Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Brite
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse

The New Coffee Room

  1. TNCR
  2. General Discussion
  3. What are you reading now?

What are you reading now?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion
937 Posts 32 Posters 190.3k Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • jon-nycJ Offline
    jon-nycJ Offline
    jon-nyc
    wrote on last edited by
    #928

    Interesting. My bedside read is a very academic book called The Nazi Seizure of Power that goes into great detail of how a single town (Northeim) got Nazified. Down to what local personalities, businesses, newspapers, etc did at the end of the republic through the transition and terror and finally through the end of the regime. It was written within 15-20 years of the war’s end and relies on months of local interviews as well as archives.

    Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

    1 Reply Last reply
    • taiwan_girlT Offline
      taiwan_girlT Offline
      taiwan_girl
      wrote on last edited by
      #929

      @jon-nyc It was interesting to read about the "hyper inflation" and how incredibly bad it was. Prices were initially changed monthly, then weekly, and then hourly. There was a story about how a diner went to a restaurant, and when they got the bill, it was like twice what they thought. They complained, and the waiter asked what time they arrived, and gave them that price. LOL

      I think I mentioned before that I knew a guy who was in Brazil during the early 1990's when they had a similar (but not as bad) inflation. He was with TECO (Taiwan Economic and Cooperation Office) and they would regularly have to carry in large amounts of cash (US$) as most places stopped accepting credit cards as the period of time between charging and getting reimbursed meant that their money was worth so much less. When they would go buy something, the money would be changed right before purchasing anything so as to get the current "best" rate.

      1 Reply Last reply
      • jon-nycJ Offline
        jon-nycJ Offline
        jon-nyc
        wrote on last edited by
        #930

        A friend of mine lived in Argentina during their hyperinflation. Grocery stores would announce new prices on a loud speaker throughout the day. He remembers seeing a woman crying while putting back some groceries she could no longer afford after the latest announcement.

        Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

        1 Reply Last reply
        • jon-nycJ Offline
          jon-nycJ Offline
          jon-nyc
          wrote on last edited by
          #931

          My current bedtime/sofa/airplane read (a third reading for me):

          IMG_0295.jpeg

          My current audiobook:

          IMG_0296.jpeg

          I’m a glutton for punishment. After the endurance test of Twain I pick up two 1000+ page reads.

          Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

          1 Reply Last reply
          • jon-nycJ Offline
            jon-nycJ Offline
            jon-nyc
            wrote last edited by
            #932

            This is my audiobook. It’s a little weird because my kindle book at the moment is Shirer still. So I go back and forth between Weimar and WWII.

            IMG_0997.jpeg

            Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

            1 Reply Last reply
            • Andrea BA Offline
              Andrea BA Offline
              Andrea B
              wrote last edited by
              #933

              Never cared (too much) for King's horror stuff. Thought I'd give this a try.

              Screenshot 2026-03-12 at 7.09.08 PM.png

              Has anyone read the other books in the series?

              1 Reply Last reply
              • bachophileB Offline
                bachophileB Offline
                bachophile
                wrote last edited by
                #934

                I’ve read the whole series. In general I like king, not because I’m a horror fan, I’m not, but I find his literary style so accessible, readable. Just a great story teller.

                1 Reply Last reply
                • Doctor PhibesD Offline
                  Doctor PhibesD Offline
                  Doctor Phibes
                  wrote last edited by Doctor Phibes
                  #935

                  When I was in my late teens and 20's I read everything King wrote as soon as it came out. I absolutely love his storytelling, and his description of characters. Now I read him occasionally. I might give that one a go.

                  I was only joking

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  • Tom-KT Offline
                    Tom-KT Offline
                    Tom-K
                    wrote last edited by
                    #936

                    I just finished reading Hamlet--an amazing play. Almost every other sentence is a famous quote people use all the time. Now I'm reading (or will be when the book arrives):

                    b20628de-6435-4088-be84-b22b6c430e4b-image.jpeg

                    François Mauriac won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1952.

                    Flushing the toilet is like practicing the piano; you just cannot go too long without doing it.--Axtremus

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    • taiwan_girlT Offline
                      taiwan_girlT Offline
                      taiwan_girl
                      wrote last edited by
                      #937

                      alt text

                      Quite an interesting book. The guy is an equal opportunity cynic on who is at fault; slams pretty much every administration in the 2000's. Soldiers get addicted to drugs (both prescribed and illegal) and alcohol to keep them energized. Then they need other drugs to help numb the pain from the things they see and do.

                      Focusing on Fort Bragg, N.C., home to Delta Force and other elite military units, Harp uncovers a culture steeped in drug trafficking, weapons theft, and cover-ups. Drawing on extensive interviews and documentation, Harp alleges that soldiers returning to Fort Bragg from Afghanistan smuggled opioids and other narcotics into the U.S., sometimes in collaboration with Mexican cartels, and engaged in reckless, often violent behavior on the base—much of it fueled by substance abuse—that the military swept under the rug. A detailed history of the Army's entanglement with Afghanistan's opium trade and harrowing accounts of drug-fueled parties at Fort Bragg full of racist behavior frame Harp's discovery of a shocking number of deaths on the base: 109 from 2020 to 2021 alone, many of them unexplained. Harp's investigative rigor and visceral storytelling make this a disturbing must-read for anyone seeking to understand the full cost of America's overseas conflicts.

                      It was a good companion to the book I read about the drug trade in the Gold Triangle in Myanmar.

                      https://nodebb.the-new-coffee-room.club/topic/95/what-are-you-reading-now/777?_=1774917935468

                      1 Reply Last reply

                      Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.

                      Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.

                      With your input, this post could be even better 💗

                      Register Login
                      Reply
                      • Reply as topic
                      Log in to reply
                      • Oldest to Newest
                      • Newest to Oldest
                      • Most Votes


                      • Login

                      • Don't have an account? Register

                      • Login or register to search.
                      • First post
                        Last post
                      0
                      • Categories
                      • Recent
                      • Tags
                      • Popular
                      • Users
                      • Groups