Thank you once again.
Books The BOOK thread
- Thread starter Livvie
- Start date
Thank you once again.
So far in 2015 I've read:
Child of God, Cormac McCarthy
The Thing on the Doorstep and other weird stories, H.P Lovecraft
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Road and Slaughterhouse Five I'm hoping to finish by the end of April
Child of God, Cormac McCarthy
The Thing on the Doorstep and other weird stories, H.P Lovecraft
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Road and Slaughterhouse Five I'm hoping to finish by the end of April
Slaughterhouse Five is the tits.
How's Philip K. Dick, I wouldn't mind getting into some sci-fi.
How's Philip K. Dick, I wouldn't mind getting into some sci-fi.
I've just finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. I really enjoyed, it won Man Booker prize 2014 and came #1 in both the Times and The Guardian's 2014 list.
It's about a Burmese POW camp in WW2 and the Siam-Burma railway line that was built by the prisoners of war, many of whom were Australian.
It's about a Burmese POW camp in WW2 and the Siam-Burma railway line that was built by the prisoners of war, many of whom were Australian.
Is there any chance we can have this back as a sticky, please?
@Damien Any chance of this being stickied?
Done. I unstickied the other gamertag/PSN ID thread as there were two stickied which was pretty pointless.
Brave New World was good. If you haven't read 1984 (Orwell) and We (Zamjatin), I would highly recommend those.
Do Andoid Drem of Electic Sheep is on my to-read list.
1984 I read last year, We is something I'll be adding to the list though, cheers.
@Archie Leach sorry didn't see your post. Dick is the man.
Do Androids...was great, simply written but covers some complex and really thought-provoking themes. Another novel I'm planning to check out soon by Dick is Ubik, which is apparently just as good and suitably trippy.
Yeah I'll pick up a copy this week. Have you read anything by Isaac Asimov?
I have read The Night by Elie Wiesel. An account of the concentration camps. I wasn't that engaged because it's so terrible. Though I was surprised the author lost so early his faith.
How did you find Ready Player One?
You guys are all so highbrow. I'm currently rereading a series of books by Carol O'Connell about a supposedly sociopathic NYPD detective called Mallory. I say "supposedly" because I refuse to believe it.
I didn't know people from Texas could read.
Finished 'To rise again at a decent hour' by Joshua Ferris recently. Maybe it was the Heller comparisons that made me extra critical but i thought it was self indulgent, vacuous and rather limited. Ferris is obviously a talented writer, but very little evidence of that here.
That probably says more about your education than you. Probably.
Some us can even hold a crayon long enough to write - though only short stories, obviously.
I was in Austin in February and it's genuinely one of my favourite places in the world. Everyone kept telling me it's not really Texas though.The first book in the Foundation series is on my bookshelf. I'm aiming to get it read at some point in the coming months. Heard good things though!
Did you grow up in the eighties? If so you'll love it. I however am more of a nineties kid, so a lot of the references went over my head. That said, it was still a good read. Unashamedly geeky, Clyne is good at setting up the world (both real and virtual) and I found it surprisingly emotional at times.
Reading Nemesis, which is about Aristotle Onassis, Bobby & Jackie Kennedy. It's fascinating about the Kennedy brothers' assassinations:
I've read it, really enjoyed it. I think I got the majority of the references, even though I was born in 88. Plus I think it's a fun enough story that people who wouldn't get any of it might still enjoy it!
It is and it isn't. As a short hand explanation of that, let's just say that Houston is the biggest city in the US to elect an openly gay mayor. And not only is Annise Parker a lesbian, she's ALSO a women. And she's married to another woman. And they have three kids. And she's been elected three times. Have that. stereotypes. Although, of course, the state legislature and governor's mansion is full of God-crazed charlatans and bigots,
It's hard to explain, but I've been here ten years - flip-flopping between Austin and Houston - and I like Texas and Texans. But can't stand all the obvious idiots.
"Fifth Form at St.Dominic's". 5 form at a mid-century boarding school. Just started it. Sort of gives some context to those "How to be Topp" books. No idea at all why I'm reading it but it's fun enough and puts me in another time and place, what ho.
Just finished "Lucky Planet". Good read on the science behind finding other-earths with life forms on them. The author is dubious and makes a good case about our planet's rather amazing string of good luck.
Just finished "Lucky Planet". Good read on the science behind finding other-earths with life forms on them. The author is dubious and makes a good case about our planet's rather amazing string of good luck.
Finished The Road and more recently Slaughterhouse Five this month.
Two vastly different books but both absolutely superb.
Two vastly different books but both absolutely superb.
Interesting re: Lucky Planet. On Amazon it says "Yet even as we become aware of the vast numbers of planets outside our solar system, it has also become clear that Earth is exceptional. The question is: why?"
...except that as we become aware of the vast numbers of planets outside our solar system, it has become clear that Earth is not exceptional. We've already found other planets in a similar situation, and we've barely begun looking. Sounds like a dubious claim right from the start to me! According to one of the reviews, it doesn't even mention the Drake equation or the Fermi paradox...
Good ones. I miss having those rich veins of known good lit to run through. These days going to the bookstore has become a crapshoot. I'm trying out more contemporary stuff, but it's real hit and miss. Also picking books at random, with mixed results.
Speaking of random picks, a random sentence from "Fifth Form at St. Dominic's"...
"Oh, all right! cried Stephen, delighted, "that'll be jolly! I like old Wray."
"Very kind of you old man", said a voice nearby.
It was Wraysford himself, who had come in for this very genuine compliment.
"Hullo! I say look here, Wraysford", said the beaming Stephen, "I'm going to cut Lohman and fag for you. Isn't it jolly?"
"Depends on whether I have you. I don't want any Guinea-pigs in my study, mind."
"Very kind of you old man", said a voice nearby.
It was Wraysford himself, who had come in for this very genuine compliment.
"Hullo! I say look here, Wraysford", said the beaming Stephen, "I'm going to cut Lohman and fag for you. Isn't it jolly?"
"Depends on whether I have you. I don't want any Guinea-pigs in my study, mind."
??...and it keeps on like that. The weird thing is I've rather gotten into it. Someone should write a book about these young gents having their plane crashed and stranded on a desert island and see how they get on. It'd sure to be jolly.
Good points, and that's what's he addressing as well. He may not have addressed the Drake equation directly, but it's obviously inferred as he freely talks about the vast multitude of possible planets and the seeming statistical inevitabilties. The book was published just least year, so it's not out of date (as these things can easily be). If I know what the Drake equation is, then he certainly does, and my guess is the reviewer fancies saying "Drake Equation" makes them sound clever (you know what some reviewers are like). For what it's worth, I'm not necessarily agreeing with him, and I'm certainly not qualified to do so. One thing in particular he focuses on is the relatively constant and merciful climate earth has managed to maintain. I thought he made quite a good case for how miraculous it's been that earth has had these self balancing, equilibrium stabilizing systems. I've read a fair bit on the topic and he seems to make a reasonable case. He describes the very close calls the planet has had in the past where it just about didn't pull itself back. Also some more nuanced philosophical points about our unintentional anthropic bias muddling our perceptions of cause and effect (I'm not explaining that very well).
Anyway, I liked it fine. I picked it up as that subject is typically a good synthesis of stuff I'm interested in (cosmology, geology, meteorology, evolution) without going into gruesome details.
There is historical evidence that they at least try to teach them to read … wasn't Lee Harvey Oswald working at The Texas School Book Depository when he was framed for the JFK assassination?
That's how we know it was a conspiracy
'Book depository' means something different in Texas, on account of their illiteracy.
Sorry Gina.
Sorry Gina.
Excellent!
Not sure what Gina has to do with anything, perhaps I'm missing something, but I must admit I used to call it the "book repository" before a night-long drink and "munchie" fuelled argument that set me right.
I seem to remember it ending up as a "book suppository" as we told each other "lovingly" to stick it up each others' arses!
Gina is the Texan.
Sorry, I did not know that … no offence meant!
I have finished Station Eleven. Good book, I suppose even if I didn't like it, I even found it mostly boring. I was expecting something more powerful and surprising, and tense. Instead it was more a pedestrian book that is supposed to stress the choices or not-choices of people I think, and how they can influence others.
Fair enough, might have to take a look at it then
Quasi-Texan
I think a book depository is where they take all the bad books for burning. You know, like science textbooks that were written after the New Testament and history books that say Vietnam didn't go entirely to plan.
I read Perfect State by Sanderson. Amusing but not really deep novella.
Also finished Le Théorème du perroquet / The Parrot's Theorem: A Novel by Denis Guedj. It's a dreadful fiction but an interesting book about the history of mathematics. It's the kind of book I wonder why I didn't go directly to a non-fiction book.
Also finished Le Théorème du perroquet / The Parrot's Theorem: A Novel by Denis Guedj. It's a dreadful fiction but an interesting book about the history of mathematics. It's the kind of book I wonder why I didn't go directly to a non-fiction book.
Finished, and what a jolly read it was old man. Almost embarrassed to say I wound up enjoying it. Being back in Britain I'd be tempted to affect that sort of thing but would likely get my bell rung talking like that. I can't remember reading anything less cynical that didn't involve a monkey and man with a yellow hat. Maybe that's just what I needed.
On to "Revolutionary Summer" about how England kicked the American colonies out of the empire.
I am a massive fan of Mark Billingham. His Tom Thorne novels are easy reading but engaging none the less, I just finished 'The bones beneath' which was released last year and went on to his website to check when the next one is released....turns out it was released yesterday! woooo i will be stopping at ASDA on the way home from work.