I found a list called “The 25 most popular icebreaker questions based on four years of data“. So I’m gonna post a few, and see what happens.
Your mission: answer the question in the comments with a good story.
If you don’t have a good story, you are encouraged to make one up.
What are you reading right now?
I’m still reading the Constitution. They haven’t written anything new in the series since 1992. It’s worse than waiting on George R.R. Martin.
Just finished R.V. Jones’s “Most Secret War,” about how British Scientific Intelligence went from absolute zero (“We don’t need radar” — said Bomber Command) to top-notch, winning the Battle of Britain through radar and Sherlockian deductions, from an insider’s perspective. Highly recommended. Jones was — if it helps spark your interest — an inveterate practical joker, and kind of like a Hawkeye Pierce as far as British wartime military and beauracracy establishments were concerned. He could get the job done, as he saw it, whatever it was, despite the regulations that stood in his way. AND he had the admiration of Churchill. He was proven right, and the Battle of Britain was won. What more could you ask for? Would make a fine movie.
Which led me to reading now “The Invention That Changed the World,” by Robert Buderi, all about radar, which ends its discussin of WWII on page 246, and leaves me with another 220 pages to go. Don’t know if I care about it anymore. The writer is good, but I was frankly more interested in the war applications than the postwar applications.
—
P.S.:
These are good icebreaker questions.
I’m getting a sinking feeling that all this reader intel gathering will start to reflect in the ads posted on this site. Maybe even the spam emails I’m sure are already heading my way.
IM ON TO YOU IMAO‼️
Oh and I like cookbooks and time management books. Now if I could only get around to cooking anything.
— Damn! Damn! Damn! Tell us!!
NSA
As a professional librarian I decline to answer the question so as not to reveal sensitive information sources. Although I will admit I do have a book ready to go which is not due to hit the shelves for another 2 weeks.
— Damn! Damn! Damn! Tell us!!
NSA
To the next respondent:
Tell us!!
NSA
I hope that is a warrant in your pocket and you are not just glad to see me.
Dear Senator?
Madame?
Will you read my book?
It took me years to right, will you take a look?
It’s based on a memo by a man named Steele
And I need a job, so I want to be a dossier writer
Dossier writer
It’s the dirty story of a dirty man
And his clinging wife doesn’t understand
His son ‘s ivestigated by the Daily Mail
It’s a steady job but he wants to be a Dossier writer
Dossier writer
Dossier writer
It’s a thousand pages, give or take a few
We’ll be writing more in a week or two
FBI can make it longer if you like the style
FBI can change it round, FBI want to be a Dossier writer
Dossier writer
If you really like it you can seize the rights
Clintons give a million for you overnight
If you must return it, you can send it here
But I need a break and I want to be a Dossier writer
Dossier writer
I am trying to read Artemis by Andy Weir, author of The Martian, which I love-love-love-lovity-loved, but for some reason my Kindle refuses to download Artemis. I suspect deep state covert operatives. (Judging by the sample, which I was able to download, this book will not be as good as The Martian. If you have only seen the movie version of The Martian and have not read the book, by all means read the book. I have read it more than once even though I know how it turns out, simply because the main character is charming and I enjoy visiting him in his world.)
Re-reading?
High praise indeed!
I’ve only accorded that special honor (life is so short) to Shakespeare and Dickens, I think.
Also, now that I think of it, the Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle, as well.
But I could also re-read everything ever written by Stephen Crane for eternity. I admire him.
Probably also Kahlil Gibran — I never could get to the bottom of his poetry.
Likewise Walt Whitman.
Likewise Edgar Allen Poe.
On my Kindle, I usually have seven books going at once. That is, I read a couple chapters of one book, then a couple of chapters of the next one, etc.
Right now I’m reading:
The Bible (Deuteronomy is where I am these days)
Coriolanus by Shakespeare
Holidays in Hell, by PJ O’Rourke
Rise to Rebellion: a Novel of the American Revolution by Jeff Shaara
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Grant, by Ron Chernow
I’m with you; and I suspect a few others are, too —
With a few books in the pipeline being read.
.
(Oh,for God’s sake, did I laugh through every page of “Holidays In Hell” by P. J. Rourke!)
… may I just tip my hat, sir, and say these simple words:
Anyone who reads The Bible, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and P. J. O’Rourke – is O.K. with ME!
Well, I can’t help it, I’ve been a hopeless addict of reading since I was six years old.
Also, today in Deuteronomy I found this in Chapter 25: “Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.'”
Now I know why so many Jews became comedians.
Duel Of Eagles, by Peter Townsend. Some military aviation history, biography of some of the participants and the excruciating politics of war time Britain. And as a breather The Thirst, by Jo Nesbo, Norwegian novelist.
IMAO post from Harvey. Wait. My response to the post.
Curently I am reading the comments section at IMAO that pertain to…Icebreaker: What Are You Reading Right Now?
I’m currently about halfway through Les Miserables. Victor Hugo is an amazingly, brain-gogglingly powerful writer, except I wish his 19th century name-dropping came with hyperlinks. He makes more obscure pop culture references than Dennis Miller on day 12 of a 3 day coke bender.
Just be like all the cool kids and see “Les Miz” and refer to it as if you’ve read the book.
Endlessly.
On a related note, I actually read “War and Peace,” and can see why it’s called a great novel.
[In Western literature, that is…. It’s no “Umbunga Meets The Stick.”]
It’s actually very compelling! Long, but you don’t mind. You want to get back to it the next day to see what happens to the characters.
There is a reason classics are classics.
Ahhh, but did you read it in the original Russian? [Mueller perjury trap 12 TM]
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