The "what are you reading" thread:

[Zkribbler]

The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by CrONoS
Anyone ever read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller, Jr?

Is it good?

Yes... and OH MY GOD YES.

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Yes... and OH MY GOD YES.

my god... o.k., i'm going, right now, borrowing it at my university library!

[CrONoS]

Just finished reading: A canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr.

I was unable to stop reading, I borrowed it at my uni library yesterday, and finished it over the dinner, today.

A review from amazon

Walter Miller's only major novel is not simply a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel but also a multi-layered meditation on the conflict between knowledge and morality. Six hundred years after a nuclear holocaust, an abbey of Catholic monks survives during a new Dark Ages and preserves the little that remains of the world's scientific knowledge. The monks also seek evidence concerning the existence of Leibowitz, their alleged founder (who, the reader soon realizes, is a Jewish scientist who appears to have been part of the nuclear industrial complex of the 1960s). The second part fast-forwards another six hundred years, to the onset of a new Renaissance; a final section again skips yet another six hundred years, to the dawn of a second Space Age--complete, once again, with nuclear weapons.

The only character who appears in all three sections is the Wandering Jew--borrowed from the anti-Semitic legend of a man who mocked Jesus on the way to the crucifixion and who was condemned to a vagrant life on earth until Judgment Day. Miller resurrects this European slander and sanitizes him as a curmudgeonly hermit, a voice of reason in a desert wilderness, an observer to humankind's repeated stupidities, a friend to the monks and abbots, the ghost of Leibowitz (perhaps)--and even the voice of Miller himself.

Throughout "Canticle," Miller's search for religious faith clashes with his respect for scientific rationalism. For Miller, Lucifer is not a fallen angel but technological discovery unencumbered by a moral compass; "Lucifer is fallen" becomes the code phrase the future Church uses to indicate the imminent threat of a second nuclear holocaust. The ability of humankind to abuse learning for evil purposes, to continually expel itself from the Garden of Eden, perplexes and haunts the author: "The closer men came to perfecting for themselves a paradise, the more impatient they seemed to become with it, and with themselves as well."

Some readers might be turned off by the book's religious undercurrent, but that would be to mistake fiction for a sermon. The work is certainly infused with the author's Catholicism, but its philosophy is far too ambiguous to be read like a homily. This is no "Battleship Earth." Instead, it is Miller's highly personal act of atonement; he acknowledged later in life that his fictional monastery was first subconsciously, then purposefully modeled on the ancient Benedictine Monastery at Monte Cassino, which, as a World War II pilot, he bombed to smithereens. (An historical aside: most of the major Greco-Roman scientific and mathematic texts were preserved for posterity by Arabic scholars--not by medieval Christian monks. But this is fiction, and it's not clear whether Miller is trying to replicate Church history as it was or as he felt it should have been.)

In many ways, Miller's Catholicism is as conflicted in the book as it was in his own life. He changed religious beliefs several times; in the 1980s, he immersed himself in Buddhist texts. Throughout "Canticle," you can see Miller wrestling with his spiritual beliefs and with his own demons, and in the final chapters, Miller includes an extended debate over whether suicide and euthanasia (and, tangentially, abortion) are ever viable options, even to avoid the worst forms of pain and certain death. Although he seems to side with Catholic views on these issues, Miller himself committed suicide in 1996.

Rather than distracting the reader with religious and philosophical musings, however, "A Canticle for Leibowitz" is enriched by them. It's not only a compelling, well-written story, it's an allegorical tale that might encourage readers to struggle with their own beliefs and demons.

[Alinestra Covelia]

"Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett is surprisingly good. It's an epic tale about the people who live in a medieval village and, over the course of generations, dodge the whims of their rulers, and dauntlessly build up their community and raise a mighty cathedral.

We had a copy in my girl's boarding house in high school and it got a reputation for having steamy love scenes in it. But as an adult I read it and I'm amazed at the historical writing and also the three-dimensional characters.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Apparently there's a sequel too, released recently. I may have to find and read that too.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by CrONoS
Just finished reading: A canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr.

I was unable to stop reading, I borrowed it at my uni library yesterday, and finished it over the dinner, today.

A review from amazon

Wow, seems like a real page turner. I doubt it will be in any library here though...

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
"Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett is surprisingly good. It's an epic tale about the people who live in a medieval village and, over the course of generations, dodge the whims of their rulers, and dauntlessly build up their community and raise a mighty cathedral.

We had a copy in my girl's boarding house in high school and it got a reputation for having steamy love scenes in it. But as an adult I read it and I'm amazed at the historical writing and also the three-dimensional characters.

I read it in the early 90's and I really enjoyed it. Maybe it's time for a reread...

[Julian Delphiki]

Finished the one about J.E. Hoover, now on chapter 3 of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Zoid


Wow, seems like a real page turner. I doubt it will be in any library here though...

I'd not be surprised if it were, actually. It's a major classic, so if you have more than ~500 english language fiction works (including some genres), you probably will have it.

[Zoid]

They had it in one of the local libraries!

[Alinestra Covelia]

Now I'm (re)reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

The book is good. But I enjoyed the excerpts from The New Yorker much more, in a fiction section from 2002 called "The Obscure Object". Those excerpts have been removed entirely from the New Yorker's archives, as if they'd never existed, probably because the book was published after the teaser excerpts. But the short fiction was vastly more manageable and tightly focussed than the main book.

One of the most poignant love stories I've ever read - and the whole thing ends on a "where is she now?" note of impossible longing in retrospect.

If that alone doesn't interest you, I should probably mention it's a lesbian love affair between teenage schoolgirls.

[Lord Avalon]

Order 66 by Karen Travis

Bloodline A Repairman Jack Novel by F. Paul Wilson

Artemis Fowl The Lost Colony and The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer

Currently reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

[Julian Delphiki]

Shadows in Bronze by Lindsey Davis.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by ColdWizard
Prince of Dogs by Kate Elliot.

A great series.