Come on in, even if you haven't read the book

[Laurie]

Hello all new people--feel free to comment/start a discussion on anything you'd like, or just introduce yourselves. We have topic areas chosen for all of 2009, which I'll post in a minute. We haven't chosen the books for each month though, so please make suggestions. Hope everyone is staying warm, unless you're in a warm place right now, in which case I'm very jealous.

[Ellesee]

I'm reading Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor published in 1999.

I've gotten through the first few chapters on Tulipmania in the Netherlands and am in the 18th century South Seas Bubble. The footnotes are fun to read but the book assumes some prior knowledge of these events and some familiarity with financial terms so it's a bit tough going. I think I needed something more basic.

More later........................

[Bruce]

Hello everyone - This looks like a solid group that you have put together, and I like the topics you've set out for this year. Look forward to participating in the discussions. I'm mid'fifties father/grandfather in New Hampshire. Reader and collector all of my life. With regard to the Islam books for next month, may I suggest Karen Armstrong;s work? She is a historian who has written a number of books on religion and the growth of fundamentalism in the last few decades around the world. In particular, she wrote Islam: A Short History - around 200 pages, an overview of the development of Islam, and Muhammad: A Biography of the Poet. Both are well researched and thoughtful. Perhaps one of these combined with something on the current state of Islam throughout the world?

[Bruce]

Sorry, scratch poet, make that Prophet - although both are accurate at some level!

[Laurie]

Hi Bruce--I'm glad you've joined us! We do need to pick a couple of books for March. I'm slacking on my duties. I know there were a couple of titles brought up about Islam, I'll go back and see if I can pull those. I have Heavy Metal Islam sitting right here on my desk--I think I'm going to read that, but a companion history book might be good (200 pages--my kind of history:). What do you guys think--is this "everyone read your own thing"' working?

As for Feb., I have about 100 pages to go on "Big Money," which isn't the best written book I've read lately, but regardless is really good (in a scary way.) I'm planning on finishing this weekend, and I'll post again then. I also bought the Niall Ferguson book, but that might have to wait.

[Ellesee]

Hi, Bruce,

Welcome to the group!

Laurie does a good job of organizing the group but I haven't been as prompt in terms of reading, reviewing. I had previewed the Armstrong book on Amazon but people were somewhat polarized about it so I went for the Esposito instead.

I think it's great if people could read the same book but if not, it's still good for people to read a similar topic each month. The whole point of the group for me is to expand my reading horizons and the group gives me some guidance/ impetus with this goal.