[Noel Freeman]

The God Delusion--by Richard Dawkins.. Putting to rest out there that there is some sublime afterlife with 72 virgins, heaven and hell.. The prose is biting and witty, something some of the burgeoning golf writers around here could use.

Also Golf at the Top by Steve Williams.. I don't think he wrote the book at all, but this is the supreme mental guide to golf I've seen.. Using the creative visualization techniques alone has helped my driving a ton over the last few weeks to keep me in the fairway. Seriously, who wrote this book??? and the co author isnt a candidate either.

[Sean_A]

Jeez, Sean, are you on Ibogaine?  That's one eclectic list.

Mark

Is that some sort of offshoot hair treatment like rogaine?  Lord knows I could use some help up there.

Considering I had a library not far short of 10,000 volumes (I spose my habit is to collect books like many on here collect courses) until recently, I don't think my current pile is too eclectic.

Ciao

[Mark Bourgeois]

Uh, it's in one of those books you're supposed to be reading. And 10,000? Where did you sleep? Do you still keep poor Pepys locked in your boot?

Let me take a crack at this:
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, by Tucker Max
Porn for Women, by Susan Anderson and the Cambridge Women's Pornography Cooperative*
       *For balance.

Mark

PS Kirk, for the proper amount of Ibogaine, details of a weekend spent with HST are on offer.  Please do not ask about the lost girlfriend, though.

[John Kavanaugh]

What is the last book you gave away and why?  What do you do with a book you have read?

[JESII]

I put it on the shelf clearly visible to all who enter the house.

I also stick a little flag out of the top that has the number of pages and how long it took me to read it...

[Phil McDade]

John:

I recently donated some to my local library for their annual used book sale. They use the money in part to help finance educational programs for children in the community, among whom my three kids have participated.

I tend to be a keeper of books (to my wife's eternal disdain), mainly because my interests are largely limited to a few areas -- history, mysteries and travel books/guides. I like having the complete volumes of some of my favorite fiction writers (like Le Carre and the great Ian Rankin), I keep the histories around because I often re-read portions of them when prompted by conversations or news events, and the travel guides/books nurture my inner dreamer.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Jim,

What about when you read a second book? Does that go on its own shelf, too, or next to the first one?

Mark

[Mark Bourgeois]

John,

For books I have read, it depends on their value:
High resale -- zerox then auction original on E-Bay
Medium resale -- use as kindling, decoration, insulation
Low / no resale -- donate to library or regift

Mark

[Phil Benedict]

What is the last book you gave away and why?  What do you do with a book you have read?

I gave A Season in Dornoch to a client.  Pure suck up because the client said Dornoch was his favorite course.

I use the local library rather than buy books.  Upside is I save money and don't have to decide what to do with used books, which I hate to throw out even though I rarely read anything twice.  Downside is it takes forever to get popular titles.  I am still something like 75th on the waiting list in Westchester County for God Is Not Great.  You wouldn't think a book espousing atheism would be such a popular read.

[Noel Freeman]

What is the last book you gave away and why?  What do you do with a book you have read?

I gave A Season in Dornoch to a client.  Pure suck up because the client said Dornoch was his favorite course.

I use the local library rather than buy books.  Upside is I save money and don't have to decide what to do with used books, which I hate to throw out even though I rarely read anything twice.  Downside is it takes forever to get popular titles.  I am still something like 75th on the waiting list in Westchester County for God Is Not Great.  You wouldn't think a book espousing atheism would be such a popular read.

Phil-- I'd recommend the God Delusion then or Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett..

I think there are more unbelievers than believers out there..

I use the Fairfield Library system myself and am fortunate to get many new books quickly.. although some are slow, I've been waiting a long time for another book that looks quite good-- The Canon by Natalie Angier (NY Times Science writer)

[Ash Towe]

Planet Golf by Darius Oliver
Excellent photography and good commentary.  A long section on golf courses in Australia, worthwhile for those planning a trip downunder.

[Mike Hendren]

Just finished C. S. Lewis' The Great Divorce.

Presently reading Jon Meachan's American Gospel: God, The Founding Fathers And The Making Of A Nation.

Presently re-reading for the third time Richard Foster's Prayer: Finding The Heart's True Home.

Mike

[Mike Hendren]

I think there are more unbelievers than believers out there.

I think not.  Merely fewer practitioners.

Mike

[Dan Kelly]

What is the last book you gave away and why?  What do you do with a book you have read?

I gave A Season in Dornoch to a client.  Pure suck up because the client said Dornoch was his favorite course.

Next time, give your client "Experience Royal Dornoch," by our own Rihcard Goodale -- a far more satisfying book, to my eyes. See http://tinyurl.com/25fywq

As for Mr. Hitchens' new book: I have no interest in it -- but would be No. 210 on the list in my county if I were to request it right now.

It seems that people who don't believe in God do believe in libraries!

[John Kavanaugh]

I hpoe you are aware of the bacterias that can be tranmitted by handling a much passed around library book.  I'd be especially careful with books that are read by degenerates.  A carefully placed thin film of feces placed where you lick your fingers to turn the page could pass staff or even hepititus.  

[Phil McDade]

John:

I take it then you don't use airport restrooms....

[Garland Bayley]

I hpoe you are aware of the bacterias that can be tranmitted by handling a much passed around library book.  I'd be especially careful with books that are read by degenerates.  A carefully placed thin film of feces placed where you lick your fingers to turn the page could pass staff or even hepititus.  

I.e., only accept books from John while wearing rubber gloves and then use them to start the wood stove.

[Steve Wilson]

Speaking as a bemused skeptic, I find books on atheology among the most pointless exercises bright people are capable of.   Or, paraphrasing Raymond Chandler's great detective Phillip Marlowe who reflected, while replaying a grandmasters' chess game, that chess was, with the exception of Madison Avenue, the most elaborate waste of human intelligence.   It would appear that Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris, etc. are striving to move chess into third place in Marlowe's world.  There may be more unbelievers out here than proclaim the fact, but I think Hendred has hit the nail on the head first time out.

I realized in my early 20s while I was still mildly militant about my skepticism that atheism is much an act of faith as any religion.  Since then, I have been, as self described above, a bemused skeptic.

I still wonder where it all came from.  


     

[Bob_Huntley]

Just finished...When A Crocodile Eats the Sun-A Memoir of Africa.

God is Not Great...Christopher Hitchens

Voices from the Rocks..Culture and History in the Matopos Hills of Zimbawe...Prof T. Ranger

Re-reading bits and pieces of The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell.

Bob

[Phil Benedict]

The client to whom I gave a Season in Dornoch got taken over by KKR, who are not a client.  I could give him the entire Goodale trilogy (Dornoch, TOC, Carnoustie) and it wouldn't do me a bit of good.

[Robert Kimball]

"Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. I want to read it before I see the movie.

It's very good story telling, but I don't really hold McCandless as a hero -- he was very underprepared and foolhardy to go into the woods like he did. But I respect wanting to live that way of life.

[Bob_Huntley]

"Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. I want to read it before I see the movie.

It's very good story telling, but I don't really hold McCandless as a hero -- he was very underprepared and foolhardy to go into the woods like he did. But I respect wanting to live that way of life.

Rob,

My wife has just read the book and from time to time read extracts to me. I found that I had no time at all for the young man. It seemed to me there was a hubris in him that allowed for the most unspeakable acts of folly in his attitude toward the wilderness. Just attempting to go into the Alaskan bush without  proper footwear is just one small error, of many, in his quixotic quest.

How many people would take a small bore rifle on such a journey. Had he ever killed game before and did he know how to gut and clean a carcass?

I shall have to read the book in its entirety to see if I can find some sense of it all.


Bob

[Noel Freeman]

Speaking as a bemused skeptic, I find books on atheology among the most pointless exercises bright people are capable of.   Or, paraphrasing Raymond Chandler's great detective Phillip Marlowe who reflected, while replaying a grandmasters' chess game, that chess was, with the exception of Madison Avenue, the most elaborate waste of human intelligence.   It would appear that Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris, etc. are striving to move chess into third place in Marlowe's world.  There may be more unbelievers out here than proclaim the fact, but I think Hendred has hit the nail on the head first time out.

I realized in my early 20s while I was still mildly militant about my skepticism that atheism is much an act of faith as any religion.  Since then, I have been, as self described above, a bemused skeptic.

I still wonder where it all came from.  


     

Steve- this is a very good analysis.. I agree atheism is its own belief system.. I remember Paul Turner recommending reading Bertrand Russell once when we were driving to Cornwall.. It was then I realized hey, I'm just a relatively hairless ape using golf as a means to transcend.. but where was I trying to transcend to?... A year later drunk on Belgian beer again traveling with Paul, we were lost in the walled city of Brugge trying to find our hotel.. I had another ephipany.. I don't know what the ultimate reality is, but neither does anyone else but it sure isnt what was written in a book 2000 years ago.. I very much like the Zen tenet that our brains are too insignificant to figure out if there is or isnt a purpose of life.. For me the purpose of life is to live..

[George Pazin]

I've been encouraging everyone to read Matt Ruff's fiction - he's the most imaginative writer I've read.

His best book is Set This House In Order, followed by Fool On The Hill, Bad Monkeys and then, last and least great, Sewer, Gas and Electric.

I recently read a very entertaining book by Christopher Moore called A Dirty Job. It's very imaginative in the same way Matt Ruff's work is.

Curiously enough, those books are very out of character from what I normally read, which would nauseate most of the others on here, so I'll leave those off.

I do most of my reading in the evening with my son sleeping on my chest - fortunately he's very light! - which is making it difficult for me to read my most highly anticipated possession, a manuscript from one of the posters on here, as it's in a binder. Hopefully I'll be able to get through it shortly.

I do give away books, mostly inexpensive golf books I find at local secondhand stores, and any copies of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged I happen to stumble across at said stores, in need of a good home. Let me know if you're in the market for either.

P.S. I'm assuming everyone on here has already read Rick's book....

[Ted Kramer]

I read Goodnight Moon, and about 15 Dr. Suess books every night.
The Fiffer Feffer Feff and the Zizzer Zazzer Zuz get a lot of press, but I tend to favor aunt Annie's Alligator, and the quacking quackeroo. Ten tired turtles in the tutle tutle tree always make my son smile . . .

-Ted

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