Rate the last thing you read

[Lea]

I had no idea this thread was locked until I saw Radhi's post last night. I love this thread Thanks for unlocking it 10P

I just finished Relic and Reliquary both by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. They are both Pendergast books and Reliquary was a sequel to Relic.

I love this series. I did like the second book better then the first. I gave the first one a 3 star rating and the second a 4 star rating.

[edna]

I´m reading novels by Andreï Makine, a Russian writer who writes in French... it´s easy to read and as I work so much lately, I enjoy those quite not-complicated books.

[Jenny]

I read Persepolis by Marjane Sartrapi. It's a biography, but it's illustrated, so I guess it can be called a graphic biography. It was kind of in the same vein as Maus. She tells about growing up in Iran during the Iranian Revolution and subsequent Iran/Iraq war. She is my age, so maybe that's why it struck a chord.

I hated having to put it down, but hey, I have to sleep sometime! 10/10.

[Farin]

over the last couple of days I read Measuring the World ("Die Vermessung der Welt") by Daniel Kehlmann

Playing in the early 19th century, it's a semi-historical account of two very famous scientists and their very different approach to "measure the world". Alexander von Humboldt is doing an extensive expedition to and through South America with his "assistent" Aimé Bonpland (their hallucinations are great ). The other one, child-prodigy and misanthropic (think of Dr House here) Carl Friedrich Gauss never travels more than a couple of miles outside of his hometown. The one thing both have in common is their fanaticism when it comes to science

The book isn't scientific, as it may seem may seem now, much more it has a very wry humour, eg when Gauss jumps up from bed on his wedding night to write down a formula he just thought of, when Humboldt encounters some electric eels while bathing in a river and doesn't get out as fast as possible, but grabs them and studies their electric shocks until his arms and hands are too numb to write anything down.

Or when the two of them finally meet and Humboldt completely freezes while shaking Gauss' hand, whispering out of the corner of his mouth that the guy with the strange looking box is called Daguerre, and that they improved his methods so that they now only have to stand still for 30 minutes and maybe they'll get a picture of this "historic meeting"

Goethe, Kant and Thomas Jefferson have camoe appearances as well

all in all a very enjoyable book, 9/10 and a

[Levis]

I just finished The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.

Wiki calls it an 'alternate history'. It tells the story from the first person perspective of a child growing up in the 1940s. Except - it assumes the Charles Lindbergh wins the presidential election against Roosevelt and consequently decides not to send America to war against the Axis powers. It's a very terrifying 'what if...?' story about anti-semitism and KuKluxKlanning in America. Fictional - while using real people as the protagonists - but so realistic that I had to periodically check up the wiki to get my facts straight. What makes it really eerie is knowing that even though it's specualation, the groups mentioned actually do exist and probably would do exactly what the book describes, were a similar situation to prevail.

A very good book, no doubt about it. But it raises quite a few ethical questions about how it portrays real people (Charles Lindbergh, Walter Winchell, Christians, Jews). I couldn't go through it again, though. I give it an objective 8/10 and a subjective 6/10.

[edna]

Interesting. Your comment made me want to read that book...

I have 3 Amélie Nothomb books, 3 Andreï Malkine and two big History books to start/end by now. I just do´t have the time. I wish I had two weeks off so I could read them...

[Farin]

If somebody still needs some ideas for what to read:

Top 10 Most Disturbing Novels

[Jenny]

The synopsis for #10 (Misery)is wrong, as one of the commentors explains....certain events in "Misery" were toned down (believe it or not) for the film. In the book, a lot worse than ankle breaking happens to Paul. I couldn't sleep after I read that part of the book.

[Farin]

I read that too when I skimmed over the comments,

and there the author of the list agreed that he'll change that fact soon...

[Foolonthehill]

I just read "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. Excellent.

[miamisammy29]

I just read Foolonthehill's review of "The Glass Castle". It, too, was excellent.

[Lucky]

I'm terribly amused by #4 on the list of Most Disturbing Books. Not the subject matter, just the title alone ....

4. We Need To Talk About Kevin

[The Seeker]

I'm reading Richard III right now (I've to read a play a week this semester), and I'm kinda getting into it A month ago I was just as confused and bored by the plays as I thought I'd be, but now I'm even finding the 'funny' bits funny

[Uncle Joe]

That Shakespeare kid kinda grows on ya.

[Earth-Angel]

Read "Eclipse" by Stephanie Meyer on the weekend (it's the 3rd in the series) and although it is a little cheesey (her writing style is a little immature in places), the story is still very good and enjoyable More a teen romance/fantasy, but I enjoyed it all the same

[The Seeker]

I just finished Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. It took me two months, and I'm usually a fast reader, but there were so many things to think about and so much happened in it that I had to put it down again every four or five pages.

Towards the end it got a little too much though... everything was connected to everything else, and every little detail had a meaning that popped up again fifty pages later. I'll give it 9/10 for that.

[The Seeker]

The Tragedy of Coriolanus

That guy is the most annoying Shakespeare character I've encountered so far

[Lea]

I was listening to Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn when the terrorists hit India. It was really scary how that book kind of paralleled some of the events that took place in India.

I like the Flynn books that portray the Mitch Rapp character. He is a counter-terrorism specialist.

The book focused a lot on how the Geneva Convention hinders government officials from obtaining information from known captured terrorists before they can enter a country and start killing people.

The book of course was fiction but something that could and is most likely happening all over the world. Worrisome stuff.

As far as fiction books of this kind go I'd give it a 7/10.

I am now listening to Dark Rivers of the Heart by Dean Koontz. Typical Koontz fair not sure how I'd rate it but it does keep me entertained

[MindCrime]

I'm reading 1984 by George Orwell and listening to it on MP3 disc at the same time, allowing the voice to read to me as I read along. It's a personal favorite of mine, and it's also where I got my username.

8.3 / 10 Interesting, but implausibly theoritical.

[TheLizard]

I love that book too. Funny though, I always thought that your username implied that you're a Queensryche fan.

[MindCrime]

I love Queensryche, and Operation Mindcrime is my favorite CD by them but the name comes from a chapter in 1984.

[Lea]

and it's also where I got my username.

Really? That was also one of my favorite books in school along with Fahrenheit 2000 and the one about the English boys marooned on an island. I can't remember the name now but I'm sure someone here will.

I probably listen to 2 or more audio books a week. I love them. I was always a big reader but now my eyesight isn't so great so audios are perfect for me.

I'm really to young to have eyesight this bad. I use about the strongest reading glasses I can find

[Farin]

Really? That was also one of my favorite books in school along with Fahrenheit 2000

Fahrenheit 451?

[The Seeker]

Really? That was also one of my favorite books in school along with Fahrenheit 2000 and the one about the English boys marooned on an island. I can't remember the name now but I'm sure someone here will.

Oh oh... uh... Lord of the Flies?

[Lea]

That would be the one ya little mind like a steel trap kid Just wait till you get old and see how great your memory is

So whats the name of the other book I mentioned