2015 Reading List - Books only!

[Scrumhalf]

My 2015 resolution is to read a book a week, 50 books for the year. Let's see if I make it.

Post up what you have read, with a little description of the book and what you thought about it. I would love to see what everyone is reading.

And books only please - no magazines, web pages, PS4 instruction manuals, etc. :)

Here are mine so far...

1. Shadow of the Silk Road - Colin Thubron

This book is a travel book of the author's trip from China to Turkey through the heart of Asia along the fabled Silk Road.

Scrumhalf Review: 4.5 stars - Highly recommended

Excellent book- very evocative and just a little tinge of wistfulness, like most good travel books are. Plus the prose is delightful - not since Rushdie's "The Moor's Last Sigh" have I been forced to reach for the dictionary as many times. Beautiful English throughout.

[Bouncer]

bah. I wish I could get into books like I can get into games or documentaries.

[FitnessBrat]

Scrum, have you ever heard of this Tournament of Books? I may try to start reading off of this.

[FitnessBrat]

bah. I wish I could get into books like I can get into games or documentaries.

You could, if you gave it a chance. :agreed:

[Scrumhalf]

2. The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam - Eliza Griswold

The book is a very well written summary of how around the 10th parallel, Christianity and Islam are butting heads in many countries around the world.

Scrumhalf Review - 4 stars. Well written

Eliza Griswold is a reporter who has traveled extensively around the world, but most specifically in Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. In these countries, specifically around 10 degres north, Christian and Muslim populations are butting up against each other, with predictable consequences - armed conflict, over resources, land, and ideology as well.

What I found interesting is how in almost every one of these countries, how complcit the US has been - both the government and evangelical missionaries, in seeding the conflicts that we see today. I had known all along, but it was definitely educational seeing it laid out so clearly.

I would definitely recommend reading the book for a global education on the Islam-Christianity rivalry is playing out and what the consequences are for both the populations in these countries and for the world as a whole.

[Scrumhalf]

Scrum, have you ever heard of this Tournament of Books? I may try to start reading off of this.

FB, no I've never heard of it. Will Google it tomorrow - got to get to bed now. Still in Asia and dying of humidity and heat! :D

[Bouncer]

You could, if you gave it a chance. :agreed:

I've tried my whole life. I really have. My mind doesn't get pulled in. I literally see the actual words on paper after a few paragraphs.

[TKD]

I am just about to finish the mistborn series. It's a teen type book but it's a book of magic of sorts. The author has created his own type of magic. I found it to be a good unique story and the magic is interesting.

I have a sample of Richard Dawkins greatest show on earth next in my Kindle, but I don't know if I'm going to start it.

[Scrumhalf]

I am just about to finish the mistborn series. It's a teen type book but it's a book of magic of sorts. The author has created his own type of magic. I found it to be a good unique story and the magic is interesting.

I have a sample of Richard Dawkins greatest show on earth next in my Kindle, but I don't know if I'm going to start it.

Why not? I would highly recommend it. That and Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True." Both are phenomenal books. Dawkins is a bit more in your face, while Coyne is very low key, but both lay out really an airtight case for evolution. I mean, really, not believing in evolution in the 21st century is a bit like being a flat-earther. Even the Pope's got over it - time for everyone else to do the same.

[chuckz28]

I've tried my whole life. I really have. My mind doesn't get pulled in. I literally see the actual words on paper after a few paragraphs.

I'm the same way. Easily disengaged and then it is just a bunch of words. Once every few years I'll have a spurt where something will interest me and I'll read a few books on the subject but the rest of the time I don't even consider it.

I really should read more though. My vocabulary has been replaced with profanities and I come of sounding like a retard when I talk. I can write pretty well if I have time to think about what I'm writing.

[Bouncer]

I'm pretty smart so having the vocabulary of a tard is never a problem. :cheese:

[TKD]

Why not? I would highly recommend it. That and Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True." Both are phenomenal books. Dawkins is a bit more in your face, while Coyne is very low key, but both lay out really an airtight case for evolution. I mean, really, not believing in evolution in the 21st century is a bit like being a flat-earther. Even the Pope's got over it - time for everyone else to do the same.

I have read a few of dawkins before and hitchinson. I like them, but I'm wondering if I can get myself to commit to my Rosetta stone the same amount as a book series .

[FitnessBrat]

FB, no I've never heard of it. Will Google it tomorrow - got to get to bed now. Still in Asia and dying of humidity and heat! :D

I didn't realize I didn't even post the link!


The Long, Long List for the 2015 Tournament of Books - The Morning News

[Scrumhalf]

Cool, thanks! Sponsored by Powells Book Store, a Portland treasure! Maybe this will spark my fiction reading, which has been dormant for a few years now.

[Scrumhalf]

3. A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State - John Whitehead

A very interesting book on a topic that is very important today - the slow but steady erosion of constitutional rights in the name of the so-called WOD and GWOT.

Scrumhalf Review: 4.5 stars. Excellent book.

Whitehead, a constitutional law expert, writes a persuasive essay on how an apathetic American public, combined with an ever-expanding government has resulted in a mockery of the Constitution. Paranoia about safety has allowed the lines to be blurred between the military and the police, resuting in an internal security apparatus that is hardly distinguishable in looks, equipment and tactics from the army. The parallels to Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World are frightening.

Very sobering and really, a call to arms, in a nonviolent way of course. Should be essential reading for all Americans.