Summer reading suggestions

[Jenna]

I'm a complete book junkie and carry reading material with me everywhere, which also means burning through everything on the shelf fairly quickly. Since I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting reading material, I'm curious which books fellow GSUSers could recommend.

Currently I'm reading Dr. Carroll Quigley's massive tome "Tragedy and Hope". I also have "The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy" by Manly P. Hall on a hold request at the library (which, interestingly enough, never seems to become available.)

Got to fill the upcoming sultry dog days of summer up somehow, any suggestions?

[Low Pan]

I'm about to start "Forbidden Archeology: THe Hidden History of the Human Race". Written by Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson. Supposedly it provides and Anti-Darwin explanation for Human evolution. Should be good ;D

[JTM3]

Roberto Bolano is a great author. Although he was (died in 2003) a Trotskyist. :-[

His writing is brilliant, though.

[Book]

Got to fill the upcoming sultry dog days of summer up somehow, any suggestions?


http://www.lionsquare.com/travelplannervailassets/images/main/400x267bchiking.jpg

As a lifelong fellow bookworm, my suggestion for the Summer is kinda novel: Get more exercise, fresh air, and sunshine and then return refreshed and fit to read more books in September.

:)

[saint]

if you are interested in conspiracy theories, semiotics and symbology I suggest Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.

Synopsis:
three under-employed editors who work for a minor publishing house decide to amuse themselves by inventing a conspiracy theory. Their conspiracy, which they call "The Plan", is about an immense and intricate plot to take over the world by a secret order descended from the Knights Templar. As the game goes on, the three slowly become obsessed with the details of this plan. The game turns dangerous when outsiders learn of The Plan, and believe that the men have really discovered the secret to regaining the lost treasure of the Templars.

ST

[nunaem]

"Progress and Poverty" by Henry George.

[JTM3]

Roberto Bolano is a great author. Although he was (died in 2003) a Trotskyist. :-[

His writing is brilliant, though.


We was Chilean and all of his English works are translated. If you can read spanish it might be a good way to challenge yourself or whatever. ???

I would recommend either "The Savage Detectives" or "2666" first.

[Desolation LineTrimmer]

Currently I'm reading Dr. Carroll Quigley's massive tome "Tragedy and Hope".


Quigley, Clintoon's mentor. I read part of T & H. He absolutely hates Germany and presents both wars as entirely their fault. The bias turned me off and I shut the book.

[Libertytree]

I recently finished Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer.

If you like Revolutionary War history you'll dig this.

[Jenna]

Haha, Book, a whole summer without books? Nooo. :boohoo But trust me, I'll be spending every possible moment under the sun once the weather breaks (and the stars - yes, I'm an infinite stargazer!) But I do literally drag books around everywhere. Besides being an insufferable insomniac, I can't help but try to jab as many intellectual crumbs into my mushy brain as possible.

Btw, ran into a real cool guy the other day while reading "Secrets of the Temple" by William Greider. This guy sat down next to me and seemed surprised once he glanced at what I was reading, and when he started talking to me about the Federal Reserve, I don't know who was more shocked, me or him! I was pretty stoked as this is the first person I've encountered in my daily life who actually knew his stuff.

[Gknowmx]

"Progress and Poverty" by Henry George.


Good call, nunaem. "Man, Economy, and State" by Rothbard should fill a summer.

[Gknowmx]

I recently finished Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer.

If you like Revolutionary War history you'll dig this.


Rothbard's "Conceived in Liberty" is a great read on early American history.

[Book]

Btw, ran into a real cool guy the other day while reading "Secrets of the Temple" by William Greider. This guy sat down next to me and seemed surprised once he glanced at what I was reading, and when he started talking to me about the Federal Reserve, I don't know who was more shocked, me or him! I was pretty stoked as this is the first person I've encountered in my daily life who actually knew his stuff.


http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/mists-of-avalon.jpg

Long ago I obtained the removable paper book cover of a popular chick tome and taped it over whatever book I was reading at the time. Only read the Cliff Notes to get the buzzwords and feminist jist of that novel. It was an effective icebreaker for starting up conversations when I was on the prowl...lol.

:D

[milehi]

I just finished (and started this afternoon; that good) "The Dog Stars" by Peter Heller


Synopsis-

Peter Heller's book is about an essentially cultured man forced into an alien role when most of the population has been wiped out by some sort of plague. Only infected people and marauding gangs remain. On the Colorado airfield to which he's retreated (and from which he still flies his two-seater plane), Hig will do what he has to to survive, but he's not going to seek out trouble for its own sake. As he tells his story, often terse and sometimes contemplative, we learn that, although by necessity capable of self-defence, he's no tough, unimaginative outdoors survivalist and he is unapologetic about his affection for his dog, Jasper, who is a much better and more appreciated companion than the man he shares the airfield with. Bangley is a survivalist, weaponed up and ruthless, but he and Hig each gain from having someone else to watch their backs and have weathered a number of attacks. Hig is haunted, though, by a faint message that suggests there are other healthy survivors, and he sometimes wonders whether he'll settle Jasper on his special quilt in the front of the Cessna and set out to look for them. But mostly he's as content as it's possible to be with the day-to-day routines of his life, growing vegetables, lying out under the stars at night, and flying, which offers detachment from the "sticky details" of everyday existence. Until something happens to spur him into action...

In this very plausible depiction of post-apocalyptic America, the action alternates with lyricism to make something much more than a run-of-the-mill adventure story. There are echoes of Saint-Exupery, not just in the transformative nature of flight but in an essential innocence in the hero. Even while aware of the need to be mistrustful of other people, Hig can still feel warmth towards them, and he grieves for the animals that are gone, and the trout he used to catch. In Hig's relationship with the world that is left, the author's love of the outdoors is palpable -- here is no imagined wilderness, but one that is real and intimately known. And hope remains. If this is a parable of our impending and self-inflicted apocalypse, Heller is telling us that it's not yet time to give up.