What Are You Currently Reading?

[Dee Dee Warren]

I am now listening to False Memory by Dean Koontz.

[SteveF]

I am now listening to False Memory by Dean Koontz.

I had a strange Dean Koontz experience last year. I was buying some books in one of the larger bookstores here in London. I saw a line of people waiting to meet Koontz and get books signed by him. I wandered along, and discovered that he wasn't actually there. He was at home in the states, chatting to people via a TV screen. When it came to sign the book, those in line would walk up to a flat surface, place the book down, Koontz would then sign something at home and when the book was taken away here in the UK, it had a signature on it. Very clever. This is the technology:

http://www.longpen.com/

[SteveF]

The Kite Runner was AWESOME.

Piece on the authors:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle3721678.ece

[Dee Dee Warren]

Thank you for that. Fascinating. Khaled is incredibly talented. Both books moved me incredibly and gave such insights into life in Afghanistan and I think are wonderful for removing prejudices that exist after 9/11 and humanizing what many Americans have come to think of as the enemy.

I cannot recommend both books too highly.

[SteveF]

Thank you for that. Fascinating. Khaled is incredibly talented. Both books moved me incredibly and gave such insights into life in Afghanistan and I think are wonderful for removing prejudices that exist after 9/11 and humanizing what many Americans have come to think of as the enemy.

I cannot recommend both books too highly.

Indeed. I've read quite a few non-fiction books about Afghanistan. For example:

http://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Lig...8522640&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Lig...8522640&sr=1-2

I particularly recommend this one. Very inspirational - women struggling under the yoke of the Taliban (amongst other things):

http://www.amazon.com/Sewing-Circles...8522730&sr=1-2

[Dee Dee Warren]

Unfortunately none of those are in audio book at audible

[One Bad Pig]

What Have They Done With Jesus? by Ben Witherington
St. Cyril of Jerusalem's The Baptismal Catechesis

[Lightknight]

I just finished Ivanhoe. It was awesome, depite its length. Epic, with numerous climaxes and heroes and villains. Great.

[5Pointer]

G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. But just finished The Justification of God by John Piper

[Kelp]

What Have They Done With Jesus? by Ben Witherington

I saw that at the bookstore a while back. It looked too short and popular level. How is it?

[JB]

Why foolish?

I already had more books going than I could handle.

(Also, as it turns out, Saturnalia is mostly rather dull. I can only stand so much fourth-century literary analysis of the works of Vergil...)

[One Bad Pig]

I saw that at the bookstore a while back. It looked too short and popular level. How is it?

I'm not especially impressed so far, though I really haven't gotten to the meat of his arguments yet. He starts out by laying out his take on what we can know about such'n'such a figure (he starts out with Joanna and Mary Magdelene), then lays out the opposing gnostic/modernist/post-modernist views and (presumably) rebuts them. I've only gotten through his initial take on Joanna and Mary Magdelene so far. While he asserts the necessity of taking things in their socio-historical context (a good thing), I don't think he always takes his own advice. He tries to equate Joanna (wife of Herod's steward) with Junia (a woman mentioned by Paul, but married to someone other than Herod's steward), and to get around the contradiction in husbands, says she must've gotten divorced and re-married.

He also asserts that the social and religious subjugation of women back then made them likely to be attracted to the occult (this to explain why Mary Magdelene had seven demons).

He does have quite a number of endnotes, but no bibliography.

[Kelp]

Is there any particular reason why he goes onto such paths? I didn't know there were any DaVinci Code type theories about Joanna.

[One Bad Pig]

Is there any particular reason why he goes onto such paths? I didn't know there were any DaVinci Code type theories about Joanna.

I'll let you know if I find a reason.

[Dee Dee Warren]

I am now listening to False Memory by Dean Koontz.

Its official. Koontz sucks. Next.