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R00k
straight at you
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PostPosted: 03-05-2007 11:20 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


That sounds interesting, I'll have to take a look at it. I loved Ender's Game.

I also really like Robert Heinlein's stuff, which is about as "pre-Star Wars" as you can get. Stranger in a Strange Land is still incredible today, although I guess a "hollywood" correlation could be made with the protagonist from outer space.
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R00k
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PostPosted: 03-05-2007 11:29 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I finished Freakonomics this weekend, btw.

It's an excellent read, if just as a curiosity dabbling into sociological trends and behaviors. It really seemed like the book should have covered more tbh, but some of the insights into the data behind previously accepted causal relationships in society made it worth reading - and probably a second time as well.

The book spent a lot of time on looking at why people cheat -- i.e. students, teachers and even sumo wrestlers -- and a lot of different correlations between how well children do on early test scores when controlling for other socioeconomic/environmental factors. It makes you think twice about the way parents influence their children.

If you have a child, you will probably find it very interesting.


I started on The God Delusion this weekend as well. For such an acclaimed scholar and intellectual, Dawkins seems very plain-spoken in much of this book -- although that could be intentional, due to the subject matter and intended audience.

And some of the points he makes simply make me LOL while I'm reading. He's got a strong sarcastic wit, this guy, and he doesn't pull any punches with the religious fundies.
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Grudge
Approaching the singularity
Approaching the singularity
Joined: 28 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: 03-16-2007 12:17 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Foundation by Isaac Asimov

I'm trying to cover the top 20 of this list:

http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes ... rank1.html

I've already read most of them, so after finishing Foundation I have these left:

Robert A Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A Heinlein - Starship Troopers
Larry Niven - Ringworld
Arthur C Clarke - Rendezvous With Rama
Dan Simmons - Hyperion
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JB
Realistic Gore
Realistic Gore
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PostPosted: 03-16-2007 12:21 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Sci Fi much? :P

yeah i love it all, read all 5 books in the Foundation series followed by about twelve other Asimov books includingh I, Robot, Caves of Steel, Buy Jupiter, The Intergalactic Olympics and Robots and Empire
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Wabbit
Elite
Elite
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PostPosted: 05-08-2007 03:09 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_%28book%29
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7zark7
Knight of the Sad Countenance
Knight of the Sad Countenance
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PostPosted: 05-08-2007 05:51 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


RANT by ChuckPalahniuk.



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Transient
Arrr?
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PostPosted: 05-08-2007 05:53 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide. I'm finally on the last book.
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Nightshade
Tap, Nap, or Snap
Tap, Nap, or Snap
Joined: 01 Dec 2000
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PostPosted: 05-08-2007 06:47 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


365 Tao
Zen Buddhism(forget the author at the moment)
Superfit: Royce Gracie's Ultimate Martial Arts and Nutrition Guide
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menkent
menkent
menkent
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PostPosted: 05-08-2007 06:55 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Der kleine Hobbit (yea, The Hobbit... in German!)

after that I have a stack of books on translation theory. unf.
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R00k
straight at you
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PostPosted: 05-08-2007 09:00 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Grudge wrote:
Robert A Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A Heinlein - Starship Troopers


both great books, although I thought the ending to Troopers was a little disappointing/anti-climactic.

Stranger in a Strange Land is awesome for classic sci-fi, but make sure you get the reprinted, uncut version. When it was first released his publisher cut out 10s of thousands of words, and after his death his wife released it again with everything included. I haven't read the cut version, but it's not hard to pick out the parts they likely took out.
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Grudge
Approaching the singularity
Approaching the singularity
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PostPosted: 05-08-2007 11:37 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Cool thanks, I'll check it out.

I recently got sidetracked by Vernor Vinge (the guy who wrote the original paper on the Singularity), and I have read 'A Fire Upon the Deep', and am now reading 'A Deepness in the Sky'.

Really good sci-fi, I strongly recommend them. His writing is somewhere inbetween the style of the classics like Asimov and Clarke, and the moderns like Reynolds, Banks and Simmons, but his creativeness is greater than most of the other modern writers I've read, and he manages to bring together his stories in a more coherent way than, say Reynolds, for example.
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xer0s
Digital Nausea
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 06:01 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I just ordered Snow Crash. Hope its good. I haven't read this type of fiction before...
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Sevensins
The Afflicted
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 06:31 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


7zark7 wrote:
RANT by ChuckPalahniuk.


How is it? I forgot it came out this month.


He will be in town on Monday so hopefully I'll be able to get a signed copy. :icon14:
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Ryoki
Karot!
Karot!
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 06:33 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


xer0s wrote:
I just ordered Snow Crash. Hope its good. I haven't read this type of fiction before...


If you can get past the first couple of pages, it's pretty awesome. Stephenson has that weird thing some writers have where he really stumbles with his style at the beginning of his books :)

imo of course :paranoid:
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menkent
menkent
menkent
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 07:30 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


i thought snow crash was pretty lame when i first read it... then i realized it was written in 1991 - aka, pre-interweb explosion. now i wish i hadn't given it away :(
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Tormentius
The voices in your head
The voices in your head
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 07:46 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Farthest Reach by Richard Baker
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R00k
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 10:07 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I read half of SnowCrash and put it down. I thought it sucked.

I got the impression that it wasn't marketed to my demographic -- if I had read it as a 13 year old who was just breaking on to the scene of being a crazy haxxor I think I would have enjoyed it more.

TBH, thinking back on it now, there were some things in it that stood out as original for its time, and tempts me to go back and finish it.... But then I remember how I nearly laughed at all the quote-unquote cybar-slang and not-quite-techno-babble.
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Mat Linnett
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 10:16 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Reading World War Z for the second time this year after having read the Ender saga. I agree with the sentiments voiced here regarding Card: Ender's Game is a true classic, but the others flounder somewhat and feel pretty generic.

Just read book 1 & 2 of The Walking Dead too. Loved book 1, and book 2 was great, but I wish they hadn't changed the artist :(
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Nightshade
Tap, Nap, or Snap
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 10:42 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


R00k wrote:
I read half of SnowCrash and put it down. I thought it sucked.

I got the impression that it wasn't marketed to my demographic -- if I had read it as a 13 year old who was just breaking on to the scene of being a crazy haxxor I think I would have enjoyed it more.

TBH, thinking back on it now, there were some things in it that stood out as original for its time, and tempts me to go back and finish it.... But then I remember how I nearly laughed at all the quote-unquote cybar-slang and not-quite-techno-babble.


That's it, I'm revoking your nerd card. :icon33:
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R00k
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 10:43 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


:tear:


What year did you read it btw?
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dmmh
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 10:59 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirshi Ali
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Nightshade
Tap, Nap, or Snap
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 11:58 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


R00k wrote:
:tear:


What year did you read it btw?


'02 maybe? Not long ago at any rate. I thought it was a great book, but I'll admit I'm a huge Stephenson, Gibson, and Sterling fan.
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R00k
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 12:39 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I've heard a lot of good things about Stephenson. After SnowCrash, I decided to pick up Quicksilver because it sounded like it was more up my alley, and I wanted to give the guy a shot.

I've read maybe 100 pages of that one so far, but it's wearing me down. It seems like nothing is really happening. His style is interesting, but when you're talking about cloaked encounters between alchemists (the backstory to which I still don't understand), it's hard to keep my attention.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something key, or if I'm just too dense to follow the story. =\

Maybe I should have picked up Cryptonomicon instead of Quicksilver.
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Ryoki
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 01:16 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Haven't read quicksilver (though it's been on my to-read list for ages now) but cryptonomicon is great.



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R00k
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 02:58 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I'd offer to swap copies for a while... But shipping a book to dutch0land is probably more expensive than buying it. =\
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Dean McLean
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PostPosted: 05-09-2007 03:02 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Naked Lunch by William S burroughs
Neuromancer by William Gibson



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Underpants?
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 03:30 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


hi dean
rich dad poor dad
Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter
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Captain
Legend
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 03:46 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Finished King Lear and Fifth Business, now onto Razor's Edge.

I strongly recommend reading Fifth Business. I'll probably even check out the rest of the Deptford Trilogy.
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plained
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plained
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 03:47 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


i doen want to ruin my clearity of thinksing ey.

if i learn something , i may take it for granted and not think



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Geebs
Will Hench for Food
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 03:51 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


R00k wrote:
I've heard a lot of good things about Stephenson. After SnowCrash, I decided to pick up Quicksilver because it sounded like it was more up my alley, and I wanted to give the guy a shot.

I've read maybe 100 pages of that one so far, but it's wearing me down. It seems like nothing is really happening. His style is interesting, but when you're talking about cloaked encounters between alchemists (the backstory to which I still don't understand), it's hard to keep my attention.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something key, or if I'm just too dense to follow the story. =\

Maybe I should have picked up Cryptonomicon instead of Quicksilver.


About ninety percent of the Baroque Cycle is boring twaddle, Cryptonomicon is genius from cover to cover, Snow Crash is hilarious, and the Diamond Age was very thought-provoking and great at wrong-footing the reader over what sort of book it actually is.
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7zark7
Knight of the Sad Countenance
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 03:56 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


7zark7 wrote:
RANT by ChuckPalahniuk.


Just finished RANT.

I really liked the oral biography format he uses.... ITs still your standard Palahnuik.... but he takes his formula to a new level, this time baseing the novel in a distopian future. And alot of interesting stuff about the concepts on time travel. and I love the idea of PARTY CRASHING. Its like a fight club with cars.
I'm not gonna say its my favorite, cuz its not. ( Diary is) But I liked it alot better than choke.



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HM-PuFFNSTuFF
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 04:02 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


The Horse's Mouth -Joyce Carey
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Cooldown
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 04:50 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Just finished Speaker for the Dead (sequel to Ender's Game).
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l0g1c
Don't be koi
Don't be koi
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 07:29 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Just Finished: Flowers for Algernon
Finishing: Cowl
Up Next: Singularity Sky
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Cyanex
Trainee
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PostPosted: 06-04-2007 09:04 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Sinner - Sara Douglas.



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