New books, new worlds in your living room

Post by **Loredoctor** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:39 am

The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within, Second Edition - Geoffrey Hosking, and The Russian Revolution - Richard Pipes.

Post by **Alynna Lis Eachann** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:51 pm

Loremaster wrote:The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology - Ray Kurzweil.

What is this about, and is it any good?

Horse People, by Michael Korda. An amusing look into a thin slice of the horsey set. Could have been written morse clearly and elegantly, which is very amusing, as the author himself is also an editor.

Post by **Loredoctor** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:41 pm

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:
Loremaster wrote:The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology - Ray Kurzweil.
What is this about, and is it any good?

It discusses a hypothetial situation where AIs can improve themselves. Each iteration is better than the last, and therefore more efficient at making better improvements. Obviously, that processes speeds up exponentially and reaches the point where technology accelerates infinitely.

Renowned inventor Kurzweil (The Age of Spiritual Machines) may be technology's most credibly hyperbolic optimist. Elsewhere he has argued that eliminating fat intake can prevent cancer; here, his quarry is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it runs, is at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the theoretical limitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the merging of our biology with the staggering achievements of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a species of unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and so on. The word "unrecognizable" is not chosen lightly: wherever this is heading, it won't look like us. Kurzweil's argument is necessarily twofold: it's not enough to argue that there are virtually no constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that such developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale transformation of the species with "immortality," for which read a repeal of human limit. In less capable hands, this phantasmagoria of speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a bewildering variety of charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would be easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientist—a large-minded one at that—and gives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks" as he sees them and the many presumed lines of attack others might bring to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to which Kurzweil's heady and bracing vision fails to convince—given the scope of his projections, that's inevitable—but the degree to which it seems downright plausible.

Post by **Dragonlily** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:49 am

I indulged myself with a shopping trip, since I needed the new Naomi Novik.

EMPIRE OF IVORY, Naomi Novik
SANDWORMS OF DUNE, Herbert & Anderson
A FIRE UPON THE DEEP, Vernor Vinge
SILVER MASTER - Jayne Castle

Post by **Worm of Despite** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:49 am

My college reading list at the moment:

Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

I'm enjoying all of it, but Udolpho wasn't as good as I expected. Yes, the protagonist is outspoken for her day and age, but to my modern eyes she's way too weepy and virtuous. Her melancholy makes Keats look chipper!

Also: surprised that McMurtry wrote Terms of Endearment, which feels like a totally different sensibility from his Western novels.

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:29 pm

Graphic non-fiction: Safe Area Goražde, by Joe Succo.
Story of a UN designated "Safe Area" in the middle of Serb-held territory during the Bosnian war. It was, in the end, the only town in eastern Bosnia not to be ethnically cleansed by the Serbs.

Post by **Dragonlily** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:38 pm

My sister sent me THE ASSYRIAN by Nicholas Gould for my birthday. It's set way back BC and features princes Tiglath Ashur and Essarhaddon. I read this decades ago and loved it -- by this time it will be totally fresh for a reread.

Post by **Loredoctor** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:25 am

The Type VII U-Boat (Anatomy of the Ship)

Post by **Dragonlily** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:49 pm

During Christmas shopping I somehow managed to acquire:

ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA, Colleen McCullough (historical novel)
THE ANDROID'S DREAM, John Scalzi (sci fi)
FORTY WORDS FOR SORROW, Giles Blunt (mystery)

Post by **Loredoctor** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:30 am

Ten days that Shook the World, John Reed.

The Soviet Colossus: History And Aftermath

Post by **sgt.null** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:17 am

just finished the Kite Runner for my book study group. aboutto start the Overlook.

Post by **Loredoctor** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:08 am

John Keegan's The First World War

Post by **Wyldewode** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:20 am

I've been reading the following:

The Ode Less Traveled by Steven Fry
The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser
Linguistics by Jean Aitchison
A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
Writing Brave and Free by Ted Kooser and Steve Cox

It's rare for me to read only one book at a time anymore, unless it's fiction.

Post by **Dragonlily** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:04 am

APHRODITE'S BREW, Regency fantasy by Delle Jacobs, arrived Friday for review.
Before that arrived DREAMERS OF THE DAY, by Mary Doria Russell, powerful author of THE SPARROW. It is set in 1921 at the Cairo Peace Conference.
At the conference I bought A CONTINENTAL MARRIAGE by Susanne Marie Knight, because her romances have an imagination that set them apart.
I think those are all my recent acquisitions. I'm going to have to preorder THE IRON TONGUE OF MIDNIGHT, a historical mystery by Beverly Graves Myers.

Post by **Loredoctor** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:52 am

The Fabric of the Cosmos, Brian Greene.

Post by **Loredoctor** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:34 pm

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.

Post by **Orlion** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:54 pm

The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake

Post by **Loredoctor** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:30 am

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens.

Post by **Loredoctor** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 3:47 am

Regeration, the Eye in the Door, and the Ghost Road, by Pat Barker. A trilogy set in Craiglockhart hospital, during WWI.

Post by **sgt.null** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 6:55 am

currently reading...

Are You There Vodka?, It's Me Chelsea : Chelsea Handler

Why Not Us? : Leigh Montville

Crazy '08 : Cait Murphy

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

New books, new worlds in your living room