Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[S.B.G]

I'll be more than interested to read was you have to say about this.

Some time ago, chiefly on your recommendation, I recall reading Susan Cain's book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" and finding it fascinating.

Incidentally, her equally impressive husband, Ken Cain, wrote (actually co-wrote) an extraordinary book with an unfortunate title - "Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories From A War Zone," - unfortunate, because it gives the impression that the book is just a series of zany, self-indulgent tales, which it isn't, as it is far better than that - which is also well worth reading.

So far, and I'm almost done with it, it is a remarkable book. I can already see numerous opportunities where I can improve myself and my leadership skills. The way the book is written is equally remarkable in that instead of a matter-of-fact, instructional manual, as some "self-help" type books can be, this is written in story form. It has characters, stories within stories showing how traits, qualities, and behaviors affect and influence people.

Since being appointed the executive director of a county department last year, I am seeking to find ways to not only improve my leadership abilities but improve myself personally as well. This is why I've started including these leadership style books into my rotation of reading.

 

[LizKat]

Been reading some free books lately

Just finished The Island of Doctor Moreau
Currently reading Robinson Crusoe

I read so much, it gets expensive
So I have decided this year to read some of the classics since they are available for free
I may know the basic plot of the books, but many I have never actually read

Have a number of others queued up already, but open to suggestions

You're embarking on this phase of your reading in an interesting time. A veritable flood of works first published in the USA in 1923 now gets added to the public domain. They may not all be or end up as classics, of course, but it's been 20 years since a next batch of copyrighted works in the USA become freely available, thanks to a 1998 law that extended American copyright for 20 extra years, creating a huge gap between entry into public domain of 1922 works versus the suddenly longer-constrained 1923 publications.

Look for these works --novels, plays, paintings-- to pop up in the likes of Google Books and other public venues, and they'll be freely available for adaption for production in school plays, etc. as well. A year at a time now the release to public domain resumes for works that got trapped in the 20-year copyright extension back in 1998. The "logjam" is broken...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...piry-brings-flood-of-works-into-public-domain.

“The drought is over,” proclaims Duke Law School’s Center for the Public Domain, highlighting some of the works which are now available royalty-free, by authors from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Kahlil Gibran, PG Wodehouse to DH Lawrence, Edith Wharton to EE Cummings. It’s not only books: copyright in the US is also expiring on a host of films, paintings and music.

“The public domain has been frozen in time for 20 years, and we’re reaching the 20-year thaw,” the center’s director Jennifer Jenkins told the Smithsonian. The magazine predicted that the release’s impact on culture and creativity could be huge, because “we have never seen such a mass entry into the public domain in the digital age”. Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, told the Smithsonian: “We have shortchanged a generation. The 20th century is largely missing from the internet.”

 

[pachyderm]

The Handmaid's Tale

 

[twietee]

Just finished The Way We Die Now by Charles Willeford. Awesome crime novel. Haven't heard of Willeford anytime before but read an interesting piece about him in the newspaper around Christmas and got intrigued...ordered a couple of more books by him instantly! Not easy to find though - unfortunately.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Flambards by K M Peyton.

 

[ucfgrad93]

I am currently reading Battles That Changed History. This book covers 43 battles from 1457 BC to 2003.

https://www.amazon.com/Battles-That...&qid=1547510146&sr=8-1&keywords=9781782744818

 

[Gutwrench]

I just ordered Pensees, Blaise Pascal just to read his thoughts. What astounding contributions he made in his 39 short years.
[doublepost=1547510820][/doublepost]

I am currently reading Battles That Changed History. This book covers 43 battles from 1457 BC to 2003.

This sounds interesting.

 

[ucfgrad93]

This sounds interesting.

It is very good.

 

[cdcastillo]

...Ken Cain, wrote (actually co-wrote) an extraordinary book with an unfortunate title - "Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories From A War Zone," ...

Just bought it (on your recommendation). I'll let you know how it was for me.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Just bought it (on your recommendation). I'll let you know how it was for me.

I read it when staying with friends whose son has worked in some strange places (such as the DRC), and the blurb interested me; as I had just returned from a testing and trying deployment abroad, I found it interesting, - and relevant - but will readily concede that the title very nearly put me completely off.

In truth, I'm not really terribly interested in reading about the sexual adventures of ex-pats (or of anyone else for that matter) in war zones or conflict zones (or anywhere else).

In fact, it is one of those cases where I think the title detracts (considerably) from the book, which is thoughtful and interesting and rather different from what that title would suggest.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yes, a classic.

One I must pay a return visit to.

Currently reading The Edge Of The Cloud by K M Peyton.

 

[jpn]

 

[LizKat]

Mentally departing a subzero evening here via some Caribbean fiction, some short stories by Trinidadian writer Sharon Millar.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

As a lifelong classical music fan, I figured I would give this a shot. Just picked it up at the library today:

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Civilisations: How Do We Look - The Eye Of Faith - Mary Beard.

 

[Huntn]

@pachyderm, just a heads up, the image you posted in reply #6428, viewed on my iPad is so huge it covers up the next 4 posts. I don’t know how @Scepticalscribe was able to quote you.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

@pachyderm, just a heads up, the image you posted in reply #6428, viewed on my iPad is so huge it covers up the next 4 posts. I don’t know how @Scepticalscribe was able to quote you.

I viewed it on my computer; on the computer screen, while it was large - very large - it did not trespass into the territory of other posts.

I don't use iPads at all (never liked them, and gave away the two I used to have, one to each brother) and need use my phone for such activities.

 

[pachyderm]

@pachyderm, just a heads up, the image you posted in reply #6428, viewed on my iPad is so huge it covers up the next 4 posts. I don’t know how @Scepticalscribe was able to quote you.

yeah it was huge. I'll edit it. Sorry.

 

[S.B.G]

@pachyderm, just a heads up, the image you posted in reply #6428, viewed on my iPad is so huge it covers up the next 4 posts. I don’t know how @Scepticalscribe was able to quote you.

On my iPad, it's large, but not absurdly large. Try tapping the image 1 time and see if it brings it to a more reasonable size for you. Because if I tap it once, then it becomes very large and overtakes everything.

 

[Huntn]

On my iPad, it's large, but not absurdly large. Try tapping the image 1 time and see if it brings it to a more reasonable size for you. Because if I tap it once, then it becomes very large and overtakes everything.

@pachyderm removed the image (thanks, although a smaller image would have been ok ), so I am not able to test this. Usually when I do google searches, most of the images I come up with, tend to be smaller, especially smaller than an iPhone image, although the forum architecture seems to do a good job scaling those images. I remember in the past, getting a message that my image was too big, when I tried to upload it, but it has not happened recently uploading images from my phone.

If I am on my computer and see an image that exceeds the standard forum frame, I look for another or shrink it using Graphic Converter. However, on my iPad, I use the PhotoShrinker App.

 

[pachyderm]

@pachyderm removed the image (thanks, although a smaller image would have been ok ), so I am not able to test this. Usually when I do google searches, most of the images I come up with, tend to be smaller, especially smaller than an iPhone image, although the forum architecture seems to do a good job scaling those images. I remember in the past, getting a message that my image was too big, when I tried to upload it, but it has not happened recently uploading images from my phone.

If I am on my computer and see an image that exceeds the standard forum frame, I look for another or shrink it using Graphic Converter. However, on my iPad, I use the PhotoShrinker App.

Eh, I'm not bothered by it. I was worried when I posted it that it might be a bother for you guys.

 

[Huntn]

Eh, I'm not bothered by it. I was worried when I posted it that it might be a bother for you guys.

It only bothered me because it covered up the posts after it, which I thought was strange, covering them, instead of pushing the following posts down.

 

[S.B.G]

It only bothered me because it covered up the posts after it, which I thought was strange, covering them, instead of pushing the following posts down.

FWIW, here is what it looked like on my 9.7" iPad before it was edited. When I'd tap the image, then it would have covered everyting. The next time you get a large image try tapping it to make it scale smaller.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

FWIW, here is what it looked like on my 9.7" iPad before it was edited. When I'd tap the image, then it would have covered everyting. The next time you get a large image try tapping it to make it scale smaller.
View attachment 816757

Nice to know these tricks of the trade. Thanks.

 

[Lioness~]

GRATITUDE is not a passive response to something we have been given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, it is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life. etc.

COURAGE is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. etc.

Etc...