Books! How do you read and what do you read?

dobielvr said:
I haven't done any book reading in a long time, and I miss it.
What's nice is that the libraries now offer 'large print' lol when requesting a book.

Listening to a book on any device, I just can't do that. My mind would wander so much, I'd miss everything!
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Yes, I haven't either, but this thread is encouraging me to read.
 

Sometimes I can't get a hard copy, so I get the audio book. Currently listening to this while I exercise:
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I guess you'd call it popular anthropology. How cultures developed in different ways (depending on location, resources, and other factors), and how they clashed.

Did you know that a flat island will have no rivers, making agriculture less likely? All kinds of things I've never thought of. Love it!
 
NorthernLight said:
Sometimes I can't get a hard copy, so I get the audio book. Currently listening to this while I exercise:
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I guess you'd call it popular anthropology. How cultures developed in different ways (depending on location, resources, and other factors), and how they clashed.

Did you know that a flat island will have no rivers, making agriculture less likely? All kinds of things I've never thought of. Love it!
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We have that book, (along with shelf loads of others)....neither of us have got around to reading it....yet. (y)
 

NorthernLight said:
Sometimes I can't get a hard copy, so I get the audio book. Currently listening to this while I exercise:
View attachment 264370

I guess you'd call it popular anthropology. How cultures developed in different ways (depending on location, resources, and other factors), and how they clashed.

Did you know that a flat island will have no rivers, making agriculture less likely? All kinds of things I've never thought of. Love it!
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I loved that book. Such an eye opener.
 
Finished 'The Light We Carry' by Michelle Obama yesterday. (one of 3 books my daughter gave me for Christmas). Synchronistically it turned out to be the book a Book Club i belong to on FB was reading this month. i've never participated in their book discussions before--just general ones about the importance of books. Some of the members i've known since Eons, but there are members of various ages in the group.

Next up for me is 'The Book of Joy', conversations between Bishop Tutu and the Dali Lama. Douglas Abrams kind of moderated a week of discussions between the old friends, presenting questions people had asked.
 
I finished reading 'The Dictionary of Lost Words' by Pip Williams{her debut novel} historical fiction the making of the 1st Oxford Dictionary ,starts in 1887-1928 It was done mostly by men,women helped but were not recognized until later.The main character,Esme helps her dad Henry who works at the Scriptorium who was one of the lexigraphers. Any words the men rejected,she keeps,when she's older has her own book published'Women:Words&Their Meanings"
I really liked this was fascinating/interesting 359 pgs,I recommend it
 
NorthernLight said:
Sometimes I can't get a hard copy, so I get the audio book. Currently listening to this while I exercise:
View attachment 264370

I guess you'd call it popular anthropology. How cultures developed in different ways (depending on location, resources, and other factors), and how they clashed.

Did you know that a flat island will have no rivers, making agriculture less likely? All kinds of things I've never thought of. Love it!
Click to expand...

Ruminating some more about that book got me thinking about Jonathon Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. More about the way we are psychologically and socially but just as revelatory.
 
feywon said:
Finished 'The Light We Carry' by Michelle Obama yesterday. (one of 3 books my daughter gave me for Christmas). Synchronistically it turned out to be the book a Book Club i belong to on FB was reading this month. i've never participated in their book discussions before--just general ones about the importance of books. Some of the members i've known since Eons, but there are members of various ages in the group.

Next up for me is 'The Book of Joy', conversations between Bishop Tutu and the Dali Lama. Douglas Abrams kind of moderated a week of discussions between the old friends, presenting questions people had asked.
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Misread the title as All The Light We Cannot See which was a wonderful novel I read in the last couple years.
 
feywon said:
Wow, that's a big misread.

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The older i get the less fiction i read--it has to grab me hard by end of first chapter or i'm 'done'.
i find more value in non-fiction these days.
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We are opposites that way. I only ever had time for nonfiction before I retired although a rare novel would find its way in. Now I’ve been reading all the great novels I can put my hands on for the last half dozen years. At least I was until McGilchrist came out with The Matter With Things. It is three times the length of his Master and His Emisarry a dense book which I chewed on for several years. Both are nonfiction books about neuro science, philosophy, science and psychology.
 
officerripley said:
Same here. I don't think that non-fiction necessarily always has more value than fiction; I just find it more interesting.
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Suspect i used 'value' because it is more interesting to me.
As i've pointed out to people who complain about sci-fi plot mechanisms (alternate time lines and the like) in sci-fi franchises that's part of the deal---suspend disbelief. While there have been some fiction works i enjoyed greatly and found a lot intriguing ideas in, all fiction is basically a creation of a hypothetical world, where the author lays the ground rules, so can consider and solve any problem presented any way they wish.

As i've aged i'm more engaged by real people confronting real problems and working their way thru them. Their solutions might not work for me, but then of course i might not never face some of their problems either. However, the attitudes and tactics they use for getting thru things might inspire me.
 
MarkD said:
We are opposites that way. I only ever had time for nonfiction before I retired although a rare novel would find its way in. Now I’ve been reading all the great novels I can put my hands on for the last half dozen years. At least I was until McGilchrist came out with The Matter With Things. It is three times the length of his Master and His Emisarry a dense book which I chewed on for several years. Both are nonfiction books about neuro science, philosophy, science and psychology.
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When younger i read all types of books voraciously. Science, philosophy (including translations of various Religions' scriptures) classics (read most of them before age 10--my sisters were in high school, no public library in our rural town and i read everything from package labels to their assigned reading, to eldest sisters' Mad Magazine and Crypt-Keeper Comic, to my Dad's historical bios and non-fiction. Ironically it was one of those that gave me nightmares not the Crypt-Keeper as my mother worried about.

In my 50's i developed Fuch's Dystrophy (a corneal disease) and reading was quite fatiguing. Since i was still working (as an HR Data Base Manager last decade of work life) at the time i had to be more selective. That's really when the balance shifted. Ram Dass's 'Still Here', poetry and i really could not give up my science books--both astrophysics and neuroscience--but i had to learn to pace myself to not stress my eyes. i'm 8 yrs post surgery now and just getting back to reading as much as i once did because habits, while breakable, do take time to change.
 
I used to read a lot of nonfiction, including how-to books. Now I mostly just read myself to sleep with mysteries.

My language partner is interested in philosophy and is starting a nonfiction book club. When much younger, I tried reading philosophy, but couldn't really get into it on my own. I think it will be interesting to explore these ideas with others.

Because the library has either 0 copies or 1 copy of a philosophy book, most book club members will be reading online copies, e.g., on Gutenberg Project.
 
the Edge of Summer. by Viola Shipman

This one is about a mother's love for her daughter as she raises her.
She has told her daughter that her father died in a fire.

The life mother & daughter lead is full of hard work, loneliness.
As the daughter gets older she wishes to know more about her father & mother.
Who were they, where did they live?

Really enjoyed this book,,hope anyone who reads it,,likes it ,too.
 
The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science - Seb Falk

The 'Dark Ages' were anything but Dark.

The Dark Ages gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks.

Great read, and ties in nicely with a program I watched on PBS, called 'Secrets of the Dead: King Arthur's Lost Kingdom'.
(story of England after the Romans left)
 
Feelslikefar said:
Great read, and ties in nicely with a program I watched on PBS, called 'Secrets of the Dead: King Arthur's Lost Kingdom'.
(story of England after the Romans left)
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That sounds fascinating; I'm going to record that one, looks like it repeats again tomorrow on our PBS channel, thanks for the recommend.
 
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