What books are you reading right now?

I really like the earlier books of the Change Series, especially A Meeting at Corvalis.
I like less the last couple of books where magic overcomes TEOTWAWKI as the theme. It's just a bit much for my taste, and I haven't yet read past High King of Montival.

My favorite Stirling is Conquistador, which, I think, demands a sequel.

His Draka Series is also on my radar, but I haven't gone there yet.

 

No, but I've read the real Inferno. Does that count?

 

I think I'm going to reread some Dante this summer. Last night while hanging out with a buddy, we got talking about how awesome it would be if Guillermo del Toro made an Inferno movie.

 

What a wonderful idea. I read Divine Comedy a short while ago, but to be honest, I greatly lost interest not even halfway into Paradiso. Then I saw this: Why doesn't anyone read Dante's Paradiso? - Slate Magazine

A del Toro film of Inferno might be cool. I wonder, though, if it would actually focus on the moralism or mostly on the setting/plot. Many films today have too much emphasis on setting/special effects—in other words, spectacle. Aristotle would be disappointed.

 

You mean Disco Inferno?


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_sY2rjxq6M

 

Actually, I did. But I went along with snowy to appear all edumacated and shit.

But really?

I just want to dance.

Burn, baby, burn!

 

I've been working my way through Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I think that a lot of his ideas (some expressed in his books The Black Swans and Fooled by Randomness) can be applied to investing, especially his ideas on asymmetricality as applied to risk vs. return.
It's an interesting, though not easy, read.

 

I just finished Jack Kornfield's Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology. There is so much goodness in it. Too much, really. It reveals how fluid and flexible meditation and Buddhist practice can be. You experiment and find what works. You change things to suit your mindset and situation, while keeping the intention and purpose in focus. This is a prime example of the non-dogmatic nature of Buddhism.

Tomorrow I will start Ajahn Sucitto's Turning the Wheel of Truth: Commentary on the Buddha's First Teaching. This is a focus on the fundamentals of Buddhism: The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. It looks directly at the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.

 

I've been working my way through my stack of YA reading. I finished Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer over the weekend and really enjoyed it. It's a really believable take on an end of the world scenario. I ordered the other two books in the trilogy.

Right now I'm reading How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. The voice is really interesting in this novel. I'm not sure if I love it or hate it, but either way, it's incredibly vivid.