currently reading....

[Eraser]

[Mat Linnett]

That's one Pratchett I haven't read Eraser.
Any good?
I recently read Nation, which was a fantastic book, and it was good to see Pratchett writing something that wasn't Discworld for once.

[Eraser]

It's a kind of special Disc World novel. It's a fully illustrated book. It's pretty short. Only 170 or so pages with some full pages illustrations in there.

It's about Cohen the Barbarian trying to blow up Cori Celesti (home of the gods) and Rincewind having to stop him. It's a funny one. Doesn't nearly have the depth of some other books like Nightwatch or Going Postal but as a short tale it's pretty enjoyable.
The illustrations are very nice as well.

[werldhed]

Lots of classics lately:

The Nibelungenlied - Anon.
The Decameron - Boccaccio
Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
The Secret Life of Words - Henry Hitchings
The Mabinogion - Trans. by Charlotte Guest
Oliver Twist - Dickens

Currently reading: At Home, A Short History of Private Life - Bill Bryson

[Mat Linnett]

e-books readers really opened up classic literature for me. Having so much available for free is a real treat, and being able to get it in seconds just makes it that much easier.

Saying that though, the Kindle has made a larger dent in my pocket than my Sony Reader ever did, purely because the free wi-fi makes it so easy to buy a new book wherever I am.

[Eraser]

If the hacking community gets the Nook Color completely up to speed, it might be an interesting investment:

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/01/ ... omb-Tablet

[Mat Linnett]

Not really interested in the Nook Color's screen for reading to be honest; I like the look and feel of e-ink.
Now if someone gets colour e-ink cracked, I'll be in like Flynn.

[plained]

i read keith richards book - life

yea it was ok

[Eraser]

Watch the Pixel Qi screens. They're not color e-ink but full-color LCD screens that can switch to (black and white) reflective (e-ink) mode. The Notion Ink ADAM is a tablet that will have such a screen. It's really nice.

edit:
here's a video of a laptop with a Pixel Qi screen in reflective mode, compared to the iPad:

[Therac-25]

I just got a kobo from Chapters, and I'm now catching up on hundreds of books I've been meaning to read over the last decade.

Reading on this thing is damn addictive.

[U4EA]

Just recently finished Unweaving the Rainbow, fantastic book

[Therac-25]

Going through this series that I've never gotten around to reading, despite how much I've been told I have to read it.

[Eraser]

Dark Tower series... I should read it as well. My brother was really enthusiastic about it.

[Therac-25]

Before I got very far in that book, I got distracted by The Inverted World. Back to Stephen King now.



Getting an eBook reader makes reading novels addictive. News at 11.

[Therac-25]

[xer0s]

"On Liberating The Earth From Civilization"

Anything like Ishmael?

[xer0s]

Canterbury Tales - Chaucer

One of my favorites.

[Therac-25]

"On Liberating The Earth From Civilization"

Anything like Ishmael?

Never read that. They appear to be on the same page in terms of ideas, but I don't really know. The book above is put together by Derrick Jensen, who is much more forward about his feelings about the need to do something about civilization. Probably his best work (that I've read) is Endgame (official site). (Endgame has no relation to the Alex Jones "thing").

[U4EA]

Just finished, it's quite a fun read if you're a fan of the show. He does go on a bit about some para-military training he went through, but there's a lot of fun stuff as well. I especially enjoyed the part where he talks about training the blind guy to race around the track.



Just started this. It's written by a couple of British journalists from The Guardian but evidently Assange disagrees with some of their accounts.

[menkent]

The Nibelungenlied - Anon.

in zee german? haven't read (ie, skimmed) that since college. i remember liking it better than Parzival, but that may just be because it's a good deal shorter... and bloodier... and has a cameo appearance of Attila the Hun.

currently reading Hunger Games. i know it's very book-of-the-moment, but it's fun. like Ender's Game for girls.

[bam!]

Haven't had time to read a book in a while, but the last two were biographies on Count Basie and Jaco Pastorius.

[werldhed]

Canterbury Tales - Chaucer

One of my favorites.

Yeah, I was surprised at how good it was. I hadn't read it before, and was expecting it to be similar to Le Morte d'Arthur, but it was actually quite witty. The Miller's Tale is comedy gold.

"This Nicholas had risen for a piss,
And thought that it would carry on the jape
To have his arse kissed by this jack-a-nape.
And so he opened window hastily,
And put his arse out thereat, quietly,
Over the buttocks, showing the whole bum;
And thereto said this clerk, this Absalom,
"O speak, sweet bird, I know not where thou art."
This Nicholas just then let fly a fart
As loud as it had been a thunder-clap,
And well-nigh blinded Absalom, poor chap"


That's quality literature right there.

in zee german? haven't read (ie, skimmed) that since college. i remember liking it better than Parzival, but that may just be because it's a good deal shorter... and bloodier... and has a cameo appearance of Attila the Hun.

nein. ich spreche kein deutsch. My wife speaks it though, so she's probably read it. It is pretty ridiculously bloody, and a couple of characters go Rambo on everyone, it's still pretty good. It does suffer from that medieval storytelling where much of the characters' actions make no logical sense. Attila (Etzel in my translation) was pretty awesome, though. But again, his action at the end of the book are sort of a big, "wait...wut?"


I'm now reading:

[Nightshade]

Studying for Professional Engineer license exam, so:







Etc., etc. Pretty much anything on flow, level, pressure, or temperature measurement, PID control loops, tuning, blah, blah, blah.

Also finishing up this:



and this:

[andyman]

Little history lesson for ya: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ef668c ... pin-glover

"tesla was the electric jesus"

[menkent]

It does suffer from that medieval storytelling where much of the characters' actions make no logical sense.

allegedly it all makes complete sense from the medieval point of view. sort of a "well, they killed my bro so i gots ta kill everyone else. no, really. everyone. it's a rule."

funnily enough, i recently tried to listen to a german audiobook of name of the rose... total shit. the book is probably fine, but the dramatization was lollercopters. i quit after the first cd.