I'm going to work my way up the Dostoevsky ladder before attempting to read the big books again. I consider myself well-read but they're a bit much for me at the moment.

For really long novels, it's especially helpful to keep a reading journal.

I remember trying to read a Japanese translation of Crime and Punishment when I was 12 or 13. It didn't work out so well.

I remember trying to read a Japanese translation of Crime and Punishment when I was 12 or 13. It didn't work out so well.

I tried to read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms in 5th grade because I liked Dynasty Warriors.

Sunday I read:

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Great read. Couldn't put it down, starting it first thing Sunday morning, and pecked away at it throughout the day. Yes, it's by Stephen King's son, and yes, it's a story I can imagine as a Stephen King book. But it would stand among some of King's best, IMO. Reminds me more than a little of Bag of Bones. Definitely recommended if you like good horror/thriller/mysteries and a good ghost story.

I'm currently re-reading A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius after reading David Eggers newest book What is the What. They are both high on my list of books that i've read recently. They are the most unusual and dark comadies that I've read.

The Stand. The final volume in the recent post apocalyptic literature spree I've been in.

Just finished a book by a Norwegian who spent 5 years as a paratrooper in the French Foreign Legion (Not available in English as far as I know) .

Currently reading:

The Hobbit (aloud for my son and myself)

and Toni Morrison - Paradise

My friend kind of tricked me into buying this, but I'm glad he did.

Enjoyed Heart-Shaped Box enough to pick up...

Joe Hill - 20th Century Ghosts

A collection of short stories... Through the 1st one with coffee this morning. So far, so good.

i just read ruling and the dissenting opinion on DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ET AL. v. HELLER. the dissent is filled with shaky, tyrannical shit, it really is. i'm not a scalia fan, but he just destroyed Steven's dissent. i'm shocked that 4 of the justices voted the way they did, frankly.

I see your problem. It's a little known fact that the person writing the second amendment was a little dyslexic. It was late and he was tired. It was supposed to read:

"The right to keep and arm bears".

But it got screwed up and here we are.

Just finished a book of short stories titled "the old forest" by Peter Taylor. If you like short stories that aim at being high art then I highly recommend that you check them out. He's the best short story writer that i've read sense flannery o'connor and chekhov.

I've also just started one of the 13 volumes of henry james' complete short tales.

Got some good summer reading done so far

Amazon.com: To Have and Have Not (Scribner Classics): Ernest Hemingway: Books

Amazon.com: Welcome to the Monkey House: Kurt Vonnegut: Books

and sadly

Amazon.com: GRE General Test w/ CD-ROM (REA) - The Best Test Prep for the GRE (Test Preps): Pauline Travis, David Bell, Lucille Freeman: Books

Calculus Made Easy - Silvanus P. Thompson

Got a weird desire to teach myself calculus. I think I need to teach myself pre-calculus first.

Complete Chronicles Of Conan - Robert Howard

Huge hardcover omnibus I bought from amazon.uk a while back. Just cracking it. Some fine stories and fun reads.

Assorted Thomas Mann stories, The Gambler by Dostoevsky.

Calculus Made Easy - Silvanus P. Thompson

Got a weird desire to teach myself calculus. I think I need to teach myself pre-calculus first.

Man, I'm an awesome precalc/calc tutor. I could get you a 5 on the AP test if you needed

Man, I'm an awesome precalc/calc tutor. I could get you a 5 on the AP test if you needed

sweet. i'll send you a PM if I get stuck in my self-study.

Alan Moore's Lost Girls -- porn, basically. Extremely well-written, non-straight porn, but it's still porn. Not for everyone.

Buffy Season 8 --

Kelley Armstrong -- caught up with the paperbacks of her Women of the Underworld series, starting "Exit Strategy". Very good, downright addictive.

Just finished Crichton's State of Fear certainly not Shakespeare but Holy Crap this should be required reading for every college freshman. Highly recommended, one of the most important books of the century. Finally an educated multiperspectival view of the environment and our relationship to it, packed with facts and readily denouncing myths and well intentioned ignorance.

I miss the days of math classes. Why? I don't know, but for some odd reason I really liked Diff Equ.

Laplace transformation was my favorite.

Laplace transformation was my favorite.

Not nearly as powerful as the Z.

i just read ruling and the dissenting opinion on DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ET AL. v. HELLER. the dissent is filled with shaky, tyrannical shit, it really is. i'm not a scalia fan, but he just destroyed Steven's dissent. i'm shocked that 4 of the justices voted the way they did, frankly.

link? I was looking for it yesterday.

Just finished Crichton's State of Fear certainly not Shakespeare but Holy Crap this should be required reading for every college freshman. Highly recommended, one of the most important books of the century. Finally an educated multiperspectival view of the environment and our relationship to it, packed with facts and readily denouncing myths and well intentioned ignorance.

I haven't read it, but heard of it from my dad. The amount of skewed statistics used as the foundation for the global warming argument is incredible. So much bullshit.

Its like George Carlin said; Industrialized nations have been on this planet for 200 years and we have the conceit to think we pose a threat:

I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths, people trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. There is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The people are (bleep) -- difference, difference. The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. It's been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little more than 200 years.

Two hundred years versus four and a half billion, and we have the conceit to think that somehow we're a threat, that somehow we're going to put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun? The planet has been through a lot worse than us, been through all kinds of things worse than us, been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn't going anywhere. We are! We're going away.