Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 845558 times)

Russell Nash

  • Guest
Reply #175 on: September 01, 2007, 11:18:36 AM
Since last post, I've finished a couple more Discworld novels.  I'm currently half way through number 8

Read HP7

Bought the whole Narnia series on sale and I'm half way through LWW



Leon Kensington

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 296
  • Supreme Overlord of Earth
Reply #176 on: September 01, 2007, 05:26:37 PM
Just finish Night Watch (Legiovich(sp)) and I Am Legend

Starting on On Basalisk Station (1st Honor Harrington Book)

Then Stephenson's Snow Crash



Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
Reply #177 on: September 06, 2007, 01:42:38 AM
finished One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.  it was okay...
started and finished The Art of War - Sun Tzu - interesting stuff
started and finished Slaughterhouse-Five.  odd book, pretty good
started and am currently reading The Sirens of Titan.  Very good, very funny, very interesting
started reading The Stranger for school.  have to read to ch. 3 today.  so far... blech.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Listener

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 3187
  • I place things in locations which later elude me.
    • Various and Sundry Items of Interest
Reply #178 on: September 06, 2007, 04:45:15 PM
Now on Book Three of "His Dark Materials".  So far, overall pretty awesome.

"Farts are a hug you can smell." -Wil Wheaton

Blog || Quote Blog ||  Written and Audio Work || Twitter: @listener42


jrderego

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 687
  • Writer of Union Dues stories (among others)
    • J. R. DeRego - Writer
Reply #179 on: September 06, 2007, 06:16:05 PM
Reread Captains Courageous outloud to my son. Doing the various fisherman accents was stupendous fun, and the book is short enough that we tore through it in about four hours spread over two days.

Also reading slowly through H.G. Wells "Outline of History".

"Happiness consists of getting enough sleep." Robert A. Heinlein
Also, please buy my book - Escape Clause: A Union Dues Novel
http://www.encpress.com/EC.html


Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
Reply #180 on: September 06, 2007, 08:23:08 PM
finished the Sirens of Titan...
wow.
just wow.
that had to be one of the best endings i have ever read.
beautifully sad-ish

now, i need to go to BORDERS and get Second Foundation and some other stuff, maybe Choke or something...

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Leon Kensington

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 296
  • Supreme Overlord of Earth
Reply #181 on: September 07, 2007, 12:49:44 AM
finished the Sirens of Titan...
wow.
just wow.
that had to be one of the best endings i have ever read.
beautifully sad-ish

now, i need to go to BORDERS and get Second Foundation and some other stuff, maybe Choke or something...



Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
Reply #182 on: September 07, 2007, 07:59:23 PM
Leon ya forgot to actually reply to that :P

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Zathras

  • Guest
Reply #183 on: September 07, 2007, 08:46:18 PM
finished the Sirens of Titan...
wow.
just wow.
that had to be one of the best endings i have ever read.
beautifully sad-ish

now, i need to go to BORDERS and get Second Foundation and some other stuff, maybe Choke or something...

Yeah, great ending on Sirens.  I would recommend Choke....have you read any of Chuck's other stuff? 



Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
Reply #184 on: September 08, 2007, 04:52:21 PM
finished the Sirens of Titan...
wow.
just wow.
that had to be one of the best endings i have ever read.
beautifully sad-ish

now, i need to go to BORDERS and get Second Foundation and some other stuff, maybe Choke or something...

Yeah, great ending on Sirens.  I would recommend Choke....have you read any of Chuck's other stuff? 
oooh oh yea! forgot to mention that on my last "read" list.
i read Fight Club recently! It was like reading heaven, if thats at all possible

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Alasdair5000

  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 1022
    • My blog
Reply #185 on: September 08, 2007, 10:11:03 PM
Just read The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker for the first time.

Wow.

Somewhere in amongst Doug Bradley covered in pins and the blood and the guts and the gore, the movie's pretty much lost how...I don't know, how the story itself has a weirdly sweet central core to it.  One of the introductions describes it as a fairy tale and it's absolutely spot on.  Phenomenally good.



lowky

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 2717
  • from http://lovecraftismissing.com/?page_id=3142
Reply #186 on: September 09, 2007, 12:07:32 AM
I have to double check, I may need to go to the library, I think I am caught up after having finished in the last two days both Card's Children of the Mind and Kim Harrison's Any Which Way but Dead.  Either the Library or Bookcrossing.com, to plan a hunting trip.  Unemployment sucks!  I want to buy new books.  I have enjoyed the Harrison books so far, as well as the Ender books by Card.


bolddeceiver

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 226
  • Plunging like stones from a slingshot on mars...
Reply #187 on: September 09, 2007, 05:07:25 AM
On Eley's recommendation (on an archived podcast, as I devour them one by one), I picked up Stanislaus Lem's Cyberiad from the library, and while I've just read the first few pages I love it already.



Leon Kensington

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 296
  • Supreme Overlord of Earth
Reply #188 on: September 10, 2007, 04:27:52 AM
Trying to get through the First Honor Harrington book, but I think I may stop.  It's just sooo boring!  Please someone tell me it gets better!



Russell Nash

  • Guest
Reply #189 on: September 10, 2007, 08:07:50 AM
Trying to get through the First Honor Harrington book, but I think I may stop.  It's just sooo boring!  Please someone tell me it gets better!

It gets better.

Actually, I have no idea, but you asked.



Leon Kensington

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 296
  • Supreme Overlord of Earth
Reply #190 on: September 11, 2007, 03:16:24 AM
This is it.  Harrington is getting shelved.

Now, 13 Bullets by David Wellington



Holden

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 147
  • EXTERMINATE!
Reply #191 on: September 11, 2007, 07:34:17 PM
If you like Lem's Cyberiad, then you should read The Star Diaries and Memoirs of a Space Traveller.



FNH

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 309
  • F Napoleon H
    • Black Dog Of Doom
Reply #192 on: September 11, 2007, 08:41:33 PM
Just starting "Triplanetary", recently released by Project Gutenberg ( free text of out of copyright books ).


ajames

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 358
Reply #193 on: September 12, 2007, 10:42:32 AM
Picked up The Illustrated Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell [two books in one] at Borders super cheap.  Now I've read the Brief History of Time twice and don't understand it  :), even with pictures.  Starting The Universe in a Nutshell now.

But the reason I am posting here is to put a plug in for From the Earth to the Moon by an exciting young author name of Jules Verne, whose on the cutting edge of science.  Found it in pdf format from Project Gutenberg, and came with the sequel Round the Moon.  I read it because I thought it would be interesting to go back to the roots of SciFi [and it was], but I was amazed at how much fun it was to read, too, and was fascinating to see what Jules got right and what he didn't.  A good read all around!



Planish

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 772
  • Fun will now commence.
    • northernelectric.ca
Reply #194 on: September 13, 2007, 05:38:51 AM
"On Basilisk Station" - does get better. Most of the Honor Harrington series spend a lot of time revealing Honor's internal maunderings, dithering about her love life (or lack thereof), worrying about what her crew thinks about her and so on, but they pay off with a grand finale of a battle (or three) fought against overwhelming odds that always made me clap politely and say "well done, Harrington. Nicely played". She would have beaten the Kobayashi Maru scenario without cheating.

Picked up The Illustrated Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell [two books in one] at Borders super cheap.  Now I've read the Brief History of Time twice and don't understand it  :), even with pictures.  Starting The Universe in a Nutshell now.
You might like "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" by Gary Zukav, which takes physics concepts and illustrates them in a fairly simple manner, and then takes them to seemingly outlandish conclusions. It's non-fiction, but sometimes it reads like, well, fantasy and/or science fiction, since the further you delve into, say, the atom, the more mystical it gets. Things that make you go "Hmmmmm".
The wikipedia article on says it is "a popular new age book from 1979 about mysticist interpretations of quantum physics". I'm not at all a fan of most New Age notions, but I found it at least intriguing. Sort of a "speculative non-fiction" book, if there is such a thing.
---

I've started re-reading "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon, having first read it sometime around 1974, I think. Pynchon, Vonnegut, and Richard Brautigan were all the rage back then. In my household though, we also went through all the Barsoom and Conan stories, just to lighten things up a bit.

I feed The Pod.
("planish" rhymes with "vanish")


ajames

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 358
Reply #195 on: September 13, 2007, 11:36:30 AM
Thanks for the tip, Planish.  Funny you should mention it, as a friend of mine also recommended this book, very enthusiastically.  It is definitely on my list now.



jrderego

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 687
  • Writer of Union Dues stories (among others)
    • J. R. DeRego - Writer
Reply #196 on: September 13, 2007, 12:30:39 PM
But the reason I am posting here is to put a plug in for From the Earth to the Moon by an exciting young author name of Jules Verne, whose on the cutting edge of science.  Found it in pdf format from Project Gutenberg, and came with the sequel Round the Moon.  I read it because I thought it would be interesting to go back to the roots of SciFi [and it was], but I was amazed at how much fun it was to read, too, and was fascinating to see what Jules got right and what he didn't.  A good read all around!

I had the same reaction with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when I read it to a Kindergarten class some years back.

"Happiness consists of getting enough sleep." Robert A. Heinlein
Also, please buy my book - Escape Clause: A Union Dues Novel
http://www.encpress.com/EC.html


Leon Kensington

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 296
  • Supreme Overlord of Earth
Reply #197 on: September 13, 2007, 01:26:41 PM
She would have beaten the Kobayashi Maru scenario without cheating.

What is the Kobayashi Maru scenario?



jrderego

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 687
  • Writer of Union Dues stories (among others)
    • J. R. DeRego - Writer
Reply #198 on: September 13, 2007, 01:42:09 PM
She would have beaten the Kobayashi Maru scenario without cheating.

What is the Kobayashi Maru scenario?

A no win combat scenario used by Starfleet to train/test officers. First mentioned in Star Trek 2 the Wrath of Khan when Lieutenant Savik fails. As of that film Kirk was the only captain to have actually beaten the Koboyashi Maru scenario. (FYI Kirk cheated, he reprogrammed the sim so he could succeed.)

"Happiness consists of getting enough sleep." Robert A. Heinlein
Also, please buy my book - Escape Clause: A Union Dues Novel
http://www.encpress.com/EC.html


Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
Reply #199 on: September 21, 2007, 11:10:02 PM
mmmmmm, well ive finished Choke (by the guy who wrote fight club, Chuck Palahniuk)
sooo good.  highly recommend it.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?