What books are you reading right now?

I've started The Rise And Fall Of the Third Reich, and recently puchased a couple of interesting books on the cheap. One is the Bounty triology in one volume, and Ogden Nash's The Private Dining Room first edition HBDJ.

 

Amazon.com: How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them--A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide (9780061357954): Howard Mittelmark, Sandra Newman: Books

I'm reading about writing because its easier than writing.

 

In the foreward to TRAFOTTR, Shirer discusses in great detail the extensive documentation left by the Germans.

I've read They Shall Not Have Me by Jean Helion who writes about his experiences as a French soldier in a German POW camp during WWII. The German military bureaucracy (and civilian I would think) with the related paperwork described by Helion was nearly unbelieveable. Apparantly the Germans had different classifications for their POWs. If you were part of a "favored" group (French is Helion's case), and learned how to manipulate the bureaucracy (he spoke German and was assigned work as a clerk), you could make life in a POW camp reasonably bearable (which of course is a very subjective description). If you were part of a "despised" group, such as Russian POWs, you were pretty much screwed.

 

In the fog of the season's end

 

I need to find something relatively light to read along with TRAFOTTR. Reading it straight through as the only book I'm reading reminds me way too much of being back in college. I'm almost to page 100, Hitler is out of prison and is starting his rise.

 

Dr. Sleep by Stephen King.
Good stuff, a well done sequel to The Shining.

 

Just finished a re-read of the Harry Potter books. Now reading Hunted, the sixth book in the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne, which I love. I waited until the seventh book came out to read the sixth, so I could read them in a row. So much awesome!

 

Buddahland Brooklyn --- A set-in-his-ways middle aged Buddhist monk is sent from Japan to build a temple in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn.

 

The first in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. I have to ration myself... I'm addicted and could read it for hours. But, I'm training my eyes on the Kindle, so that's not a good idea. Audiobook is Jack Reacher #17 (I think), "The Affair".

 

I took a break from TRAFOTTR and read Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men, yet another classic that I somehow wasn't required to read in junior high or high school. I had seen the movie directed by Gary Sinise, screenplay by Horton Foote, which made me want to read the book. I wouldn't call it a novel, but it was a very good 'long' short story. When reading OMAM I kept thinking that Steinbeck could've easily turned it into a full blown novel without diluting it; I would've welcomed additional information on George and Lenny.

 

I envy the kids who attend(ed) schools where challenging and "controversial" literature (and other topics in other subjects) is taught and discussed. My education in public schools was so conservative the caesarean section mentioned in Macbeth was controversial (like seniors in HS haven't heard of CS?). Of course I made it a point to focus on it, much to the discomfort of my prim & proper English teacher.

 

flash boys a wall street revolt by micheal lewis it confirms that that traders are cunts and that canadians really are the nicest people on earth

 

We are raised to be polite. But 'nice'? We can be plenty naughty.