A Sea Of Red

It's that time when bloggers and columnists everywhere try to impress the public and show the world how intellectually superior they are by opening the window into their world and allow us plebes to see what books they will be reading on their island getaways.

We kinda do something like that here, at least those of us who can read. What are you guys reading now and what do you plan to read this summer?

I just finished two incredible books, Knowing God by JI Packer and The Hidden Life of Prayer by David M'Intyre. Knowing God did a number on me, and The Hidden Life of Prayer absolutely kicked my butt.

I'm currently reading Don Quixote. I've had it sitting on my shelf for a while, and I'm finally getting to it. As slow as I am, that may be the only book I get through this summer. If not, I may read The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins, and maybe John Adams by David McCullough.


Here's a pretty cool reading list I saw the other day, some interesting books on there I wouldn't have otherwise heard of (10 Highbrow Books to Read on the Beach):
http://www.flavorwire.com/293938/10-hig ... -the-beach

mine is woefully short. i don't have the time i wish i had.

i'm working on Dance with Dragons currently
next up is True Reason by WLC

then :

Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson
Providence and the Problem of Evil by Richard Swinburne
Magician By Raymond Feist
Exposing Myths about Christianity - Russell
Letters - CS Lewis
Start the Mistborn Series by sanderson.

i have a good book on the history of Christianity too. let me see if i can find it and i'll shoot the title over to you.

Love both of the books you just finished.

I'm putting the finishing touches on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig and just recently finished Radical by David Platt and The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris.

Next in line are One Year to a Writing Life by Susan Tiberghien, the G.M.A. Grube translation of Plato's Republic and Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chappell.

I'm about 10 books away from finally finishing off my stack of physical books and reading only Kindle/e-books from now on. On that note, there is a supposedly great book for free on the Kindle today: In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham which recounts the story of Gracia, and her husband Martin, being held captive for over a year in the Philippines by Muslim extremists.

No They can't by John Stossel.

Then Democracy's Prisoner, a book about the trial of Eugene Debs, and running from his jail cell for President.

Wow, I wish I had the time to knock out that many books. I'll be lucky to finish two this summer and I haven't decided on my selections.

Mrs. Sly finally read my favorite from last summer, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrandt. If any of you guys missed it when it came out, it is an incredible read. My wife couldn't put it down for a week straight and she is no lover of history.

NotAJerry wrote:and just recently finished Radical by David Platt

a very hard book to read but i've decided that this book is next up in the Group study that i lead.

NotAJerry wrote:and The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris.

I love reading his books because hes someone who attempts to come across as smart but really is intellectually bankrupt. the moral landscape didn't seem to really have much of a point almost like he was thinking out loud. except well to say that a higher power is not necessary for us to understand morality as it exists today and that there was some difference between religious beliefs and non religious beliefs.

This book is the precursor to Free Will where he argues that even though there is no higher power at all, free will is a total illusion. The best part about that is that it renders everything in his first book "End of Faith" totally wrong.

Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Circle Maker by Mark Batterson are what Im looking at reading. I may add a few others as I go along

RubberMallet wrote:Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

Do you like Erikson? I've really contemplated starting his Malazan series. It looks good and it's actually FINISHED, so no waiting. Also thinking about Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series for the same reason.

ALUmnus wrote:

RubberMallet wrote:Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

Do you like Erikson? I've really contemplated starting his Malazan series. It looks good and it's actually FINISHED, so no waiting. Also thinking about Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series for the same reason.

he's pretty amazing. i believe he is a paleontologist so he is able to create these awesome histories and one of the things that causes me to love a story line is the ability to construct the history of a realm/people.

RubberMallet wrote:

ALUmnus wrote:

RubberMallet wrote:Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

Do you like Erikson? I've really contemplated starting his Malazan series. It looks good and it's actually FINISHED, so no waiting. Also thinking about Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series for the same reason.

he's pretty amazing. i believe he is a paleontologist so he is able to create these awesome histories and one of the things that causes me to love a story line is the ability to construct the history of a realm/people.

According to Wikipedia he's educated as both an archaeologist and anthropologist. Seems pretty interesting and I may have to pick up the first book of the series and see if I like it.

I read through a book every week or two so there is no telling what I'll read

NotAJerry wrote: anthropologist.

thats it.

Purple Haize wrote:I read through a book every week or two so there is no telling what I'll read

Go through that highbrow list I linked to at the top and report back if they're worth our time.

Wow. Who would have thought so many book readers on FF.

Has anyone read In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson? It's on my short list of books to get.

alabama24 wrote:Wow. Who would have thought so many book readers on FF.

Has anyone read In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson? It's on my short list of books to get.

It's on my list as well. I read The Devil in the White City and it was fantastic. Larson has a way of conveying history that isn't the typical stuffy recounting of names and dates.

NotAJerry wrote:

alabama24 wrote:Wow. Who would have thought so many book readers on FF.

Has anyone read In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson? It's on my short list of books to get.

It's on my list as well. I read The Devil in the White City and it was fantastic. Larson has a way of conveying history that isn't the typical stuffy recounting of names and dates.

I didn't really care for Devil. But that's just me. I'm thinking of reading Garden to give him another chance.

Currently reading Basketball Junkie by Chris Herren and Bill Reynolds.

Don't have a plan for the rest of the summer. I'll just look through what I have and pick from there. My top ten reads list would include mostly memoir books, so I'll probably end up reading some of those.

I've started The Language of Science and Faith by Karl Giberson and Francis Collins. It's a pretty interesting read so far.

ALUmnus wrote: John Adams by David McCullough.

Great book.

BJWilliams wrote:Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Circle Maker by Mark Batterson are what Im looking at reading. I may add a few others as I go along

I got Killing Lincoln for Christmas last year, and dragged my feet reading it. Grabbed it off the shelf back in March and couldn't put it down. I'm not a fan of Bill O'Reilly, but the man is an excellent author, and does a great job with the subject.

I'm taking World Lit this subterm online, so I'm reading a LOT. So far (and only 4 weeks in), I've read The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and The Epic of Gilgamesh for class -- not to mention a bunch of excerpts of other books. Outside of class, I'm reading Agent Garbo by Stephan Talty (thanks to Amazon Vine). I finished The Janus Affair by Tee Morris and Phillipa Ballantine a while back, thanks to an ARC from the publisher. I'm trying to dig through my pile of books to be reviewed, but its a BIG pile, unfortunately. I'm hoping to finish:

Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus by Bill Clem
What Is the Mission of the Church?: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission by Kevin DeYoung
and Gospel Wakefulness by Jared Wilson

going to be reading the Pennsylvania Codified Statutes again this summer. Like I do every year.

2012 edition this time tho.

and maybe the owners manual for my stove since I cant figure out how the timer is different from the bake-time counter.

you guys kill me. So "college-y"

***

actually, when I'm on the throne I have been reading "On Killing" by Lt Col Dave Grossman.

and the Super EZ Crosswords

PAmedic wrote:actually, when I'm on the throne I have been reading "On Killing" by Lt Col Dave Grossman.

One book that you might consider is "Into the Kill Zone: A Cop's Eye View of Deadly Force" by David Klinger. Malcolm Gladwell made a lot of reference to it in "Blink", and it's been on my list to buy for a couple years now.

http://www.albertmohler.com/2012/06/10/ ... -for-2012/

Al Mohler's 10 book summer reading list. Every one of them sounds intriguing and have now all gone on my Kindle wishlist.

NotAJerry wrote:http://www.albertmohler.com/2012/06/10/ ... -for-2012/

Al Mohler's 10 book summer reading list. Every one of them sounds intriguing and have now all gone on my Kindle wishlist.

The Alamo book and the the one about the ship in the N African invasion look good. already read Johnson and the Prez Club

ALUmnus wrote:One book that you might consider is "Into the Kill Zone: A Cop's Eye View of Deadly Force" by David Klinger. Malcolm Gladwell made a lot of reference to it in "Blink", and it's been on my list to buy for a couple years now.

thanks for the suggestion- gonna check that one out.