Books you're reading now

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Danzama
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Books you're reading now

Postby Danzama » 10 May 2010, 11:36

I did search for this, but I couldn't find anything, if there is a thread like this please let me know.

Basically what are you reading now?
Feel free to give a brief summery of the book, NO SPOILERS.

I am reading Articulate Jim by Yahtzee, fantastic in my opinion.

summery

Jim is looking for something, something that'll make his life complete, he has no idea what/who/where that is.

So an accountant, his adoptive son, a gay pirate, the captain of Jim’s sky pirate ship, her first mate and Jim set off for the lost city of El Dorado.

so, what are you reading?
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby elvor » 10 May 2010, 11:45

I be reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, because when the One Book One Twitter thing started I couldn't get to my copy of American Gods so I bought this instead. :P

It's about the two sons of the African trickster god Anansi after he dies of a heart attack while singing karaoke. It's funny, interesting and makes me cringe quite a lot as embarrassment is kind of a major theme.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Theremin » 10 May 2010, 11:49

I'm reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. It's about how science is reported in the news.

Mildly terrifying :P
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby sdhonda » 10 May 2010, 11:51

A Conflict Of Visions - Thomas Sowell

Edit: Basicly, the book is an academic examination of the underlying philisophical assumptions that most people run their political thinking on (though they often do not notice it).

Sowell presents two major "visions" of human nature, from which much of the debate within the western political tradition proceeds from. There is the unconstrained vision and the constrained vision. The unconstrained vision basicly sees man as inherently good, with evil being an alien force, and something that can be overcome. It is represented by folks such as Godwin, Mill and Russell. The constrained vision sees man as being inherently evil, with good being an alien force, and something that should be brought out through incentives. It is represented by Smith, Holmes and Friedman.

Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that, and the book is a real mother to get through.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby aeric90 » 10 May 2010, 11:59

I'm reading the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe. It's a speculative science fiction set in the time just before our sun burns out after an apparent golden age of exploring the stars. Earth has fallen into a medeival guild system and follows the events following the exile of Journeyman torturer Servian as he heads to his new assignment.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Ozzytizer » 10 May 2010, 11:59

Technically I am in the middle of re-reading Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Which is a murder mystery in a monastery. But I am actually currently reading New Deal Justice and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes & Utilitarian Jurisprudence. Which are legal history works that I am reviewing and no summary is really worthwhile. I'll get back to Eco's book when I have my life back.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Keab42 » 10 May 2010, 12:21

Just finished the original Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams. Up next is my book group book Alexandria by Lindsey Davis.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby iamafish » 10 May 2010, 12:23

I've been rereading the Wheel of Time Series by the late Robert Jordan. I got to the 5th book and then switched to exam reading, so i've been reading the Aeneid again. fun times
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby The Jester » 10 May 2010, 12:25

I've been reading Hellboy; Seed of Destructhion and Strange Places, and also BPRD; Hollow Earth, all by Mike Mignola, for college. That's not because they were set by college, but because I'm drawing inspiration from them for my work. ;)

Articulate Jim by Yahtzee sounds really fun.. Where can you buy it? Are there links on Yahtzee's page on The Escapist?
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Metcarfre » 10 May 2010, 13:14

Currently The Red Pony by Steinbeck.

It's about a red pony.
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Bananafish
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Bananafish » 10 May 2010, 13:21

Not really a book but Investigations of a Dog by Franz Kafka, I picked it up because my professor recommended it and I really liked Metamorphosis.

e; it's pretty good. I'll post the intro if anyone's into it

How much my life has changed, and yet how unchanged it has remained at bottom! When I think back and recall the time when I was still a member of the canine community, sharing in all its preoccupations, a dog among dogs, I find on closer examination that from the very beginning I sensed some discrepancy, some little maladjustment, causing a slight feeling of discomfort which not even the most decorous public functions could eliminate; more, that sometimes, no, not sometimes, but very often, the mere look of some fellow dog of my own circle that I was fond of, the mere look of him, as if I had just caught it for the first time, would fill me with hopeless embarrassment and fear, even with despair. I tried to quiet my apprehensions as best I could; friends, to whom I divulged them, helped me; more peaceful times came- times, it is true, in which these sudden surprises were not lacking, but in which they were accepted with more philosophy, fitted into my life with more philosophy, inducing a certain melancholy and lethargy, it may be, but nevertheless allowing me to carry on as a somewhat cold, reserved, shy, and calculating, but all things considered normal enough dog.


e2; I'm also reading Vine Deloria Jr's "If You Think About it You Will See That it is True" it's a comparison of western and native American thought, how western civilization has a habit of viewing Native American epistemology as being sort of backwards and a step down from their own, and other observations. It's really interesting. If anyone wants me to, I can post an excerpt real quick.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby zfubarz » 10 May 2010, 13:37

Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences, Eighth Edition


I don't recommend it.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby 2stepz » 10 May 2010, 13:38

Outside of courses and research, I have been reading the Dresden files books... not getting very far, due to the two obstacles previously mentioned. Yay for summer!?
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby sdhonda » 10 May 2010, 14:06

2stepz wrote:Outside of courses and research, I have been reading the Dresden files books... not getting very far, due to the two obstacles previously mentioned. Yay for summer!?


Dresden files, one of my few guilty pleasures.

Only read one non course-work book while I was in college last fall: Carrion Comfort.

Oh god, Carrion Comfort. Such a huge piece of work (700 odd pages), and covering so much ground. I can't give a good summary, but here is one of the most horrific scenes:

A teenage Polish Jew named Saul is rotting away in a Polish concentration camp. On a thursday night, like every other thursday night, several guards enter his barracks and take several of them. Saul initially resists. However, he suddenly feels a sharp pain up his spine and into his mind, like a 6 foot red hot iron rod shoved up his ass, through is spine and into his brain. At the same time, he loses all control of himself, and his body begins to move on it's own. He gets out of his bunk and follows the other prisoners. It is evident that the lead guard is responsible for this phenomona.

These prisoners are taken into a truck with several others, totalling sixteen. They are then driven through the woods and to some ancient castle/mansion in the German/Polish forest. They arrive at the same time as another truck, also containing sixteen prisoners. They all go into the mansion, and both groups of prisoners are taken into seperate dressing rooms. There they are given strange, fancy uniforms, with unusual head pieces and badges. They are then taken into a great hall, full of drunken nazis. Standing on a balcony are the guard who controlled sauls mind and a much older man in Nazi attire. The prisoners are led onto a large platform, and each group is set to face eachother.

Think about this for a sec.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby The Jester » 10 May 2010, 14:16

That... doesn't strike me as horrific. I'm curious, though.

Also, the colour of the text isn't quite the same as the background.
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Bananafish
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Bananafish » 10 May 2010, 14:20

Yeah, you can just use [spoiler] tags
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby sdhonda » 10 May 2010, 14:21

Close enough to keep you from glancing at it.

One really has to read it to understand.

EDIT: Ah, thank you. Didn't know this forum had it.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby madrak_the_red » 10 May 2010, 14:25

The Jester wrote:Articulate Jim by Yahtzee sounds really fun.. Where can you buy it? Are there links on Yahtzee's page on The Escapist?


It's a book he tried to get published years before he hit it big with ZP. It's up there for free on his website, though I must admit I haven't read it. Maybe I should amend that, seen as I have read literally every other thing on that website.

Replying to the OP, 'AS revision notes', by me
Not particularly interesting.

(Though I did just finish 'Ravenor: The Omnibus by Dan Abnett. Pick it up, as well as Eisenhorn. They basically boil down to two epic series about 40K inquistors (one called Eisenhorn and the other ravenor. Go figure ) and they are seriously good. Pick 'em up.)
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Bananafish » 10 May 2010, 14:28

I read both of Yahtzee's books during a stint when I was bored and they were both fairly funny and clever and I enjoyed them.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby GaProgMan » 10 May 2010, 14:52

I'm currently in the middle of several books. Shogun by James Clavell, A Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Shogun wrote:Basically, it's a fictionalised version of the tale of William Adams, whose ship had crash landed on the shores of Japan on it's way around the (newly discovered by the Spanish) Magellan Pass

I'm still on my first read through of this one, and I can see where the joke on Red Dwarf comes from ("This manual has more pages than the average James Clavell novel" or something like that), but I can see why. Everything is so detailed, and there are entire chapters devoted to single conversations or exposition.

A Tale of Genji wrote:One of the world's first epic novels. It was written during 13th Century Japan, about a court noble called Genji who is the illegitimate child of the Emperor. Unable to appoint Genji as his heir to the throne, the emperor give Genji a position of responsibility in the court.

I've been trying to read this one for 3 years now, and haven't gotten much further than half way through. Mostly because it's so vague (I'm reading the Royall Tyler translation, btw), which kind of fits, because it was written as poetry. But the characters are hardly ever referred to by name, only title, as was the way back then; which makes t very difficult to keep track of who is who.

As for Unseen Academicals? It's my fourth read through, as is traditional for me with Pratchett. I find myself re-reading Pratchett novels over and over again. I really enjoy Pratchett novels, which is a shame considering.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby OMGItsSarah » 10 May 2010, 15:37

Right now, I'm halfway through Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King. I've read it before, and it's one of my absolute favourite books. It's not quite in King's usual style, but it's just fantastic.

I just finished Under the Dome, which was great as well, and after that I read Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (LOVE LOVE LOVE).

Next, I think I'm gonna re-read the Bachman Books (We have the older copy with Rage, which is out of print now and is a pretty great story).
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Evil Jim » 10 May 2010, 15:42

I'm currently over half-way through Alhazred by Donald Tyson, the story of Abdul Alhazred's wanderings following his decent into necromancy & how he came across the knowledge that he later put into the Necronomicon.

Also up is The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, since I did not finish the book the last time I read it.

Just yesterday at a local used book store I came across Stephen King's new Under the Dome & read the first 20 pages while waiting for my mother to finish shopping. I found it very intriguing & I really want to read more but as mentioned above, I'm already in the middle of two other books & I can also stand to wait until I find the paperback release used & cheap.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Vaughn » 10 May 2010, 15:52

Dennis Leary - Why We Suck.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby gcninja » 10 May 2010, 16:02

Ive heard paper towns is good, but ive yet to pick up a copy. Is it worth it? other than that ive been meaning to finish my H2G2TG complete edition
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Lord Chrusher » 11 May 2010, 04:32

Down Under by Bill Bryson

A travelogue about Australia. It is a bit out of date (2000) but it is very funny.
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