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Old 7 Apr 2017, 12:15 AM   #1
Zoey141
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A shout out to fellow bibliophiles!

Hello, folks!

What are you guys currently reading?

I recently finished reading Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Planning to pick up an Agatha Christie book next. If you have any good books to suggest (preferably crime thriller genre), I'm all ears. So let me know.
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Old 7 Apr 2017, 01:15 AM   #2
Gankaku
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Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott. It's girly, but kinda cute. It's also honestly kind of boring...but there are a lot of fun fantasy words and imagery in it. I'll probably not finish it and move onto something meatier soon.

I like browsing through free downloads online though. There are some good classic short stories that are pretty quick read. Plus you can discover authors you really like. I read "A Simple Heart" by Flaubert and loved his writing so I tried a few other short stories of his. Now I'd like to read something longer that he's written.

I like crime thriller/mysteries but like to see them on TV instead. I've watched a ton on Netflix. Especially the British ones...so good. Did you see any of the Miss Marples stuff? Based on Agatha Christie's stuff, I guess. Good shows. I also loved George Gently. Sooo good. I think they're filming the last season of this now.

Last edited by Gankaku : 7 Apr 2017 at 01:22 AM.
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Old 7 Apr 2017, 11:46 PM   #3
Zoey141
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Alcott, eh? I'm not too familiar with her work. I once tried reading Alcott's Jack and Jill: A Village Story , but for some reason couldn't get past a few pages As for Flaubert's works, I've only read Madame Bovary. I'm yet to read the others.

Ah, yes. I have loads free books I downloaded, but haven't really been able to set some time aside for reading

I love crime thriller/mysteries in all forms! That said, watching something, sometimes takes the whole experience to another level, unlike reading.

I'm a BIG fan of Netflix and I'm eagerly looking forward to watch Stranger Things 2. I haven't watched any of the Miss Marples stuff yet. So many shows so little time! I recently subscribed to Amazon Prime and I'm planning to watch The Man in the High Castle series. I heard good things about the book, so I'm eager to watch the series.
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Old 12 Apr 2017, 04:57 AM   #4
Gankaku
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I've been wanting to watch Stranger Things...I hope to watch that soon. We just finished watching the first season of Iron Fist (based on a Marvel comics superhero) which was pretty good. There's also another we'll watch called Daredevil, also based on Marvel comics.

I am almost done with The Crown. Love the British royalty shows. They're amazing...it's mind boggling how over the years the power of these folks can lead some of them to be so... grrr *explodes*

I'll take a look at the Man in the High Castle. That sound intriguing!
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Old 22 Apr 2017, 09:45 PM   #5
communicant
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It is a sign of the times that a thread aimed at "fellow bibliophiles" so quickly became devoted to television!
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Old 22 Apr 2017, 11:05 PM   #6
janusz
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Nobody's mentioned Kindle so far....
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Old 27 Apr 2017, 08:09 AM   #7
webecedarian
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoey141 View Post
Hello, folks!

What are you guys currently reading?

I recently finished reading Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Planning to pick up an Agatha Christie book next. If you have any good books to suggest (preferably crime thriller genre), I'm all ears. So let me know.
What do you think of Scarlet Letter, and how do you happen to be reading it? Most people I know had to read it in school. I prefer The House Of Seven Gables. But best of all is a tiny book that's essentially the diary of three weeks that Hawthorne spent with his little boy, Twenty Days with Julian and Little Bunny.
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Old 27 Apr 2017, 09:33 AM   #8
Gankaku
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One book I recommend is "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. They are doing an HBO movie on this now (Oprah probably plays Henrietta's daughter, she'd fit that role best). Henrietta had cancer, and they "stole" a scraping of her cells. They made a bazillion dollars on research on these cells because they were the only ones to perform in a particular way that science had not been able to get cells do to before. The family knew nothing for years and got nothing, many lived in poverty, and were never told the extreme importance of Henrietta's cells in science until very recently. Very excellent story that everyone should know about. Her cells made research happen that might have helped make the medicine you take, or treatments, etc. Her cells are one of the important groups of cells being used today in research. I read this one a couple of years ago on my Kindle as janusz brought up and borrowed it from my local library for free online.
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Old 27 Apr 2017, 10:59 PM   #9
janusz
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One book I recommend is "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot..
i read it too (on Kindle....). Fascinating story, though HL herself and her family got on my nerves.
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Old 28 Apr 2017, 07:23 AM   #10
TenFour
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I just read Move Fast and Break Things on my Nook, and I must say the reviews were better than the book. It is about how a handful of companies now dominate what we read and see on the Internet, and how their outsized power is reshaping the world based on the Libertarian beliefs of their founders/owners. We're talking Google, Facebook, and Amazon mainly. Good premise, but the author mainly backs it up with long-winded anecdotes about his work in the music industry with all sorts of icons, but only somewhat relevant to many of us. He is arguing that the loss of revenue due to digital reproduction is causing a huge loss for the world, but his stories mainly argue for why musicians and writers aren't getting paid what they used to be paid. I'm a writer who knows this all too well, but I think the author misses the point that the same structure that he bemoans has benefited many more people than have been hurt. And, I'm a writer who knows that wages today are less than they were in 1985, if you even have a job writing!

I was expecting more about how AI and huge data-driven companies are shaping the world discussion in ways even they don't understand, but I only read some of that in the book. For example, I find it incredible how political movements based on false facts (lies) have gained huge power.
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Old 29 Apr 2017, 03:35 AM   #11
Gankaku
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Originally Posted by janusz View Post
i read it too (on Kindle....). Fascinating story, though HL herself and her family got on my nerves.
Omigosh yeah

Right now, I'm reading a western by Louis L'Amour called Dark Canyon. It's an easy and light read.

Last edited by Gankaku : 29 Apr 2017 at 03:46 AM.
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Old 6 May 2017, 05:51 AM   #12
evilquoll
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A certain major event last November in a certain Western Hemisphere country (can't be more specific without breaking Forum rules, perhaps you could search the DUK Forums for my old username, robert@fm) has caused a few people (at least here in the UK) to draw up lists of post-apocalyptic literature; and one I mentioned was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I have it on my Kindle app on my tablet, and am currently reading it.
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Old 22 Jun 2017, 11:59 AM   #13
Tsunami
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Last book I read was the autobiography "Life after death" by Damien Echols.

Damien was one of the "West Memphis 3" who were wrongly accused of the murder of three boy scout children in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien got a death sentence and spent 18 years on death row, when finally being released (but not fully exonerated yet, even though any reliable evidence linking him to the crime is missing) in 2011. He has pursued his dream to become an artist ever since, penning several books and working on graphic arts too.

The autobiography is written in an excellent style for someone who is autodidactic, and it sends shivers down the spine to realise what this man had to endure for 18 years, without a single proof that he had anything to do with the crime he was convicted for. Despite the very bleak subject, there is some hopeful undertone as well in the book. Because if someone can survive such long time in such hard circumstances and get out as a mentally stronger person, that is a testimony to how strong the human spirit can be as long as one doesn't give up.

His last book was "Yours for eternity", which he wrote together with his wife, Lorri Davis.



I now have 2 new books on the shell, reading to be read.

Two travelogues albeit with a political undertone. One is about an Israëli writer traveling along the "border" between Israel and Palestine, talking to people and hearing both sides of the story. The second book is a travelogue on North Korea.

Given the "no politics" policy of the forum I won't mention anything of the actual content of the book. Just naming the subject is good enough I think, I prefer to not violate forum rules.



Once I've finished those two books, I'm planning to read "Aftrap in Brussel" ("Kick-off in Brussels"), a book documenting the history of football (soccer) in my current home town Brussels.
A bit lighter subject, it doesn't Always have to be about the "deep" subjects of life :-)

Also on my "to read" list is the second travelogue book of Tom Waes, a Belgian TV celebrity who hosts a travel documentary series on TV in which he visits less touristic "off the beaten path" destinations such as Tuvalu, Alaska, Sierra Leone, Paraguay, Bangladesh, Pitcairn, Turkmenistan, Albania, ... His TV shows are Always very pleasant to watch ; the book is supposed to tell those stories that were not broadcasted on TV + looking back on the travels he made for his documentaries.
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Old 22 Jun 2017, 12:03 PM   #14
Tsunami
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That said, my favourite all time books (excluding travel guides and travelogues, which are by far my favourite form of literature) are "Wuthering Heights" by the fascinating and extraordinary talented Emily Brontë, and "We" by Jevgueni Zamjatin (the true pioneer of dystopian novels, way before Orwell wrote "1984")

And within the travelogues sphere, some highly recommendable books are "Eilanden" (Dutch for "Islands") by Boudewijn Büch, and "Atlas van afgelegen eilanden" ("Map of remote islands" - for sure translated into other languages too) by Judith Schalansky. Both authors have an extremely pleasant writing style that make you almost travel in mind to the places they are describing.

I got a soft spot for remote Island societies, as you can see
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