books you've read !

[dragonfliet]

Non-fiction is good to hear about. So much is poorly informed or horribly written, so it's always nice to hear about smart science that's well written. I think the only reason that there isn't more non-fiction posted on here is because people have a tendency to read magazines/internet articles over book length nonfiction.

~Jason

 

[Sjosz]

Yeah dragonfliet I already made a dent in Children of the Mind. Kind of sad to base it on the ridicu-traveling but I guess that if you introduce it, you might as well use it. I still can't believe how incredibly preposterous FTL is in this universe.
I bought the entire set of sagas that is the Ender universe so I'm not going to skip on a book if it's predecessor makes for a suspension of suspension of disbelief.

 

[i.mosh]

nowhere to start, ive read over 100,000 books...

 

[Gambit84]

What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East

http://www.amazon.com/What-Went-Wrong-Between-Modernity/dp/0060516054


Great read. Written before 9/11, by a scholar specializing in the history of Islam at Princeton.

 

[Firefly]

Currently reading Shrine by James Herbert.

I'm a big fan but this one I've never got round to reading until recently.
He has the ability to scare the crap out of you.

 

[das_ben]

I kind of totally forgot about this thread. I read a lot of new things, although not nearly as much as I should have, and I may post about it some other day. I never bothered to post about non-fiction here because I thought it didn't fit. I don't think anyone really cares about required university readings (well, I do, in a select few courses, but you get the idea).

 

[theabyss]

Alrighty, then.
That's totally fine with me.
I thought it might not really fit into this thread anyways.

 

[Severin]

If your into Sci-fi then I recommend anything by either Neal Stephenson or Ian M Banks.
Banks also writes straight fiction as Ian Banks.

 

[das_ben]

Alrighty, then. That's totally fine with me.

I didn't mean to say to not post about non-fiction books here at all, it's just my personal opinion about my readings - perhaps you read stuff that's more interesting for a bigger audience, and maybe it actually does fit. It's not exactly like the thread's drowning in spam anyway.

 

[dragonfliet]

Nebula Awards Showcase 2007 by Various

It disappoints me that this is considered some of the best science fiction and fantasy writing of 2007. While the writing here is a head above what you're going to see filling the pages of Analogue, it's far from being very good. Which isn't to say there aren't some exceptions in this collection of good writing combined with clever ideas. There are. The thing is, it doesn't sustain itself for more than a few pages.

Oh well. There's some interesting stuff here and it was good to dip my toe back into the pool of what's happening with contemporary short science fiction.

One note: I was particularly turned off by the sad arguments scattered through the book about why the Nebula is still relevant, the death of the short story, etc. A single article on the ideas, okay, but as it is, these essays come across like a desperate suitor after a string of failed relationships. Just relax and be yourself and someone will like you for who you are. Stop trying to justify yourself, it's embarrassing.

~Jason

 

[Zur]

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596009786/

Not exactly bedtime material but it's something I want to learn about.

 

[Lizard Of Oz]

If you're a Floyd fan, this is a must read.

Well written, & lots of pictures.

Covers the history of Floyd from the formation of the band to Live 8.

 

[Balton]

This thread needs resurrecting. Also I finished alot of great books since my last contribution, here's a chronological list as far as my memory serves me:

Chuck Palahniuk - Diary(makes me want to read more by him)

Philip K. Dick - The Divine Invasion (very good! finishes up Radio Free Albemuth[soon to be turned into yet anopther crappy PKD movie ] and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. A book revisiting PKD's view of religion... )

K. Vonnegut - Timequake (brilliant!)

Terry Pratchett - Maskerade

P K. D - Clans of the Alphane Moon (A moon full of clinical lunatics left alone for 20 years have built a thriving colony which has mental disorders separated into 'clans'... loved it.)

Tom Sharpe - The Great Pursuit (very entertaining)


I think that's it, unless you wanna know about dead ass boring university books I've had in my hands...

 

[Jacks:Revenge]

If this thread was about any books, factual/fictional, then I guess I've missed out.

I read a lot of books but almost no fiction. Fiction doesn't usually do it for me. For that realm I'm more of a movie-goer. I'm more into history, current affairs, informational reading.

The most recent book I've finished was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
Reads like a lecture in a textbook but does an outstanding job of reviewing the "evidence" for and against the presence of a higher power in drawing the most realistic conclusion.

Moral of the story:

Spoiler

We're alone. Get used to it. Live the best life you can regardless.

Right now I'm reading Welcome Home, Who Are You? by Gene & Katy Schmiel (husband/wife). It's about their experiences as a family having to travel and live all over the world due to their job for the US Department of State.
Very cool read thusfar and twice as intriguing since this is the line of work I plan to end up in. Maybe.

 

[das_ben]

It's been a while. Copy & paste from my notes.txt (as usual: books by German-speaking authors were read in German, all others in English unless otherwise stated):

Vladimir Nabukov - Lolita
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margherita
Theodor Storm - Der Schimmelreiter
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Frank McCourt - Angela's Ashes
Bertolt Brecht - Lehrstücke
Herman Melville - Moby Dick, or: The Whale
Siegfried Lenz - Der Anfang von etwas
Joseph Roth - Hotel Savoy
Gottfried Keller - Kleider machen Leute
Friedrich Schiller - Wilhelm Tell
Isabel Allende - Fortunas Tochter (read it in German, English title is Daughter of Fortune)
Peter Handke - Unter Tränen fragend
Peter Handke - Rund um das Große Tribunal
Peter Handke - Die Tablas von Daimiel
Isabel Allende - Porträt in Sepia (read it in German, English title is Portrait in Sepia)
Isabel Allende - Das Geisterhaus (read it in German, English title is The House of the Spirits)
Kathrine Kressmann Taylor - Adressat unbekannt (read it in German, English title is Adress Unknown)
Bertolt Brecht - Kalendergeschichten
Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Currently reading The Beautiful and Damned by my much-beloved F. Scott Fitzgerald.

 

[das_ben]

Finished the Fitzgerald book and Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest", which was very amusing and packed to the brink with paradox truths. Now I'm reading "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer (unfortunately in the German translation, I borrowed the book), that so far is everything it's hyped up to be - and more.

 

[Hunter]

currently reading The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly. Read the The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly before and had to carry on

 

[Balton]

The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs - Irvine Welsh

I've enjoyed this book alot. It's fantastic, it's dirty, it's cynic, it's beautiful... makes fun of harvest moon players, surprises alot, makes you think. Isn't it obvious that I liked this one alot?

Sucks that I've to figure out what I read now...

 

[Balton]

Tom Sharpe - Porterhouse Blue : mildly entertaining
edit: I must add that I also got some other books by Sharpe and while I was half through Porterhouse I got "grantchester child" in the mail. I took one look at the backside to read what the novel is about and got a BIG TIME spoiler to the end of Porterhouse. wasn't so keen on finishing the book then.


Chuck Palahniuk - Invisible Monsters : From reading the first paragraph to finishing this book only eight hours passed, that means I enjoyed this book ALOT!
If you can stomach some weird bizzare stuff this is another must read before you die book

 

[Trynant]

If this is TL;DR then try reading the book some time.

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon.

FINALLY! I've been reading this 1085 novel (and it's a slow read) on and off for the past year and a half. It was entertaining, and honestly it's so huge that I'm going to back off a bit absorb what went on in that book. I think I like Gravity's Rainbow of all of Pynchon's work the most, but this one may grow on me.

And here's a wiki dedicated to the book for ****s and giggles

Looking back at Against the Day I'm starting to think it's one of the weaker of Pynchon's works. The problem I'd give it is that there isn't enough emotional depth in the book for me to appreciate; it seems more based on using fantastical story threads to contrast more real and dismal situations, but those real and dismal situations rarely appear in this book. It's all crazy fun in this madhouse.

Not to say there isn't a point being made. Rather, there aren't points being made. One antic I would stake Pynchon to be doing is taking scientific ideas and applying them in social life, and for Against the Day the duality of light has been used in this manner. Really it is a gross oversimplification to say Pynchon is writing about social misapplications of science, but rather the way that science and technology causes changes in thought and an upheaval of standard practices. And this is only a portion of the writing that is going on.

This may actually be my least liked of Pynchon's works that I've read (Mason and Dixion remains by my bedside waiting to be opened). In terms of rankings Vineland and Gravity's Rainbow top my chart for difference reasons, V. was good, The Crying of Lot 49 was short and bittersweet, and Against the Day is a massive sprawl of story that doesn't give the reader the same impact as the other titles. I would recommend reading any of those titles before Against the Day. If you have the time and patience I'd recommend reading all of them. Even at his lowest Thomas Pynchon is still an amazing author.

The worst part is that this is a book you can read multiple times and still derive different meaning. I need to reread this.

Maybe after I reread Gravity's Rainbow

On a lighter note I finished the graphic novel adaption of the first few books from Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Very clever, very funny, works great in illustration but makes me want to read the source text.