Summer Reading
With vacation coming up, I need to make sure I have sufficient reading material to occupy myself between excursions into the water. Typically in a week I'll read three or four books, and I try to include at least one that is at least semi-historical (last year that was The Road to Wellville, even though the history was maybe a little thin), and one that I wouldn't ordinarily read (last year, that would have been a couple of The Southern Vampire Mysteries).
This year, though, I'm kinda stuck. I've picked out two books on end-of-the-world myths - A History of the End of the World by Johnathan Kirsh and The Real History of the End of the World by Sharan Newman. These will feed the interest I have lately in end-times movements and how they reinvent themselves when their central events fail to occur.
Beyond that, I'm at a loss. I'll finish The Elements of Murder this weekend (thanks to Joshua Zelinsky for suggesting that one), so I need at least one more. I'd like it to be something entertaining. I was considering The Bourne Identity, but I'm worried that it might be too dated.
I'd certainly appreciate if either of my readers could suggest something, preferably something that can be read while holding a cold beer.
-Jay
Contact Me
Recent Comments
- Steviepinhead on Mini Book Review: The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, Translated by Reg Keeland
- Clever Badger on Mini Book Review: The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, Translated by Reg Keeland
- sirhcton on Mini Book Review: The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, Translated by Reg Keeland
- Steviepinhead on Mini Book Review: The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, Translated by Reg Keeland
- Steviepinhead on Montreal Police Finally Investigating David Mabus (UPDATE)
Recent Posts
- Mini Book Review: The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, Translated by Reg Keeland
- Montreal Police Finally Investigating David Mabus (UPDATE)
- Biblical Inerrancy
- That’s Offensive!
- Movie Review – Speed Racer (2008)
Meta
Archives
Shelfari
Critical Thinking
- The Skeptic's Dictionary
- Stop Sylvia Browne
- Skepchick
- The Accidental Historian
- The Lippard Blog
- The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe
- Chaoskeptic
- Respectful Insolence
- The Adventures of Skippy the Skeptic
Film
Friends and Acquaintances
Science
- National Center for Science Education
- Scienceblogs
- The TalkOrigins Archive
- The Public Library of Science
- Ptak Science Books
- The Austringer
Religion
- The Oremus Bible Browser
- New English Translation of the Septuagint
- Encylopedia Mythica
- Berea College - Science and Faith home page
- Exploring Our Matrix
- Talk 2 Action
- Religion, Sets, and Politics
- Atimetorend
July 9th, 2010 - 23:04
May I suggest The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross? It is a very weird but very fun novel. The central premises are that thinking about the wrong theorems can summon Lovecraftian horrors and that Alan Turing didn’t commit suicide but rather was killed by British intelligence to hush up the fact that he had discovered a particularly dangerous theorem. Very entertaining.
July 10th, 2010 - 14:04
That’s an intriguing enough description that I ordered the book. I’ve long been a fan of Lovecraftian horror.
July 15th, 2010 - 20:57
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer, not for a great strategic history, but as a grunt’s-eye view of the Eastern Front. Imagine being an impressionable 17-yr old Alscacian fed on propaganda reporting to the East right about the time Von Paulus surrenders at Stalingrad. Then you volunteer (really) to transfer from the supply corps to mechanized infantry corps in exchange a two week leave and because all your friends are doing it. Talk about reality hitting right between the eyes!. A powerful and moving account of the destruction of an army from a campaign not much studied in the West.
July 16th, 2010 - 10:57
That may be just a tad heavy for beach reading, although it does sound interesting.
I’ve settled on the Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross and Daniel Radosh’s Rapture Ready as physical books, plus the ones I mentioned above. Plus I have a lot of classics on the Kindle.