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The BOOK Thread

Just finished reading WIRED. I have no idea how it ended up on NY best sellers list. The idea behind it is intriguing, but presentation is abysmal. The writing style is to simplistic, the same things are explained over and over as if the author assumed the reader is an idiot, or it was written for a teenager with short attention span. Characters had absolutely no depth to them. There is a sequel AMPED, and I based on the original I don't expect much from it. Hell HALO books were written better and those are based on video game and are meant mainly to extract more money from the franchise.
 
We visited the Hearst Castle today, and the personal library and study rooms were stunning. Makes me want to...I dunno. Something. Become wealthy and build a castle and a library.

I guess I'll start with a bookshelf. :laughing
 
QF 32 Richard De Crespigny
Outlaw Platoon Sean Parnell
The Lieutenant Kate Grenville
The Secret River Kate Grenville
 
Neil Young's book, "waging Heavy Peace" is cool. Kind of rambling, but very interesting.
 
Uh, let's see, it looks like I've read quite a few books since I last posted a couple of months ago:

  • The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • Room by Emma Donoghue
  • This is How You Lose Her by Jonot Diaz
  • Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
  • The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman
  • The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
  • A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
  • The Passage and The Twelve by Justin Cronin

All were enjoyable, save for The Age Of Miracles which I found pretty dumb.

Right now I'm reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and enjoying it quite a bit.
 

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right now i am reading (as soon as i finish this post) Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. Local geek story with Google and shit. Might make a great movie.

I am about 2/3 done; it is hard to put down. But I have to ride too, eh? Mt Hamilton was spectacular today.
 
I just picked up "Rebuilding the Indian" by Fred Haefele. We were at the Hot Rod show last weekend and it caught my eye. Many of you have prob read it, but it will be new to me :)
 
stigeon said:
bio-cyber punk future check out The Windup Girl. a few splicing companies control the worlds food supplies and command governments. the Thai people have avoided the gene companies manipulations through innovation and a secret stash of seed stock, until now. top notch writing style.
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I just finished The Windup Girl, and I'd unreservedly recommend it. I agree that the author has a good writing style, much better than most contemporary authors, especially of the sci-fi genre. The story takes a while to build, but once it gets going, it's a page turner. Excellent character development. Clearly lots of research went into making it. An exceptionally terrifying vision of the future, and I'm a fan of "dystopian" novels.
 
Since I've been bedridden for the last five days, I got a chance to finish another post-apocalyptic sci fi novel: Wool, by Hugh Howey. Howey is a great writer. You get the sense that the written word just comes naturally to him.

Unfortunately, he's also a lazy writer. He self published this book as a series of novellas thru Amazon e-books, and you can tell he had no proofreader. And in its print adaptation, it appears that Simon and Scheuster didn't bother with one either, which is surprising since they supposedly paid Howey in the seven-figure range for the rights.

He also makes an unbelievable amount of errors with respect to scientific plausibility. If physical and biological impossibilities were pockmarks, this book would be Edward James Olmos' face. I mean, how much research would it take to know that human bodies don't remain intact when submerged in water for 34 years? And that's not even close to the most egregious error he makes.

That said, the story is an intriguing sociological exercise. And it's a page turner. If you don't get hung up on the technicalities, it's a worthwhile read.
 
CoorsLight said:
He also makes an unbelievable amount of errors with respect to scientific plausibility. If physical and biological impossibilities were pockmarks, this book would be Edward James Olmos' face. I mean, how much research would it take to know that human bodies don't remain intact when submerged in water for 34 years? And that's not even close to the most egregious error he makes.
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That's a bummer—it is/was on my to-read shortlist, but it sounds like I would not like it at all. Thanks for the review.

Along those lines, I read The Age of Miracles a couple of months ago, and JESUS CHRIST PEOPLE THE ROTATION OF THE EARTH DOES NOT CREATE GRAVITY TAKE A FUCKING SIXTH-GRADE SCIENCE CLASS ALREADY YOU IDIOTS!!!!!1

So, yeah. That tends stuff tends to bug me.
 
wackyiraqi said:
[*]The Passage and The Twelve by Justin Cronin
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I just finished reading these, and I had trouble putting them down. Outstanding books, and I can't wait for the third installment. I found them by way of a BART poster in the train.
 
Just finished Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (actually a pen name for two authors working cooperatively). It's reasonably well-written, although there's a certain colloquialism in the dialog that makes it seem like it's set in the present day instead of the future. To be fair, the only writing that REALLY got under my skin was the repeated misspelling of the word "ordnance."

It's billed as science fiction, but it's somewhat lacking in the classic elements of sci-fi...it's as much or more political science as it is science fiction. Anyway, it's set in a future where humans have developed the technology to colonize and mine some parts of the solar system, but not the technology for interstellar travel. The people and politics of this colonial future are fascinating and believable in a Blade Runner or Total Recall sort of way, with pidgen languages, IRA-styled political organizations, organized crime syndicates, ultra-powerful security and science corporations...I really enjoyed the "world" these authors created. Also, the characters are realistic, and well-developed. I won't delve into the plot at all, because it's a whodunit from page one.

Overall, it's quite entertaining, but don't go out of your way to read it if you are interested in something challenging or substantial.
 
Just finished reading American Sniper. Autobiography of Chris Kyle, a Navy Seal, highly decorated, who mainly was involved in the war in Iraq. He wrongfully was murdered not long ago at a firing range while teaching people and/or disabled vets how to shoot.

I recommend this book, if you want to know to some extent about how life is affected at home (family) and abroad when your military. His experience comes from a Navy Seal perspective. I'm pretty sure depending on what type of job you are doing in the military some of the affects are different and similar. His experience is the ultimate.

RIP Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle (I hope I got that right). Thank you for service.

Any recommendations for another book I should read. They are having problems installing a software on my computer which I direly need to do this tasks at work. Need something to do in e meantime. It don't look like they will get it on there.
 
I'm finishing up A People's History of the United States right now. Probably mentioned already, but it's a stunning viewpoint of our nation's history. I really had no knowledge of most of the things the book covers, having only read the sterilized, polished version of our past that's presented in school.
 
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