What good books have you read lately?

Well, having being on night shift the last few nights I finally got round to finishing the His Dark Materials trilogy, great stuff, starts off a bit childish (it was originally intended for children), but i think Phillip Pullman realised that his ideas were quite adult so changed his writing style in the second and third books acordingly.

After that i read George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, an honest and amusing account of a couple of months in Orwell's life spent beneath the bread line, times may have changed but Orwell's wit and social critique are as relevant as ever.

Currently about a third of the way through Genome by Matt Ridley (this has been sitting on my bookshelf for about 4 years).  This is a fascinating account of human evolution and behaviour told through the story of our genes.  It may be a science book, but it is written in a manner which everyone can understand (well, I understand it anyway) and is surprisingly amusing and entertaining, I never imagined when i started it that it would be so "unputdownable".

I'm currently re-reading the next book in the series, A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow. Fantastic books.

1. J-P Sartre -- La Nausee
2. Albert Camus -- The Plague
3. Kurt Cobain -- Journals (weird and distoted to the bone, mind you)

Toni Morrison - Beloved (a bit creepy, but a good read)
Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried
Brother Andrew - God's Smuggler (one of my favorite books, gives a good idea of religious oppression behind the Iron Curtain)
Dante - Inferno

Just about to finish

Iain Banks :: The Business

and about to move on to

Susan Orlean :: The Orchid Thief

Anyone read "Join My Cult" by James Curcio?

Just finished Darwin's "The Origin of Species," and I'm moving on to his "Descent of Man."  However, I generally read three books at once, so I am also reading a book on language and, of course (as a minister), a faith-based book.

Peace.

I'm not surprised...I'm a fan and I didn't even think that one quite lived up to standards.

You'd be best reading the early essentials like The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Cardinal in the Kremlin, and the like.

To me the books started going downhill a bit after Executive Orders. Oh...I should mention that in that book, an airliner crashed into the Capitol building. This was written years before 9-11.

Simon Singh: Fermat's Enigma

I'm currently reading "The Simpsons and Philosophy", a late birthday present. I've never laughed so much at an essay on Aristotelean ethics (in fact, I've never so much as smirked at Aristotle before). Read it and be amazed.