Read a good book lately?

Hello. I am almost finished with a great book. It is a history of major scientific discoveries. It is called "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson.

http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1438827119&sr=1-1

Wow some of those scientists in the old days were nuts!

What have you read that you want to talk about?

 Yes I did. Hyperion is like a "Cantabury Tales" of a far off world,ruled by a deadly monster the Shrike,who is also their God-Lord Of Pain. He resides in a temple precinct called the Time Tombs.Where people and objects progress backwards in time.

Here's what I am reading now.

http://www.amazon.com/Guests-Behind-Barbed-Wire-Beaumont/dp/1575872609/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439577283&sr=1-1&keywords=guests+Behind+the+wire

It is a book about the Prisoner of War camps in Alabama where German prisoners were held during WWII. Most people in Alabama know zero about that history from 70 years ago. The book is real good so far.

That was a crazy time. POWs were treated better than black US soldiers.

I have lived in Alabama all my life. I was probably around 50 years old before I learned that there had been military POW camps in Alabama.

So far the book is pretty good. I have read enough to know that the Americans tried hard to be good to the German prisoners. As to how black people were treated back in those days in Alabama, I think you will have truble getting an accurate account now. Everyone seems to have their own spin on the story.

The book I have taken out from the library now is a new biography of Genghis Khan, by Frank McLynn.  "Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy."  I have not spent much time with it yet, but it's an area of history I know extremely little about - for example the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in the 1200s, the weaknesses of Baghdad at the time (which had been producing luxury goods for Europe for a couple centuries before that), the conditions that permitted the Mongolian armies to build up and continue prospering as they conquered, etc. - it's just interesting to find out about.   I'm glad I picked a book on a subject where I'm totally ignorant.  The names have very funny looking spellings, too.

I rarely take a chance on a book, because there's so much I need to read; but a book by Bill Wash was recommended to me, The Score Takes Care of Itself: a Philosopher of Leadership.  It was unappealing in a number of ways: the idea of reading a book by a (American) football coach and being business oriented meant that the book is classified in two genres I basically never read.  However, someone in a private chess study group I'm in suggested it --and the fellow is a South African with no interest in American football--, and I was told that the book is excellent in a number of relevant ways.  

The book was recommended because I've been expecting a jump in my USCF rating, but it really hasn't come yet.  (I'm playing much higher quality chess, but some elements of the game have held me back, which were featured in my first chess.com blog post, e.g., elimination of counterplay.)  The book can be said to be as much about how one should conduct one's self as much as it is about leadership.  I was quite surprised at the nuanced perspective Walsh had on the inter-relationship between the analytic and holistic in achieving success.  Between concepts and wisdom about human inter-relations, and even things like breeding innovation and general creativity, I found it a fascinating book. 

Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson is well worth reading.  Johnson's home is worth visiting, too, if you are ever in London.  Amazing individual.  I really haven't read anything else by Boswell, though.

Even if you are looking for it, it is hard as heck to find.  It is tucked in an alley in the middle of some skyscrapers that seem to have grown up around it.  When I first went to find it, I was planning on seeing it right before a performance of Much Ado about Nothing at the Globe, but it took so long to find it (and I didn't find it on that trip), that I had to run off to catch the play in time.  With iPhones, I'm sure it is easier, but I didn't have one, back in 2008.  I found it on my second search, though.  Johnson is the second-most quoted person in the English language, and many of the quotes you know, but don't know who said them, were probably said by Johnson.  I originally noticed this by looking through a Bartlett, and later confirmed it... maybe at Samuel Johnson's house, come to think of it. 

Pensées by Blaise Pascal

I just started reading it today and I got past the introduction (some theological background.)

I am promised it will have some exposition of Christianity in it. Pascal had a mystical experience at some point, and it motivated him to paint us a picture of how the mind and the self can connect deeply with the Deity.

Haven't been reading much lately but I like Sciencia

sho16. Cool. I have reccently started reading sci fiction again. Seems that these days most of them are a part of a series' 3 to 6 books to tell one story. But some are very good. The Scab series by Eric a. Shelman was pretty cool. I am now reading the Frontline series by Marko Kloos. It is very good.