Author Topic: What book(s) are you reading?  (Read 661772 times)

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archnemesis

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3540 on: January 29, 2022, 03:38:58 AM »
Anybody have recs on like, the early stages of a business? First hires, org structure, that kind of thing.
It's highly dependent on which type of business your running. Is this for movies or did you go back to software development?

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3541 on: January 29, 2022, 06:32:04 PM »

This was alright. It's about KD and Kyrie's first year in Brooklyn which, of course, ended with COVID and the George Floyd protests. The book tries to weave some interconnected narrative between all these things and paint Kyrie and KD as these innovate revolutionary thinkers on racial politics and business. Except it's Garrett Temple who does everything involving the protests and Spencer Dinwiddie who's the innovative business guy. (And also, hovering over the entire book and in both these things is LeBron.) I admit that the picture of Kyrie is now colored with how he's spent the last year especially since he spends much of the book talking about how much he just wants to win and how all his power plays to replace the coach, trade out the young talent for veterans, etc. is all towards that goal. Finally, KD spends like the entire book just smoking weed and rehabbing. :lol

Tasty

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3542 on: January 29, 2022, 06:44:09 PM »
Anybody have recs on like, the early stages of a business? First hires, org structure, that kind of thing.
It's highly dependent on which type of business your running. Is this for movies or did you go back to software development?

The intention is to pick up skills for my film production co.

I feel like no matter the industry there's some truisms and procedural/bureaucratic stuff every 1-10 person company should know about. Like I really need to hire someone who can be a good lieutenant but I'm curious how responsibility and job assignments break out once there's more work than you as a single person can do. Mostly I suppose I need to get over some trust issues maybe? :thinking

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3543 on: January 29, 2022, 09:32:54 PM »
Learning to delegate well is a core problem for anyone who started by doing everything on their own. When you've covered every base, and were solely responsible for everything, it's easy to control and verify and to hold yourself responsible. The trouble is, it doesn't scale at all.

Finding people whom you trust is difficult, but it's the only way to reliably scale your capacity.

archnemesis

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3544 on: January 30, 2022, 05:44:42 AM »
I know nothing about film production, but I suspect that your first hires would be people who can help you get funding. I've worked for startups who have received millions in government grants. Once you start hiring staff you will burn through that money fast. If you're lucky it will support you through the early stages until you have a steady revenue stream.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3545 on: February 01, 2022, 07:47:36 AM »
In the middle of WoT book 4.  WoT books feel like a CW show -- like almost all the drama is created by people just not talking to each other or having inexplicable romances and there seems to be seasonal macguffins.

I mean, I'm into it, but in the same way that I like Supernatural or Arrow. 

The actual plots have generally increased in quality as it has gone on though.

Olivia Wilde Homo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3546 on: February 01, 2022, 09:09:01 PM »
Anybody have recs on like, the early stages of a business? First hires, org structure, that kind of thing.

Write a business plan. It’s not a silver bullet but as you write it, your true needs will start to emerge along with some structure behind it. I looked up “Business plans for film production” and found several links that looked decent. If you want any financing, having one is necessary as a matter of course.

I co-sign knowing when to delegate. It allows you to focus on what you need to focus on. It’s unlikely that someone will have all the skills needed but if they’re eager and willing to do the right thing, giving them an opportunity to step up can get you there.

I’ve managed tens of millions of dollars of government grants, just be aware of the strings attached. Some agencies, it’s like a blank check. Others, there are so many provisions in place that they dictate all kinds of awful things and/or can intervene at any point they please if they disagree with the direction you take.

Getting a new business off the ground is really challenging so I salute you stepping up.
🍆🍆

Tasty

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3547 on: February 02, 2022, 01:16:41 AM »
I know nothing about film production, but I suspect that your first hires would be people who can help you get funding. I've worked for startups who have received millions in government grants. Once you start hiring staff you will burn through that money fast. If you're lucky it will support you through the early stages until you have a steady revenue stream.

Learning to delegate well is a core problem for anyone who started by doing everything on their own. When you've covered every base, and were solely responsible for everything, it's easy to control and verify and to hold yourself responsible. The trouble is, it doesn't scale at all.

Finding people whom you trust is difficult, but it's the only way to reliably scale your capacity.

Anybody have recs on like, the early stages of a business? First hires, org structure, that kind of thing.

Write a business plan. It’s not a silver bullet but as you write it, your true needs will start to emerge along with some structure behind it. I looked up “Business plans for film production” and found several links that looked decent. If you want any financing, having one is necessary as a matter of course.

I co-sign knowing when to delegate. It allows you to focus on what you need to focus on. It’s unlikely that someone will have all the skills needed but if they’re eager and willing to do the right thing, giving them an opportunity to step up can get you there.

I’ve managed tens of millions of dollars of government grants, just be aware of the strings attached. Some agencies, it’s like a blank check. Others, there are so many provisions in place that they dictate all kinds of awful things and/or can intervene at any point they please if they disagree with the direction you take.

Getting a new business off the ground is really challenging so I salute you stepping up.

Thanks guys.

The business plan was drafted last year, but it does need updating for 2022 stuff + some tightening. As I started to spin everything up I wasn't really aggressive about generating income (I have a good runway), but that can stand to change.

Thankfully, investments made in 2021 will start to pay off in the first half of this year, and I plan to capitalize on that momentum.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3548 on: February 11, 2022, 06:38:01 PM »
WoT is getting pretty annoying. 

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3549 on: February 11, 2022, 06:53:06 PM »
WoT is getting pretty annoying.

What book are you at now? You're still listening to the audiobooks, right? How many hundreds of hours in are you...they're like 30 hours each.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3550 on: February 11, 2022, 07:07:22 PM »
Towards the end of book 6.  I had to do a bunch of prep stuff the last three weeks so I could listen while I worked.   ~200ish hours I think that is. 

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3551 on: February 11, 2022, 07:54:29 PM »
My understanding of WoT is that around book 5 or 6 it hits the suck and stays there until Jordan dies and then Sanderson writes a good finale with the last 3 books.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3552 on: February 11, 2022, 10:37:29 PM »
I think the slump is a little overblown, but there is a real slowdown in pacing from 6-12. I think it's because the focus is less on Rand and more on some of the less engaging characters, depending on your personal preferences.
Spud

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3553 on: February 14, 2022, 08:36:06 AM »

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3554 on: February 14, 2022, 03:10:04 PM »
https://ebookclub.tor.com/
All Systems Red is amazing, Silver in the Woods is ok, haven't read the other one.
Spud

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3555 on: February 15, 2022, 02:10:59 AM »
https://ebookclub.tor.com/
All Systems Red is amazing, Silver in the Woods is ok, haven't read the other one.
Really enjoyed All Systems Red, and Artificial Condition. I'm starting Rogue Protocol this week. Seems similarly great.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3556 on: February 15, 2022, 07:29:34 PM »
WoT:  introduces a new super powerful healer

Healer:  you don't mind if I talk while I do this, it helps me do magic better  *proceeds to tell life story without being prompted

:dead

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3557 on: February 15, 2022, 09:25:45 PM »


Started on this. Only one chapter in, so can't comment on the content.

Amusingly, it's been a long time since I read a hard copy book and I've barely read a handful of them in the last decade
« Last Edit: February 15, 2022, 10:25:24 PM by Potato »
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Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3558 on: February 15, 2022, 09:32:34 PM »
My mom likes GRRM and Ice & Fire, Gaiman, King, horror/fantasy/mystery/thriller. She's picky about writing style and doesn't like Brandon Sanderson, which I get cause some people don't enjoy his plain prose, but I'd lent her Abercrombie's First Law #1 and she just told me she got bored and bailed pretty quick on it. I figured since she likes GRRM she'd like Abercrombie but it still just seems pretty random what books she likes /shrug

Meanwhile I'm very slowly plugging away at First Law #2. Been distracted reading Marvel's Secret Invasion comic event and almost done with Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology audiobook. What I've read of First Law #2 is enjoyable and fine, too early to have much more of consensus.

Norse Mythology is ok, it's basically making me more aware that the Norse Gods are all dicks. Every story is them doing something stupid and getting in trouble but rather than own up the repercussions they lie, cheat and trick their way out of them. Because I guess those were positive values for the Norse people back then? Why be good when you can cheat someone?

Also was neat reading the tale that the AC Valhalla, Asgard questline was based on The Master Builder. AC did it pretty close.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3559 on: February 15, 2022, 10:28:28 PM »
I have similar tastes to your mother and Abercrombie bored me too.

As far as the Norse Gods being dicks, that's pretty common across all the European pagan religions. Kind of like how the old testament god is a complete bastard too.
Spud

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3560 on: February 16, 2022, 01:00:26 AM »
God being an asshole is a great way to explain a whole bunch of life.

Amazing that Jesus somehow took the Old Testament God and convinced everyone that he's a benevolent, loving god, just really mysterious why so much bad shit happens all the fucking time.

Greeks had it right, giving a pantheon of jerkfaces to blame things on, petty infighting, humans just caught up in forces of nature.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3561 on: February 16, 2022, 01:09:04 AM »
Best part about the Greek gods was that the fucking over of humanity by the gods also included literal fucking.
Spud

Tasty

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3562 on: February 16, 2022, 04:54:01 PM »
God being an asshole is a great way to explain a whole bunch of life.

Amazing that Jesus somehow took the Old Testament God and convinced everyone that he's a benevolent, loving god, just really mysterious why so much bad shit happens all the fucking time.

Greeks had it right, giving a pantheon of jerkfaces to blame things on, petty infighting, humans just caught up in forces of nature.

I dunno, there's something hippy-ish and flower child about Jesus. He really just makes his ancestors (and contemporaries) look like a bunch of dicks in comparison. Like I imagine Buddha would be if I ever did any research on Buddhism.

Gods being total dicks makes for some great (and literal) drama, of course.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3563 on: February 16, 2022, 05:53:55 PM »
Marvel really white-washed Odin in their version of Thor.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3564 on: February 19, 2022, 06:07:52 PM »


Read Fangs by Sarah Anderson for a book club. It's a story told through one page, often 4-panel, webcomics about a romance between a gothy vampire and a hipster werewolf.

It's extremely cute, but doesn't have much of a connective story to it. There's almost no story at all after the intro tbh. A good set of the panels are pretty funny like when the werewolf says "we should have a baby" and there's a pause and the vampire says "...for dinner?"

It's pretty short and the actual physical book is really nice with a felt red cover and black pages. Definitely a good gift present for any goth girls or boys in your life.

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3565 on: February 20, 2022, 02:14:55 AM »
(Image removed from quote.)

Read Fangs by Sarah Anderson for a book club. It's a story told through one page, often 4-panel, webcomics about a romance between a gothy vampire and a hipster werewolf.

It's extremely cute, but doesn't have much of a connective story to it. There's almost no story at all after the intro tbh. A good set of the panels are pretty funny like when the werewolf says "we should have a baby" and there's a pause and the vampire says "...for dinner?"

It's pretty short and the actual physical book is really nice with a felt red cover and black pages. Definitely a good gift present for any goth girls or boys in your life.

Seemed like something I'd like, so scoped Amazon for it. German and French Kindle editions are on sale, but no sign of an English Kindle edition.  :-\

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3566 on: February 20, 2022, 05:17:34 AM »
(Image removed from quote.)

Read Fangs by Sarah Anderson for a book club. It's a story told through one page, often 4-panel, webcomics about a romance between a gothy vampire and a hipster werewolf.

It's extremely cute, but doesn't have much of a connective story to it. There's almost no story at all after the intro tbh. A good set of the panels are pretty funny like when the werewolf says "we should have a baby" and there's a pause and the vampire says "...for dinner?"

It's pretty short and the actual physical book is really nice with a felt red cover and black pages. Definitely a good gift present for any goth girls or boys in your life.

Seemed like something I'd like, so scoped Amazon for it. German and French Kindle editions are on sale, but no sign of an English Kindle edition.  :-\

That's bizarre.

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3567 on: February 20, 2022, 10:02:30 PM »
Yeah, probably something to do with the local publishing rights, when they were purchased. FANGS author may have signed a US-domestic agreement with a partner who is sitting on their thumbs. :-/

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3568 on: February 21, 2022, 12:19:09 AM »


A really nice history of the ACLU from its founding up to about 2019 using stuff from their own archives. Especially the early founding fights against suppression of speech against war, for labor rights, against McCarthyism, Skokie, etc. Then *grumble grumble* takes the same turn as the modern ACLU with a final chapter that says that in the Age of Trump the threat of misinformation and white supremacy is too high now and the ACLU needs to probably stop spending resources on fighting government suppression of information until the threat passes. How do you so miss the point of your own book?

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3569 on: February 21, 2022, 04:43:10 PM »
I'm unsubbing from audible and need to use my credits on audiobooks. I have 3 credits left. For one I'm gonna use on The Sandman Act II, but not sure what else to get/read. I don't think I could listen to something like Wheel of Time in audiobook because I listen when I'm driving and sometimes I'll tune out and miss stuff so can't be anything dense.

Maybe Harry Potter #1? Never read them. Rowlings sucks but I'd like to get around to reading them someday or watching the movies since they're a part of modern culture and everyone person I've ever dated has been a big HP fan.

*edit* Actually, gonna get Gaiman's Ocean at the end of the Lane since it's I think the only novel I haven't read of his at this point. So just need one other book.

*edit 2* googled best Stephen King audiobooks since I very much enjoy King and haven't read much of his post-Dark Tower era stuff outside Dr. Sleep which was meh. Been meaning to read or watch 11.22.63 since I hear its good and the mini-series adaptation is excellent. Anyhow googled and one of the top ones I haven't read is Joyland, a noir detective story from 2013. Sounds good and it's relatively short (~7 hours, I won't touch 20-30 hour audiobooks). I guess catching up on Harry Potter gets pushed off again.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2022, 04:53:32 PM by Bebpo »

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3570 on: February 21, 2022, 05:13:11 PM »
Wheel of Time audiobooks are the only reason I'm continuing the series --the narration is great.

You might like the Library at Mount Char, which also has good audio. 

If you do Harry Potter ever, make sure it's the Stephen Fry versions. 

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3571 on: February 21, 2022, 05:34:50 PM »
I'm sure the WoT audiobooks are great, but they're so long it would take me 3 months to get through one since it already takes me 3-4 weeks to get through a 7-10 hour audiobook, and WoT book #1 I would re-read paragraphs a lot because it's dense with a lot happening in a paragraph so it wouldn't work for audiobook format for me.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3572 on: February 21, 2022, 06:09:25 PM »
I keep zoning out while listening to them and it turns out that past book 5 it's ok, because nothing happens.


benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3574 on: February 26, 2022, 10:26:14 PM »


Pretty pretty good. The premise is to take some kind of recent popular culture thing and then explain the semi-related Supreme Court rulings in plain language that outline the status of the First Amendment protections they've ruled on so you can know the law. Like it discusses Colin Kaepernick's protest and then talks about the Courts rulings on requiring the pledge, which is not perfect but you take what you can get I suppose, SNL parodying Trump to his anger and Hustler's case with Farwell is probably a closer example used. If I have to quibble, at one point they say that there's "no simple answers" as to whether or not the First Amendment prevents the government from outlawing speech it doesn't like which I find is contradicted by the fact that "shall make no law" does not have an "unless it wants to" clause. Also there's a bit of worrying about "misinformation" like the above ACLU book, although this one certainly does not take the position that this means the state should murder people who speak misinformation merely suggesting that it "complicates" things. (It does not.)

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3575 on: March 01, 2022, 03:36:54 PM »


jesus

Tasty

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Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3577 on: March 01, 2022, 06:10:09 PM »
Yeah, he's gonna release 6 books in 2023 including a 1,000+ finale to this Stormlight arc


 2023 - GONNA BE FANTASY EATING

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3578 on: March 02, 2022, 03:06:11 PM »
Goddamn, Sanderson kickstarter already at $16M and about to overtake Pebble ($20M) as the most funded kickstarter of all time.

There is no way that Sanderon's stuff doesn't start getting TV/film adaptations in the next decade. His stuff is very popular. I'd love an HBO Game of Thrones budget TV adaptation of Stormlight. That's about the only way it could work. I would not love a Wheel of Time budget TV adaptation of Stormlight.

Realistically though, they'll make a Mistborn The Final Empire movie and ehhhhh, don't have the highest hopes for it. I think TFE is too generic to standout in films. Probably more likely if Skyward gets made it could be a moderate success to the YA crowd though it's kind of hard SF and that doesn't appeal to YA crowd.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3579 on: March 11, 2022, 04:09:05 AM »
Midway through First Law #2

Book is doing a good job at having exciting high stakes stuff going on with all the viewpoints at the same time. Normally viewpoint books have the less interesting viewpoints, but juggling three major arcs in three varied locations is working really well here.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Jezal now brokejaw :o
[close]

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3580 on: March 12, 2022, 12:08:50 PM »


I have no complaints about the content (except the usage of Latinx), not even the clunky cac references to BLM or The 1619 Project. It's probably super informative to non-libertarians. But so so many paragraphs are repeated nearly verbatim. To use the last chapter as an example, when he discusses immunity he starts by describing what it is and explaining past precedent on it, which would be great but there's like six chapters on immunity and a few others also touch on it and he does it every single time and for multiple subjects. Immunity is really important but not that important! The part about possible reforms is good, so often people default to "overthrow the law" or "eliminate the Supreme Court" as the only possible solutions, actually working in this area Chemerinsky knows there's plenty to be done, especially at the state level where the Supreme Court cannot tread in restricting rights. (The principles of American federalism are such that the federal Constitution can protect your rights from the states violating them but do not empower the states to violate your rights within their own constitutional protections. i.e. Even if the federal Constitution says your rights aren't protected, the California Constitution may go further and thus restrict the California and local governments more so, the federal Supreme Court does not get to overrule and eliminate these protections.) I also like that he mentions stuff in dissents (even if in the case of the police once progressive heroes like RBG rarely dissented or restricted the police, Scalia did as much), a lot of people will ignore them since they aren't binding in any way, but they can win later on, at other levels and in other ways.

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3581 on: March 21, 2022, 09:16:21 PM »


I liked this. I was initially concerned because of the title but it didn't try to make everyone seem all noble and principled and brilliant with no problems ever their fault. The only people who seemed to get any positive spin were Obama and Buttigieg, who seemed to be sources for the book. My favorite part was just how many of the candidates started thinking they should run the moment Trump won and then how many decided they "had" to run to stop Bernie too. Apparently Berniebros are not fan of the book or author because he didn't write a hagiography about how Bernie was perfect and there was a conspiracy to steal everything from Bernie because he was perfect. But it actually makes Warren look like she screwed over or at least tried to screw over Bernie multiple times out of spite. The chapters after the election were a little odd in structure, I think he might have intended to end the book with the election but then January 6th happened and he tries to work that in but it breaks away from the rest of the book's style and just tells you what happened. Also he makes fun of Rudy a few times but completely leaves out Rudy's failures in court, doesn't even mention how bad all of Trump's court challenges were.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3582 on: March 22, 2022, 10:30:29 AM »
Middle Game is free from Tor

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3583 on: March 23, 2022, 09:04:40 AM »
Library at Mount Char is 2$  https://www.amazon.com/Library-at-Mount-Char-ebook/dp/B00NRQRWAA/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?qid=1648024359&s=digital-text&sr=1-7 

One of the books I think about most after reading

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3584 on: March 25, 2022, 05:52:43 PM »


Finished the audiobook of Stephen King's Joyland in his non-horror short pulp series.


It was just ok. The first half of the book is great. Great companion piece to Nightmare Alley. The second half is like a bit boring/sappy romance and the thriller reveals were kinda plain and drawn out. Honestly was a bit bored with the last 1/3rd. Good characters, good setting and pretty well written. Just not a particular interesting story.

HardcoreRetro

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3585 on: April 05, 2022, 07:40:54 AM »
Going through Berserk a second time. Made a doom metal playlist to listen to whilst reading.



Good combination.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3586 on: April 05, 2022, 04:06:32 PM »
Cathedral
 :rejoice :preach :respect :delicious
Spud

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3587 on: April 14, 2022, 02:42:31 PM »

Disappointing. There are Wikipedia entries on some Amendments that have more information, detail, etc. A lot of the sources for this were the Congress' History section on their website. The most interesting part was probably the parts at the start not about any amendments. The Bill of Rights and some past proposed amendments get some really short treatments while others get really long ones with no clear rhyme or reason to this. I did learn from this though that a southern Senator (from Mississippi I think so probably James Eastland) compared eliminating the poll tax to vote as similar to "Hitler's crimes" which seems a bit much.


Comic adaption of the novel, I put it in here because I figure most people will have read the book. I actually liked the stuff in Lakeside more than all the stuff to do with Wednesday and most of the gods.


Good enough, no real complaints. The former spent quite a lot of time, like a third of the book or more, on Harlan's "adopted brother" (it's complicated) which is a little weird. The latter included some travelogues by the author which was boring. Also the jacket of the latter claims the book is "hilarious" which I must have a different definition of.


 :delicious

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3588 on: April 25, 2022, 09:19:46 PM »


Was alright. The main problem is that it didn't actually establish them as friends, just work buddies who temporarily agreed about the Gulf War. Some good Cheney quotes though. Also early in the W. administration Rumsfeld and Rice and some others were poking fun at Powell about how if they had a meeting at the State Department they'd expect a lavishly catered meal like state dinners. So when they did it was a big fancy affair with silver everywhere and they lifted up the trays and underneath was a brown paper bag with a turkey sandwich inside.



An odd book. In 1943, Henry Luce paid $200,000 for a commission full of academics to issue a report on freedom of the press and it was useless and everyone hated it. Except now it's treasured by journalism schools and the report is assigned in all of them. This is about the commissions work and writing the report. The actual journalism stuff is dumb and boring but I liked this because all the academics except a couple had nutty ideas and were totally naïve. A bunch believed that "freedom of the press" doesn't mean you should be able to print things the government doesn't like. Others thought you should be able to take journalists to court where a judge would declare whether or not the article was true. One dude was a "reformed fascist" except for that part where he still was a complete totalitarian, he thought the government should nationalize the media because it was too dangerous to allow to undermine democracy since the people were just an unintelligent mass that did whatever they were told by elites. One dude thought the First Amendment should mean that any "reputable person" should be able to publish for free any "reasonable opinion" in a newspaper or whatever even if the newspaper didn't want to publish it. The author mentions there's some "eerie concerns" that still apply today like consolidation of outlets and so on but he missed the biggest one which was all these academics whining about how disinformation is too dangerous to democracy to allow a free press. But since they couldn't actually agree on much of anything, none of this made it into the report which was bland, not really philosophical and nobody remembered it existed for fifty years or so.



Oral history from the guy who did the ones for SNL and ESPN. About HBO. Nearly 1000 pages. Covers it from the start in the 1970s up through AT&T's purchase with a few updates about the recent years towards the Warner Discovery spin-off. Covers a bunch of the shows and documentaries and HBO Sports and so on, though not too many in detail which I admit would be difficult. Funniest thing is how many of these executives are still butthurt and seething over stuff that happened like 15-30 years ago. I don't even mean legitimate gripes that recalling the history brought up but just petty shit. Richard Plepler comes off as a total asshole, even his own comments make him sound like it. The top Warner/HBO executives all thought AT&T was going to not change anything except to just give them tons more money. :lol

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3589 on: April 25, 2022, 10:59:09 PM »
Finished this



Now on to this


Amazing how the ideas in The Revolt of the Masses which was published in 1930 are still so relevant today.
Spud

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3590 on: April 26, 2022, 03:42:20 AM »
Finally finished First Law Book #2 - Before They are Hanged. Was good! No complaints. Didn't have big conclusions but coming from the first book I didn't expect it to. Enjoyed the characters and their journeys. All three story arcs that were going on were interesting.

Given the kind of slower pace of the first two books, it definitely feels like there's a lot of stuff to wrap up in the 3rd book. Looking forward to seeing how it ties together.

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3591 on: April 27, 2022, 04:48:07 AM »
It all gets a solid, thrilling finish. Fucking amazing finale.

Cauliflower Of Love

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benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3593 on: April 27, 2022, 05:42:25 AM »

Tasty

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3594 on: April 29, 2022, 10:40:09 PM »
(Image removed from quote.)

Oral history from the guy who did the ones for SNL and ESPN. About HBO. Nearly 1000 pages. Covers it from the start in the 1970s up through AT&T's purchase with a few updates about the recent years towards the Warner Discovery spin-off. Covers a bunch of the shows and documentaries and HBO Sports and so on, though not too many in detail which I admit would be difficult. Funniest thing is how many of these executives are still butthurt and seething over stuff that happened like 15-30 years ago. I don't even mean legitimate gripes that recalling the history brought up but just petty shit. Richard Plepler comes off as a total asshole, even his own comments make him sound like it. The top Warner/HBO executives all thought AT&T was going to not change anything except to just give them tons more money. :lol

This is on my list! Was really excited to get to it but at lot of reviews find it pretty meandering and disconnected, and bloated too. Still planning on getting to it.

Tasty

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3595 on: April 29, 2022, 10:43:59 PM »


Covers the 7-month period in 2019-2020 that saw Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Quibi, and Peacock all launch. Written by two people from Deadline, and recommended by Vulture's Josef Adalian (who does the streaming-centric Buffering newsletter I sub to).

Only about a chapter in at the moment, and a lot of the language is a bit overwrought, but it's a subject I'm interested in and is a pretty easy read so far.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2022, 12:21:23 AM by Tasty »

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3596 on: April 29, 2022, 11:32:33 PM »
This is on my list! Was really excited to get to it but at lot of reviews find it pretty meandering and disconnected, and bloated too. Still planning on getting to it.
It probably is meandering and disconnected if you're not used to these types of histories. It's mostly in a chronological order but the way these are often done is like say there's section where the executive is talking about how profits were down and "we didn't have any great new show ideas, just some crap starring some nobody about a gangster in New Jersey" and then it transitions into talking about the start of The Sopranos.

Bloated is accurate but it actually made me wish it was two books (like the Star Trek ones were) because they'd start mentioning stuff about a show and then it's never talked about again. So probably good editing would have cut stuff. If you go by how it's talked about in the book, Eastbound and Down was a complete failure that everybody in the company hated. Except it gets four seasons in the real world, the book never comes back to it after people dislike the pilot. Similarly the book makes you think Arli$$ was cancelled after two seasons because the executives didn't like it, when the fan response kept it on the air for another five!

Whole thing actually felt very rushed, there are typos galore throughout it, missing quotation marks, confusing millions and billions, etc. It sorta feels like the guy may not have actually been done but the book was maybe pushed out to match the Warner Discovery spin-off deal or something. Or maybe he had just spent too long on it and ran out of time.

Tasty

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3597 on: April 30, 2022, 12:45:50 AM »
Lines up with the reviews I saw. It's daunting but I do want to get to it eventually.

Maybe someday they do a new edition with revised editing...

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3598 on: May 07, 2022, 04:15:47 AM »
Finished Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

It was ok, the lore was good, the beginning was good, the end was good, but a huge chunk of the middle is spent on this spooky nanny monster and it's just boring. Feels like the case of a good setting/lore but not a particularly good story set within it.

Now I've read or seen movie adaptations of all Gaiman's catalog. The only ones I didn't read and watched the movie instead were Coraline and Stardust which I hear were both pretty faithful and good adaptations. I wouldn't mind reading Stardust at some point I guess. Though I also haven't finished his Sandman run or some of his other comic works either. Will get back to Sandman soon.

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3599 on: May 12, 2022, 03:41:32 PM »


Liked it quite a bit. It's a history of Scientology not a description, so it's far less about beliefs and practices and more about the people and events. I glanced at the Goodreads reviews and it seems people wanted the former with criticism and were upset about instead learning about how fucking nuts L. Ron Hubbard was. The only celebrities really involved is Tom Cruise and Paul Haggis which also seems to be one of the major laments as I guess people wanted more celebrity action after Leah Remini's series.



More of a biography of Ted Turner really, which was fine. The history of CNN itself almost entirely ends after it goes on the air. I didn't mind that it was so focused on Turner and the growth of his entire media empire but it was a little weird that it was framed as a history of CNN.



Also fine. Starts with Helms who was not the first CIA director but the fifth "full" director which is a bit odd. Also seems to believe certain directors more than others based on how they were in personal interviews, for example because John Brennan was so forthcoming he seems to believe he's an apolitical straight shooter. Allows James Clapper (who was not a CIA director and is a known perjurer) a few pages to spread weird conspiracy theories along with his belief that Obama should have ordered the CIA to elect Hillary Clinton. The final chapter is just about Trump who was also not a CIA director to my knowledge. Not even what his CIA directors did to respond to him but really just about him, which while enjoyable enough is a weird swerve. Another odd thing is he leaves the years off after dates quite often and the order of events isn't chronological so you have no idea what year something happened. Amusingly it seems like he tried to hide a guys identity on photo captions by only identifying him by his position but then in the chapter itself it says the dude's name a bunch of times and connects him to that position. Great OPSEC dude, hope that's not what the CIA itself is practicing.