What are you reading right now ?

[TheBlackFox]

I've just started "Pirates on the Chesapeake" by Don Shomette. The 1600s material is fascinating

[blackjohn]

Very good book, I'll agree. The mid-1700s and beyond stuff is even interesting.

What am I reading right now... dunno... I think the last book I read someting from was The Magus of Java.

[CaptainSatan]

El Club Dumas, one of my favourite books.

-CS

[Red Cat Jenny]

Trying to finish "Under The Black Flag" have a stack of others to pick through and waiting anxiously for "The Scents of Eden" to arrive.

[Jacky Tar]

Trying to finish "Under The Black Flag" have a stack of others to pick through and waiting anxiously for  "The Scents of Eden" to arrive.

Funny, I have, "Under the Black Flag", sittin' on me nightstand.

[Red Cat Jenny]

Aye 'tis a goode read to be sure..now give it back so I can finish it lol...

[capnwilliam]

Harry Morgan's Way - Dudley Pope

Port Royal Jamaica, Michael Pawson

Port Royal - The Sunken City, Robert F. Marx

There's a theme there, I know. But I'm finishing my presentation of PyrateCon.

-- Hurricane

See you there, Hurricane!

I just read some stuff for my talk there, "Cannon crews and their history."

Am now reading Frank Sherry's REBELS AND RAIDERS (piratical), and THE BEST OF H.P. LOVECRAFT (non-piratical).

Capt. William

[capnwilliam]

Just finished Chaffin's Sea of Gray, about the CSS Shenandoah.

Have Jim Nelson's Glory in the Name, historical fiction about CSS Navy, on the bed stand.

I liked SEA OF GRAY, although his point of view conflicted with my pro-Confederate tendencies.

Capt. William

[CrazyCholeBlack]

*

[Arthur Richards from Kent]

"The Secret"

[Caraccioli]

Finished both Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists and The Thin Man this weekend. I started Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. This is a huge freaking book, so I think that'll be all until I get bored with it and have to start a 3rd book again.

[Mad Kestrel]

I started Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. This is a huge freaking book...

I tried to read that, a number of years ago, but it defeated me. Maybe one of these days I'll make it all the way to the end.

In the meantime, I've just started Jack Absolute, which is the rollicking tale of an American spy, rogue and lover in the late 18th century. I'm only a chapter in, though, so the rollicking hasn't begun yet.

[Patrick Hand]

I finished reading Through the Breach by David Drake last night..... I liked Hammer's Slammers much better, but it did have some interesting ideas to steal for a role-playing game...

I haven't decided if I'm going to read The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert or Reach by Edward Gibson next.... Maybe I'll just randomly pick one up when I start to read tonight.....

I don't think going through the rules for Traveller, Twilight 2000 and Aftermath count as "what I'm reading right now"........

But they are cutting into my reading time.........

[Caraccioli]

I started Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. This is a huge freaking book...

I tried to read that, a number of years ago, but it defeated me. Maybe one of these days I'll make it all the way to the end.

When I first started reading the Preface to the 20th Edition, my eyes started rolling into the back of my head. I remember thinking, "Oh, no. I hope this whole book isn't full of text in the same style as this pretentious eyewash." But then he changed tone in the middle of his preface and adopted a decent story style. He does go on and on (and on and on and on) about his misery of having used the male pronoun in generic sentences, though. Hey, mister...It's your book, if you really feel that badly about it, change it for the 20th edition! Don't try to allay your perceived guilt by diffusing it among new readers and then explain how it shouldn't be changed! Just do it and be satisfied or don't and keep mum.

Fortunately, once the book started proper I found I quite liked it. The points are so well ensconced in the text that I keep missing their importance, however. (I always take notes on factually-oriented books. I have scads of notebooks full of notes.) The text just flows along and I float with it, forgetting to look for important points. I think I am now slightly more aware of the reason I like certain kinds of complex instrumental music. (I never really knew what a canon was before I started reading this.) Any book that can help me explain myself to myself is of interest (to me. )

[Caraccioli]

I don't think going through the rules for Traveller, Twilight 2000...

Wow! Are they still around? I can remember playing them back in the late 70s or early 80s. AD&D was always my favored game. (Say, where did that RPG thread go? I wonder if it's still around?)

[CrazyCholeBlack]

[Red Cat Jenny]

A year in Provence..loved the series. The book is like a mini vacation..

Starting on O'Brien..

[Salty]

the coffee house: a cultural history by markman ellis

[Caraccioli]

I started Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. This is a huge freaking book, so I think that'll be all until I get bored with it and have to start a 3rd book again.

Well, it happened. Too much factual reading stunts my brain. I started re-reading one of my favorite books, Jurassic Park by Crichton for the umpteenth time. (You would think that would also stunt my brain. Yet I enjoy it every time.)

[Mad Kestrel]

Well, it happened. Too much factual reading stunts my brain. I started re-reading one of my favorite books, Jurassic Park by Crichton for the umpteenth time. (You would think that would also stunt my brain. Yet I enjoy it every time.)

I loved that book! It was the first Crichton I ever read, and I fell for him hard.

I finished Jack Absolute (it was merely okay) and started a young-adult fantasy, Magic Lessons.

I'm not a young adult anymore, just reading like one.

[Caraccioli]

Still muddling through Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. I am in Chapter V [Recursive Structures and Processes] where I came across one of the best descriptions of renormalization of particle physics I've ever seen. I might even be able to understand muons if they were completely explained in this manner!

Oh, I finished JP awhile ago. Started Dave Barry's Tricky Business, from which I expect little. (But I love Dave Barry's writing style and I saw it for cheap.)

[Ransom]

Just finished an excellent book entitled The Island of Lost Maps - A True Story of Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvey.

In an attempt to understand why a man named Gilbert Bland would, under a fake name and credentials, go into famouse libraries across the country, take a razor blade and cut valuable maps from books, Miles Harvey follows in the man's footsteps, talking to the librarians from whom the maps were stolen, to map dealers, map collectors. Interspersed with this biography, he give a history of cartography, famouse cartographers, and how they stole from each other. He also shows how cartography influenced politics, not just exploration.

A very good read, indeed.

[Silent]

Thats something I need to do when I have time. Pick up a good book, tis good for the mind.

[Salty]

Just finished an excellent book entitled The Island of Lost Maps - A True Story of Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvey.

In an attempt to understand why a man named Gilbert Bland would, under a fake name and credentials, go into famouse libraries across the country, take a razor blade and cut valuable maps from books, Miles Harvey follows in the man's footsteps, talking to the librarians from whom the maps were stolen, to map dealers, map collectors. Interspersed with this biography, he give a history of cartography, famouse cartographers, and how they stole from each other. He also shows how cartography influenced politics, not just exploration.

A very good read, indeed.

tis a most excellent book..

fer meself right now between sexpots eroticism in ceramics and the beat book....oh wait few others wading through be scottish love poems, the coffee house, and the last two books of noviks neapolonic (sp) wars with dragons added in fer good measure novels.

any other reading suggestions for a bit afore i go back to life and school?????

[Mission]

fer meself right now between  sexpots eroticism in ceramics and the beat book....oh wait few others wading through be scottish love poems, the coffee house, and the last two books of noviks  neapolonic (sp) wars with dragons added in fer good measure novels.   

any other reading suggestions for a bit afore i go back to life and school?????

You seem to have quite a stack already, but I frequently recommend Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach to anyone who seems like they might be interested in philosophy and metaphysics. It's does have the added advantage of being a very quick read. (Almost no one I've suggested it to seems to appreciate it as much as I do, however. So take the rec. with a grain of salt.)

In fact, I usually pick up extra copies at books sales and whatnot to give away to friends, but my stores are low just now (I only have 2 copies - all the local book sales and resale shops seem to be disappearing! Probably due to Amazon which has cheap (AND searchable) used books aplenty.)