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Captain
Legend
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PostPosted: 02-01-2007 11:14 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Angels and Demons is an excellent prequel. Brutally violent too :icon14:
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MKJ
Messatsu Ko Jy-ouu
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PostPosted: 02-02-2007 02:19 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


ordered "Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?", should be here in a few weeks.
http://www.amazon.com/Belief-God-Good-B ... F8&s=books

also, about to borrow Dawkins' "The God Delusion" from a collegue. after he's done with it that is :)
http://www.amazon.com/God-Delusion-Rich ... F8&s=books



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Dark Metal
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PostPosted: 02-02-2007 05:40 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Robert Fisk - The Great War for Civilisation The Conquest of The Middle East



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Wabbit
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PostPosted: 02-05-2007 05:08 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


No more book store for me. At least until next week when I pick up the two books I ordered :icon32:

Just picked up:
Architecture - Sandra Forty
The Art of Color Calligraphy - Mary Noble
Stories in Stone - A field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography - Douglas Keister
The Great Masters of Italian Art - Elena Capretti
Nature Photography Close Up - Macro techniques in the field - Paul Harcourt Davies

There was an interesting book of NYPD Crime Scene photos from 1914-1918 that looked pretty good. The first half is all pics and the second half has a thumb nail of the pic and then commentary/police notes about each pic. If I didn't hate looking at dead people, I would have picked it up.
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Cory
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PostPosted: 02-05-2007 10:14 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


theoneandonly wrote:
Cory wrote:
Fender wrote:
I just finished The DaVinci Code, first book I've read in quite some time. I should read more... dunno what's next.


Angels and Demons.

If you are into the whole Templar stuff then The Last Templar is another excellent read. I also have a few more, but I havent read them myself yet because of how busy I've been this term so i can't really comment on them.

Edit:
Oh and right now I'm reading The Varities of Religious Experience.

Oh, and Choke by Palahniuk. I need to finish these books :o


I liked The Last Templar at first cause I could forgive the female protaganist being an idiot for the first few times, but she just kept doing stupid shit throughout and it bugged me so much that about half way through I just stopped reading it all together.


I agree with you somewhat, I definately think Davinci Code was a better read, by a decent bit. But being interested in the stuff I still found The Last Templar to be good. She was quite annoying though.
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l0g1c
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PostPosted: 02-05-2007 10:42 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I wonder how many people are actually reading the books they post and not just posing with them in public.

I hate that shit. :mad:
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mjrpes
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PostPosted: 02-05-2007 10:44 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life :icon14:
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l0g1c
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PostPosted: 02-05-2007 10:54 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Deathshroud wrote:
Good Omens

Terry Pratchet & Neil Gaiman

Just finished, American Gods by Neil Gaiman


You know the Sandman anthology is out, right? I've been avoiding bookstores since I found out. (It's been out for months).

This is, of course, assuming Sandman is what got you into Gaiman.
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Grudge
Approaching the singularity
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PostPosted: 02-06-2007 12:17 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Image

Fucking great book. :up:
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Wabbit
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PostPosted: 02-06-2007 07:55 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


l0g1c wrote:
I wonder how many people are actually reading the books they post...


For myself, if it's a novel, then I read it, but if you look at the books I just listed they're mostly reference books.

The Architecture book is 600 pages of pictures of architecture from around the world. I looked at most of the pics last night. The book on Italian painters is also for reference. It had a small blurb on Botticelli (who I was looking for specifically--those are the two books I ordered) which I read in it's entirety.

The last book I read all the way through was "Salt - A World History" by Mark Kurlansky. It really is a good book though. As a for instance, it had more indepth information about http://www.thenagain.info/Webchron/India/SaltMarch.html
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MKJ
Messatsu Ko Jy-ouu
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PostPosted: 02-06-2007 07:56 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


l0g1c wrote:
I wonder how many people are actually reading the books they post and not just posing with them in public.

I hate that shit. :mad:


well i havent received my posted books yet so no
currently reading: Neverending Story, once again. about the 300th time now



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Mat Linnett
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PostPosted: 02-06-2007 09:52 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Currently reading Cryptonomicon. I love the concepts and the characters, but it's a little... dry. Got a bit fed up with it really. Can't quite put my finger on why, as the subject matter is enthralling.
It's possibly because it feels more like a series of unrelated anecdotes rather than a single story. Maybe that'll change soon, dunno.
And yes, I know there's family relationships tying most of the characters together through the ages, but so far that's it.
Am also trying to work out why this is considered Sci-Fi.
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Cory
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PostPosted: 02-08-2007 12:04 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


mjrpes wrote:
From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life :icon14:


I have that and think its an amazing book.
It was my textbook for my western civ class, my class rocked.
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JB
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PostPosted: 02-08-2007 12:09 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


im reading "The Kiterunner" at the moment. Its a tad political, but a good read nonetheless.
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Wabbit
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PostPosted: 02-26-2007 04:58 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Brunelleschi's Dome - Ross King.

It is a great book if you love history and architecture. It's only 167 pages (not including notes). If you've ever heard the apocryphal tale of Brunelleschi receiving the commission to design the vaulting for the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, you'll want to get this book.

Quote:
Brunelleschi asked the members of the committee to demonstrate to him how they would stand an egg on the table. No one could. With that, Brunelleschi banged an egg on the table breaking its shell at the end and proceeded to stand this egg on the table.
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poxy1
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PostPosted: 02-26-2007 05:11 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


currently reading The Open Society and Its Enemies, and started reading Anna Karenina, but it got kind of boring, so im gonna finish open society first.
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R00k
straight at you
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PostPosted: 02-27-2007 06:25 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Not too far into it yet, but it's really interesting. I like this guy's thought process, it reminds me a lot of my own at times.
It's funny to think that on a basic level, using economics as a filter to look at social issues comes very close to actually relating to people on human terms; close to empathy.

I've also been reading Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why - by Laurence Gonzales. It's a highly interesting book. It documents dozens of survival stories, from shipwrecks to plane crashes to mountain climbs gone wrong, and analyzes survivors' actions, reactions and thought processes and compares them to others who didn't survive - including physiological/biological aspects of the brain's functions in these situations. He also attends two different survival schools to learn what they have to teach, from two completely different schools of thought on survival.

Also read the Apology of Socrates and Plato's Crito in the last few weeks. Once in a blue moon I get in the mood and dig into the genre with a vengeance - then don't pick them up again for a couple years.

And Hunter Thompson's Generation of Swine has been my toilet material for 2 months now I think. :paranoid:
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menkent
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PostPosted: 02-27-2007 07:31 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Goldelse by Marlitt (think Bronte/Austen... but German)
A River and its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans (decent, though at times a bit academic to recommend casually)

oh, and i picked up some east german fiction that i'll start on soon.
Ingrid Babendererde: Reifeprüfung 1953
Egon und der achte Weltwunder (a nice socialist coming of age story)

then Neruda's "100 love sonnets" and Dürrenmatt's "Der Richter und sein Henker"... though I'll probably not re-read all of the latter. just grabbed it to show me students something potentially at their level.
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HM-PuFFNSTuFF
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PostPosted: 02-27-2007 07:39 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


menkent wrote:
Goldelse by Marlitt (think Bronte/Austen... but German)
A River and its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans (decent, though at times a bit academic to recommend casually)

oh, and i picked up some east german fiction that i'll start on soon.
Ingrid Babendererde: Reifeprüfung 1953
Egon und der achte Weltwunder (a nice socialist coming of age story)

then Neruda's "100 love sonnets" and Dürrenmatt's "Der Richter und sein Henker"... though I'll probably not re-read all of the latter. just grabbed it to show me students something potentially at their level.


Do you ever read and Rilke? He makes me want to learn German.

Currently (re)reading The Unconscious Civilization by John Ralston Saul

I highly recommend this book.
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+JuggerNaut+
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PostPosted: 02-27-2007 07:41 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


l0g1c wrote:
I wonder how many people are actually reading the books they post and not just posing with them in public.

I hate that shit. :mad:


Wired 15.03
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menkent
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PostPosted: 02-28-2007 01:08 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


HM-PuFFNSTuFF wrote:
Do you ever read and Rilke? He makes me want to learn German.


honestly, not that big a fan. he was basically a lonely, depressed wanker. i like what i've read of Brecht's poetry... but if i had to read a poet i like the americans better. there are plenty of good german poets, but i'd take wallace stevens over any of them.
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MKJ
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PostPosted: 03-01-2007 04:34 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


done with Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant. Graffin totally destroys James in his last letter, pwnt.

starting on The God Delusion now.



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bikkeldesnikkel
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PostPosted: 03-01-2007 04:48 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Just started The God Delusion too.
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Foo
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PostPosted: 03-01-2007 04:51 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Grudge wrote:

Fucking great book. :up:


HAET!
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Wabbit
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PostPosted: 03-01-2007 07:44 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


lol, it's interesting to see what people are reading.

At the moment I'm reading Augustine's Confessions concurrent with a home course from The Teaching Company: Augustine
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plained
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PostPosted: 03-01-2007 07:58 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


na i dont books read still
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R00k
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PostPosted: 03-01-2007 08:45 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


MKJ wrote:
starting on The God Delusion now.

bikkeldesnikkel wrote:
Just started The God Delusion too.


I picked that up the other night when I got Freakonomics - I'll probably start on it in the next week or so. Sounds very interesting from a glancing look through.
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Grudge
Approaching the singularity
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PostPosted: 03-01-2007 09:59 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke
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menkent
menkent
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PostPosted: 03-02-2007 12:27 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Grudge wrote:
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke


both favorites of mine :icon14:
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Nightshade
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PostPosted: 03-02-2007 12:50 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Grudge wrote:

Fucking great book. :up:


I might pick that up. I served time in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant as a teenager and found that it's full of some extremely interesting people.



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Turbine
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PostPosted: 03-02-2007 04:19 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


In the Miso Soup (イン ザ・ミソスープ, In za Misosūpu?) by Ryu Murakami

It is about the dark side of Tokyo's nightlife.
Fucking ace Action & Adventure, Mystery, Thriller/Suspense novel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_miso_soup

Twenty year-old Kenji is a Japanese "nightlife" guide for foreigners — he navigates gaijin men around the sex clubs and hostess bars of Tokyo. On December 29 he receives a phone call from an American named Frank, who seeks three nights of his services. While Kenji has promised to spend more time with his girlfriend, sixteen year-old Jun, the money is too good to pass up. He finds himself closing out the end of the year accompanying Frank around Shinjuku, wondering if his strange, plastic-skinned patron could be responsible for the gruesome events recently reported in the news.

Part of the novel's interest lies in the original perspective offered on Japanese culture. To begin with, the reader is addressed like an outsider - possibly another one of Kenji's foreign clients. Author and narrator, both native Japanese, are then challenged to re-examine the underside of Tokyo city life from an outsider's point of view as it is introduced to the reader, and explained to Frank over the course of the story.



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Grudge
Approaching the singularity
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PostPosted: 03-05-2007 02:22 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


menkent wrote:
Grudge wrote:
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke


both favorites of mine :icon14:


Yeah, I quite enjoyed both of them. One thing that popped out with Ender's game was the nice description of the Internet and the tablet computers. Keeping in mind that it was published back in 1985 (and provided the author haven't edited it in the later editions) it provides a very realistic future in contrast to the usual Gibsonian variety published around the same time.

Arthur C Clarkes book was also interesting in a speculative future kind of way. I found it a bit amusing how humanity (with help from the Overlords) managed to achieve total national and racial peace and equality while maintaining 1950's gender equality values. Granted, it was written in 1956, and Clarke isn't perhaps really an authority on gender/sexuality issues, so...

It was also interesting in the somewhat gloomy outlook on human transcendance. The issue of how post-humanity are actually no longer being human anymore is worth discussing, as well as the issue of those being "left behind". I was actually a bit surprised that these thoughts were already around in 1956, as this whole posthuman thing feels like a more modern phenomenon. Then on the other hand, Teilhard de Chardin was around even before that, so I guess it's not really all that new.
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plained
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PostPosted: 03-05-2007 07:50 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


http://www.quake3world.com/forum/



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menkent
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PostPosted: 03-05-2007 08:21 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Grudge wrote:
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke


Card is weird because Ender's Game is a total classic with real cross-genre appeal (i know people who "hate sci-fi" but love Ender), but the rest of the series is just sort of standard sci-fi stuff. I mean, the varelse/raman thing was interesting... but the plots sort of degrade into stereotypes as the series go on. Not that that's stopped me from reading both the Ender series and Shadow series.

Clarke was much more cerebral in the way that sci-fi could be back before Star Wars turned it all into variations of the hero myth. More Kubrick than Lucas.
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Hannibal
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PostPosted: 03-05-2007 08:49 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


menkent wrote:

Clarke was much more cerebral in the way that sci-fi could be back before Star Wars turned it all into variations of the hero myth. More Kubrick than Lucas.


+1. His short fiction is tasty wheat as well (Collected Stories of A.C. Clarke).
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