Blowhard, Esq. writes:
What books are you guys reading right now? Here’s what I’ve managed so far in 2012:
- A Renegade History of the United States — Thaddeus Russell
- What the Dog Saw — Malcolm Gladwell
- Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul — Karen Abbott
- Launching the Innovation Renaissance: A New Path to Bring Smart Ideas to Market Fast — Alex Tabarrok
- In Praise of Commercial Culture — Tyler Cowen
- The Hunger Games — Suzanne Collins
- The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man — David W. Maurer
- The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through The Madness Industry — Jon Ronson
- Stop Stealing Dreams (What is School Good For?) — Seth Godin
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? — Seth Godin
- You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself — David McRaney
- An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies — Tyler Cowen
- The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable — Nicholas Nassim Taleb
- Bloodbath (A Tim Holt Adventure #1) — Lloyd Fonvielle
- Culturematic: How Reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab, Julia Child, Fantasy Football…Will Help You Create and Execute Breakthrough Ideas — Grant McCracken
- Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It — Gary Taubes
- King City — Lee Goldberg
- Reamde — Neal Stephenson
- What Are You Laughing At? A Comprehensive Guide to the Comedic Event — Dan O’Shannon
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes — Arthur Conan Doyle
Right now I’m on a Western fiction kick — Elmore Leonard’s Hombre and Valdez is Coming, then Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.
I’m always looking for recommendations. What have you enjoyed lately?
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Recently, Jack Ketchum’s PEACEABLE KINGDOM and LADIES NIGHT. Stephen King’s DANSE MACABRE, Lovecraft’s AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. Shirley Jackson’s THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Dave Cullen’s COLUMBINE. Richard Matheson’s TERROR AT 20,000FT AND OTHER STORIES. Richard Layman’s THE WOODS ARE DARK. Also mixed in some Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle. I’m putzing around with some other stuff: Ricky Jay’s CELEBRATIONS OF CURIOUS CHARACTERS, my friend, Andrea Philips’ A CREATOR’S GUIDE TO TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING, some Robert Bloch, Ernest Cline’s READY PLAYER ONE, I’m probably forgetting something. I’ve liked everything, but I think about half the stories in PEACEABLE KINGDOM are knockouts and Cullen’s COLUMBINE is thorough and thoughtful. It makes so much more sense than anything I’ve ever heard or read about Columbine. It’s a tough sit, though. And yeah, I’ve had a dark summer, topically speaking. That said, I’m cheerful as a chirpin’ chick!
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Btw, what did you think of README? Did you finish it?
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I got just past the half-way point with REAMDE before I put it aside. Nothing wrong with the book, I just needed a break.
REAMDE is my second Stephenson, after CRYPTONOMICON, which I loved. Normally I avoid 1,000 page tomes but Stephenson knows how to sustain action for hundreds of pages (a minor miracle) and his nonfiction digressions are always engaging. You read it? What did you think?
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Reamde was great, perfect vacation fodder, and would make an awesome big-budget action movie.
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That’s too much reading, it can’t be healthy.
Did you like the Thaddeus Russell as much as I did?
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Yeah, I thought it was great. Provocative stuff. It makes Zinn look like a piker.
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Check out Francis Spufford’s Red Plenty. Weird and informative. Have read two James Bond novels in the past two weeks, Casino Royale (the first, from 1953) and Dr No (the fifth, I think). Fleming learned a bit about plotting from first to fifth. Both were enjoyable.
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I’ve also been working my way through the James Bond novels (which is probably worth a post of its own) and am about to start on “From Russia with Love”. My favorite so far has been “Moonraker”. And I’ve been alternating between re-reading Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels and the Richard Stark Parker novels on my commute (I’m planning a piece of Parker/Fat Ollie fan fiction). On a somewhat more highbrow note,I read and loved Frank Norris’ “The Octopus” and “The Pit” (though I wasn’t as wild about “McTeague”, which now has the better reputation — go figure). And in the non-fiction front, I got through “Too Big to Fail” and Michael Lewis’ “The Big Short”. “The Big Short” is a good, interesting read; “TBTF” goes into way, way too much detail, without giving nearly enough context to give that detail the proper resonance, though it’s one of those books that I guess I’m glad exists because it seems like it could lay the groundwork for a deeper analysis of the financial crisis.
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