How many of these "top 100" non-fiction books have YOU read?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by carld

I have to disagree. The movie yes, without a doubt. The book is filled with familiar, and sometimes silly tropes, but, it's still a fun old-fashioned space-opera. It's also the only thing of Hubbard's I've actually enjoyed.

The book is full of BLOAT. It should have been a novella and it may have been ok. But Hubbard just bloated the hell out of it with useless drivel.

[Falcao]

I read "In Cold Blood".

I read like 2 pages of "Principia Mathematica" before giving up.

[yakuzaboss]

From the boards list: 3
From the readers list: 2

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Why is it that seems more and more true to me as well lately....for example I'm reading "The Evolution of God" (about 100 pages in) and it's like ... please tell me something I don't already know, haven't already read or thought about... guess it's confirmation if nothing else....

It's one of the perils of advanced age and extensive reading. I saw a nice copy of Guns, Germs & Steel at a used book sale - one buck! - a couple of days ago, but after perusing it I realized that most of the interesting stuff the author knits together is stuff I already know. There would just not have been a good work/reward ratio for the time spent reading it. But thirty years ago, I would have devoured it, with profit and enjoyment.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by YGG-

Read 47 of the board's list...

Read 8.5 of the first 10 on the Board's list, then about 3 of each successive group of 10 up till 80, where I've read only 3 of the last 20.

Pretty much the same for the Reader's list.

It occurs to me that I've read much more on the fiction lists than on the non-fiction lists, but that the bulk of my fiction reading was in my misspent youth, whereas the bulk of the non-fiction reading was in my misspent middle age. I am now misspending my old age but no identifiable trend so far, except I find myself rereading fiction, with sometimes interesting results - Dashiell Hammett does not stand up, but Raymond Chandler does, for instance. (I had thought that there was just too much drinking in Hammett to be believable, but it turns out that he was writing from life. Poorly, though.)

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

About Virginia Woolf:

On another note, I *have* read Strunk & White from beginning to end, several times. But it sounds crazy when I say that.

So...read any good Fowler lately?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Harmon

It's one of the perils of advanced age and extensive reading. I saw a nice copy of Guns, Germs & Steel at a used book sale - one buck! - a couple of days ago, but after perusing it I realized that most of the interesting stuff the author knits together is stuff I already know. There would just not have been a good work/reward ratio for the time spent reading it. But thirty years ago, I would have devoured it, with profit and enjoyment.

I think you are right, and have the same feeling about that particular book that I've picked up a couple of times ... but never got move than the first chapter..

[mediax]

0.5 off the Board list and 0 off the readers' list.

What an uneducated slob I must be!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mediax

0.5 off the Board list and 0 off the readers' list.

What an uneducated slob I must be!

[YGG-]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Read 8.5 of the first 10 on the Board's list, then about 3 of each successive group of 10 up till 80, where I've read only 3 of the last 20.

Pretty much the same for the Reader's list.

It occurs to me that I've read much more on the fiction lists than on the non-fiction lists, but that the bulk of my fiction reading was in my misspent youth, whereas the bulk of the non-fiction reading was in my misspent middle age. I am now misspending my old age but no identifiable trend so far, except I find myself rereading fiction, with sometimes interesting results - Dashiell Hammett does not stand up, but Raymond Chandler does, for instance. (I had thought that there was just too much drinking in Hammett to be believable, but it turns out that he was writing from life. Poorly, though.)

Hm, I did enjoy Hammett last time I read it (both in English & in a good French translation) ; well.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Read 8.5 of the first 10 on the Board's list, then about 3 of each successive group of 10 up till 80, where I've read only 3 of the last 20.

...

Very impressive btw....

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I find myself rereading fiction, with sometimes interesting results - Dashiell Hammett does not stand up, but Raymond Chandler does, for instance.

Harmon, I have read and enjoyed a great deal of Hammett's early (1920's) work, up to his first novel Red Harvest, since the first of this year. When I read all of his that was available 35 years ago, I found I didn't have a particularly high opinion of his post-Maltese Falcon works.

Did you find like I did that he ran out of gas, or do you no longer like his early works as well?

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by YGG-

Hm, I did enjoy Hammett last time I read it (both in English & in a good French translation) ; well.

I think maybe it was all the drinking that put me off. I was envious...

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Very impressive btw....

It helps to have been reading for half a century. But to be truthful, I was annoyed at not having read them all. I have been spending too much time not reading.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Harmon, I have read and enjoyed a great deal of Hammett's early (1920's) work, up to his first novel Red Harvest, since the first of this year. When I read all of his that was available 35 years ago, I found I didn't have a particularly high opinion of his post-Maltese Falcon works.

Did you find like I did that he ran out of gas, or do you no longer like his early works as well?

I believe you are right about his having run out of gas, although it might have been more of a case of too much ethanol.

For me, it might simply be a case of losing my ability to suspend disbelief. I tried to reread The Thin Man and just couldn't do it. But that fits your thesis.

I'm almost afraid to go back & reread Red Harvest and The Dain Curse...