do you just mean in the technical sense, or are you saying that listening to a book is invalid for some other reason? cuz i've done a good bit of both, and i don't see much of a difference.

oh, I don't mean that listening to a book is "invalid"--it's just not, technically, reading. I think the brain processes audio and visual input differently.

at least mine does--

so, technically, yes listening to a book is not the same because the information arrives aurally instead of optically. ok. but the repeated comment that audio books don't count as reading is incorrect on any other level. When I listen to a book, I get at least as much information as I do when I read it visually. I still get the mental imagery that comes to me when I read. I hear all the words in the book. Your comment that the brain processes the info differently is based on what, exactly? If anything, I think listening to a book is better than reading it because your listening skills improve. In case you can't tell, I'm irked at your tone.

maybe you have a right to be, I'm sorry. I just don't think it's the same.

Listening, to me, is much more passive. For example, if I, as a teacher, assigned my students to read a book, I don't think it would "count" if they listened to it, in the same way that reading Cliff Notes or something is not equivalent to reading the book itself.

I don't know--I'll have to think about it. I mean, it doesn't seem to count to me, but this is real life, not a test, and why should you care what I think anyway?

guess I'm just biased in favor of the printed word. I've tried audiobooks, but they seem slow and boring to me. But my commute is only 5 miles roundtrip!

(trying to dodge the irk):vomitblu:

ah, your mom doesn't count.

how about braille? does that count? If I listen to a book and you read it, do you understand it better than I? jibbahjabah!

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

From penile implants to the role of the urethra in female orgasm, Roach covers the subject of physiological research on human sexual function through the ages (and today). It's interesting stuff, and she has a wicked sense of humor.

Here:
Attachment 17729

Look it's even color-coated.
:p

But does it come with pants?

Tai-Pan, by James Clavell

One of my all-time favorites. Must have read that thing 20 times when I was growing up. "Noble House" isn't bad either, but Tai-Pan's a classic.

Feeding your Demons by some former female Buddhist monk, I mean to say, she's still female, but she gave up monking ... She probably grew up with some perfectly normal name, but now is called something like Tsultrim Allione (actually, she's called something exactly like that).

Not a bad book about facing your personal issues in a personified way and addressing them by "feeding" them in a spiritual sense to transform the energy. She also gives ways of using the techniques for group work.

When faced with my demons
I clothe them and I feed them
And I smile, yes I smile
As they're taking me over

(Catatonia - Strange Glue)

I'm reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. Not because of the film - the trailers scared me because there were too many big lips, but because I read The Boleyn Inheritance (the sequel) a couple of months ago and it was a reasonably wholesome snack. Not a main course, and certainly not a baquet, but not something that rots your teeth or makes you fat either.

A Prisoner of Birth Jeffrey Archer
The Appeal John Grisham
Betrayal John Lescroart

Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile

It's a really good read (despite the poor proofreading job).

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Stasiland by Anna Funder

I actually read that one a while ago, but it is just extraordinary. If you were intrigued by the historical aspects of the film The Lives of Others, you will appreciate this book. It looks at the affects of the Stasi on a selection of former East Germans. It's engrossing and heartbreaking.

just finished Rise to Rebellion

now i'm reading

The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff

that (although it is a different author) picks up right where it left off.

Deep Survival

by Laurence Gonzales

http://books.google.com/books?id=PHa...with-thumbnail

Quicksilver- very good stuff but I'm buying the next one cuz its too long for a library book and I don't have TIME!

"Dead to Worse" -- the newest Sookie Stackhouse book by Charlaine Harris. Just received it yesterday afternoon (yay for Amazon pre-order!). Finished it at 1 am.

am suffering this morning.

Still in the first hundred pages of True Women by Janice Woods Windle.

The Rolling Stones -- Robert Heinlein

Has anyone read Strangers to Love by Rick Roller?

I just started reading a book today that I know, ten pages in, is going to stay in my head. The writing is beautiful, challenging and lyrical. It's called Riddley Walker, by Russel Hoban.

Written 20 years ago and republished in an anniversary edition, it's set in a post nuclear holocaust Kent in the South of England. The english language has evolved and a kind of strange mix of iron-age culture and remnants of our own culture translated through many generations until they are echoes.

The opening lines caught me as I browsed in the library:

"On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen."

Damn Dani, am gonna have to find it just on your recommendation.

John Adams - David McCullough

I'm finding out exactly how many corners were cut by HBO for the sake of pacing.

There's a lot of rich detail regarding Adam's life because he was a frequent letter writer and diarist, so there's a wealth of primary sources.

I'm not even sure where I picked up the book I just started. Its called A Salty Piece of Land and it's by Jimmy Buffett. It's about a guy rebuilding a lighthouse to be a womans last resting place.

well , now I am reading "who says the elephant can't dance"

Welcome to The Cellar Liya.

I'm reading "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett. Very readable. So far it looks like the movie stuck very close to the book.

Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
 

I just finished Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. I've had the book for a while, so I assume it was one of a bulk of books I got at deep discount from Barnes & Nobles or possibly at a library book sale (I will NOT pay $12 for a paperback).

Sex, CIA, drugs, shaman ism & Catholicism, as well as the protagonists unrequited lust for his 15-year-old stepsister.

There are also stilts and a wheelchair involved.

Tom Robbins mentions James Joyce's Ulysses a lot in this novel, and, while Fierce remains readable, you can see the connection. A disgruntled CIA agent who knows how to refer to a woman's privates (I am unsure if it's the vagina or clitoris) in 75 languages has a series of mind expanding adventures.

I found it an interesting book. It was incredibly strange, but I may have made a mistake in reading this book while sober. Unfortunately, I don't drink or otherwise indulge, so there's no way for me to tell.

In the past few months I went on a Neil Gaiman binge. I went through the entire Sandman series, Coraline (with one of the kids I'm tutoring), The Wolves in the Walls (with the other kid I'm tutoring), M is for Magic, Fragile Things, Marvel 1604. Oh, and a not-so-good graphic novel adaption of Neverwhere.
I think I'd probably sell a kidney to own the Absolute Sandman books.

Anyway, what I am currently reading is Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke and Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

"Make Them Go Away: Clint Eastwood and Christopher Reeve and the Case Against Disability Rights" by Mary Johnson.

Shows all the loopholes that businesses in America find to avoid having to accomodate those with special needs. Really pisses you off sometimes as you read through it. I think I'll pick a crime drama next.

REVIEWS . . .


"You really need to read this book. If it makes you grit your teeth, read it anyway. It will help you explain to others why we need to change our way of thinking about disability rights in general and the Americans With Disabilities Act in particular."

i just happened to have translated Deep S into chinese, published in 2006, an awesome novel indeed.

Now i'm working on Bogle's Character Counts.

Just finished Don't Cry for Me Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce.
Fourth in a series. Superb, all of them.

Complex plots, improbable but well rounded characters, obscure motivation and a gorgeous noir twist on this Welsh seaside town. All feature Louie Knight, a private detective and a regular cast of dark and peculiar figures.

Just finished "Odd Hours" by Dean Koontz. Book 4 in the Odd Thomas series. Another great read.
Can't wait for the final "Frankenstein" installment.

Lessee.....what am i reading now.....a Doctor Who novel (classic series) and a collection of Doctor Who short stories (Short Trips).

@SG, I know, I can see that's really surprised you:P

I fell off my swivel chair.

I just read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" recommended by my international book club (my sis in law and I exchange books when she comes home from NZ twice a year.)

A very interesting, very different book. I am drawn to the "slice of life" type stories, human condition with all our foibles. This book was written from the perspective of a 15 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome.

I really enjoyed that.
Little bits stuck with me for ages afterwards.

This is good.

Deer Hunting with Jesus, by Joe Bageant

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dee...7339379/?itm=1

The photo essay which goes with the book above:
http://www.coldtype.net/Assets.06/Es...206.JoePix.pdf

His blog:
http://www.joebageant.com/

Egyptian Book of the Dead - E.A. Wallis Budge translation

Eldest - Christopher Paolini

A Whack to the Side of the Head

Read about it on the Ask The Headhunter website, then my wife found a copy at the thrift store.

It's supposed to promote creative thinking/help you to break out of your restrictive thought patterns.

You? Restrictive thought patterns? That's almost as bad as saying MY thoughts are restricted...my free associating brain is what usually gets me into trouble, or gets me jokes, in the first place!

I finished Stonehenge by Robert Cornwell yesterday. It turned out to be an interesting exploration of religion, government, and human nature. Good stuff/ recommended.

I know, I know. But like I said she saw it at the thrift store, so we bought it for like 99 cents.

Currently reading: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Just finished: Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert. Last week was: Choke by Chuck Palahniuk.

Next on the list is Children of Dune by Frank Herbert, then Stardust by Neil Gaiman, then God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert, then Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, then another trip to the book store. Thinking of picking up a collection of H.P. Lovecraft.

Just picked up Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, and am very much looking forward to how the series ends!

@ Stress Puppy. I went through a lovecraft phase not so long ago. Most satisfying. When I read Lovecraft's stories, I connect instantly with that feeling I used to get as a kid, sitting up in the middle of the night, reading whatever odd book I had grabbed from the big bookcase. Usually a little spooky, mostly old and forgotten books. No other author connects me as much to that feeling.

When I lived in Rhode Island, I was literally a few miles from his grave in Swan Point Cemetery. Which, I might add, is a very beautiful place to take a walk.

The Long Walk Home by Will North.

Set in Wales. Some great visual descriptions. I'd love to go someday as that is my family heritage. Welsh, British, Scottish. A British Isles mutt I am. :D

In case I never mentioned it here...that one time that I was tripping out about our inaccurate ideas about historical people/events...it was because I was reading Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

I ended up staying up the whole night to read the book through, and finished the 700+ page beast around 6:30 this morning.

I was very disappointed with the twist the series took at the end. I think I'd rather pretend this book never happened than see the story end so oddly.

Is there a literary equivalent of "jumping the shark"? :neutral:

Just read Water for Elephants it was good. About a guy in the circus.

Last night, I started Honeymoon with my Brother, about a guy who gets dumped just before his wedding, but the reception and honeymoon are already paid for, so he has a big party with all his friends and family, and then goes on the honeymoon trip with his brother. Too soon to tell if it's any good.

I don't know if there's been a phrase coined for it, but I've seen it in a few series. Dune, for instance. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well.

I tend to be very leery of a series when the series wasn't planned out in its entirety ahead of time. For instance, Lord of the Rings. Love it. Was written as one huge book, then broken down by publishers so the public would actually read it. But when the author is just trying to come up with more ideas for a character to do to milk the success of a previous novel ...

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I must admit, this book is excellent. It's refreshing to see someone that explains how to become rich but who also says there are no shortcuts, and it won't be easy, and it will take about 7 years.

He gives step-by-step instructions without being vague or ambiguous. He's very clear and his plan works 100% of the time.

I Claudius

Oh I loved that book!

Lj, have you seen the BBC dramatisation of I Claudius? It was serialised, I think either late 70s or early 80s. It's Derek Jacobi's finest performance as Claudius. Also an early glimpse of the future Capt. Picard :P

A fiction book about the British Raj in India around the time of the indian rebellion. I don't know if history was as bloody as the fictional book portrays it to be.

Things did get very bloody.

Heh, I'm reading Claudius the God.

Welcome back, Happy Monkey. You're being paged over here.

I just got finished reading
"Waiter Rant", by the Waiter
"Indelible", by Karin Slaughter

and just started "Kiss the Girls" by James Patterson.