What Are You Currently Reading?

[Spegof]

Just finished The Judas Kiss by Angella Graff (pretty amazing, great fiction) and Deconverted. Working on The God Delusion (extremely new to the atheist bookshelf, but I'm loving it), The Heroine's Journey by Maureen Murdock as a refresher course for my books, and I cracked open Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity by Elaine Pagels.

When reading fiction, I tend to devour one book at a time, but when it comes to reference, I juggle a few books so I have time to let my brain digest what I've read in one while concentrating on another.

[Heathen]

I'm in the middle of Orwell's 1984. I first read it in high school about 35 years ago and though it was worth a reread. I've been doing a bit of that lately.

Seth's Andrew's book "Deconverted" is purchased and waiting for me when I'm finished.

[TheGulegon]

The Lost Fleet: Dauntless & the rest of the series
I'm a science-fiction geek/homer so don't think this book will be an enlightening read for everybody, but Campbell really does a good job depicting how a space battle would play out. If your fleet is near Earth (8 light-seconds from the sun), and the enemy fleet is near Jupiter (light-hours from the sun) then your strategies have to take into account timelate info of the enemy, & in communications from your own combatants. Light (and the images it illuminates) is fast, but still takes a while to get from the sun to the iceball of Pluto. So what your sensors are seeing might have taken place yesterday! The book also shines light on the way constant, Total War can twist everything it touches, even good-hearted people. I just hope no one tells Hollywood, or somebody will crap out a horrible attempt to put it to screen!

[MuffinPuffin]

En dåre fri (translation; a nitwit free).

It's about the life of a woman who suffers from schizophrenia.

The first half of it is pretty good, the second half is decent, at best. Mostly because the author has a good idea of what "makes" you (in lack of better words) a schizophrenic, but clearly has no idea what it's actually like to live with that sort of illness. In the end, that main character pretty much becomes a Mary-sue, and that kinda ruins the book.

However, a very interesting part of the book, is about how mentally ill people are "tricked" intro believing Christianity will save them, and generally about how religion exploits people by giving them "easy answers".

I wouldn't recommend it, mostly because I wouldn't like people to think that the portrayal of schizophrenic patients, that the book gives, is actually true.
But it was an okay read for me.

[ghostexorcist]

The Primate Fossil Record (2008) by Walter Carl Hartwig

I purchased this primarily because my biological anthropology class is quickly going over the most notable fossils from the primate fossil record. I would like to know more about the ones that we are covering, as well as the others that we aren't. I also purchased it because it will be good ammo in debates with creationists. It was a bit expensive, but it's worth it.

[TheAmazingAustralopithecus]

"The Magic of Reality" by Richard Dawkins. I wanted to refresh my scientific knowledge, and so far, so good. I've finished the first three chapters, and I feel like I'm looking at my old knowledge through fresh eyes. I understand evolution much more clearly now.

"God is not Great" by Christopher Hitchens. Re-reading this for the TTA book club; and it is as good as it was when I first read it .

[Earthborn]

I'm currently in the process of finishing reading the last book of the hunger games. I watched the first movie and found the premise interesting, despite being somewhat reminiscent of the Japanese "Battle Royale".

This is further supported when in the last book things seem to drive away from the original premise and the story somehow doesn't find a very satisfactory ending, the author seeming to rely too much on shock moments to keep the reader's attention.

(The first half of the third book is veeeery boring in my opinion).

[slydog]

I am currently reading the fourth book in the series Malazan Book of the Fallen, a science fiction series by Steven Erikson. The series is amazing. Keeping track of everything is the hard part.

[Full Circle]

Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

"And meantime other parties had had better fortune. In 1673 Joliet the
merchant, and Marquette the priest, crossed the country and reached the
banks of the Mississippi. They went by way of the Great Lakes; and from
Green Bay, in canoes, by way of Fox River and the Wisconsin. Marquette
had solemnly contracted, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, that
if the Virgin would permit him to discover the great river, he would
name it Conception, in her honor. He kept his word. In that day, all
explorers traveled with an outfit of priests. De Soto had twenty-four
with him. La Salle had several, also. The expeditions were often out of
meat, and scant of clothes, but they always had the furniture and other
requisites for the mass; they were always prepared, as one of the quaint
chroniclers of the time phrased it, to 'explain hell to the savages.'

Then, to the admiration of the savages, La Salle set up a cross with the
arms of France on it, and took possession of the whole country for the
king--the cool fashion of the time--while the priest piously consecrated
the robbery with a hymn. The priest explained the mysteries of the faith
'by signs,' for the saving of the savages; thus compensating them with
possible possessions in Heaven for the certain ones on earth which they
had just been robbed of. And also, by signs, La Salle drew from these
simple children of the forest acknowledgments of fealty to Louis the
Putrid, over the water. Nobody smiled at these colossal ironies.

and Dissecting the Bible by our very own Doc Skeptic

[onedream]

Just finished "God is not great." It was great. I'm halfway through "Hitch 22" and it's a snoozer.

Also 3/4 of the way through "Born Standing up" by Steve Martin. Good read.