NOW READING

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Currently reading: Clinton's autobiography, My Life. I'm about a third of the way through it. The first quarter of the book (his youth and life before politics) is mostly boring, but it becomes very interesting once the political stuff starts going. I have to finish it this month, because I have a trade set up with my father: on 1 Aug I give him the Clinton book and he gives me his copy of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson.

Also reading: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. Completely fascinating. It attempts to answer the question of why the culture of Europe eventually dominated the world rather than, say, the Chinese or the Mesoamericans. I'm about two-thirds done, but this one's on hold while I finish the Clinton book.

Have purchased but not yet started: Flags Of Our Fathers by James Bradley, about the Battle of Iwo Jima, the story of the famous flag-raising photograph, and what became of the soldiers in the photo. I'll probably get to this one mid-August after I finish the Guns book.

Have not even purchased yet, but will be next on the list: Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris, a biography of Teddy Roosevelt.
 
The 4th of July got to you hu? [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Actually, no. I got the Flags book back in early June, I got the Clinton book because I always liked Clinton and thought he was a good Pres, and I've been interested in Teddy for a long time.

I didn't do anything special for the 4th this year. With the way our government is acting, I'm not especially proud to be an American nowadays.
 
Stephen king - the dark tower 5 (part 6 aint translated to spanish yet [!--emo&:o--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/ohmy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'ohmy.gif\' /][!--endemo--] )
 
Bernard Cornwell - Vagabond
The second book in the Grail trilogy.

I enjoyed the first book, Harlequin, so much that i ordered the other two books in the trilogy from Amazon.

Its a story about an English Archer who fights passionately for the English in Britany and later in Normandy, against the French. But in the end the Archer has to take his fathers quest, to find the Holy Grail.

A good read and a good tale, half true, and contains the battle of Crecy and other-true-to-life battles.
 
These bloody French !
[!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Le Hibou - The Owl+Jun 29 2004, 05:32 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Le Hibou - The Owl @ Jun 29 2004, 05:32 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]So about The Devil's Cloth : A History of Stripes  by Michel Pastoureau.

Short but very interesting book.[/quote]
If you enjoyed it, you will also enjoy Bleu ( Blue ) by the same author.

The color blue was nearly unknown until the Middle Ages. Greeks and Romans even thought that blue was unpleasant and that the worst flaw for a woman was to have blue eyes ! Moreover they didn't have a word for 'blue' ( which comes from a german root). Things changed quickly in the Middle Ages under the influence of the church and the french kings and blue has become the favorite color in Europe today. Michel Pastoureau gives many explanations to understand the reasons for this change ( the difficulty to obtain the blue pigment, new philosophical and theological ideas since the 11th century, the obligation to ban other colors ).


It's a very interesting book and the most important is that after reading this you will finally understand why most people are wearing blue jeans nowadays.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Le Hibou - The Owl+Aug 3 2004, 11:33 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Le Hibou - The Owl @ Aug 3 2004, 11:33 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] These bloody French !
[!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [/quote]
[!--emo&;)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'wink.gif\' /][!--endemo--] Book 2 also has the Archer back in England fighting the Scots

[span style=\'font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\'](so watch out Scotland!)[/span]
 
i'm currently reading LOTR:the two towers(second time)

I didn't finish the return of the king last time i read the series,so i decided to read the whole thing all over again [!--emo&^_^--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/happy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'happy.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
What do you think of it, Black Ace? I've read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion several times. I still think The Hobbit is the best, though The Lord of the Rings is quite possibly the greatest literary achievement of the 20th century in terms of size, quality, and imagination.
 
I've read all of them too, including the unfinished tales. I've read the hobbit first, then LOTR and finished with the silmarillon.
I like the silmarillon because it explains the "why's" of all the story.
I agree with your opinion about LOTR, LooseCannon.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-syl+Aug 4 2004, 11:57 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(syl @ Aug 4 2004, 11:57 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]If you enjoyed it, you will also enjoy Bleu ( Blue ) by the same author.[/quote]
I heard about that one, but I was more interested by Pastoureau 's Figures et couleurs. Etudes sur la symbolique et la sensibilité médiévale, which would go in english for Figures and Colours. Studies on middle ages' symbolism and sensitivity. But it doesn't seem to have been translated in english.

Anyway, I'm reading The Quiet Man by Maurice Walsh. Easy reading, divided in five parts, about the come back of men and women of the Irish republican Army to everyday life after the 1921 treaty. Love stories, ghost stories... Holidays' reading.
One part inspired the famous movie by John Ford, with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, The Quiet Man, one of the few non werstern movie of John Wayne, great movie !
 
LOTR is ok. A great story,and an original setting,but i prefer The Dune cycle.Just,better,more elaborated,more...everything...
 
alfred jarry: EXPLOITS & OPINIONS OF DR. FAUSTROLL

does anybody know that?
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Black Ace+Aug 6 2004, 12:03 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Black Ace @ Aug 6 2004, 12:03 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] LOTR is ok. A great story,and an original setting,but i prefer The Dune cycle.Just,better,more elaborated,more...everything... [/quote]
I couldn't get into Dune. Don't get me wrong, I tried. Maybe it's because I tried that I couldn't get into it.

One of the series that I got into but I could never finish is L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series. It's 10 massive books long, and I think I read to the sixth before I lost interest. It was good, don't get me wrong (no Battlefield: Earth, but still good), it just seemed unable to hold my attention.
 
well, i stopped reading the dune series at dune Heretics(the 5th out of7 ouut of witch Frank Herbert wrote 6 of them). I started to be overwhelmed by all of it. It seemed so complicated,and phylosophical,and it kinda deviated from the original book,whcih was,as LOTR,a classical figth between good and evil.With every book,this line between good and evil(and yes,sometimes love & hate [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--] ) and now,i could barely understand who pledged allegiance to whom,and why.
 
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