You guys might enjoy Going Long, which is an oral history of the AFL. Preview here

http://books.google.com/books?id=Y41...%20afl&f=false

I liked it, not particularly hard hitting but very interesting.

I liked Going Long a lot, brought back great AFL memories.

with regards to sports non fiction, i'm currently reading Blood, Sweat, and Chalk: The Ultimate Playbook. It's about the origins of the current schemes/plays we see in the NFL today, both on offense and defense. Really interesting if you are into the Xs and Os of football.

Keith Richards - Life

Finished Just Kids by Patti Smith. I wasn't familiar with the late 60's early 70's art scene in NYC, but this book made it interesting. The relationship between Patti and Mapplethorpe was unique and she put it to paper well. She's a strong writer. The last pages got to be pretty emotional. Even though she was happily married with kids, the connection and feelings shared for Mapplethorpe couldn't be replaced. I was leaning toward giving it 4/5 but it finished so strong I just can't give it anything less than 5/5. I'm sure anyone with an interest in art, her music, the 70s, poetry, or the rock scene in general will get even more out of it than I did.

Just started JSF's Everything Is Illuminated. The thought of starting Infinite Jest was a bit daunting, as was finally knocking out the 2nd half of Underworld.

Reading: The Drunkard's Walk. Anyone who has taken an undergrad course in statistics should read this book. It's really entertaining, and has a lot of historical backround and cool anecdotes from science/psychology/judicial system/modern culture which he ties in when explaining different concepts in probability and statistics. It's from the same author who authored A Briefer History of Time. Check it out!

Started "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen while on the train yesterday, and to me it's living up to the hype so far. May very well be the great American novel of this generation, but it's too soon for me to tell.

Also, don't know if there's any Terry Pratchett fans here, but I finally got around to reading "Interesting Times", and after having already read about 25 of his novels, I have no idea how I missed this one so far. Definitely up there with the best of them.

my wife really liked freedom as well. looking forward to it

Franzen itt! Freedom and The Corrections are both tremendous, and he is definitely the novelist of his generation, that's for sure.

There's a Lounge Book Club reading The Corrections, but it's been slow going so far.

The Garden of Last Days- I bought this for my wife last year and she quit reading it like 30 pages in. I was secretly annoyed with her because I thought she didn't give it a chance since I picked it out. Nope, it sucked. I made it through 75 pages before realizing I was annoyed with every aspect of the book.

Just After Sunset- read the first two stories in this and wasn't super impressed. I loved all of King's other short stories but these feel like leftovers. I hope it gets better. I'm also concerned about his new book of novellas that they may also be things he decided to not include in other collections.

Does anyone else wonder what might happen when he dies? Could it be one of those things where his estate publishes "discovered" stuff for years after?

Ford County - Short stories by John Grisham. I liked him about 10 years ago, and got this for like 50 cents or something like that. I decided to read it while I sit with my daughter during her baths. I'm 30 pages into the first story and it's mildly entertaining.

Ken

Just picked up his first novel Strong Motion. Looking forward to starting it.

well along with reading JSF's Everything is Illuminated, my first Kindle book is My Dark Places by James Ellroy. I like it mostly because you never know where Ellroy is going to drop an F-bomb or something crude*. He's a sick twisted puppy and any book that gives insight to how he got that way is good imo.

Cliffs: he tells the story about how his mom was murdered in 1950's LA and how it affected his life, and his attempt to reconstruct the murder and investigation.

*examples, from same page:

"My father began to systematically poison my mind against my mother. He told me she was a drunk and a whore. He told me she was ****ing her divorce lawyer"

"The divorce case went to court.. I spotted (my father) outside the court room and ran to him. My mother tried to intercede. My father whisked me into a men's room and hunkered down to talk to me. My mother stormed in and dragged me out. My father let it happen. A man standing at a urinal with a dick in his hand observed the whole transaction"

I enjoyed Strong Motion and found it very original, but it's actually his second novel. His first was Twenty-Seventh City, the only novel of his I haven't read yet.

Hot damn, you are never gonna let me forget about this, are you? Alright, LBC will be revived after I finish reading Winter's Bone. And you had damn well post every other day in that thread, mr. kioshk.

I like it when you say "hot damn", Horse.

No love for the Gingerbread Girl? If your tastes are anything like mine you might not like this book, as I thought this tale was in the top 3. My other favorites are In A Very Tight Place and N. I agree Willa was way weak. Also Harvey's Dream is a bit bland. I also liked Rest Stop and Stationary Bike.

I liked JAS a little more than Night Shift, Skeleton Crew is my favorite collection so far. Although I just read 1408 from the Everything's Eventual collection and I really enjoyed it.

Can you share a list of your favorites?

Oh. Have you read any of his collections of essays? "How to be Alone" for example. If so, thoughts?

I bought How to be Alone and his brief memoir The Discomfort Zone right after I finished Freedom. The Discomfort Zone is tremendous and fascinating, about him growing up around St. Louis and then going to college.

How to be Alone starts off with a great piece about his father dying from Alzheimer's. But a lot of the essays don't have much interest for me. Like there's a long one on the Post Office. I've probably only read about 20% of the book so far, sort of keeping it in reserve for now.

Finally got around to finishing Julian Barnes' Arthur and George, which is based on the stories of George Edajli, who is accused and convicted of mutilating and killing farm animals, and Arthur Conan Doyle, who decides to research Edajli's case to clear his name. The novel follows both men from birth to death. I've been a fan of Barnes' work since reading the great Flaubert's Parrot and plan to start on England, England after Mile Zero by Thomas Sanchez.

Also hope to get through Patty Smith's memoir soon since I might use it for a writing course in which students focus on memoir writing.

i got a kindle for christmas and was looking for short stories because i seldom read and so it takes me a couple months to finish something, and by that time i've forgotten what's happened earlier in the book. anyway, i came across The Two Best Short Stories of Our Generation by Supergreat Authorman. i thought they were very good (still, the title may be a bit ambitious), although i was probably influenced by the fact that im from santa barbara, so i knew all the places being talked about in the first story. the author must be some new nobody, since i googled him (her?) and the only results were the kindle versions of the book and him being pissed off in some amazon help forum that his product image wasnt showing up on amazon.

that's my contribution to this thread. expect more several months down the road once im done reading some of the free classics on my kindle.

orson scott card has a great book of short stories

maps in a mirror or something similar iirc

I missed your response John, probably because of all the christmas propaganda and hoopla. Anyway belated as is, you hit the mark.

"......or wallow in the Paolo Coelho universe of crapola? Answer truthfully."

Paolo Coelho's drivel should not be mentioned in the same room as King Lear or Hamlet or Walden or that classic of classics, The Analects of Confucius. Apparently I agree with you. It boggles my mind but there it is, it must be a New Year.

-Zeno

I'm looking for a good book/series to start reading with my little brother. He is 11 and just finished reading the Harry Potter series. I would like it to be something that is age appropriate for him and also somewhat entertaining for myself. Two ideas I have so far are either The Hunger Games or I Am Number Four. Has anyone here read or I Am Number Four? I know The Hunger Games is relatively well liked here and from what I have heard easily appropriate for 11 year olds.