What are you...reading?

[Dragon Phoenix]

Illywhacker by Peter Carey. Love it.
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[Chuck]

Just finished The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean. It's interesting and informative but I'd already read a lot of that stuff in other books over the last few decades.

[Chaz]

I'm about to finish Wicked, then I think I'll start Lord of the Flies again.
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The enemy's base is down.

[Sentran]

I loved the book Wicked, and I have tickets to the musical in April.
I'm reading The Desert Spear, by Peter Brett.
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Sentran
"Speaking of double negatives, I haven't read greylab yet today." - Lifeinmomland

[Chaz]

I'm a little jealous about your Wicked tickets. I'm not big on any artsy stuff ('cuz I'm just so god damn manly), but I enjoy stories about perspective. Especially the delusions evil/wicket people tell themselves to convince themselves that they are acting benevolently. It's fascinating.

It's the main reason that I really enjoyed the show Megamind.
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The enemy's base is down.

[Quailman]

Sentran - You'll really enjoy the show. My wife has seen it three times. i finally went last summer. We sat in the front row. Some shows are better seen from farther back, but this one I think would be good from anywhere in the theater.

[Poisonium]

The Prince - Machiavelli

I'll have to think about this one before I make an opinion on it.
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I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[Sentran]

Dies the Fire
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Sentran
"Speaking of double negatives, I haven't read greylab yet today." - Lifeinmomland

[AcidFast]

Born to Run by Christopher MacDougall

Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman

How the Irish Invented Slang by Daniel Cassidy

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

Tell Them I Didn't Cry by Jackie Spinner (who also happens to be a good friend of mine)

On order from Amazon:

The Good Book - A Humanist Bible by AC Grayling
One Day, All Children... by Wendy Kopp
The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama
Words, Words, Words and The Fight for English by David Crystal
Language Myths by Laurie Bauer
The Power of Babel by John McWhorter

And, after reading Pablo's comments about The Selfish Gene, I'll probably pick that one up as well.
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When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead

True story

[AcidFast]

Just started The Origins of Political Order - I'm pretty excited, it seems like its going to be good
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When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead

True story

[Fried Egg]

I'm reading "The Wine-Dark Sea", a collection of strange short stories by Robert Aickman.

He is one of the greatest writers I've ever had the pleasure to read.

[Poisonium]

After discovering Project Gutenberg, a resource of public domain ebooks, and also buying a dedicated ereading device (it does get tiring to read on a laptop) I've read the following books from it:

The Lost World - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The novel that introduced dinosaurs to popular fiction. It's worth reading for that alone. It's also a pretty good science fiction novel in itself. Some very memorable characters, notably the quite famous Professor Challenger.

The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
Introduced time travel to popular fiction. Not as good as The Lost World, I'd say. And the ending I found quite bland.

Apocolocyntosis - Seneca
I found this quite amusing. it also means I'm an intellectual, right?

Candide - Voltaire
Several have named it one of the most influential works of fiction ever. It's also a very, very funny book, and makes it completely evident why the ridiculous optimist philosophy lampooned in the book is, obviously, completely and utterly wrong.

The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
When one reads a play, laughs loudly the entire way through, and immediately afterwards plans to stage that play, it can be called nothing but a comedic masterpiece.

Alonzo Fitz and Other Stories - Mark Twain
Very funny short stories. Ironically, the title story is the least amusing.

Ebooks _ Neither E Nor Books - Cory Doctorow
A short essay on ebooks, that says exactly what there is to be said about ebooks. Interesting.
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I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[Jedo the Jedi]

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Easily one of the best books involving that universe. I believe someone around here has an adapted quote from it. I think it speaks volumes to some of the stuff going on in our world today.
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Paragon Tally: 19 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[bgg1996]

When we declare a species to be raman, not varelse, it doesn't mean they've changed, it means we have.; something like that?
I remember seeing it in a sig, but I don't quite remember whose it was.

I think I'm reading Mockingjay, from the Hunger games series.
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The one member below 18

[groza528]

Accelerando by Charles Stross. It's a cyberpunk novel about a rapidly-changing future. The story starts out following Manfred Macx, a cutting-edge anarchoneosocialist who describes his actions as "about a third strictly legal, a third strictly illegal, and the remaining third too new to be covered by existing laws." Definitely a good read.

[Sentran]

A Dance with Dragons, by George R. R. Martin
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Sentran
"Speaking of double negatives, I haven't read greylab yet today." - Lifeinmomland

[jesternl]

Been a while, so update time.
Finished listening to Wise man's fear: good
Actually read, The good thief, by Hannah Tinti. Pretty decent, although I'm not quite sure who the thief really is.
listening to Perdido street Station, by Chyna Mieville. hard to get into, at times very boring and long winded, ant other times absolutely great. I feel it could've done better with editing however. Mr. Mieville is very fond of using more obscure words over their reguilar counterparts, but there is only so many times I can read the word 'ululating' in one chapter before finding it annoying, and likewise with 'russet'.

[jesternl]

Soon I'm hoping to read the new Neal Stephenson, Reamde.

Finished Blindsight.. Meh...
The Ghost Brigades, Old man's war book 2. Not as good as the first.
Map of Bones.. surprisingly good. .uncomplicated.
listening to Neil Gaiman, Fragile things.. short stories, some really good, some that I just don't understand at all.

[JDTAY]

Just read Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. As usual, Chuck is one very messed up dude. The only Palahniuk novels I have left to read now are Invisible Monsters and the upcoming Damned.
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[itisally]

The Help-

A movie came out so I had to read the book, because it will be better of course! I am really enjoying it. It has to do with perspective and unspoken social rules.

Who decided that we walk on the right anyway?
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I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.

[Pablo]

For you dog lovers!!!
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All religions are the same - Guilt....just with different holidays.

[jesternl]

Finished listening to WWW: Wonder, part 3 of the WWW trilogy, by Robert J. Sawyer. Faitly entertaining, about the rise of an AI.
Some irritating aspects though. Sawyer cannot stop himself from pointing out anything and everything Canadian. He seems to feel a compulsive need to tell you how great Canada is. It's across all hos books, not just these.
He has give the appearance of a 'techno' writer, but makes simple mistakes that show he does not always exactly know waht he is talking about, which makes me doubt the accuracy of some of the other claioms in the books. E.g., he has a character retrieve a sent email from the outbox, not the sent items. (eh, maybe in Canada they call sent items the outbox )

Also listened to M is for Magic - Neil Gaiman. Another set of short stories, some overlap with Fragile things, overall high quality short stories.

Currently listening to the Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins. No opinion yet.

[Chuck]

Also, five billion years in the future Sawyer had Alpha Centauri as still being the nearest star. That ruined the whole series for me.

[wordcross]

[Chuck]

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman. A collection of short, 2 to 4 pages, humorous views of life after death.

[Fried Egg]

For me, October is a month I like to dedicate to horror.

So far I have read:

• "Magicians: True stories of the occult", an anthology comipled by Peter Haining.
  
• "The Unsettled Dust" by Robert Aickman

I am currently reading "The Hungry Moon" by Ramsey Campbell.

[johnhodges]

I'm reading for class tomorrow so I can grow up and be successful and have a life unlike you.

[Chuck]

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True by Richard Dawkins

I was hoping for some philosophy but this is more of a kiddie book. A variety of phenomena, such as rainbows and earthquakes, are described and brief descriptions of some mythological explanations are given. Examples from currently believed mythologies are often used, as I would expect from Richard Dawkins. Then the real explanation is given along with a much longer explanation of how we came to know it to be true. David Hume's thoughts on miracles are mentioned so there is some philosophy.

[Hitchhiker]

Ready Player One

(Increases in epicness if you read it while listening to this)

[jesternl]

Reamde - Neal Stephenson. Entertaining enough, but nowhere near as epic as some of his other work.

Nightjack - Tom Piccirilli. I'm not quite sure how to describe this, so I'll go with the Goodreads description:
"Pace is released from a mental institution, only to be kidnapped by three other escapees, all suffering from multiple personality disorder. What ensues is a wild, surreal adventure leading finally to a Greek island, where everyone may wind up dead unless Pace willingly releases the darkest persona of all...Nightjack."
Interesting, due to some up-close and personal experience with DID. The story fascinated me and kept me entertained.
It's not a story about how bad the main character's life is, and how he developed DID, it is used as a device to make the story more interesting, and it works.

Jonathan and Mr. Norell. One of the few books I put down (or in this case, tossed the CD). I just couldn't go on listening too it. All chracters were flat and uninteresting. And I had such high hopes too

Currently listening to 11.22.63, Stephen King, and like most of his stories, I think it is well done and completely entertaining. I helps if the narrator is good, and this one is not just good, he's great.

[Scurra]

[Malaya]

Hi...........
Mostly i read history books, Now i am reading my favorite book leader ship.

Thanks.

[Jedo the Jedi]

wordy has one of the best articulations of the Hunger Games. My additional problem is she doesn't seem to have a point in writing these books. Most fictional works at least propose an ideal or moral of some kind, but there isn't a clear one for this series. The only reason I kept reading it was to see where the plot went next.

I just finished the Mistborn trilogy. Simply awesome. I think he evolved the characters well, giving them a depth and motivation as the story progressed. He also did an excellent job of introducing new material in each book of the series so that the world kind of expands with each book. There were also good twists to keep me interested, and the philosophical underpinnings were just tantalizing enough.
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Paragon Tally: 19 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[j_s*]

[Fried Egg]

Just finished "The Space Merchants" by Cyril M. Kornbluth, Frederik Pohl and am now reading "Lud-in-the-mist" by Hope Mirrlees. Next I plan to read "Dying Inside" by Robert Silverberg.

[Jedo the Jedi]

I just finished Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Whew! I love those Russian artists for how they capture life, but they sure are dense. Plethora of great quotes. I'm hoping to watch the movie soon to see if it can clarify some of the themes for me. It was made in '65, so I at least have some hope it will convey the book well enough.

I'm now reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I'm to Apert, but I'm pretty lost. I think ingesting the world and its culture is unfolding slowly for me. Totally interested, just having trouble grasping.
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Paragon Tally: 19 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[jesternl]

Anathem is a bit of a slog, but worth it I thought.

Just finished The art of racing in the rain, mentioned by many here before.. pretty good.

Last Call and Declare, both by Tim Powers. I thought the formaer was vasty better than the latter, although that coul've been aprtially because the narrator of Declare was not particularly good. Declare was just confusing, I kept rewinding to see if I heard things right, or to check if I had accidentily skipped a chapter.

Now reading (listening to) Daemon, by Daniel Suarez.. good so far, finally a book that gets most of the geekie computer stuff right.

[Scurra]

Actually I tend not to mind about geeky details in novels - nor in films for that matter (a lot of people dismiss the Sandra Bullock movie The Net for it's technical ridiculousness but that seems to me to miss the whole point of the intent of the film which still has some pertinent points to make about identity, security and trust.)

So getting them right is fine but it's rarely a deal-breaker for me. It only has to be "approximately" correct. Although that might open up a whole different argument about how much "approximately" can be before it breaks the willing suspension of disbelief...
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_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[jesternl]

I think suspension of disbelief is easily broken if you, the reader, is more knowledgeable about the subject than the writer.
I imagine lawyers, docters and FBI agents feel the same way when a movie deals with their area of expertise.
The GL population is largely tech geeks, but it would be nice to hear from other fields.

Then again, maybe I'm just anal

[Death Mage]

The only medical show my father would watch was M*A*S*H becuase it was the only one to get it right. So yea, I'd say it applies to other professions.
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