The new and improved "Books you are reading" thread

[Joe Molotov]

I thought we needed another book thread on the front page. Do your part to stamp out illegitimacy!

Just Finished



Reading



The Anubis Gates was pretty good until the last act. It kinda fell apart when they went to Egypt. Still, I enjoyed it and I like Tim Powers work, what I've read of it. Which is Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides. Software was a nice, quick, thinking Sci-Fi book. The plot was mostly secondary to the main idea of the book; if you could take all the information out of your mind and put it in a different body, would it still be you? And how would you know for sure? And if you couldn't know for sure, then would it even matter? It was pretty good, I got the other three books in the series, I'll get to them eventually. Right now I'm taking a third stab at the Illuminatus Trilogy. I've gotten to the end of Book 1 today, which is farther than I made it in previous attempts.

[Madrun Badrun]

Started off good but got kind of tedious quickly.  I'm on the second last chapter now.  


http://www.amazon.ca/Semiotics-Basics-Dani-Chandler/dp/0415363764/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

Only two chapters into it.  Awesome stuff so far. 

[Cormacaroni]

Joe Molotov -

I like the two you listed but my favorite Tim Powers book so far is The Stress of Her Regard. If you know anything about Keats, Byron or Shelley (or want to know), it's even more delicious. Incredible book.

[Kestastrophe]

Great book so far, covers alot of behavioral finance stuff and destroys libertarian idealism.


I've casually started this one and it is very interesting so far. I love how the religous aspect is synonymous with ignorance and the downfall of education/knowledge. Rings very true today, even though it was authored in 1959 or so.

[Cormacaroni]

Kestastrophe - I notice the foreword to ACFL is by Mary Doria Russell - Have you read her book "The Sparrow"? It's brilliant. The sequel is very good too.

[Kestastrophe]

Kestastrophe - I notice the foreword to ACFL is by Mary Doria Russell - Have you read her book "The Sparrow"? It's brilliant. The sequel is very good too.

I did read the foreward (i believe she argued for ACFL to be considered "literature"), but I paid no attention to the fact that she herself was an author. Thank you, I will be sure to check out her book. 

[Cormacaroni]

Do so! I wouldn't hesitate to call it a masterpiece. It's genuinely literary sci-fi that's much more concerned with character and societies than with technology.

edit:


blurb:

In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human." When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong... Words like "provocative" and "compelling" will come to mind as you read this shocking novel about first contact with a race that creates music akin to both poetry and prayer.

[G The Resurrected]

and a boxset of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell books.

I'm going a bit crazy on the tom clancy lately, but its nice since I have nothing better to do with my time.

I"m looking for more books like the mass effect series that stuff is great.

[Eric P]

http://thekrakennaps.blogspot.com/

the sparrow is incredible

[Reb]

Thanks FoC.

[lordmaji]

The Flames of Rome.

So far it's pretty good. Basically it's about Nero's rise/fall of power.

[Robo]

  Blood Meridian

[CajoleJuice]

Blood Meridian is amazing.  It's one of the few books I would consider for best book of the 20th century.

this spurred me to google search and i came across this

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

@ reader's list

[TVC15]

Lots of psych shit.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  I read like a third of it last night and so far I think it might be his best.  If he continues this streak with another dinger I will let him clown around in my ass.  He's also awesome on RadioLab, which he appears to be on like every other week.

EDIT: Also been poking through Vermillion Sands again the past few weeks.

[Robo]

Blood Meridian is amazing.  It's one of the few books I would consider for best book of the 20th century.

this spurred me to google search and i came across this

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

@ reader's list

ahaha

The nonfiction list is even crazier: http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnonfiction.html

I was trying to find a book in the reader's poll that had nothing to do with libertarianism or Scientology and just plain gave up.

[CajoleJuice]

wow what the FUCK

Greatest Presidential Hopefuls
1. Ron Paul
2. Tom Cruise

[drew]

on and off in short bursts, sometimes i dont read it for days, but im still readin!

[Eric P]

it is also a total bitch to read

at least my edition is because in addition to no quotations or punctuation in spoken segments, the typeface was horrific as well

i will check my published edition and see which i have so all know to avoid it

[Madrun Badrun]

blood meridian is easily in my top 10 non fiction books.   

[TVC15]

Stop being distinguished mentally-challenged on purpose.

[Eric P]

Yeah I've got no quotation marks either, but it's not that big a deal. 

yeah that's intentional, but the actual type was difficult for me to read as well.  It's probably just that edition.

[Madrun Badrun]

Stop being distinguished mentally-challenged on purpose.

me?  what did i do now?

[Phoenix Dark]

 

Lots of run on sentences right?

[Joe Molotov]

I've casually started this one and it is very interesting so far. I love how the religous aspect is synonymous with ignorance and the downfall of education/knowledge. Rings very true today, even though it was authored in 1959 or so.

You must not have read very far yet. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Church preserved what knowledge they could during the dark ages when no one else wanted it, but at the end when civilization advanced back into scientific age, Science is like "We don't need you anymore religion, give us back that knowledge you've been hiding" then they proceed to use it to destroy themselves with atomic bombs again.

[close]

[CajoleJuice]

a sentence

They crossed before the sun and vanished one by one and reappeared again and they were black in the sun and they rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms with the legs of the animals kicking up the spume that was not real and they were lost in the sun and lost in the lake and they shimmered and slurred together and separated again and they augmented by planes in lurid avatars and began to coalesce and there began to appear above them in the dawn-broached sky a hellish likeness of their ranks riding huge and inverted and the horses' legs incredibly elongate trampling down the high thin cirrus and the howling antiwarriors pendant from their mounts immense and chimeric and the high wild cries carrying that flat and barren pan like the cries of souls broke through some misweave in the weft of things into the world below.

and yeah, you're completely off kestastrophe

[Eric P]

a sentence

They crossed before the sun and vanished one by one and reappeared again and they were black in the sun and they rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms with the legs of the animals kicking up the spume that was not real and they were lost in the sun and lost in the lake and they shimmered and slurred together and separated again and they augmented by planes in lurid avatars and began to coalesce and there began to appear above them in the dawn-broached sky a hellish likeness of their ranks riding huge and inverted and the horses' legs incredibly elongate trampling down the high thin cirrus and the howling antiwarriors pendant from their mounts immense and chimeric and the high wild cries carrying that flat and barren pan like the cries of souls broke through some misweave in the weft of things into the world below.

DIE MONSTER YOU DON'T BELONG IN THIS WORLD

i can't endure hemmingway for this shit so someone who makes it a stylistic point rather than it being a failing of the talent of the writer...well that just won't do.

[TVC15]

a sentence

They crossed before the sun and vanished one by one and reappeared again and they were black in the sun and they rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms with the legs of the animals kicking up the spume that was not real and they were lost in the sun and lost in the lake and they shimmered and slurred together and separated again and they augmented by planes in lurid avatars and began to coalesce and there began to appear above them in the dawn-broached sky a hellish likeness of their ranks riding huge and inverted and the horses' legs incredibly elongate trampling down the high thin cirrus and the howling antiwarriors pendant from their mounts immense and chimeric and the high wild cries carrying that flat and barren pan like the cries of souls broke through some misweave in the weft of things into the world below.

DIE MONSTER YOU DON'T BELONG IN THIS WORLD

i can't endure hemmingway for this shit so someone who makes it a stylistic point rather than it being a failing of the talent of the writer...well that just won't do.

Ever read The Sound and the Fury?  That's one of my 20th century favorites.

While many first-time readers report Benjy's section as being difficult to understand, these same readers often find Quentin's section to be near impossible. Not only do chronological events mesh together regularly, but often (especially at the end) Faulkner completely disregards any semblance of grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead writing in a rambling series of words, phrases, and sentences that have no separation to indicate where one thought ends and another begins. This confusion is due to Quentin's severe depression and deteriorating state of mind.

It's probably the finest use of stream of consciousness I've encountered.

[Robo]

blood meridian is easily in my top 10 non fiction books.   

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

 

[Madrun Badrun]

blood meridian is easily in my top 10 non fiction books.   

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

 

I still don't understand.

Is it making a list?  I like lists!  FU  :'(

[Eric P]

oddly never had an issue with faulkner, but haven't read the sound and the fury.

[Robo]

That McCarthy sentence wouldn't be so bad if the man believed in using the occasional comma.  As written, it practically requires that you invent your own pauses at risk of misinterpretation.

[TVC15]

oddly never had an issue with faulkner, but haven't read the sound and the fury.

Check it out.  It's a great read, and especially the first two segments (of the four) are like putting together a puzzle.  The third section is pretty straightforward (but centered on an unreliable, biased narrator), and the fourth is a sort of objective, sorta omnisceint point of view.  The book is teh awesome.  I love the Faulk.

[Joe Molotov]

Faulk out with your cauk out.

[Eric P]

yeah it along with a billion other books are all on a nebulous list

i'll get to it eventually, i'm certain

[Madrun Badrun]

FICTION VS. NONFICTION

*KILLS SELF*

There is no V.S.  They are just in different categories because they are judged in different properties.  Fiction v.s nonfiction would be if I tried to judge them against each other or even if I tried to judge them as one category because then I would have to determine a hierarchy of  of the properties of both nonfiction and fiction, which would make list making far to hard.  Thus it's in the top 10
....fuck I called Blood Meridian non fiction didn't I.


 :'( :'( :'( :'(


FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.   :'(

[CajoleJuice]

how are you in college

[Joe Molotov]

I was lucky enough to have a Faulkner expert as a professor in college.   We must have spent half a semester on that book alone.

That sounds cool. I read it twice in high school, once stumbling through as best I could, and then a second time with cliff's notes. I'd like to read it again.

[Madrun Badrun]

how are you in college

Because I can read Blood Meridian with ease.  Didn't you fail at this book?  I just can't read my own writing without reading what I've thought I've said instead of what I actually wrote. 

[TVC15]

Ban Arvie.

[Snuflupagulus]

yes.  run-on is an understaement,  like saramago level full paragraph sentences.

  I have to say, though, I enjoyed The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.  I've tried to get into some of his other books (Siege of Lisbon or Stone Raft) but usually set them aside.  No real reason.

Reading Gospel and then Christopher Moore's Lamb gave me all I need to know about jesus.  Whadda scamp!