What Are You Reading Now?

[cowboy]

I am reading Abundance: Why the Future is better than you think

This Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think: Peter H. Diamandis, Steven Kotler: 9781451614213: Amazon.com: [email]Books

I can't give a higher recommendation for this book. Absolutely fascinating. The big premise of the book:

From a Freaknomics Q & A http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/04/...our-questions/

I just downloaded this book on your recommendation. If if sucks, you owe me an audible credit. Seriously, I'm an eternal optimist about resource issues for precisely the reason you gave in your example. That's also why, conservative as I am, I am a big advocate of research and education. Looking forward to this one.

[MartyFunkhouser]

A Clash of Kings. About 2/3 of the through and enjoying it. Never thought I would enjoy a fantasy novel.

[Mormon Red Death]

I just downloaded this book on your recommendation. If if sucks, you owe me an audible credit. Seriously, I'm an eternal optimist about resource issues for precisely the reason you gave in your example. That's also why, conservative as I am, I am a big advocate of research and education. Looking forward to this one.

The only part you won't like is when they talk about the advancements in in vitro meat growth.

Sent from my SGH-T839 using Tapatalk 2

[happyone]

finished Zhukov's Greatest Defeat - I found it fascinating, but it is probably not for the general reader. I think one would have to have a general knowledge of the Great Patriotic War to understand what was going on. That said I still found it fascinating.
This is the story of a major Soviet Offensive that occured at approximately the same time, Nov - Dec 1942, as the Soviet counter offensive at Stalingrad. The offical Soviet histories dismissed it as a spoiling attack to tie down German troops so the couldn't be sent to the Steppes of southern Russia. There is no way that is true. The Soviets gave Operation Mars more men (650,000 to 500,000, tanks (2500 to 1100) and other resources than Operation Uranus at Stalingrad
This was an attempt by the Soviets to reduce a salient in the their lines a little less than 200 KM from Moscow at Rzhev, and the Germans handed them there heads - appox 100,000 dead and another 230,000 wounded and for the most part the Soviets ended up were they started.

I also read David Poyer's

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/The-Towers-Dan-Lenson-Novel/dp/0312613016/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335549222&sr=8-1"]Amazon.com: The Towers: A Dan Lenson Novel of 9/11 (9780312613013): David Poyer: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RtydLgLuL.@@AMEPARAM@@51RtydLgLuL[/ame]

The setting is 9/11 and it's aftermath - I really liked it.

Currently reading

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/With-Our-Backs-Wall-Victory/dp/0674062264/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335549445&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918 (9780674062269): David Stevenson: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PZVD861BL.@@AMEPARAM@@41PZVD861BL[/ame]
about the final year of WW I

[BigPiney]

Just finished The absolutely true story of a part-time indian. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/0316013692/ref=lp_B00455Q8D4_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335551326&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (9780316013697): Sherman Alexie: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518bFu3S5KL.@@AMEPARAM@@518bFu3S5KL[/ame]

Since I live 2 miles from one rez and work a mile from another, I was glad to see that my local indians have it way better than in other areas of the county.

This book was funny, really enjoyed it. The author was in town last year and spoke and I guess he gets on the cases of the whites and the natives, saying both are very much responsible for the horrible situations that most indians live in.

[cowboy]

The only part you won't like is when they talk about the advancements in in vitro meat growth.

Sent from my SGH-T839 using Tapatalk 2

I was okay with everything until they started in on how cattle are destroying the earth. MRD, if I ever meet you in real life I'm going to rip out your testicles and staple them to your earlobes. Oh, and you owe me an Audible credit.

[Mormon Red Death]

I was okay with everything until they started in on how cattle are destroying the earth. MRD, if I ever meet you in real life I'm going to rip out your testicles and staple them to your earlobes. Oh, and you owe me an Audible credit.

So you stop listening after you hear something you don't agree with? That's alright big ideas are always fought before they are accepted. By the way you want to cause physical harm to me because I recommended a book? Time to take a look in the mirror cowboy.

[Katy Lied]

So you stop listening after you hear something you don't agree with? That's alright big ideas are always fought before they are accepted. By the way you want to cause physical harm to me because I recommended a book? Time to take a look in the mirror cowboy.

You do know he's joking right? It would be better to sew 'em to your earlobes. A better fastening system.

[cowboy]

So you stop listening after you hear something you don't agree with? That's alright big ideas are always fought before they are accepted. By the way you want to cause physical harm to me because I recommended a book? Time to take a look in the mirror cowboy.

I didn't say I stopped listening. The way they manipulated the data to suit their agenda destroyed the authors' credibility, though. It makes me doubt everything else they say in the book. By the way, did you fall and break that big bone in your arm?

[Mormon Red Death]

You do know he's joking right? It would be better to sew 'em to your earlobes. A better fastening system.

Uh yeah I am pretty sure that when someone says they want to staple your testicles to your earlobes they are joking.

I guess my joking didn't come through as well as his did.

[Mormon Red Death]

I didn't say I stopped listening. The way they manipulated the data to suit their agenda destroyed the authors' credibility, though. It makes me doubt everything else they say in the book. By the way, did you fall and break that big bone in your arm?

I think the point of that section in the book was that when we have 9 billion people the number of livestock needed to feed that amount of people could be very detrimental to the earth.

As for the big bone in your arm I am not getting that one.

bone to pick??
break my arm patting my back??

As a side note I would gladly meet you in person and fight you as long as after we eat one of those steaks you always talk about and have a brew.

[cowboy]

I think the point of that section in the book was that when we have 9 billion people the number of livestock needed to feed that amount of people could be very detrimental to the earth.

As for the big bone in your arm I am not getting that one.

bone to pick??
break my arm patting my back??

As a side note I would gladly meet you in person and fight you as long as after we eat one of those steaks you always talk about and have a brew.

The big bone is the humerus. I was giving you a bad time about your TIC response falling flat.

I understood their point, but I disagree with it. Their calculations of water and energy requirements are overstated. Stated water use, for example is including what animals drink as well as the water used to grow the crops they consume, and they imply that most of that water comes by unsustainable depletion of underground aquifers. In actuality, the vast majority of water used in meat production is non-potable and comes from rain or runoff, and it is returned to the atmosphere/ground through the water cycle. Further, their complaint about the land required to feed animals ignores the fact that the vast majority of land used for meat production is not productive for any other use.

[eldiente]

Just finished listening to Agents of Treachery

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Agents-of-Treachery/dp/B003OXTP2O/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1336081696&sr=8-2"]Amazon.com: Agents of Treachery (Audible Audio Edition): Otto Penzler, Lee Child, James Grady, Joseph Finder, John Lawton, Stephen Hunter, Paul Michael, Peter Altschuler: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51N-ZyLn2iL.@@AMEPARAM@@51N-ZyLn2iL[/ame]

One of the bad things about listening to audio books is the reckoning of time spent listening. Whereas with printed pages, you can skim easier then come back if you missed something essential, audio books require listening to the entirety.

I was 14 hours into this 17 hour collection of short stories before I decided it wasn't going to get better. It isn't bad, just not good. Wish I had those 14 hours back.

[TexTechCoug]

I reread the first portion of Atlas Shrugged, while simultaneously listening to it, both in Spanish. I was warming up the old Español for a humanitarian trip to Honduras.

Long story short, Ayn Rand's writing is really, really bad. I have always enjoyed Anthem, but The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are awful. Every character is stereotyped, the good guys are fit, handsome, tan, driven, with square jaws and broad shoulders, the bad guys are pale, fat, have thinning hair, lazy, etc.

Atlas Shrugged could have been a third as long and still gotten the point across. Rand spends, literally, chapters riffing on her philosophy by way of her characters. It reminds me of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, in that the book is just a medium for a cause.

[happyone]

I finally finished "With our Backs to the Wall". Extremely broad account of the last year of WW I. Only about 1/3 of the book is about combat operations. The rest looks at the economies of the warring powers, technical change/advancement, changes in society that the war caused ect. He also looks at all the theater of the war, not just the western front as well as all the combatants. A little dry, but I thought it was interesting, but them I really like this kind of stuff. I would not recommend it a casual reader - they would probably get lost.

currently reading Winston Groom's new book on Shiloh

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Shiloh-1862-Winston-Groom/dp/142620874X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1337123781&sr=8-2"]Amazon.com: Shiloh, 1862 (9781426208744): Winston Groom: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jBE9ye1-L.@@AMEPARAM@@51jBE9ye1-L[/ame]

Forest Gump hasn't shown up yet