What was the last book you read?

[Ares]

"darwin's "origin of species". 700 pages and small letters
anyone ever read it?

I did some years ago as I found a first edition (of my language), and had to buy it.. If you can endure the old language and somewhat boring topics/writing it's fairly interesting.

[Mike]

Men Among The Ruins by Julius Evola.

He offers an interesting and merciless criticism of modernism and the modern man, but not much in the way of solutions.

[Glarundis]

well, i did study biology in university for a year before going to music, so, we'll see

[Tyrion]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

[Raemonn]

I'm always reading multiple books, but the last one I finished was:

T.W. Ryback - Hitler's Private Library.

In this book, Ryback reconstructs Hitler's intellectual development (as much as possible) by studying the marginalia in the books he bought/read, and kept in his various libraries. As a "meta-historian" myself, this is one of those books I would have loved to have written.

Ryback also has an engaging style of writing, which is (in my opinion) something to be treasured among historians. Great piece of work, both for the layman as well as the expert.

[Cyrus Tegyr]

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill

I am just finishing up the third book, unfortunately, the author died before he could complete his work but had prior to his death passed on his notes and insights to another author. Quite honestly, it is a shame I think I prefer William Manchester's style of writing compared to Paul Reid's but it's proven to be worth the reading not only not only to complete the trilogy such a remarkable life as Churchill's but also quite entertaining.

I've recently begun, something I never do is read two books at the same time, but I broke that rule a few days ago when I began reading Hitler by Ian Kershaw. I've taken it slow with this one because well I am already invested in another book at the moment so I am only about a 60 pages into it, but so far it's pretty good insight into what little historians seem to know of Hitler's early days as a lot of eye witness accounts from that time abound post World War 2 when many of the eye witnesses and "friends" of Hitler put their memories down on paper, however, many of these eyewitness accounts were also idealized and influenced by Hitler's own account of his early days in Mein Kampf sothe author has had to wade through the muck and pluck out the truths from a sea of fallacies.

Looks like however I will be looking into T.W. Ryback - Hitler's Private Library to see what that's about

[Charha]

Stiff: Curious lives of human cadavers by Mary Roach

This was a really funny and informative book about what happens to a human body after death. I enjoyed the author's sincere and morbidly humorous style of writing. Despite the rather gruesome subject this little study of all the curious things that can happen to cadavers made me feel good about being alive and at the same time reduced my fear of death. And that's pretty good for a book!

The author liberally writes about anything that goes between exploding cadavers (all in the name of science) and cannibalism. Since the spectrum is so wide, you can't expect the individual chapters to be very detailed. But hey, the book is light and entertaining - and you can always look for more information concerning body snatchers and "mellified men", if that's your thing.

(And yeah, I do enjoy roleplaying a scholastic necromancer on Pang. What's the deal with death, they ask? It's all so fascinating!)

[Raemonn]

I've recently begun, something I never do is read two books at the same time, but I broke that rule a few days ago when I began reading Hitler by Ian Kershaw. I've taken it slow with this one because well I am already invested in another book at the moment so I am only about a 60 pages into it, but so far it's pretty good insight into what little historians seem to know of Hitler's early days as a lot of eye witness accounts from that time abound post World War 2 when many of the eye witnesses and "friends" of Hitler put their memories down on paper, however, many of these eyewitness accounts were also idealized and influenced by Hitler's own account of his early days in Mein Kampf sothe author has had to wade through the muck and pluck out the truths from a sea of fallacies.

Looks like however I will be looking into T.W. Ryback - Hitler's Private Library to see what that's about

You should, it's a great read. Although, admittedly, Ryback is far more of an "impressionist" historian than Kershaw. Then again, such an attitude comes with the study. Both are great. Cheers!

[Boern]

Life of Pi

I admit that I picked up this one from from the library because of the pretty covers (yes, I judge and pick books by their covers, sue me!). It turned out to be quite the fascinating read. Now I'm not a religious person by any stretch but I didn't mind the religious themes in this one, very intriguing really.

Religion is more of an underlying theme here anyway. I found this book to be more about survival in extreme conditions; what you, your mind, and your body has to go through when marooned with little hope of making it out alive. So, if you're a fan of blood drinking, excrement eating, cannibalism, and animal mutilation to mention a few, this is a book for you! Oh yeah, and the style and detail in which these things are described can get quite brutal and macabre.

I was surprised by this book. It wasn't what I expected when I picked it up by the cute covers and I'm glad it wasn't. It offers some interesting insight and while being a bit of a shaggy dog story, the ending really is thought provoking. Endings that are left open for interpretation... urgh they keep me awake at nights, I hate them but also can't help but to love them.

[Percy]

The first page of the first Harry Potter book when it first came out, I really don't have the imagination for a book. I can't bring the words to life in my head.