What I'm reading...

The Grapes of Wrath (Wikipedia), by John Steinbeck
It is interesting how Steinbeck's masterpiece touches upon materialism and commercialization, industrialization and the replacing of humans with machines, human emotion and plight, the idea of change and the force of movement and migration, and, of course, history: the Dust Bowl of the American Mid-West in the 1930s. I've been reading this Nobel Prize-winning American classic mostly at night — a good bedside read I guess — and make notes along the way.

Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age (Amazon), aka The Meaning of Things, by AC Grayling
An interesting collection of philosophical essays relating to our life and ethics. I had to get this book after I read about it online, so I picked it up at the bookstore yesterday.
See also AC Grayling's well-penned essays on the Guardian's Comment is Free group blog.

The Economist, 7 July edition
I'm only at the Leaders, after already skimming through other parts of the magazine. Currently reading "Don't mention the GWOT" in reference to "language and terrorism".
See also "The language of war" by Seth Freedman on Comment is Free.

Prospect Magazine, July 2007 issue
Currently reading "The cost of carbon" by Richard Barry, an article on the (pros and) cons of carbon trading as a means to effectively fight climate change.

Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008 issue
Currently reading Mitt Romney's presidential foreign policy essay.

What I'm reading...

Well I just finished Ian McEwan's masterpiece, Atonement, which I read all of yesterday. I think it has the potential to make a good film, assuming the conversion from novel to script goes fine (books are almost always better anyways). McEwan is indeed a master of a psychological fiction of sorts — creating deep and complex characters with understandable plights and feelings. Read an excerpt and review of his latest book, On Chesil Beach.

I'm also reading the June issue of Harper's Magazine, the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, the May/June issue of Foreign Policy, the latest Economist, and whatever interesting items I find online.