I am about half way through with Ted Bell's Assasin

My dad picked it up probably a year ago and gave me first shot at reading it, then shortly after decided he was ready for it and confiscated the damned thing. I just started to get back into it a couple of days ago. I decided that I not only needed to finish reading it, but to get back into reading again. I used to read all the time, now, very rarely.

World War-Upton Sinclair

Do the Wolds win or lose? ;)

I'm reading more as well. It used to be that I'd only read two or three books a year. So far this year I've already read five or six, and the next one is hold at Borders, so I'll start it tonight.

What is really sad is that I will start books, and then never finish them. I probably have 7-8 books partially read dating back 4-5 years. I don't know what has gotten into me, I use to tear through a Clancy novel in about a week, and that was in my early teens, very early teens. I guess the older you get the more distractions life has for you....

I'm about 60 pages into this and it is excellent. Thanks for the recommendation. :thumb:

I also picked up American Sphinx, which I'll read next. I guess I'll take Banyon's advice and give that weasel Jefferson a chance. :D

Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. It's cool so far.

Finally finished the Little Friend by Donna Tartt, which was a huge dissapointment to me after the Secret History, which I loved. The Little Friend seemed to be way too much east coast intellectual trying to explore and 'honor' Southern tradition. She's no Flannery O'Connor, that's for sure.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson was before that, and it was excellent. Also very interesting in light of the recent "wire tapping" brouhaha. It will give you a unique insight into data mining and the way pattern analysis works.

Picked up Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, due to his ubiquitousness in that best American novels of the last 25 years. I'm underimpressed. Maybe I'm just not east coast Jewish enough, but the novel was just... irritating. I've got 3 Roth novels checked out, so I'm hoping one of the others hooks me a little better. That's about it for me on the literary front.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Great mix of personal memoirs, historical facts, and fiction. It's actually 2 stories at the same time, about the search for a still living Dracula. Not hokie at all.

Just finished The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff.

Okay ... not exactly "high-brow" (it's basically Taoism for Dummies) but it was interesting and a good, light read.

And after reading about 300 books in college (I have a Literature Degree) I'm all "high browed" out ... even now, ten years later.

MM
~~:shake:

Te of Piglet was excellent. I dug it more than the Tao of Poo.

Dick Winters doesn't live far from me in Hershey, PA. I was telling my dad the other day that if I ever ran into him somewhere, I'd be more starstruck than if i met ANY actor, musician, or athlete. He's larger than life through both the book and mini series.

I'll have to check that book out. Is this his autobiography? I saw that advertised on history Channel when they were playing Band of Brothers a couple weeks ago.

From what I've read, it's in the works.

I think that guy was on the Daily Show not too long ago. Really seemed to know his shit.

Without a doubt, although he does get a lot more political in it. There was even one point where the writing seemed kinda pissed. He wasn't necessarily wrong, of course ... :)

I wish I would've read them in college—I've had them since then and just never got around to it.

MM
~~:shrug: