I just finished reading Charmed Circle by James R. Mellow - a well told biography of Gertrude Stein's collection of artists, musicians, collectors, and writers. It was a great little read, gave a nice picture of Paris between the wars, the personalities of some of the most fascinating people we know...

I'm also reading Les Miserables. I'm only 8% of the way into it (thank you Kindle for that weird way of looking at progress), but I'm really enjoying it.

This was such a fun topic. I'm throwing a baby shower this weekend with a TON of people and we're playing an ice breaker game where everyone has a children's book character on their back that they have to guess with yes or no questions to other party-goers and this thread gave me a lot of ideas. One...

I was given a Kindle as a gift and wasn't sure if I would like it or not. I experimented with it - found it fantastic for traveling (you never know if you're going to be in the mood for one book or another on a trip), great for pdfs (I'd much rather read them on a kindle than on a computer screen), ...

I was listening to this book, instead of reading it, and it proved to be very interesting that way since so much of what he discusses is about the structure of language - which we hear a lot more than we read. But, I haven't finished it.

As a very young child I was really fond of anything by Arnold Lobel, especially Mouse Tails and Owl at Home. They were a little creepy for kids just knowing how to read and stuck with me for a long time.

And I'm pretty sure I still know most of Dr. Seuss's ABC's from memory

Ulysses by Joyce. Portnoy's Complaint by Roth Randy Randy - I loved Ulysses! I did read it though along with Nabakov's lecture notes on it, which made it pretty interesting to follow. Worst Books for me, off the top of my head: The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer The Girl with the Dragon Tatt...

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen and something by Nora Roberts (the name escapes me just now) I read The Devil in the White City ages ago and found at first that it was the gruesome murder mystery portion that kept me involved, but by the end, it was the story of the architects of the Wor...

I'm currently reading Charmed Circle, a book about Gertrude Stein and her group of friends. It paints a very interesting picture of many of the famous artists and writers of the time as well as a look at Paris through two world wars. I'm enjoying it immensely.

The issue I have had in mind that I think compounds this idea of our moral compass is our intrinsic desire to be qualified - to do a good job. I think one of the things that helps a person to take on a new role is the expectation that people have of them being able to do a good job. The guards start...