Which book are you currently reading?
- Thread starter made in holland
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- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
If I were to cue my queue:
Empires of the Word - A language History of the World - Nicholas Ostler.
Second time around. This is a delicious book and I savoured every word first time around. Reheated, it's mouthwatering.
Reason at Work - Introductory Readings in Philosophy - Cahn, Kitcher, Sher & Markie.
Bed-time reading. A chapter or two is a great sleeping pill.
Tribes - Seth Godin
Second time for this, too. Modern tribes are beginning to fascinate me, whether fan club or Old Boys network. Hopefully there is never one big enough again to start another WW.
Understanding Art - Lois Fichner-Rathus
Large refernce book on my desk that I'm browsing through - tons of pictures of course.
And the issue of Tatler in the washroom.
Empires of the Word - A language History of the World - Nicholas Ostler.
Second time around. This is a delicious book and I savoured every word first time around. Reheated, it's mouthwatering.
Reason at Work - Introductory Readings in Philosophy - Cahn, Kitcher, Sher & Markie.
Bed-time reading. A chapter or two is a great sleeping pill.
Tribes - Seth Godin
Second time for this, too. Modern tribes are beginning to fascinate me, whether fan club or Old Boys network. Hopefully there is never one big enough again to start another WW.
Understanding Art - Lois Fichner-Rathus
Large refernce book on my desk that I'm browsing through - tons of pictures of course.
And the issue of Tatler in the washroom.
- 4,978
- Paris
To be honest, it's the first Clancy book - out of the 10+ that I rad before - that I can't stand reading. It's too specific.Oddly enough I just started this yesterday.
Illuminati confirmed!
Kind of like "He looked up at the sky, the blue sky, which was blue like a sick lizard during rain periods in south-south western Laos, lost in his thoughts."
Got me the audio book, works better for this one.
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
To be honest, it's the first Clancy book - out of the 10+ that I rad before - that I can't stand reading. It's too specific.
Kind of like "He looked up at the sky, the blue sky, which was blue like a sick lizard during rain periods in south-south western Laos, lost in his thoughts."
Got me the audio book, works better for this one.
I gave up reading Clancy in the early '90s - devouring him together with the likes of King and Koontz - not so much because I was sick of Clancy but because of 'same old, same old' fiction that drove me back to my textbooks.
Not sure why he would insert such a construction into the tale unless it was a musing by a protagonist that had some iconic 'blue' moment previously in the story. In the end it was Cardinal of the Kremlin that I liked best - though Clancy had some other great blockbusters, too - the most controversial one, IMO, being Debt of Honor.
This is not to say that readers should avoid Clancy - eventually one must read all the more notable writings, whether it's the Ramayana or Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Then, again . . . the best laid plans of mice and men . . . while coming to a dead end in my reading and hitting the textbooks again, The Rosie Project was shoved into my hands by a friendly editor.
Read the reviews - yep, all of them said that they loved the book and was up all night with it - usually a good sign because if one is up all night then there must be some sort of love involved. Took it with a grain of salt, though . . . marketing, marketing . . ..
Well, once the household had gone into their nightly coma I crawled into the sack with it - and . . . . I was up all night!
Couldn't put the book down.
New writer - copyright was 2012 - first published novel - at fifty years of age. (Take heart you budding writers - all is not lost.)
Absolutely unique voice yet one so familiar from a contemporary viewpoint, involving love and genetics. Shocker at the end (though maybe not to geneticists who may see it coming.) And hilarious.
One marathon sitting that ended at 3.00 in the morning. And well worth it.
I go back to work today with a brain once again changed, even minutely.
I would really love to meet Don and Rosie in real life.
- 24,616
- Anoka, MN
To be honest, it's the first Clancy book - out of the 10+ that I rad before - that I can't stand reading. It's too specific.
Kind of like "He looked up at the sky, the blue sky, which was blue like a sick lizard during rain periods in south-south western Laos, lost in his thoughts."
Got me the audio book, works better for this one.
I guess I haven't really noticed that yet. Of course now that you said something it will drive me insane.
Oddly, I have never been able to do audio books.
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
Don't. Even. Ask.
*heavy breathing.
OcarinaSteala
(Banned)
- 27
- Ireland
Sublime book so far.
- 297
- Aldebaran
- rudolphcarter
zzz_pt
Premium
- 8,188
- Porto living in Hamburg
- zzz_pt
Animal Farm
On a side note, I just remembered last weekend, going through some books that I finally got the "Four Horseman Collection". I was finally able go get Dennett's book (because it was sold out for years) and I shot them all together.
On a side note, I just remembered last weekend, going through some books that I finally got the "Four Horseman Collection". I was finally able go get Dennett's book (because it was sold out for years) and I shot them all together.
- 297
- Aldebaran
- rudolphcarter
Don't. Even. Ask.
*heavy breathing.
Then move on to this
and then everything else will be easy for you.
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
^
Oh! I'd just love to learn Greek. Tons more would make sense to me in so many different areas. But - I'd also like to learn Japanese, Spanish, Arabic and Sanskrit, but my preoccupation with Akkadian gets in the way.
Okay . . . . ssssshhh . . . I'm kidding.
This is my grand plan for World Domination.
I'm not learning Chinese - I'm studying it. That's a different thing, see?
Under the guise of 'learning' it I'm actually looking for words to steal. This way I can slip the Chinese into the English and I'll be speaking Chinese - but stealthily.
Eventually English will be like several billion words - all stolen from any and everywhere. World Domination.
Mwahahahahaha . .mmuwhahahahahaha . . ..
But, as I said, sssh. Keep it quiet. Don't want to let everyone in on The Plan.
If it gets out on the internet, which towers with babel, itself . . ..
Oh! I'd just love to learn Greek. Tons more would make sense to me in so many different areas. But - I'd also like to learn Japanese, Spanish, Arabic and Sanskrit, but my preoccupation with Akkadian gets in the way.
Okay . . . . ssssshhh . . . I'm kidding.
This is my grand plan for World Domination.
I'm not learning Chinese - I'm studying it. That's a different thing, see?
Under the guise of 'learning' it I'm actually looking for words to steal. This way I can slip the Chinese into the English and I'll be speaking Chinese - but stealthily.
Eventually English will be like several billion words - all stolen from any and everywhere. World Domination.
Mwahahahahaha . .mmuwhahahahahaha . . ..
But, as I said, sssh. Keep it quiet. Don't want to let everyone in on The Plan.
If it gets out on the internet, which towers with babel, itself . . ..
- 1,909
- Sherbrooke, QC
- GTP_AspecBob
Just started The Red Queen: Sex and the evolution of human nature by Matt Ridley.
I just noticed that the book is from 1993, though. Has anyone here read it and can tell me if some parts of it would need to be updated in light of recent research? Or is all of it pretty much still relevant?
I just noticed that the book is from 1993, though. Has anyone here read it and can tell me if some parts of it would need to be updated in light of recent research? Or is all of it pretty much still relevant?
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
Ian Fleming - Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2)
The Bond movie-timeline is now in such a convoluted mess that they'll have to bring 007 back in a time-machine in the next episode as a hybrid androgynous victim of dwarfism. M would wear a glove on his right hand. Q would be in a wheelchair and rebranded X. Moneypenny would be an android (no relation to the original Moneypenny.)
There'd be an Apple watch involved.
Reading The Essence of Anthropology 3rd Ed. - Haviland, Prins, Walrath & McBride.
Very well written, interesting up-to-date sidebars, and wonderful illustrations. They missed Homo naledi - was discovered just after the book was published.
Also reading Popular Culture - A User's Guide - Suzie O'Brien and Imre Szeman.
Written as a critical examination of contemporary culture, and quite illuminating. Many things we take for granted as belonging to our own culture is very much a part of very many other cultures - drinking coffee for instance. Sub-cultures and counter-cultures were also covered.
To my great merriment. Which do I follow? The world awaits.
- 6,131
- London
- SomaEightyFour
- MrVerloc
I'm currently in Manila so I bought some books to help pass the time when I'm stuck in the horrific traffic here:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
I'm about 100 pages from the end and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's full of quotable and philosophical turns of phrase and it reminds me a lot of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera, particularly in it's exploration on different forms of love. From googling this cover I just found out that Daniel Day-Lewis and Juilette Binoche starred in the film adaptation, which I'll be looking for when I get home.
On Being and Time by Martin Heidegger
Only at the beginning of this, but the concept of dasein intrigued me back in university but I never had the chance to study him in more depth since Nietzsche and Foucault were more applicable to the things I was studying back then. It's a hard read but so far the things I've managed to tease out of it have been interesting. Definitely one where a pencil comes in handy to jot down musings as you read along.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
I'm about 100 pages from the end and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's full of quotable and philosophical turns of phrase and it reminds me a lot of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera, particularly in it's exploration on different forms of love. From googling this cover I just found out that Daniel Day-Lewis and Juilette Binoche starred in the film adaptation, which I'll be looking for when I get home.
On Being and Time by Martin Heidegger
Only at the beginning of this, but the concept of dasein intrigued me back in university but I never had the chance to study him in more depth since Nietzsche and Foucault were more applicable to the things I was studying back then. It's a hard read but so far the things I've managed to tease out of it have been interesting. Definitely one where a pencil comes in handy to jot down musings as you read along.
- 24,616
- Anoka, MN
So I finally finished this...
Somehow Clancy managed to make a book about a group of soldiers fighting terrorists boring.There's plenty of action, but it never feels like the protagonists are ever in any real danger.
It's just as good as I remember it being when I last read it some time ago.👍
Somehow Clancy managed to make a book about a group of soldiers fighting terrorists boring.There's plenty of action, but it never feels like the protagonists are ever in any real danger.
It's just as good as I remember it being when I last read it some time ago.👍
- 20,681
- TenEightyOne
- TenEightyOne
Guy Martin, "When You Dead, You Dead".
I liked him before I read it, now he just seems to be a rude, irritating, misogynist wally. And he said Beverley was in North Yorkshire, very annoying
I liked him before I read it, now he just seems to be a rude, irritating, misogynist wally. And he said Beverley was in North Yorkshire, very annoying
- 4,219
- UK
Just finished reading his other book (autobiography) this morning, and i have to admit, i like him less now than before..Guy Martin, "When You Dead, You Dead".
I liked him before I read it, now he just seems to be a rude, irritating, misogynist wally. And he said Beverley was in North Yorkshire, very annoying
View attachment 513524
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Serenity: Those Left Behind, Better Days and Other Stories, The Shepherd's Tale and Leaves on the Wind
I was - and still am - a big fan of Firefly and Serenity when they were released, but I largely avoided the continuation comics until I heard about Leaves on the Wind; I thought the film wrapped things up nicely. Those Left Behind did a good job of bridging the series and the film, and while Better Days and Other Stories was fun, it did feel more like a series of episode scripts that had been worked into a different medium; it wasn't bad, I just wouldn't have opted in if it was the only volume. The Shepherd's Tale related the origins of Shepherd Book, and while the story is compelling, it probably would have worked out for the better if Firefly had survived and Book's origins gradually revealed. Leaves on the Wind was the only post-Serenity story and dealt with the fallout from the film pretty well, whilst setting up a future story arc. They're worth looking into if you're a fan of the show, but if you don't know the 'verse, they won't make much sense (but you should absolutely dive into the series - it's brilliant).
I was - and still am - a big fan of Firefly and Serenity when they were released, but I largely avoided the continuation comics until I heard about Leaves on the Wind; I thought the film wrapped things up nicely. Those Left Behind did a good job of bridging the series and the film, and while Better Days and Other Stories was fun, it did feel more like a series of episode scripts that had been worked into a different medium; it wasn't bad, I just wouldn't have opted in if it was the only volume. The Shepherd's Tale related the origins of Shepherd Book, and while the story is compelling, it probably would have worked out for the better if Firefly had survived and Book's origins gradually revealed. Leaves on the Wind was the only post-Serenity story and dealt with the fallout from the film pretty well, whilst setting up a future story arc. They're worth looking into if you're a fan of the show, but if you don't know the 'verse, they won't make much sense (but you should absolutely dive into the series - it's brilliant).
- 4,219
- UK
Don't let my opinion put you off reading it. There is still some good stuff in the book (description of lapping the Dundrod circuit, I found quite interesting). It's just that after reading it, he seems like a bit of a knob, in my opinion. But hey, nobody's perfect.I just started reading it
Anyway, just started reading this:
I'm only on the second chapter but it seems good so far.
- 7,436
- Canada
- photonrider
Not the bunch I'm reading now, but the bunch before. I'll start with this:
Even without a smattering of theological savvy it doesn't stretch the imagination to realise that the 'Four Horsemen' are not four-of-a-kind but are actually three horsemen and a unicorn rider.
Or three asses and a pile of ass-dung.
Technically - three causes and an effect lumped together as four of a kind.
This illiterate lumping of frightening concepts for the medieval mind is explored to full homourous mayhem by Pratchett and Gaiman, adding to the hilarity the question of whether the Son of Evil would be as obedient to his Father as the Son of Good.
The undertone, subtext and liner notes take the humour to the point of distraction.
These guys on their own are a riot, together they are sublime.
While I agreed with the review of "Heaven to read and you'll laugh like hell!" I could only put down the book with a schoolboy groan of "Brilliant!", quite satisfied with time very well spent.
Some excerpts:
“Nor had he, as far as he knew, ever believed in anything. It had been embarrassing, because he quite wanted to believe in something, since he recognized that belief was the lifebelt that got most people through the choppy waters of Life. He'd have liked to believe in a supreme God, although he'd have preferred a half-hour's chat with Him before committing himself, to clear up one or two points. He'd sat in all sorts of churches, waiting for that single flash of blue light, and it hadn't come. And then he'd tried to become an official Atheist and hadn't got the rock-hard, self-satisfied strength of belief even for that. And every single political party had seemed to him equally dishonest. And he'd give up on ecology...Then he'd tried believe in the Universe, which seemed sound enough until he'd innocently started reading books with words like Chaos and Time and Quantum in the titles. He'd found that even the people whose job of work was, so to speak, the Universe, didn't really believe in it and were actually quite proud of not knowing what or even if it could theoretically exist.”
“There were people who called themselves Satanists who made Crowley squirm. It wasn't just the things they did, it was the way they blamed it all on Hell. They'd come up with some stomach-churning idea that no demon could have thought of in a thousand years, some dark and mindless unpleasantness that only a fully-functioning human brain could conceive, then shout "The Devil Made Me Do It" and get the sympathy of the court when the whole point was that the Devil hardly ever made anyone do anything. He didn't have to. That was what some humans found hard to understand. Hell wasn't a major reservoir of evil, any more than Heaven, in Crowley's opinion, was a fountain of goodness; they were just sides in the great cosmic chess game. Where you found the real McCoy, the real grace and the real heart-stopping evil, was right inside the human mind.”
“No one paid any attention to them. Perhaps they saw nothing at all. Perhaps they saw what their minds were instructed to see, because the human brain is not equipped to see War, Famine, Pollution, and Death when they don't want to be seen, and has got so good at it that it often manages not to see them even when they abound on every side.”
“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”
― Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman - Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
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- 24,616
- Anoka, MN
My last couple books;
A Time to Kill - John Grisham
I wanted to do some light reading between heavier books so I picked this up as I've never read a legal thriller before. It started off pretty good but I think Grisham kind of lost it towards the end as it made less and less sense as it went.
The Passage - Justin Cronin
I will just post the review I left on Goodreads since I don't want to type it twice.
I know I suck at writing reviews, but it just feels odd doing only stars so I'm trying to get better at it.
I'm going to start Red Dragon tonight
A Time to Kill - John Grisham
I wanted to do some light reading between heavier books so I picked this up as I've never read a legal thriller before. It started off pretty good but I think Grisham kind of lost it towards the end as it made less and less sense as it went.
The Passage - Justin Cronin
I will just post the review I left on Goodreads since I don't want to type it twice.
I'm not usually a fan of the vampire genre, but I decided to give this a read after hearing quite a bit about it. It's much more story driven than most novels of this variety, although it does fallow some common tropes related to vampires. The characters I felt were very well done and you form a strong connection with each one over the course of the story.
I also felt that Cronin did an excellent job with the time jump by using a combination of journal entries and flashbacks. I do wish he would have spent a little more time describing what her journey was like in between Wolgast's death and her arrival at the colony though. But I understand why he kept it fairly brief since the book is 766 pages already.
I'm very much looking forward to reading the other two books in the series.
I also felt that Cronin did an excellent job with the time jump by using a combination of journal entries and flashbacks. I do wish he would have spent a little more time describing what her journey was like in between Wolgast's death and her arrival at the colony though. But I understand why he kept it fairly brief since the book is 766 pages already.
I'm very much looking forward to reading the other two books in the series.
I know I suck at writing reviews, but it just feels odd doing only stars so I'm trying to get better at it.
I'm going to start Red Dragon tonight
- 2,863
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Leadfoot530
Started "The Martian" by Andy Weir yesterday. I'm only 80 pages in, but I can't put it down. The trailer for the movie based on the book peaked my intrest, so I might as well read the book first. Great story so far. Only problem is, this week, I don't have much time to sit down and flip through it!
