i've ever farging seen.   

[Diomedes]

yeah, of course I re-read books.  I've read Moby Dick three times I think. 

[rjs246]

I'm slowly getting through McMafia and it is fascinating for two reasons.

First, there is a whole lot of discussion of human trafficking and I'm in the middle of season 2 of The Wire so all of the international and domestic trafficking themes are meshing nicely between the book and the show.

Second, the book asserts that there are two major contributing factors to the expansion of international organized crime over the past 20 years. The fall of the USSR (leaving a massive and chaotic economic vacuum) and the deregulation of international financial markets which opened the door to globalization and international money laundering on a stunning scale. Obviously the topic of regulating financial markets is pretty topical, what with the recession that everyone keeps talking about.

Finished. Recommended.

Now plowing through Cities of the Plain (McCarthy), which I will probably finish this weekend.

[rjs246]

I finished Cities of the Plain.

John Grady Cole and Billy Parham have catapulted themselves to the top of my list of favorite literary characters. I've heard and read reviews of this book that claim it pales in comparison to the first two books in the Border Trilogy. Bullshtein. It was phenomenal.

It was so good, and it impacted me so much that I had the urge to read something that was total fluff right away so I wouldn't dwell on the story. So I immediately went out and bought Contagious, by Scott Sigler. It's about alien invasion, so, yeah. It blends science and science fiction in an intelligent and totally entertaining way (so far) and is providing exactly what I needed.

Jesus Christ McCarthy books really farging get in my head.