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so what you currently reading?(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)
Posted by: bazie
I am reading a book called "genious" that is a very very well done biography of Feynman, a very prominant post war physicist
Posted by: Lunakitty
About to start "Waifs and Strays" by Charles De Lint... i was sooo happy when i found it at the 1/2 price bookstore---in ~*hardback*~. 
Posted by: Runriot
Just got finished reading Tom Clancy's Teeth of the Tiger. A Nice new edition to the Ryan Saga books. This particular one follows Jack Ryan Jr. thru his first real spook job with a blacker than black CIA like opertions force.
While it doesnt have his dad in first person, there is plenty of mention of him, and all the previous characters. Excellent read, if a bit short ~
Next up is the Wheel of Time prequel, New Spring. Recentlky expanded from a 50 page short story to a full novel. I love the series, but in the last 3 books, the quality has really gone to shit, so I dont have high hopes for this, but like a :geek: Ima gonna read it anyways ~
Posted by: Usti
Currently I'm reading James Ellroys Clandestine
Don't know what to read next. I'll be looking for advise in this forum 
Posted by: Kingtut
I'm currently reading - 'Notes on a Scandal' by Zoe Heller.
(It's titled What Was She Thinking? : Notes on a Scandal: A Novel in the US. )
It's about a school teacher (Sheba) who has an illicit affair with one of her pupils. It's all supposed to become dark and a bit sinister according to the reviews, so I'm waiting for that. Well written and entertaining so far
Amazon.com link
Posted by: Primey
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide. Again.
Posted by: Conn
quote:
Originally posted by Runriot
Next up is the Wheel of Time prequel, New Spring. Recentlky expanded from a 50 page short story to a full novel. I love the series, but in the last 3 books, the quality has really gone to shit, so I dont have high hopes for this, but like a :geek: Ima gonna read it anyways ~
Stuff you already know glued together with more of the same dribble... I suggest you burn it
I only got it cos it was dirt cheap for hardcover when I decided to get it last month
As for what I'm reading... C.S. Friedman - Coldfire Trilogy book 1, Black Sun Rising. Awesome serie reading it for the 4th time
After that I'll probably read the new David Eddings... have to buy it first though
Posted by: Questor
Anxiously awaiting Storm of Crows. The first 3 of that series were superb. (Fire and Ice series)
Posted by: Runriot
quote:
Originally posted by Conn
Stuff you already know glued together with more of the same dribble... I suggest you burn it
I only got it cos it was dirt cheap for hardcover when I decided to get it last month
As for what I'm reading... C.S. Friedman - Coldfire Trilogy book 1, Black Sun Rising. Awesome serie reading it for the 4th time
After that I'll probably read the new David Eddings... have to buy it first though
Only 40 or so pages into to it ATM, but its all I have to read for now. Sorta short on cash as Im saving for a new PC.
But so far, Im more impressed with the writting style than was in Winters Heart and Twilight.... Seems like either he wrote this himself recently, Ie not his wife as in books 8, 9, and 10, or he wrote it awhile ago, and is just now putting it out.
I like that he has thrown alot of filmilar names in there, and Im hoping for more info on the "20 yr old vileness" the Cadsuane alluded to. You know, all those Amrlyns dying in so short a time, and niether the ajahs, nor the black ajahs knew WTF was going on. Also, seems like we might get a peek into the final tests for Aes Sedai, which is curiously missing from the rest of the series....
Posted by: BattleAxe Nancy
I"m reading 1215 The Year of the Magna Carta. Its describes life in England at the time the magna carta was founded. The authors however, fail to say what the magna carta is before they talk about what life was like. The only mention in the beginning was that the piece of paper the guy was looking at in the museum was the Magna Carta. I hope they somewhere say what it was and who wrote it etc. That was a bad call on the author's part.
I also just finished reading Spirit Medicine: Healing in the Sacred Realms by Hank Wesselman. It is another one of his books on shamanism. It was a great read and comes with a cd to help the reading journey. I missed one book (cuz it wasn't listed on Indigo  ) so I'm about to read The Journey to the Sacred Garden. It teaches the reader how to access their 'sacred garden' which exists in the middle world of the third level of reality (no this stuff isn't fiction...) and cultivate an area that helps to heal their life and change things. The state of your garden is relfected in your life. If the garden is improved, your life will see the same benefits.
Posted by: Witchy
reading brain candy at the moment 
Posted by: Khiori
*Contact (Sagan)
* The Ugly Little Boy (Asimov & Silverberg)
Unfinished Tales (Tolkien)
* The Lost World (Crichton)
x Post Captian (O'Brian)
* Quilter's Apprentice (Chiaverini)
* Timeline (Crichton)
x didn't finish, not going to
* finished
Posted by: Rurouni Storm
Re-reading Clancy's Without Remorse. The best book I've read from him.
Posted by: Molotov
The Pelican Brief.
Posted by: bazie
quote:
Originally posted by Rurouni Storm
Re-reading Clancy's Without Remorse. The best book I've read from him.
it was very good eh?
Definately one of his better ones
Posted by: Rurouni Storm
quote:
Originally posted by bazie
it was very good eh?
Definately one of his better ones
I just like how he focuses a lot more on characters than politics in it. He's actually quite good at making very realistic, human characters, but the political parts of most of his books really overshadow it.
Posted by: Runriot
quote:
Originally posted by Rurouni Storm
I just like how he focuses a lot more on characters than politics in it. He's actually quite good at making very realistic, human characters, but the political parts of most of his books really overshadow it.
His older books arent totally like that. Once jack got out of the CIA into the National Security Advisor stuff, then Clancy really bogged it down with the political stuff. His older stuff like Cardinal in the Kremlin, Sum of all Fears (completely different book than the PoS movie) and Without Remorse all bear the carefully cultivated fruit of true character development. John Ke... er, Clark is one scary mother fucker... for a fictional character 
Posted by: danskmacabre
Well, I'm currently rereading "The Hobbit" for teh umpteenth time.
I know it's just a kids book, but a nice short read.
Although I have ordered the following books:
Philip Pullmans Dark Material Trilogy
incredible Space, by James Michener
Iain M. Banks - Use Of Weapons
Peter F. Hamilton - The Reality Disfunction
After opening a book recommendation thread on T.com a few days ago.
Posted by: xoshade
quote:
Originally posted by bazie
I am reading a book called "genious" that is a very very well done biography of Feynman, a very prominant post war physicist
I've been tempted by Feynman books. Do you think I'd be better off with him as an author, or as the subject material in question?
quote:
Originally posted by BattleAxe Nancy
That was a bad call on the author's part.
Are you sure it wasn't a bad call on the publisher's part? Maybe the author just wanted to call it "Old Stuff", but the publisher told them: "No. We'll name it 'Haegemonia: Legions of Iron'".
"But that's not even-"
"Print!"
And so you end up thinking, "That was a bad call on the author's part" because the author thought, "Well, gosh. Guess I'd better mention Haegemonia/the Magna Carta at some point".
For myself, I tend to switch through a whole load of books, leave some and start others. I have plenty of paper bookmarks around the place.
Just started:
Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search For Reality - John Gribbin.
A very readable exploration of quantum theory. I suppose I should have read "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat" first, but this was going cheap in the cheap book shop (and it doesn't get much cheaper than that). And I don't appear to be losing out by reading the sequel first.
Ambulance Driving - The Ambulance Service.
A training manual for NHS Ambulance Technicians and Paramedics. A career I've been interested in for some time now, so I figured it might be worth my while to start thinking like an Ambulance Tech in my everyday driving. So far, it seems to have reinforced what my dad always tried to tell me about driving, but which I never quite understood - How to not use brakes in order to brake. I've put it into practice and I'm finding I have a pretty smooth ride, although I have to retrain my responses to situations, as more planning time is required to carry out a manouever than using my previous "Just do it" attitude.
I was also surprised to find how few exceptions Ambulances can get away with when responding to an emergency.
Modern Physics - Williams, Trinklein, Metcalfe and Lefler.
I've been thinking about turning my engineering A-level into the foundation stone for a degree in Physics, so I've been on the look-out for a range of books, covering GCSE Maths to A/AS/A2 Physics and my sister handed me a couple of old books she had lying around, one of which was a weird-thinking maths book for aliens unaccustomed to our own numerical system and the other one being this introduction to "Modern" physics (printed in 1972). It goes into a lot of detail in areas and is very concerned about accurately noting the progress of science, but unfortunately, being ancient, I'm not sure if anything has changed since then. I've ordered a shiny new book, so this is a curiosity more than anything. I like the way it builds up your confidence by saying such things as, 'Maybe you will be the first person to discover-', even if I have to admit, "Well, no, someone already discovered that".
It has plenty of diagrams, photos, equations, graphs and explanations, though. Along with questions at the end of each chapter to check your comprehension and calculations.
It's a chunky, musty book, so I might well abandon it when the new book shows up. Although, this one could still prove to be the better of the two for explaining how to approach a problem.
In the middle of:
Civilizations - Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.
I say "in the middle", but this is a book I haven't read in any set order, only from one interesting segment to the next. It deals with civilisation in the context of geographic and climatological considerations. A sort of "Why there?" regarding a great many communities around the world and throughout history. Plenty of detail for people and places I've never even heard of. All quite fascinating. It pulls in historical accounts, technological progress, social structure, some guy thinking it'd be better to do it this way... All good things, all mixed in.
Lost Languages - The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts - Andrew Robinson.
A rather detailed examination of the scripts which have locked away their secrets in centuries of neglect.
It starts off with looking at how the Egyptian, Minoan and Mayan scripts were deciphered and then looks at the problems facing the decipherment of other ancient scripts, such as Indus Valley, Meroitic, Etruscan, Proto-Elamite and Rongorongo, the script of Easter Island.
A lot of page space is given over to script tables and photographs (with accompanying illustrations, for clarity) and you're allowed to piece together clues to the underlying language by following the same steps as those who first worked it out. Questions such as 'Is this a new character, or just bad handwriting?', 'How can we reconstruct a dead language by reading nothing but gravestones?' and 'If there's only one example of this script, how do we know it's a script at all?' are posed, but for sheer script-staring, it's a winner. There's a real insight into what it takes to crack an undeciphered script.
I also have historical works to finish off, but they've taken a back-seat now that I'm brushing up on my science.
Posted by: P@nd0ra
Just finished reading through Queen of the Damned and reading The Divine Comedy until the next set of vampire Chronicles books arrive.
Posted by: connor`
just finished both rainbow six and shadow watch, by tom clancy
Posted by: Kosh
Starting "The Man WHo Ate Everything". it's about a lawyer who became the Food editor for Vogue magazine, and how he went about learning about food (and getting over his food phobias--although he STILL thinks that any food that is blue in color should be buried without being eaten). It's humorous, but not at "hey, honey, listen to this!" funny as Kitchen Confidential was.
Posted by: BattleAxe Nancy
quote:
Originally posted by xoshade
Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search For Reality - John Gribbin.
Modern Physics - Williams, Trinklein, Metcalfe and Lefler.
You would probably really like the book I just finished called "The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force" by Schwartz and Begley. He talks about a method he has for treating Obsessive Compulsive patients (OCD) that involves rewiring the brain. The book discusses old animal testing that lead to certain confirmation for the plasticity of the brain. Then he goes into quantum physics. He discusses the Two-Slit Experiment and Schrodinger's Cat. The whole discussion centres around his search to support the changes he sees in his patients. He goes on to conclude that "mental force" which is basically free will applied, can physically change the wiring of the brain.
It has quickly become one of my all time favourite books. 
Posted by: fallen
I just started the Assassin's Apprentice. Has anyone else read this book?
Posted by: xoshade
"The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force"? Hmm. Does it mention anything about synaesthesia?
Posted by: BattleAxe Nancy
No I don't think so. But it talks about Atrophy if i'm not mistaken. Like when they severe the nerves in a monkey's arm 
Posted by: Kingtut
quote:
Originally posted by fallen
I just started the Assassin's Apprentice. Has anyone else read this book?
No, haven't heard the title. Who is the author and is fact or fiction?
Posted by: xoshade
That would be Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, I should imagine. Fantasy.
Hey, has anyone decided on a convention for the fic/non-fic classification? Do we just state, or colour-code, or tag, or what?
Posted by: BattleAxe Nancy
I think my suggestion got lost in the poll. I'll try again...
Posted by: Reck
I just finished 'Enigma' by Robert Harris. WW2 thriller that I recommend. Author has fully reseached all his information about the Enigma machines and even uses the authentic German naval signals of the period, presenting them in an almost factual manner.
Am now about halfway through 'The Emperors General' by James Webb.. Enjoyable read but the author can annoy me sometimes with repetition.
Posted by: Angerball
I'm reading The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon. It's from a series that was first described to me as partly cheesy romance, partly war and history, and partly fantasy. They completely sucked me in. Super long books though, this ones almost 1000 pages hardcover. Not so easy to carry around.
Posted by: Alexoskeleton
About to start A Game of Thrones. Not into that sort of thing usually but I thought I would give it a try. On my way to work today I finished Deception Point by Dan Brown which was pretty cool.
Posted by: xoshade
Aw, I was so close to reading that as Decepticon Point
I thought you might have scored a Transformers audio companion book, but apparently not.
What? What? Who told you I own a copy of Lazerbeak's Fury?
Posted by: Alexoskeleton
Posted by: Kingtut
Just started 'The Amber Spyglass' by Philip Pullman, the last in his dark materials trilogy. I'm gonna have to put that on hold though and start the DaVinci code as this months Book Club choice
Posted by: connor`
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. read it once before and loved it
Posted by: maverik
quote:
Originally posted by law\
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. read it once before and loved it
fucking awesome book. read the fourth protocol as well. they're his best two, imo.
Posted by: Thurisaz
Just finished The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. It teaches you different ways to help your baby sleep better and take naps. It's an alternative to crying it out. It seems like an awesome book, but I haven't had time to fully test it. So far so good For fun, I am reading...wait, what's fun? I got John Grisham's The Summons 3 and half weeks ago from the library. I had to renew it once because I'm only halfway through. I'm hoping the first book will help me have more time to read the second one
Posted by: Nicolai
Right now, I'm reading Battle Royale (again), and 'H.P. Lovecraft Omnibus' volume 1.
Posted by: Witchy
Just finished 3rd Degree by James Patterson. God I love his books!
Posted by: Kingtut
Just finished 'The lost boy', second book in Dave Pelzers trilogy
Posted by: Astrid
Just finished Angels and Demons and started The Da Vinci Code. Still reading The Subtle Knife. I'll focus on that after finishing The Da Vinci Code.
Posted by: Lunakitty
Almost finished with the Amber Spyglass. OMFG, i love this trilogy. 
Posted by: BattleAxe Nancy
quote:
Originally posted by Lunakitty
Almost finished with the Amber Spyglass. OMFG, i love this trilogy.
Start a discussion thread. I have forgotten alot of what happened in which book. Astrid must be done by now  And you, Astrid, Tut and I can chatty about it.
Posted by: Alexoskeleton
Bought The Bourne Identity yesterday and started reading it today. I'll read the whole series based on Astrid's recommendation.
Posted by: bazie
quote:
Originally posted by Alexoskeleton
Bought The Bourne Identity yesterday and started reading it today. I'll read the whole series based on Astrid's recommendation.
read the first one, but not supremacy or the next yet
Bourne Supremacy was a greak movie tho
Currently reading Elephant Song
Posted by: Lunakitty
Just finished "Eragon". 
Posted by: Thurisaz
I'm reading The Amish Cook. It's a quick, interesting read. It has some recipes, but the recipes go along with the stories that are told. You learn a lot about the Amish culture and way of life through talking about food. I'm really enjoying it. 
Posted by: Ghostgeek][
Just finished "The Briar King" by Greg Keyes.
Next up... "The Charnel Prince" (part two of the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone).
Excellent reads
Posted by: xoshade
quote:
Originally posted by bazie
Currently reading Elephant Song
I can usually get into a Wilbur Smith novel, but I never stick with them.
Posted by: Enigma
While I'm waiting for the library to get my copy of "Life of Pi" I'm reading a book my nephew sent me. "Love Monkey," by Kyle Smith. It's not only along the same lines of High Fidelity, the main character even mentions High Fidelity specifically.
Posted by: pamelaz
I just finished "Confession of a Shopaholic"...
I want to pick up the new Pamela Anderson book "Star".
Posted by: pamelaz
quote:
Originally posted by Astrid
Just finished Angels and Demons and started The Da Vinci Code. Still reading The Subtle Knife. I'll focus on that after finishing The Da Vinci Code.
Da Vinci Code was uber wonderful. I started Angels and Demons months ago but it still lays next to the bed opened and begging to be read.. .but other books have been piled on top. 
Posted by: Enigma
"The Magus" by John Fowles (Revised Version)
Suggested so long ago I don't remember who suggested it.
I made a point not to read the inside cover, so I have no idea what's supposed to happen.
Posted by: Astrid
I'm reading The Subtle Knife from His Dark Material Triology. I'll probably read Eragon after that.
Pam, tell me if you think that the structure of Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons are very similar, too.
Posted by: xoshade
I've just finished reading "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. If you ever wanted to appreciate life, here's your guidebook. Tragic and upbeat in equal measure.
I've ordered a batch of books charting real-life experiences in the gulag to see how this compares, but considering the author spent eight years inside as a political prisoner, it can't be far off. Denisovich charts only one day out of a ten year sentence (which will probably be renewed for another ten after that), spent at the 'special camp'. I want to read something where the system is not merely endured, but survived.
| quote: |
Although when he was at liberty Shukhov had found it easier to feed his whole family than it ever was to feed himself, now, he knew what those parcels cost. He knew too that his family wouldn't be able to keep it up for ten years. Better do without them.
But though he'd decided it that way, every time someone in the team, or close by in the barracks, received a parcel (which was almost every day) his heart ached because there wasn't one for him. And though he'd strictly forbidden his wife to send him anything even for Easter, and though he never thought of reading the list except for a rich team-mate, every now and then he felt himself longing for someone to run up and say:
'Shukhov! Why don't you go for your parcel? There's one for you.'
But no one ran up.
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Currently reading, on loan from my sister, "The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter, which is a collection of short stories twisting fairy tales into delectable morsels of insight and intrigue. Puss-in-Boots is a bit of an eye-opener and The Bloody Chamber itself is a well-written play on the battle of the sexes.
| quote: |
I fall to the toilette of my hinder parts, my favourite stance when contemplating the ways of of the world.
'How can I live without her?'
You did so for twenty-seven years, sir, and never missed her for a moment.
'I'm burning with the fever of love!'
Then we're spared the expense of fires.
'I shall steal her away from her husband to live with me.'
'What do you propose to live on, sir?'
'Kisses,' he said distractedly. 'Embraces.'
'Well, you won't grow fat on that, sir; though she will. And then, more mouths to feed.'
'I'm sick and tired of your foul-mouthed barbs, Puss,' he snaps.
And yet, my heart is moved, for now he speaks the plain, clear, foolish rhetoric of love and who is there cunning enough to help him to happiness but I? Scheme, loyal Puss, scheme!
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Posted by: BattleAxe Nancy
I just finished Sabriel the first book of the Abhorsen trilogy (by Garth Nix). I really like it. The writing is very easy to read - it was intended for teens.
I really enjoy his concept of magic and the idea of the necromancer ways of the main character and how she traverse between life and the world of the dead.
Very enjoyable Have to get the next two now.
Posted by: Witchy
reading Kushiel's Dart....very interesting...
Posted by: Conn
Just finished the entire Hyperion Saga by Dan Simmons. Bit different from what I remembered by it had been over ten years since last I read it, and that had been in Dutch. took me 2 years to finally buy them cos other things kept coming up, but no regrets at all.
I don't usually like SF that much, but this is one of my favourite SF series together with the undisputed champion, Ender's Game
Posted by: Enigma
While I'm waiting for the next Book Club selection I'm reading a biography of Sigmund Freud.
Posted by: Khiori
I'm updating my list on the first page.
(cleverly disguised bump)
Posted by: Khiori
quote:
Originally posted by Khiori
*Contact (Sagan)
* The Ugly Little Boy (Asimov & Silverberg)
Unfinished Tales (Tolkien)
* The Lost World (Crichton)
x Post Captian (O'Brian)
* Quilter's Apprentice (Chiaverini)
* Timeline (Crichton)
x didn't finish, not going to
* finished
Well, I'm on my last book on my current read list. But this list is out dated. Here's the new one. I'll update this list as I finish books:
Currently Reading
The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life ~ Thomas Moore
Battlefield Earth ~ L. Ron Hubbard
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood ~ Rebecca Wells
The Field ~ Lynne McTaggart
Unfinished Tales ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ~Robert M. Pirsig
These are links to my Amazon affiliate pages 
Posted by: BattleAxe Nancy
I'm currently reading:
Eats, Shoots and Leave - Lynn Truss
Wicked: The story of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire
The Meaning of Everything: The History of the Oxford English Dictionary - Simon Winchester
Becoming Vegetarian - Melina, Davis and Harrisson
About to start another Pullman novel too.
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