Currently reading:
Middlemarch by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans). Good writing and thoughtful story.
Also reading, intermittently:
The Diary of John Evelyn, by John Evelyn. Interesting diary showing life in Europe from 1641 to 1697.
Diary of Anna Green Winslow, by Anna Winslow. Interesting diary showing life in Boston in 1771. Tough living conditions then.
Next up:
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.
Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Currently reading
Not on my Kindle but I am reading "EntreLeadership" by Dave Ramsey.
I'm reading Swiss Family Robinson now on my Samsung Galaxy S3. Great book, and the S3 is a great e-reader while waiting for static observations and/or a break from mind numbing architectural "drawings". (it doubles as a two-way communication device!!)
I highly recommend, very interesting to read as an adult.
Thank you. Have not read that in years. I'll add that to the list.
May I recommend Treasure Island prior to Swiss Family Robinson? The former may prepare you better for the latter, although not by design.
From Treasure Island:
“I am not sure whether he's sane.
-If there's any doubt about the matter, he is.”
"His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a face as big as a ham-plain and pale, but intelligent and smiling."
“If you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!”
I read Treasure Island every year. A great classic for all ages.
It is awesome....
Definitely one of the original "page turners".
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a must read classic as well.
Just finished Anthony Powell's "A Question of Upbringing" (the first in a 12 book series).
Also working on T.S. Eliot's "Christianity and Culture" as well as The Book of Common Prayer.
James,
I have wondered about your avatar picture. Is that G.K. Chesterton? He is a hard read, but rewarding.
The Bow Tie Surveyor
I mainly use my Kindle for casual and light reading, or for hunkering down in the rack as winter evenings come on in this neck of the woods. Some Kindle favorites are Alexander McCall Smith's stories of Botswana and Mma Ramotswe (e.g. #1 Ladies Detective Agency, etc) I enjoy those because he paints a very true picture of life in that part of Africa and it brings back fond memories for me. The Kindle is usually the last thing I see before my eyes close for the night. Still, I'm a lifelong reader and love hardbound books and real pages for most things, especially if there are maps and photos to study. That said, i'm currently on a GA Custer jag on the Kindle. Just finished Evan S Connell's "Son of the Morning Star" (which I have read in hardcopy several times) and am following that up with James Donovan's "A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn" Two very different approaches to the Custer story, and both well worth reading.
I would have to say that the very best things I've ever read on my Kindle are Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" (which was a free download), and a compilation called "Hemingway on War" (which was also free or nearly so) and is possibly the best writing on that subject (war) that I've ever read. Am a Hemingway fan to begin with, but this one really opened my eyes and got me thinking. It contains excerpts from several of his best books and almost all of his war correspondence for the first half of the previous century, which was a considerable body of work. The entire chapter of "El Sordo's last stand" from For Whom the Bell Tolls is included, and that, my friends (if you are interested in such things) may be the best piece of literature you will ever read on the subject of unconventional warfare, and the workings of a warrior's mind.
I enjoy the Kindle, and will continue to use it, but I also keep my bookshelves full.
B
> I have wondered about your avatar picture. Is that G.K. Chesterton?
Bingo
Little known fact, he wrote about the Beer Leg/Surveyor Connect Politics and Religion Category decades before its inception:
"The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion."
? G.K. Chesterton
On my Android tablet:
Christopher Hitchens: God Is Not Great (epub from the local library) No P&R comments, please.
Stephen A.D. Puter: Looters of the Public Domain, for the 2nd time.
> Christopher Hitchens: God Is Not Great (epub from the local library) No P&R comments, please.
Oddly enough it was pretty soon after reading "God Is Not Great" in 2008 that after almost 20 years of self proclaimed atheism I returned to the church. Probably not the reaction Hitch was expecting from his readers 😉
