Thread: What book are you reading right now?

I finally got around to reading a short essay about language and the unconscious by Cormac McCarthy - The Kekule Problem, Where did Language Come From? - that I bookmarked ages ago. I didn't realise Mccarthy dabbled in sciences.
I find some of these types of essays can be a bit unsettling - really fucking smart peope with the ability to have perspectives that are quite challenging.
The whole website has some interesting essays .

The Kekule Problem - Nautilus

Just as we dont know how it is that we manage to talk. If I am talking to you then I can hardly be crafting at the same time the sentences that are to follow what I am now saying. I am totally occupied in talking to you. Nor can some part of my mind be assembling these sentences and then saying them to me so that I can repeat them. Aside from the fact that I am busy this would be to evoke an endless regress. The truth is that there is a process here to which we have no access. It is a mystery opaque to total blackness.

Just finished reading, 'The City of Ember' to my grade 6 class. It is a post apocalyptic novel by Jeanne Duprau, published in 2003.
Also started showing the movie today to the class....I was really surprised to see Bill Murray in it as the big fat mayor. lol..

Also found the second book in the series called, 'The People of Sparks'... will start reading that one in a few weeks to the class. I may read it this weekend in advance as I am dying to see what happens after they escape Ember.

Originally Posted by Ukan Kizmiaz

I find some of these types of essays can be a bit unsettling

You might like Fluke by Brian Klaas

Children of the Night: The Strange and Epic Story of Modern Romania.

Amazon.com

What a fascinating read so far. I didn't quite realise the extent of the atrocities committed in Romania during the Holocaust.

Tai Pan by James Clavell

A fictional account of the American and British opium traders who founded Hong Kong island after the first opium war in China. Reasonably entertaining.

This arrived today and I'm really looking forward to starting it tonight.

The wolf has been unfairly persecuted for centuries and driven to extinction in many countries.



I periodically buy a book to make me feel better and to feel less hypocritical when I tell the daughter to get off her screens and read something.

In reality this book will probably be added to the ever-growing tower of books on my bedside table and remain unread while I watch crap on Youtube.

Driven to extinction or bred and domesticated?

^ I would say ruthlessly hunted and wiped out, in the UK at least.

I think the last wolf was killed in the UK in the 1700s. There were already plenty of domesticated dogs around by then.

I think I'm right in saying that there has never been a case of a wolf attacking a human in the UK (unless wounded by hunting first). I think they are absolutely fascinating animals.

One on my bucket list is to see wolves in the wild... I nearly crossed it off in Norway once many years ago, but they turned out to be reindeer.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Any relation to the legendary Gerry Gow?

Were you into dingos?

I have started re-reading some books from many years ago when i first got into it

I have a small pile of books on my bedside shelf, but I prefer using my kindle to read. I read almost every day. The poor old books almost never.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Any relation to the legendary Gerry Gow?

Were you into dingos?

Much to my shame I had to look up 'Gerry Gow'... he was a bit before my time.

I noticed that after playing for most of his career at Bristol City, once he was no longer good enough at the twilight of his career he went to Man City.

The 'dingos' comment alludes me...


And after yesterday's anticipation... I didn't start my book but instead watched some crap on Youtube in bed.

A Most Wanted Man

John Le Carre

And another from Derek Gow (no relationship to Gerry)... although I haven't started his wolf book yet that I bought a few months ago.

This will doubtless join my bedside table book tower but I hope to start it sometime over the next couple of years.



My interest in UK wildlife seems to have become reignited lately and I wonder if I'll end up back there one day, once the daughter is sorted out and on her own path in life.

^ I guess i was on the wrong page...


'Bringing back the beaver'

One West Country Expat reinvents what it means to be a passport runner in lower Sukhumvit beer bars.

The story of one man's quest to barfine the whole of suk soi 4 before his passport fills

I guess that, with hindsight, expressing an interest in reintroducing furry, semi-aquatic, flat-tailed rodents to the British counytryside was a mistake, on this forum.

Tbh I should have known better...

Originally Posted by DrWilly

Tai Pan by James Clavell

A fictional account of the American and British opium traders who founded Hong Kong island after the first opium war in China. Reasonably entertaining.

One of the books I gave away when I sold my house. A great read as was Shogun (book much better than the series) and Gai jin. When I finally unpack I will re read the Gulag Archipelago. I read it in the 80s and still have it.

and I got it for free!

Originally Posted by Hugh Cow

One of the books I gave away when I sold my house. A great read as was Shogun (book much better than the series) and Gai jin. When I finally unpack I will re read the Gulag Archipelago. I read it in the 80s and still have it.

Im reading whirlwind now and not enjoying it as much as first time around.