I finished The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. This was definitely my least favorite McCarthy. Very meandering with very little plot and a lot of philosophic ramblings by minor characters who enter the story ramble on for a bit and then leave. There was also an incredible amount of spanish and it was highly distracting.

At times the writing was quite beautiful, but this was a chore to get through and I had to change my plans of finishing the trilogy off immediately.

3/5.

I have since started The Count of Monte Cristo. I have debated purchasing this book for about a year because of it's daunting size, but it came so highly recommended on here and so was so frequently mentioned as a major page turner that I decided it was worth tackling. So far I'm about 75 pages into it and am very glad I picked it up.

The Count of Monte Cristo was good but I think I liked The Three Musketeers even better.

I talked about earlier in this threadzilla, be prepared to be more depressed. Great read but it really tore me up.

Interestingly I logged into this thread to post I just finished another one of his works, A Thousand Splendid Suns and it was even more depressing. Outstanding and worthwhile read, yet depressing. I cried during both books....

ugh, i own a thousand splendid suns but havent started it yet. not even sure if i want to given all these depressing reports

Unfortunately the depressing stuff is very high percentage when it comes to quality lit.

Bluebeard by kurt vonnegut

Mathematics of poker by bill chen

Another ringing endorsement for Tommy Angelo's poker book Elements of Poker, I just wrapped it up. Amazing read, highly recommended.

Angelo can be a great writer. What's his book about and how is it written?

John Updike died this morning from lung cancer

If you haven't checked out his writing look for the Rabbit tetrology. He was one of my favourite writers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...n-updike-dies1

I read a whole lot of his short stories. Don't think I ever did one of his novels, though. Saw the Rabbit movie and really liked the theme. I may yet pick that one up.

I read a few Rabbit novels in my youth and liked them....always meant to revisit Updike at some point.

Don't be discourage because of the depressing quality of Kite Runner and Splendid Suns. They have major emotional payoffs at the end.

Learned a new word today. Sad news, I remember liking Rabbit, Run when I read it in high school, should re-read it and go through the others now. I also thought it was Run, Rabbit, Run until a minute ago while checking out his wiki.

Les Miserables is a fantastic book. I have read it at least 10 times and never get bored. The theme of forgiveness and redemption makes me cry every time. I started reading this again last night.

tale of 2 cities. heehe

Is that any good?

some good non fiction this month....

Fast food nation - not sure if it has been included here or not but its a great book with a lot of eyeopening facts about the fast food and meat packing business. It led me to read....
The Omnivore's Dilemma - Kinda like fast food nation only much more scientific and less preachy....but a little more disturbing imo.

Animal, Vegatable, Miracle - Great book about a family who moves from arizona to a farm in virginia and lives off of almost all locally grown or homegrown produce and meat. It was pretty inspirational for me tbh.

Anyone that has read Me Talk Pretty One Day? Please comment, if so.

I just finished Choke by Palahniuk, primarily on the recommendation of this thread.

I realize it's to each his own, but I thought the book was pretty poor. I couldn't really get into the book, and the plot was about as thick as a soggy brown lunch bag.

Also, the guy in the book (Victor Mancini) must be the only dude in the entire world who calls his penis a "dog". Didn't anyone else find that a bit strange? Of all the possible nicknames for it, that's one that I would never have come up with!

I may be the only person on the forums with these in my bookshelf, but I just finished re-reading Octavia E. Butlers's Xenogenesis Series. You might find the trilogy as Lilith's brood.

I realized in re-reading the series, that it is no accident that these worn paperbacks have made it through numerous relocations. They harmonize with the combination of the misanthropy held close to my chest and the desire to overcome the limitations of existence. I do believe we are on a crash course with inevitable doom. Butler’s diagnosis of our problem in being a “hierarchical and intelligent” species may be superficial, but it is the best I have ever come across in Science Fiction. Or, at least the best as it makes sense to me.

It begs to ask the question: what would happen if we were able to shed the hierarchy that continuously dictates what we should be. How is the hierarchy determined in our current existence and how much energy do we waste in figuring out where we fit in? Will the effort of trying to “one up” each other prove to be our downfall? While proving ones rightness, and a place in the hierarchy, do we curtail the freedom of thought, free expression and the joy of life?

I guess I have felt stymied lately. Octavia, who I found out just last night left us several years ago, through these questions helped me understand myself again.

Life is terrible. And such small portions.

Small portions to be savored.

Starting to reread the "Brief History of Nearly Everything" by Bryson. An articile I read on gold mining that said "all the gold every mined in history would only fill 2 Olympic Swimming pools" made me think of similar line that all the human remains(bones) over 10,000 or 100,000 years old or something like that, every found would not fill a pickup truck.

Just finished Gus Hansens "everyhand revealed" It was a very interesting read. Not sure it helped my poker but interesting.

Also reading Scifi Peter F. Hamilton " Pandoras Star" Part of a series. Mulit layered, many characters... Like it so far 1/3rd of the way in. Never read his stuff before.

That's hard to believe about the gold, since it is used industrially in all kinds of applications and has been made into everything from tooth fillings to jewelry, to sheets to spread on top of food and eaten, for thousands of years.

Why does every line you write sound like something out of a Woody Allen essay?

Can't recommend those writings enough. Gets me every time when he talks about a colleague of Freud's being so annoyed with him that he "hid his porkpie hat" to get revenge.