What are we reading right now? (Planning related or not)

[Salmissra]

Started a new book yesterday. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan talks about the history of the "Western Diet" and how it affects our health. He goes into detail about the industrialization of food, how the changes were bad for humans, and how grocery stores now have mostly "food-like substances" for sale, not real food. Very interesting read, and not as heavy as I was expecting.

The last section is about escaping the Western Diet, defining real food, and what to eat and in what quantities. I'm hoping to finish this section this week.

"Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants."

[wahday]

Pollan's book is on my list for the near future. I've heard him speaking a couple of times about it and it sounds very well researched and he is a very compelling person (smart, not pedantic, open minded, but committed to his ethos). Another maxim I heard him say on the radio: Don't eat anything advertised on TV.

I'm reading In Praise of Slowness: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore right now. I'm about a quarter of the way along. Very interesting stuff about the acceleration of time and all the challenges it creates both in how society functions and how individuals respond to it physically, emotionally and psychologically. He also profiles a host of groups around the world responding to speed by promoting areas of slowness - Slow Food, Slow Travel, Slow Thinking, Slow Building, Slow Sex (seriously).

[johnguava]

Besides books assigned from school, I'm sifting through mostly magazines. Currently I'm obsessing over The New Yorker and The Economist.

[cch]

I'm currently reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. And, I'm reading my daughter her first chapter-book at bedtime; Alice in Wonderland.

[Salmissra]

Just finished The Tomb of Zeus, by Beverly Cleverly. Murder mystery set in 1920's Crete, and the protaganist is a English woman trying to get her start in the field of archeology. New character and setting for the author, but not her first book. Not a bad read, I enjoyed most of it; I do think it'll appeal more to a femaile audience. I've started another book by the same author, but the main character is just not doing it for me, and I think I'll just skip to the end and return it to the library. This one has a male lead character, and I just can't relate to his thoughts on The War (WWI) and how he ends up on loan to India.

[WSU MUP Student]

I recently was given an autographed copy of Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz's new book, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. Yesterday evening I read the dust jacket and introduction... I think that one is just going to get put back on the shelf.

I've got plenty of more fun options to read.

[Zoning Goddess]

I finally caved and got a kindle last week; my first book was Linda Fairstein's "Hell's Gate". Reads just like a paper book, even in the sun by the pool!

[kjel]

I finally caved and got a kindle last week; my first book was Linda Fairstein's "Hell's Gate". Reads just like a paper book, even in the sun by the pool!

That's cool. Do you like it? Is it easy on the eyes as far as screen resolution? I've been toying with the idea since I am running out of space and new books are getting pricey even with the member discounts applied.

[The One]

Lee Child: The Hard Way

This one has a solid story and a decent mystery.

[Zoning Goddess]

That's cool. Do you like it? Is it easy on the eyes as far as screen resolution? I've been toying with the idea since I am running out of space and new books are getting pricey even with the member discounts applied.

It's great! Resolution is just like reading a print book, and for us old farts, we can increase the font size and ditch the glasses. Downloads take 60 seconds or less. Of course I forgot to plug it in last night and the battery was dead this morning and there's no place to plug it in by the pool, but it charges in just a couple of hours. The only downside is that you'll find books you want that aren't offered. I picked up a book at the library, Cornbread Nation I, a collection of writings about southern food, foodies, etc, that I'm enjoying, and wanted to download the rest of the series but only one was available.

[fringe]

Finally mustered the diligence to take on Joseph Campbell's excellent "Portable Jung", which offers his selection of the Collected Works.

It is like mental ambrosia, but you have to hold on to that plow because the mule moves right along.

[ursus]

At the risk of sounding out-classed, I'll admit that I'm re-reading my giant collection of "Calvin & Hobbes".

[Richmond Jake]

The Big Burn by Timothy Egan. Teddy Roosevelt, the origin of the US Forest Service, conservationism, robber barons, the Wild West, and fire.

[Joe Iliff]

Just finished Everyone Communicates Few Connect by John Maxwell. Very good.

[boiker]

Just finished Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott.

Good short noella on perception, reality, out-of-the box thinking, social class structure, and religion.

[Richmond Jake]

...Willie Mays, the Life, the Legend by James S. Hirsch.

Greatest baseball player to ever take to the park, IMHO.

[Joe Iliff]

Epic, by John Eldredge

[alan_cunningham]

How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. Bacially a better version of Blink. If Planners are concerned with health, safety, and welfare, maybe books like this will reveal why we do things against those norms.

Just got today: Effective Cycling by John Forester. Will have to skim furiously for now, as my heart and my time belongs to passing the AICP in May.

[stroskey]

Promises I Can Keep: Why Low-Income Women Put Motherhood Above of marriage.

[dandy_warhol]

Just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

On deck is How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It
~ Arthur Herman

In the hole is IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation by Edwin Black.

[stroskey]

The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America

[Mud Princess]

You Were Always Mom's Favorite! Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives by Deborah Tannen

...
On deck is How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It
~ Arthur Herman

Ooh! I think I'll put that one on my list.

[beach_bum]

Just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

Just finished it! Great book, made quick work of that page turner!

[WSU MUP Student]

I started The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris the other day. I'm about a third of the way through it and so far, great book!

It's about a guy with an unnamed disease that causes him to stop whatever he is doing and just walk until exhaustion sets in and the problems that causes him with work and family.

[dandy_warhol]

Just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

Just finished it! Great book, made quick work of that page turner!

It was good! I recommend it. I just started The Girl Who Played with Fire a sequel to the Dragon Tattoo. I'm about a 1/4 into it and it too is a page turner. I have to fight to put it down and turn out the light at bedtime.