What books are you reading right now?

Mumbo jumbo by isthmael reed.Very strange but so much truth.

 

Did you buy book #1 Kushiel's Dart? Because the book I am reading now is its sequel that deals with the aftermath of the first book.

 

The Hobbit.
Years ago, I tried reading it and lost interest--didn't ever really get started. Now, having read the Lord of The Rings trilogy, it is appealing. And it is short so I'll be done before I see the film. The best part so far is the convo. I had with my son about it (I'm reading his copy). After I mentioned that I was getting into it, somehow we segued into how he just devours books--and retains the info. I said part of the reason I like The Hobbit this time 'round is that I'm acquainted with the world that Tolkein created and when I read of Gandalf for example, I picture Ian McKellan. He replied that he does not picture 'anything' in his mind when he reads and surmised that that might be why he can speed through books. I thought that a fascinating theory about perhaps one reason why some of us are slower readers and I sort of feel better that I'm basically a 50-pages-a-night-type (though I'll do 100 if I'm extremely hooked).

 

Thanks, Baraka_Guru. I do or feel all the things you've cited (including the short-term memory thing). I assumed that you too were a fast reader because, well, you are the book guy!

 

Just finished Chronicle of Narnia - The Last Battle
Always have loved that series and that book ends it perfectly.

 

Just re-read Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. Still laugh-out-loud funny. One of the funniest books I have ever read.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament, by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler. An excellent piece of scholarship, meticulously sourcing original, parallel, and opposing texts from the Hebrew Bible, Jewish apocrypha, and Rabbinic text that are used in the NT (NSRV), explaining their use, and highlighting how early Christianity uses them both or either similarly and in different ways than does Judaism. Also a crapload of scholarly essays in the back by various scholars of repute, on all kinds of interesting and useful relevant topics. A terrific find: I would be interested in it even if I hadn't read it for professional reasons.

Also read the latest of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books-- excellent as expected, but now I have to wait another two years for the next one! And read the latest in Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series, which I am finding a very amusing little guilty pleasure.

 

I have been diagnosed with ADD & Menopause... it seems they go hand in hand.
As of this afternoon I am reading
Euell Gibbons Stalking the Healthful Herbs
When Blood Flows, JK Beck
Where the Wild Things Were, Stolzenburg
Spaceways, John Cleve
and at least 2 Literotica stories.....
I read fast... and if really good, will start it all over when I get to the end!

 

It's a good choice, from a purely literary perspective. Becoming familiar with the KJV will help shed light into many following works of poetry and prose in the English language, and it is itself a superb work of poetry, worth reading purely for its own aesthetic merits.

That said, it is probably useful to be aware that, as a work of purported theological merit, it is deeply flawed in terms of translation-- both the technical aspects of basic accuracy and idiom, and also in terms of the nuances of rendering, many of which are quite eisegetic. Obviously I am only really discussing this in terms of the Hebrew Scriptures, since I lack the Greek and the deep source text background to make such judgments about the Christian Scriptures. But in terms of the so-called "Old Testament," the KJV-- like most Christian Bibles-- suffers both from lack of scholarship in Jewish text, and from a persistent tendency to insert Christological readings into Jewish text.

I certainly would not wish to deter anyone from reading the KJV, which, again, I stress is well worth the investment of time as a work of poetry. But if you are, or become, interested in comparison, might I suggest getting a copy of Everett Fox's The Five Books of Moses, which is probably the finest translation of the Pentateuch into the English language that I know of, both in terms of overall accuracy (bearing in mind that no translation has 100% accuracy), and in terms of best replicating the aesthetic experience of the Hebrew text. Though it is only the Five Books, and not the entire body of the Hebrew Scriptures, it should be sufficient to get the idea, and to extrapolate what some of the issues of classic Christian translations might look like to Jews. Also, Fox is a terrific scholar-- teaches Hebrew Bible at BU or Harvard or something like that, if I recall right-- and his notes are excellent and plentiful.

 

Fair enough, sir! In that case, may I recommend the KJV Song of Songs, which is just stunning, and also its Psalms, especially Pss. 91-121, which I think are arguably the best?

 

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason
--- merged: Dec 21, 2012 at 2:24 PM ---

just thinking about sam spade gets me all hot n swampy down in my nethers