Current Non-Fiction reads

[direstraits]

I just finished The Know-It-All by A.J Jacobs. Really interesting book, and Jacobs is a very funny man. I loved how he intermingled facts from the encyclopaedia with an ongoing story of his life and attempts to conceive - I think it might have been a bit dry otherwise.

Hey MC! It's been a while. Check out my thread on The Know-It-All here. It was an immensely enjoyable book, and he's really made it really funny.

I loved his attempts at trying to make use of all the facts he's gleaning from the Encyclopedia by joining a gameshow. Brilliant touch.

ds

 

[Blindsided]

Hegel's phenomenology of spirit

oh joy

 

[Wells83]

Fleeced, Dick Morris

 

[Ryouko]

Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra, John Derbyshire

 

[jaynebosco]

Dreams of My Father - Barack Obama

 

[RAC42]

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping

 

[Wells83]

American Eve: The Birth of the "It Girl" and the Crime of the Century, Paula Uruburu

 

[frizzstar]

reading Almost French

Hey, I'm reading a book about an Ozzy woman who comes to live in France. She describes all the differences she found with the language, culture and most certainly behaviour. It's a very funny take on all the faux pars that a female foreigner can do in French society.I'm only half way through and it promises to be finished soon-very easy reading book!

 

[nporter]

Just started "American Lightning" by Howard Blum.

 

[letterHead]

Just over half-way through My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan. A potted history of apartheid mixed with investigations into various killings.

 

[Wells83]

Almost finished with Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson

 

[debgray]

I'm on the last chapter of Conversations with Capote by Lawrence Grobel. I picked it up on a whim at the used book store (The Grass Harp has always been one of my favorite books) thinking I would skim it. I couldn't put it down after the first few pages. It's a very good read--full of insight into writing, Capote's thoughts on other writers like Faulkner and Hemingway, and a glimpse of a truly unique, creative individual who too often (from the point of view of his contemporaries) blurted out truths.

 

[nporter]

Ooh! How goes "Shakespeare"! I've been curious about this one!

I'm about half way through "The Urban Hermit" by Sam MacDonald. It's pretty darn funny!

 

[abecedarian]

Artesan Bread in Five Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzberg

 

[Louisa]

How to Get a Job You'll Love: A Practical Guide to Unlocking Your Talents and Finding Your Ideal Career by John Lees

I'm reading it for work!

 

[Wells83]

Ooh! How goes "Shakespeare"! I've been curious about this one!

I'm about half way through "The Urban Hermit" by Sam MacDonald. It's pretty darn funny!

Shakespeare was wonderful.

Unfortunately, there's just not much information to go off of. There's so much that is not known.

 

[beer good]

And I just started on Shakespeare. So far so good; fun but informative, like I've come to expect from Bryson.

 

[-Carlos-]

I am reading many non-fiction books now to be frank:

There is one by Sean Hall about Semiotics, another by Peter Kemp on Speed Reading, another Josip Novakovich on writing, another by Joseph Campbell on Mythology, yet another by Brian Green on Superstring theory, and finally one by Norman Lewis on English vocabulary. Wow that's more than enough for me.

 

[silverseason]

The Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks. She wrote this before her better-known People of the Book.

 

[mmyap]

I'm working my way through The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley which is about the Katrina catastrophe. Its mind boggling when you realize just how much incompetence had to converge at one time and in one place to produce this debacle.