I'm reading 4 or 5 books at the moment. Stupid. I have no self-control.

Read some of John Steinbeck's THE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS. Had a dream about it afterwards. It's funny how mythology can seep into the deep recesses of the mind like that.

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"There's only two kinds of people in the world--those who say there's only two kinds of people in the world and those who don't."
-Ursula K. Le Guin

I'm usually reading on the average 3 books at a time, too.

And I had dreams about "The Far Side".
What could that mean?

Currently: Farewell Summer, Martian Chronicles, Lord of the Flies, Wisdom of Confucius, Top Performance (ZZ), Tales of St. Francesco of Assisi.

3/4 through RB, just cleaning up the town clock...

fj, I just read LOTF for the first time last month. Its one of the best books I've ever read. My ten year old son just started reading it a few days ago. I'm asking everybody at work to give me a list of their ten favorite books and here's my list:

1. Fahrenheit 451/Martian Chronicles

2. Lord Of The Flies

3. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

4. Great Expectations

5. Moby Dick

6. On The Road

7. Neuromancer

8. Stranger In A Strange Land

9. Dracula

10. The Three Musketeers

Oh, and I'm almost finished reading A Scanner Darkly and its getting better, I almost had to put this one down for meandering and a depressing subject matter.

quote:

I'm reading 4 or 5 books at the moment. Stupid. I have no self-control.

quote:

grasstains

What books are they?

I, too, have to admit to be a multi-tasker when it comes to books. Usually two and then FLYING, AIR & SPACE, THE PILOT, AOPA's monthly magazine, and, of course, READERS DIGEST, SMITHSONIAN, and the AAA magazine. Currently reading Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen.

Finished A Glass Darkly by P.K. Dick, it was okay, better than I initially thought. Started American Gods by Neil Gaiman, highly recommended at work. Next, hope to read I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison.

Nearly done with both the Roosevelt book and the Bennett Cerf. Both really good.
I'm not sure what's next, should be something appropriate for the Lenten season...

..
..
Braling II.
..... May I suggest the Moby Dick voluminous-style epic of Christian literature....

City of God by Augustine.

..... There is a chapter that I always love to bring up when the converstion leans towards the religious. It has to do with Augustine taking a few moments to write an aside. Bradbury loves asides. Dickens was riddled with asides. [Where would Boston Market be without asides?]

..... Anyway, here is Augustine talking from approximately the year 480 A.D. And he's talking about the buzz going around the science circles that the world is... round!! Can you imagine? Well, Augustine tries. And he goes on to write about how that might be if the world is actually NOT flat. For instance, he explains...

..... "...science is saying that when I take a walk around the fields outside my living quarters, there are people walking on the other side of the world with their feet pointed up towards me. Or that when the sun sets at the end of my day, at the same time it's rising for others. How impossible to imagine. But that I leave for another time of discussion," he finishes his writing on the subject.

..... So for at least 1,000 years before Columbus set sail, the learned of this world already knew for certainty that the world was round!
....

Nard, I read bits of that and "Confessions" many moons ago. Perhaps I'll pick it up for Lent.

Interesting about the round world. This came up here a couple years ago:

https://raybradburyboard.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/10010939...321021011#4321021011

Of course, now I've got Stan Freberg's "It's a Round, Round World" on the brain!

Finished the Cerf book, "The Life Of The Party". Not only full of humourous anecdotes, jokes, and horrible puns; but he also includes some interesting etymological and historical tidbits, e.g. the origin of "salt water taffy".

Nearly done with "The Lion's Pride".

I forgot to mention I occasionally dip into Chesterton's works. Just read "The Singular Speculation of the House-Agent", one of the "Basil Grant" stories in "The Club Of Queer Trades".
Speaking of which, I have a 1926 copy of this, which doesn't include the original 32 (?) Chesterton illustrations, but says it includes 5 of them, but has none! What gives here, I don't know.

Any ideas, Phil?

Am reading some Tennyson again. The ending of “The Lady Of Shalott” always gets me:

“But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, ‘She has a lovely face;
God in His mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.’”

Also reading “Five Little Peppers And How They Grew” by Margaret Sidney. My parents advised that I should read it when I was eleven and I never did. Now that I am, I find that as usual their advice was right on target.

Also, I need to do a little Cerfin'.

For my classroom, I just finished a great book that was new to our curriculum this year. If any of you have children or students from fifth to seventh grade, I strongly recommend this book. Actually, I recommend it to adults, too. It's called "The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963," by Christopher Paul Curtis, who is a Newbery Medal winning author. He does a tremendous job of "hooking" the students. He starts with a bunch of funny incidents, mainly pranks or mischief the older brother gets into. Also he throws in great scenes about friendship and bullying. My students were so hooked within about two chapters, they all read ahead and finished the book early. One of my favorite things is when a students says,"Do you mind if I read ahead?" And I am talking about Special Ed and At-Risk students here, who normally would rather do anything other than read. And of course I don't mind at all if they read ahead; I am always thrilled. Once the students are hooked, the book gets more serious. When the Watson family goes to visit Grandma in Birmingham, the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church occurs, and at first they believe Joetta, the youngest, is caught in the explosion. The rest of the book deals with the reaction of Kenny, the main character. He goes into a deep depression and can not deal with the ugliness. But then his big brother Byron, the one who always had been in trouble, comes through for once and helps Kenny get back to normal, or at least as normal as one can be after witnessing such a horrendous incident. I almost weeped at the scenes when Byron, who had previously been nothing but a goofball, counseled Kenny. I can't say enough about this book, and will definitely teach it next year and for many years to come. For myself I am currently reading "The March," by E.L. Doctorow. It is the book my town selected for its "Big Read" program for the year. It is a great book so far, all about Sherman's March through the South. It focuses on all different characters from both sides of the war, and both black and white, as the March comes through their towns. I am looking forward to the book discussions and the author appearance that will follow in about a month.

Wow, sounds great! Getting kids of any stripe to read these days is most commendable!
(If you teach, though, please say "I almost wept" instead of "weeped".)
E.L. Doctorow sounds familiar. I'm not familiar with that book, but I've read some excellent Shelby Foote Civil War stuff that would add to your discussions...

Now reading, on Chapter 31's recommendation, "A Christmas Memory", "One Christmas", and "A Thanksgiving Visitor" by Truman Capote...